encamped in the desert, we were not likely to lack an abundance of company. The encampment of the Jehâlîn was in full view on the mountain towards the N. W. at the distance of an hour or more, consisting of seventy or eighty black tents arranged in a large circle. There was said to be one other smaller encampment, which we did not see. The whole tribe belongs to the Keis party, and was said to muster about one hundred and fifty men. None of them can read or write; nor have they any one to lead them in their worship; nor do they assemble for prayer on Friday, the Muhammedan Sabbath. On being told that the Ta'âmirah have a Khatîb, they said the Ta'âmirah were Fellâhîn; implying that of the real Bedawîn none learn to read. The tribe paid last year to the government a tribute (Mîry) of thirty purses. They are obliged also often to furnish camels for the public service; for which they had only in one case been paid. The animals were once taken to Damascus, and the service credited as part of their tribute. The Jehâlîn had at this time twenty-two horses and about two hundred camels. The horses of course belonged to the Sheikhs; of the camels, the chief Sheikh owned twenty-five or thirty. There is no living water within the territory of the tribe, except at Kurmul. The cistern near which we were encamped, was large, and excavated in a rocky ledge, with a hole above like a well. There had formerly been an opening below on the side; but this was now stopped with large stones laid in mortar. When the cisterns become exhausted later in summer, they have no resource, but to remove their flocks and other animals to the vicinity of Kurmul; where they water in common with the Ka'âbineh.' At this season of the year, their 1) See above, pp. 201, 202. flocks were watered every two days, and the camels once in three days. As a matter of course, they are exceedingly careful of the supply in their cisterns; and a man received a sharp rebuke in our presence from the Sheikh, for having suffered some 'Alawîn to water a few sheep at that in our neighbourhood. The Jehâlîn have not been disarmed; they have still their old muskets with match-locks; and make their own gunpowder. The nitre they obtain from the dust of the ruined villages in their country; and the sulphur from the shores of the Dead Sea. They mingle these ingredients with pulverized charcoal, and thus obtain a very coarse and inferior powder; which however costs them nothing. They, as well as the Tiyâhah, are at war with several tribes on the East of the Dead Sea, viz. the Beni Sukhr, the Bahârât, and the Sulît; the latter dwelling around Hesbân. Not many months before, they had made an expedition with the aid of the Tiyâhah against the Sulit, by way of the south end of the Dead Sea; and had brought away forty-five camels. We now heard more of the similar expedition which we had met in Bethlehem, and learned the result.2 It was composed of eighty-six horsemen, of whom twenty-two were Jehâlîn; and the main body passed along the same road which we travelled from 'Ain Jidy to the Jordan. Crossing the river opposite Jericho, they fell upon the encampment of their enemies, the Sulît, by surprise, and brought away a hundred camels. We learned too, that the visit of the Sheikh Defa' Allah at Hebron this morning, had for its object to bring two of the captured camels as a present to Sheikh Sa'îd of Gaza; whose permission they had obtained before setting off on the expedition. Sunday, May 27th. We remained all day en- camped; but the number of visitors left us no interval of quiet. In the morning, about one hundred and fifty camels were driven by at once to water. We were afterwards visited by Defa' Allah, by the second Sheikh, Mûsa, and by various others. The former was said to have seven brothers, all of whom bore the title of Sheikh. Indeed, almost every man who passed along, claimed to be a brother of the Sheikh, and owner of the threshing-floor by our tent; so that at last our servants made it quite a jest, to inquire of every Arab who came by, if he was the Sheikh's brother and owned this floor?-The threshing-floor was very small; and was watched every night. Round about it were lying several small heaps of gleaned wheat. The gleaning is done by the poor; and their little sheaves were deposited here for safe-keeping, till they could beat them out. Opposite to us the mountains of Kerak were in view; but the city itself was not visible. We heard much to day of 'Abdeh in the desert south of Beersheba; but the accounts were quite indefinite; nor could we learn that any one of the tribe had been there. We heard also of several ancient names in this region of the South, some of which we were afterwards able to ascertain more accurately. Defa' Allah visited us again at evening, and informed us, that there were at his encampment five of the Haweitât from the vicinity of Ma'ân, who had been to Hebron to sell a flock of sheep, and were now returning. As their way would lie near Wady Mûsa, the Sheikh advised us to take them into our service for a small pay, in order to increase the strength of our party. This we were willing to do, not so much on this account, as because we might hope to gather information from them respecting their country; and 1) See Note XXI, end of Vol. I. because too their presence might secure for us a better reception, among the Arabs of that region. We therefore authorized the Sheikh to offer ten Piastres for each man for the whole time, without provisions. Some spoke of them as Haweitât, and some as 'Alawîn; the latter are indeed a subdivision of the former; but these individuals were not 'Alawîn of Sheikh Husein's tribe. Monday, May 28th. We rose before 4 o'clock, hoping to set off early. Very soon the grating sound of the hand-mill was heard from a cave not far off, where an Arab family had taken up their abode during the harvest.' In spite of our hopes, and notwithstanding all our former experience, our patience was this morning not a little tried by the dilatoriness of the Arabs. They had yesterday made the fairest promises, that they would come with the camels at evening and sleep at our tent, in order to be ready for an early start; yet only one came; and it was nearly 7 o'clock this morning before they all arrived. Then nothing was ready. The saddles had to be put in order, and some of them re-stuffed with straw. Then one camel had to be shaved; that is, the hair of its lips and face was regularly shaved off with a sharp knife, being occasionally lathered with spittle; the head was then anointed, apparently on account of some disease. It seemed also not yet to be fixed, who should go with us. At last it appeared that only four men instead of five were going; and these mere cameldrivers, no one of whom was a Sheikh nor a responsible person. On learning this we declined going in that manner; and ordered the loading of the camels to be stopped. At length Sheikh Hussân, who had come to see us off, agreed to take us to the place where Sheikh Sâlim (who had come with us on Sat1) See p. 181, above. urday) was reaping; and if the latter would not go, he promised to accompany us himself. We consented to the four men the more readily, because the five Haweitât or 'Alawîn had accepted our offer and now presented themselves,—a set of thievish-looking ragamuffins as one would wish to see. We accordingly set off at 7 o'clock, and travelling South for fifteen minutes, came to the field of reapers, where we stopped for another hour. Here it was finally arranged, that Sheikh Hussân should go with us; and leaving his gala-dress and his sleek mare, and sending for his long gun, he joined us on foot in the common Arab costume. We thus mustered nine armed men, besides our two servants; who also felt their importance somewhat augmented, by being now regularly intrusted each with a gun and pistol. From this point three sites of ruins were visible, viz. Jenbeh, at the foot of the mountain and now directly under the encampment of the Jehâlîn; el-Kuryetein' also at the foot of the mountain; and el-Beyûdh on a low hill more to the left. All these are only foundations of small villages, or merely caves.3 Another similar site, el-Khuneifit, was spoken of somewhere on the left of our road. We finally set off at a quarter before 9 o'clock, on a course nearly due South through the rolling plain, along a small shallow Wady. After three quarters of an hour, there was on our right a small site of foundations and walls of round stones, called et-Taiyib, with the remains of a dam in the Wady, apparently for a 1) El-Kuryetein, 'the two cties,' seems to suggest the Kerioth (cities) of Josh. xv. 25, in the South of Judah; unless the latter is to be united with the next name and read Kerioth-Hezron, as Reland suggests. Palaest. pp. 700, 708. 2) This name would seem to correspond to the Al-baid' of Irby and Mangles; Travels, p. 348. But their description refers the latter apparently to Kurmul. 3) They bore as follows; Jenbeh N. 60° W. el-Kuryetein S. 75° W. el-Beyûdh S. 40° W. |