body of the people was scattered in various directions.1 How in these wide deserts, this host of more than two millions of souls, having no traffic nor intercourse with the surrounding hordes, could find supplies of food and water sufficient for their support, without a constant miracle, I for one am unable to divine. Yet among them we read only of occasional longings and complaints; while the tribes that now roam over the same regions, although numbering scarcely as many thousands, are exposed to famine and privation of every kind; and, at the best, obtain only a meager and precarious subsistence.2 Sunday, June 3d. After our fatigues of the preceding two days, we slept soundly until 6 o'clock; and rose congratulating ourselves upon the rest of the Christian Sabbath. But this rest to-day was not to be of long duration. After breakfast, one of the Arabs, Muhammed, went with the camels to the water at the head of the pass Yemen, nearly an hour distant from our tent in the S. W. There, as he said, he met an Arab who had come up the pass during the night, and who reported, that yesterday towards evening he had seen a party of men with horses and dromedaries encamp at the water of Hasb in the 'Arabah, apparently coming this way on a marauding expedition. Our Arabs immediately concluded that they were of the Sulît or Hejâya, coming against the Tiyâhah in retaliation for the inroads of the latter. Should they ascend by the Sufah, they would come directly upon us; or if by the Yemen, their scouts would doubtless 1) See above, Vol. I. p. 106. Comp. ib. p. 75. 2) For a synoptical arrangement of the several lists of stations during the wanderings of the Israelites, exhibiting in one view the whole course of their journey, see Note XXXIX, end of the Volume. discover our tent; and as they were at war with the Jehâlîn also, we should of course be exposed to be plundered, if to nothing worse. We had indeed strong suspicions, that this was a story got up by Muhammed, the worthless buffoon, who alone had seen the stranger, in order to induce us to push forward. Yet it might after all be true; and we therefore thought it advisable under the circumstances to go on, and get out of the reach of any danger. This was, however, the only instance, in which we were compelled to violate our principle of not travelling upon the Christian Sabbath. It was said, the party would not reach the top of the pass until the afternoon. until the afternoon. A camel was now despatched with the water-skins to be filled at the water of Yemen. The Arabs seemed to be in no hurry whatever; and it was not until after long delays, that we at length set off. Nor do we know unto the present day, whether the story of the hostile party was true or false. We at length started at 10 o'clock; the course continuing about N. N. W. We soon came out upon an open and tolerably level tract, called et-Turâibeh; which, although chiefly covered with loose sand, had everywhere many herbs, affording pasture for camels. It belongs to the Arabs called Sa'îdîyeh. Before us was another long mountain-ridge, running from E. N. E. to W. S. W. similar in its general appearance to that we had ascended last night; though not more than half as high. This tract, between the top of one ridge and the bottom of the other, constitutes the second step or offset of the whole ascent between the 'Arabah and Palestine; and is, as we have seen, the continuation in this direction of the broad region of desert hills between the two passes of ez-Zuweirah ; the lower ridge being here much higher, and the upper one much lower, than on that road. Further north, it is drained by Wady el-Fâ'iya, a branch of the Muhauwat, which enters the Dead Sea at the north end of Usdum; but just in this part, the waters are carried off southwards by one of the main heads of Wady el-Yemen, which runs along the base of the next ridge. On this plain, the roads from the three passes Sufey, Săfâh, and Yemen, all unite; and a branch was also said to come in from the Haudeh.2 At 12h 25' we crossed the branch of Wady el-Yemen, which commences not far to the right. Here we immediately began to ascend by a low gap in the ridge before us, called el-Muzeikah. The ascent is gradual and easy; at a quarter before one, we were at the top, and came out upon another higher tract of table-land, or rather a basin, shut in on the S. E. by hills, forming the top of the ridge. They are here comparatively low; but further towards the W. S. W. the ridge becomes higher, and spreads out into a mountainous tract, through which our Arabs knew no road. Yet we were led to suppose, that the pass el-Ghârib, of which we had several times heard, is probably connected with this range of mountains.3 We kept on N. N. W. across the basin, around which are gravel-hills, and which is bounded on the other side at the distance of about an hour by another low ridge or line of hills, parallel to that we had just as 1) See above, pp. 476, 480. 2) In 1834, M. Callier travelled from Hebron to “Dariyé” (Dhoherîyeh); thence S. S. W. to Wady "Kalassa" (Khulasah, Kurn, see Vol. I. p. 298) at the foot of the mountains, where he encamped on the third day. On the fourth day he followed up this Wady into the mountains, and then descended eastwards along another Wady called "Traybe" (Turâibeh), which brought him near to the Ghôr. This would seem to have some re ference to the tract we were now crossing, which is about in the latitude of Wady Khulasah; and the traveller probably approached the pass of Yemen. But from Hebron to this point, his route by Dhoherîyeh was singularly circuitous; occupying four days instead of the two, which it took us. See Journ. des Savans Jan. 1836, p. 47. Nouv. Annal. de Voy. 1839, Tom. III. p. 274. 3) See Vol. I. p. 306; also p. 588, above. cended. On our right the surface had a gradual descent; and here was the beginning of a Wady running down N. E. to Wady el-Fâ'iya, and forming one of its heads. On the left we could perceive a shallow Wady called Abu Terâifeh, coming from the North and passing down through the hills of the ridge we had ascended, about half a mile further S. W. to Wady el-Yemen. Another road ascends along this Wady, which was taken by some of our Arabs. Just at the head of this latter pass, we could distinctly see the ruins of a town, called Kurnub, covering a low hill near the Wady; our guides said there was here living water in pits (Themâil); and on that account they had been very desirous to reach this spot the evening before. With our telescopes we could distinguish two or three ruined walls, apparently of hewn stones, which seemed to be the remains of churches or other public buildings.' This place is marked on Seetzen's map, and would seem most probably to have been the Thamara of Ptolemy and other writers, as well as the Thamar of the Old Testament. The grounds on which this supposition rests, will be better understood in connection with the remarks respecting el-Milh further on. In passing over this open tract or basin, we saw traces of grass, now dried up. At 1h 20' we crossed obliquely the bed of Wady Abu Terâifeh. Here a path 1) Lord Lindsay appears to have ascended by the more southern pass, directly to Kurnub; he describes it as the extensive ruins of an ancient walled town, about three hours from the top of the pass es-Sufah, exhibiting fragments of columns, but no inscriptions; he saw a large vaulted subterranean chamber near a ruined building, and a strong dam in a ravine on the South of the town. Letters etc. II. p. 46. When Schubert passed this way, there was here an Arab encampment; Reise II. p. 449. 2) Ezek. xlvii. 19. xlviii. 28. Reland Palaest. p. 1031.-The question suggests itself not unnaturally: Whether these ruins may not mark the site of Hormah, the ancient Zephath? But this place would more appropriately be sought further south, nearer to the pass Sufah (Zephath); if not indeed quite at the foot of the pass, around the small fort. It could hardly be expected, that any very distinct ruins should yet remain of a town last mentioned in 1 Sam. xxx. 30. See Reland Pal. p. 721. branched off to the right, leading directly to the coun- At a quarter past 3 o'clock, another path went off towards the right, leading directly to el-Milh; this is the direct Hebron road. We still kept the Gaza path, which passes to the left of el-Milh. The Wady soon sweeps off more towards the N. E. and afterwards N. W. We ascended the low ridge or swell on the left, and from the top at 3 o'clock, had a wide view over the broad, open, undulating region, extending in the Northeast to the neighbourhood of Tell 'Arâd, and on the West towards Beersheba, with the mountains of Judah in the North. Indeed it was the southVOL. II. 78 |