On the 23rd we left the Bedawies, and having followed a side valley of Wâdî Tîh for 1 hour, we issued upon an open desert plain, which we crossed in a N.E. direction in 1 hours. Here we were hospitably received to a scanty meal of Indian corn,* boiled to a mess between gruel and pudding, by a family of my guide's tribe, who, like their relations in the valley, lived in the open air among the small desert bushes.

On the 24th we continued our way, which for the whole day lay over vast sterile plains, separated one from another by intervening solitary mountains. The first of these plains my guide called Wâdî Hamâde, adding that sometimes very strange sounds, like those of kettledrums, are heard to rise from the earth, without any one being able to account for this extraordinary phenomenon. Having crossed in 8 hours three of such plains, forming as many gulfs of the desert sea, we made a halt for the night at the entrance to a valley of the mountains which border Wâdî Al'arabá on the western side.

On the 25th we followed the course of narrow winding dales, running in an easterly direction down to Wâdî Al'arabá. They produce in great abundance unusually high and broad-stemmed acacia-trees, on whose thorns and leaves the camels pasture with avidity. The mountains, through which these dales run, are in general very low, and their descent towards Wâdî Al'arabá gentle and inconsiderable. After a march of 6 hours through such dales, we entered the great Wâdî Al'arabá at a point, according to my guide, one day distant from Al'akabá, and two from Wâdî Moosà. We made a march of 2 hours more in the loose sand of the valley before we halted for the night.

On the 26th we passed by a spring of tepid and brackish water, round which some families of Umrân Bedawies were encamped. Our march was slow and fatiguing, owing, not only to the loose and deep sand, by which the ground is covered, but also to the slight ascent we had to make towards the eastern parts of the valley, which on its whole extent gradually slopes from E. to W. The western parts of Wâdî Al'arabá consist in general of a plain and level sandy soil, producing a comparatively richer vegetation of herbs and bushes; but on the eastern side, at the foot of the Sherâ chain, the valley consists of an undulating and hilly ground, covered with gravel and stones, and larger or smaller blocks of granite, rolled, as it were, from the overhanging mountains. The growth of herbs is here poorer; but here and there is seen a solitary acacia-shrub. We crossed the valley in an oblique direction of E.N.E. and arrived, after a march of 8 hours from the place where we had passed the night, at the mouth of a narrow dale,

* Dhurrá, i. e. Sorghum vulgare.-R.

called Wâdî Gharandel, which runs down from the Sherâ chain. At the very entrance of this dale there is a spring of sweet and pure water. A small streamlet, descending from the spring, but soon vanishing in the sand, has produced along its course some verdure and a few dwarf-palms.

On the 27th we followed the serpentine course of this valley, winding in all directions between perpendicular mountain walls of about 1000 feet in height, which, variegated by divers colours, presented in many places, as it were, the aspect of marbled paper. After a march of 34 hours we had reached the end of the narrow valley, whose breadth, in some places, does not exceed 15 yards; and as it has no issue, we commenced ascending a steep mountain defile called Nakb 'Agâné. We followed difficult and steep paths, leading sometimes over brinks of precipices, sometimes over opener and more extensive plateaus, during 44 hours.

On the 28th we continued our ascent for two hours more, after which we gained the crest of the mountain, forming a plateau called Wâdî Dalâghé. A march of two hours on this plateau in an E.N.E. direction brought us to a spring of the same name, around which Bedawy fellâhs cultivated wheat and maize. After 1 hour more, we arrived at the encampment of the 'Umrân Bedawies, to whose sheïkh my Heiwy guide had promised to bring me.

On the 30th I left the tribe with my new guide, the sheïkh Humeïd bnu Salmân Al'umrany. We followed for about one hour still a N.E. direction on the plateau of Wâdî Dalâghé, when, turning to E., we entered another valley, called Wâdî Mabrak, which also was cultivated by fellâhs. In 1 hour we reached the end of the valley at the spring of Bastá, whose abundantly flowing water is of the most excellent quality. Near to the spring there stand some insignificant remains of decayed claywalls, denoting perhaps the place of some frontier-fortlet, from which in olden times, when the whole of this chain was probably inhabited by peaceful peasants, a look-out was kept over the adjacent desert and its turbulent nomads. Leaving the spring behind us, we immediately issued on the vast plain of the Syrian desert, into which the chain merges with a slow and insensible descent, and taking a full easterly direction we reached in 5 hours the town of Ma'ân.

This is the name invariably given this place by all Arabs of the present age, instead of the Ma'ân of the old Arabian geographers. Ibnn Haukal, quoted in the Geographical Compendium of Muhammad bnu 'Aly Alspâhy, says that Mu'ân is a small fortified place in the land of Sherâ, at one day's distance from Shawbak, formerly inhabited by Benoo Umayá, but at his time` already deserted and ruined. The present Ma'ân is one of the largest places on the Syrian pilgrims' way, containing about 200

families of 7 different clans or fenâd, mixed up with emigrants from other villages in Syria. They are in general a healthy and strong-built people, of the most prominent Syrian type, able to raise a force of 150 or, as others told me, of 300 well-armed young and gallant men. Trusting in this force, the inhabitants in our times have begun to make head against the claims of the nomads, either refusing altogether or abating the so-called brother tax, which a great many sheikhs of the neighbouring tribes of Sherârât, Huweitât, and 'Enezé exact of them. This tax, levied by all genuine Bedawy tribes, almost without exception, not only on every village in the desert, but also on others wayfaring and trading among them, and also on weaker and poorer tribes of a low and mixed bastard origin, is probably founded on the claims which the Bedawies think themselves entitled to lay on the desert as their proper inherited land. Every district of this common land has in course of time passed in the more or less exclusive possession of one certain tribe, within the limits of whose dominion no other tribe, without special permission, is allowed to enter, no village tolerated to exist, and no stranger to pass without protection, bought by tributes from the masters of the soil. This protection, however, is in general very easily granted. A small present expended upon any member of a tribe, be it only a woman or a child, or "salt and bread" shared with them, makes a stranger, wayfaring in the desert, the brother not only of the individual, but of the whole tribe. The conditions upon which this brother protection is granted to villages are defined by nothing but old custom. Generally the tribute consists in presents of clothing, given not only to the principal sheïkh of the tribe, but also to almost every influential person of the different clans, or, in Negd especially, in dates and corn; but above all, the patrons require a liberal reception and a prodigal treatment, whenever they choose to visit the village, and a ready help in casual exigencies. The patrons, on their side, are bound to protect their clients against claims and quarrels with other tribes, and in case of disputes arising between them and Bedawies, to mediate between the contending parties.

This brotherhood exists also between the nomads themselves, though in a somewhat modified form. The relations which may possibly prevail between different tribes are threefold: they either are brothers, in virtue of which relation they are not only mutually allied, but also able to protect strangers and villagers, standing in brotherhood with them, against the exactions of others, though no tax is paid on either part, and they are both supposed equal in genuineness of origin; or they are friends, in which case they are reciprocally secured from molestations and assessments from others, but neither party has a right to protect others against the claims

of their friends; or, if neither of these relations prevail between them, they are enemies, and their hand is against every man, and every man's hand against them. Now, all settled cultivators are regarded by the Bedawies as natural enemies, who are consequently not allowed to subsist in their land, unless under their protection, which protection they sell for as high prices as they are able to extort. But the more the settlement increases in power and wealth, the more they strive to repel or moderate the nomads' claims, as we see has been the case with the Egyptian villages, which before Muhammad 'Aly's time were more or less dependent upon the mercy of the neighbouring Bedawies, and in later years, though in a less degree, even at Ma'ân. This resistance, however, on the part of the villagers, and their standing their ground, seldom fails to be acknowledged by the Bedawies, to whom nothing is so contemptible as cowardice and dependence, and generally goes a great way in making the relations with them more intimate. This is in fact the case at Ma'ân, whose valiant and manly inhabitants the nomads esteem more than most other villagers. This greatly contributes to facilitate the intercourse between the two parties, and a livelier trade, than I witnessed in any other place on this route, is carried on by way of barter between Ma'ân and the surrounding desert. The articles most wanted by Bedawies are clothes, gunpowder, lead, weapons, spices, coffee, and sugar, which latter luxury has in our times become in great request even in the desert, and for these they give in exchange camels, sheep, wool, butter, and milk. During the journey I made from hence among the many and divers tribes along the eastern descents of the Sherâ chain, I found in almost every encampment several tradesmen of Ma'ân, who had come to the country, as is the custom here with the townspeople, partly in order to feed during the spring upon camels' milk in the tents of their hospitable nomad brethren, partly and principally in order to collect old debts. Were it not for the credit these tradesmen allow the Bedawies, they could procure themselves these necessaries much easier and cheaper from the same markets whence the inhabitants of Ma'ân purchase their wants, as well as most of the commodities they use for their exchange trade. These markets are principally Hebron, Ghazzé, and Alakabá. Sometimes they go as far as to Damascus to the N., and to Algawf to the E. Their way to Hebron and Ghazzé leads through Wâdî Moosà, generally called here Sik, and to Al'akabá through the defile of Shetâr, opening in Wâdî Lithm, a valley which crosses the Sherâ mountains at a distance of about 8 hours N. of Al'akabá. The most important market, however, is the village itself during the two days, the Syrian pilgrims' karawân generally reposes here on its way to and from Měkká. During the whole

of the year the inhabitants lay up in store for these four days, called "Mawsen," * all sorts of provisions and forage for the pilgrims and their camels, which they generally very profitably exchange for other wares. As the greater part of the pilgrims like to combine mercantile speculations with the meritorious discharge of the religious duty of pilgrimage, they take care to provide themselves with such commodities as will sell well along the way. On leaving Damascus they load their camels with materials of cloth and cotton, and other European manufactures, for which they find a good market throughout Arabia, and on returning from Mekká they carry with them, coffee and spices, cloaks from Baghdád, and Persian caps or Indian swords and daggers, all of which commodities are comparatively rare, and are in great request in the western parts of the Peninsula. There is besides, during these days, a great conflux of Bedawies, gathering in the village from the adjacent desert, and thus these small and during the rest of the year, generally very dull places on the pilgrims' way, present the aspect of the most stirring and crowded fair in Europe. All things which can be disposed of, are exhibited for sale or barter; every one is absorbed in speculations of traffic and profit; the desire for which is so strong with the villagers as to check even the hospitality, that cardinal virtue of the Arabs they have no scruple in taking money for the fresh water which the only excellent and abundant spring, called Angâsé, supplies them with. But it must be borne in mind that this traffic with the pilgrims is the main source of their subsistence, and the greatest part of the inhabitants of Ma'ân do, in fact, in these four fair-days gain enough to suffice for the support of their families during the rest of the year.

With the water of Angàsé, about a score of gardens are irrigated in Ma'ân. Amongst the different fruit trees cultivated here, the pomegranate is particularly renowned as the best in all Arabia, and as its fruit is much coveted by the pilgrims, and is in the whole East, regarded as a medicine against liver complaints, stores thereof are laid up and kept in reserve for the year; but the date palm does not flourish here, notwithstanding the endeavours of the inhabitants to grow it. The water is raised by a single man from the spring in an open leather bag,. the same as used in Upper Egypt under the name of Shadoof, and is increased by a stream, coming about half an hour's way from the N. It is led in small rills over the gardens, and part of it is gathered in a great basin, where the inhabitants occasionally bathe and make their ablutions for prayer. Besides the spring there are plenty of wells, and some yards' digging is sure to bring forth water in almost every place. Corn is also cultivated on the plain around

Probably Mausim, i. e. season.-R.