mining-establishments and of the precious metals still unextracted, shows another and an indigenous source of wealth. Under Trajan (A.D. 98-117) the Land of Midian probably shared the destinies of Edom, or Idumæa, which, after its conquest by A. Cornelius Palma, was raised to an especial province, with the title of Palestina Tertia sen Salutaris. To that epoch I would refer the establishment of Aynúnah which was probably destroyed by the troubles and dissensions following the earliest political revolt of ElIslam. The other remains at Makná, Sharma, and Wady Tiryam show, by an inferior style, a barbarous occupation, possibly of the Nabat, Christian Arabs, who held the soil till the Mohammedan conquest. Lastly came the Bedawi,* who have reduced the land to what it now is; the abomination of desolation taking the place of the "fatness of the earth." For the probable date of the Bedawi incursions, see chap. vi. CHAPTER VIII. FROM AYN EL-MORÁK TO THE WHITE MOUNTAIN : THE INSCRIPTION AND THE NABATHÆANS. THE caravan began on the second day to assume shape and order. Between three and four a.m. I called up Antonin, the marmiton, to make ready tea and coffee for six, besides the Bedawi Shaykhs and the Chiefs of the native party: the latter also had their own brew, which I need hardly say was far better than ours.* We, the Europeans, setting off on foot, carefully examined the country whilst the confusion of packing and loading reigned in camp. After an hour or two the dromedaries came up, and we rode to the next station. Breakfast, prepared overnight, was spread upon a cloth under some thorn-tree, about II a.m. We had generally a long draught of laban (soured camel's milk), and we The Gishr (Kishr), or coffee husk, is here unknown it is universally used about Aden in Western Yemen and at Sana'á, and a modern traveller compares it with the mixture of tea and coffee formerly drunk under the name of "twist" in England. eked out our civilised supplies with the mutton of the Huwaytát, which, fed upon the fragrant Shíh (absinthium), the balm-like Za'atar (Thyme, Th. Serpyllum), and other perfumed herbs of the desert, has a surpassing flavour, far superior to the grass-fed venison at home. We then rested during the heat of the day. Sleep, both at night and by day, is remarkably light in these highly electrical regions, despite the purity and cleanliness of the "Nufiez," or soft sand, which the Arab so much enjoys. In the afternoon we resumed our work, climbing, exploring, and collecting specimens, which the soldiers carried in bags and baskets, whilst the Egyptian officers made their sketches and plans. We dined at sundown, and passed the evening and part of the night in chat with the Bedawin, gathering the very scanty information they could afford. I am not certain that my companions did not look forward to a little more sleep and a little less work when the excursion ended. Setting out at 5 a.m. (April 10th) in the mountain-wind, cool and high, we took a line towards the White Mountain, on the south-east, and skirted the seaward base of the Jebel el-Zahd, whose tall eastern heights now justified the 6090 feet of the chart. Hence, also, we could distinguish the Wady between the two Massifs, Jebel Arawah to the north, and Sig to the south. From the sea they had appeared a single wall. Presently we came upon a newer formation, sandstone-grit; in this strange land every Wady shows a change. Reaching, after an hour's walk, the valley El-Khim (for Khiyam, tents), we found its sole striped with what seemed to be black sand. The bundle carried off for testing was remarkably heavy. I suspected emery; M. Marie said oxide of tin; and it proved to be chloride of lead almost pure. The supply of quartz, much of it white, a little of it pink; with a fair proportion of hyaline, which was as usual barren, increased as granite, taking the place of porphyry, became more abundant. In many parts, huge weathered and rounded blocks, like crumbs that had fallen from the tables of the Titans, cumbered the bed. We crossed the upper part of the Wady Aynúnah, and ascended the broad and winding Wady Intaysh, which was marked by a large fragment of angular quartz. Here and there lay tombs that resembled those of the Bedawin on a large scale: the people, however, declared them to be Christian, and about half-way Mr. Clarke detected a "written stone," a block of red porphyry, the same material which bore the Himyaritic inscriptions, copied by Sutzen in Yemen. It shows two crosses; and in this point, as well as in the letter, it much resembles the three inscriptions in ill-formed characters copied by Dr. Wallin (loc. cit. p. 313).* The latter were engraved upon immense stones, which had been detached No. I. THE INTAYSH (MIDIAN) STONE. ES BO from the mountains overhanging a ravine where it entered the Hismáh; and he found them near a cemetery of the Beni Ma'azeh tribe, where, from *The learned Orientalist, Rev. G. C. Renouard, who annotated Dr. Wallin's paper, remarks that the characters do not resemble those of the Sinaitic Jebel el-Mukattab, or the Himyaritic alphabet, anciently used in Yemen and Hazramaut. They "correspond, in some degree, with the ancient Phoenician character, but no satisfactory conclusion can be formed from such short inscriptions, copied, probably, in great haste." |