The Land of Midian, vol 2 | Page 4

Its present Huwayti owners, the Sulaymiyyín,
the Sulaymát, the Jeráfín, and other tribes, are a less turbulent race than
the northerns because they are safe from the bandit Ma'ázah: they are
more easily managed, and they do not meet a fair offer with the eternal
Yaftah ‘Allah--"Allah opens."[EN#3]
The head of the Dámah, a great bay in the Hismá-wall to the east, is
now in sight of us; and we shall pass its mouth, which debouches into
the sea below Zibá. This tract is equally abundant in herds (camels),
flocks, and vegetation: in places a thin forest gathers, and the
tree-clumps now form a feature in the scenery. The sole, a broad
expanse of loose red arenaceous matter, the washings of the plateau, is
fearfully burrowed and honeycombed; it is also subject, like its sister
the Sadr, to the frequent assault of "devils," or sand-pillars. That it is
plentifully supplied with water, we learn from the presence of birds.
The cries of the caravane, the "knock-kneed" plover of Egypt,
yellow-beaked and black-eyed, resounded in the more barren belts. A
lovely little sun-bird (Nectarinia oseœ?), which the Frenchmen of
course called colibri, with ravishing reflections of green and gold,
flashed like a gem thrown from shrub to shrub: this oiseau mouche is

found scattered throughout Midian; we saw it even about El-Muwaylah,
but I had unfortunately twice forgotten dust-shot. The Egyptian
Rakham (percnopter), yellow with black-tipped wings; a carrion-eater,
now so rare, and the common brown kite, still so common near
civilized Cairo, soared in the sky; while the larger vultures, perching
upon the rock-ridges, suggested Bedawi sentinels. The ravens, here as
elsewhere, are a plague: flights of them occupy favourite places, and
they prey upon the young lambs, hares, and maimed birds.
We advanced another five miles, and crossed to the southern side of the
actual torrent-bed, whose banks, strewed with a quantity of dead
flood-wood entangling the trees, and whose flaky clays, cracked to the
shape of slabs and often curling into tubes of natural pottery, show that
at times the Hismá must discharge furious torrents. We camped close to
the Dámah at the foot of the Jebel el-Balawi; the water, known as
Máyat el-Jebayl ("of the Hillock"), lay ahead in a low rocky snout: it
was represented as being distant a full hour, and the mules did not
return from it till three had passed; but thirty minutes would have been
nearer the truth. The Nile-drinkers turned up their fastidious noses at
the supply, but Lieutenant Amir, who had graduated in the rough
campaigning-school of the Súdán, pronounced it "regular."
The nighting-place on the Dámah was as pretty and picturesque as the
Majrá was tame and uncouth. While the west was amber clear, long
stripes of purpling, crimson, flaming cloud, to the south and the east,
set off the castled crags disposed in a semicircle round the Wady-head;
and the "buildings" appeared art-like enough to be haunted ground, the
domain of the Fata Morgana, a glimpse of the City of Brass built by
Shaddaá, son of ‘Ad. When the stars began to glitter sharp and clear,
our men fell to singing and dancing; and the boy Husayn Ganinah again
distinguished himself by his superior ribaldry. Our work was more
respectable and prosaic, firing a mule with a swollen back.
Within a mile or so of us stood some Bedawi tents, which we had
passed on the march: they were deserted by the men, here Sulaymát,
who drive their camels to the wilds sometimes for a week at a time. An
old wife who brought us a goat for sale, and who begged that Husayn,
the Básh-Buzúk, might pass the night with her, in order to shoot an
especially objectionable wolf, had a long tale to tell of neighbouring
ruins. She also reported that near the same place there is a well with

steps, into which the Arabs had descended some seven fathoms;
presently they found houses occupying the galleries at the bottom, and
fled in terror.
Lieutenant Amir was sent to sketch and survey the site next morning;
and he was lucky enough to be guided by one Sa'id bin Zayfullah, the
Sulaymi, whose prime dated from the palmy days of the great
Mohammed Ali Pasha. He acknowledged as his friends the grandfather,
and even the father, of our guide Furayj; but the latter he ignored,
looking upon him as a mere Walad ("lad"). Moreover, he remembered
the birth of Shaykh Mohammed ‘Afnán, chief of the Baliyy, which
took place when he himself had already become a hunter of the
gazelle.[EN#4] According to him, the remains are still known as the
Dár ("house") or Diyár ("houses") El-Nasárá--"of the Nazarenes," that
is, of the Nabathaeans. The former term is retained here, as in Sinai, by
popular tradition; and the latter is