?%3}%:
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES
UMVERSITY of CA' ^-'.'HJMiA
AT
LIBRARY
ILLUSTRATED LIBRARY OF TRAl^EL
TRAVELS IN ARABIA
COMPILED AND ARRANGED BY
BAYARD TAYLOR
REVISED BY
THOMAS STEVENS
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1893.
CorVRIGHT, 1881, 1892. BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
,' , -f ,*
mow omcCTonr
*'-D eoouoisomo compan
T Z\ t
REVISER'S NOTE
The continuance of Bayard Taylor's Library of
Travel in the popular favor is one of the accepted
facts of the literary world. So much so, indeed,
that a revision of his works on the part of another is
to be permitted only on certain conditions of reserve,
and by i-eason of events that have transpired since
the death of the distinguished traveller.
Travellers and authors die ; but the tribes, nations,
and races visited by them continue on, making war
or peace, changing frontiers, setting up or pulling
down dynasties.
The whole political complexion of a country may
be changed in a decade. Though the people of
Arabia, the genuine Bedouins, are believed to have
changed little or nothing in their mode of life since
the days of the Shepherd Kings of Abraham's time,
waves of political and i-eligious agitation have occa-
sionally rippled over one part or another of the an-
cient peninsula. Seemingly they make as little
permanent impression on the undercurrent of Bed-
ouin life, as do the waves of the sea on its immutable
whole, so that the accounts of the earlier chroniclers
of Arabian life and manners agree in a singular man-
ner with the descriptions of contemporary visitors.
For this reason, no less than for the respect and ad-
iv REVISER'S NOTE
miration entertained bv the reviser for Mr. Taylor's
conscientiousness and judgment as a traveller and
compiler, and his literary excellence as an author,
this volume remains, practically, as fully the work of
its original editor as before.
By way of bringing it up to date, however, Chap-
ter XYII. has been added, and such slight revision
of preceding chapters has been made as was found
necessary, consistent with the scope and intention of
the new edition.
Thomas Stevens.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER L PAGE
Sketch of Arabia : its Geographical Position, and
Ancient History, 1
CHAPTER II.
Early Explorers of Arabia, 8
CHAPTER ni.
Niebuhr's Travels is Yemen, 14
CHAPTER IV.
Buhckhardt's Journey to Mecca and Medina, . . 29
CHAPTER V.
Wellsted's Explorations in Oman, .... 40
CHAPTER VL
Wellsted's Discovery of an Ancient City "in Hai>
RAMAUT, 55
CHAPTER Vn.
Burton's Pilgrimage, 62
CHAPTER Vni.
Palgra-v-e's Travels m Central Arabia : from Pales-
tine to the Djo'tt'F, 83
VJ CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX. PAGE
Palgrave'b Travels — Residence in the Djowf, , 107
CHAPTER X.
Palgrave's Travels — Crossing the Nefood, . . 127
CHAPTER XI.
Palgrave's Travels— Life in Ha'yel 138
CHAPTER XII.
Palgrave's Travels— Journey to Bereydah, . . 176
CHAPTER XIII.
Palgrave's Travels — Journey to Ri'ad the Capital
OP Nedjed, 201
CHAPTER XIV.
Palgrave's Travels — Adventures in Ri'ad, . .217
CHAPTER XV.
Palgrave's Travels — His Escape to the Eastern
Coast, 240
CHAPTER XVI.
Palgrave's Travels— Eastern Arabia, . . . 259
CHAPTER XVII.
Lady Blunt's Pilgrimage to Ne.td, .... 279
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A Night March on the Arabian Desert, . Frontispiece
Coffee Hills of Yemen,
View of El-Medina, ....
A Valley in Oman,
Ruins of Nakab-El-Hadjar, in Hadramaut,
View op Medina from the West,
Camp at Mount Arafat,
Costume of Pilgrims to Mecca,
William Gifford Palgrave, .
An Arab Chief,
Captain Burton as a Pilgrim,
The Village of El-Suwayrkiyah,
An Arab Encampment, ....
Death on the Desert, ....
FACING
FAOB
19
39
51
59
69
77
81
84
105
129
184
190
208
TRAVELS IN ARABIA
CHAPTER I.
SKETCH OF ARABIA: ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION,
AND ANCIENT HISTORY
THE Peninsula of Arabia, forming the extreme
southwestern corner of Asia, is partly de-
tached, both in a geographical and historical sense,
from the remainder of the continent. Although
parts of it are mentioned in the oldest historical rec-
ords, and its shores were probably familiar to the
earliest navigators, the greater portion of its terri-
tory has always remained almost inaccessible and un-
known.
The desert lying between Syria and the Euphra-
tes is sometimes included by geographers as belong-
ing to Arabia, but a line di-awn from the Dead Sea
to the mouth of the Euphrates (almost coinciding
with the parallel of 30° N.) would more nearly repre-
sent the northern boundary of the peninsula. As
the most southern point of the Arabian coast reaches
the latitude of 12° 40', the greater part of the entire
territory, of more than one million square miles, lies
within the tropics. In shape it is an irregular rhom-
boid, the longest diameter, from Suez to the Cape
2 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
El-Had, in Oman, being 1,660, and from tlie Eu-
phrates to the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, 1,400
miles.
The entire coast region of Arabia, on the Red
Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Gulfs of Oman and
Persia, is, for the most part, a belt of fertile coun-
try, inhabited by a settled, semi-civilized population.
Back of this belt, which varies in width from a few
miles to upward of a hundred, commences a des-
ert table-land, occasionally intersected by mountain
chains, and containing in the interior many fertile
valleys of considerable extent, which are inhabited.
Very little has been known of this great interior re-
gion until the present century.
The ancient geographei'S divided Arabia into three
parts — Arabia Petrcea, or the Rocky, comprising the
northwestern portion, including the Sinaitic penin-
sula, between the Gulfs of Suez and Akaba ; Arahia
Desei'ta, the great central desert ; and Arahia Felix,
the Happy, by which they appear to have designated
the southwestern part, now known as Yemen. The
modern Arabic geography, which lias been partly
ado])ted on our maps, is based, to some extent, on
the political divisions of the country. The coast re-
gion along the Red Sea, down to a point nearlj' half
way between Jedda and the Straits of Bab-el-Man-
deb, and including the holy cities of Medina and
Mecca, is called the Hedjaz. Yemen, the capital of
which is Sana, and the chief seaports Mocha, Hodeida,
and Loheia, embraces all the southwestern portion of
the peninsula. The southern coast, although divided
into various little chiefdoms, is known under the
SKBJTCJI OF ARABIA 3
general name of Hadramant. The kingdom of
Oman has extended itself along the eastern shore,
nearly to the head of the Persian Gnlf. The north-
ern oases, the seat of the powerfnl sect of the Waha-
bees, are called Nedjed ; and the nnknown southern
interior, which is believed to be almost wholly desert,
inhabited only by a few wandering Bedonins, is
known as the Dahna or Akhaf.
Arabia has been inhabited by the same race since
the earliest times, and has changed less, in the course
of thousands of years, than any other country of the
globe, not excepting China. According to Biblical
genealogy, the natives are descended from Ham,
through Cush ; but the Bedonins have always claimed
that they are the posterity of Ishmael. Some por-
tions of the country, such as Edom, or Idumsea, Te-
man, and Sheba (the modern Yemen), are mentioned
in the Old Testament ; but neither the Babylonian,
Assyrian, Persian, nor Egyptian monarchies suc-
ceeded in gaining possession of the peninsula. Alex-
ander the Great made preparations for a journey of
conquest, which was prevented by his death, and
Trajan was the only Roman emperor who penetrated
into the interior.
The inhabitants were idolaters, whose religion
had probably some resemblance to that of the Phoe-
nicians. After the destruction of Jerusalem, both
Jews and Christians found their way thither, and
made proselytes. There were Jews in Medina, Mec-
ca, and Yemen ; and even the last Hymyaritic king
of the latter country became a convert to Mosaic
faith. Thus the streno-th of the ancient reliaion was
4 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
already weakened when Mohammed was born (a.d.
570) ; and tliere are strong evidences for the conject-
ure tliat tlie demoralization of both Jews and Chris-
tians, resulting from their long enmity, was the chief
cause wliich prevented Mohammed from adopting the
belief of the latter. At the time of his birth, the
civilization of the dominant Arab tribes was little
inferior to that of Europe or the Eastern Empire.
There was already an Arabic literature ; and the arts
and sciences of the ancient world had found their
way even to the oases of Nedjed,
The union of the best and strongest elements in
the race which followed the establishment of the
new religion, gave to men of Arabian blood a part to
play in the history of the world. For six hundred
years after Mohammed's death Islam and Christen-
dom were nearly equal powers, and it is difficult,
even now, to decide which contributed the more to
the arts from which modern civilization has sprung,
Arabia flourished, as never before, under the Ca-
liphs ; yet it does not appear that the life of the
inhabitants was materially changed, or that any
growth, acquired during the new importance of the
country, became permanent. Its commerce was re-
stricted to the products of its narrow belt of fertile
shore ; an arid desert separated it from Bagdad and
Syria; none of the lines of traffic between Europe
and the East Indies traversed its territory, and thns
it remained comparatively unknown to the Christian
world.
After the downfall of the Caliphate the tribes re-
lapsed into their former condition of independent
SKETCH OF ARABIA 5
cliiefdoms, and the old hostilities, which had been
partially suppressed for some centuries, again re-
vived. In the sixteenth centuiy the Tui'ks obtained
possession of Hedjaz and Yemen ; the Portuguese
held Muscat for a hundred and fifty years, and the
Persians made some tenipoi-aiy conquests, but the
vast interior region easily maintained its indepen-
dence. The deserts, which everywhere intervene be-
tween its large and fertile valleys and the seacoast,
are the home of wandering Bedouin tribes, whose
only occupation is plunder — whose hand is against
every man's and every man's hand against them.
Thus they serve as a body-guard even to their own
enemies.
The long repose and seclusion of Central Arabia
was first broken during the present century. It may
be well to state, very briefiy, the circumstances which
led to it, since they will explain the great difficulty
and danger which all modern explorers must en-
counter. Early in the last century, an Arabian
named Abd el-Wahab, scandalized at what he be-
lieved to be the corruption of the Moslem faith, began
preaching a Reformation. He advocated the slaugh-
ter or forcible conversion of heretics, the most rigid
forms of fasting and prayer, the disuse of tobacco,
and various other changes in the Oriental habits of
life. Having succeeded in converting the chief of
Nedjed, Mohammed Ibu-Saoud, he took up his resi-
dence in Derreyeh, the capitalj which thenceforth
became the rendezvous for all his followers, who
were named Wahahees. They increased to such an
extent that their authority became supreme through-
6 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ont Central Arabia, and the successor of Ibu-Saoud
was able to call an army of 100,000 men into the
iield, and deiy the Ottoman powei'.
In the year 1803 the Wahabees took and plundered
Mecca, and slew great numbers of the pilgrims who
had gathered there. A second expedition against
Medina failed, but the annual caravan of pilgrims
was robbed and dispersed. Finally, in 1809, the
Sultan transferred to Mohammed Ali, of Egypt, the
duty of suppressing this menacing religious and politi-
cal rebellion. The first campaign in Arabia was a
failure ; the second, under Ibrahim Pasha, was suc-
cessful. He overcame the Wahabees in 1818, capt-
ured Derreyeh, and razed it to the ground. In
1828 they began a second war against Turkey, but
were again defeated. Since then they have refrained
from any further aggressive movement, but their hos-
tility and bigotry are as active as ever. The Waha-
bee doctrine flatters the clannish and exclusive spirit
of the race, and will probably prevent, for a long
time, any easy communication between Arabia and
the rest of the world.
The greater part of our present knowledge of
Arabia has been obtained since the opening of this
century. The chief seaports and the route from
Suez to Mt. Sinai were known during the Middle
Ages, but all else was little better than a blank.
AVithin the last fifty or sixty years the mountains of
Edom liave been explored, the i-ock-hewn city of
Petra discovered, the holy cities of Medina and Mecca
visited by intelligent Europeans; Yemen, lladra-
maut, and Oman partly traversed ; and, last of all
SKETCH OF ARABIA 7
we have a very clear and satisfactory account of Ked-
jed and the other central regions of Arabia, by the
intrepid English travellei-, Mr. Palgrave.
Thus, only the southern interior of the peninsula
remains to be visited. The name given to it by the
Arabs, Hoha el-Khaly, " the abode of emptiness,"
no doubt describes its character. It is an immense,
undulating, sandy waste, dotted with scai'ce and
small oases, which give water and shelter to the Bed-
ouins, but without any large tract of habitable land,
and consequently without cities, or other than the
rudest forms of political organization.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA
WHEN the habit of travel began to revive in
the Middle Ages, its character -was either
religious or commercial, either in the form of pil-
grimages to Rome, Palestine (whenever possible),
and the shrines of popular saints, or of journeys to
the Levant, Persia, and the Indies, with the object of
acquiring wealth by traffic, the profits of which in-
creased in the same proportion as its hazards. From
the time of Trajan's expedition to Arabia (in a.d.
117) down to the sixteenth century, we have no re-
port of the history or condition of the country except
such as can be drawn from the earlier Jewish and
Christian traditions and the later Mohammedan rec-
ords.
The first account of a visit to Arabia which ap-
pears to be worthy of credence, is that given by Lu-
dovico Bartema, of Rome. After visiting Egypt, he
joined the caravan of pilgrims at Damascus, in 1503,
in tlie company of a Mameluke captain, himself dis-
guised as a Mameluke renegade. After several at-
tacks from the Bedouins of the desert, the caravan
reached Medina, which he describes as containing
three hundred liouses. Bartema gives a very correct
EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA 9
description of the tomb of the Prophet, and scoffs at
the then prevalent belief that the latter's coffin is
suspended in the air between four lodestones.
He thus describes an adventure which befell his
company the same evening after their visit to the
mosque. " At almost three of the night, ten or
twelve of the elders of the sect of Mohammed en-
tered into our caravan, wliich remained not past a
stone's cast from the gate of the city. These ran
hither and thither, crying like madmen with these
words : ' Mohammed, the messenger and apostle of
God, shall rise again ! O Prophet, O God, Moham-
med shall rise again ! Have mercy on us, God ! '
Our captain and we, all raised with this cry, took
weapon with all expedition, suspecting that the Arabs
were come to rob our caravan. We asked what was
the cause of that exclamation, and what they cried ?
For they cried as do the Christians when suddenly
any marvellous thing clianceth. The elders an-
swered : ' Saw you not the lightning which shone out
of the sepulchre of the Prophet Mohammed ? ' Our
captain answered that he saw nothing, and we also
being demanded, answered in like manner. Then
said one of the old men : ' Are yon slaves ? ' This
to say bought men, meaning thereby, Mamelukes.
Then said our captain : ' We are indeed Mamelukes.'
Then again the old man said : ' Yon, my lords, can-
not see heavenly things, as being neoyluti., that is,
newly come to the faith, and not yet confirmed in
our religion.' It is therefore to be understood that
none other shining came out of the sepulchre than a
certain flame, which the priests caused to come out
10 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
of the open place of the tower, whereby they would
have deceived us."
Leaving Medina, the cai'avan travelled for three
days over a " broad plain," all covered with white
sand, in manner as small as flour. Then they passed
a mountain, where they heard " a certain horrible
noise and cry," and after journeying for ten days
longer, during which time they twice fought with
" fifty thousand Arabians," they reached Mecca, of
which Bartema says : " The city is veiy fair, and
well inhabited, and containeth in round form six
thousand houses as well builded as ours, and some
that cost three or four thousand pieces of gold : it
hath no walls."
Bartema describes the ceremonies performed by
the pilgrims with tolerable correctness. His fel-
lowship with the Mamelukes seems to have been a
complete protection up to the time when the caravan
was ready to set out on its return to Damascus, and
the members of the troop were ordered to accompany
it, on pain of death. Tlien he managed to escape by
persuading a Mohammedan that he understood the
art of casting cannon, and wished to reach India, in
order to assist the native monarchs in defending
themselves against the Poi-tuguese. Beaching Jedda
in safety, Bartema sailed for Persia, visiting Yemen
on the way ; made his way to India, and after vari-
ous adventures, returned to Europe by way of the
Cape of Good Hope.
The second European who made his way to the
holy cities was Joseph Pitts, an Englishman, who
was captured by an Algerine ])ii'ate, as a sailor-boy
EARLY EXPLORERS OF ARABIA 11
of sixteen, and forced by liis master to become a
Mussulman. After some years, when lie liad ac-
quired the Arabic and Turkish languages, he accom-
panied his master for a pilgrimage to Mecca by
way of Cairo, Suez, and the Red Sea. Here he re-
ceived his freedom ; but continued with the pilgrims
to Medina, and returned to Egypt by land, through
Arabia Petrsea. After fifteen years of exile he suc-
ceeded in escaping to Italy, and thence made his way
back to England.
Pitts gives a minute and generally correct account
of the ceremonies at Mecca. He was not, of course,
learned in Moslem theology, and his narrative, like
that of all former visitors to Mecca, has been super-
seded by the more intelligent description of Burck-
hardt ; yet it coincides with the latter in all essential
particulars. His description of the city and surround-
ing scenery is worth quoting, from the quaint sim-
plicity of its style.
" First, as to Mecca. It is a town situated in a
barren place (about one day's journey from the Red
Sea), in a valley, or rather in the midst of many lit-
tle hills. It is a place of no force, wanting both
walls and gates. Its buildings are, as I said before,
very ordinary, insomuch that it would be a place of
no tolerable entertainment, were it not for the anni-
versary resort of so many thousand Ilagges (Hadjis),
or pilgrims, on whose coming the whole dependence
of the town (in a manner) is ; for many shops are
scarcely open all the year besides.
" The people here, I observed, are a poor sort of
people, very thin, lean and swarthy. The town is
12 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
surrounded for several miles witli many tliousands
of little hills, which are very near one to the other.
I have been on the top of some of them near Mecca,
where I could see some miles about, yet was not able
to see the farthest of the hills. They are all stony-
rock and blackish, and pretty near of a bigness, ap-
pearing at a distance like cocks of hay, but all point-
ing toward Mecca. Some of them are half a mile in
circumference, but all near of one height. The peo-
ple here have an odd and foolish sort of tradition con-
cerning them, viz., that when Abraham w^ent about
building the Beat- Allah (Beit-Allah, or ' House of
God '), God by his wonderful providence did so
order it, that every mountain in the world should
contribute something to the building thereof ; and
accordingly every one did send its proportion, though
thei'e is a mountain near Algier which is called Cor-
radog, i.e.^ Black Mountain, and the reason of its
blackness, they sa^^, is because it did not send any
part of itself toward building the temple at Mecca.
Between these hills is good and plain travelling,
though they stand one to another.
" There is upon the top of one of them a cave,
which they term Ilii-a, i.e., Blessing, into which,
they say, Mohamet did usually retire for his solitary
devotions, meditations, and fastings; and here they
believe he had a great part of the Alcoran brought
him by the angel Gabriel. I have been in this cave,
and observed that it is not at all beautified, at which
I admired.
" About half a mile out of Mecca is a very steep
hill, and there are stairs made to go to the top of it,
EARLY EXPLOEERS OF ARABIA 13
where is a cupola, under which is a cloven rock ; into
this, they say, Mahomet when very 3'oung, viz.,
ahout four years of age, was carried by the angel
Gabriel, who opened his breast and took out his
lieart, f roni which he picked some black blood specks,
which was his original corruption ; then put it into
its place again, and afterward closed up the part ;
and that during this operation Mahomet felt no
pain."
The next account of the same pilgrimage is given
by Giovanni Tinati, an Italian, who deserted from
the French service on the coast of Dalmatia, and
became an Albanian soldier. Making his way to
Egypt, after various adventures, he became at last a
corporal in Mohammed Ali's body-guard, and shared
in several campaigns against the Wahabees. He did
not, however, penetrate very far inland from the
coast, and his visit to Mecca was the result of his
desertion from the Egyptian army after a defeat.
His narrative contains nothing which has not been
more fully and satisfactorily stated by later trav-
ellers.
By this time, however, the era of careful scientific
exploration had already commenced, and the descrip-
tions which have since then been furnished to us
are positive contributions to our knowledge of Ara-
bia. With the exception of the journey of Carsten
Niebuhr, which embraces only the Sinaitic Peninsula
and Yemen, the important explorations — all of which
are equally difficult and daring — have been made
since the commencement of this century.
CHAPTER III.
NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN
IN 1760 the Danish government decided to send an
expedition to Arabia and India, for the purpose
of geographical exploration. Tlie command was
given to Cai'sten Kiebnhr, a native of Hanover, and
a civil engineer. Four other gentlemen, an artist,
a botanist, a physician, and an astronomer, were asso-
ciated with him in the undertaking ; yet, by a singu-
lar fatality, all died during the journey, and Kiebuhr
returned alone, after an absence of nearly seven
years, to publish the first narrative of travel based on
scientific observation.
The party sailed from Copenhagen for Smyrna in
January, 1701, visited Constantinople, and then pro-
ceeded to Egypt, where they remained nearly a year.
After a journey to Sinai, they finally succeeded in
engaging passage on board a vessel carrying pilgrims
from Suez to Jedda, and sailed from the former port
in October, 1702. They took the precaution of
adopting the Oriental dress, and conformed, as far as
possible, to the customs of the Mussulman passen-
gers ; thus the voyage, although very tedious and un-
comfortable, was not accompanied with any other
danger than that from the coral reefs along the
Arabian slioro. The vessel touched at Yambo, the
NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN 15
port of Medina, and finally reached Jedda, after a
voyage of nineteen days.
The travellers entered Jedda under strong appre-
hensions of ill-treatment from the inhabitants, but
were favorably disappointed. The people, it seemed,
were already accustomed to the sight of Christian
merchants in their town, and took no particular notice
of the strangers, who went freely to the coffee-houses
and markets, and felt themselves safe so long as they
did not attempt to pass through the gate leading to
Mecca. The Turkish Pasha of the city received
them kindly, and they were allowed to hire a house
for their temporary residence.
After waiting six weeks for the chance of a pas-
sage to Mocha, they learned that an Arabian vessel
was about to sail for Hodeida, one of the ports of
Yemen. The craft, when they visited it, proved to
be more like a hogshead than a ship ; it was only seven
fathoms long, by three in breadth. It had no deck ;
its planks were extremely thin, and seemed to be
only nailed together, but not pitched. The captain
wore nothing but a linen cloth upon his loins, and
his sailors, nine in number, were black slaves from
Africa or Malabar. Nevertheless, they engaged pas-
sage, taking the entire vessel for themselves alone ;
but when they came to embark, it was filled with the
merchandise of others. The voyage proved to be
safe and pleasant, and in sixteen days they landed at
Loheia, in Yemen.
The governor of this place was a negro, who had
formerly been a slave. He received the travellers
with the greatest kindness, persuaded them to leave
16 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the vessel, and gave tliem a residence, promising
camels for the further journey bj land. Although
thej were somewhat annoyed by the great curiosity
of the inhabitants, their residence was so agreeable,
and offered the naturalists so many facilities for mak-
ing collections, that they remained nearly four
months. " We had one opportunit}^" says Kiebuhr,
'^of learning their ideas of the benefits to be derived
from medicine. Mr. Cramer had given a scribe an
etnetic which operated with extreme violence. Tlie
Aiabs, being struck at its wonderful effects, resolved
all to take the same excellent remed}'', and the repu-
tation of. our friend's skill thus became very high
among them. The Emir of the port sent one day
foi- him ; and, as he did not go immediately, the
Emir soon after sent a saddled horse to our gate.
Mr. Cramer, supposing that this horse was intended
to bear him to the Emir, was going to mount him,
when he was told that this was the patient he was to
cure. We luckily found another physician in our
party ; our Swedish servant had been with the hus-
sars in his native country, and had acquired some
knowledo;e of the diseases of horses. He offered to
cure the Emir's horse, and succeeded. The cure
rendered him famous, and he was afterward sent for
to human patients."
Having satisfied themselves by this time that
there was no danger in travelling in Yemen, they
did not wait for the departure of any large caravan,
l^ut, on February 20, 17G3, set out from Loheia,
mounted on asses, and made their way across the
2ehama, or low country, toward the large town of
NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN 17
Beit el-Fakih, wliicli stands near the base of the
coffee-bearing hills. They wore dresses somewliat
similar to those of the natives, a long shirt, reaching
nearly to the feet, a girdle, and a mantle over the
shoulders. The country was barren, but there were
many villages, and at intervals of evei-y few miles
they found coffee-houses, or, rather, huts, for the re-
freshment of travellers. After having suffered no
further inconvenience than from the brackish water,
which is drawn from wells more than a hundred feet
deep, they reached Beit el-Fakih in five days.
Here they were kindly received by one of the native
merchants, who hired a stone house for them. The
town is seated upon a well-cultivated plain ; it is
comparatively modern, but populous, and the travel-
lers, now entirely accustomed to the Arabian mode of
life, felt themselves safe. The Emir took no par-
ticular notice of them, a neglect with which they
were fully satisfied, since it left them free to range
the country in all directions. K iebuhr, therefore, de-
termined to make the place the temporary liead-
quarters of the expedition, and to give some time to
excursions in that part of Yemen. " I hired an ass,"
says he, " and its owner agreed to follow me as my
servant on foot. A turban, a gi-eat coat wanting the
sleeves, a shirt, linen drawers, and a pair of slippers,
were all the dress that I wore. It being the fashion
of the country to carry arms in travelling, I had a
sabre and two pistols hung by my girdle. A piece
of old carpet was my saddle, and served me likewise
for a seat, a table, and various other purposes. To
cover me at night, I had the linen cloak which the
18 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Arabs wrap about their shoulders, to shelter them
from the sun and rain. A bucket of water, an article
of indispensable necessity' to a traveller in these arid
regions, hung by vay saddle."
After a trip to the seaport of Hodeida, Niebuhr
visited the old town of Zebid, built on the ruins of
an older city, which is said to liave once been the
capital of all the low country. Zebid is situated in
a large and fertile valley, traversed during the rainy
season by a considerable stream, by which a large
tract of country is irrigated. There are the remains
of an aqueduct built b\' the Turks, but the modern
town does not cover half the space of the ancient
capital. Zebid, however, is still distinguished for its
academy, in which the youth of all that part of Ye-
men study such sciences as are now cultivated by the
Mussulmans.
Xiebulu-'s next trip was to the plantations of the
famous Mocha coffee, whither the other members of
the party had already gone, during his visit to Zebid.
After riding about twent\^ miles eastward from Beit
el-Fakih, he reached the foot of the mountains. He
thus describes the region : " Neither asses nor mules
can be used here. The hills are to be climbed by
steep and narrow paths ; yet, in comparison with the
parched plains of the Tehama, the scenery seemed to
me charming, as it was covered with gardens and
plantations of coffee-trees.
" Up to this time I had seen only one small basalt-
ic hill ; but here whole mountains were composed
chiefly of those columns. Such detached rocks
formed grand objects in the landscaj)e, especially
ML
NIEBUHR'8 TRAVELS IN YEMEN 19
where cascades of water were seen to rush from their
summits. The cascades, in sncli instances, had tlie
appearance of being supported by rows of artificial
pillars. These basalts are of great utility to the in-
habitants ; the columns, which are easily separated,
serve as steps where the ascent is niost difficult, and
as materials for walls to support the plantations of
coffee-trees upon the steep declivities of the moun-
tains.
" The tree which affords the coffee is well known
in Europe ; so that I need not here describe it par-
ticularly. The coffee-trees were all in flower at
Bulgosa, and exhaled an exquisitely agreeable per-
fume. They are planted upon terraces, in the foi-m
of an amphitheatre. Most of them are only watered
by the rains that fall, but some, indeed, from large
reservoirs upon the heights, in which spring-water
is collected, in order to be sprinkled upon the ter-
races, where the trees gi-ow so thick together that
the rays of the sun can hardly enter among their
branches. We were told that those trees, thus arti-
ficially watered, yielded ripe fruit twice in the j^ear ;
but the fruit becomes not fully ripe the second time,
and the coffee of this crop is always inferior to that
of the first.
" Stones being more common in this part of the
country than in the Tehama, the houses — as well of
the villages as those which are scattered solitarily
over the hills — are built of this material. Although
not to be compared to the houses of Europe for com-
modiousness and elegance, yet they have a good ap-
pearance ; especially such of them as stand upon the
20 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
heights, with amphitheatres of beautiful gardens and
trees around them.
" Even at this village of Bnlgosa we were greatly
above the level of the plain from which we had as-
cended ; yet we had scarcely climbed half the ascent
to Kusma, where the Emir of this district dwells,
upon the loftiest peak of the range of mountains.
Enchanting landscapes there meet the eye on all
sides.
""We passed the night at Bnlgosa. Several of
the men of the village came to see us, and after they
retired we had a visit from our hostess, with some
young women accompanying her, who were all very
desirous to see the Europeans. They seemed less
shy than the women in the cities ; their faces were
unveiled, and they talked freely with us. As the
air is fresher and cooler upon these hills, the women
have a finer and fairer complexion than in the plain.
Our artist drew a portrait of a young girl who was
going to draw water, and was dressed in a shirt of
linen, checkered blue and white. The top and mid-
dle of the shirt, as well as the lower part of the
drawers, were embroidered with needlework of dif-
ferent colors,"
Having met with no molestation so far, Niebuhr
determined to make a longer excursion into the
southern interior of Yemen, among the mountains,
to the important towns of Udden and Taas. The
preparations were easily made. The travellers hired
asses, the owners accompanying them on foot as
guides and servants. As a further disguise they as-
Bujned Arabic names, and their real character was so
NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN 21
well concealed that even the guides supposed thein
to be Oriental Christians — not Europeans. Enter-
ing the mountains by an unfrequented road, they
found a barren region at first, but soon reached val-
leys where coffee was cultivated. The inhabitants,
on account of the cooler nights, sleep in linen bags,
which they draw over the head, and thus keep them-
selves warm by their own breathing.
After reaching Udden, which Kiebuhr found to
be a town of only three hundred houses, the hill-
country became more thickly settled. Beside the
roads, which had formerly been paved with stones,
there were frequent tanks of water for the use of
travellers, and, in exposed places, houses for their
shelter in case of storms. The next important place
was Djobla, a place of sonje importance in the annals
of Yemen, but with no antiquities, except some
ruined mosques. A further march of two days
brought the party to the fortified city of Taas, but
they did not venture within its walls, not having ap-
plied to the Emir for permission. They returned to
their quarters at Beit el-Fakih, by way of Ilaas,
another large town at the base of the mountains, hav-
ing made themselves acquainted with a large portion
of the hill-country of Arabia Felix.
The journey to Mocha lasted three days, over a
hot, barren plain, with no inhabitants except in the
wadys or valleys, which are well watered during the
rainy season. Their arrival at Mocha was followed
by a series of annoyances, first from the custom-
liouse oflacials, and then from the Emir, who con-
ceived a sudden prejudice against the travellers,
22 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
SO that they were in danger of being driven out of
the city. An English merchant, however, came to
their assistance, a present of fifty ducats mollified
the Emir, and at the end of a very disagreeable
week tliey received permission to stay in the city.
From heat and pi-ivation they had all become ill, and
in a short time one of the pai-ty died.
Niebnhr now requested permission to proceed to
Sana, the capital of Yemen. This the Emir re-
fused, nntil he could send word to the Imam ; but,
after a delay of a month, he allowed the party to go
as far as Taas, which they reached in four da^-s, and
where they were well received. The refreshing rains
every evening pui-ified the air, and all gradually re-
covered their health, except the botanist, who died
before reaching Sana.
Taas stands at the foot of the fertile mountain of
Sabber, upon which, the Arabs say, grow all varie-
ties of plants and trees to be found in the world.
Nevertheless they did not allow the travellers to
ascend or even approach it. The city is surrounded
with a wall, between sixteen and thirty feet high,
and flanked with towers. The patron saint of the
place is a former king, Ismael Melek, who is buried
in a mosque bearing his name. Xo person is allowed
to visit the tomb since the occuri-ence of a miiacle,
wliich Niebuhr thus i-elates : " Two beggars had
asked charity of the Emir of Taas, but only one of
them had tasted of his bounty. Upon this the other
went to the tomb of Ismael Melek to imploj'e his
aid. The saint, who, when alive, had been very
charital)lc, stretched his hand out of the tomb and
NIEDUIIR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN 23
gave the beggar a letter containing an order on the
Emir to pay him a hundred ci'owns. Upon examin-
\\m this order with the greatest care it Avas found
tliat Ismael Melek had written it with his own liand
and sealed it with his own seal. The governor could
not refuse payment ; but to avoid all subsequent
trouble from such bills of exchange, he had a wall
built, inclosing the tomb."
The Emir of Taas so changed in liis behavior
toward the travellers, after a few days, that he or-
dered them to return to Mocha. Finding all their
arguments and protests in vain, they were about to
comply, when a messenger arrived from Mocha,
bringing the permission of the Imam of Yemen for
them to continue their journey to Sana. They set
out on June 2Sth, and, after crossing the mountain
ranges of Mharras and Samara, by well -paved and
graded roads, reached, in a week, the town of Jerim,
near the ruins of the ancient Ilimyaritic city of
Taphar, which, however, they were unable to visit
on account of the illness of Mr. Forskal, the botanist
of the expedition. This gentleman died in a few
days ; and they were obliged to bury hiui by night,
with the greatest precaution.
From Jerim it is a day's journey to Damai', the
capital of a province. The city, which is seated in
the midst of a fertile plain, and is without walls, con-
tains five thousand well-built houses. It has a fa-
mous university, which is usually attended by five
hundred students. The travellers were here very
much annoyed by the curiositj' of the people, who
threw stones at their windows in order to force them
24 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
to show themselves. There is a mine of native sul-
phur near the place, and a mountain wliere cornelians
are found, which are highly esteemed throughout the
East.
Beyond Damar the country is hilly, but every vil-
lage is surrounded with gardens, orchards, and vine-
yards, which are irrigated from large artificial reser-
voirs built at the foot of the hills. On reaching Sana
the travellers were not allowed to ent«r the city, but
conducted to an unfurnished house wiHiout the walls,
where they were oi-dered to wait two days in entire
seclusion, until they could be received hy the Imam.
During this time they were not allowed to be visited
by anyone. Xiebuhr thus describes their interview,
which took place on the third da}' :
" The hall of audience was a spacious square cham-
ber, having an arched roof. In the middle was a
large basin, with some jets d^eau, rising fourteen
feet in lieight. Behind the basin, and near the
throne, were two large benches, each a foot and a
half high ; upon the throne was a space covered with
silken stuff, on which, as well as on both sides of it,
lay large cushions. The Imam sat between the cush-
ions, with his legs crossed in the Eastern fashion ;
his gown was of a bright green color, and had large
sleeves. Upon each side of his breast was a rich
filleting of gold lace, and on his head he wore a great
white turban. Ilis sons sat on his right hand, and
his brothers on the left. Opposite to them, on the
hiirhest of the two benches, sat the Vizier, and our
place was on the lower bench.
. " Wc were first led up to the Imam, and were per-
NIEBUHR'^ TRAVELS IN YEMEN 25
mitted to kiss both the back and the pahn of his
iiand, as well as the hem of his robe. It is an extra-
ordinary favor when the Mohammedan princes per-
mit any person to kiss the palm of the hand. There
was a solemn silence through the whole hall. As
each of ns touched the Imam's hand a herald still
proclaimed, ' God preserve the Imam ! ' and all who
were present repeated these words after him. I was
thinking at the time how I should pay my compli-
ments in Arabic, and was not a little disturbed by
this noisy ceremony.
" We did not think it proper to mention the true
reason of our expedition through Arabia ; but told
the Imam that, wishing to travel by the shortest
ways to the Danish colonies, in the East Indies, we
liad heard so much of the plenty and security which
prevailed through his dominions, that we liad re-
solved to see them with our own eyes, so that we
might describe them to our countrymen. The Imam
told us we were welcome to his dominions, and might
stay as long as we pleased. After our retui-n home
he sent to each of us a small purse containing ninety-
nine komassis, two and tliirty of which make a crown.
This piece of civility might, perhaps, appear no com-
pliment to a traveller's delicacy. But, when it is
considered that a stranger, unacquainted with the
value of the nionej^ of the country, obliged to pay
every day for his provisions, is in danger of being
imposed upon by the money-changers, this care of
providing us with small money will appear to have
been sufficiently obliging."
" The city of Sana," says l!siebuhr, " is situated at
26 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the foot of Mount Kikkum, on which are still to be
seen the rnins of a castle, which the Arabs suppose to
have been bnilt by Sbein. ISTear this mountain stands
the citadel ; a rivulet rises upon the other side, and
near it is the Bostan el-Metwokkel, a spacious garden,
which was laid out by the Imam of that name, and
has been greatly embellished by the i-eigning Imam.
The walls of the city, which are built of bricks, ex-
clude this garden, which is inclosed within a wall of
its own. The city, properly so called, is not very ex-
tensive ; one may walk around it in an hour. There
are a number of mosques, some of which have been
built by Turkish Pashas. In Sana are only twelve
public baths, but many noble palaces, three of the
most splendid of which have been built by the reign-
ing Imam. The matei'ials of these palaces are buint
bricks, and sometimes even hewn stones ; but the
houses of the common people are of bricks which
have been dried in the sun.
" The suburb of Bir el-Arsab is nearly adjoining
the city on the east side. The houses of this village
are scattered through the gardens, along the banks of
a small river. Fruits are vei-y plenteous ; there are
more than twenty kinds of grapes, which, as they do
not all ripen at the same time, continue to afford a
delicious refreshment for several months. The Ai'abs
likewise preserve grapes by hanging them up in their
cellars, and eat tliem almost through the whole year.
Two leagues northward from Sana is a plain named
Ilodda, which is oversj)read with gai'dens and watered
by a number of rivulets. This place bears a great
resemblance to the neighborhood of Damascus. But
NIEBUHR'S TRAVELS IN YEMEN 27
Sana, which some ancient authois compare to Damas-
cus, stands on a rising ground, with nothing like
florid vegetation about it. x\fter long I'ains, indeed,
a small rivulet runs through the city ; but all the
ground is dry through the rest of the year. How-
ever, by aqueducts from Mount Nikkum the town
and castle of Sana are, at all times, supplied with
abundance of excellent fresh water. ^'
After a stay of a week the travellers obtained an
audience of leave, fearing that a longer delay might
subject them to suspicions and embarrassments. Two
days afterward the Imam sent each of them a com-
plete suit of clothes, with a letter to the Emir of
Mocha, ordering him to pay them two hundred
crowns as a farewell present. He also furnished
them with camels for the journej'. Instead of return-
ing by the same road they determined to descend
from the hill-country to their old headquarters at
Beit el-Fakih, and thence cross the lowland to Mocha.
For two days they travelled over high, rocky
mountains, by the worst roads they found in Yemen.
The country was poor and thiidy inhabited, and the
declivities only began to be clothed with trees and
terraced into coffee plantations as they approached
the plains. The poorer regions are not considered
entirely safe by the Arabs, as the people frequently
plunder defenceless travellers; but the party passed
safely through this region, and reached Beit el-Fakih
after a week's journey from Sana.
Niebuhr and his companions reached Mocha early
in August, and toward the end of that month sailed
in an English vessel for Bombay, after a stay of ten
28 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
months in Yemen, The artist of the expedition and
the Swedish servant died on the Indian Ocean, and
the physician in India, a few months afterward, leav-
ing Niebnhr tlie sole survivor of the six persons who
left Copenhagen three years before. After having
sent home the journals and collections of the expedi-
tion he continued his travels through the Persian
Gulf, Bagdad, Armenia, and Asia Minor, finally
reaching Denmark in 1767. The era of intelligent,
scientific exploration, which is now rapidly opening
all parts of the world to our knowledge, may be said
to have been inaugurated by his travels.
CHAPTER TV.
BURCKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA AND MEDINA
BURCKHARDT, to whom we are indebted for
the first careful and complete description of the
holy cities of Arabia, was a native of Lausanne, in
Switzerland. After having been educated in Ger-
many, he went to London with the intention of en-
tering the English military service, but was per-
suaded by Sir Joseph Banks to apply to the African
Association for an appointment to explore the Sa-
hara, and the then unknown negro kingdoms of Cen-
tral Africa. His offer was accepted, and after some
preparation he went to Aleppo, in Syria, where he
remained for a year or two, engaged in studying
Arabic and familiarizing himself with Oriental habits
of life.
His first journeys in Syria and Palestine, which
were only meant as preparations for the African ex-
ploration, led to the most important results. He was
the first to visit the country of Hauran — the Bashan
of Scripture — lying southeast of Damascus. After
this he passed through Moab, east of the Dead Sea,
and under the pretence of making a pilgrimage to
the tomb of Aaron on Mount Hor, discovered the
rock-hewn palaces and temples of Petra, which had
been for many centuries lost to the world.
30 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Burckhardt reached Cairo in safety, and after
vainly waiting some months for an opportunity of
joining a caravan to Fezzan, determined to employ
his time in making a visit to Upper Egypt and Ku-
bia. Travelling alone, with a single guide, he suc-
ceeded in reaching the frontiers of Dongola, beyond
which it was then impossible to proceed. He there-
fore returned to Assouan, and joined a small caravan,
which crossed the J^ubian Desert to Ethiopia, by
very nearly the same route which Bruce had taken
in returning from Abj'ssinia. He remained some
time at Shendj^ the capital of Ethiopia, and then,
after a journey of three months across the country
of Takka, which had iiever before been visited by a
European, reached the port of Suakin, on the Bed
Sea. Here he embarked for Jedda, in Arabia, where
he arrived in July, 1814.
By this time his Moslem character had been so
completely acquired that he felt himself free from
suspicion. Accordingly he decided to remain and
take part in the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina,
which was to take place that year, in November.
His funds, however, were nearly exhausted, and the
Jedda merchants refused to honor an old letter of
credit upon Cairo, which he still carried with him.
In this emergency he wrote to the Armenian pln'si-
cian of Mohammed Ali, who was at that time with
the Pasha at the city of Tayf (or Taj^ef), about sev-
enty miles southeast of Mecca. Mohammed Ali
happening to hear of this application, immediately
sent a messenger with two dromedaries, to summon
Burckhardt to visit him. It seems most probable
BURQKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA 31
that the Paslia suspected the traveller of being an
English spy, and wished to examine him personally.
The guide had orders to conduct the latter to Tayf
by a circuitous route, instead of by the direct road
through Mecca.
Burckhardt set out without the least hesitation,
talcing care to exhibit no suspicion of the Pasha's
object, and no desire to see the holy city. But the
guide himself proposed that they should pass through
Mecca in order to save travel ; the journey was hur-
ried, however, and only a rapid observation was pos-
sible. Pushing eastward, they reached, on the third
night, the Mountain of Kora, which divides the ter-
ritory of Mecca from tliat of Tayf. Burckhardt was
astonished at the change in the scenery, produced by
the greater elevation of the interior of Arabia above
the sea. His description is a striking contrast to that
of the scenery about Mecca,
"This," he says, "is the most beautiful spot in the
Hedjaz, and more picturesque and delightful than
anything I had seen since my departure from Leba-
non, in Syria. The top of Djebel Kora is flat, but
large masses of granite lie scattered over it, the sur-
face of which, like that of the granite rocks near the
second cataract of the Nile, is blackened by the sun.
Several small rivulets descend from this peak and ir-
rigate the plain, which is covered with verdant fields
and large shady trees beside the granite rocks. To
those who have only known the dreary and scorching
sands of the lower country of the Hedjaz, this scene
is as surprising as the keen air which blows here is
refreshing. Many of the fruit-trees of Europe are
32 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
found here : figs, apricots, peaclies, apples, t^ie Egyp-
tian sycamore, almonds, pomegi-anates ; but particu-
larly vines, the pi-oduce of which is of the best qual-
ity. After having passed through this delightful
district for about half an hour, just as the sun was
rising, when every leaf and blade of grass was covered
with a balmy dew, and every tree and shrub diffused
a fragrance as delicious to the smell as was the land-
scape to the eye, I halted near the largest of the
rivulets, which, although not more than two paces
across, nourishes upon its banks a green alpine turf,
such as the mighty Nile, with all its luxuriance, can
never produce in Egypt."
Burckhardt had an interview with Mohammed Ali
on the evening of his arrival in Tayf. His suspicions
were confirmed : the Kadi (Judge) of Mecca and two
well-informed teachers of the Moslem faith were
present, and although the Pasha professed to accept
Burckhard's protestations of his Moslem character, it
was very evident to the latter that he was cunningly
tested by the teachers. Nevertheless, when the inter-
view was over, they pronounced him to be not only
a genuine Moslem, but one of unusual learning and
piety. The Pasha was forced to submit to this de-
cision, but he was evidently not entirely convinced,
for he gave orders that Burckhardt should be the
guest of his physician, in order that his speech and
actions might be more closely observed. Burckhardt
took a thoroughly Oriental way to release himself
from this surveillance. He gave the physician so
much trouble that the latter was very glad, at the end
of ten days, to procure from the Pasha permission for
BURCKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA 33
him to return to Mecca, in order to get rid of him.
Burckhardt thereupon travelled to the holy city in
company with the Kadi himself.
At the valley of Mohrara, nearly a day's journey
from Mecca, Burckhardt changed his garb for the i/i-
ram, or costume worn by the pilgrims during their
devotional services. It consists of two pieces of
either linen, cotton, or woollen cloth ; one is wrapped
around the loins, while the other is thrown over the
shoulder in such a manner as to leave the right arm
entirely bare. On reaching Mecca he obeyed the
Moslem injunction of first visiting the great mosque
and performing all the requisite ceremonies befoi-e
transacting any worldly business. When this had
been accomplished he made a trip to Jedda for the
purpose of procuring supplies, which were necessary
for the later pilgrimage to Medina, and then estab-
lished himself comfortably in an unfrequented part
of Mecca, to await the arrival of the caravan of pil-
grims from Damascus.
Burckhardt describes the great mosque of Mecca,
which is called the Beii Allah, or " House of God,"
as " a large quadrangular building, in the centre of
which stands the Kaaba, an oblong, massive structure
eighteen paces in length, fourteen in breadth, and
from thirty-five to forty feet in height. It is con-
structed of gray Mecca stone, in large blocks of dif-
ferent sizes, joined together in a veiy rough manner,
and with bad cement. At the northeast corner of
the Kaaba, near the door, is the famous Black Stone,
which forms part of the sharp angle of the building
at four or five feet above the ground. It is an irreg-
34 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
nlar oval of about seven inches in diameter, witli an
undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller
stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined to-
gether with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly
smoothed. It is very difficult to determine accurately
the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its
present surface by the millions of touches and kisses
it has received. It appears to me like a lava, contain-
ing several small extraneous particles. Its color is
now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black. It
is surrounded on all sides by a border, composed of a
substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch
and gravel ; this border serves to support its detached
pieces. Both the border and the stone itself are en-
circled by a silver band."
Toward the end of November the caravans from
Syria and Egypt arrived, and at the same time Mo-
hammed Ali, so that the /mdj, or pilgrimage, as-
sumed a character of unusual pomp and parade.
The Pasha's iliram consisted of two of the finest
Cashmere shawls ; the liorses and camels belonging
to himself and his large retinue, with those of the
Pasha of Damascus and other Moslem princes, were
decorated with the most brilliant trappings. On ar-
riving, the pilgrims did not halt in Mecca, but con-
tinued their march to the Sacred Mountain of Arafat,
to the eastward of the city. A camp, several miles
in extent, was formed upon the plain, at the foot of
the mountain, and here Burckhardt joined the im-
mense crowd, in order to take his share in the cere-
monies of the following day.
In the morning he climbed to the top of Arafat,
BURGKIIARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA 35
which is an irregnlar, isolated mass of gi-anite, rising
only about two hundred feet above the plain. Over-
looking thus the entire camp, he counted more than
three thousand tents, and estimated that at least
twenty-five thousand camels and seventy thousand
human being-s were there collected together. "The
scene," he says, " was one of the most extraordinary
which the earth affords. Eveiy pilgrim issued from
his tent to walk over the plain and take a view of the
busy crowds assembled there. Long streets of tents,
fitted up as bazaars, furnished them with all kinds of
provisions. The Syrian and Egyptian cavalry were
exercised by their chiefs early in the morning, while
thousands of camels were seen feeding upon the dry
shrubs of the plain all around the camp. The Syrian
pilgrims were encamped upon the south and south-
west sides of the mountain ; the Egyptians upon the
southeast. Mohammed Ali, and Soleyman, Pasha of
Damascus, as well as several of their followers, had
very handsome tents ; but the most magnificent of all
was that of the wife of Mohammed Ali, the mother
of Toossoon Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, who had
lately arrived from Cairo with a truly royal equipage,
five hundred camels being necessary to transport her
baofijao-e from Jedda to Mecca. Her tent was in fact
an encampment, consisting of a dozen tents of differ-
ent sizes, inhabited by her women ; the whole en-
closed by a wall of linen cloth, eight hundred paces
in cii'cuit, the single entrance to which was guarded
by eunuchs in splendid dresses. The beautiful em-
broidery on the exterior of this linen palace, with the
various colors displayed in every part of it, consti-
36 TRAVELS JN ARABIA
tilted an object which i-emiiided nie of some descrip-
tions ill the Arabian tales of the Thousand and One
Kights."
Biirckliardt also gives an interesting description of
the sermon preached on Mount Arafat, the hearing
of which is an indispensable part of the pilgrimage:
unless a person is at least present during its delivery,
he is not entitled to the name of hadji, or pilgrim.
The great encampment broke up at three o'clock in
the afternoon, and JNIount Arafat was soon covered
from top to bottom. " The two Pashas, with their
whole cavalry drawn up in two squadi'ons behind
them, took their posts in the rear of the deep line of
camels of the pilgrims, to which those of the people
of Hedjaz were also joined ; and here they waited in
solemn and respectful silence the conclusion of the
sermon. Farther removed from the preacher was
the Scherif of Mecca, with his small body of soldiers,
distinguished by several green standards cairied be-
fore him. The two mahmals, or hoi}' camels, which
carry on their backs the high structure which serves
as the banner of their respective caravans, made way
with difficulty through the ranks of camels that en-
circled the southern and eastern sides of the hill, op-
posite to the preacher, and took their station, sur-
rounded by their guards, directly under the platform
in front of him. The preacher, who is usually the
Kadi of Mecca, was mounted upon a finely capai'i-
soned camel, which had been led up the steps : it was
traditionally said that Mohammed was always seated
when he addressed his followers, a practice in which
he w'as imitated by all the Caliphs who came to the
BURCKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA 37
pilgi-image, and who from this place addressed their
subjects in person. The Turkish gentleman of Con-
stantinople, however, unused to camel-riding, could
not keep his seat so well as the hardy Bedouin
prophet, and the camel becoming unruly, he was
soon obliged to alight from it. He read his sermon
from a book in Arabic, which he held in his hands.
At intervals of every four or five minutes he paused
and stretched forth his arms to implore blessings
from above, while the assembled multitudes around
and before him waved the skirts of their ihrams
over their heads and rent the air with shouts of
Lehcyh^ Allah^ huma leheyh ! — ' Here we are at Thy
bidding, oh God ! ' Dui'ing the waving of the ihrams
the sides of the mountain, thickly crowded as it was
by the people in their white garments, had the ap-
pearance of a cataract of water ; while the green
umbrellas, with which several thousand pilgrims sit-
ting on their camels below were pi-ovided, bore some
resetnblance to a verdant plain."
Burckhardt performed all the remaining ceremo-
nies required of a pilgrim ; but these have been
more recently described and with greater minuteness
by Captain Burton. He remained in Mecca for an-
other month, unsuspected and unmolested, and com-
pleted his observations of a place which the Arabs
believed they had safely sealed against all Christian
travellers.
Leaving Mecca with a small caravan of pilgrims,
on January 15, 1815, he reached Medina after a
journey of thirteen days, during which he narrowly
escaped being slain by the Bedouins.
145769
38 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Barckhardt was attacked with fever soon after his
arrival at Medina, and remained there three months.
The ceremonies prescribed for tlie pilgrims who visit
the city are brief and unimportant ; but the descrip-
tion of the tomb of Mohannned is of sufficient inter-
est to quote. "The mausolenm," he says, "stands
at the southeastern corner of the principal mosque,
and is protected from the too near approach of visi-
tors by an iron railing, painted green, about two-
thirds the height of the pillars of the colonnade
which runs around the interior of the mosque. The
railing is of good workmanship, in imitation of fili-
gree, and is interwoven with open-worked inscrip-
tions of yellow bronze, supposed by the vulgar to be of
gold, and of so close a texture that no view can be ob-
taiubJ of the interior except by several small windows,
about six inches square, which ai'e placed in the four
sides of the railing, about five feet above the ground.
On the south side, where are the two principal
windows, before which the devout stand when pray-
ing, the railing is plated with silver, and the common
inscription — ' There is no god but God, the Evident
Truth ! ' — is wrought in silver letters around the win-
dows. The tomb itself, as well as those of Abu Bekr
and Omar, which stand close to it, is concealed from
the public gaze by a curtain of rich silk brocade of
various coloi's, interwoven with silver flowers and ara-
besques, with inscriptions in characters of gold run-
ning across the midst of it, like that of the covering
of the Kaaba. Behind this curtain, which, according
to the historian of the city, was formerly changed
every six years, and is now renewed by the Porte
yiiiiiiiiiiiliilijiiiiiiiii
'It
i:
j
BURGKHARDT'S JOURNEY TO MECCA 39
whenever the old one is decayed, or when a new Sul-
tan ascends the tlirone, none but tlie chief eunuclis,
the attendants of the mosque, are permitted to enter.
This holy sanctuary once served, as the temple of
Delphi did among the Greeks, as the public treasmy
of the nation. Here the money, jewels, and other
precious articles of the people of Iledjaz were kept
in chests, or suspended on silken ropes. Among
these was a copy of the Koran in Cufic characters ; a
brilliant star set in diamonds and pearls, which was
suspended directly over the Prophet's tomb ; Avith
all sorts of vessels filled with jewels, earrings, brace-
lets, necklaces, and other ornaments sent as presents
from all parts of the empire. Most of these articles
were carried away by the Wahabees when they
sacked and plundered the sacred cities."
Burckhardt reached Yambo (the port of Medina),
at the end of April, and, after running great danger
from the plague, succeeded in obtaining passage to
the Peninsula of Sinai, whence he slowly made his
way back to Cairo. Here he waited for two years,
vainly hoping for the departure of a cai-avan for
Central Africa, and meanwhile assisting Belzoni in
his explorations at Thebes. In October, 1817, he
died, and the people who knew him only as Shekh
Abdallah, laid his body in the Moslem burying-
ground, on the eastern side of Cairo.
CHAPTER y.
WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN
PERHAPS the most satisfactory account of the
interior of Oman — the southeastern portion
of Arabia — has been given by Lieutenant Wellsted.
While in the Indian Navy lie was employed for sev-
eral years in survej'ing the southern and eastern
coasts of Arabia. Having become somewhat famil-
iar with the language and habits of the people, he
conceived the idea of undertaking a journey to Der-
reyeh, in Nedjed, the capital of the Wahabees, which
no traveller had then reached. The governor of
Bombay gave him the necessary leave of absence,
and he landed at Muscat in November, 1835.
The Sultan, Sayid Saeed, received the young Eng-
lishman with great kindness, promised him all possi-
ble aid in his undertaking, and even arranged for
liim the route to be travelled. He was to sail first to
the port of Sur, south of Muscat, thence penetrate
to the country inhabited by the Beni-Abu-Ali tiibe,
and make his way northward to the Jebel Akhdar,
or Green Mountains, which were described to him as
lofty, fruitful, and populous. Having thus visited
the most interesting portions of Oman, he was then
to be at liberty, if the way was open, to take the
northern route through the Desert toward Ncdjcd.
WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 41
The Sultan presented him with a horse and sword,
together with letters to the governors of the districts
through which he should pass.
At Sur, which is a small, insignificant village, with
a good harbor, the mountains of the interior ap-
proach the sea, but they are here divided by a val-
ley which furnishes easy access to the country be-
yond them. After a journey of four days Wellsted
reached the tents of the tribe of Ben-Abu-Ali, at a
point to which the English troops had penetrated in
1821, to punish the tribe for acts of piracy. Al-
though no Eno-lishman had visited them since that
time, they received him with every demonstration
of friendship. Sheep were killed, a feast prepared,
a guard of honor stationed around the tent, and, in
the evening, all the men of the encampment, 250 in
number, assembled for the purpose of exhibiting
their war-dance. Wellsted thus describes the scene :
" They formed a circle within which five of their
number entered. After walking leisurely around
for some time, each challenged one of the spectators
by striking him gently with the flat of his sword.
His adversary immediately leaped forth and a
feigned combat ensued. They have but two cuts,
one directly downward, at the head, the other hori-
zontal, across the legs. They parry neither with
the sword nor shield, but avoid the blows by leaping
or bounding backward. The blade of their sword is
three feet in length, thin, double-edged, and as sharp
as a razor. As they carry it upright before them,
by a peculiar motion of the wrist they cause it to vi-
brate in a very remarkable manner, which has a sin-
42 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
gularly striking effect when tliey are assembled in
any considerable number. It was part of the enter-
tainment to fii'e off their matchlocks under the legs
of some one of the spectators who appeared too in-
tent on watching the game to observe their approach,
and any signs of alarm which incautiously escaped
the individual added greatly to their mirth."
In the evening a party of the Geneba Bedouins
came in from the desert, accompanied by one of their
chiefs. The latter readily consented that Wellsted
should accompany him on a short journey into his
country, and they set out the following morning.
It was December, and the morning air was cold and
pure ; the party swept rapidly across the broad,
barren plains, the low hills, dotted with acacia trees,
and the stony channels which carried the floods of
the rainy season to the sea. After a day's journey
of forty-four miles they encamped near some brack-
ish wells. " You wished," said the chief to Well-
sted, " to see the country of the Bedouins ; M/s," he
continued, striking his spear into the firm sand, " this
is the country of the Bedouins." Neither he nor his
companions wore any clothing except a single cloth
around the loins. Their hair, which is permitted to
grow until it reaches the waist, and is usually well
plastered with grease, is the only covering which
protects their heads from the sun.
The second day's journey brought Wellsted to a
6n)all encampment, where the chief's wives were
abiding. They conversed with him, unveiled, gave
him coffee, milk, and dates, and treated him with all
the hospitality which their scanty means allowed.
WELLSTEir,^ EXPLUIIATIOXS IX OMAN 43
The Beni Geneba tribe numbei's about three thou-
sand five hundred figliting men ; tliey are spread
over a large extent of Southern Arabia, and are
divided into two distinct classes — those who live by
fishing, and those who follow pastoral pursuits. A
race of fishermen, however, is found on all parts of
the Arabian coast. In some districts they are con-
sidered a separate and degraded people, with whom
the genuine Bedouins will neither eat, associate, nor
intermarry ; but among the Beni Geneba this dis-
tinction does not exist.
Wellsted might have penetrated much farther to
the westward under the protection of this tribe, and
was tempted to do so ; but it seemed more important
to move northward, and get upon some one of the
caravan tracks leading into Central Arabia. He
therefore retui-ned to the camp of the Beni-Abu-Ali,
whei'e the friendly people would hardly suffer him to
depart, promising to build a house for him if he
would remain a month with them. For two days he
travelled northward, over an undulating region of
sand, sometimes dotted with stunted acacias, and
reached a district called Bediah, consisting of seven
villages, each seated in its little oasis of date palms.
One striking feature of these towns is their low situ-
ation. They are erected in artificial hollows, which
have been excavated to the depth of six or eight feet.
Water is then conveyed to them in subterranean
channels from wells in the neighboring hills, and the
soil is so fertile that irrigation suffices to produce the
richest harvest of fruit and vegetables. A single
step carries the traveller from the glare and sand of
44 TEA VELS IN ARABIA
the desert into a spot teeming with the most hixnri-
ant vegetation, and embowered bj lofty trees, whose
foliage keeps out the sun. " Some idea," saj^s Well-
sted, " may be formed of the density of this shade
by the effect it produces in lessening the terresti'ial
radiation. A Fahrenheit thermometer which with-
in the house stood at 55°, six inches from the ground
fell to 45°. From this cause and the abundance of
water they are always saturated with damp, and even
in the heat of the day possess a clammy coldness."
On approaching Ibrah, the next lai-ge town to the
north, the country became hilly, and the valleys be-
tween the abrupt limestone ranges increased in fer-
tility. Wellsted thus describes the place: "There
are some handsome houses in Ibrah ; but the style
of building is quite peculiar to this part of Arabia.
To avoid the damp and catch an occasional beam of
the sun above the trees, they are usually very lofty.
A parapet surrounding the upper part is turreted,
and on some of the lai-gest houses guns are mounted.
The windows and doors have the Saracenic arch, and
every part of the building is profusely decorated with
ornajnents of stucco in bas-relief, some in very good
taste. The doors are also cased with brass, and have
rings and other massive ornaments of the same metal.
"Ibrah is justly renowned for the beauty and fair-
ness of its females. Those we met on the streets
evinced but little shyness, and on my return to tlie
tent I found it filled with them. They were in high
glee at all they saw ; every box I had was turned
over for their inspection, and whenever I attempted
to remonstrate against their proceedings they stopped
WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 45
my mouth with their hands. With such damsels
there was nothing left but to laugh and look on."
Travelling two days farther in the northward,
Wellsted i-eached the town of Semnied, where he
found a line stream of running water. The Sliekh's
house was a large fort, the rooms of which were spa-
cious and lofty, but destitute of furniture. Sus-
pended on pegs protruding from the walls were the
saddles, cloths, and harness of the horses and camels.
The ceilings were painted in various devices, but the
floors were of mud, and only partially covered with
mats. Lamps formed of shells, a species of murex,
were suspended by lines from the ceiling. On re-
turning to the tent, after tliis visit, the traveller
found, as usual, a great crowd collected there, but
kept in order by a boy about twelve years of age.
He had taken possession of the tent, as its guardian,
and allowed none to enter without his permission.
He carried a sword longer than himself, and also a
stick, with which he occasionall}^ laid about him. It
is a part of the Arab system of education to cease
treating boys as children at a very early age, and
they acquire, therefore, the gravity and demeanor of
men.
Beyond this place Wellsted was accompanied by a
guard of seventy armed men, for the country was
considered insecure. For two days and a half he
passed many small villages, separated by desert
tracts, and then reached the town of Minna, near the
foot of the Green Mountains. " Minna," he says,
" differs from the other towns in having its cultiva-
tion in the open fields. As we crossed these, with
46 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
lofty almond, citron, and orange trees yielding a de-
licious fragrance on eitiier hand, exclamations of as-
tonishment and admii-ation burst from us. 'Is this
Arabia ? ' we said ; ' this the country we have looked
on heretofore as a desert ? ' Yerdant fields of grain
and sugar-cane stretching along for miles are before
ns ; stj-eams of water, flowing in all directions, inter-
sect our path ; and the happy and contented appear-
ance of the peasants agreeably helps to fill up the
smiling picture. The atmosphei-e was delightfully
clear and pure ; and, as we trotted joyously along,
giving or returning the salutations of peace or M-el-
come, I could almost fancy that we had at last reached
that ' Araby the Blessed ' which I had been accus-
tomed to regard as existing only in the fictions of our
poets.
" Minna is an old town, said to have been erected
at the pei'iod of Xarhirvan's invasion ; but it bears,
in common with the other towns, no indications of
antiquity ; its houses are lofty, but do not differ from
those of Ibi-ah or Semmed. There are two square
towers, about one hundred and seventy feet in height,
nearly in the centre of the town ; at their bases the
breadth of the wall is not more than two feet, and
neither side exceeds in length eight yaids. It is
therefore astonishing, considering the rudeness of the
materials (they have nothing but uidiewn stones and
a coarse but apparently strong cement), that, with
proportions so meagre, they should have been able to
carry them to their present elevation. The guards,
who are constantly on the lookout, ascend by means
of a rude ladder, formed by placing bars of wood
WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 47
in a diagonal direction in one of tlie side angles
within the interior of the building."
Tlie important town of Neswah, at the western
base of the Jebel Akdar, or Green Mountains, is a
short day's journey from Minna. On arriving there
Wellsted was received in a friendly manner by the
governor, and lodged, for the first time since leaving
Muscat, in a substantial house. He was allowed to
visit the fortress, which, in that region, is considered
impregnable. He was admitted by an iron door of
great strength, and, ascending through a vaulted pas-
sage, passed through six others equally massive be-
fore reaching the summit. The form of the fort is
circular, its diameter being nearly one hundred yards,
and to the height of ninety feet it has been filled up
by a solid mass of earth and stones. Seven or eight
wells have been bored through this, from several of
which they obtain a plentiful supply of watei', M'liile
those which are dry serve as magazines for their shot
and ammunition. A wall forty feet high surrounds
the summit, making the whole height of the fortress
one Inuidred and fifty feet. It is a work of extraor-
dinary labor, and from its appearance probably of
considerable antiquity ; but no certain intelligence
could be obtained on this point.
On Christmas-day Wellsted left Neswah on an
excursion to the celebrated Green Mountains. Tlie
Shekh of Tanuf, the first village where he encamped,
endeavored in every possible way to dissuade him
from undertaking the journey ; but his resolute man-
ner and a few gifts overcame the difficulty. Mounted
ou strong asses, the part}' commenced ascending a
48 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
precipitous ridge by a track so narrow that they
seemed at times to be suspended over precipices of
unknown depth. On the second day they reached
the village of Seyk. " By means of steps," he says,
" we descended the steep side of a narrow glen, about
four hundred feet in depth, passing in our progress
several houses perched on crags or other acclivities,
their walls built up in some places so as to appear but
a continuation of the precipice. These small, snug,
compact-looking dwellings have been erected by the
natives one above the other, so that their appearance
from the bottom of the glen, hanging as it were in
mid-air, affords to the spectator a most novel and in-
teresting picture. Here we found, amid a great va-
riety of fruits and trees, pomegranates, citrons, al-
monds, nutmegs, and walnuts, with coffee-bushes and
vines. In the summer, these together must yield a
delicious fragrance ; but it was now winter, and they
were leafless. Water flows in many places from the
upper part of the hills, and is received at the lower
in small reservoirs, whence it is distributed all over
the face of the country. From the narrowness of
this glen, and the steepness of its sides, only the
lower part of it receives the warmth of the sun's rays
for a short period of the day ; and even at the time
of our arrival \\Q found it so chilly, that, after a short
halt, we were very happy to continue our journey."
They halted for the night at a village called Shirazi,
in the heart of the mountains, the highest peaks of
which here reach a height of 6,000 feet above the sea.
The inhabitants belong to a tribe called the Beni
Ryam, who are considered infidels by the people of
WELLS TED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 49
Neswali because they cultivate tlie grape for the pur-
pose of making wine. Tlie next day the Arabs wlio
formed Wellsted's escort left him, and he had con-
siderable difficulty in returning to ISTeswah by another
road. From this point he had intended starting for
Central Arabia, but the funds which he expected did
not arrive fi'om Muscat, the British agent there hav-
ing refused to make the necessary advances. "Well-
sted thereupon applied directly to the Sultan, Sayd
Saeed, for a loan, and while waiting an answer, made
an excursion into the desert, fifty miles to the west-
ward of !Neswah. With a view to familiarize him-
self with the manners and domestic life of the Bed-
ouins, he mixed with them during this trip, living
and sleeping in their huts and tents. On all occa-
sions he was treated with kindness, and often with a
degree of hospitality above rather than below the
means of those who gave it.
Although the Sultan of Muscat was willing to fur-
nish the necessary supplies, and arrangements had
been made which Wellsted felt sure would have
enabled him to penetrate into the interior, he was
prevented from going forward by a violent fever,
from the effects of which he remained insensible for
five days. Recovering sufficiently to travel, his only
course was to return at once to the sea-coast, and on
January 22, 1836, he left Keswah for the little port
of Sib, where he arrived after a slow journey of eight
days. He relates the following incident, which oc-
curred at Semayel, the half-way station : "Weary and
faint from the fatigue of the day's journey, in order
to enjoy the freshness of the evening breeze I had
50 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
my carpet spread beneath a tree. An Arab passing
by paused to gaze upon nie, and, touched by iny con-
dition and the melancholy which was depicted on my
countenance, he proffered the salutation of peace,
pointed to the crystal stream which sparkled at my
feet, and said : ' Look, friend, for running water
maketh the heart glad!' With his hands folded
over his breast, that mute but most graceful of
Eastern salutations, lie bowed and passed on. I
w^as in a situation to estimate sympathy ; and so
much of that feeling was exhibited in the manner
of this son of the desert, that I have never since
recurred to the incident, trifling as it is, without
emotion."
A rest of four weeks at Sib recruited the traveller's
strength, and he determined to make another effort
to reach Central Arabia. He therefore applied to
the Sultan for an escort to Bireimah, the first town
of the Wahabees, beyond the northern frontier of
Oman. The Sultan sent a guide, but objected to the
undertaking, as word had just arrived that the Waha-
bees were preparing to invade his territory, Well-
sted, however, was not willing to give up Jiis design
without at least making the attempt. He followed
the coast, north of Muscat, as far as the port of Su-
weik, where he was most hospitably received by the
wife of the governor, Seyd Hilal, who was absent.
"A huge meal, consisting of a great variety of dishes,
sufficient for thirty or forty people, was piepared in
his kitchen, and brought to us, on large copper dishes,
twice a day during the time we remained. On these
occasions there was a great profusion of blue and gilt
ii»i"l''
'&tmmm^m'
WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 51
cliinaware, cut glass dishes, and decanters containing
sherbet instead of wine."
" The Shekh," Wellsted continues, " after liis re-
turn, usually spent the evening with us. On one
occasion he was accompanied bj a professional story-
teller, who appeared to be a great favorite with him.
' Whenever I feel melancholy or out of order,' said
he, ' I send for this man, who very soon restoi-es me
to my wonted spirits.' From the falsetto tone in
which the story was chanted, I could not follow the
thread of the tale, and, upon my mentioning this to
him, the Shekh very kindly sent me the manuscript,
of which the reciter had availed himself. With lit-
tle variation I found it to be the identical Sindbad the
Sailor, so familiar to the readers of the Arabian
Nights. I little thought, when first I perused these
fascinating tales in my own language, that it would
ever be my lot to listen to the original in a spot so
congenial and so remote."
Leaving Suweik on March 4th, Wellsted was
deserted by his camel-men at the end of the first
day's march, but succeeded in engaging others at a
neighboring village. The road, which at first led
between low hills, now entered a deep mountain-
goi-ge, inclosed by abrupt mountains of rock several
thousand feet in height.
For two days the party followed this winding de-
tile, where the precipices frequently towered from
three to four thousand feet over their heads. Then,
having passed the main chain, the country became
more open, and they reached the village of Muskin,
in the territory of the Beni Kalban Arabs. Their
52 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
progress beyond this point was slow and tedious, on
account of the country being divided into separate
districts, which are partly independent of each other.
At the next town, Makiniyat, the Sliekh urged them
to go no farther, on account of the great risk, but
finally consented to furnish an escort to Obri, the
last town to the northward which acknowledges the
sway of Muscat. Tliis was distant two days' journey
— the first through a broad valley between pyramidal
hills, the second over sandy plains, which indicated
their approach to the Desert.
Obri is one of the largest and most populous
towns in Oman. The inhabitants devote themselves
almost exclusively tC' agriculture, and export large
quantities of indigo, sugar, and dates. On arriving
Wellsted went immediately to the residence of the
Shekh, whom he found to be a very different char-
acter from the officials whom he had hitherto en-
countered. " Upon my producing the Imam's let-
ters," says lie, " he read them, and took his leave
without returning any answer. About an hour after-
ward he sent a verbal message to request that I
should lose no time in quitting his town, as he
begged to inform me, what he supposed I could not
have been aware of, that it was then filled with
nearly two thousand AVahabees. This was indeed
news to us ; it was somewhat earlier than we antici-
pated falling in with them, but we put a good face on
the n)atter, and behaved as coolly as we could."
The next morning the Shekh returned, with a pos-
itive refusal to allow them to proceed farther. Well-
sted demanded a written refusal, as evidence which
WELLSTED'S EXPLORATIONS IN OMAN 53
he could present to the Sultan, and this the Shekh at
once promised to give. His object was evidently to
force the traveller away from the place, and such
was the threatening appearance of things that the
latter had no wish to remain. The Wahabees
crowded around the party in great numbers, and
seemed only waiting for some pretext to commence
an affi-ay. *' When the Shekh came and presented
me with the letter for the Sultan," says Wellsted, " I
knew it M'ould be in vain to make any further effort
to shake his resolution, and therefore did not attempt
it. In the meantime news had spread far and wide
that two Englishmen, with a box of ' dollars,' but in
reality containing only the few clothes that we car-
ried with us, had halted in the town. The Waha-
bees and other tribes had met in deliberation, while
the lower classes of the townsfolk were creating noise
and confusion. The Shekh either had not the shad-
ow of any influence, or was afraid to exercise it, and
his followers evidently wished to share in the plun-
der. It was time to act. I called Ali on one side,
told him to make neither noise nor confusion, but to
collect the camels without delay. In the meantime
we had packed up the tent, the crowd increasing
every minute ; the camels M-ere ready, and we
mounted on them. A leader, or some trifling inci-
dent, was now only w^anting to furnish them with a
pretext for an onset. They followed us with hisses
and various other noises until we got sufficiently
clear to push briskly forward ; and, beyond a few
stones being thrown, we reached the outskirts of the
town without further molestation. I had often be-
54 TRAVELS IX ARABIA
fore heard of tlie inhospitable character of the in-
habitants of this place. The neighboring Arabs ob-
serve that to enter Obri a man must either go armed
to the teeth, or as a beggar with a cloth, and that not
of decent quality, around his waist. Thus, for a sec-
ond time, ended my hopes of reach ingDerreyeh from
this quarter."
Wellsted was forced to return to Suweik, narrowly
escaping a Bedouin ambush on the way. As a last
attempt he followed the coast as far as Schinas, near
the mouth of the Straits of Ormuz, and thence de-
spatched a messenger to the Wahabees at Birsimah.
This plan also failed, and he then returned to India.
He has given us, however, the only authentic account
of the scenery and inhabitants of the interior of Oman,
and his travels are thus an important contribution to
our knowledge of Arabia.
It is a sufficient commentary on the exclusive char-
acter of Interior Arabia, and the difficulties that bar
the way thei-e to free and thorough exploration, that,
although Lieutenant Wellsted's journey was in 1835,
we still (1892) have to turn to his veiy interesting
narrative for almost all we know of the interior of
Oman.
CHAPTER VI.
WELLSTED'S DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY IN
HADRAMAUT
WHILE employed in the survey of the southern
coast of Arabia in the spring of 1835, Lieu-
tenant "Wellsted was occupied for a time near the
cape called Has el-Aseida, in Hadramaut, about one
hundred miles east of Aden. On this cape there is
a watch-tower, with the guardian of which, an officer
named Ilamed, he became acquainted ; and on learn-
ing from the Bedouins of the neighborhood that ex-
tensive ruins, which they described as having been
built by infidels, and of great antiquity, were to be
found at some distance inland, he prevailed upon the
ofl[icer to procure him camels and guides.
One day, having landed with a midshipman in
order to visit some inscriptions at a few hours' dis-
tance, the Bedouins who brought the camels refused
to go to the place, but expressed their willingness to
convey the two Europeans to the ruined city. Ila-
med declined to accompany them, on the plea of
sickness, and they were unsupplied with provisions
or presents for the Shekhs of the villages on the way.
Still the chance was too tempting to be lost. Well-
sted decided to trust himself to the uncertain pro-
tection of the Bedouins, sent his boat to the survey-
56 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ing vessel with a message that it should meet him at
a point farther to the westward at the end of three
days, and set out for the ruins late in the afternoon.
Leaving the sea-shore at sunset, they struck north-
ward into the interior, and travelled until after mid-
night, passing several villages of the Diyabi Bed-
ouins, a very fierce and powerful tribe, who are
dreaded by all their neighbors. Scraping for them-
selves beds in the sand, the travellers slept until
daybreak without being disturbed. The path soon
after mounted a ledge about four hundred feet in
height, from the summit of which they obtained an
extensive but dreary view of the surrounding coun-
try. Their route lay along a broad valley, skirted
on each side by a lofty range of mountains. By
eight o'clock the sun became so oppressive that the
Bedouins halted under the shade of some stunted
tamarisk trees. "Within these burning hollows,"
says Wellsted, " the sun's rays are concentrated and
thrown off as from a mirror; the herbs around were
scorched to a cindery blackness ; not a cloud ob-
scured the firmament, and the breeze which moaned
past us was of a glowing heat, like that escaping
from the mouth of a furnace. Our guides dug hol-
lows in the sand, and thrust their blistered feet
within them. Although we were not long in avail-
ing ourselves of the practical lesson they had taught
us, I began to be far from pleased with their churl-
ish demeanor."
During the day they travelled over sandy and
stony ridges, and late in the afternoon entered the
Wady Meifah, where they found wells of good water
DISCOVERT OF AN ANGIENT CITY 57
and scanty vegetation. " Tlie country now began to
assume a far different aspect. Numerous hamlets,
interspersed amid extensive date groves, verdant
fields of grain, and herds of sleek cattle, showed
themselves in every direction, and we now fell in
with parties of inhabitants for the first time since
leaving the sea-shore. Astonishment was depicted
on their countenances, but as we did not halt they
had no opportunity of gratifying their curiosity by
gazing at us for any length of time."
One of the Bedouins, however, in spite of Well-
sted's remonstrances, told the people that the trav-
ellers were in search of buried treasure. When the
latter attempted to encamp near a village, the inhab-
itants requested them to remove ; the guides proved
to be ignorant of the road in the night, and they
would have been suffered to wander about without
shelter but for the kindness of an old woman, who
conducted them to her house. This proved to be a
kind of khan for travellers, and was already so
crowded that the travellers were obliged to sleep in
an open courtyard.
They were hardly prepared for the scene which
daylight disclosed to them. " The dark verdure of
fields of millet, sorghum, tobacco, etc., extended as
far as the eye could reach. Mingled with these we
had the soft acacia and the stately but more sombre
foliage -of the date palm ; while the creaking of nu-
merous wheels with which the grounds were irrigat-
ed, and in the distance several rude ploughs drawn
by oxen, the ruddy and lively appearance of the peo-
ple, who now flocked toward us from all quarters,
58 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
and the delightful and refreshing coolness of the
morning air, combined to form a scene which he who
gazes on the barren aspect of the coast could never
anticipate.
After three hours' travel through tliis bright and
populous region, they came in sight of tlie ruins,
which the inhabitants call Nakah el-Hadjar (mean-
ing " The Excavation from the Rock "). According
to Wellsted's estimate, they are about fifty miles
from the coast.
The following is Wellsted's description of the
place : " The hill upon which these ruins are situ-
ated stands out in the centre of the valley, and di-
vides a stream which passes, during floods, on either
side of it. It is nearly eight hundred yards in length,
and about three hundred and fifty yards at its ex-
treme breadth. About a third of the height from its
base a massive wall, averaging from thirty to forty
feet in height, is carried completely around the emi-
nence, and flanked by square towers, erected at equal
distances. There are but two entrances, north and
south ; a hollow, square tower, measuring fourteen
feet, stands on both sides of these. Their bases ex-
tend to the plain below, and are carried out consider-
ably beyond the rest of the building. Between the
towers, at an elevation of twenty feet fi'om the ]^lain,
there is an oblong platform which projects about
eighteen feet without and within the walls. A flight
of 8tei)s was a])parently once attached to either ex-
tremity of the building.
" Within the entrance, at an elevation of ten feet
from the platform, we found inscriptions. They are
^ . ^.M!g'li'"l'lll!il:lllkH!l$l;".:^u:;g:!
DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY 59
executed with extreme care, in two lioi'izontal lines,
on the smooth face of the stones, the letters being
about eight inches long. Attempts have been made,
though without success, to obliterate them. From
the conspicuous situation which they occupy, there
can be but little doubt but that, when deciphered,
they will be found to contain the name of the founder
of the building, as well as the date and purport of its
erection.* The whole of the walls and towers, and
some of the edifices within, are built of the same ma-
terial — a compact grayish-colored marble, hewn to
the required shape with the utmost nicety. The di-
mensions of the slabs at the base were from five to
seven feet in length, two to three in height, and three
to four in breadth,
" Let us now visit the interior, where the most
conspicuous object is an oblong square building, the
walls of which face the cardinal points : its dimen-
sions are twenty-seven by seventeen yards. The
walls are fronted with a kind of freestone, each slab
being cut of the same size, and the whole so beauti-
fully put together that I endeavo.red in vain to insert
the blade of a small penknife between them. The
outer, unpolished surface is covered with small chisel-
marks, which the Bedouins have mistaken for writ-
ing. From the extreme care displayed in the con-
struction of this building, I have no doubt that it is
a temple, and my disappointment at finding the in-
* The inscription, which is copied in Lieutenant Wellsted's
work, appears to be in the Himyaritio character. If any transla-
tion of it has ever been made, the compiler is unable to say where
It can be found.
60 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
terior filled up with the ruins of the fallen roof was
very great. Had it remained entire, yve might have
obtained some clew to guide us in our researches re-
specting the form of religion professed by the earlier
Arabs. Above and beyond this building there are
several other edifices, with nothing peculiar in their
form or appearance.
" In no portion of the ruins did we succeed in
tracing any remains of arches or columns, nor could
we discover on their surface any of those fragments
of pottery, colored glass, or metals, which are always
found in old Egyptian towns, and which I also saw
in those we discovered on the northwest coast of
Arabia. Except the attempts to deface the inscrip-
tions, there is no other appeai'ance of the buildings
having suffered from any ravages besides those of
time ; and owing to the dryness of the climate, as
well as the hardness of the material, every stone,
even to the marking of the chisel, remains as perfect
as the day it was hewn. We were anxious to ascer-
tain if the Arabs had preserved any tradition con-
cerning the building, but they refer them, like other
Arabs, to their pagan ancestors. ' Do you believe,'
said one of the Bedouins to me upon my telling him
that liis ancestors were then capable of greater works
than themselves, ' that these stones were raised by
the unassisted hands of the Kafirs ? No ! no 1 They
had devils, legions of devils (God preserve us from
them !), to aid them.' "
On his return to the sea, which occupied a day and
a liair, AVellsted was kindly treated by the natives,
and suftcred only from the intense lieat. The vessel
DISCOVERY OF AN ANCIENT CITY 61
was fortunately waiting at the appointed place. Since
the journey was made (in 1836) Baron von Wrede,
a German traveller, has succeeded in exploring a por-
tion of Hadraniaut, penetrating as far as Wady Doan.
a large and populous valley, more than a hundred
miles from the coast. But a thorough exploration of
both Yemen and Hadramaut is still wanting, and
when made, it will undoubtedly result in many im-
portant discoveries.
CHAPTER VII.
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE
CAPTAIN PJCHARD F. BURTON, the dis-
covei-er of the great Lake Tanganyika, in Cen-
tral Africa, first became known to the world by his
daring and entirely successful visit to Medina and
Mecca, in the year 1853, in the disguise of a Moslem
pilgrim, Altliough his journey was that of Burck-
hardt, reversed, and he describes the same ceremonies,
his account supplies many deficiencies in the narrative
of his predecessor, and has the merit of a livelier and
more graphic style.
Burton's original design was to cross the Arabian
Peninsula from west to east, as Palgrave has since
done, and the Royal Geographical Society was dis-
posed to accept his services. But he failed to obtain
a sufilcicnt leave of absence from the East India
Company, which only granted him a furlough of one
year — a period quite insufficient for the undertakings
He therefore determined to prove at least his fitness
for the task, by making the pilgrimage to the holy
cities. He was already familiar with the Arabic and
Persian languages, and had the advantage of an
Eastern cast of countenance.
Like Burckhardt, he assumed an Oriental character
at the start, and during the voyage from Southamp-
BURTON'S PILORIMAOE 63
ton to Alexandria was supposed to be a Persian
prince. For two or three montlis lie laboriously ap-
plied himself in Egypt to the necessary religious
studies, joined a society of dervishes, under the natne
of Shekh Abdullah, kept the severe fast of Ratnazan,
and familiarized himself with all the orthodox forms
of ablution, prayer, and prostration. He gave him-
self out to be an Afghan by birth, but long absent
from his native counti-y, a character which was well
adapted to secure him against detection. During his
stay in Cairo he made the acquaintance of a boy
named Mohammed el-Basyuni, a native of Mecca,
who became his companion for the journey, and who
seems not to have suspected his real character until
the pilgrimage was over.
Having purchased a tent and laid in an ample
supply of provisions, with about four hundred dollars
in money, he went to Suez about July 1st, with
the avowed purpose of proceeding to Mecca by way
of Jedda, yet with the secret intention of visiting
Medina on the way. Here he became acquaint-
ed with a company of pilgrims, whose good-will
he secured by small loans of money, and joined
them in taking passage in a large Arab boat bound
for Yembo. The vessel was called the Golden
Wire. " Immense was the confusion," says Burton,
" on the eventful day of our departure. Suppose us
standing on the beach, on the morning of a fiery
July day, carefully watching our hurriedly-packed
goods and chattels, surrounded by a mob of idlers
who are not too proud to pick up waifs and straj's,
while pilgrims rush about apparently mad, and friends
64 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
are weeping, acquaintances vociferating adienx, boat-
men demanding fees, shopmen claiming debts, women
shrieking and talking with inconceivable power, chil-
dren crjing — in short, for an lionr or so we were in
the thick of a Imman storm. To confonnd confusion,
the boatmen have moored their skiff half a dozen
yards away from the slio]-e, lest the porters should be
nnable to make more than double their fare from the
pilgrims."
They sailed on July 6th, and were five days in
reaching the mouth of the Gulf of Akaba. "While
crossing to the Arabian shore, the pilgrims are ac-
customed to repeat the following prayer, which is a
good example of Moslem invocation : " O Allah, O
Exalted, O Almighty, O All-pitiful, O All-powerful,
thou art my God, and sufficeth to me the knowledge
of it ! Glorified be the Lord my Lord, and glorified
be the faith my faith ! Thou givest victory to whom
thou pleaseth, and thou art the glorious, the merci-
ful ! We pray thee for safety in our goings-forth
and in our standings-still, in our words and our de-
signs, in our dangers of temptation and doubts, and
the secret designs of our hearts. Subject unto us
this sea, even as thou didst subject the deep to
Moses, and as thou didst subject the fire to Abra-
ham, and as thou didst subject the iron to David,
and as thou didst subject the wind, and devils, and
genii, and mankind to Solomon, and as thou didst
subject the moon and El-Burak to Mohammed, upon
whom be Allah's mercy and His blessing ! And
subject unto us all the seas in earth and lieaven, in
tlie visible and in thine invisible worlds, the sea of
BURTON 8 PILORIMAOE G5
this life, and the sea of futurity. O thou who reign-
est over everything, and unto whom all things re-
turn, Khyar ! Khyar ! "
A further voyage of another week, uncomfortable
and devoid of incident, brought the vessel to Yembo.
As the pilgrims were desirous of pushing on to Me-
dina, camels were hired on the day of arrival, and, a
week's provisions having been purchased, the little
caravan started the next afternoon. Burton, by the
advice of his companions, assumed the Arab dress,
but travelled in a litter, both because of an injury
to his foot, and because he could thus take notes on
the way without being observed. On account of
the heat the caravan travelled mostly by night ; the
country, thus dimly seen, was low and barren for
the first two days, but on the third day they reached
a wilder region, which Burton thus describes : " We
travelled through a country fantastic in its desolation
— a mass of huge hills, barren plains, and desert
vales. Even the sturdy acacias here failed, and in
some places the camel grass could not find earth
enough to take root in. The road wound among
mountains, rocks, and hills of granite, over broken
ground, flanked by huge blocks and bowlders, piled up
as if man's art had aided nature to disfigure herself.
Vast clefts seemed like scars on the hideous face of
earth ; here they widened into dark caves, there they
were choked up with glistening drift sand. Not a
bird or a beast was to be seen or heard ; their pres-
ence would have argued the vicinity of water, and
though my companions opined that Bedouins were
hirking among the rocks, I decided that these Bedou-
66 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ins were the creatures of their fears. Above, a sky
like polished bhie steel, with a tremendous blaze of
yellow light, glared upon lis, without the thinnest veil
of mist or cloud. The distant prospect, indeed, was
more attractive than the near view, because it bor-
rowed a bright azure tinge from the intervening
atmosphere ; but the jagged peaks and the perpendicu-
lar streaks of shadow down the flanks of the moun-
tainous background showed that no change for the
better was yet in store for us."
At tlie little towns of El-Hamra and Bir Abbas
the caravan rested a day, suffering much from the
intense heat, and with continual quarrels between the
pilgrims and the Arabs to whom the camels belonged.
At the latter place they were threatened with a de-
tention of several days, but the difficulty was settled,
and they set out upon the most dangerous portion of
the road. " We travelled that night," says Burton
" up a dry river-course in an easterly direction, and
at early dawn found ourselves in an ill-famed gorge,
called Shuah el-IIadj (the ' Pilgrim's Pass '). The
loudest talkers became silent as we neared it, and
their countenances showed apprehension written in
legible characters. Presently, from the high, pre-
cipitous cliff on our left, thin blue curls of smoke —
somehow or other they caught everj' eye — rose in the
air, and instantly afterward rang the loud, shai-p
cracks of the hill-men's matchlocks, echoed by the
rocks on the right. My shugduf had been broken by
the camel's falling during the night, so I called out
to Mansiir that we had better splice the frame-work
with a bit of rope ; he looked up, saw me laughing,
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 67
and with an ejaculation of disgust disappeared. A
number of Bedouins were to be seen swarming like
hornets over the crests of the rocks, boys as well as
men carrying huge weapons, and climbing with the
agility of cats. They took up comfortable places in
the cnt-throat eminence, and began firing upon us
with perfect convenience to themselves. The height
of tlie hills and the glare of the rising sun prevented
my seeing objects very distinctly, but my companions
pointed out to me places where the rock had been
scarped, and a kind of breastwork of rough stones —
the Sangah of Afghanistan, piled up as a defence,
and a rest for the long barrel of the matchlock. It
was useless to challenge the Bedouins to come down
and fight us upon the plain like men ; and it was
equally unprofitable for our escort to fire upon a foe
ensconced behind stones. We had, therefore, nothing
to do but to blaze away as much powder and to
veil ourselves in as much smoke as possible ; the re-
sult of the affair was that we lost twelve men, be-
sides camels and other beasts of burden. Though
the bandits showed no symptoms of bravery, and
confined themselves to slaughtering the enemy from
their hill-top, my companions seemed to consider
this questionable affair a most gallant exploit."
After two more days of severe travel, the pilgrims,
at early dawn, came in sight of the holy city of Me-
dina, Burton thus describes the approach, and the
view from the western ridge : " Half an hour after
leaving the Wady el-Akik, or ' Blessed Valley,' we
came to a huge flight of steps, roughly cut in a long,
broad line of black, scoriaceous basalt. This is
68 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
called the Mudarraj, or flight of steps over the
western ridge of the so-called El-Harratain ; it is
holy ground, for the Prophet spoke well of it.
Arrived at the top, we passed through a lane of
black scoria, with deep banks on both sides, and,
after a few minutes a full view of the city suddenly
opened on us. We halted our beasts as if by word
of command. All of us descended, in imitation of
the pious of old, and sat down, jaded and hungry as
we were, to feast our eyes with a view of the Holy
City. The prayer was, ' O Allah ! this is the Harain
(sanctuary) of the Prophet ; make it to us a protec-
tion from hell fire, and a refuge from eternal punish-
ment ! O, open the gates of thy mercy, and let us
pass through them to the land of joy ! '
" As we looked eastward, the sun arose out of the
horizon of low hills, blurred and dotted with small
tufted trees, wdiich gained a giant stature from the
morning mists, and the earth was stained with gold
and purple. Before us lay a spacious plain, bounded
in front by the undulating ground of Nedjed ; on the
left was a grim barrier of rocks, the celebrated Mount
Ohod, with a clump of verdure and a white dome or
two nestling at its base. Rightward, broad streaks
of lilac-colored mists w^ere thick with gathered dew,
there pierced and thinned by the morning rays,
stretched over the date-groves and the gardens of
Kuba, which stood out in emerald green from the
dull tawny surface of the plain. Below, at the dis-
tance of about two miles, lay El Medina ; at first
sight it appeared a large place, but a closer inspection
proved the impression to be an erroneous one."
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 69
On arriving at Medina, Burton became the guest
of one of the company he liad met at Suez, and dur-
ing his stay of a month in the city performed all the
religious ceremonies and visitations which are pre-
scribed for the pilgrin]. He gives the following de-
scription of the Prophet's mosque : " Passing through
muddy streets — they had been freshly watered before
evening time — I came suddenly upon the mosque.
Like that at Mecca, the approach is choked up by
ignoble buildings, some actually touching the holy
' enceinte,' others separated by a lane compared with
which the road around St. Paul's is a Vatican square.
There is no outer front, no general aspect of the
Prophet's mosque ; consequently, as a building it
has neither beauty nor dignity. And entering the
Bab el-Ilahmah — the Gate of Pity — by a diminutive
flight of steps, I was astonished at the mean and
tawdry appearance of a place so universally venerated
in the Moslem w^orld. It is not like the Meccan
mosque, grand and simple — the expression of a single
sublime idea ; the longer I looked at it the! more it
suggested the resemblance of a museum of second-
i*ate art, a curiosity-shop, full of ornaments that are
not accessories, and decorated with pauper splendor."
We must also quote the traveller's account of his
manner of spending the day during his residence in
Medina : " At dawn we arose, washed, prayed, and
broke our fast upon a crust of stale bread, before
smoking a pipe, and drinking a cup of coffee. Then
it was time to dress, to mount, and to visit the Haram
in one of the holy places outside the city. Return-
ing before the sun became intolerable, we sat to-
70 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
gether, and with conversation, sliislias and chibouques,
coffee and cold water perfumed with mastich-smoke,
we whiled away the time till our ariston^ an early
dinner which appeared at the primitive hour of 11
A.M. The meal was served in the tnajlis on a large
copper tray sent from the upper apartments. Ejacu-
lating ' Bismillah ' — the Moslem grace — we all sat
round it, and dipped equal hands in the dishes set
before us. We had usually unleavened bread, differ-
ent kinds of meat and vegetable stews, and at the end
of the first course plain boiled rice, eaten with spoons ;
then came the fruits, fresh dates, grapes, and pome-
granates. After dinner I used invariably to find
some excuse — such as the habit of a ' Kaylulah ' (mid-
day siesta), or the being a ' Saudawi,' or person of
melancholy temperament, to have a rug spread in the
dark passage, and there to lie reading, dozing, smok-
ing, or writing, all through the worst part of the day,
from noon to sunset. Then came the hour for re-
ceiving and paying visits. The evening prayers en-
sued, eitlier at home or in the Ilaram, followed by
our supper, another substantial meal like the dinner,
but more plentiful, of bread, meat, vegetables, rice,
and fruits. In the evening we sometimes dressed in
common clothes and went to the cafe ; sometimes
on festive occasions we indulged in a late supper of
sweetmeats, pomegranates, and dried fruits. Usually
we sat upon mattresses spread upon the ground in
the open air, at the Shekh's door, receiving evening
visits, chatting, telling stories, and making merry,
till each, as lie felt the ap]>i'oaeh of the drowsy god,
sank down into his proj)er place, and fell asleep,"
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 71
Burton was charmed with the garden and date-
groves about Medina, and enjoyed the excursions,
which were enjoined npon him as a pilgrim, to Jebel
Ohod, tlie mosque of Kuba, aiid other places in the
vicinity of the city. On August 28th the caravan of
pilgrims from Damascus arrived, and, on account of
danger from the Bedouins, decided to leave on the
fourth day afterward, taking the Desert road to
Mecca, the same travelled, by the Caliph Haroun EI-
Kaschid and his wife Zobeida, instead of the longer
road nearer the coast, which Burckhardt had fol-
lowed. When this plan was announced, Burton and
his companions had but twenty-four hours to make
the necessary preparations ; but by hard work they
were ready. Leaving Medina, they hastened onwai'd
to secure good places in the caravan, which was com-
posed of about seven thousand pilgrims, and extended
over many miles of the road.
For the first four days they travelled southward
over a wild, desolate country, almost destitute of
water and vegetation. On account of heat, as well
as for greater security, the journey was made chiefly
by night, although the forced marches between the
wells obliged them sometimes to endure the greatest
heat of the day. Burton says : " I can scarcely find
words to express the weary horrors of a long night's
march, during which the hapless traveller, fuming,
if a European, with disappointment in his hopes of
' seeing the country,' is compelled to sit upon the
back of a creeping camel. The day sleep, too, is a
kind of lethargy, and it is all but impossible to pre-
serve an appetite during the hours of heat."
72 TRA VELS IN ARABIA
After making ninety-nine miles from Medina, they
reached the village of El Suwajrkiyah, which is in-
cluded within the Meccan territory. The town, con-
sisting of about one hundred houses, is built at the
base and on the sides of a basaltic mass which rises
abruptly from the hard clayey plain. The summit
is converted into a rude fortalice by a bulwark of
micut stone, piled up so as to make a parapet. The
lower part of the town is protected by a mud wall,
with the usual semicircular towers. Inside there is
a bazaar, well supplied with meat (principally mut-
ton) by the neighboring Bedouins, and wheat, barley,
and dates are grown near the town. There is little
to describe in the narrow streets and the mud houses,
which are essentiall}' Arab. The fields around are
divided into little square plots by earthen ridges and
stone walls ; some of the palms are fine grown trees,
and the wells appeared numerous. The M'ater is
near the surface and plentiful, but it has a brackish
taste, highly disagreeable after a few days' use, and
the effects are the reverse of chalybeate.
Seventeen miles beyond El Suwayrkiyah is the
small village of Sufayuah, beyond which the coun-
try becomes again very wild and barren. Burton
thus describes the scenery the day after leaving
Sufayuah : " This day's march was peculiarly Ara-
bia. It was a desert peopled only with echoes — a
place of death for what little there is to die in it —
a wilderness where, to use my companion's phrase,
there is nothing but He (Allah). Nature, scalped,
flayed, discovered her anatomy to the gazer's eye.
The horizon was a sea of mirage ; gigantic sand-
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 73
columns whirled over the plain ; and on both sides
of our road were huge piles of bare rock standing
detached upon the surface of sand and clay. Here
they appeared in oval lumps, heaped up with a sem-
blance of symmetry ; there a single bowlder stood,
with its narrow foundation based upon a pedestal of
low, dome-shaped rock. All are of a pink coarse-
grained granite, which flakes oif in large crusts
under the influence of the atmosphere."
After four more long marches the caravan reached
a station called El Zaribah, where the pilgrims
halted a day to assume the ihrain, or costume which
they wear on approaching Mecca. They were now
in the country of the Utaybah Bedouins, the most
fierce and hostile of all the tribes on the road. Al-
though only two marches, or fifty miles, from Mecca,
the pilgrims were by no means safe, as the night
after they left Zaribah testified. While threading
a narrow pass between high rocks, in the twilight,
there was a sudden discharge of musketry and some
camels dropped dead. The Utaybah, hidden behind
the rocks crowning the pass, poured down an irregular
fire upon the pilgrims, who were panic-stricken and
fell into great disorder. The Wahabees, however,
commenced scaling the rocks, and very soon drove
the robbers from their ambush. The caravan then
liurried forward in great disorder, leaving the dead
and severely wounded lying on the ground.
" At the beginning of the skirmish," says Burton,
" I had primed my pistols, and sat with them ready
for use. But soon seeing that there was nothing to
be done, and, wishing to make an impression — no-
74 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
where does Bobadil now ' go down ' but in the
East — I called aloud for my supper. Shekh JS'ur,
exanimate with fear, could not move. The boy Mo-
hannned ejaculated only an ' Oh, sir ! ' and the
people around exclaimed in disgust, ' By Allah ! he
eats!' Shekh Abdullah, the Meccan, being a man
of spirit, was amused by the spectacle. ' Are these
Afghan manners, Effendim ? ' he inquired from the
shugduf behind me. ' Yes,' I replied aloud, ' in
my country we always dine before an attack of rob-
bers, because that gentry is in the habit of sending
men to bed supperless.' The Shekh laughed aloud,
but those around him looked offended."
The morning after this adventure the pilgrims
reached the Wady Laymun, or Valley of Limes, a
beautiful region of gardens and orchards, only twen-
ty-four miles from Mecca. Here they halted four
hours to rest and enjoy the fruits and fi-esh water ;
then the line of march was resumed toward the Holy
City. In the afternoon the range of Jebel Kora, in
tlie southeast, became visible, and as evening ap-
proached all eyes wei-e strained, but in vain, for a
sight of Mecca. Night came down, and the pilgrims
moved slowly onward in the darkness. An hour
after midnight Burton was roused by a general ex-
citement in the caravan. " Mecca ! Mecca ! " cried
some voices ; " The Sanctuary, O the Sanctuary ! "
exclaimed others, and all burst into loud cries of
" Laheyk .^" not unfrequently broken by sobs. Look-
ing out from his litter the traveller saw by the
light of the southern stars the dim outlines of a
large city. They were passing over the last rocky
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 75
ridge by an artificial cut. The winding path was
flanked on both sides by high watch - towers ; a
short distance farther they entered the northern sub-
urb.
The Meccan boy Mohammed, who had been Bur-
ton's companion during the pilgrimage, conducted
the latter to his mother's liouse, where he remained
during his stay. A meal of vermicelli and sugar
was prepared on their arrival in the night, and after
an hour or two of sleep they rose at dawn, in order
to perform the ceremonies of arrival. After having
bathed, they walked in their pilgrim garb to the
Beit Allah, or " House of God."
" There," says Burton, " there at last it lay, the
bourne of my long and weary pilgrimage, realizing
the plans and hopes of many and many a year.
The mirage medium of fancy invested the huge cata-
falque and its gloomy pall with peculiar charms.
There were no giant fragments of hoar antiquity as
in Egypt, no remains of graceful and harmonious
beauty as in Greece and Italy, no barbaric gorgeous-
ness as in the buildings of India ; yet the view was
strange, unique, and how few have looked upon the
celebrated shrine ! I may truly say, that, of all the
worshippers who clung weeping to the curtain, or
who pressed their beating hearts to the stone, none
felt for the moment a deeper emotion than did the
Iladji from the far north. It was as if the poetical
legends of the Arab spoke truth, and that the waving
wings of angels, not the sweet breezes of morning,
were agitating and swelling the black covering of
the shrine. But, to confess humbling truth, theirs
76 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
was the high feeling of religions enthusiasm, mine
was the ecstasy of gratified pride."
Burton's description of the Beit Allali and the
Kaaba is more minute and careful tlian that of
Burckhardt, but does not differ from it in any im-
portant particular. iN^either is it necessary to quote
his account of the ceremonies to be performed by
each individual pilgrim, with all their mechanical
prostrations and repetitions. His account of the
visit to the famous Black Stone, however, is both
curious and amusing : " For a long time I stood look-
ing in despair at the swarming crowd of Bedouin and
other pilgrims that besieged it. But the boy Mo-
hammed was equal to the occasion. During our cir-
cuit he had displayed a fiery zeal against heresy and
schism by foully abusing every Persian in his path,
and the inopportune introduction of hard words into
his prayers made the latter a strange patchwork. He
might, for instance, be repeating ' and I take refuge
with thee from ignominy in this world," when, ' O
thou rejected one, son of the rejected ! ' M'ould be
the interpolation addressed to some long-bearded
Ivhorassani, ' and in that to come — O hog and
brother of a hoggess ! ' And so he continued till
I wondered that no one dared to turn and rend him.
After vainly addressing the pilgrims, of whom noth-
ing could be seen but a mosaic of occiputs and
shoulder-blades, the boy Mohammed collected about
half a doxen stalwart Meccans, with whose assistance,
by sheer strength, we wedged our way into the thin
and light-legged crowd. The Bedouins turned round
upon us like wildcats, but they had no daggers. The
iiiM^i ii iliiilli i lii l
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 77
season being autumn, they had not swelled them-
selves with milk for six mouths ; and they had be-
come such living mummies that I could have man-
aged single-handed half a dozen of them. After
thus reaching the stone, despite popular indignation,
testified by impatient shouts, we monopolized the use
of it for at least ten minutes. Whilst kissing it and
rubbing hands and forehead upon it I narrowly ob-
served it, and came away persuaded that it is a big
aerolite."
On September 12th the pilgrims set out for
Mount Arafat. Three miles from Mecca there is a
laro;e villaoje called Muna, noted for three standino;
miracles — the pebbles, there thrown at the Devil,
return by angelic agency to whence they came ; dur-
ing the three days of drying meat rapacious birds
and beasts cannot prey there, and flies do not settle
upon the articles of food exposed in the bazaars.
Beyond the place there is a mosque called El Ivhayf,
where, according to some traditions, Adam is buried,
his head being at one end of the long wall and his
feet at the other, while the dome is built over his
navel.
"Arafat," says Burton, "is about a six hours' march,
or twelve miles, on the Taif road, due east of Mecca.
We arrived there in a shorter time, but our weary
camels, during the last third of the way, frequently
threw themselves upon the ground. Human beings
suffered more. Between Muna and Arafat I saw no
less than five men fall down and die upon the high-
way ; exhausted and moribund, they had dragged
themselves out to give up the ghost where it departs to
78 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
instant beatitude. The spectacle showed how easy it
is to die in these latitudes ; each man suddenly stag-
gered, fell as if shot, and, after a brief convulsion,
lay still as marble. The corpses were carefully taken
up, and carelessly buried that same evening, in a
vacant space amongst the crowds encamped upon the
Arafat plain.
" Nothing can be more picturesque than the view
the mountain affords of the blue peaks behind, and
the vast encampment scattered over the barren
yellow plain below. On the north lay the regularly
pitched camp of the guards that defend the unarmed
pilgrims. To the eastward w^as the Scherif's encamp-
ment with the bright mahmals and the gilt knobs of
the grander pavilions ; whilst, on the southern and
western sides, the tents of the vulgar crowded the
ground, disposed in dowars, or circles, for penning
cattle. After many calculations, I estimated the
number to be not less than fifty thousand, of all ages
and both sexes."
After the sermon on Arafat, which Burton de-
scribes in the same manner as Burckhardt, the
former gives an account of the subsequent ceremony
of " stoning the Great Devil " near the village of
Muna : "' The Shay tan el-Kabir' is a dwarf buttress
of rude masonry, about eight feet high by two and a
half broad, placed against a rough wall of stones, at
the Meccan entrance to Muna. As the ceremony of
' llamy,' or Lapidation, must be performed on the
first day by all pilgrims between sunrise and sunset,
and as the Fiend was malicious enough to appear in a
rugged pass, the crowd makes tlie place dangerous.
BURTON'S PILGRIMAGE 79
On one side of tlie road, wliicli is not forty feet
broad, stood a row of shops belonging principally to
barbers. On tlie other side is the rugged wall of the
pillar, with a ckevaux defrise of Bedouins and naked
boys. The narrow space was crowded with pilgrims,
all struggling like drowning men to approach as near
as possible to the Devil ; it would have been easy
to run over the heads of the mass. Amongst them
were horsemen with rearing chargers. Bedouins on
wild camels, and grandees on mules and asses, with
outrunners, were breaking a way by assault and bat-
tery. I had read Ali Bey's self-felicitations upon es-
caping this place with ' only two wounds in the left
leg,' and had duly provided myself with a liidden
dagger. The precaution was not useless. Scarcely
had my dordvcy entered the crowd than he was over-
thrown by a dromedary, and I found myself under
the stamping and roaring beast's stomach. By a
judicious use of the knife, I avoided being trampled
npon, and lost no time in escaping from a place so
ignobly dangerous. Finding an opening at last, we
approached within about five cubits of the place,
and holding each stone between the thumb and fore-
finger of the ring hand, cast it at the pillar, exclaim-
ing : 'In the name of Allah, and Allah is Almighty,
1 do this in hatred of the Fiend and to his shame.'
The seven stones being duly thrown, we retired, and
entering the barber's booth, took our places upon one
of the earthen benches around it. This was the time
to remove the ihram or pilgrim's garb, and to return
to ihlal^ the normal state of El Islam, The barber
shaved our heads, and, after trimming our beards
80 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
and cutting onr nails, made ns repeat tliose words :
' I purpose loosening my ihram according to the
practice of the Prophet, whom may Allah bless and
preserve ! O Allah, make unto me in ev^ery hair a
light, a purity, and a generous reward ! In the name
of Allah, and Allah is Almighty!' At the conclu-
sion of his labor the barber politely addressed to us a
' Naiman ' — Pleasure to you ! To which we as
ceremoniously replied, ' Allah give thee pleasure!'"
We will conclude these quotations from Burton's
narrative with his description of a sermon in the
great mosque of Mecca. " After returning to the
city from the sacrifice of sheep in the valley of Muna,
we bathed, and when noon drew nigh we repaired to
the Haram for the purpose of hearing the sermon.
Descending to the cloisters below the Bab el-Ziyadah,
I stood wonderstruck by the scene before me. The
vast quadi'angle was crowded with worshippers sitting
in long rows, and everywhere facing the central black
tower ; the showy colors of their dresses were not to
be surpassed by a garden of the most brilliant flow-
ers, and such diversity of detail would probably not
be seen massed together in any other building upon
earth. The women, a dull and sombre-looking group,
sat apart in their peculiar place. The Pasha stood on
the I'oof of Zem Zem, surrounded by guards in Ni-
zam uniform. Where the principal ulema stationed
themselves the crowd was thicker; and in the more
auspicious spots naught was to be seen but a pave-
ment of lieads and shoulders. Nothing seemed to
move but a few dervishes, who, censer in liand, sidled
throuirh the rows and received the unsolicited alms
COSTL'ME OF Pir^GlUMS TO MECCA.
BURTON'S PILORIMAQE 81
o£ the faithful. Apparently in the midst, and raised
above the crowd by the tall, pointed pnlpit, whose
gilt spire flamed in the snn, sat the preacher, an old
man with snowy beard. The style of head-dress
called ' taylasan ' covered his turban, which was
white as his robes, and a short staff supported his
left hand. Presently he arose, took the staff in his
right hand, pronounced a few inaudible words, and
sat down again on one of the lower steps, whilst a
Muezzin, at the foot of the pulpit, recited the call to
sermon. Then the old man stood up and began to
preach. As the majestic figure began to exert it-
self there was a deep silence. Presently a general
' Amin ' was intoned by the crowd at the conclusion
of some long sentence. And at last, toward the end
of the sermon, every third or fourth word was fol-
lowed by the simultaneous rise and fall of thousands
of voices.
" I have seen the religious ceremonies of many
lands, but never — nowhere — aught so solemn, so im-
pressive as this spectacle."
Finding that it was impossible for him to under-
take the journey across Central Arabia, both for lack
of time and the menacing attitude of the Desert tribes,
Burton left Mecca for Jedda at the end of Septem-
ber. Starting in the afternoon, the chance caravan
of returning pilgrims reached, about midnight, a mass
of huts called El Hadda, which is the usual half-way
halting-place. It is maintained solely for the pur-
pose of supplying travellers with coffee and water.
Here the country slopes gradually toward the sea,
the hills recede, and every feature denotes departure
82 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
from the upland plateau of Mecca. After reaching
here, and at some solitary coffee-honses farther on
tlie way, the pilgrims reached Jedda safely at eight
m the morning.
From this place Barton took passage on a steamer
for Suez, and returned to Cairo, but without the
Meccan boy, Mohammed, who began to have a sus-
picion of his true character, after seeing him in com-
pany with some English officers, and who left him
before embarking.
CHAPTER VIII.
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS IN CENTRAL ARABIA: FROM
PALESTINE TO THE DJOWF
MR. WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE, son
of Sir Francis Palgrave, tlie liistoi-ian, per-
formed, in 1862-63, a journey in Arabia, which gives
us the first clear and full account of the interior of
the country, including the great Wahabee state of
Nedjed, the early home of Arabian poetry and also
of the famous Arabian breed of horses. Mr. Pal-
grave's qualifications for the undertaking were in
some respects superior to those of either Burckhardt
or Burton. To a high degree of general culture and
a vigorous and picturesque style as a writer, he added
a knowledge of the Arabic language and literature
equal to that of any native scholar ; he spoke the
language as well as his mother tongue ; his features
were sufficiently Oriental to disarm suspicion, and
years of residence in the East had rendered him en-
tirely familiar with the habits of the people and
even with all those minor forms of etiquette which
are so rarely acquired by a stranger. His narrative,
therefore, is as admirable and satisfactory in its char-,
acter as the fields he traversed were new and fasci-
nating. It throws, indeed, so much indirect light
upon the experiences of all his predecessors, and is so
84
TRAVELS IN ARABIA
much richer in its ilhistrations of Arab life and char-
acter that no brief summary of its contents can do
justice to its importance.
Of the first stage of tlie journey, from Gaza on the
Mediterranean to the little town of Ma'an, which lies
William Gifford Palgrave.
on the route of the caravans from Damascus to
Mecca, a short distance to the northeast of Petra, and
thus nearly on the boundary between the country of
Moab and Edom, Palgrave gives ns no account. Yet,
in spite of the comparatively brief distance traversed,
it must have been both laborious and dangei'ous.
His narrative commences as follows, at the moment
of his dej)arture from Ma'an :
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS 85
" Once for all let us attempt to acquire a fairly
correct and comprehensive knowledge of the Arabian
Peninsula. With its coasts we are already in great
measure acquainted ; several of its maritime prov-
inces have been, if not thoroughly, at least suffi-
ciently, explored ; Yemen and Hedjaz, Mecca and
Medina, are no longer mysteries to us, nor are we
wholly without information on the districts of Ha-
draraaut and Oman. But of the interior of the vast
region, of its plains and mountains, its tribes and
cities, of its governments and institutions, of its in-
habitants, their ways and customs, of their social
condition, how far advanced in civilization or sunk in
barbarism, what do we as yet really know, save from
accounts necessarily wanting in fulness and precision?
It is time to fill up this blank in the map of Asia,
and this, at whatever risks, we will now endeavor ;
either the land before us shall be our tomb, or we
will traverse it in its fullest breadth, and know what
it contains from shore to shore. Vestigia nulla re
trorsuinP
" Such were my thoughts, and such, more or less,
I should suppose, those of vi\y companion, when we
found ourselves at fall of night without the eastern
gate of Mu'an, while the Arabs, our guides and fel-
low-travellers, filled their water-skins from a gushing
source hard by the town walls, and adjusted the sad-
dles and the burdens of their camels, in preparation
for the long journey that lay before us and them.
It was the evening of June IG, 1862 ; the largest
stars were already visible in the deep blue depths of
a cloudless sky, while the crescent moon, high to the
86 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
west, shone as she shines in those heavens, and prom-
ised us assistance for some hours of our night march.
We were soon mounted on our meagre long-necked
beasts, ' as if,' according to the expression of an
Arab poet, ' we and our men were at mast-heads,'
and now we set our faces to the east. Behind us lay,
in a mass of dark outline, the walls and castle of
Ma'an, its liouses and gardens, and farther back in
tlie distance the high and barren range of the
Sheraa' Mountains, merging into tlie coast chain of
Hejaz. Before and around us extended a wide and
level plain, blackened over with countless pebbles of
basalt and flint, except where the moonbeams gleamed
white on little intervening patches of clear sand, or
on yellowish streaks of withered grass, the scanty
product of the winter rains, and dried now into hay.
Over all a deep silence, whicli even our Arab compan-
ions seemed fearful of breaking ; when they spoke it
was in a half whisper and in a few words, while the
noiseless tread of our camels sped stealthily but rapid-
ly through the gloom without disturbing its stillness.
" Some precaution was not indeed wholly out of
place, for that stage of the journey on which we were
now entering was anything but safe. We were bound
for tlie Djowf, the neai-est inhabited district of Cen-
tral Arabia, its outlying station, in fact. Kow the in-
tervening tract offered for the most part the double
danger of robbers and of thirst, of marauding bands
and of the summer season. The distance itself to be
traversed Avas near two hundred miles in a straight
line, and unavoidable circumstances were likely to
render it much longer."
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS • 87
Palgrave's companion was a native Syrian, named
Barakat — a man on whom he could fully I'oly.
Hardy, young, and enterprising, he belonged to a lo-
cality whose inhabitants are accustomed to danger.
But the Bedouins who furnished the camels, and
acted as guides, were of another class. They Avere
three in number — Salim, their leader, a member of a
powerful family of the Iloweytat tribe, but outlawed
for pillage and murder, and two men. Alee and
Djordee, utter barbarians in appearance no less than
in character. Even Salim advised tiie travellers to
avoid all familiarities with the latter.
" Myself and my companion," says Palgrave, " were
dressed like ordinary class travellers of inner Syria,
an equipment in which we had already made our way
from Gaza on the sea-coast to Ma'an without much
remark or unseasonable questioning from those whom
we fell in with, while we traversed a country so often
described already by Pococke, Laborde, and down-
ward, under the name of Arabia Petra, that it would
be superfluous for nie to enter into any new account
of it in the present work. Our dress, then, consisted
partly of a long stout blouse of Egyptian hemp, under
which, nnlike our Bedouin fellow-travellers, we in-
dulged in the luxury of the loose cotton drawers com-
mon in the East, while our colored head-kerchiefs,
though simple enough, were girt by 'akkals or head-
bands of some pretension to elegance ; the loose
red-leather boots of the country completed our toi-
let.
" But in the large travelling-sacks at our camels'
sides were contained suits of a more elegant appear-
88 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ance, carefully concealed from Bedouin gaze, but
destined for appearance when we should reach better
inhabited and more civdlized districts. This reserve
toilet numbered articles like the following ; colored
overdresses, the Sjrian combaz, handkerchiefs whose
silk stripes relieved the plebeian cotton, and girdles
of good material and tasteful coloring ; such clothes
being absolutely requisite to maintain our assumed
character. Mine was that of a native travelling doc-
tor, a quack if you will ; and accordingly a tolerable
dress was indispensable for the credit of my medical
practice. My comrade, who in a general way passed
for my brother-in-law, appeared sometimes as a retail
merchant, such as not unfrequently visit these coun-
tries, and sometimes as pupil or associate in my as-
sumed profession.
" Our pharmacopoeia consisted of a few but well
selected and efficacious drugs, inclosed in small tight-
fitting tin boxes, stowed away for the present in the
ample recesses of our travelling bags ; about fifty of
these little cases contained the wherewithal to kill or
cure half the sick men of Arabia. Medicines of a
liquid form had been as much as possible omitted,
not only from the difficulty of insuring them a safe
transport amid so rough a mode of journeying, but
also on account of the rapid evaporation unavoidable
in this dry and burning climate. In fact two or
three small bottles whose contents had seemed to me
of absolute necessity, soon retained nothing save their
labels to indicate what they had held, in spite of air-
tight stoppers and double coverings. I record this,
because the hint may be useful to anyone who should
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS 89
be inclined to embark in similar guise on the same
adventures.
" Some other objects requisite in medical practice,
two or three European books for mj' own private use,
and kept carefully secret from Arab curiosity, with a
couple of Esculapian treatises in good Arabic, in-
tended for professional ostentation, completed this
part of our fitting-out. But besides these, an ample
provision of cloth handkerchiefs, glass necklaces,
pipe-bowls, and the like, for sale in whatever locali-
ties might not offer sufficient facility for the healing
art, filled up our saddle-bags wellnigh to bursting.
Last, but not least, two large sacks of coffee, the
sheet-anchor and main hope of our commerce, formed
alone a sufficient load for a vigorous camel."
The first days of travel were a monotony of heat
and desolation. The deceptive lakes of the mirage
covered the tawny plain, and every dark basaltic
block, lying here and there at random, was magni-
fied into a mountain in the heated atmosphere.
" Dreary land of death, in which even the face of an
enemy were almost a relief amid such utter solitude.
But for five whole days the little dried-up lizard of
the plain that looks as if he had never a drop of
moisture in his ugly body, and the jerboa, or field-
rat of Arabia, were the only living creatures to con-
sole our view.
" It was a march during which we might have
almost repented of our enterprise, had such a sen-
timent been any longer possible or availing. Day
after day found us urging our camels to their utmost
pace for fifteen or sixteen hours together out of the
90 TRAVELS ly ARABIA
twenty-four, under a wellnigli vertical sun, which
the Ethiopians of Herodotus might reasonably be ex-
cused for cursing, with nothing either in the land-
scape around or in the companions of our M'ay to i-e-
lieve for a moment the eye or the mind. Then an
insufficient halt for rest or sleep, at most of two or
three hours, soon interrupted by the oft-repeated
admonition, ' if we linger here we all die of thirst,'
sounding in our ears ; and then to remount our jaded
beasts and push them on through the dark night,
amid the constant probability of attack and plunder
from roving marauders. For myself, I was, to mend
matters, under the depressing influence of a tertian
fever contracted at Ma'an, and what between weari-
ness and low spirits, began to imagine seriously that
no waters remained before us except the waters of
death for us and of oblivion for our friends. The
days wore b}' like a delirious dream, till we were
often almost unconscious of the ground we travelled
over and the journey on which we were engaged.
One only herb appeared at our feet to give some ap-
pearance of variety and life ; it was the bitter and
poisonous colocynth of the desert.
" Our order of road was this : Long before dawn
we were on our way, and paced it till the sun, having
attained about half-way between the horizon and the
zenith, assigned the moment of alighting for our
morning meal. This our Bedouins always took good
care should be in some hollow or low ground, for
concealment's sake ; in every other respect we had
ample liberty of choice, for one patch of black peb-
bles with a little sand and withered grass between
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS 91
was just like anotlier ; shade or shelter, or anything
like them, was wholly out of the question in such
' nakedness of tlie land.' We then alighted, and my
companion and myself would pile up the baggage
into a sort of wall, to afford a half-screen from the
scorching sun-rays, and here recline awhile. Xext
came the culinary preparations, in perfect accordance
Avith our provisions, which were simple enough ;
namely, a bag of coarse flour mixed with salt and a
few dried dates ; there was no thij-d item on the bill
of fare. We now took a few handfuls of floui-, and
one of the Bedouins kneaded it with his unwashed
hands or dirty bit of leather, pouring over it a little
of the dingy water contained in the skins, and then
patted out this exquisite paste into a large round
cake, about an inch thick and five or six inches
across. Meanwhile another had lighted a fire of
dry grass, colocynth roots, and dried camels' dung,
till he had prepared a bed of glowing embers ; among
these the cake was now cast, and immediately cov-
ered up with hot ashes, and so left for a few min-
utes, then taken out, turned, and covered again, till
at last, half - kneaded, half- raw, half - roasted, and
burnt all round, it was taken out to be broken up
between the hungry band, and eaten scalding hot,
before it should cool into an indescribable leathery
substance, capable of defying the keenest appetite
A draught of dingy water was its sole but suitable
accompaniment.
" The meal ended, we had again without loss of
time to resume our way from mirage to mirage, till
* slowly flaming over all, from heat to heat, the day
92 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
decreased,' and about an hour before sunset we would
stagger off our camels as best we might, to prepare
an evening feast of precisely" the same description as
that of the forenoon, or more often, for fear lest the
smoke of our fire should give notice to some distant
rover, to content ourselves with dry dates, and half
an hour's rest on the sand. At last our dates, like
yEsop's bread-sack, or that of Bejhas, his Arab proto-
type, came to an end ; and then our supper was a
soldier's one ; what that is my military friends will
know ; but, grit and pebbles excepted, there was no
bed in our case. After which, to remount, and
travel on by moon or starlight, till a little before
midnight we would lie down for just enough sleep to
tatitalize, not refresh.
" It was now the 22d of June, and the fifth day
since our departure from the wells of Wokba. Tlie
water in the skins had little more 'to offer to our
thirst than muddy dregs, and as yei no sign ap-
peared of a fresh supply. At last about noon we
drew near some hillocks of loose gravel and sand-
stone a little on our right ; our Bedouins convei'sed
together awhile, and then turned their coui'se and
ours in that direction. ' Hold fast on your camels,
for they are going to be startled and jump about,'
said Salim to us. Why the camels should bo startled
I could not understand ; when, on crossing the
mounds just mentioned, we suddenly came on five
or six black tents, of the very poorest description,
pitched near some wells excavated in the gravelly
hollow below. Tlie reason of Salim's precautionary
liint now became evident, for our silly beasts started
PALQRAVE'H TEAVELt^ 93
at first sight of tlic tents, as tliongh tliej' had never
seen the like before, and then scampered about,
bounding friskily here and there, till what between
their jolting (for a camel's run much resembles that
of a cow) and our own laughing, we could hardly
keep on their backs. However, thirst soon pi-evailed
over timidity, and they left off their pranks to ap-
proach the well's edge and sniff at the water be-
low."
The inhabitants of the tents showed the ordinary
curiosity, but were not unfriendly, and the little
caravan rested there for the remainder of the day.
A further journey of two days over a region of sand-
hills, with an occasional well, still intervened before
they could reach Wady Sirhan— a long valley run-
ning directly to the populated region of the Djowf.
While passing over this intermediate region an inci-
dent occurred which had wellnigh put a premature
end to the travels and the travellers together. " My
readers, no less than myself," says Palgrave, " must
have heard or read many a story of the simoom, or
deadly wind of the desert, but for me I had never yet
met it in full force ; and its modified form, or s/te-
look, to use the Arab phrase, that is, the sirocco of
the Syrian waste, though disagreeable enough, can
hardly ever be termed dangerous. Hence I had
been almost inclined to set down the tales told of
the strange phenomena and fatal effects of this ' poi-
soned gale ' in the same catewrv with the moving-
pillars of sand, recorded in many works of higher
historical pretensions than ' Thalaba.' At those per-
ambulatory columns and sand- smothered caravans tlie
94 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Bedouins, whenever I interrogated them on the sub-
ject, laughed outright, and declared that beyond an
occasional dust-storm, similar to those which anyone
who has passed a summer in Scinde can hardly fail
to have experienced, nothing of the romantic kind
just alluded to occurred in Arabia. But w^hen ques-
tioned about the simoom, they always treated it as a
much more serious matter, and such in real earnest
we now found it.
" It was about noon, the noon of a summer solstice
in the unclouded Arabian sky over a scorched desert,
when abrupt and burning gusts of wind began to
blow by fits from the south, while the oppressiveness
of the air increased every moment, till my companion
and myself mutually asked each other what this could
mean, and what was to be its result. We turned to
inquire of Salim, but he had already wrapped up his
face in his mantle, and bowed down and crouching
on the neck of his camel, replied not a word. His
comrades, the two Sherarat Bedouins, had adopted a
similar position, and were equally silent. At last,
after repeated interrogations, Salim, instead of reply-
ing directly to our questioning, pointed to a small
black tent, providentially at no great distance in
front, and said: 'Try to reach that; if we can get
there we are saved.' He added : ' Take care that
your camels do not stop and lie down;' and then,
giving his own several vigorous blows, relapsed into
muffled silence.
" We looked anxiously toward the tent ; it was yet
a hundred yards off, or more. Meanwhile the gusts
grew hotter and more violent, an<l it was only by re-
PALO RAY IV S TRAVELS 95
peated efforts that we could urge our beasts forward.
The liorizou rapidly darkened to a deep violet hue,
and seemed to draw in like a curtain on every side,
while at the same time a stifling blast, as though
from some enormous oven opening right on our path,
blew steadily under the gloom ; our camels, too, be-
gan, in spite of all we could do, to turn round and
round and bend their knees, preparing to lie down.
The simoom was fairly upon us.
" Of course we had followed our Arabs' example
by muffling our faces, and now with blows and kicks
we forced the staggering animals onward to the only
asylum within reach. So dark w-as the atmosphere,
and so burning the heat, that it seemed that hell liad
risen from the earth, or descended from above. But
we were yet in time, and at the moment when the
worst of the concentrated poison-blast was coming
around, we were already prostrate, one and all, with-
in the tent, with our heads well wrapped up, almost
suffocated, indeed, but safe ; while our camels lay
without like dead, their long necks stretched out on
the sand, awaiting the passing of the gale.
" On our first arrival the tent contained a solitary
Bedouin woman, whose husband was away with his
camels in the Wady Sirhan, When she saw five
handsome men like us rush thus suddenly into her
dwelling without a word of leave or salutation, she
very properly set up a scream to the tune of the four
crown pleas — murder, arson, robbery, and I know not
what else. Salim hastened to reassure her by calling
out ' friends,' and without more words threw himself
flat on the ground. All followed his example in silence.
96 TEA VELS IN ARABIA
" We remained thus for about ten minutes, during
which a still heat like that of red-hot iron slowly
passing over us was alone to be felt. Then the tent
walls began again to flap in the returning gusts, and
announced that the worst of the simoom had gone by.
We got up, half dead with exhaustion, and unmuffled
our faces. My comrades appeared moi-e like corpses
than living men, and so, I suppose, did I. However,
I could not forbear, in spite of warnings, to step out
and look at the camels ; they were still lying flat as
though they had been shot. The air was yet dark-
ish, but before long it brightened up to its usual
dazzling clearness. During the whole time that the
simoom lasted, the atmosphere was entirely free from
sand or dust, so that I hardly know how to account
for its singular obscurity."
" Late in the evening we continued our way, and
next day early entered Wady Sirhan, where the char-
acter of our journey underwent a considerable modi-
fication ; for the northerly Arabian desert, which we
are now traversing, offers, in spite of all its dreari-
ness, some spots of comparatively better cast, where
water is less scanty and vegetation less niggard.
These spots are the favorite resorts of Bedouins, and
serve, too, to direct the ordinary routes of Mdiatever
travellers, trade led or from other motives, may vent-
ure on this wilderness. These oases, if indeed they
deserve the name, are formed by a slight depression
in tlie surrounding desert surface, and take at times
the form of a long valley, or of an oblong patch,
wliere rock and pebble give place to a light soil more
or less intermixed with sand, and concealing under
PALO RAVE'S TRAVELS 97
its surface a tolerable supply of moisture at no great
distance below ground. Here, in consequence, bushes
and herbs spring up, and grass, if not green all the
year round, is at least of somewhat longer duration
than elsewhere ; certain fruit-bearing plants, of a
nature to suffice for meagre Bedouin existence, grow
here spontaneously ; in a word, man and beast find
not exactly comfortable accommodation, but the ab-
solutely needful supply. Such a spot is Wady Sir-
lian, literally, ' the Valley of the Wolf.' "
They entered Wady Sirhan on June 21st. "Pass-
ing tent after tent, and leaving behind us many a
tattered Bedouin and grazing camel, Salim at last in-
dicated to us a group of habitations, two or three of
which seemed of somewhat more ample dimensions
than the rest, and informed us that our supper that
night (for the afternoon was already on the decline)
would be at the cost of these dwellings. 'Ajaweed,'
i.e., ' generous fellow,' he subjoined, to encourage us
by the prospect of a handsome reception. Of course
we could only defer to his better judgment, and in a
few minutes were alongside of the black goats' hair
coverinsrs where lodged our intended hosts.
" The chief or chieflet, for such he was, came out,
and interchanged a few words of masonic laconism
with Salim. The latter then came up to us where
we remained halted in expectation, led our camels to
a little distance from the tents, made them kneel
down, helped us to disburden them, and while we
installed ourselves on a sandy slope opposite to the
abodes of the tribe, recommended us to keep a sharp
lookout after our baggage, since there might be pick-
98 TRAVELS IX ARABIA
ers and stealers among our hosts, for all ' Ajaweed '
as they were. Disagreeable news ! for ' Ajaweed ' in
an Arab month corresponds the nearest possible to
our English 'gentlemen.' Now, if the gentlemen
were thieves, what must the blackguards be ? We
put a good face on it, and then seated ourselves in
dignified gravity- on the sand awaiting the further
results of our guide's ne^'otiations.
" For some time we renu^ined undisturbed, though
not unnoticed ; a group of Arabs had collected round
our companions at the tent door, and were engaged
in getting from them all possible information, espe-
cially about us and our baggage, which last was an
object of much curiositj-, not to say cupidity. Kext
came our turn. The chief, his family (women ex-
cepted), his intimate followers, and some twenty
others, young and old, boys and men, came up, and,
after a brief salutation, Bedouinwise seated them-
selves in a semicircle before us. Every man held a
short crooked stick for camel-driviug in his hand, to
gesticulate with when speaking, or to play with in
the intervals of conversation, wliile the younger
members of society, less prompt in discourse, po-
litely employed their leisure in staring at us, or in
picking up dried pellets of dirt from the sand and
tossing them about."
"'What are you? what is your business?' so
runs the ordinary and unprefaced opening of the dis-
course. To which we answer, ' Physicians from Da-
mascus, and our business is whatsoever God may
put in our way.' The next question will be about
the baggage; someone pokes it with a stick, to
PALURAVIC'S TRAVELS 99
draw attention to it, and says, ' What is this ? have
you any little object to sell lis? '
" We fight shy of selling; to open out our wares
and chattels in full air, on the sand, and amid a
crowd whose appearance and circumstances offer but
a poor guarantee for the exact observance of the
eightli commandment, would be hardly prudent or
worth our while. Aftei- several fruitless tiials they
desist from their request. Anothei*, who is troubled
by some bodily infirmit}^ for which all the united
faculties of London and Paris might prescribe in
vain — a withered hand, for instance, or stone-blind of
an eye — asks for medicine, which no sooner applied
shall, in his expectation, suddenly restore him to per-
fect health and corporal integrity. But I had been
already forewarned that to doctor a Bedouin, even
under the most favorable circumstances, or a camel,
is pretty much the same thing, and with about an
equal chance of success or advantage. I politely de-
cline, lie insists ; I turn him oft' with a joke.
" ' So you laugh at us, O you inhabitants of towns.
We are Bedouins, we do not know your customs,'
replies he, in a whining tone ; while the boys grin
unconscionably at the discomfiture of their tribesman.
" ' Ya woleyd,' or young fellow (for so they style
every human male from eight to eighty without dis-
tinction), ' will 3'ou not fill my pipe ? ' says one, who
has observed that mine was not idle, and who, though
well provided with a good stock of dry tobacco tied
up in a rag at his greasy waist-belt, thinks the mo-
ment a fair opportunity for a little begging, since
neither medicine nor merchandise is to be had.
100 THAVKLS IX ARABIA
" But Salim, seated amid the circle, makes me a
sign not to comply. Accordingly, I evade the de-
mand. Howevei", my petitioner goes on begging,
and is imitated by two or three others, each of whom
thrusts forward (a true Irish hint) a bit of marrow-
bone with a hole drilled in one side to act for a pipe,
or a porous stone, not uncommon throughout tlie
desert, clumsily fashioned into a smoking apparatus,
a sort of primitive meerschaum.
" As they grow rude, I pretend to become angry,
thus to cut the matter short. ' We are your guests,
you Bedouins ; are you not ashamed to beg of us? '
' Never mind, excuse us ; those are ignorant fellows,
ill-bred clowns,' etc., intei'poses one close by the
chief's side ; and whose dress is in somewhat better
condition than that of the other half and three-
quarter naked individuals who complete the assem-
bly.
" ' Will you not people the pipe for your little
brother?' subjoins the chief himself, producing an
empty one with a modest aii*. Bedouin language,
like that of most Orientals, abounds M'itli not un-
graceful imagery, and accoi'dingly, ' people ' here
means ' fill.' Salim gives me a wink of compliance.
1 take out a handful of tobacco and put it on his
long shirt-sleeve, which he knots over it, and looks
uncommonly well pleased. At any rate they are
easily satisfied, these Bedouins.
" The night air in tliese wilds is life and health it-
self. We sleep soundl}', unharassed by the antici-
pation of an early summons to march next morning,
for both men and beasts have alike need of a full
PALGEAVE'S TRAVELS 101
day's repose. When the sun lias risen we are invited
to enter the chief's tent and to bring our baggage
under its shelter. A main object of our entertainer,
in proposing tiiis move, is to try whether he cannot
render our visit some way profitable to himself, by
present or purchase. Whatever politeness lie can
muster is accordingly brought into play, and a large
bowl of fresh camel's milk, an excellent beverage,
now appears on the stage. I leave to chemical anal-
ysis to decide why this milk will not furnish butter,
for such is the fact, and content myself with bearing
witness to its very nutritious and agreeable quali-
ties.
" The day passes on. About noon our host natu-
rally enough supposes us hungry, and accordingly a
new dish is brought in : it looks much like a bowl
full of coarse red paste, or bran mixed with ochre.
This is samh, a main article of subsistence to the
Bedouins of Northern Arabia. Throughout this part
of the desert grows a small herbaceous and tufted
plant, with juicy stalks and a little ovate yellow-
tinted leaf ; the flowers are of a bi-ighter yellow, with
many stamens and pistils. When the blossoms fall
off there remains in place of each a four-leaved cap-
sule about the size of an ordinary pea, and this, when
ripe, opens to show a mass of minute reddish seeds,
resembling grit in feel and appearance, but farina-
ceous in substance. The ripening season is in July,
when old and young, men and women, all are out to
collect the unsown and untoiled-for harvest.
" On the 27tli of the month we passed with some
difficulty a series of abrupt sand-hills that close in
102 TRAVELS IK ARABIA
the direct course of Wady Sirhan. Here, for the
first time, we saw the ghada, a shrub ahiiost charac-
teristic, from its veiy frequency, of the Arabian Pen-
insula, and often alluded to by its poets. It is of
the genus Euphorbia, with a woody stem, often five
or six feet in height, and innumerable round green
twigs, very slender and flexible, forming a large
feathery tuft, not ungraceful to the eye, while it af-
fords some kind of shelter to the traveller and food
to his camels. These last are passionately fond of
ghada, and will continually turn right out of their
way, in spite of blows and kicks, to crop a mouthful
of it, and then swing back their long necks into the
former direction, i-eady to repeat the same manoeuvre
at the next bush, as though they had never leceived
a beating for their past voi-acity.
" I have, while in England, heard and read more
than once of the ' docile camel.' If ' docile ' means
stupid, well and good ; in such a case the camel is
the very model of docility. But if the epithet is in-
tended to designate an animal that takes an interest
in its rider so far as a beast can, that in some way
understands his intentions or shares them in a sub-
ordinate fashion, that obeys from a sort of submissive
or half fellow-feeling with his master, like the horse
and elephant, then I say that the camel is by no
means docile, very much the contrary ; he takes no
heed of his rider, pays no attention whether he be on
his back or not, walks straight on when once set a-go-
ing, merely because he is too stupid to turn aside ;
and then, should some tempting thorn or green branch
allure him out of the path, continues to walk on in
PALG HAVE'S TllAVELS 103
this new direction simply because lie is too dull to
turn back into the I'igiit road. His 0!ily care is to
cross as mucli pasture as he conveniently 'can while
pacing mechanically onward ; and for effecting this,
his long, flexible neck sets him at great advantage,
and a hard blow or a downright kick alone has any
influence on him whether to direct or impel. He
will never attempt to throw you off his back, such a
trick being far beyond his limited comprehension ;
but if you fall off, he will never dream of stopping
for you, and walks on just the same, grazing while
lie goes, without knowing or caring an atom what
has become of you. If turned loose, it is a thousand
to one that he will never find his way back to his ac-
customed home or pasture, and the first comer who
picks him up will have no particular shyness to get
over ; Jack or Tom is all the same to him, and the
loss of his old master, and of his own kith and kin,
gives him no regret, and occasions no endeavor to find
them again."
On coming in sight of the mountains of Djowf
the travellers were obliged to halt for two days at an
encampment of the Sherarat Arabs, because Salim
could not enter the Djowf with them in person, on
account of a murder which he had committed there.
He was therefore obliged to procure them another
guide capable of conducting them safely the remain-
der of the journey. After much search and discus-
sion, Salim ended by finding a good-natured, but
■somewhat timid, individual, who undertook their
guidance to the Djowf.
Journeying one whole day and night over an open
104 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
plateau, where they saw a lai-ge troop of ostriches,
they mounted again on the 30th, by the liglit of the
morning star, anxious to enter the Djowf before the
intense heat of noon should come on ; " but we had
yet a long way to go, and our track followed endless
windings among low hills and stony ledges, without
any symptom of approach to cultivated regions. At
last the slopes grew greener, and a small knot of
houses, with traces of tillage close by, appeared. It
w^as the little village of Djoon, the most westerly ap-
pendage of Djowf itself. I counted between twenty
and thirty houses. We next entei-ed a long and nar-
row pass, whose precipitous banks shut in the view
on either side. Suddenly' several horsemen appeared
on the opposite cliff, and one of them, a handsome
youth, with long, curling hair, well armed and well
mounted (we shall make his more special acquaint-
ance in the next chapter), called out to our guide to
halt, and answer in his own behalf and ours. This
Suleyman did, not without those marks of timidity
in his voice and gesture which a Bedouin seldom
fails to show on his approach to a town, for, when
once in it, he is apt to sneak about much like a dog
who has just received a beating for theft. On his
answer, delivered in a most submissive tone, the
horsemen held a brief consultation, and M-e then saw
two of them turn their horses' heads and gallop off
in the direction of the Djowf, while our original in-
terlocutor called out to Suleyman, ' All right, go on,
and fear nothing,' and then disappeared after the
rest of the band behind the verge of the upland.
" We had yet to drag on for an hour of tedious
-"^^^'C^ ,NqL ?HcYc
AN ARAB CHIEF.
PALORAVE'S TRAVELS 105
march ; my camel fairly bi-oke down, and fell again
and again ; his bad example was followed by tiie
coffee-laden beast ; the heat was terrible in these
gorges, and noon was approaching. At last we
cleared the pass, but found the onward prospect still
shut out by an intervening mass of rocks. The water
in our skins was spent, and we had eaten nothing
that morning. When shall we get in sight of the
Djowf ? or has it flown away from before us ? While
thus wearily laboring on our way we turned a huge
pile of crags, and a new and beautiful scene burst
upon our view.
" A broad, deep valley, descending ledge after
ledge till its innermost depths are hidden from sight
amid far-reaching shelves of reddish rock, below
everywhere studded with tufts of palm-groves and
clustering fruit-trees, in dark-green patches, down to
the furthest end of its windings ; a large brown mass
of irregular masonry crowning a central hill ; beyond,
a tall and solitary tower overlooking the opposite
bank of the hollow, and further down small round
turrets and flat house-tops, half buried amid the gar-
den foliage, the whole plunged in a perpendicular
flood of light and heat ; such was the first aspect of
the Djowf as we now approached it from the west.
It was a lovely scene, and seemed yet more so to our
eyes, weary of the long desolation through which we
had, with hardly an exception, journeyed day after
day, since our last farewell glimpse of Gaza and Pal-
estine, up to the first entrance on inhabited Arabia.
' Like the Paradise of eternity, none can enter it till
after having previously passed over hell-bridge,' says
106 TRA VELS IN ARABIA
an Arab poet, describing some similar locality in Al-
gerian lands.
" Reanimated by the view, we pushed on our
jaded beasts, and were already descending the first
craggy slope of the valley when two horsemen, well
dressed and fnlly armed after the fashion of these
parts, came up toward us from the town, and at once
saluted us with a loud and hearty ' Marhaba,' or
'welcome;' and without further p]-eface they added,
* Alight and eat,' giving themselves the example of
the former by descending briskly from their light-
limbed horses and untying a large leather bag full
of excellent dates and a water-skin filled from the
running spring ; then, spreading out these most op-
portune refreshments on the rock, and adding, ' we
were sure that you must be hungry and thirst}^ so we
have come ready provided,' they invited us once
more to sit down and begiu."
CHAPTER IX.
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS— RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF
THE elder of tlie two cavaliers who welcomed the
travellers proved to be Ghafilel-IIabooh, the
chief of the most important family of the Djowf.
Ghafil, and also his companion, Dafee, invited the
travellers to be his guests, and the former, it after-
ward appeared, had intended that they should reside
in his house, hoping to make some profit from the
merchandise which they might have brought. They
felt bound, at least, to accompany him to his house
and partake of coffee, before going elsewhere. Pal-
grave thus describes the manner of their reception :
'• The k'liawah was a large, oblong hall, about
twenty feet in height, fifty in length, and sixteen, or
thereabouts, in breadth ; the walls were colored in a
rndely decorative manner, with brown and white
wash, and sunk here and there into' small triangular
recesses, destined to the reception of books — though
of these Ghafil at least had no over-abundance —
lamps, and other such like objects. The roof of tim-
ber, and flat ; the floor was strewed with fine clean
sand, and garnished all round alongside of the walls
with long strips of carpet, upon which cushions, cov-
ered with faded silk, were disposed at suitable inter-
vals.
108 TRAVEL."^ IN ARABIA
" We enter. On passing the tJireshold it is proper
to say, ' Bismillah^ i.e., 'in tlie name of God ; ' not
to do so would be looked on as a bad augury, alike
for him who enters and for those within. The vis-
itor next advances in silence, till, on coming about
half-way across the I'oom, lie gives to all present, but
looking specially at the master of the house, the cus-
tomary ' Es-salamu' aleyhinn,'' or ' Peace be with
you,' literally, ' on you.' All this while everyone
else in the room lias kept his place, motionless, and
without saying a word. But on i-eceiving the sa-
laam of etiquette, the master of the house rises, and
if a strict Wahabee, or at any rate desirous of seem-
ing such, replies with the full-length traditionary
formula : ' And with (or, on) you be peace, and the
mercy of God, and his blessings.' But should he
• happen to be of anti-Wahabee tendencies, the odds
are that he will say ' Marhaba,' or ' Ahlan w'sahlan,'
i.e., ' welcome,' or ' worthy and pleasui-able,' or the
like ; for of such phrases there is an infinite but ele-
gant variety. All present follow the example thus
given by rising and saluting. The guest then goes
up to the master of the house, who has also made a
step or two forward, and places his open hand in the
palm of his host's, but without grasping or shaking,
which would hardly pass as decorous, and, at the
same time each repeats once more his greeting, fol-
lowed by the set phrases of polite inquiry, ' IIow are
you ? ' ' How goes the woi-ld with you ? ' and so
forth, all in a tone of great interest, and to be gone
over thi-ee or four times, till one or other has the
discretion to say ' El hamdu I'illah,' ' Praise be to
RESIDENCE IN TEE DJOWF 109
God,' or, in equivalent value, ' all right,' and this is
a signal for a seasonable diversion to the ceremonious
interrogatory.
" Meantime we have become engaged in active
conversation with our host and his friends. But our
Sherarat guide, Suleyman, like a true Bedouin, feels
too awkward when among townsfolk to venture on
the upper places, though repeatedly invited, and ac-
cordingly has squatted down on the sand near the
entrance. Many of Ghafirs relations are present;
their silver-decorated swords proclaim the importance
of the family. Others, too, have come to receive us,
for our arrival, announced beforehand by those we
had met at the entrance pass, is a sort of event iti
the town ; the dress of some betokens poverty, others
are better clad, but all have a very polite and decor-
ous manner. Many a question is asked about our
native land and town, that is to say, Syria and Da-
mascus, conformably to the disguise already adopted,
and which it was highly important to keep well up ;
then follow inquiries regarding our journey, our busi-
ness, what we have brought with us, about our medi-
cines, our goods and wai-es, etc. From the very
first it is easy for us to perceive that patients and
purchasers are likely to abound. Verj"^ few travel-
ling merchants, if any, visit the Djowf at this time
of year, for one must be mad, or next door to it, to
rush into the vast desert around during the heats of
June and July ; I for one have certainlj' no intention
of doing it again. Hence we had small danger of
competitors, and found the market almost at our ab-
solute disposal.
110 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" But before a quarter of an hour lias passed, and
while blacky is still roasting or pounding his coffee,
a tall, thin lad, Ghafirs eldest son, appears, charged
with a large circular dish, grnss-i)latted like the rest,
and throws it with a graceful jerk on the sandy floor
close before us. lie then pi'oduces a large wooden
bowlful of dates, bearing in the midst of the heap
a cupful of melted butter ; all this he places on the
circular mat, and says, ' Semmoo,^ literally, ' pro-
nounce the Kame,' of God, understood ; this means
* set to work at it.' Hereon the niaster of the house
quits his place by the fireside and seats himself on
the sand opposite to us ; we draw nearer to the dish,
and four or five others, after some respectful coy-
ness, join the circle. Everyone then picks out a
date or two from the juicy, half-amalgamated mass,
dips them into the butter, and thus goes on eating
till he has had enough, when he rises and washes his
hands."
" I will take the opportunity of leading my readers
over the whole of the Djowf, as a genei'al view will
lielp l)etter to understand what follows in the narra-
tive, besides offering much that will be in part new, I
should fancy, to the greater number.
" This pi'ovince is a sort of oasis, a huge oval de-
pression of sixty or seventy miles long, by ten or
twelve broad, lying between the northern desert that
separates it from Syria and the Eu})hrates, and the
southern Nefood, or sandy waste, and intei-posed
between it and the nearest mountains of the centra]
Arabian plateau. However, from its comparative
pro.xiniity to the latter, no less than from the charac-
RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 111
ter of its climate and productions, it belongs hardly
60 much to Northern as to Central Arabia, of which
it is a kind of porch or vestibule. If an equilateral
triangle were to be drawn, having its base from Da-
mascus to Bagdad, the vertex would find itself pretty
exactly as the Djowf, which is thus at a nearly equal
distance, southeast and southwest, from the two lo-
calities just mentioned, while the same cross-line, if
continued, will give at about the same intervals of
space in the opposite direction, Medina on the one
hand, and Zulphah, the great commercial door of
Eastern Nedjed, on the othei-. Djebel Shomer lies
almost due south, and much nearer than any other
of the places above specified. Partly to this cen-
tral position, and partly to its own excavated form,
the province owes its appropriate name of Djowf, or
'belly.'
" The principal, or rather the only, town of the
district, all the rest being mere hamlets, bears the
name of the entire region. It is composed of eight
villages, once distinct, but which have in pi-ocess of
time coalesced into one, and exchanged their sepa-
rate existence and name foj- that of Sook, or 'quar-
tei',' of the common borough. Of these Sooks, the
principal is that belonging to the family Ilaboob,
and in which we were now lodged. It includes the
central castle already mentioned, and mimbers about
four hundred houses. The other quarters, some
larger, others smaller, sti'etch up and down the val-
ley, but are connected together by their extensive
gardens. The entire length of the town thus foi-med,
with the cultivation immediately annexed, is full four
112 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
miles, but the average breadth does not exceed half
a mile, and sometimes falls short of it.
" The size of the domiciles varies with the condi-
tion of their occupants, and the poor ai-e contented
with narrow lodgings, though always separate ; for
I doubt if throughout the whole of Arabia two fami-
lies, however needy, inhabit the same dwelling.
GhafiPs abode, already described, may give a fair
idea of the better kind ; in snch we have an outer
court, for unlading camels and the like, an inner
court, a large reception-room, and several other
smaller apartments, to which entrance is given by a
private door, and where the family itself is lodged.
" But another and a very characteristic feature
of domestic architecture is the frequent addition,
throughout the Djowf, of a round tower, from thirty
to forty feet in height and twelve or more in breadth,
with a nai'row entrance and loop-holes above. This
construction is sometimes contiguous to tlie dwelling-
place, and sometimes isolated in a neighboiing gar-
den belonging to the same master. These towers
once answered exactly the same purposes as the ' tor-
ri,' well known to travellers in many cities of Italy,
at Bologna, Siena, Home, and elsewhere, and denoted
a somewhat analogous state of society to what for-
merly pi-evailed there. Hither, in time of the ever-
recurring feuds between rival chiefs and factions, the
leaders and their partisans used to retire for refuge
and defence, and hence they would make their sal-
lies to burn and destroy. These towers, like all the
modern edifices of the Djowf, are of unbaked bricks ;
their great thickness and solidity of make, along
RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 113
with tlie extreme tenacity of the soil, joined to a
veiy dry clinuite, renders the material a rival almost
of stone-work in strength and endurance. Since the
final occupation of this region by the forces of Tehil,
all these towers have, without exception, been ren-
dered unfit for defence, and some are even half-ru-
ined. Here again the phenomena of Europe liave
repeated themselves in Arabia.
"The houses are not unfrequently isolated each
from the other by their gardens and plantations ; and
this is especially the case with the dwellings of chiefs
and their families. AVliat has just been said about
the towers renders the reasons of this isolation suffi-
ciently obvious. But the dwellings of the commoner
sort are generally clustered together, though without
symmetry or method.
" The gardens of the Djowf ai'e much celebrated
in this part of the East, and justly so. They are of
a productiveness and varietj' superior to those of
Djebcl Shomer or of Upper Nedjed, and far beyond
whatever the Iledjaz and its neighborhood can offer.
Here, for the first time in our southward course, we
found the date-palm a main object of cultivation ;
and if its produce be inferior to that of the same
tree, in Nedjed and Hasa, it is far, very far, above
whatever Egypt, Africa, or the valley of the Tigris
from Bagdad to Bassora can show. However, the
palm is by no means alone here. The apricot and
the peach, the fig-tree and the vine, abound thrcugh-
out these orchards, and their fruit surpasses in co-
piousness and flavor that supplied by the gardens of
Damascus or the hills of Syria and Palestine. In
114 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the intervals between the trees or in the fields be-
yond, corn, leguminous plants, gourds, melons, etc,
etc., ai'e widely cultivated. Heie, too, for the last
time, the traveller bound for the interior sees the ir-
rigation indispensable to all growth and tillage in this
droughty climate kept up by running streams of
clear water, whereas in the Xedjed and its neighbor-
hood it has.to be laboriously procuied from wells and
cisterns.
" Besides the Djowf itself, or capital, tliere exist
several other villages belonging to the same homony-
mous province, and all subject to the same central gov-
ernor. Of these the largest is Sekakah ; it lies at
about twelve miles distant to the northeast, and
though inferior to the piincipal town in importance
and fertility of soil, almost equals it in the number
of its inhabitants. I should reckon the united popu-
lation of these two localities — men, women, and chil-
dren — at about thirty-three or thirty-four thousand
souls. This calculation, like many others before us
in the course of the work, rests partly on an approx-
imate survey of the number of dwellings, partly on
the military muster, and partly on what I heard on
the subject from the natives themselves. A census
is here unknown, and no register records biith, mar-
riage, or death. Yet, by aid of the war list, which
generally represents about one-tenth of the entire
population, a fair though not absolute idea may be
obtained on this point.
"Lastly, around and at no great distance from
these main centres, ai'c several small villages or ham-
lets, eight or ten in number, as I was told, and con-
RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 115
tainiiig each of them from twenty to fifty or sixty
lionses. But I liad neither time nor opportunity to
visit each separately. They cluster round lesser
water springs, and offer in miniature features much
resembling those of the capital. The entire popula-
tion of the province cannot exceed forty or forty-two
thousand, but it is a brave one, and very liberally
provided with the physical endowments of which it
has been acutely said that they are seldom despised
save by those who do not themselves possess them.
Tall, well-proportioned, of a tolerably fair complex-
ion, set off by long curling locks of jet-black hair,
with features for the most part regular and intelli-
gent, and a dignified carriage, the Djowfites are
eminently good specimens of what may be called the
pure northern or Ishmaelitish Arab type, and in all
these respects they yield the palm to the inhabitants
of Djebel Shomer alone. Their large-developed forms
and open countenance contrast strongly with the some-
what dwarfish stature and suspicious under-glance
of the Bedouin. They are, besides, a very healthy
people, and keep up their strength and activity even
to an advanced age. It is no uncommon occurrence
liere, to see an old man of seventy set out full-armed
among a band of youths ; though, by the way, such
"green old age " is often to be met with also in the
central province farther south, as I have had frequent
opportunity of witnessing. The climate, too, is good
and dry, and habits of out-door life contribute not a
little to the maintenance of health and vigor.
" In manners, as in locality, the worthies of Djowf
occupy a sort of half-way position between Bedouins
116 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
and the inhabitants of tlie cultivated districts. Thus
they partake largely in the nomad's aversion to me-
chanical occupations, in his indifference to literary
acquirements, in his aimless fickleness too, and even in
his treacherous ways. I have said, in the preceding
chapter, that while we were yet threading the narrow
gorge near tlie first entrance of the valle^', several
horsemen appeared on the upper margin of the pass,
and one of them questioned our guide, and then, after
a short consultation with his companions, called out
to us to go on and fear nothing. Xow, the name of
this individual was Suliman-ebn-Dahir, a very ad-
venturous and fairly intelligent j'oung fellow, with
M^hom next-door neighborhood and frequent inter-
course rendered us intimate during our stay at the
Djowf. One daj', while we were engaged in friendly
conversation, he said, half laughing, ' Do you know
what we were consulting about while you were in the
pass below on the morning of your arrival ? It was
whetiier we should make you a good reception, and
thus procure ourselves the advantage of having you
residents among us, or whether we should not do
better to kill you all three, and take our gain fiom
the booty to be found in your baggage.' I replied
with equal coolness, ' It might have proved an awk-
ward affair for yourself and your friends, since
Ilamood your governor could hardl}^ have failed to
get wind of the matter, and w^ould have taken it
out of 3'ou.' ' Pooh ! ' replied our friend, ' never a
bit; as if a present out of the plunder would not
liave tied Ilamood's tongue.' ' Bedouins that you
are,' said I, laughing. ' Of course we arc,' answered
RESIDENCE IN THE J) JO WE 117
Siiliman, ' for such we all were till quite lately, and
the present system is too recent to have much changed
us.' However, he admitted that they all had, on
second thoughts, congratulated themselves on not
having preferred bloodshed to hospitality, though
perhaps the better resolution was rather owing to
interested than to moral motives.
" The most distinctive good feature of the inhabi-
tants of Djowf is their liberality. Nowhere else,
even in Arabia, is the gnest, so at least he be not
murdered before admittance, better treated, or more
cordially invited to become in evei'y way one of
themselves. Courage, too, no one denies them, and
they are equally lavish of their own lives and prop-
erty as of their neighbors'.
" Let us now resume the narrative. On the morn-
ing after our arrival — it was now the 1st of July —
Ghafil caused a small house in the neighborhood,
belonging to one of his dependents, to be put at our
entire disposal, according to our previous request.
This, our new abode, consisted of a small court with
two rooms, one on each side, for warehouse and hab-
itation, the whole being surrounded with an outer
wall, whose door was closed by lock and bolt. Of a
kitchen-room there was small need, so constant and
liospitable are the invitations of the good folks liere
to strangers ; and if our house was not over capa-
cious, it afforded at least what we most desired,
namely, seclusion and privacy at will ; it was, more-
over, at our host's cost, i-ent and reparations.
" Hither, accordingh% we transferred baggage and
chattels, and arranged everything as comfortably as
118 TRAVELS IN AliAIilA
we best could. And as we liad already concluded,
from the stjde and conversation of those around us,
that their state of society was hardly far enough ad-
vanced to offer a sufficiently good prospect for med-
ical art, whose exercise, to be genei-ally advanta-
geous, requires a certain amount of culture and
aptitude in the patient, no less than of skill in the
physician, we resolved to make commerce our main
affair here, trusting that by so doing we should gain
a second advantage, that of lightening our more
bulky goods, such as coffee and cloth, whose trans-
port had already annoyed us not a little.
" But in fact we were not more desirous to sell
than the men, women, and childi-en of the Djowf
were to bu}'. From the very outset our little court-
yard was crowded with customers, and the most
amusing scenes of Arab haggling, in all its mixed
shrewdness and simplicity, diverted us through the
week. Handkerchief after handkerchief, yard after
yard of cloth, beads for the women, knives, combs,
looking-glasses, and what not ? (for our stock was a
thorough miscellany) were soon sold off, some for
ready money, others on credit; and it is but justice
to say that all debts so contracted were soon paid
in very honestly ; Oxford High Street tradesmen,
at least in former times, were not always equally
foi'tunate.
" Meanwhile we had the very best opportunity of
becoming acquainted with and ap])reciating all class-
es, nay, almost all individuals, of the place. Peasants,
too, from various hamlets an-ived, led by rumor,
whose trumpet, prone to exaggerate under every sky,
RESIDENCE IN THE IJJOWF 119
had proclaimed us tlirougliont the valley of Djowf
for much more important characters, and possessed
of a much larger stock in hand, than was really the
case. All crowded in, and before long there were
more customers than wares assembled in the store-
room.
" Onr manner of passing the time was as follows :
We used to rise at early dawn, lock up the house,
and go out in the pure cool air of the morning to
some qniet spot among the neighboring palm-groves,
or scale the wall of some garden, or pass right on
through the by-lanes to where cultivation merges in
the adjoining sands of the valley ; in short, to any
convenient place where we might hope to pass an
liour of quiet, undisturbed by Ai-ab sociabilit\', and
have leisure to plan our work for the day. We
would then return home about sunrise, and find out-
side the door some tall lad sent by his father, gen-
erally one of the wealthier and more influential
inhabitants of the quarter yet unvisited by us, wait-
ing our return, to invite us to an early breakfast.
We would now accompany our Mercury to his domi-
cile, where a hearty reception, and some neighbors
collected for the occasion, or attracted by a cup of
good coffee, were sure to be in attendance. Here
an hour or so would wear away, and some medical
or mercantile transaction be sketched out. We, of
course, would bring the conversation, whenever it
was possible, on local topics, according as those pres-
ent seemed likely to afford us exact knowledge and
insight into the real state and cii'cumstances of the
land. We would then return to our own quarters,
120 TRA VELS IN ARABIA
where a crowd of customers, awaiting ns, would al-
low us neither rest nor pause till noon. Then a short
interval for date or pumpkin eating in some neigh-
bor's house would occui-, and after that business be
again resumed for three or four hours. A walk
among the gardens, rarely alone, more often in com-
pany with friends and acquaintances, would follow ;
and meanwhile an invitation to supper somewhere
had unfailingly been given and accepted."
" After supper all lise, wash their hands, and then
go out into the open air to sit and smoke a quiet
pipe under the still transparent sky of the summer
evening. Neither mist nor vapor, much less a cloud,
appears; the moon dips down in silvery whiteness
to the very verge of the palm-tree tops, and the last
rays of daylight are almost as sharp and clear as the
dawn itself. Chat and society continue for an hour
or two, and then everyone goes home, most to sleep,
I fancy, for few Penseroso lamps are here to be seen
at midnight hour, nor does the spirit of Plato stand
much risk of unsphering from the nocturnal studies
of the Djowf ; we, to write our jonrnal, or to com-
pare observations and estimate characters.
" Sometimes a comfortable landed proprietor would
invite us to pass an extemporary holiday morning in
his garden, or rather orchard, there to eat grapes and
enjoy ourselves at will, seated under clustering vine-
trellises, with palm-trees above and running streams
around. How pleasant it was after the desei-t ! At
other times visits of patients, prescriptions, and simi-
lar duties would take up a part of the day; or some
young fellow, particularly desirous of information
RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 121
about Syria or Egypt, or perhaps curious after his-
tory and moral science, would hold us for a couple of
hours in serious and sensible talk, at any rate to our
advantage."
It was necessary that the travellers should not de-
lay in paying their official visit to Hamood, the vice-
gerent of Telal. His residence is in the centre of
the garden region, near a solitary round tower, whose
massive stone walls are mentioned in Arabian poetry.
Hamood's residence is an irregular structure, of more
recent date, with no distinguishing feature except a
tower about fifty feet in height. Palgrave and his
companion were accompanied b}'^ a large number of
their newly-found friends. After passing through
an outer court, filled with armed guards, they found
the ruler seated in his large reception-hall :
" There, in the place of distinction, which he never
yields to any individual of Djowf, whatever be his
birth or wealth, appeared the governor, a strong,
broad-shouldered, dark-browed, dark-eyed man, clad
in the long white shirt of the country, and over it
a handsome black cloak, embroidered with crimson
silk ; on his august head a silken handkerchief or
keffee'yeh, girt by a white band of finely woven
camel's hair ; and in his fingers a grass fan. He
rose graciously on our approach, extended to us the
palm of his hand, and made us sit down near his
side, keeping, however, Ghafil, as an old acquaint-
ance, between himself and us, perhaps as a precau-
tionary arrangement against any sudden assault or
treasonable intention on our part, for an Arab, be he
who he may, is never off his guard when new faces
9
122 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
are in presence. In other respects he showed us
much courtesy and good-will, made many civil in-
quiries about oar health after so fatiguing a journey,
praised Damascus and the Damascenes, by way of an
indirect compliment, and offered us a lodging in the
castle. But here Ghafil availed himself of the privi-
leges conceded by Arab custom to priority of liost-
ship to put in his negative on our beiialf ; nor were
we anxious to press the matter. A pound or so of
our choicest coffee, with which we on this occasion
presented his excellency, both as a mute witness to
the object of our journey, and the better to secure
his good-will, was accepted very readily by the great
man, who in due return offered us his best services.
We replied that we stood in need of nothing save his
long life, this being the Arab formula for rejoinder
to such fair speeches ; and, next in order, of means
to get safe on to Ha'yel so soon as our business at
the Djowf should permit, being desirous to establish
ourselves under the immediate patronage of Telal.
In this he promised to aid us, and kept his word."
Hamood afterward politely returned their visit,
and they frequently went to his castle for the pur-
pose of studying the many interesting scenes pre-
sented by the exercise of the very primitive Arab
system of justice. Palgrave gives the following case
as a specimen :
" One day my comrade and myself were on a visit
of mere politeness at the castle ; the customary cere-
monies liad been gone through, and business, at first
interrupted by our entrance, had resumed its course.
A Bedouin of the Ma'az tribe was pleading his cause
RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 123
bofore Hamood, and accusing someone of having
forcibly taken away his camel. The governor was
seated with an air of intense gravity in his corner,
half leaning on a cushion, while the Bedouin, cross-
legged on the ground before him, and within six feet
of his person, flourished in his hand a large reaping-
hook, identically that which is here used for cutting
grass. Energetically gesticulating with this graceful
implement, he thus challenged his judge's attention :
' You, Hamood, do you hear ? ' (stretching out at the
same time the hook toward the governor, so as almost
to reach his body, as though he meant to rip him
open) ; ' he has taken from me my camel ; have j'ou
called God to mind?' (again putting his weapon close
to the unflinching magistrate). ' The camel is n^y
camel ; do you hear ? ' (with another I'eminder from
the reaping-hook) ; ' he is mine, by God's award, and
yours too ; do you hear, child ? ' and so on, while
Hamood sat without moving a muscle of face or
limb, imperturbable and impassible till some one of
the counsellors quieted the plaintiff with ' Remem-
ber God, child ; it is of no consequence, you shall
not be wronged.' Then the judge called on the wit-
nesses, men of the Djowf, to say their say, and on
their confirmation of the Bedouin's statement, gave
orders to two of his satellites to search for and bring
before him the accused party ; while he added to the
Ma'azee, 'All right, daddy, you shall have your own ;
put your confidence in God,' and composedly mo-
tioned him back to his place.
""A fortnight and more went by, and found us still
in the Djowf, ' honored guests ' in Arab phrase, and
124 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
well rested from the bygone fatigues of the desert.
Ghafil's dwelling was still, so to speak, our oflEicial
home ; but there were two other houses where we
were still more at our ease ; that of Dafee, the same
who along with Ghafil came to meet us on our fii'st
arrival ; and that of Salim, a respectable and, in his
way, a literary old man, our near neighbor, and sur-
rounded by a large family of fine strapping youths,
all of them brought up more or less in the fear of
Allah and in good example. Hither we used to
retire when wearied of Ghafil and his like, and pass
a quiet hour in their k'hawah, reciting or hearing
Arab poety, talking over the condition of the country
and its future prospects, discussing points of morality,
or commenting on the ways and fashions of the day."
The important question for the travellers was how
they should get to Djebel Shomer, the great fertile
oasis to the south, under the rule of the famous
Prince Telal. The terrible Nefood, or sand-passes,
which the Arabs themselves look upon with dread,
must be crossed, and it was now the middle of sum-
mer. The hospitable people of the Djowf begged
Palo-rave and his friends to remain until September,
and they probably would have been delayed for some
time but for a lucky chance. The Azzam tribe of
Bedouins, which had been attacked by Prince Telal,
submitted, and a dozen of their chiefs arrived at the
Djowf, on their way to Djebel Shomer, where they
purposed to win Telal's good graces by tendering him
their allegiance in his very capital. Hamood re-
ceived them and lodged them for several days, while
they rested from their past fatigues, and prepared
RESIDENCE IN THE DJOWF 125
themselves for what yet lay before them. Some in-
liabitants of the Djowf, whose business required
tlieir presence at Ila'yel, were to join the party.
" Ilaniood sent for us," Palgrave continues, " and
gave us notice of this expedition, and on our declar-
ing that we desired to profit by it, he handed us a
scrap of paper, addressed to Telal himself, wherein
he certified that we liad duly paid the entrance fee
exacted from strangers on their coming within tht
limits of Shomer rule, and that we were indeed re-
spectable individuals, worthy of all good treatment.
We then, in presence of Ilamood, struck our bargain
with one of the band for a couple of camels, whose
price, including all the services of their master as
guide and companion for ten days of July travelling,
was not extravagant either; it came up to just a hun-
dred and ten piastres, equivalent to eighteen or nine-
teen shillings of English money.
" Many delays occurred, and it was not till the 18th
of July, when the figs were fully ripe — a circumstance
which furnished the natives of Djowf with new
cause of wonder at our rushing away, in lieu of wait-
ing like rational beings to enjoy the good things of
the land — that we received our final ' Son of lio-
deirah, depart.' This was intimated to us, not by a
locust, but by a creature almost as queer, namely, our
new conductor, a half-cracked Arab, neither peasant
nor Bedouin, but something anomalous between the
two, hight Djedey', and a native of the outskirts of
Djebel Shomer, who darkened our door in the fore-
noon, and warned us to make our final packing up,
and get ready for starting the same day.
126 TliA VELS IN ARABIA
"When once clear of the houses and gardens,
Djedey' led ns by a road skirting the southei'n side
of the valley, till we arrived, before sunset, at the
other, or eastern, extremit}^ of the town. Here was
the rendezvous agreed on by our companions ; but
the}' did not appear, and reason good, for they had
i-ight to a supper more under Hamood's roof, and
were loath to lose it. So we halted and alighted
alone. The chief of this quarter, which is above
two miles distant from the castle, invited us to sup-
per, and thence we returned to our baggage, there to
sleep. To pass a summer's night in the open air on
a soft sand bed implies no great privation in these
countries, nor is anyone looked on as a hero for so
doing.
" Early next morning, while Yenus jet shone like
a drop of melted silver on the slaty blue, three of
our party arrived and announced that the rest of our
companions would soon come up. Encouraged by
the news, we determined to march on without further
tarrying, and ere sunrise we climbed the steep ascent
of the southerly bank, whence we had a magnificent
view of the whole length of the Djowf, its castle and
towers, and groves and gardens, in the ruddy light
of morning, and beyond the drear northern deserts
stretching far away. We then dipped down the
other side of the bordering hill, not again to see the
Djowf till — who knows when ? "
CHAPTER X.
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS— CROSSING THE NEFOOD
" /^^UR way was now to the southeast, across a
\^ large plain varied with sand-mounds and
covered with the ghada-bush, already described, so
that our camels were much more inclined to crop
pasture than to do their business in journeying ahead.
About noon we halted near a large tuft of this
shrub, at least ten feet high. We constructed a sort
of cabin with boughs broken off the neighboring
plants and suitably arranged shed wise, and thus
passed the noon hours of intolerable heat till the
whole band came in sight.
"They were barbarous, nay, almost savage, fel-
lows, like most Sherarat, whether chiefs or people ;
but they had been somewhat awed by the grandeurs
of Hamood, and yet more so by the prospect of com-
ing so soon before the terrible majesty of Telal him-
self. All were duly armed, and had put on their
best suits of apparel, an equipment worthy of a scare-
crow or of an Irishman at a wake. Tattered red
overalls; cloaks with more patches than original
substance, or, worse yet, which opened large mouths
to cry for patching, but had not got it ; little broken
tobacco pipes, and no trousers soever (by the way,
all genuine Arabs are sans-culottes) / faces meagre
128 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
with habitual hunger, and black with dirt and
weather stains — such were tlie high-born chiefs of
Azzam, on their way to the king's levee. Along
with them were two Bedouins of the Shoiner tribe, a
degree better in guise and person than the Shera-
rat ; and lastly, three men of Djowf, who looked
almost like gentlemen among such ragamuflBns. As
to my comrade and myself, I trust that the reader
will charitably suppose us the exquisites of the party.
So we rode on together.
" Next morning, a little after sunrise, we arrived
at a white calcareous valley, girt round with low
hills of marl and sand. Here was the famous Be'er
Sliekeek, or ' well of Shekeek,' "whence we were to
fill our water-skins, and that thoroughly, since no
other source lay before us for four days' march amid
the sand passes, up to the very verge of Djebel Sho-
mer.
" Daughters of the Great Desert, to use an Arab
phrase, the ' Nefood,' or sand-passes, bear but too
strong a family resemblance to their unamiable
mother. What has been said elsewhere about their
origin, their extent, their bearings, and their connec-
tion with the Dhana, or main sand-waste of the
south, may exempt me from here entering on a mi-
nute enarration of all their geographical details ; let
it suffice for the present that they are offshoots — in-
lets, one Miiglit not unsuitably call tliem — of the great
ocean of sand tliat covers about one-third of the pe-
ninsula, into whose central aiid comparatively fertile
plateau they make deep inroads, nay, in some places
almost intersect it. Their general character, of which
_i/«SK-_
^^...^^^
C.U'TAIN BURTON AS A PILGRIM.
GROSSING THE NEFOOD 129
the following pages will, I trust, give a tolerably cor-
rect idea, is also that of Dahna, or ' red desert,' it-
self. The Arabs, always prone to localize rather
than generalize, count these sand-streams by scores,
but they may all be referred to four principal courses,
and he who would traverse the centre must necessa-
rily cross two of them, perhaps even three, as we did.
" The general type of Arabia is that of a central
table-land, surrounded by a desert ring, sandy to the
south, west, and east, and stony to the north. This
outlying circle is in its turn girt by a line of moun-
tains, low and sterile for the most, but attaining in
Yemen and Oman considerable height, breadth, and
fertility, while beyond these a narrow rim of coast is
bordered by the sea. The surface of the midmost
table-land equals somewhat less than one-half of the
entire peninsula, and its special demarcations are
much afFected, nay, often absolutely fixed, by the
windings and in-runnings of the Nefood. If to these
central highlands, or Nedjed, taking that word in its
wider sense, we add the Djowf, the Ta'yif, Djebel
'Aaseer, Yemen, Oman, and Hasa, in short, whatever
spots of fertility belong to the outer circles, we shall
find that Arabia contains about two-thirds of culti-
vated, or at least of cultivable, land, with a remaining
third of irreclaimable desert, chiefly to the south. In
most other directions the great blank spaces often
left in maps of this country are quite as frequently
indications of non-information as of real non-inhabi-
tation. However, we have just now a strip, though
fortunately only a strip, of pure, unmitigated desei't
before us, after which better lands await us ; and in
130 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
this liope let us take courage and boldly enter the
Nefood.
" Much had we heard of them from Bedouins and
countrymen, so that we had made up our minds to
something very terrible and very impracticable. But
the reality, especiallj' in these dog days, proved worse
than aught heard or imagined.
" We were now traversing an immense ocean of
loose reddish sand, unlimited to the eye, and heaped
up in enormous ridges, running parallel to each other
from north to south, undulation after undulation,
each swell two or three hundred feet in average
height, with slant sides and rounded crests furrowed
in every direction by the capricious gales of the des-
ert. In the depths between the traveller finds him-
self as it were imprisoned in a suffocating sand-])it,
liemmed in by burning walls on every side ; while at
other times, while laboring up the slope, he over-
looks what seems a vast sea of fire, swelling under a
heavy monsoon wind, and ruffled by a cross blast into
little red-hot waves."
Palgrave devotes several pages to his journey across
the Nefood, bearing out in his general description its
character, as above.
Lady Anne Blunt, who with her husband and na-
tive followers crossed the Nefood sixteen years later,
however, takes issue with Mr. Palgrave as to its
character, as will be found in Chapter XVII., largely
devoted to her travels in Arabia.
Arriving at the eastern edge of the Nefood Pal-
grave continues :
" The morning broke on us still toiliii"; amid the
CROSSING THE NEFOOD 131
sands. By dayliglit we saw our straggling compan-
ions like black specks here and there, one far ahead
on a yet vigorous dromedary, another in the rear dis-
mounted, and urging his fallen beast to rise by plung-
ing a knife a good incli deep into its haunches, a
third lagging in the extreme distance. Everyone
for liimself and God for us all ! — so we quickened our
pace, looking anxiously before us for the hills of
Djobbah, which could not now be distant. At noon
we came in sight of them all at once, close on our
right, wild and fantastic cliffs, rising sheer on tlie mar-
gin of the sand sea. We coasted them awhile, till at
a turn the whole plain of Djobbah and its landscape
opened on our view.
" Here we had before us a cluster of black granite
rock, streaked with red, and about seven hundred
feet, at a rough guess, in height ; beyond them a
large barren plain, partly white and encrusted with
salt, partly green with tillage, and studded with palm-
groves, amongst which we could discern, not far off,
the village of Djobbah, much resembling that of
Djowf in arrangement and general appearance, only
smaller, and without castle or tower. Beyond the
valley glistened a second line of sand-hills, but less
wild and desolate-looking than those behind us, and
far in the distance the main range of Djebel Sho-
mer, a long purple sierra of most picturesque out-
line. Had we there and then mounted, as we after-
ward did, the heights on our right, we should have
also seen in the extreme southwest a green patch
near the horizon, where cluster the palm plantations
of Teymah, a place famed in Arab history, and by
132 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
some supposed identical with the Teman of Holy
Writ.
" But for the moment a drop of fresh water and a
shelter from tlie July sun was much more in our
thoughts than all the Teymahs or Temans that ever
existed. My camel, too, was — not at the end of his
wits, for he never had any— but of his legs, and
hardly capable of advance, while I was myself too
tired to urge him on vigorously, and we took a fair
hour to cross a narrow white strip of mingled salt
and sand that yet intervened between us and the vil-
lage.
" Without its garden walls was pitched the very
identical tent of our noble guide, and here his wife
and family were anxiously awaiting their lord. Dje-
dey' invited us — indeed he could not conformably
with Shomer customs do less — to partake of his
board and lodging, and we had no better course than
to accept of both. So we let our camels fling them-
selves out like dead or dying alongside of the taber-
nacle, and entered to drink water mixed with sour
milk." Here the caravan rested for a day.
" About sunrise on the 25th of July we left Djobbah,
crossed the valley to the southeast, and entered once
more on a sandy desert, but a desert, as I have before
hinted, of a milder and less inhospitable character than
the dreary Xefood of two days back. Here the sand is
thickly sprinkled with shrubs and not altogether de-
void of herbs and grass ; while the undulations of
the surface, running invariably from north to south,
according to the general rule of that phenomenon,
are much less deeply traced, though never wholly ab-
CROSSING THE NEFOOD 133
sent. "We paced on all day ; at nightfall we found
ourselves on the edge of a vast funnel-like depression,
where the sand recedes on all sides to leave bare the
chalky bottom-strata below ; here lights glimmering
amid Bedouin tents in the depths of the valley in-
vited us to try our chance of a preliminary supper
before the repose of the night. We had, however,
much ado to descend the cavity, so steep was the
sandy slope ; while its circular form and spiral mark-
ing reminded me of Edgar Poe's imaginative ' Mael-
Strom.' The Arabs to whom the watch-fires belonged
were shepherds of the numerous Shomer tribe,
whence the district, plain and mountain, takes its
name. They welcomed ns to a share of their supper ;
and a good dish of rice, instead of insipid samh or
pasty, augured a certain approach to civilization.
" At break of day we resumed our march, and met
with camels and camel-drivers in abundance, besides
a few sheep and goats. Before noon we had got
clear of the sandy patch, and entered in its stead on
a firm gravelly soil. Here we enjoyed an hour of
midday halt and shade in a natural cavern, hollowed
out in a liigh granite rock, itself an advanced guard
of the main body of Djebel Shomer. This moun-
tain range now rose before us, wholly unlike any
other that I had ever seen ; a huge mass of crag and
stone, piled up in fantastic disorder, with green val-
leys and habitations intervening. The sun had not
yet set when we reached the pretty village of Kenah,
amid groves and waters — no more, however, running
streams like those of Djowf, but an artificial irriga-
tion by means of wells and buckets. At some dis-
134 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
tance from the houses stood a cluster of three or four
large overshadowing trees, objects of peasant venera-
tion here, as once in Palestine. The welcome of the
inhabitants, when we dismounted at their doors, was
hearty and hospitable, nay, even polite and consider-
ate ; and a good meal, with a dish of fresh grapes
for dessert, was soon set before us in the veranda of
a pleasant little house, much reminding me of an
English farm-cottage, whither the good man of the
dwelling had invited us for the evening. All ex-
pressed great desire to profit by our medical skill ;
and on our reply that we could not conveniently open
shop except at the capital, Ha'yel, several announced
their resolution to visit us there ; and subsequently
kept their word, though at the cost of about twenty-
four miles of journey.
"Wo rose very early. Our path, well tracked and
trodden, now lay between ridges of precipitous rock,
rising abruptlj' from a level and grassy plain ; some-
times the road was sunk in deep gorges, sometimes
it opened out on wider spaces, where trees and
villages appeared, while the number of wayfarers,
on foot or mounted, single or in bands, still increased
as we drew nearer to the capital. There was an air
of newness and security about the dwellings and
plantations hardly to be found nowadays in any
other part of Arabia, Oman alone excepted. I may
add also tlie great frequency of young trees and
ground newly enclosed, a cheerful sight, yet further
enhanced by the total absence of ruins, so common
in the East ; hence the general eifect produced by
Djebcl Shomcr, when contrasted with most other
CROSSING THE NEFOOD 135
provinces or kingdoms around, near and far, is that
of a newly coined piece, in all its sharpness and
shine, amid a dingj^ heap of defaced currency. It is
a fresh creation, and shows wliat Arabia might be
under better i-ule than it enjoys for the most part :
an inference rendered the more conclusive by the
fact that in natural and unaided fertility Djebel Sho-
mer is perhaps the least favored district in the entire
central peninsula.
" We were here close under the backbone of
Djebel Sliomer, whose reddish crags rose in the
strangest forms on our right and left, while a narrow
cleft down to the plain-level below gave opening to
the capital. Very hard to bring an army through
this against the will of the inhabitants thought I ;
fifty resolute men could, in fact, hold tlie pass
against thousands ; nor is there any other approach
to Ha'yel from the northern direction. The town is
situated near the very centre of the mountains ; it
Avas as yet entirely concealed from our view by the
windings of the road amid huge piles of rock.
Meanwhile from Djobbah to Ha'yel the whole plain
gradually rises, i-uiming up between the sierras,
whose course from northeast to southwest crosses
two-thirds of the upper peninsula, and forms the out-
work of the central high country. Hence the name
of Nedjed, literally ' highland,' in contradistinction
to the coast and the outljdng provinces of lesser ele-
vation.
" The sun was yet two hours' distance above the
western horizon, when we threaded the narrow and
winding defile, till we arrived at its farther end.
136 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Here we found ourselves on the verge of a large
plain, many miles in length and hreadth, and girt on
every side by a high mountain rampart, while right
in front of us, at scarce a quarter of an hour's march,
lay the town of Ha'yel, surrounded by fortifications
of about twenty feet in height, with bastion towers,
some round, some square, and large folding gates at
intervals ; it offered the same show of freshness, and
even of something like irregular elegance, that had
before struck us in the villages on our way. This,
liowever, was a fall-grown town, and its area might
readily hold three hundred thousand inhabitants or
more, were its streets and houses close packed like
those of Brussels or Paris. But the number of citi-
zens does not, in fact, exceed twenty or twenty-two
thousand, thanks to the many large gardens, open
spaces, and even plantations, included within the
outer walls, while the immense palace of the mon-
arch alone, with its pleasure-grounds annexed, occu-
pies about one-tenth of the entire city. Our atten-
tion was attracted by a lofty tower, some seventy
feet in height, of recent construction and oval form,
belonging to tlie royal residence. The plain all
around the town is studded with isolated houses and
gardens, the property of wealthy citizens, or of mem-
bers of the kingly family, and on the far-off skirts of
the plain appear the groves belonging to Kafar, 'Ad-
wah, and other villages, placed at the openings of the
mountain gorges that conduct to the capital. The
town walls and buildings shone yellow in the evening
sun, and the whole prospect was one of thriving
security, delightful to view, though wanting in the
OROSSmO THE NEFOOD 137
peculiar luxuriance of vegetation offered by the val-
ley of Djowf. A few Bedouin tents lay clustered
close by the ramparts, and the great number of hoi'se-
men, footmen, canjels, asses, peasants, townsmen, boj'S,
women, and other like, all passing to and fro on their
various avocations, gave cheerfulness and animation
to the scene.
"We crossed the plain and made for the town gate,
opposite the castle ; next, with no little difficulty, pre-
vailed on our camels to pace the high-walled street,
and at last arrived at the open space in front of the
palace. It was yet an hour before sunset, or rather
more ; the business of the day was over in Ha'yel,
and the outer courtyard where we now stood was
crowded with loiterers of all shapes and sizes. We
made our camels kneel down close by the palace gate,
alongside of some forty or fifty others, and then
stepped back to repose our very weary limbs on a
stone bench opposite the portal, and awaited what
might next occur."
10
CHAPTER XL
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS— LIFE IN HA'YEL
"AT our first appearance a slight stir takes place.
iV The customary salutations are given and re-
turned by those nearest at hand ; and a small knot of
inquisitive idlers, come up to see what and vt^hence
we are, soon thickens into a dense circle. Many
questions are asked, first of our conductor, Djedey,
and next of ourselves ; our answers are tolerably
laconic. Meanwhile a thin, middle-sized individual,
whose countenance bears the type of smiling urbanity
and precise etiquette, befitting his office at court, ap-
proaches us. His neat and simple dress, the long
silver-circled staff in his hand, his respectful saluta-
tion, his politely important manner, all denote him
one of the palace retinue. It is Seyf , the court cham-
berlain, whose special duty is the reception and pres-
entation of strangers. We rise to receive him, and
are greeted with a decorous ' Peace be with you,
brothers,' in the fulness of every inflection and ac-
cent that the most scrupulous grammarian could de-
sire. We return an equally Priscianic salutation.
*• Whence have you come ? ' is the first question. ' May
good attend you!' Of course we declare ourselves
physicians from Syria, for our bulkier wares had
LIFE IN HA' TEL 139
been disposed of in the Djowf, and we were now re-
solved to depend on medical practice alone. 'And
what do you desire here in our town? may God grant
you success!' says Seyf. 'We desire the favor of
God most high, and, secondly, that of Telal,' is our
answer, conforming our style to the correctest formu-
las of the country, which we had already begun to
pick up. Whereupon Seyf, looking very sweet the
while, begins, as in duty bound, a little encomium
on his master's generosity and other excellent quali-
ties, and assures us that we have exactly reached right
quarters.
" But alas ! while my comrade and myself were
exchanging side-glances of mutual felicitation at such
fair beginnings, Nemesis suddenly awoke to claim
her due, and the serenity of our horizon was at once
overcast by an unexpected and most unwelcome
cloud. My readers are doubtless already aware that
nothing was of higher importance for us than the
most absolute incognito, above all in whatever re-
garded European origin and character. In fact, once
known for Europeans, all intimate access and sincer-
ity of intercourse with the people of the land would
have been irretrievably lost, and our onward progress
to Nedjed rendered totally impossible. These were
the very least inconveniences that could follow such
a detection ; others much more disagreeable might
also be well apprehended. Now thus far nothing
had occurred capable of exciting serious suspicion ;
no one had recognized us, or pretended to recognize.
We, too, on our part, had thought that Gaza, Ma'an,
and perhaps the Djowf, were the only localities
140 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
where this kind of recognition had to be feared. But
we had reckoned without our host ; the first real dan-
ger was reserved for Ha'yel, within the very limits
of Nedjed, and with all the desert-belt between us
and our old acquaintances.
" For while Sejf was running through the prelim-
inaries of his politeness, I saw to my horror, amid
the circle of bystanders, a figure, a face well known
to me scarce six months before in Damascus, and
well known to many others also, now merchant, now
trader, now post-contractor, shrewd, enterprising, and
active, though nigh fifty years of age, and intimate
with many Europeans of considerable standing in
Syria and Bagdad — one, in short, accustomed to all
kinds of men, and not to be easily imposed on by
any.
"While I involuntarily stared dismay on my
friend, and yet doubted if it could possibly be he, all
incertitude was dispelled by his cheerful salutation,
in the confidential tone of an old acquaintance, fol-
lowed by wondering inquiries as to what wind had
blown me hither, and what I meant to do here in
Ha'yel.
" Wishing him most heartily somewhere else, I
liad nothing for it but to ' fix a vacant stare,' to give
a formal return of greeting, and then silence.
" But misfortunes never come single. While I
was thus on my defensive against so dangerous an
antagonist in the person of my free-and-easy friend,
]o! a tall, sinister - featured individual comes up,
clad in the dress of an inhabitant of Kaseem, and
al)ruptly breaks in with, ' And I too have seen him
LIFE IN HA' TEL 141
at Damascus,' naming at the same time the place and
date of the meeting, and specifying exactly the cir-
cumstances most calculated to set me down for a gen-
uine European.
" Had he really met me as he said ? I cannot
precisely say ; the place he mentioned was one
whither men, half-spies, half-travellers, and whole
intriguers from the interior districts, nay, even from
Nedjed itself, not unfrequently resort ; and, as I
myself was conscious of having paid more than one
visit there, my officious interlocutor might very pos-
sibly have been one of those present on some such
occasion. So that although I did not now recognize
him in particular, there was a strong intrinsic proba-
bility in favor of his ill-timed veracity ; and his thus
coming in to support the first witness in his asser-
tions rendered my predicament, already unsafe, yet
worse.
" But ere I could frame an answer or resolve what
course to hold, up came a third, who, by overshoot-
ing the mark, put the game into our hands. He too
salaams me as an old friend, and then, turning to
those around, now worked up to a most extraordi-
nary pitch of amazed curiosity, says, * And I also
know him perfectly well ; 1 have often met him at
Cairo, where he lives in great wealth in a lai'ge house
near the Kasr-el-'Eynee ; his name is 'Abd-es-Saleeb ;
he is married, and has a very beautiful daughter, who
rides an expensive horse,' etc.
" Here at last was a pure invention or mistake (for
I know not which it was) that admitted of a flat de-
nial. ' Aslahek Allah,' ' May Heaven set you right,'
142 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
said I; 'never did I live at Cairo, nor have I the
blessing of any horse-riding young ladies for daugh-
ters.' Then, looking very hard at my second detect-
or, toward whom I had all the right of doubt, ' I do
not remember having ever seen you ; think well as
to what you say ; many a man besides n}yself lias a
reddish beard and straw-colored mustaches,' taking
pains, however, not to seem particularly ' careful to
answer him in this matter,' but as if merely ques-
tioning the precise identity. But for the first of the
trio I knew not what to do or to reply, so I contin-
ued to look at him with a killing air of inquisitive
stupidity, as though not fully undej'standing his
meaning,
" But Seyf, thongh himself at first somewhat stag-
gered by this sudden downpour of recognition, was
now reassured by the discomfiture of the third wit-
ness, and came to the convenient conclusion that the
two others were no better worthy of credit. ' Kever
mind them,' exclaimed he, addressing himself to us,
' they are talkative -liars, mere gossipers ; let them
alone, they do not deserve attention ; come along
with me to the k'hawah in. the palace, and rest your-
selves.' Then turning to my poor Damascene friend,
whose only wrong was to have been overnmch in
the right, he sharply chid him, and next the rest,
and led us off, most glad to follow the leader,
through the narrow and dark portal into the royal
residence.
" Here we remained whilst coffee was, as wont,
prepared and served. Seyf, who had left us awhile,
now came back to say that Telal would soon return
LIFE IN HA' TEL 143
from his afternoon walk in a garden wliere he had
been taking the air, and that if we would pass into
the outer court we should then and there have the
opportunity of paying hini our introductory respects.
He added that we should afterward find our supper
ready, and be provided also with good lodgings for
the night ; finally, that the k'hawah and what it con-
tained were always at our disposition so long as we
should honor Ha'yel by our presence.
" We rose accordingly and returned with Seyf to
the outside area. It was fuller than ever, on account
of the expected appearance of the monarch. A few
minutes later we saw a crowd approach from the
upper extremity of the place, namely, that toward
the market. When the new-comers drew near, we
saw them to be almost exclusively armed men, with
some of the more important-looking citizens, but all
on foot. In the midst of this circle, though detached
from those around them, slowly advanced three per-
sonages, whose dress and deportment, together with
the respectful distance observed by the rest, an-
nounced superior rank. ' Here comes Telal,' said
Seyf, in an undertone.
" The midmost figure was in fact that of the prince
himself. Short of stature, broad-shouldered, and
strongly built, of a very dusky complexion, with long
black hair, dark and piercing eyes, and a countenance
rather severe than open, Telal might readily be sup-
posed above forty years in age, though he is in fact
thirty-seven or thirty-eight at most. His step was
measured, his demeanor grave and somewhat haughty.
His dress, a long robe of cashmere shawl, covered
144 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the white Arab shirt, and over all he wore a deli-
cately worked cloak of cauiel's-hair from Oman, a
great rarity, and highly valued in this part of Arabia.
His head was adorned by a broidered handkerchief,
in which silk and gold thread had not been spared,
and girt by a broad band of camel's-hair entwined
with red silk, the manufacture of Meshid 'Alee. A
gold-mounted sword hung by his side, and his dress
was perfumed with musk, in a degree better adapted
to Arab than to European nostrils. His glance never
rested for a moment ; sometimes it turned on his
nearer companions, sometimes on the crowd ; I have
seldom seen so truly an ' eagle eye,' in rapidity and
in brilliancy.
" By his side walked a tall, thin individual, clad in
garments of somewhat less costly material, but of
gayer colors and embroidery than those of the king
himself. His face announced unusual intelligence
and courtly politeness ; his sword was not, however,
adorned with gold, the exclusive privilege of the
royal family, but with silver only.
This was Zamil, the treasurer and prime minister
— sole minister, indeed, of the autocrat. Raised
from beggary by Abdallah, the late king, who had
seen in the ragged orphan signs of rare capacity, he
continued to merit the uninterrupted favor of his
patron, and after his death had become equally, or
yet more, dear to Tela!, who raised him from post to
post, till he at last occupied the higliest position in
the kingdom after the monarch himself. Of the de-
niurfily smiling Al)d-el-Muhsin, the second com]-)ani(»n
of the king's evening walk, I will say nothing for the
LIFE IN HA' TEL 145
moment ; we shall have him before long for a very
intimate acquaintance and a steady friend.
" Everyone stood up as Telal drew nigh. Seyf
gave ns a sign to follow him, made way through the
crowd, and saluted his sovereign with the authorized
formula of ' Peace be with you, O the Protected of
God ! ' Telal at once cast on us a penetrating glance,
and addressed a question in a low voice to Seyf,
whose answer was in the same tone. The prince
then looked again toward ns, but with a friendlier
expression of face. We approached and touched his
open hand, repeating the same salutation as that used
by Seyf. No bow, hand-kissing, or other ceremony
is customary on these occasions. Telal returned our
greeting, and then, without a word more to us, whis-
pered a moment to Seyf, and passed on through the
palace gate.
" ' He will give you a private audience to-morrow,'
said Seyf, ' and I will take care that you have notice
of it in due time ; meanwhile come to supper.' The
sun had already set when we re-entered the palace.
This time, after passing the arsenal, we turned aside
into a large square court, distinct from the former,
and surrounded by an open veranda, spread with
mats. Two large ostriches, presents oifered to Telal
by some chiefs of the Solibah tribe, strutted about
the enclosure, and afforded much amusement to the
negro boys and scullions of the establishment. Seyf
conducted us to the further side of the court, where
we seated ourselves under the portico.
" Hither some black slaves immediately brought
the supper ; the ' piece de resistance ' was, as usual, a
146 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
huge dish of rice and boiled meat, with some thin
cakes of unleavened bread and dates, and small
onions with chopped gourds intermixed. The cook-
ery was better than what we had heretofore tasted,
though it would, perhaps, have hardly passed muster
with a Yatel. We made a hearty meal, took coffee
in the k'hawah, and then returned to sit awhile and
smoke our pipes in the open air. Keeds not say how
lovely are the summer evenings, how cool the breeze,
liow pure the sky, in these mountainous districts."
Palgrave gives a historical sketch of the rise of
Prince Telal to a position of power and importance
in Central Arabia, scarcely secondary to that of the
Wahabee ruler of Xedjed. The region of Djebel
Sliomer was subjected to the AVahabee rule during
the last century, and the severe discipline of the new
creed was forced upon its inhabitants. But, after
the taking of Derreyeh by Ibrahim Pasha, the peo-
ple regained a partial independence, and a rivalry
for the chieftainship ensued between the two noble
houses of Djaaper and Beyt Alee. The leader of the
former was a young man named Abdallah, of more
than ordinary character and intelligence, wealthy and
popular. But he was defeated in the struggle, and
about the year 1820 was driven into exile.
With a small band of followers he reached the
Wady Sirhan (traversed by Palgrave on his way to
the Djowf), where they were attacked by the Aney-
zeh Bedouins, all the rest slain, and Abdallah left for
dead on the sands. The Arab story is that the lo-
custs came around them, scattered the sand with their
wings and feet upon his wounds and thus stopped the
LIFE IN HA' TEL 147
flow of blood, while a flock of partridges hung above
liim to screen him from the burning sun, A mer-
chant of Damascus, passing by with his caravan,
beheld the miracle, took the youth, bound up his
wounds, and restored him to healtli by the most ten-
der care. When he had recovered his vigor in Da-
mascus, the generous merchant sent him back to
Arabia.
He went first to the Nedjed, entered the service of
the Wahabee chief, rose to high military rank, and
final]}', by his own personal bravery, secured the sov-
ereignty to Feysul, the present (1863) ruler. The lat-
ter then gave him an army to recover his heritage of
Djebel Shomer, and about the year 1830 his sway
was secured in his native country. The rival clan
of Beyt Alee was extirpated, only one child being
left, whom Telal afterward, with a rare but politic
generosity, restored to wealth and honors.
Abdallah took every means to strengthen his pow-
er. He found it necessary, through his dependence
on Feysul, to establish the Wahabee creed ; he used
the Bedouins as allies, in order to repress the rivalry
of the nobles, and thus gained power at the expense
of popularity. Many plots were formed against
him, many attempts made to assassinate him, but
they all failed : his lucky star attended him through-
out. Up to this time he had dwelt in a quarter of
the capital which the old chieftains and the noblity
had mainly chosen for their domicile, and where the
new monarch was surrounded by men his equals in
birth and of even more ancient title to command.
But now he added a new quarter to the town, and
14:8 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
there laid the foundations of a vast palace destined
for the future abode of the king and the display of
all his grandeur, amid streets and nobles of his own
creation. The walls of the projected edifice were
fast rising when he died, almost suddenly, in 1844 or
1845, leaving three 'sons — Telal, Meta'ab, and Mo-
hammed — the eldest scarce twenty years of age, be-
sides his only surviving brother Obeyd, who could
not then have been much under fifty.
" Telal was already highly popular," says Palgrave,
" much more so than his father, and had given early
tokens of those superior qualities which accompanied
him to the throne. All parties united to proclaim
him sole heir to the kingdom and lawful successor
to the regal power, and thus the rival pretensions
of Obeyd, hated by many and feared by all, were
smothered at the outset and put aside without a con-
test.
" The young sovereign possessed, in fact, all that
Arab ideas require to insure good government and
lasting popularity. Affable toward the common peo-
ple, reserved and haughty with the aristocrac}^ cour-
ageous and skilful in war, a lover of commerce and
building in time of peace, liberal even to profusion,
yet always careful to maintain and augment the state
revenue, neither over-strict nor yet scandalously lax
in religion, secret in his designs, but never known to
break a promise once given, or violate a plighted
faith ; severe in administration, yet averse to blood-
shed, he offered the very type of what an Arab
prince should be. I might add, that among all rulers
or governors, European or Asiatic, with whose ac-
LIFE IN HA' TEL 149
qnaintance I have ever chanced to be honored, 1
know few equal in the true art of govei-nment to
Telal, son of Abdallah-ebn-Ilasheed.
" His first cares were directed to adorn and civil-
ize the capital. Under his orders, enforced by per-
sonal superintendence, the palace commenced by liis
father was soon brought to completion. But he
added, what probably his father would hardly have
thouglit of, a long row of warehouses, the dependen-
cies and property of the same palace ; next he built
a market-place consisting of about eighty shops or
magazines, destined for public commerce and trade,
and lastly constructed a lai'ge mosque for the official
prayers of Friday. Round the palace, and in many
other parts of the town, he opened streets, dug wells,
and laid out extensive gai'dens, besides strengthening
the old fortifications all round and adding new ones.
At the same time he managed to secure at once the
fidelity and the absence of his dangerous uncle by
giving him charge of those military expeditions
which best satisfied the restless energy of Obeyd.
The first of these wars was directed, I know not on
what pretext, against Kheybar. But as Telal in-
tended rather to enforce submission than to inflict
ruin, he associated with Obeyd in the military com
mand his own brother Meta'ab, to put a check on the
ferocity of the former. Kheybar was conquered,
and Telal sent thither, as governor in his name, a
young man of Ha'yel, prudent and gentle, whom I
subsequently met when he was on a visit at the capital.
"Not long after, the inhabitants of Kaseem, weary
of Wahabee tyranny, turned their eyes toward Tela),
150 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
who had ah-eadj given a generous and inviolable asy-
lum to tlie nuinei-ons political exiles of that district.
Secret negotiations took place, and at a favorable
moment the entire uplands of that province — after
a fashion not indeed peculiar to Arabia — annexed
themselves to the kingdom of Shomer by universal
and unanimous suffrage. Telal made suitable apolo-
gies to the Nedjean monarch, the original sovereign
of the annexed district ; he could not resist the popu-
lar wish ; it had been forced on him, etc. — but West-
ern Europe is familiar with the style. Feysul felt
the inopportuneness of a quarrel with the rapidly
growing power to which he himself had given origin
only a few years before, and, after a wry face or two,
swallowed the pill. Meanwhile Telal knowing the
necessity of a high military reputation, both at home
and abroad, undertook in person a series of opera-
tions againts Teyma' and its neighborhood, and at
last against the Djowf itself. Everywhere his arms
were successful, and his moderation in victory secured
the attachment of the vanquished themselves.
" Toward his own subjects his conduct is uni-
formly of a nature to merit their obedience and at-
tachment, and few sovereigns have here met with
better success. Once a day, often twice, he gives
public audience, hears patiently, and decides in per-
son, the minutest causes with great good sense. To
the Bedouins, no insignificant portion of his rule, he
makes up for the restraint he imposes, and the trib-
ute he levies from them, by a profusion of hospital-
ity not to be found elsewhere in the whole of Arabia
from Akabah to Aden, Ilis guests at the midday
LIFE IN HA' TEL 151
and evening meal are never less than fifty or sixty,
and I have often counted up to two hundred at a
banquet, while presents of dress and arms are of fre-
quent if not daily occurrence. It is hard for Europe-
ans to estimate how much popularity such conduct
brings an Asiatic prince. Meanwhile the townsfolk
and villagers love him for the more solid advantages
of undisturbed peace at home, of flourishing com-
merce, of extended dominion, and military glory.
" To capital punishment he is decidedly adverse,
and the severest penalty with which he has hitherto
chastised political offences is banishment or prison.
Indeed, even in cases of homicide or murder, he has
been known not unfrequently to avail himself of the
option allowed by Arab custom between a fine and
retaliation, and to buy off the offender, by bestowing
on the family of the deceased the allotted price of
blood from his own private treasury, and that from
a pure motive of humanity. When execution does
take place, it is always by beheading ; nor is indeed
any other mode of putting to death customary in
Arabia. Stripes, however, are not uncommon, though
administered on the broad back, not on the sole of
the foot. They are the common chastisement for
minor offences, like stealing, cursing, or quarrelling ;
in this last case both parties usually come in for their
share.
" With his numerous retainers he is almost over-
indulgent, and readily pardons a mistake or a negli-
gence ; falsehood alone he never forgives ; and it is
notorious that whoever has once lied to Telal must
give up all hopes of future favor."
152 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
After describing the public audience which is daily
given by this excellent prince, Palgrave describes the
more private reception which was accorded to him-
self and his companion :
" Telal, once free from the mixed crowd, panses a
moment till we rejoin him. The simple and custom-
ary salutations are given and returned. I then pre-
sent him with our only available testimonial, the
scrap wi'itten by Hamood from the Djowf. He opens
it, and hands it over to Zamil, better skilled in read-
ing than his master. Then laying aside all his
wonted gravity, and assuming a good-humored smile,
he takes my hand in his right and my companion's in
his left, and thus walks on with us through the court,
past the mosque, and down the market-place, while
his attendants form a moving wall behind and on
either side.
" He was in his own mind thoroughly persuaded
that we were, as we appeared, Syrians ; but imag-
ined, nor was he entirely in the wrong thus far, that
we had other objects in view than mere medical
practice. But if he was right in so much, he was less
fortunate in the interpretation he chose to put on our
riddle, having imagined that our real scope must be
to buy horses for some government, of which we
must be the agents ; a conjecture which had certainly
the merit of plausibility. However, Telal had, I be-
lieve, no doubt on the matter, and had already deter-
mined to treat us well in the liorse business, and to
let us have a good bargain, as it shortly appeared.
" Accordingly he began a series of questions and
cross-questions, all in a jocose way, but so that the
LIFE IN HA' TEL 153
veiy drift of his inquiries soon allowed us to perceive
what lie really esteemed us. We, following our
previous resolution, stuck to medicine, a family in
want, hopes of good success under the royal patron-
age, and much of the same tenor. But Telal was
not so easily to be blinkered, and kept to his fii'st
judgment. Meanwhile we passed down the street,
lined with starers at the king and us, and at last ar-
rived at the outer door of a large house near the
farther end of the Sook or market-place ; it belonged
to Hasan, the merchant from Meshid 'Alee.
" Three of the retinue stationed themselves by
way of guard at the street door, sword in hand.
The rest entered with the king and ourselves ; we
traversed the court-yard, where the remainder of the
armed men took position, while we went on to the
k'hawah. It was small, but well furnished and car-
peted. Hei'e Telal placed us amicably by his side in
the highest place ; his brother Mohammed and five
or six others were admitted, and seated themselves
each according to his rank, while Hasan, being mas-
ter of the house, did the honors.
" Coffee was brought and pipes lighted. Mean-
time Ebn-Rasheed renewed his interrogatory, skil-
fully throwing out side remarks, now on the govern-
ment of Syria, now on that of Egypt, then on the
Bedouins to the north of Djowf, or on the tribes of
Hedjaz, or on the banks of the Euphrates, thus to
gain light whence and to what end we had in fact
come. Next he questioned us on medicine, perhaps
to discover whether we had the right professional
tone ; then on horses, about which same noble ani-
11
154 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
mals we affected an igiioi-ance niniatura] and very un-
pardonable in an Englislitnan ; but for which 1 liope
afterward to make aniends to my readers. All was
in vain ; and after a full hour onr noble friend had
only managed by his cleverness to get himself farther
off the right track than he had been at the outset.
He felt it, and determined to let matters have their
own course, and to await the result of time. So he
ended by assuring us of his entire confidence and
protection, offering us, to boot, a lodging on the palace
grounds. But this we declined, being desirous of
studying the country as it was in itself, not through
the medium of a court atmosphere ; so we begged
that an abode might be assigned us as near the
market - place as possible ; and this lie pi-omised,
though evidently rather put out by our independent
ways.
" Excellent water-melons, ready peeled and cut up,
with peaches hardly ripe, for it was the beginning of
the season, were now brought in, and we all partook
in common. This was the signal for breaking up ;
Telal renewed his proffers of favor and patronage ;
and we were at last reconducted to our lodgings by
one of the royal guard.
" Seyf now went in search of a pei'inanent dwell-
ing-place wherein to install us ; and, before evening,
succeeded in finding one situated in a street leading
at right angles to the market, and at no unreasonable
distance from the palace. Every door was provided
with its own distinct lock ; the keys hei"e are made of
iron, and in this respect lla'yel has the better of any
other Aiab town it was my chance to visit, where the
LIFE IN IIA'YEL 155
keys were invariably wooden, and thus very liable to
break and get out of order.
" The court-yard was soon thronged with visitors,
some from the palace, others from the town. One
had a sick relation, whom he begged us to come and
see, another some personal ailment, a third had
called out of mere politeness or curiosity ; in short,
men of all conditions and of all ages, but for the
most part open and friendly in manner, so that we
could already anticipate a very speedy acquaintance
with the town and whatever it contained.
" The nature of our occupations now led to a cer-
tain daily routine, though it was often agreeably di-
versified by -incidental occurrences. Perhaps a leaf
taken at random from my journal, now regularly
kept, raa}'^ serve to set before my readers a tolei-able
sample of our ordinary course of life and society at
Ha'yel, while it will at the same time give a more
distinct idea of the town and people than we have
yet supplied.
" Be it, then, the 10th of August, whose jotted notes
1 will put together and fill up the blanks. I might
equally have taken the 9th or the 11th, they are all
imich the same ; but the day I have chosen looks a
little the closer written of the two, and for that sole
reason I prefer giving it.
" On that day, then, in 1862, about a fortniglit
after our establishment at Ila'yel, and when we were,
in consequence, fully injured to our town existence,
Seleem Abou Mahmood-el-'Eys and Barakat-esh-
Shamee, that is, my companion and myself, rose; not
from, our beds, for we had none, but from our roof-
156 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
spread carpets, and took advantage of the silent
hour of the first faint dawn, while the stars yet kept
watch in the sky over the slumbering inhabitants of
Shomer, to leave the house for a cool and undis-
turbed walk ere the sun should arise and man go
forth unto his woi'k and to his labor. We locked the
outer door, and then passed into the still twilight
gloom down the cross-street leading to the market-
place, which we next followed up to its farther or
southwestern end, where large folding-gates separate
it from the rest of the town. The wolfish city-dogs,
whose bark and bite, too, render walking the streets
at night a rather precarious business, now tamely
stalked away in the gloaming, while here and there a
crouching camel, the packages yet on his back, and
his sleeping driver close by, awaited the opening of
the warehouse at whose door they had passed the
night. Early though it was, the market gates were
already unclosed, and the guardian sat wakeful in his
niche. On leaving the market M'e had yet to go down
a broad street of houses and gardens cheerfully inter-
mixed, till at last we reached the western wall of the
town, or, rather, of the new quaiter added by 'Ab-
dallah, where the high portal between round flanking
towers gave us issue on the open plain, blown over at
this liour by a light gale of life and coolness. To the
west, but some four or five miles distant, rose the
serrated mass of Djebel Shomer, throwing up its
black fantastic peaks, now i-eddened by the leflected
dawn, against the lead-blue skv. Northward the
same chain bends round till it meets the town, and
then stretches away for a length of ten or twelve
LIFE IN HA' TEL 157
days' journey, gradually losing in height on its ap-
proach to Meshid 'Alee and the valley of the Eu-
phrates. On our south we have a little isolated knot
of rocks, and far off the extreme ranges of Djebel
Shomer, or 'Aja, to give it its historical name, in-
tersected by the broad passes that lead on in the
same direction to Djebel Solma. Behind ns lies
tlie capital. Telal's palace, with its high oval keep,
houses, gardens, walls, and towers, all coming out
black against the ruddy bars of eastern light, and be-
hind, a huge pyramidal peak almost overhanging the
town, and connected by lower rocks with the main
mountain range to north and south, those stony ribs
that protect the central heart of the kingdom. In
the plain itself we can just distinguish by the doubt-
ful twilight several blackish patches irregularly^ scat-
tered over its face, or seen as though leaning upward
against its craggy verge ; these are the gardens and
country houses of 'Obeyd and other chiefs, besides
hamlets and villages, such as Kefar and 'Adwah,
with their groves of palm and ' ithel ' (the Arab
larch), now blended in the dusk. One solitary
traveller on his camel, a troop of jackals sneaking oif
to their rocky cavern, a few dingy tents of Shomer
Bedouins, such are the last details of the landscape.
Far away over the southern hills beams the glory of
Canopus, and announces a new Arab year ; the pole-
star to the north lies low over the mountain tops.
" We pace the pebble-strown flat to the south till
we leave behind us the length of the town wall, and
reach the little cluster of rocks already mentioned.
We scramble up to a sort of niche near its summit,
15S TRAVELS IN ARABIA
whence, at a height of a hundred feet or more, we
can overlook the whole extent of the plain and wait
the sunrise. Yet before the highest crags of Sho-
mer are gilt with its first rays, or the long giant
shadows of the easterly chain have crossed the level,
we see groups of peasants, who, driving their fruit
and vegetable-laden asses before them, issue like lit-
tle bands of ants from the mountain gorges around,
and slowly approach on the tracks converging to the
capital. Horsemen fi-om the town ride out to the
gardens, and a long line of camels on the westerly
Medina road winds up toward Ha'yel. We wait en-
sconced in our rocky lookout and enjoy the view till
the sun has risen, and the coolness of the night air
warms rapidly into the sultry day ; it is time to re-
turn. So we quit our solitary perch and descend to
the plain, where, keeping in the shadow of the w^est-
ern fortifications, we regain the town gate and thence
the market.
" There all is now life and movement ; some of
the warehouses, filled with rice, flour, spices, or cof-
fee, and often concealing in their inner recesses
stores of the prohibited American weed, are already
open ; we salute the owners while we pass, and they
return a polite and friendly greeting. Camels are
unloading in the streets, and Bedouins standing by,
looking anything but at home in the town. The
shoemaker and the blacksmith, those two main props
of Arab handicraft, are already at their work, and
some gossiping bystanders are collected around them.
At the corner where our cross-street falls into the
market-place, three or four country women are
LIFE IN IIA'YEL . 150
heated, witli piles of melons, gourds, egg-plant frnits,
and the other garden produce before thetn for sale.
My companion falls a haggling with one of these
village nymphs, and ends by obtaining a dozen ' bad-
injans ' and a couple of water-melons, each bigger
than a man's head, for the equivalent of an English
twopence. With this purchase we return home,
where we shut and bolt the outer door, then take out
of a flat basket what has remained from over night
of our wafer-like Ha'yel bread, and with tliis and a
melon make a hasty breakfast. I say a liasty otie,
for although it is only half an hour after sunrise, re-
peated knocks at our portal show the arrival of pa-
tients and visitors : early rising being liere the fash-
ion, and in reason must be wherever artificial lisrhtina:
is scanty. However, we do not at once open to our
friends, nor will they take offence at the delay, but
remain where they are, chatting together before our
door till we admit them ; of so little value is time
here.
" In comes a young man of good appearance, clad
in the black cloak common to all of the middle or
upper classes in Central Arabia ; in his hand he
beai-^ a wand of the Sidr or lotos-wood. A silver-
hiltfcd sword and a glistening Kafee'yah announce
him to be a person of some importance, while liis
long, black ringlets, handsome features, and slightly
olive complexion, with a tall stature and easj^ gait,
declare him a native of Djebel Shomer, and townsman
of Ha'yel ; it is 'Ojejd, tlie eldest-born of a large
family, and successor to the comfortable house and
garden of his father, not long since deceased, in a
160 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
quarter of the town some twenty minutes' walk dis-
tant. He leads by the liand his younger brother, a
modest-looking lad of fair complexion and slim make,
but almost blind, and evidently out of health also.
After passing through the pi-eliminary ceremonies of
introduction to Barakat, he approaches my recess,
and standing without, salutes me with the greatest
deference. Thinking him a desirable acquaintance
I receive him very graciously, and he begs me to see
what is the matter with his brother. I examine the
case, finding it to be within the limits of my skill,
and not likely to require more than a very simple
course of treatment. Accordingly I make my bar-
gain for the chances of recovery, and find 'Ojeyl
docile to the terms proposed, and with little disposi-
tion, all things considered, to backwardness in pay-
ment. Arabs, indeed, are in general close in driving
a bargain and open in downright giving ; they will
chaffer half a day about a penny, while they will
throw away the worth of pounds on the first asker.
Bnt 'Ojeyl was one of the best specimens of the Ha'-
yel character, and of the clan Ta'i, renowned in all
times for their liberal ways and high sense of honor.
I next proceed to administer to my patient such drugs
as his state requires, and he receives them with that
air of absolute and half -religious confidence which
well-educated Arabs show to their physician, whom
they regard as possessed of an almost sacred and
supernatui-al power — a feeling, by the way, hardly
less advantageous to the patient than to the practi-
tioner, and which may often contribute much to the
success of the treatment.
LIFE IN HA' TEL • IGl
" During the rest of my stay at lia'yel, 'Ojeyl con-
tinned to be one of my best friends, I had ahnost
said disciples ; onr mutual visits were frequent, and
always pleasing and liearty. His brother's cure,
which followed in less than a fortnight, confirmed
his attachment, nor had I reason to complain of
scantiness in his retribution.
"Meanwhile the court-yard has become full of visit-
ors. Close by my door I see the intelligent and de-
murely smiling face of 'Abd-el-Mahsin, where he sits
between two pretty and well-dressed boys ; they are
the two elder children of Telal — Bedr and Bander.
Their guardsman, a negro slave with a handsome cloak
and sword, is seated a little lower down ; farther on
are two townsmen, one armed, the other with a wand
at his side. A rough, good-natured youth, of a bronzed
complexion, and whose dingy clothes bespeak his me-
chanical profession, is talking with another of a dress
somewhat different in form and coarser in material
than that usually worn in Ha'yel ; this latter must be
a peasant from some one of the mountain villages.
Two Bedouins, ragged and uncouth, have straggled
in with the rest ; while a tall, dark -featured youth,
with a gilded hilt to his sword, and more silk about
him than a Wahabee would approve, has taken his
place opposite to 'Abd-el-Mahsin, and is trying to
draw him into conversation. But this last has asked
Barakat to lend him one of my Arabic books to read,
and is deeply engaged in its perusal.
" 'Ojeyl has taken leave, and I give the next turn of
course to 'Abd-el-Mahsin. He informs me that Te-
lal has sent me his two sons, Bedr and Bander, that
162 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
I may examine their state of health, and see if they
requii-e doctoring. This is in truth a little stroke of
policy on Telal's part, who knows equally with my-
self that the boys are perfectly well and want noth-
ing at all. But he wishes to give ns a mark of his
confidence, and at the same time to help ns in estab-
lishing our medical reputation in the town ; for
though by no means himself persuaded of the reality
of our doctoral title, he understands the expediency
of saving appearances before the public.
" Well, the children are passed in review with all
the seriousness due to a case of heart complaint or
brain fever, while at a wink from me Barakat pre-
pares in the kitchen a draught of cinnamon water,
which, with sugar, named medicine for the occasion,
pleases the young heirs of royalty and keeps up the
farce ; 'Abd-el-Malisin expatiating all the time to the
bystanders on the wonderful skill with which I have
at once discovered the ailments and their cure, and
the small boys thinking that if this be medichie they
will do their best to be ill for it ever\' day.
" 'Abd-el-Mahsin now commits them to the negro,
who, however, before taking them back to the pal-
ace, has his own story to tell of some personal ache,
for which I prescribe without stipulating for pay-
ment, since he belongs to the palace, where it is
important to have the greatest number of friends
possible, even on the back stairs. But 'Abd-el-Mah-
sin reuiains, reading, chatting, quoting poetry, and
talking history, recent events, natural philosophy, or
medicine, as the case may be.
"Let us now see some of the other patients. The
LIFE IN IIA'YEL 103
g6ld-liilted swordsinan has naturally a special claim
on our attention. He is the son of Rosheyd, Telal's
maternal uncle. His palace stands on the other side
of the way, exactly opposite to our house ; and 1 will
say nothing more of him for the present, intending
to pay him afterward a special visit, and thus be-
come more thoroughly acquainted with the whole
famil}^
" Next let us take notice of those two townsmen
■who are conversing, or rather ' chaffing,' together.
Though both in plain apparel, and much alike in
stature and features, there is yet much about them to
distinguish the two ; one has a civilian look, the
other a military. He of the wand is no less a per-
sonage than Mohammed-el-Kadee, chief justice of
Ha'yel, and of course a very important individual in
the town. However, his exterior is that of an el-
derly, unpretentious, little man, and one, in spite of
the proverb which attributes gravity to judges, very
fond of a joke, besides being a tolerable representa-
tive of what may here be called the moderate party,
neither participating in the fanaticism of the Waha-
bee, nor yet, like the most of the indigenous chiefs,
hostile to Mahometanism ; he takes his cue from the
court direction and is popular with all factions be-
cause belonging properly to none.
" He requires some medical treatment for himself,
and more for his son, a big, heavy lad with a swollen
arm, who has accompanied him hither. Here, too, is
a useful acquaintance, well up to all the scandal and
small talk of the town, and willing to communicate
it. Our visits were frequent, and I found his house
164 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
well stored with books, partly inaiinsci'ipt, partly
printed in Egypt, and mainly on legal or religious
subjects.
" Of the country folks in the villages around, like
Mogah, Delhemee'eh, and the rest, Mohammed-el-
Kadee used to speak with a sort of half-contempt-
uous pity, much like a Parisian talking of Low Bre-
tons ; in fact, the difference between these rough and
sturdy boors and the more refined inhabitants of tlie
capital is, all due proportion allowed, no less re-
markable here than in Europe itself. We will now
let one of them come forward in his own behalf, and
my readers shall be judges.
" It is accordingly a stout clown from Mogah
scantily dressed in M'orking wear, and who has been
occupied for the last half hour in tracing sundry dia-
grams on the ground before him with a thick peach-
tree switch, thus to pass his time till his betters shall
have been served. He now edges forward, and tak-
ing his seat in front of the door, calls my attention
with an ' I say, doctor.' Whereon I suggest to him
that his bulky corporation not being formed of glass
or any other transparent material, he has by his
position entirely intercepted wliatever little light my
recess might enjoy. He apologizes, and shuffles an
inch or two sideways. xSext I inquire what ails him,
not without some curiosity to hear the answer, so lit-
tle does the herculean frame before me announce
disease. Whereto Do'eymis, or whatever may be his
name, replies, ' I say, I am all made up of pain.'
This statement, like many others, appears to me
rather too general to be exactly true. So I proceed
LIFE IN HA'YEL 165
In mj interrogatory : ' Does 3'our head pain you ? '
' No.' (I might have guessed that ; these fellows
never feel what our cross-Channel friends entitle ' le
mal des heaiix esprits.'') ' Does your back ache ? '
' No.' ' Your arms ? ' ' No.' ' Your legs ? ' ' No.'
' Your body ?' ' No.' ' But,' I conclude, ' if neither
your head nor your body, back, arms, or legs pain
you, how can you possibly be such a composition of
suffering ? ' 'I am all made up of pain, doctor,' re-
plies he, manfully intrenching himself witliin his
first position. The fact is, that there is really some-
thing wrong with him, but he does not know how
to localize his sensations. So I push forward my in-
quiries, till it appears that our man of Mogah has a
chronic rheumatism ; and on ulterior investigation,
conducted with all the skill that Barakat and I can
jointly muster, it comes out that three or four months
before he liad an attack of the disease in its acute
form, accompanied by high fever, since which he has
never been himself again.
"This might suffice for the diagnosis, but I wish
to see how he will find his way out of more intricate
questions ; besides, the townsmen sitting by, and
equally alive to the joke with myself, whisper, ' Try
him again.' In consequence, I proceed with, 'What
was the cause of your first illness ? ' 'I say, doctor,
its cause was God,' replies the patient. ' No doubt
of that,' say I ; 'all things are caused by God : but
what was the particular and immediate occasion ? '
'Doctor, its cause was God, and secondly, that I ate
camel's flesh when I was cold,' rejoins my scientific
friend. ' But was there nothing else ? ' I suggest,
166 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
not quite satisfied with the hicid explanation just
given. ' Then, too, I drank camel's milk ; but it was
all, I say, from God, doctor,' answers lie.
"Well, I consider the case, and make up my mind
regarding the treatment. Next comes the grand
question of payment, which nnist be agreed on be-
forehand, and rendered conditional on success ; else
no fees for the doctor, not at Ha'yel onh', but
throughout Arabia. I inquire what he will give me
on recovery. ' Doctor,' answers the peasant, ' I will
give you, do you hear? I say, I will give you a
camel.' But I reply that I do not want one. ' I say,
remember God,' which being interpreted here means,
'^do not be unreasonable; I will give you a fat
camel, everyone knows my camel ; if 3'ou choose, I
will bring witnesses, I say.' And while I persist in
refusing the proffered camel, he talks of butter, meal,
dates, and such like equivalents.
" There is a patient and a paymaster for you.
However, all ends by his behaving reasonably
enough ; he follows my prescriptions with the or-
dinary docility, gets better, and gives me for my
pains an eighteen-penny fee."
During this residence in Ila'yel, Palgrave made
many friends, and soon established those i-elations
of familiar intercourse which are so much easier in
Moslem than in Christian lands — a natural result of
the preservation of the old importance, which in the
earliest Hebrew days was attached to " the stranger."
Palgrave's intimacies embraced many families related
to Telal, and others, whose knowledge of Arabian
history or literature made their acquaintance wel-
LIFE IN HA' TEL 167
come. His own knowledge of these subjects, for-
tunately, was equal to theirs, and, from the number
of his invitations to dinners and suppers, he seems
to have been a welcome guest to tlie better classes
of Ha'jel. One of tlie aristocracy, by name Do-
hey, was his most agreeable acquaintance; and we
quote the following pleasant account of his inter-
course ;
" Dohey's invitations were particularly welcome,
both from the pleasantness of his dwelling-place, and
from the varied and interesting conversation that I
was sure to meet with there. This merchant, a tall
and stately man of between fifty and sixty years of
age, and wliose thin features were lighted up by a
histre of more than ordinary intelligence, was a
thorough Ha'yelite of the old caste, liating Waha-
bees from the bottom of his heart, eager for informa-
tion on cause and effect, on lands and governments,
and holding commerce and social life for the main
props if not the ends of civil and national organiza-
tion. His uncle, now near eighty years old, to judge
by conjecture in a land where registers are not much
in use, had journeyed to India, and traded at Bom-
bay ; in token whereof he still wore an Indian skull-
cap and a caslunere shawl. The rest of the family
were in keeping with the elder members, and seldom
have I seen more dutiful children or a better edu-
cated household. My readers will naturally under-
stand that by education I here imply its moral not its
intellectual phase. The eldest son, himself a middle-
aged man, would never venture into his father's pres-
ence without unbucklino; his sword and leavino; it in
168 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the vestibule, nor on any account presume to sit on
a level with him or by his side in the divan.
" The divan itself was one of the prettiest I met
with in these parts. It was a large square room,
looking out on tlie large house-garden, and cheer-
fully lighted up by trellised windows on two sides,
while the wall of the third had purposely been dis-
continued at about half its height, and the open
space thus left between it and the roof propped by
pillars, between which ' a fruitful vine by the sides
of the house ' was intertwined so as to fill up the in-
terval with a gay net-work of green leaves and ten-
drils, transparent like stained glass in the eastern
sunbeams. Facing tiiis cheerful light, the floor of
the apartment was raised about two feet above the
rest, and covered with gay Persian carpets, silk cush-
ions, and the best of Arab furniture. In the lower
half of the k'hawah, and at its farthest angle, was
the small stone coifee-stove, placed at a distance
where its heat might not annoy the master and his
guests. Many of the city nobility would here re-
sort, and the talk generally turned on serious sub-
jects, and above all on the parties and politics of
Arabia; while Doliey would show himself a thor-
ough Arab patriot, and at the same time a courteous
and indulgent judge of foreigners, qualities seldom
to be met with together in any notable degree, and
therefore more welcome.
" Many a pleasant hour have I passed in this half
greenhouse, half k'hawah, mid cheerful faces and
varied talk, while inly commenting on the natural
resources of this manly and vigorous people, and
LIFE IN HA' TEL 169
straining the eye of forethought to discern through
the misty curtain of the future by what outlet their
now unfrnitfiil, because solitary, good may be brought
into fertiliziuic contact with that of other more ad-
vanced nations, to the mutual benefit of eacli and
all.
" Talk went on with the ease and decorum charac-
teristic of good Eastern society, without the flip-
pancy and excitement which occasionally mars it in
some countries, no less than over-silence does in
others. To my mind the Easterns are generally
superior in the science of conversation to the inhab-
itants of the West ; perhaps from a greater neces-
sity of cultivating it, as the only means of general
news and intercourse where newspapers and pamph-
lets are unknown.
" Or else some garden was the scene of our after-
noon leisure, among fruit-trees and palms, by the
side of a watercourse, whose constant supply from
the well hid from view among thick foliage, seemed
the work not of laborious art, but of unassisted nat-
ure. Here, stretched in the cool and welcome
shade, would we for hours canvass with 'Abd-el-
Malisin, and others of similar pursuits, the respect-
ive merits of Arab poets and authors, of Omar-ebn-
el-Farid or Aboo'l 'Ola, in meetings that had some-
thing of the Attic, yet with just enough of the Arab
to render them more acceptable by their Semitic
character of grave cheerfulness and mirthful com-
posure.
" Or when the stars came out, Barakat and my-
self would stroll out of the heated air of the streets
170 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
and market to the cool open plain, and there pass an
hour or two alone, or in conversation with what
chance passer-by might steal on us, half-unperceived
and nnperceiving in the dusk, and amnse ourselves
with his simplicity if he were a Bedouin, or with his
shrewdness if a townsman.
" Thus passed our ordinary life at Ha'yel. Many
minor incidents occurred to diversify it, many of the
little nps and downs that human intercourse never
fails to furnish ; sometimes the number of patients
and the urgency of their attendance allowed of little
leisure for aught except our professional duties ;
sometimes a day or two would pass with hardly
any serious occupation. But of such incidents my
readers have a sufficient sample in what has been
already set down. Suffice to say, that from the 27th
of July to the 8th of September we remained doc-
toring in the capital or in its immediate neighbor-
hood."
By this time Palgrave had obtained sufficient
knowledge of the country, and was anxious to ad-
vance farther eastward before the autumn — the best
season for travel — should be spent. Now, the jour-
ney across the Shomer frontier could only be pur-
sued with Telal's cognizance, and by his good will.
In fact, a passport bearing the royal signature is in-
dispensable for all who desire to cross the boundary,
especially into the Wahabee territory ; without such
a document in hand no one would venture to conduct
them.
" Accordingly," he says, " we requested and ob-
tained a special audience at the palace. Telal, of
LIFE IN HA' TEL 171
whose good-will we liad received frequent, indeed
daily, proofs during our sojourn at Ha'yel, proved a
sincere friend — patron would be a juster word — to
the last ; exemplifying the Scotch proverb about the
guest not only who ' will stay,' but also who ' maun
gang.' To this end he then dictated to Zamil, for
Telal himself is no scribe, a passport or general
letter of safe conduct, enough to insure us good
treatment within the limits of his rule, and even be-
yond.
" When this was written, Telal affixed his seal,
and rose to leave us alone with Zamil, after a part-
ing shake of the hand, and wishing us a prosperous
journey and speedy return. Yet with all these mo-
tives for going, I could not but feel reluctant to quit
a pleasing town, where we certainlj' possessed many
sincere friends and well-wishers, for countries in
which we could by no means anticipate equal favor,
or even equal safety. Indeed, so ominous was all that
we heard about Wahabee Kedjed, so black did the
landscape before us look, on nearer approach, that
I almost repented of my resolution, and was consid-
erably inclined to say, ' Thus far enough, and no far-
ther.'
"'Obeyd, Telal's uncle, had left Ha'yel the day
before on a military expedition against the Bedouins
of the West. In common with all the sight-seers of
the town, we had gone to witness his departure. It
was a gay and interesting scene. 'Obeyd had caused
his tent to be pitched in the plain without the north-
ern walls, and there reviewed his forces. About
one-third were on horseback, the rest were mounted
172 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
on light and speedy camels ; all had spears and
matchlocks, to which the gentry added swords ; and
while they rode hither and thither in sham manoeu-
vres over the parade ground, the whole appearance
%vas ver}' picturesque and tolerably martial, 'Obeyd
now unfurled his own peculiar standard, in which
the green color, distinctive of Islam, had been added
border-wise to the white ground of the ancestral
]^edjean banner, mentioned fourteen centuries back
by 'Omar-ebn-Kelthoom, the poet of Taghleb, and
many others. Barakat and myself mixed with the
crowd of spectators. 'Obeyd saw us, and it was now
several days since we had last met. Without hesitat-
ing he cantered up to us, and while he tendered his
hand for a farewell shake, he said : ' I have heard
that you intend going to Ri'ad ; there yon will meet
with 'Abdallah, the eldest son of Feysul ; he is my
particular friend ; I should much desire to see you
high in his good graces, and to that end I have writ-
ten him a letter in your behalf, of which you your-
selves are to be the bearers ; you will find it in my
house, where I have left it for you with one of my
servants.' lie then assured us that if he found us
still at Ila'yel on his return, he would continue to be-
friend us in every way ; but that if wo journeyed
forward to Nedjed, we should meet with a sincere
friend in 'Abdallah, especially if we gave him the
letter in question.
" He then took his leave with a semblance of affec-
tionate cordiality that made the bystanders stare;
thus supporting to the last the profound dissimula-
tion which he had only once belied for a moment.
LIFE IN HA' TEL 173
The letter was duly handed over to us the same
afternoon by his head steward, whom he had left to
look after the house and garden in his absence.
Doubtless my readers will be curious to know what
sort of recommendation 'Obeyd had provided us with.
It was written on a small scrap of thick paper, about
four inches each way, carefully folded up and secured
by three seals. However, 'our fears forgetting man-
ners,' we thought best with Hamlet to make perusal
of this grand commission before delivering it to its
destination. So we undid the seals with precautions
admitting of reclosing them in proper form, and read
the royal knavery. I give it word for word ; it ran
thus : ' In the name of God the Merciful, the Com-
passionate, we, 'Obeyd-ebn-Rasheed, salute you, O
'Abdallah, son of Feysul-ebn-Sa'ood, and peace be on
you, and the mercy of Grod and His blessings.' (This
is the invariable commencement of all VVahabee
epistles, to the entire omission of the complimentaiy
formulas used by other Orientals.) ' After which,'
so proceeded the document, ' we inform you that the
bearers of this are one Seleem-el-'Eys, and his com-
rade, Barakat-esh-Shamee, who give themselves out
for having some knowledge in ' — here followed a
word of equivocal import, capable of interpretation
alike by ' medicine ' or ' magic,' but generally used in
Nedjed for the latter, which is at Ri'ad a capital
crime. ' Now may God forbid that we should hear
of any evil having befallen you. We salute also your
father, Feysul, and your brothers, and all your family,
and anxiously await your news in answer. Peace be
with you.' Here followed the signet impression.
174 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" A pretty recommendation, especially under the
actual circumstances ! However, not content with
this, 'Obeyd found means to transmit further infor-
mation regarding us, and all in the same tenor, to
Ri'ad, as we afterward discovered. For his letter, I
need hardly say that it never passed from our posses-
sion, where it yet remains as an interesting autograph,
to that of 'Abdallah ; with whom it would inevitably
have proved the one only thing wanting, as we shall
subsequently see, to make us leave the forfeit of our
lives in the Nedjean man-trap.
" Before evening three men knocked at our door ;
they were our futui'e guides. The eldest bore the
name of Mubarek, and was a native of the suburbs
of Bereydah ; all three were of the genuine Kaseem
breed, darker and lower in stature than the inhabi-
tants of Ila'yel, but not ill-looking, and extremely
affable in their demeanor.
" We had soon made all necessary arrangements
for our departure, got in a few scattered debts,
packed up our pharmacopceia, and nothing now re-
mained but the pleasurable pain of farewells. They
were many and mutually sincere. Meta'ab had in-
deed made liis a few days before, when he a second
time left Ha'yel for the pastures ; Telal we had al-
ready taken leave of, but there i-emained his younger
brother Mohammed to give us a hearty adieu of good
augury. Most of my old acquaintance or patients,
Dohey tlie merchant, Mohammed the judge, Doheym
and his family, not forgetting our earliest friend Seyf
the chamberlain, Sa'eed, the cavalry officer, and others
of the court, freemen and slaves, white or black (for
LIFE IN HA'YEL 175
negroes readily follow the direction indicated by their
masters, and are not ungrateful if kindly treated,
while kept in their due position), and many others of
whose names Homer would have made a catalogue
and I will not, heard of our near depaiture and camo
to express their regrets, with hopes of future meeting
and return."
" Early next morning, before day, Mubarek and
another of his countrymen, named Daliesh, were at
our door with the camels. Some of our town friends
liad also come, even at this hour, to accompany us as
far as the city gates. We mounted our beasts, and
while the first sunbeams streamed level over the
plain, passed through the southwestern portal beyond
the market-place, the 8tli of September, 1862, and
left the city of Ha'yel."
CHAPTER XII.
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS— JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH
ANOTHER stage of onr way. From Gaza to
Ma'an, from Ma'an to tlie Djowf, from the
Djowf to Ha'jel, three such had now been gone over,
not indeed without some fatigue or discomfort, yet at
comparatively little pei-sonal risk, except what nature
herself, not man, might occasion. For to cross the
stony desert of the northern frontiei", or the sandy
Kefood in the very height of summer, could not be
said to be entirely free from danger, where in these
waterless wastes thirst, if nothing else, may alone,
and often does, suffice to cause the disappearance of
the over-venturous traveller, nay, even of many a
Bedouin, no less effectually than a lance-thrust or a
musket-ball. But if nature had been so far unkind,
of man at least we had hitherto not niuch to com-
plain ; the Bedouins on the route, however rough
and uncouth in their wa3's, had, with only one excep-
tion, meant us fairly well, and the townsmen in gen-
eral had proved friendly and courteous beyond our
expectation. Once within the established govern-
ment limits of Telal, and among his subjects, we had
enjoyed our share in the common security afforded
to wayfarers and inhabitants for life and property,
while good success had hitherto accompanied us.
JOURNEY TO BERETDAH 111
'Judge of the day by its dawn,' say the Arabs ; and
although this proverb, like all proverbs, does not
always hold exactly true, whether for sunshine or
cloud, yet it has its value at times. And thus, what-
ever unfavorable predictions or dark forebodings our
friends might hint regarding tiie inner Nedjed and its
denizens, we trusted that so favorable a past augured
somewhat better things for the future.
" From physical and material difficulties like those
before met witii, there was henceforward much less
to fear. The great heats of summer were past, the
cooler season had set in ; besides, our path now lay
through the elevated table-land of Central Arabia,
whose northern rim we had already surmounted at
our entrance on the Djebel Shomer. Nor did there
remain any uncultivated or sandy track to cross com-
parable to the Nefood of Djowf between Pla'yel and
Ki'ad ; on the contrary, we were to expect pasture
lands and culture, villages and habitations, cool
mountain air, and a sufficiency, if not an abundance,
of water. Nor were our fellow -companions now
mere Bedouins and savages, but men from town or
village life, members of organized society, and so far
civilized beings.
" When adieus, lookings back, wavings of the
liand, and all tiie customary signs of farewell and
good omen were over between our Ha'yel friends and
ourselves, we pursued our road by the plain which I
have already described as having been the frequent
scene of our morning walks; but instead of following
the southwesterly path toward Kefar, whose groves
and roof- tops now rose in a blended mass before us,
178 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
we turned eastward, and rounded, though at some
distance, the outer wall of Ha'jel for nearly half an
hour, till we struck off by a southeasterly track across
stony ground, diversified here and there by wells,
each with a cluster of gardens and a few houses in its
neighborhood. At last we reached a narrow winding
pass among the cliffs of Djebel 'Aja', whose mid-loop
encircles Ha'yel on all sides, and here turned our
heads to take a last far-off view of what had been
our home, or the agreeable semblance of a home, for
several weeks.
" Our only companions as yet were Mubarek and
Dahesh. We had outstripped the rest, whose bag-
gage and equipments had required a more tedious
arrangement than our own. Before long they came
up — a motley ci'ew. Ten or thereabouts of the
Kaseem, some from Bereydah itself, others from
neighboring towns ; two individuals, who gave them-
selves out, but with more asseveration than truth, to
be natives of Mecca itself ; three Bedouins, two of
whom belonged to the Sliomer clan, the third an
'Anezah of the north ; next a runaway negro, con-
ducting four horses, destined to pass the whole
breadth of Arabia, and to be shipped off at Koweyt,
on the Persian Gulf, for Indian sale ; two merchants,
one from Zulphah, in the province of Sedeyr, the
other from Zobeyr, near Bussora ; lastly, two women,
wives of I know not exactly whom in the caravan,
with some small children ; all this making up, our-
selves included, a band of twenty-seven or twenty-
eight persons, the most mounted on camels, a few on
horseback, and accompanied by a few beasts of bur-
JOURNEY TO BERE7DAH 179
den alongside — such was our Canterbury pilgrims'
group.
" Thus assembled, on we went together, now amid
granite rocks, now crossing grassy valleys, till near
sunset we stopped undei* a high cliff, at the extreme
southerly verge of Djebel 'Aja', or, in modern par-
lance, of Djebel Shomer. The mountain here ex-
tended far away to right and left, but in front a wide
plain of full twenty miles across opened out before
us, till bounded southward by the long bluish chain
of Djebel Solma, whose line runs parallel to the
heights we were now to leave, and belongs to the
same formation and rocky mass denominated in a
comprehensive way the mountains of Ta'i or Shomer.
" At about three in the afternoon, next day, we
saw, some way off to our west, a troop of Bedouins
coming up from the direction of Medina. While
they were yet in the distance, and half-hidden from
view by the shrubs and stunted acacias of the plain,
we could not precisely distinguish their numbers ;
but they were evidently enough to make us desire,
with Orlando, ' that we might be better strangers.'
On our side we mustered about fifteen matchlocks,
besides a few spears and swords. The Bedouins had
already perceived us, and continued to approach,
though in the desultory and circuitous way which
they affect when doubtful of the strength of their
opponent ; still they gained on us more than was
pleasant.
" Fourteen armed townsmen might stand for a
reasonable match against double the number of Be-
douins, and in any case we had certainly nothing bet-
180 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ter to do than to put a bold face on the matter. The
'Eyoon chief, Foleyh, with two of his countrymen and
Ghashee, carefully primed their guns, and then set
off at full gallop to meet the advancing enemy, bran-
dishing their weapons over their heads, and looking
extremely fierce. Under cover of this manoeuvre the
rest of our band set about getting their arms ready,
and an amusing scene ensued. One had lost his
match, and was hunting for it in his housings ; an-
other, in his haste to ram the bullet home had it stick
midway in the barrel, and could neither get it up nor
down ; the lock of a third was rusty and would not
do duty ; the women began to whine piteously ; tlie
two Meccans, wlio for economy's sake were both rid-
ing one only camel, a circumstance which caused be-
tween them many international squabbles, tried to
make their beast gallop oif with them, and leave the
others to their fate ; while the more courageous ani-
mal, despising such cowardly measures, insisted on
remaining with his companions and sharing their
lot ; all was thoroughly Ai-ab, much hubbub and lit-
tle done. Had the menacing feint of the four who
protected our rear proved insufficient, we might all
have been in a very bad predicament, and this feel-
ing drew every face with reverted gaze in a backward
direction. But the Harb banditti, intimidated by
the bold countenance of Foleyh and liis companions,
wheeled about and commenced a skirmishing reti-eat,
in which a few shots, guiltless of bloodshed, wei'e fired
for form's sake on either side, till at last our assail-
ants fairly disap]x;ared in the remote valley.
" Our valiant champions now returned from pur-
JOURNEY TO BERETDAH 181
suit, much elated with their success, and we jour-
neyed on together, skirting the last rocky spur of
Sohna, close by the spot where Hatim Ta'i, the well-
known model, half mythic and half historical, of Arab
hospitality and exaggerated generosity, is said to be
buried. Here we crossed some low hills that form a
sort of offshoot to the Solma mountain, and limit the
vallej^ ; and the last rays of the setting sun gilding to
our view, in a sandy bottom some way off, the palm-
trees of Feyd.
" Feyd may be taken as a tolerable sample of the
villages met with throughout Northern or Upper
Kaseem, for they all bear a close likeness in their
main features, though various in size. Imagine a lit-
tle sandy hillock of about sixty or seventy feet high,
in the midst of a wide and dusty valley ; part of the
eminence itself and the adjoining bottom is covered
by low earth-built houses, intermixed with groups of
the feathery ithel. The grounds in the neighborhood
are divided by brick walls into green gardens, where
gourds and melons, leguminous plants and maize,
grow alongside of an artificial irrigation from the wells
among them ; palms in plenty — they were now heavy
laden with red-brown fruits ; and a few peach or apri-
cot trees complete the general lineaments. The outer
walls are low, and serve more for the protection of the
gardens than of the dwellings ; here are neither
towers nor trenches, nor even, at least in many places,
any central castle or distinguishable residence for the
chief ; his habitation is of the same one-storied con-
struction as those of his neighbors, only a little larger.
Some of the townlets are quite recent, and date from
182 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the Sliomer annexation, wliich gave tliis part of the
province a degree of quiet and prosperity unknown
under their former Wahabee rulers.
"Next morning, the 10th of September, we were
all up bv moonlight, two or three hours before dawn,
and off on our road to the southeast. The whole conn-
try that we had to traverse for tlie next four days
was of so uniform a character that a few words of
description may here serve for the landscape of this
entire stage of our journey.
" Upper Kaseem is an elevated plateau or steppe,
and forms part of a long upland belt, crossing diago-
nally the northern half of the peninsula ; one extrem-
ity reaches the neighborhood of Zobeyr and the Eu-
phrates, while the other extends downward to the
vicinity of Medina. Its surface is in general covered
with grass in the spring and summer seasons, and
with shrubs and brushwood at all times, and thus af-
fords excellent pasture for sheep and camels. Across
it blows the fresh eastern gale, so celebrated in Arab
poetry under the name of 'Seba Xedjin,' or 'Zephyr
of Nedjed ' (only it comes from precisely the opposite
corner to the Greek or Roman Zephyr), and continu-
ally invoked by sentimental bards to bring them news
of imaginary loves or pleasing reminiscences. No
wonder ; for most of these versifiers being themselves
natives of the barren Iledjaz or the scorching Te-
hama, perhaps inhabitants of Egypt and Syria, and
knowing little of Arabia, except what they have seen
on the dreary Meccan pilgrim road, they naturally
look back to with longing, and frequently record,
whatever glimpses chance may have allowed them of
JOURNEY TO BEREYDAH 183
the cooler and more fertile highlands of the centre,
denominated by them Nedjed, in a general way, with
their transient experience of its fresh and invigorat-
ing climate, of its courteous men and sprightly maid-
ens.
" But when, nor is this seldom, the sweet smell of
the aromatic thyme-like plants that here abound
mixes with the light niornino- breeze and enhances its
balmy influence, then indeed can one excuse the
raptures of an Arab Ovid or Theocritus, and appre-
ciate — at least I often did — their yearnings after
Nedjed, and all the praises they lavish on its memory.
" Then said I to my companion, while the camels were
hastening
To bear us down the pass between Meneefah and Demar,
' Enjoy while thou canst the sweets of the meadows of Ned-
jed :
With no such meadows and sweets shalt thou meet after
this evening.
Ah ! heaven's blessing on the scented gales of Nedjed,
And its greensward and groves glittering from the spring
shower,
And thy dear friends, when thy lot was cast awhile in Ned-
jed,
Little hadst thou to complain of what the days brought
thee ;
Months flew past, they passed and we perceived not,
Nor when their moons were new, nor when they waned.' "
For three days more they travelled forward over
this undulating table-land, making from sixty to
seventy miles a day. The view was extensive, but
rather monotonous. There were no high mountains,
no rivers, no lakes, no deep valleys ; but a constant
184 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
repetition of stony uplands, shallow and sandy
hollows, and villages surrounded by belts of palm-
groves, the extent and direction of which indicated
the subterranean water-courses.
On the tliird evening they reached Kowarah, the
most southern station in Telal territory — a large
village, lying in a wooded and well-watered hollow.
Here they still found the order and security which
that ruler had established, and maintained every-
M'liere throughout his dominions. Leaving the next
morning, the 14th of September, they crossed a few
low hills, came to a sudden dip in the general level
of the country, and then the extent of Southern
Kaseeni burst suddenly upon their view.
" Kow, for the first time," says Palgrave, " we
could in some measure appreciate the strength of the
Wahabee in his mastery over such a land. Before
us to the utmost horizon stretched an immense plain,
studded with towns and villages, towers and groves,
all steeped in the dazzling noon, and announcing
everywhere life, opulence, and activity. The aver-
age breadth of this populous district is about sixty
miles, its length twice as much, or more; it lies full
two hundred feet below the level of the uplands,
which here break off like a wall. Fifty or more
good-sized villages and four or five large towns form
the commercial and agricultui-al centres of the prov-
ince, and its surface is moreover thickly strewn with
smaller hamlets, isolated wells, and gardens, and
traversed by a net- work of tracks in every direction.
Here begin, and hence extend to Djebel Toweyk
itself, the series of high watch-towers that afford the
JOURNEY TO BERE7DAU 185
inhabitants a means, denied otherwise by their level
flats, of discerning from afar the approach of foray
or invasion, and tluis preparing for resistance. For
while no part of Central Arabia has an older or a
better established title to civilization or wealth, no
part also has been the starting-point and theatre of
so many wars, or witnessed the gatliering of such
numerous armies.
"We lialted for a moment on the verge of the up-
lands to enjoy the magnificent prospect before us.
Below lay the wide plain ; at a few miles' distance we
saw the thick palm-groves of 'Eyoon, and what little
of its towers and citadel the dense foliage permitted
to the eye. Far off on our right, that is, to the west,
a large dark patch marked the tillage and plantations
which girdle the town of Rass ; other villages and
hamlets, too, were thickly scattered over the landscape.
All along the ridge where we stood, and visible at
various distances down the level, rose the tall, circnlar
watch-towers of Ivaseem. But immediately before
us stood a more remarkable monument, one that
fixed the attention and wonder even of our Arab com-
panions themselves.
" For hardly had we descended the narrow path
where it winds from ledge to ledge down to the bot-
tom, when we saw before us several huge stones, like
enormous bowlders, placed endways perpendicularly
on the soil, while some of them yet upheld similar
masses laid transversely over their summit. They
were arranged in a curve, once forming part, it would
appear, of a large circle, and many other like frag-
ments lay rolled on the ground at a moderate dis-
13
186 TRA VELS IN ARABIA
tance ; the number of those still upright was, to speak
by memory, eight or nine. Two, at about ten or
twelve feet apart one from tlie other, and resembling
huge gate-posts, yet bore their horizontal lintel, a
long block laid across them ; a few were deprived of
their upper traverse, the rest supported each its head-
piece in defiance of time and of the more destructive
efforts of man. So nicely balanced did one of these
cross-bars appear that, in hope it might prove a I'ock-
ing-stone, I guided my camel right under it, and then
stretching up my riding-stick at arm's-length could
just manage to touch and push it, but it did not stir.
Meanwhile the respective heights of camel, rider, and
stick taken together would place the stone in ques-
tion full fifteen feet from the ground.
" These blocks seem, by their quality, to have
been hewn from the neighboring limestone cliff, and
roughly shaped, but present no further trace of art,
no groove or cavity of sacrificial import, much less
anything intended for figure or ornament. The peo-
ple of the country attribute their erection to Darim,
and by his own hands, too, seeing that he was a giant ;
perhaps, also, for some magical ceremony, since he
was a magician. Pointing toward Rass, our compan-
ions affirmed that a second and similar stone circle,
also of gigantic dimensions, existed there ; and, lastly,
they mentioned a third toward the southwest, that is,
on the confines of Iledjaz.
" Here, as in most parts of Arabia, the staple ar-
ticle of cultivation is the date-palm. Of this tree
there arc, however, njany widely differing species,
and Kaseeni can boast of containino; the best known
JOURNEY TO BERE7DAH 187
anywhere, the Khalas of llasa alone excepted. Tlie
ripening season coincides with the latter half of
August and the first of September, and we had thus
an ample opportunity for testing the produce. Those
who, like most Europeans at home, only know the
date from the dried specimens of that fruit shown be-
neath a label in shop-windows, can hardly imagine
how delicious it is M'hen eaten fresh and in Central
Arabia. Nor is it, when newly gathered, heating, a
defect inherent to the preserved fruit everj^where ;
nor does its richness, however great, bring satiety : in
short, it is an article of food alike pleasant and
healthy. Its cheapness in its native land might as-
tonish a Londoner. Enough of the very best dates
from the Bereydah gardens to fill a large Arab hand-
kerchief, about fifteen inches each way, almost to
bursting, cost Barakat and myself the moderate sum
of three fartliings. We hung it up from the roof-
beam of our apartment to preserve the luscious fruit
from the ants, and it continued to drip molten sweet-
ness into a sugary pool on the floor below for three
days together, before we had demolished the con-
tents, though it figured at every dinner and supper
during that period.
"We were soon under the outer w^alls of 'Eyoon,
a good-sized town containing at least ten thousand
inhabitants according to my rough computation. Its
central site, at tlie very juncture of the great northern
and western lines of communication, renders it im-
portant, and for this reason it is carefully fortified,
that is, for the country, and furnished with watch-
towers much resembling manufactory chimneys in
ISS TRAVELS IN ARABIA
size and shape, beside a massive and capacious cita-
del. My readers may anticipate analo<;ous, though
proportionate, features in most other towns and vil-
lages of this province.
" Between the town-walls and the sand-hills close
b}'^ was a sheltered spot, where we took about four
hours of sleep, till the waning moon rose. Then all
were once more in movement, camels gnarling, men
loading, and the doctor and his apprentice mounting
their beasts, all for Bereydah. But that town was
distant, and when day broke at last there was yet a
long road to traverse. This now lay amid mounds
and valleys, thick with the vegetation already de-
scribed ; and somewhat after sunrise wc took a full
hour to pass the gardens and fields of Ghat, a strag-
gling village, where a dozen wells supplied the valley
with copious irrigation. On the adjoining hillocks —
I may not call them heights — was continued the series
of watch-towers, corresponding with others farther off
that belonged to villages seen by glimpses in the land-
scape ; I heard, but soon forgot, their names.
" A march of teji or twelve hours had tired us,
and the weather was oppressively close, no uncom-
mon phenomenon in Kaseem, where, what between
low sandy ground and a southerly latitude, the cli-
mate is much more sultry than in Djebel Shomer, or
the mountains of Towcyk. So that we were very
glad when the ascent of a slight eminence discovered
to our gaze the long-desired town of Bci-eydah,
whose oval fortifications rose to view amid an open
and cultivated plain. It was a view for Turner.
An enormous watch-tower, near a hundred feet in
JOURNEY TO BEREYDAII 189
height, a minaret of scarce inferior proportions, a mass
of bastioned walls, such as we had not yet witnessed
in Arabia, green groves around and thickets of ithel,
all under the dreamy glare of noon, offered a striking
spectacle, far surpassing whatever I had anticipated,
and announced populousness and wealth. We longed
to enter those gates and walk those streets. But
we had yet a delay to wear out. At about a league
from the town our guide, Mubarek, led us off the main
road to the right, up and down several little but
steep sand-hills, and hot declivities, till about two in
the afternoon, half-roasted with the sun, we reached,
never so weary, his garden gate.
" The morning was bright, yet cool, when we got
free of the maze of ithel and sand-slopes, and en-
tered the lanes that traverse the garden circle round
the town, in all quiet and security. But our ap-
proach to Bereydah was destined to furnish us an
unexpected and undesired surprise, though indeed
less startling than that which discomposed our first
arrival at Ila'yel. We had just passed a well near
the angle of a garden wall, when we saw a man
whose garb and appearance at once bespoke him for
a muleteer of the north, watering a couple of mules
at the pool hard by. Barakat and I stared with as-
tonishment, and could hardly believe our ej'es. For
since the day we left Gaza for the southeastern desert
we had never met with a like dress, nor with these
animals ; and how, then, came they here ? But there
was no mistaking either the man or the beasts, and
as the muleteer raised his head to look at the passers-
by, he also started at our sight, and evidently rec-
190 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ognized in ns something that took him unawares.
But the riddle was soon solved. A few paces far-
ther on, our way opened out on the great plain that
lies immediately under the town walls to the north.
This space was now covered with tents and thronged
with men of foreign dress and bearing, mixed with
Arabs of town and desert, women and children, talk-
ing and quarrelling, buying and selling, going and
coming ; everj'where baskets full of dates and vege-
tables, platters bearing eggs and butter, milk and
whey, meat hung on poles, bundles of firewood, etc.,
stood ranged in rows, horsemen and camel-men were
riding about between groups seated round fires or
reclining against their baggage ; in the midst of all
this medley a gilt ball surmounted a large white
pavilion of a make that I had not seen since last I
left India, some eleven years before, and numerous
smaller tents of striped cloth, and certainly not of
Arab fashion, clustered around ; a lively scene, es-
pecially of a clear morning, but requiring some ex-
planation from its exotic and non-Arab character.
These tents belonged to the great caravan of Persian
pilgrims, on their return from Medina to Meshid
'Alee by the road of Kaseem, and hence all this un-
usual concourse and bustle.
" Passing a little on to the east, we left the
crowded encampment on one side and turned to en-
ter the city gates. Here, and this is generally the
case in the larger Arab towns of old date, the for-
tifications surround houses alone, and the gardens
all lie without, sometimes defended — at 'Oneyzah,
for example — by a second outer girdle of walls and
AN ARAB ENCA:MPiIENT.
JOURNEY TO BERE7DAU 191
towers, but sometimes, as at Bereydah, devoid of
any mural protection. The town itself is composed
exclusively of streets, houses, and market-places, and
bears in consequence a more regular appearance
than the recent and village -like arrangements of
the Djowf and even of Ila'yel. We passed a few
streets, tolerably large but crooked, and then made
the camels kneel down in a little square or public
place, where I remained seated by them on the bag-
gage, switch in hand, like an ordinary Arab travel-
ler, and Barakat with Mubarek went in search of
lodgings.
" Very long did the half-hour seem to me during
which I had thus to mount guard till my companions
returned from their quest ; the streets were full of
people, and a disagreeable crowd of the lower sort
was every moment collecting round myself and my
camels, with all the inquisitiveness of the idle and
vulgar in every land. At last my companions came
back to say that they had found what they wanted ;
a kick or two brought the camels on their legs again,
and we moved off to our new quarters,
" The house in question was hardly more than five
minutes' walk from the north gate, and at about an
equal distance only from the great market-place on
the other side. Its position was therefore good. It
possessed two large rooms on the ground story, and
three smaller, besides a spacious court-yard, sur-
rounded by high walls. A winding stair of irregular
steps and badly lighted, like all in the ISTedjed, led
up to an extent of flat roof, girt round by a parapet
six feet high, and divided into two compartments by
192 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
a cross-wal], thus aifording a very tolerable place for
occupation morning and evening, at the hours when
the side-walls might yet project enough shade to
shelter those seated alongside of them, besides an ex-
cellent sleeping-place for night."
The day after their arrival they made a call upon
Mohanna, the ruler of Bereydah, in order to ask his
assistance in proceeding to Nedjed. But he was too
busy in devising means to exact more tribute-money
from the Persian pilgrims to give any notice to two
persons whose dress and appearance gave no token
of wealth. This neglect afterward proved to be a
piece of good fortune. They then spent several days
in a vain attempt to find camels and guides ; no one
was willing to undertake the service. The central
province of Nedjed, the genuine Wahabee country, is
to the rest of Arabia a sort of lion's den, into M'liich
few venture and yet fewer return. An elderly man
of Bereydah, of whom Palgrave demanded informa-
tion, simply replied, " It is Nedjed» he who enters
it does not come out again," and this is almost liter-
ally true. Its mountains, once the fastnesses of rob-
bers and assassins, are at the present day equally, or
even more, formidable as the stronghold of fanatics
who consider everyone save themselves an infidel or
a heretic, and who regard the slaughter of an infidel
or a heretic as a duty, at least a merit. In addition
to this general cause of anticipating a worse than
cold reception in Nedjed, wars and bloodshed, ag-
gression and tyranny, have heightened the original
antipathy of the snrroundiTig population into special
and definite resentment for wrongs received, ])erhaps
JOURNEY TO BEREYDAII 193
inflicted, till JSIedjed has become for all but her born
sons doubly dangerous and doubly hateful.
Another circumstance, which seemed to make
Palgrave's situation more difficult, although it was
equally fortunate in the end, was a rebellion which
had broken out in the neighboring city of 'Oneyzah,
headed by Zamil, a native chief. The town was at
that time besieged by the Wahabees, yet held out
gallantly, and the sympathy of the people of all
Kaseem was so strongly on the side of Zamil, that
only the presence of the Wahabee troops in Berey-
dah kept that city, also, from revolt. The rebels had
sent deputations to Mecca and also to Djebel Shoraer
for assistance, and there seemed to be some possibil-
ity of a general Central Arabian revolt against the
hated Wahabee supremacy. It seemed thus to be a
most unpropitious time for penetrating the strong-
hold of Nedjed. Falgrave did not so much fear the
suspicion of being a European, as that of being an
Ottoman spy. His first need, howevei", was the
means of going forward safely. He thus described
how an apparent chance made him acquainted with
the man to whom almost the entire success of his
later travels was due :
" It was the sixth day after our arrival, and the
22d of September, when about noon I was sitting
alone and rather melancholy, and trying to beguile
the time with reading the incomparable Divan of
Ebn-el-Farid, the favorite companion of my travels,
Barakat had at my request betaken himself out of
doors, less in hopes of success than to ' go to and fro
in the earth and walk up and down in it ; ' nor did
194 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
I now dare to expect that he would return any wiser
than he had set forth. When lo ! after a long two
hours' absence he came in with cheerful face, index
of good tidings.
" Good, indeed, they were, none better. Their
bearer said, that after roaming awhile to no purport
through the streets and market-place, he had be-
thought him of a visit to the Persian camp. There,
while straying among the tents, ' like a washerwom-
an's dog,' as a Hindoo would saj^ he noticed somewhat
aloof from the crowd a small group of pilgrims
seated near their baggage on the sand, while curls of
smoke going up from amid the circle indicated the
presence of a fire, which at that time of day could
be for nothing else than coffee. Civilized though
Barakat undoubtedly was, he was yet by blood and
heart an Arab, and for an Arab to see coffee- making
and not to put himself in the way of getting a share
would be an act of self-restraint totally unheard of.
So he approached the group, and was of course in-
vited to sit down aiid drink. The party consisted of
two wealth}' Persians, accompanied by three or four
of that class of men, half-servants, half-companions,
who often hook on to travellers at Bagdad or its
neighborhood, besides a mulatto of Arabo-negrine
origin, and his master, this last being the leader of
the band, and the giver of the aromatic entertain-
ment.
" Barakat's whole attention was at once engrossed
by this personage. A remarkabl}' handsome face, of
a type evidently not belonging to the Arab peiiinsulaj
long liair curling down to the shoulders, an over-dress
JOURNEY TO B ERE YD All 195
of fine spun silk, somewhat soiled by travel, a colored
handkerchief of Syrian manufacture on the head, a
manner and look indicating an education much supe-
rior to that ordinary in his class and occupation, a
camel-driver's, were peculiarities sufficient of them,
selves to attract notice, and give rise to conjecture.
But when these went along with a welcome and a
salute in the forms and tone of Damascus or Aleppo,
and a ready flow of that superabundant and over-
charged politeness for which the Syrian subjects of
the Turkish empire are renowned, Barakat could no
longer doubt that he had a fellow-countryman, and
one, too, of some note, before Jiim.
" Such was in fact the case. Aboo-'Eysa, to give
him the name by which he was commonly known in
these parts, though in his own country he bears an-
other denomination, was a native of Aleppo, and son
of a not unimportant individual in that fair city.
His education, and the circumstances of his early
youth, had rendered him equally conversant with
townsmen and herdsmen, with citizens and Bedouins,
with Arabs and Europeans. By lineal descent he was
a Bedouin, since his grandfather belonged to the Me-
jadimah, who are themselves an offshoot of the Benoo-
Khalid ; but in habits, thoughts, and manners he was
a very son of Aleppo, where he had passed the greater
part of his boyhood and 3'outh. AVhen about twenty-
five years of age he became involved, culpably or
not, in the great conspiracy against the Turkish gov-
ernment which broke out in the Aleppine insurrec-
tion of 1852. Like many others he was compelled to
anticipate consequences by a prompt flight.
196 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" After trying commerce in order to retrieve liis
ruined fortunes, but with ill success, Aboo-'Ej'sa en-
gaged in the horse trade between Persia and Arabia,
and also failed. He then went to E.i'ad, the capital
of Nedjed, and by presents to Feysul, the chief, ob-
tained a post as guide to the Persian caravans of pil-
grims to Mecca, across Arabia. At this time he had
followed that career for three years, and had amassed
considerable wealth, for his politeness, easy manners,
and strict probity made him popular with the pil-
grims.
" He recognized a fellow-countryman in Barakat,"
says Palgrave, " received him with marked politeness,
and carefully informed himself of our whence and
whither. Barakat, overjoyed to find at last a kind
of opening after difficulties that had appeared to ob-
struct all further progress, made no delay in inquir-
ing whether he would undertake our guidance to
Ri'ad. Aboo-'Eysa replied that he was just on the
point of separating from his friends the Persians,
whose departure would leave camels enough and to
spare at his disposition, and that so far there was no
hindrance to the proposal. As for the AVahabees
and their unwillingness to admit strangers within
their limits, he stated himself to be well known to
them, and that in his company we should have noth-
ing to fear from their suspicious criticism."
The agreement was made at once, and the travel-
lers now only waited until their new companion
should have made some final arrangements with the
Persian pilgrims, who were to travel directly from
Ijoreydah to iiagdad. In the meantime, the former
JOURNEY TO DEREYDAn 197
took advantage of the delay to sec as much as pos-
sible of the place, and even to make excursions in tlie
neighborhood, especially in the direction of the be-
leaguered city of 'Oneyzah. Palgrave's description of
the place shows that it possesses the same general
features as the other Arabian towns, yet may be
quoted for its intrinsic picturesqueness :
" Barakat and myself have made our morning
household purchases at the fair, and the sun being
now an hour or more above the horizon, we think it
time to visit the market-place of the town, which
would hardly be open sooner. We re-enter the city
gate, and pass on our way by our house door, where
we leave our bundle of eatables, and regain the high
street of Bereydah. Before long we reach a high
arch across the road ; this gate divides the market
from the rest of the quarter. We enter. First of all
we see a long range of butchers' shops on either side,
thick hung with flesh of sheep and camel, and very
dirtily kept. Were not the air pure and the climate
healthy, the plague would assuredly be endemic
here ; but in Arabia no special harm seems to fol-
low. We hasten on, and next pass a series of cloth
and linen warehouses, stocked partly with home
manufacture, but more imported ; Bagdad cloaks
and head-gear, for instance, Syrian shawls and Egyp-
tian slippers. Here markets follow the law general
throughout the East, that all shops or stores of the
same description should be clustered together, a sys-
tem whose advantages on the whole outweigh its in-
conveniences, at least for small towns like these. In
the large cities and capitals of Europe greater extent
198 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
of locality requires evidently a different method of
arrangement ; it might be awkward for the inhabi-
tants of Hyde Park were no hatters to be found
nearer than the Tower. But what is Bereydah com-
pared even with a second-rate European city ? How-
ever, in a crowd, it yields to none ; the streets at
this time of the day are thronged to choking, and
to make matters worse, a huge, splay-footed camel
comes evei-y now and then, heaving from side to side
like a lubber-rowed boat, with a long beam on his
back menacing the heads of those in the way, or
with two enormous loads of firewood, each as large
as himself, sweeping tlie road before him of men,
women, and children, while the drive)-, high-perched
on the hump, regards such trifles with the most su-
preme indifference, so long as he brushes his path
open. Sometimes there is a whole string of these
beasts, the head-rope of each tied to the crupper of
his precursor, very uncomfortable passengers when
met with at a narrow turning.
" Through such obstacles we have found or made
our way, and are now amid leather and shoemakers'
shops, then among coppersmiths and ironsmiths, whose
united clang might waken the dead or kill the living,
till at last we emerge on the central town-square, not
a bad one either, nor very irregular, considering that
it is in Kaseem.
The vegetable and fruit market is ver}^ extensive,
and kept almost exclusively by women ; so are also
the shops for grocery and spices. Nor do the fair
sex of Bereydah seem a whit inferior to their rougher
partners in knowledge of business and thrifty dili-
JOURNEY TO BERETDAU 199
gence. ' Close - liandedness beseems a woman no
less than generosity a man,' says an Arab poet, un-
consciously coinciding witli Lance of Verona in his
comments on the catalogue of his future spouse's
' conditions.'
"The whole town has an aspect of old but de-
clining prosperity. There are few nevt houses, but
many falling into ruin. The faces, too, of most we
meet are serious, and their voices in an undertone.
Silk dresses are prohibited by the dominant faction,
and tobacco can only be smoked within doors, and
by stealth. Every now and then zealous Wahabee
missionaries from Ri'ad pay a visit of reform and
preaching to unwilling auditors, and disobedience to
the customs of the Nedjean sect is noticed and pun-
ished, often severely.
" Enough of the town ; the streets are narrow, hot,
and dusty ; the day, too, advances ; but the gardens
are yet cool. So we dash at a venture through a
labyrinth of by-ways and cross-ways till we find our-
selves in the wide street that, like a boulevard in
France, runs immediately along but inside the walls.
"We stroll about in the shade, hide ourselves
amid the high maize to smoke a quiet pipe unob-
served by prying Nediean eyes, and then walk on
till at some distance we come under a high ridge of
sand.
" While on one of our suburban excursions we
took the direction of 'Oneyzah, but found it utterly
impossible to arrive within its walls ; so we con-
tented ourselves with an outside and distant view of
this large and populous town ; the number of its
200 TRAVELS IW ARABIA
liouses, and their size, judging by the overtopping
suunnits that marked out the dwelling of Zaniil and
his family, far surpassed anything in Bereydah.
The outer fortifications are enormously thick, and
the girdle of palm-trees between them and the town
affords a considerable additional defence to the latter.
For all I could see there is little stonework in the
construction ; they appear almost exclusively of un-
baked bricks ; yet even so they are formidable de-
fences for Arabia. The whole country around, and
whatever lay northeast toward Bereydah, was more
or less ravaged by the war ; and we wei-e blamed by
our friends as very rash in having ventured thus far ;
in fact, it was a mere chance that we did not fall in
with skirmishers or plunderers ; and in such a case
the military discipline of Kaseem would hardly have
insured our safety.
" When all was ready for the long-expected de-
parture, it was definitely fixed for the 3d of October,
a Friday, I think, at niglitfall. Since our first inter-
view Barakat and myself had not again presented
ourselves befoi'e Mohanna, except in chance meet-
ings, accompanied by distant salutations in the street
or market-place ; and we did not see any need for
paying him a special farewell call. Indeed, after
learning who and what he was, we did our best not
to draw his gray eye on us, and thereby escaped some
additional trouble and surplus duties to pay, nor did
any one mention us to him. At star-rise we bade
our host and householder Ahmed a final adieu, and
left the town with Aboo-'Eysa for our guide."
CHAPTER XIIL
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS— JOURNEY TO RI'AD THE CAPI-
TAL OF NEDJED
TWO roads lay before us. The shorter, and for
that reason the more frequented of the two, led
southeast- by-east through Wosheni and Wady Ila-
ueefali to Ri'ad. But this track passed through a
district often visited at the present moment by the
troops of 'Oneyzah and their allies, and hence our
companions, not over-courageous for the most, were
afraid to follow it. Another road, much more cir-
cuitous, but farther removed from the scene of mili-
tary operations, led northeast to Zulphah, and thence
entered the province of Sedeyr, which it traversed
in a southeasterly or southern direction, and thus
reached the 'Aared. Our council of war resolved on
the latter itinerary, nor did we ourselves regret a
roundabout which promised to procure us the sight
of much that we might scarcely have otherwise an
opportunity of visiting. Barakat and 1 were mount-
ed on two excellent dromedaries of Aboo-'Eysa's
stud ; the Na'ib * was on a lovely gray she camel with
* " The Na'ib " was a Persian official, despatched bj the Per-
sian pilgrims to lay before Feysul, the ruler of Nedjed, a state-
ment of the extortions to which they had been compelled to sub-
mit at Bereydah. He was thus equally under Aboo-'Eysa's
14
202 TRA VELS IN ARABIA
a handsome saddle, crimson and gold. The Meccans
shared between them a long-backed black beast ; the
rest were also mounted on camels or dromedaries,
since the road before ns was impracticable for horses,
at any rate at this time of year.
" Our road lay in Kaseem, whose highlands we
rejoined once more, and traversed till sunset. The
view was very beautiful from its extent and variety
of ups and downs, in broad, grassy hills ; little groups
of trees stood in scattered detachments around ; and
had a rivei-, that desideratum of Arabia, been in sight,
one migrht almost have fancied one's self in the coun-
try bordering the Lower Rhine for some part of its
course ; readers may suppose, too, that there was
less verdure here than in the European parallel — my
comparison bears only on the general turn of the
view. No river exists nearer Kaseem than Shatt
(Euphrates), some hundred leagues off, and oui- eyes
had been too long accustomed to the deceptive pools
of the mirage to associate with them even a passing
idea of aught save drought and heat.
" We journeyed on till dark, and then reached cer-
tain hillocks of a different character from the hard
ground lately under our feet. Here began the Xe-
food, whose course from the southwest to northeast,
and then north, parts between Kaseem, Woshem, and
Sedeyr. I have already said something of these
sandy inlets when describing that which we crossed
three months ago between Djowf and Shomer.
charge, and his company was rather an advantage to Palgrave,
since his mission was another cause of removing— or, at least,
lessening— the prominence of the latter, after his arrival at Riad.
JOURNEY TO III 'AD 203
" On the verge of the desert strip we now halted a
little to eat a hasty supper, and to drink — the Arabs
coffee and the Persians tea. But journeying in
these sands, under the heat of the day, is alike kill-
ing to man and beast, and therefore Aboo-'Eysa had
resolved that we should cross the greater portion
under favor of the cooler hours of night.
" All night, a wearj' night, we waded up and down
through waves of sand, in which the camels often
sank up to their knees, and their riders were obliged
to alight and help them on.
" Now by full daylight appeared the true charac-
ter of the region which we were traversing ; its as-
pect resembled the Nefood north of Djebel Sliomer,
but the undulations were here higher and deeper,
and the sand itself lighter and less stable. In most
spots neither shrub nor blade of grass could fix its
root, in others a scanty vegetation struggled through,
but no trace of man anywhere. The camels ploughed
slowly on ; the Persians, unaccustomed to such
scenes, were downcast and silent ; all were tired, and
no wonder. At last, a little before noon, and just
as the sun's heat was becoming intolerable, we
reached the verge of an immense crater like hollow,
certainly three or four miles in circumference, where
the sand-billows receded on every side, and left in the
midst a pit seven or eight hundred feet in depth, at
whose base we could discern a white gleam of lime-
stone rock, and a small group of houses, trees, and
gardens, thus capriciously isolated in the very heart
of the desert.
" This was the little village and oasis of Wasit, or
204 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
' the intermedial^,' so called because a central point
between the three provinces of Kaseem, Sedej'i', and
Woshem, yet belonging to none of them. JS^or is it
often visited by wayfarers, as we learned from the
inliabitants, men simple and half-savage, from their
little intercourse with the outer world, and unac-
quainted even with the common forms of Islamitic
prayer, though dwelling in the midst of the Waha-
bee dominions.
" A long, winding descent brought us to the bot-
tom of the valley, where on our arrival men and
boys came out to stare at the Persians, and by ex-
acting double prices for fruit and camel's milk
proved themselves not altogether such fools as they
looked. For us, regarded as Arabs, we enjoyed their
hospitality — it was necessarily a limited one — gratis ;
whereupon the Na'ib grew jealous, and declaimed
against the Arabs as ' infidels,' for not treatina^ with
suitable generosity pilgrims like themselves return-
ins; from the ' house of God.'
" To get out of this pit was no easy matter \facilis
descensus, etc., thought I ; no ascending path showed
itself in the required direction, and every one tried
to push up his floundering beast where the sand ap-
peared at a manageable slope, and firm to the foot-
ino-. Camels and men fell and rolled back down the
declivity, till some of the party shed tears of vexa-
tion, and others, more successful, laughed at the an-
noyance of their companions. Aboo-'Ej^sa ran about
from one to the other, attempting to direct and keep
them together, till finally, as Heaven willed, we
reached the ui)pcr rim to the north.
JOURNEY TO liT'AD 205
" Before us lay wliat seemed a storm-driven sea of
fire in the red light of afternoon, and through it we
wound our way, till about an hour before sunset we
fell in with a sort of track or furrow. Next opened
out on our road a long descent, at whose extreme
base we discerned the important and commercial town
of Zulphah. Beyond it rose the wall-like steeps of
Djebel Toweyk, so often heard of, and now seen
close at hand. Needless to say how joyfully wo wel-
comed the first view of that strange ridge, the heart
and central knot of Arabia, beyond which whatever
lay might almost be reckoned as a return journey.
" We had now, in fact, crossed the Nefood, and
had at our feet the great valley which constitutes the
main line of connnunication between Nedjed and the
north, reaching even to the Tigris and Bagdad.
" We passed the whole length of the town of Zul-
phah, several streets of which had been lately swept
away by the winter torrents that pour at times their
short-lived fury down this valley. Before us to the
southeast stretched the long hollow ; on our right
was the Nefood, on our left Djebel Toweyk and the
province of Sedeyr. The mountain air blew cool,
and this day's journey was a far pleasanter one than
its predecessor. We continued our march down the
valley till the afternoon, when we turned aside into
a narrow gorge running up at a sharp angle to the
northeast, and thus entered between the heights of
Djebel Toweyk itself.
" This mountain essentially constitutes Nedjed. It
is a wide and flat chain, or rather plateau, whose
general form is that of a liuge crescent. If I may
206 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
be permitted here to give iri}' rough guess regarding
the elevation of the main plateau, a guess grounded
partly on the vegetation, climate, and similar local
features, partly on an approximate estimate of the
ascent itself, and of the subsequent descent on the
other or sea side, I should say that it varies from a
lieight of one to two thousand feet above the sur-
rounding level of the peninsula, and may thus be
about three thousand feet at most above the sea. Its
loftiest ledges occur in the Sedeyr district, where we
shall pass them before long ; the centre and the
southwesterly arm is certainly lower. Djebel Toweyk
is the middle knot of Arabia, its Caucasus, so to say ;
and is still, as it has often been in former times, the
turning-point of the whole, or almost the whole,
peninsula in a political and national bearing.
"The climate of the northern part of Djebel
Toweyk, whether plateau or valley, coincident with
the province of Sedeyr, is perhaps one of the health-
iest in the world ; an exception might be made in
favor of Djebel Shomer alone. The above named
districts resemble each other closely in dryness of
atmosphere, and the inhabitants of Sedeyr, like
those of Shomer, are remarkable for their ruddy com-
plexion and well-developed stature. But when we
approach the centre of the mountain crescent, where
its whole level lowers, while the more southerly lati-
tude brings it nearer to the prevailing influences of
the tropical zone, the air becomes damper and more
relaxing, and a less salubrious climate pictures itself
in the sallower faces and slender make of its deni-
zens.
JOURNEY TO RI'AD 207
" Two days later we attained the" great plateau, of
which I have a few pages since given an anticipated
description.
" About noon we halted in a brushwood-covered
plain to light fire and prepare coffee. After which
we pursued our easterly way, still a little to the
north, now and then meeting with travellers or
peasants; but a Eni-opean would find these roads very
lonely in comparison with those of his own country.
All the more did I admire the perfect submission and
strict police enforced by the central government, so
that even a casual robbery is very rare in the prov-
inces, and highwaymen are totally out of the ques-
tion. At last, near the same hour of afternoon that
had brought us the day before to Ghat, we came in
sight of Mejmaa', formerly capital of the province,
and still a place of considerable importance, with a
population, to judge by appearances and hearsay, of
between ten and twelve thousand souls.
" We were up early next morning, for the night
air was brisk, and a few hours of sleep had sufficed us.
"After sunrise we came on a phenomenon of a
nature, I believe, without a second or a parallel in
Central Arabia, yet withal most welcome, namely, a
tolerably large source of rtmning water, forming a
wide and deepish stream, with grassy banks, and
frogs croaking in the herbage. We opened our eyes
in amazement ; it was the first of the kind that we
had beheld since leaving the valley of Djowf. But
though a living, it is a short-lived rivulet, reajching
only four or five hours' distance to Djelajil, where it
is lost amid the plantations of the suburbs.
208 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" We had not long traversed the Meteyr encamp-
ment, when we came in view of the walls of Toweym,
a large town, containing between twelve and fifteen
thousand inhabitants, according to the computation
here in use, and which I follow for want of better.
The houses are here built compactly, of two stoi-ies
in general, sometimes three ; the lower rooms are
often fifteen or sixteen feet high, and the upper ten
or twelve ; while the roof itself is frequently sur-
rounded by a blind wall of six feet or more, till the
whole attains a fair altitude, and is not altogether
unimposing.
" Early next day, at a short distance from Toweym,
we passed another large village with battlemented
walls, and on the opposite side of the road a square
castle, looking very mediaeval ; this was Hafr. A
couple of hours further on we reached Thomeyr, a
straggling townlet, more abounding in broken walls
than houses ; close by was a tall white rock, crowned
by the picturesque remains of an old outwork or fort,
overlooking the place. Here our party halted for
breakfast in the sliadow of the ruins. Barakat and
myself determined to try our fortune in the village
itself; no guards appeared at its open gate; we
entered unchallenged, and roamed through silent
lanes and heaps of rubbish, vainly seeking news of
milk and dates in this city of the dead. At last we
met a meagre townsman, in look and apparel the
apothecary of Romeo ; and of him, not without mis-
givings of heart, we inquired where aught eatable
could be had for love or money. He apologized,
thougli there was scarce need of that, for not having
If
i )\
iiiii'ii!iiTaii,it;iiiiPii[!ijiii:ai\i;:;ii:ii!j!.rii!iiii
mm
1(1,11 1 lit
I !;!' ■ W
!lkii.i;[lMli,^alji
Ar
JOURNEY TO EI 'AD 209
any such article at his disposal ; ' but,' added he, ' in
such and such a house there will certainly be some-
thing good,' and thitherward he preceded us in our
search. We found indeed a large dwelling, bnt tlie
door was shut ; we knocked to no purpose : nobody
at home.
" Our man now set us a bolder example, and we
altogether scrambled through a breach in the mud
wall, and found ourselves amid empty rooms and a
desolate court-yard. ' Everybody is out in the fields,
women only excepted,' said our guide, and we sepa-
rated, no better off than before. Despairing of the
village commissariat, we climbed a turret on the
outer walls, and looked round. Now we saw at
some distance a beautiful palm-grove, where we con-
cluded that dates could not be wanting, and off we
set for it across the stubble fields. But on arrivino;
we found our paradise surrounded by high walls, and
no gate discoverable. While thus we stood without,
like Milton's fiend at Eden, but unable, like him, ' by
one high bound to overleap all bound,' up came a
handsome Solibah lad, all in rags, half-walking, half-
dancing, in the devil-may-care way of his tribe.
' Can you tell us which is the way in ? ' was our first
question, pointing to the garden before us ; and,
' Shall I sing you a song ? ' was his first answer. ' We
don't want your songs, but dates ; how are we to get
at them ? ' we replied. ' Or shall I perform 3^ou a
dance?' answered the grinning young scoundrel, and
forthwith began an Arabian polka-step, laughing all
the while at our undisguised impatience. At last he
condescended to show us the way, but no other than
210 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
what befitted an orcliard-robbing boy, like liimself,
for it lay a little farther oft', right over the wall,
which he scaled with practised ingenuity, and helped
us to follow. So we did, though perhaps with lion-
ester intentions, and, once within, stood amid trees,
shade, and water. The 'tender juvenile' then set
up a shout, and soon a man appeared, ' old Adam's
likeness set to dress this garden,' save that he was
not old but young, as Adam might himself have been
while yet in Eden. We were somewhat afraid of a
surly reception, too well merited by our very equivo-
cal introduction ; but the gardener was better-tem-
pered than many of his caste, and after saluting us
very politely, offered his services at our disposal.
We then proposed to purchase a stock of dates for
our onward way, whereon the gardener conducted us
to an outhouse where heaps of three or four kinds of
this fruit, red and yellow, round or long, lay piled
up, and bade us choose. At his recommendation we
filled a large cloth, which we had brought with us for
the purpose, with excellent ruddy dates, and gave in
return a small piece of money, welcome here as else-
where. We then took leave and returned, but this
time tlirough the garden gate, to the stubble fields,
and passing under the broken walls of the village,
reached our companions, who had become anxious at
our absence."
For three days longer the travellers journeyed
southward, through the valleys branching out from
Djebel Toweyk, encamping for the night near some
of the small towns. " In the early gray of the fourth
morning," says Palgrave, " we passed close under the
JOURNEY TO RI'AB 211
plantations of Rowdah down the valley, now dry and
still, once overflowed with the best blood of Arabia,
and through the narrow and high-walled pass which
gives entrance to the great strongholds of the land.
The sun rose and lighted up to our view wild preci-
pices on either side, with a tangled mass of broken
rock and brushwood below, while coveys of partridges
started up at our feet, and deer scampered away by
the gorges to right or left, or a cloud of dust an-
nounced the approach of peasant bands or horsemen
going to and fro, and gardens or hamlets gleamed
through side openings or stood niched in the bulging
passes of the Wady itself, till before noon we arrived
at the little hamlet of Malka, or ' the junction.'
" Its name is derived from its position. Here the
valley divides in form of a Y, sending off two
branches — one southerly to Derey'eeyah, the other
southeast-by-east through the centre of the province,
and communicating with the actual capital, Ri'ad.
" Aboo-'Eysa had meditated bringing us on that
very evening to Ri'ad. But eight good leagues re-
mained from Malka to the capital ; and when the
Na'ib had terminated his cosinetic operations, the
easterly turning shadows left us no hope of attaining
Ri'ad before nightfall. However, we resumed our
march, and took the arm of the valley leading to
Derey'eeyah ; but before reaching it we once more
quitted the Wady, and followed a shorter path by
the highlands to the left. Our way was next crossed
by a long range of towers, built by Ibraheem Pasha,
as outposts for the defence of this important position.
Within their line stood the lonely walls of a large,
212 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
square barrack ; the towers were wliat we sometimes
call Martello — shoit, large, and round.
" The level rays of the setting sun now streamed
across the plain, and we came on the ruins of Derey'-
eeyali, filling up the whole breadth of the valley be-
neath. The palace walls, of unbaked brick, like the
rest, rose close under the left or northern edge, but
unroofed and tenantless ; a little lower down a wide
extent of fragments showed where the immense
mosque had been, and hard by, the market-place ; a
tower on an isolated height was, I suppose, the orig-
inal dwelling-place of the Sa'ood family, while yet
mere local chieftains, before growing greatness trans-
ferred them to their imperial palace. The outer for-
tifications remained almost uninjured for much of
their extent, with turrets and bastions reddening in
the western light ; in other places the Egyptian artil-
lery, or the process of years, had levelled them with
the earth ; within the town many houses were yet
standing, but uninhabited, and the lines of the streets
from gate to gate were distinct as in a ground plan.
From the great size of the town (for it is full half a
mile in length, and not much less in breadth), and
from the close packing of the houses, I should esti-
mate its capacity at above forty thousand indwellei'S.
The gardens lie without, and still ' living waved
where man had ceased to live,' in full beauty and lux-
uriance, a deep green ring around the gray ruins.
For although the Ncdjeans, holding it for an ill omen
to rebuild and reinhablt a town so fatally over-
thrown, have transplanted the seat of government, and
with it the l)ulk of the city population, to Ili'ad, they
JOURNEY TO RI'AD 213
have not deemed it equally necessary to abandon the
rich plantations and well-watered fields belonging to
the old capital ; and thus a small colony of gardeners
in scattered huts and village dwellings close under the
walls protract the blighted existence of Derey'eeyah.
" While from our commanding elevation we gazed
thoughtfully on this scene, so full of remembrances,
the sun set, and darkness grew on. We naturally
proposed a halt, but Aboo-'Eysa turned a deaf ear,
and affirmed that a garden belonging to 'Abd-er-
Rahman, already mentioned as grandson of the first
Wahabee, was but a little farther before us, and bet-
ter adapted to our night's rest than the ruins. In
truth, three hours of brisk travelling yet intervened
between Derey'eeyah and the place in question ; but
our guide was unwilling to enter Derey'eeyah in com-
pany of Persians and Syrians, Shiya'ees and Chris-
tians ; and this he afterward confessed to me. For,
whether from one of those curious local influences
which outlast even the change of races, and give one
abiding color to the successive tenants of the same
spot, or whether it be occasioned by the constant view
of their fallen greatness and the triumph of their
enemies, the scanty population of Derey'eeyah com-
prises some of the bitterest and most bigoted fanatics
that even 'Aared can offer. Accordingly we moved
on, still keeping to the heights, and late at night de-
scended a little hollow, where, amid an extensive gar-
den, stood the country villa of 'Abd-er-Rahman.
" We did not attempt to enter the house ; indeed,
at such an hour no one was stirring to receive us.
But a shed in the garden close by sufficed for travel-
214 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
lers who were all too weary to desire aiiglit but sleep ;
and this we soon found in spite of dogs and jackals,
numerous here and throughout I^edjed.
" From this locality to the capital was about four
miles' distance. Our party divided next morning ;
the Na'ib and his associates remaining behind, while
Barakat and mj^self, with Aboo-'Eysa, set off straight
for the town, where our guide was to give notice at
the palace of the approach of the Persian dignitary,
that the honors due to his reception might meet him
half-way. At our request the Meccans stayed also in
the rear ; we did not desire the equivocal effect of
their company on a first appearance.
" For about an hour we proceeded southward,
tlirough barren and undulating ground, unable to see
over the country to any distance. At last we attained
a rising eminence, and crossing it, came at once in
full view of Ri'ad, the main object of our long jour-
ney — the capital of Nedjed and half Arabia, its very
heart of hearts.
" Before us stretched a wild open valley, and in its
foreground, immediately below the pebbly slope on
whose summit we stood, lay the capital, large and
square, crowned by high towers and strong walls of
defence, a mass of roofs and terraces, where overtop-
ping all frowned the huge but irregular pile of Fe}'-
sul's royal castle, and hard by it rose the scarce less
conspicuous palace, built and inhabited b}' his eldest
son, 'Abdallah. Other edifices, too, of i-emarkable
appearance broke here and there through the maze of
gray roof-tops, but of their o])ject and indwellers we
were yet to learn. All around for full three miles
JOURNEY TO RI'AD 215
over the surrounding plain, but more especially to
the west and south, waved a sea of palm-trees above
green fields and well- watered gardens ; while the
singing, droning sound of the water-wheels reached
us even where we had halted, at a quarter of a mile
or more from the nearest town- walls. On the oppo-
site side southward, the valley opened out into the
great and even more fertile plains of Yemamah,
thickly dotted with groves and villages, among which
the large town of Manfoohah, hardly inferior in size
to Ri'ad itself, might be clear!}' distinguished. Far-
ther in the background ranged the blue hills, the
ragged Sierra of Yemamah, compared some thirteen
hundred years since, by 'Amroo-ebn-Kelthoom, the
Shomerite, to drawn swords in battle array ; and be-
hind them was concealed the immeasurable Desert of
the South, or Dahna. On the west the valley closes
in and narrows in its upward windings toward De-
rey'eeyah, while to the southwest the low mounds of
Aflaj are the division between it and Wady Dowasir.
Due east in the distance a long blue line marks the
farthest heights of Toweyk, and shuts out from view
the low ground of Ilasa and the shores of the Per-
sian Gulf. In all the countries which I have visited,
and they are many, seldom has it been mine to sur-
vey a landscape equal to this in beauty and in his-
torical meaning, rich and full alike to eye and mind.
But should any of my readers have ever approached
Damascus from the side of the Anti-Lebanon, and
surveyed the Ghootah from the heights above Mazzeh,
they may thence form an approximate idea of the
valley of Ri'ad when viewed from the north. Only
216 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
this is wider and more varied, and the circle of vision
here embraces vaster plains and bolder mountains ;
while the mixture of tropical aridity and luxuriant
verdure, of crowded population and desert tracks, is
one that Arabia alone can present, and in comparison
with which Syria seems tame, and Italy monotonous."
CHAPTER XIV.
PALGEAVE'S TRAVELS— ADVENTURES IN RI'AD
" f3ARAKAT and myself stopped our drome-
1_) daries a few minutes on the height to study
and enjoy this noble prospect, and to forget the anx-
iety inseparable from a first approach to the lion's
own den. Aboo-'Eysa, too, though not unacquainted
with the scene, willingly paused with us to point out
and name the main features of the view, and show
us where lay the onward road to his home in Hasa.
We then descended the slope and skirted the walls
of the first outlying plantations which gird the town.
" At last we reached a great open square : its right
side, the northern, consists of shops and warehouses ;
while the left is entirely absorbed by the huge abode
of Ned jean royalty ; in front of us, and consequently
to the west, a long covered passage, upborne high on
a clumsy colonnade, crossed the breadth of the
square, and reached from the palace to the great
mosque, which it thus joins directly with the interior
of the castle and affords old Feysul a private and un-
seen passage at will from his own apartments to his
official post at the Friday prayers, without exposing
him on his way to vulgar curiosity, or perhaps to the
dangers of treachery. For the fate of his father and
of his great-uncle, his predecessors on the throne, and
each of them pierced by the dagger of an assassin
15
218 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
during public worsliip, has reudei'ed Feysul very
timid on tliis score, tliongli not at prayer-time only.
Beliind this colonnade, other shops and warehouses
make up the end of the square, or, more propei'ly,
parallelogram ; its total length is about two hundred
paces, by rather more than half the same width. In
the midst of this space, and under the far-reaching
shadow of the castle walls, are seated some fifty or
sixty women, each with a stock of bread, dates, milk,
vegetables, or firewood before her for sale.
" But we did not now stop to gaze, nor indeed did
we pay much attention to all this ; our first introduc-
tion to the monarch and the critical position before
us took up all our thoughts. So we paced on along-
side of the long blind wall running out from the
central keep, and looking more like the outside of
a fortress than of a peaceful residence, till we came
near a low and narrow gate, the only entry to the
palace. Deep- sunk between the bastions, with mas-
sive folding-doors iron bound, though thrown open
at this hour of the day, and giving entrance into a
dark passage, one might easil}^ have taken it for the
vestibule of a prison ; while the number of guards,
some black, some white, but all sword-girt, who al-
most choked the way, did not seem very inviting to
those without, especially to foreigners. Long earth
seats lined the adjoining walls, and afforded a conve-
nient waiting-place for visitors ; and here we took up
onr rest at a little distance from the palace gate ; but
Aboo-'Eysa entered at once to announce our arrival,
and the approach of the Na'il).
" The first who drew near and saluted us was a
ADVENTURES IN Rr AD 219
tall, meagre figure, of a sallow complexion, and an
intelligent but slightly ill-natured and underhand
cast of features. He was very well dressed, though
of course without a vestige of unlawful silk in his
apparel, and a certain air of conscious importance
tempered the affability of his politeness. This was
'Abd-el-'Azeez, whom, for want of a better title, I
shall call the minister of foreign affairs, such being
the approximate translation of his official style.
" Accompanied by some attendants from the pal-
ace, he came stately up, and seated himself by our
side. He next began the customary interrogations
of whence and what, with much smiling courtesy
and show of welcome. After hearing our replies,
the same of course as those given elsewhere, he in-
vited us to enter the precincts, and partake of his
Majesty's coffee and hospitality, while he promised
us more immediate communications from the king
himself in the course of the day.
" If my readers have seen, as most of them un-
doubtedly will, the Paris Tuileries, they may hereby
know that the whole extent of Feysul's palace equals
about two-thirds of that construction, and is little in-
ferior to it in height ; if indeed we except the angu-
lar pyramidal roofs or extinguishers peculiar to the
French edifice. But in ornament the Parisian pile
has the better of it, for there is small pretensions to
architectural embellishment in this Wahabee Louvre.
Without, within, every other consideration has been
sacrificed to strength and security; and the outer
view of New^gate, at any rate, bears a very strong i-e-
semblance to the general effect of Feysul's palace.
220 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" Aboo-'Eysa meanwhile, in company with the out-
riders sent from the palace, had gone to meet the
Na'ib and introduce him to the lodgings prepared
for his reception. Very much was the Persian as-
tounded to find none of the royal family among those
who thus came, no one even of liigh name or ofiice ;
but yet more was his surprise when, instead of im-
mediate admittance to Feysul's presence and eager
embrace, he was quietly led aside to the very guest-
room whither we had been conducted, and a dinner
not a whit more sumptuous than ours was set before
him, after which he was very coolly told that he
might pray for Feysul and retire to his quarters,
while the king settled the day and hour whereon he
would vouchsafe him the honor of an audience.
" Afterward, the minister of foreign affairs conde-
scended to come in person, and, sweetly smiling, in-
formed us that our temporary habitation was ready,
and that Aboo-'Eysa would conduct us thither with-
out delay. We then begged to know, if possible, the
king's good-will and pleasure regarding our stay and
our business in the town. For on our first introduc-
tion we had duly stated, in the most correct Waha-
bee phraseology, that we had come to Ili'ad * desiring
the favor of God, and secondly of Feysul ; and that
we begged of God, and secondly of Feysul, permis-
sion to exercise in the town our medical profession,
under the protection of God, and in the next place
of Feysul.' For Dogberry's advice to ' set God first,
for God defend but God should go before such vil-
lains,' is here observed to the letter ; whatever is de-
sired, purported, or asked, the Deity nnist take the
ADVENTURES IN EI 'AD 221
lead. Nor this only, but even the subsequent men-
tion of the creature must nowise be coupled with
tliat of the Creator by the ordinary conjunction ' w','
that is, 'and,' since that would imply equality be-
tween the two — flat blasphemy in word or thought.
Hence the disjunctive ' thumma,' or 'next after,' 'at
a distance,' must take the place of ' w',' under pen-
alty of prosecution under the statute. ' Unlucky the
man who visits Nedjed without being previously well
v.ersed in the niceties of grammar,' said Barakat ;
'under these schoolmasters a mistake might cost the
scholar his head.' But of this more anon ; to return
to our subject, 'Abd-el-'Azeez, a true politician, an-
swered our second interrogation with a vague assur-
ance of good-will and unmeaning patronage. Mean-
time the Na'ib and his train marched off in high
dudgeon to their quarters, and Aboo-'Eysa, gave our
dromedaries a kick, made them rise, and drove them
before us to our new abode."
In the course of a day or two the travellers dis-
covered what a sensation the arrival of their caravan
had produced at court. The old king, Feysul, now
in the thirty-third year of his reign, possessed all the
superstition and bigotry of the old Wahabees, and
the sudden presence of Syrians, suspected of being
Christians, Persians, and Meccans, in his capital, was
too much for him. lie at once left the palace, took
np his temporary residence in a house outside the
city, and a strong guard was posted around him until
the court officials should have time to examine the
strangers, discover, if possible, their secret designs,
and report them to the king. The first spy was a
222 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
shrewd and intelligent Affghan, a pretended convert
to the Wahabee doctrine, who discovered nothing,
and consequently made an vmfavorable report. The
second was a " man of zeal," one of a committee of
twenty-two inquisitors, appointed by the king to ex-
ercise constant espionage upon the inhabitants, with
the power of punishing them at will for any infrac-
tion or neglect of the Wahabee discipline. Palgrave
gives the following account of his visit :
" Abbood, for such was his name, though I never
met the like before or after in Arabia proper, how-
ever common it may be in Syria and Lebanon, took
a different and more efficacious mode of espionage
than 'Abd-el-Hameed had done before him. Affect-
ing to consider us Mahometans, and learned ones
too, he entered at once on religious topics, on the
true character of Islam, its purity or corruptions, and
inquired much after the present teaching and usages
of Damascus and the North, evidently in the view of
catching us in our words. But he had luckily en-
countered his match ; for every citation of the Koran
we replied with two, and proved ourselves intimately
acquainted with the 'greater' and the 'lesser' poly-
theism of foreign nations and heterodox Mahometans,
with the commentaries of Beydowee and the tales of
the Iladeeth, till our visitor, now won over to confi-
dence, launched out full sail on the sea of discussion,
and therebj^ rendered himself equally instructive and
interesting to men who had nothing more at heart
than to learn the tenets of the sect from one of its
most zealous professors, nay, a Zelator in person. In
short, he ended b}' becoming half a friend, and his
ADVENTURES IN EI 'AD 223
regrets at our being, like otlier Damascenes, yet in
the outer porch of darkness, were tempered by a
hope, whicli he did not disguise, of at least put-
ting a window in our porch for its better enlight-
enment."
Next day, in the forenoon, while the travellers
were sanntering about the market-place, they met
the minister 'Abd-el-'Azeez, who had that morning
returned to the capital. With a smiling face and
an air of gi-eat benignity he took them aside, and in-
formed them the king did not consider Ri'ad a
proper field for their medical skill ; that they had
better at once continue their journey to Hofhoof,
whither Aboo-'Eysa should conduct them straight-
way ; and that the king would furnish each of them
with a camel, a new suit of clothes, and some money.
To these arguments Palgrave could only answer that
he greatly desired the profit to be expected from a
few weeks of medical practice in Ri'ad, since his
success there would give him an immediate reputa-
tion in Hofhoof, while his departure might deprive
liim of all reputation at the latter place. The min-
ister promised to present his plea to Feysul, but gave
him no hope of a favorable answer. The order to
leave was repeated, and then, as a last experiment,
Palgrave sent to two of the ministers a pound of the
fragrant wood, which is burned as pastilles in Ara-
bia, and is highly prized by the upper classes. The
next day he received permission to remain longer in
Ri'ad and exercise his profession. He thereupon
took another residence, not so near the palace, and
within convenient reach of one of the city gates.
224 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Before describing the place he gives the following
account of the famous Arabian coffee :
" Be it then known, by way of prelude, that cof-
fee, though one in name, is manifold in fact ; nor is
every kind of ben-y entitled to the high qualifica-
tions too indiscriminately bestowed on the compre-
hensive genus. The best coffee, let cavillers say
what they will, is that of the Yemen, commonly en-
titled 'Mokha,'from the main place of exportation.
Now, I should be sorry to incur a lawsuit for libel or
defamation from our wholesale or retail salesmen ;
but were the particle not prefixed to the countless
labels in London shop windows that bear the name
of the Red Sea haven, they would have a more
truthy import than what at present they convey.
Yery little, so little indeed as to be quite inapprecia-
ble, of the Mocha or Yemen berry ever finds its Avay
westward of Constantinople. Arabia itself, Syria,
and Egypt consume fully two-thirds, and the re-
mainder is almost exclusively absorbed by Turkish
and Armenian oesophagi. Nor do these last get for
their limited share the best or the purest. Before
reaching the harbors of Alexandria, Jaifa, Beyrout,
etc., for further exportation, the Mokhan bales have
been, while yet on their way, sifted and resifted,
grain by grain, and whatever they may have con-
tained of the hard, rounded, half-transparent, green-
ish-brown berry, the only one really worth roasting
and pounding, has been carefully picked out by ex-
perienced fingers ; and it is the less generous residue
of flattened, opaque, and whitish grains which alone,
or ahuost alone, goes on board the shipping. So
ADVENTURES IN RI'AD 225
constant is this selecting process, that a gradation
regular as the degrees on a map may be observed
in the quality of Mokha, that is, Yemen, coffee even
within the limits of Arabia itself, in proportion as
one approaches to or recedes from Wadi Nejran and
the neighborhood of Mecca, the first stages of the
radiating mart. I have myself been times out of
number an eye-witness of this sifting ; the operation
is performed with the utmost seriousness and scrupu-
lous exactness, reminding me of the diligence as-
cribed to American diamond-searchers when scruti-
nizing the torrent sands for their minute but precious
treasure.
"The berry, thus qualified for foreign use, quits
its native land on three main lines of export — that
of the Red Sea, that of the inner Hedjaz, and that
of Kaseem. The terminus of the first line is Egypt,
of the second Syria, of the third iSTedjed and Shomer.
Hence Egypt and Syria are, of all countries without
the frontiers of Arabia, the best supplied with its
specific produce, though under the restrictions al-
ready stated ; and through Alexandria or the Syrian
seaports, Constantinople and the North obtain their
diminished share. But this last stage of transport
seldom conveys the genuine article, except by the
intervention of private arrangements and personal
friendship or interest. Where mere sale and traffic
are concerned, substitution of an inferior quality, or
an adulteration almost equivalent to substitution,
frequently takes place in the different storehouses of
the coast, till whatever Mokha-marked coffee leaves
them for Europe and the West, is often no more like
22G TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the real offspring of the Yemen plant than tlie log-
wood preparations of a London fourth-rate retail
wine-seller resemble the pure libations of an Oporto
vineyard.
" The second species of coffee, by some preferred
to that of Yemen, but in my poor opinion inferior
to it, is the growth of Abyssinia ; its berry is larger,
and of a somewhat different and a less heating flavor.
It is, however, an excellent species ; and whenever
the ricli land that bears it shall be permitted by man
to enjoy the benefits of her natural fertility, it will
probably become an object of extensive cultivation
and commerce. With this stops, at least in European
opinion and taste, the list of coffee, and begins the
list of beans.
" While we were yet in the Djowf I described
with sufficient minuteness how the berry is prepared
for actual use ; nor is the process any way varied in
Nedjed or other Arab lands. But in Kedjed an ad-
ditional spicing of saffron, cloves, and the like, is
still more common ; a fact which is easily explained
by the want of what stimulus tobacco affords else-
where. A second consequence of non-smoking
amono; the Arabs is the increased strength of their
coffee decoctions in Kedjed, and the prodigious fre-
quency of their use ; to which we must add the
larger ' finjans,' or coffee-cups, here in fashion. So
sure are men, when debarred of one pleasure or ex-
citement, to make it up by another.-'
Palgrave gives the following picturesque descrip-
tion of the Wahabee capital : " We wrap our head-
gear, like true Arabs, round our chins, ])ut on our
ADVENTURES IN RI'AD 227
grave-looking black cloaks, take each a long stick in
hand, and thread the narrow streets intermediate be-
tween onr house and the market-place at a f nneral
pace, and speaking in an nndertone. Those whom
we meet salute us, or we salute them ; be it known
that the lesser number should always be the first to
salute the greater, he who rides him who walks, he
who walks him who stands, the stander the sitter, and
so forth ; but never should a man salute a woman ;
difference of age or even of rank between men does
not enter into the general rules touching the priority
of salutation. If those whom we have accosted hap-
pen to be acquaintances or patients, or should they
belong to the latitudinarian school, our salutation is
duly returned. But if, by ill fortune, they appertain
to the strict and high orthodox party, an under- look
with a half scowl in silence is their only answer to
our greeting. Whereat we smile, Malvolio-like, and
pass on.
" At last we reach the market-place ; it is full of
women and peasants, selling exactly what we want to
bu}', besides meat, firewood, milk, etc. ; around are
customers, come on errands like our own. AVe single
out a tempting basket of dates, and begin haggling
with the unbeautiful Phyllis, seated beside her rural
store. We find the price too high. ' By Him who
protects Fej'sul,' answers she, ' I am the loser at that
price.' We insist. ' By Him who shall grant Feysul
a long life, I cannot bate it,' she replies. We have
nothing to oppose to such tremendous asseverations,
and accede or pass on, as the case may be.
" Half of the shops, namely, those containing gro-
228 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
eery, houseliold articles of use, shoemakers' stalls and
smithies, are already open and busily thronged. For
the capital of a strongly centralized empire is always
full of strangers, come will they nill they on their
several affairs. But around the butchers' shops
awaits the greatest human and canine crowd. My
readers, I doubt not, know that the only licensed
scavengers throughout the East are the dogs. Ked-
jeans are great flesh-eaters, and no wonder, consider-
ing the cheapness of meat (a fine fat sheep costs at
most five shillings, often less) and the keenness of
mountaineer appetites. I wish that the police regu-
lations of the city would enforce a little more cleanli-
ness about these numerous shambles ; every refuse is
left to cumber the ground at scarce two yards' dis-
tance. But dogs and dry air much alleviate the
nuisance — a remark I made before at Ha'yel and
Bereydah ; it holds true for all Central Arabia.
" Barakat and I resolve on continuing our walk
through the town. Ri'ad is divided into four quar-
ters : one, the noi'theastern, to which the palaces of
the royal family, the houses of the state officers, and
the richer class of proprietors and government men
belong. Here the dwellings are in general high, and
the streets tolerably straight and not over-narrow ;
but the ground level is low, and it is perhaps the
least healthy locality of all. Next the northwestern,
where we are lodged ; a large irregular mass of
liouses, varying in size and keeping fi-om the best to
the worst ; here strangers, and often certain equiv-
ocal characters, never wanting in large towns, how-
ever strictly regulated, chiefly abide ; here too are
ADVENTURES IN RI 'AD 229
many noted for disaffection, and harboring other
tenets than tliose of the son of 'Abdel-Wahab, men
prone to old Arab ways and customs in ' Church and
State,' to borrow our own analogous phrase ; here
are country chiefs, here Bedouins and natives of Zul-
phah and the outskirts find a lodging ; here, if any-
wiiere, is tobacco smoked or sold, and the Koran
neglected in proportion. However, I would not have
my readers to think our entire neighborhood so abso-
hitely disreputable.
" But we gladly turn away our eyes from so dreary
a view to refresh them by a survey of the southwest-
ern quarter, the chosen abode of formalism and or-
thodoxy. In this section of Ri'ad inhabit the most
energetic Zelators, here are the most irreproachable
five-prayers-a-day Nedjeans, and all the flower of
Wahabee purity. Above all, here dwell the principal
survivors of the family of the great religious Founder,
the posterity of 'Abd-el-Wahab escaped from the
Egyptian sword, and free from every stain of foreign
contamination. Mosques of primitive simplicity and
ample space, where the great dogma, not however
confined to Ri'ad, that ' we are exactly in the right,
and everyone else is in the wrong,' is daily incul-
cated to crowds of auditors, overjoyed to find Par-
adise all theirs and none's but theirs ; smaller ora-
tories of Musallas, wells for ablution, and Kaabah-
directed niches adorn every corner, and fill up every
interval of house or orchard. The streets of this
quarter are open, and the air healthy, so that the in-
visible blessing is seconded by sensible and visible
privileges of Providence. Think not, gentle reader,
230 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
that I am indulging in gratuitous or self-invented
irony ; I am only rendering expression for expression,
and almost word for word, the talk of true Waha-
bees, when describing the model quarter of their
model city. This section of the town is spacious and
well-peopled, and flourishes, the citadel of national
and religious intolerance, pious pride, and genuine
Wahabeeism.
" Round the whole town run the walls, varying
from twenty to thirty feet in height ; they are strong,
in good repair, and defended by a deep trench and
embankment. Beyond them are the gardens, much
similar to those of Kaseem, both in arrangement and
produce, despite the difference of latitude, here com-
pensated by a higher ground level. But immedi-
ately to the south, in Yemamah, the eye remarks a
change in the vegetation to a more tropical aspect ;
of this, however, I will iiot say more for the present.
" According to promise, Aboo-'Eysa played his part
to bring us in patients and customers, and the very
second morning that dawned on us in our new house
ushered in an invalid who proved a very godsend.
This was no other than Djowhar, treasurer of Feysul,
and of the Wahabee empire. My readers may be
startled to learn that this great functionary was jet
black, a negro in fact, though not a slave, having ob-
tained his freedom from Turkee, the father of the
present king. He was tall, and, for a negro, hand-
some ; about forty-five years of age, splendidly
dressed, a point never neglected by wealthy Africans,
whatever be their theoretical creed, and girt with a
golden hiked sword. 'But,' said he, ' gold, though
ADVENTURES IN RI WD 231
unlawful if formitig a part of apparel or mere orna-
ment, may be employed with a safe conscience in dec-
orating weapons.'
" After ceremonies and coffee, I took my dusky pa-
tient into the consulting-room, where, by dint of
questioning and surmise, for negroes in general are
much less clear and less to the point than Arabs in
their statements, I obtained the requisite elucidation
of his case. The malady, though painful, was fortu-
nately one admitting of simple and efficacious treat-
ment, so that I was able on the spot to promise him
a sensible amendment of condition within a fortnight,
and that in three weeks' time he should be in plight
to undertake his journey to Bahreyn. I added that
with so distinguished a personage I could not think
of exacting a bargain and fixing tlie amount of fees ;
the requital of my care should be left to his generos-
ity. He then took leave, and was re-conducted to
his rooms in the palace by his fellow blacks of less
degree."
The next visitor was Abd-el-Kereem, of the oldest
nobility of Nedjed, related to the ruling family ; a
bitter Wahabee, a strong, intelligent, bad, and dan-
gerous man, who was both hated and feared by the
people. His visit was a distinction for Palgrave, yet
an additional danger. The latter, however, deter-
mined to draw as much information from him con-
cerning Wahabee doctrine as he might be inclined to
give; and, in reality, found him quite communica-
tive. One day Palgrave asked him to define the
difference between the <j)'cat sins and the little ones
— that is, those to be punished in the next world, or
232 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
at least deserving of it, and those whose penalty is
remissible in this life.
" Abd-el-Kereem doubted not that he had a sin-
cere scholar before him, nor would refuse his hand
to a drowning man. So, putting on a profound air,
and with a voice of first-class solemnity, he uttered
his oracle, that ' the first of the great sins is the giv-
ing divine honors to a creature.' A hit, I may ob-
serve, at ordinary Mahometans, whose whole doctrine
of intercession, whether vested in Mahomet or in
'Alee, is classed by Wahabees along with direct and
downright idolatry. A Damascene Shekh would
have avoided the equivocation by answering, ' infi-
delity.'
" ' Of course,' I replied, ' the enormity of such a
sin is beyond all doubt. But if this be the first,
there must be a second ; what is it ? '
" ' Drinking the shameful,' in English, ' smoking
tobacco,' was the unhesitating answer.
" ' And murder, and adultery, and false witness ? '
I suggested.
"'God is merciful and forgiving,' rejoined my
friend ; that is, these are merely little sins.
" ' Hence two sins alone are great, polytheism and
smoking,' I continued, though hardly able to keep
countenance any longer. And Abd-el-Kereem, with
the most serious asseveration, replied that such was
really the case. On hearing this, I proceeded humbly
to entreat my friend to explain to me the especial
wickedness inherent in tobacco leaves, that I might
the more detest and eschew them hereafter.
''Accordingly he proceeded to instruct rae, say-
ADVENTURES IN lil'AB 233
ing that, Firstly, all intoxicating substances are pro-
hibited by the Koran ; but tobacco is an intoxicating
substance — ergo, tobacco is prohibited.
" I insinuated that it was not intoxicating, and ap-
pealed to experience. But, to my surprise, my friend
had experience too on his side, and had ready at
hand the most appalling tales of men falling down
dead drunk after a single whiff of smoke, and of
others in a state of bestial and habitual ebriety from
its use. Nor were his stories so purely gratuitous
as many might at first imagine. The only tobacco
known, when known, in Southern jSTedjed, is that of
Oman, a very powerful species. I was myself aston-
ished, and almost ' taken in,' more than once, by its
extraordinary narcotic effects, when I experienced
them, in the coffee-houses of Bahreyn."
Palgrave furnishes a tolerably complete account of
the provinces of Kedjed and the tribes which inhabit
them. His concluding statement, however, embodies
all which will interest the reader.
" To sum up, we may say that the Wahabee em-
pire is a compact and well-organized government,
where centralization is fully understood and effectu-
ally carried out, and whose main-springs and connect-
ing links are force and fanaticism. There exist no
constitutional checks either on the king or on his sub-
ordinates, save what the necessity of circumstance im-
poses or the Koran prescribes. Its atmosphere, to
speak metaphorically, is sheer despotism — moral, in-
tellectual, religious, and physical. This empire is ca-
pable of frontier extension, and hence is dangerous
to its neighbors, some of whom it is even now swal-
IG
234 TRA VELS IN ARABIA
lowing up, and will certainly swallow more if not
otherwise prevented. Incapable of true internal prog-
I'ess, hostile to commerce, unfavorable to arts and
even to agriculture, and in the highest degree intol-
erant and aggressive, it can neither better itself nor
benefit others ; while the order and calm which it
sometimes spreads over the lands of its conquest are
described in the oft-cited Ubi solitudineni faciutit
pacem appellant of the lioman annalist.
" In conclusion, I here subjoin a numerical list,
taken partly from the government registers of Ri'ad,
partly from local information, and containing the
provinces, the mimber of the principal towns or vil-
lages, the population, and the military contingent,
throughout the Wahabee empire.
Provinces. Towns or villages. Population. Military muster.
I.— 'Aared 15 110,000 6.000
II.— Yemamah .... 33 140,000 4,500
III.— Hareek 16 45,000 3,000
IV.— Aflaj 12 14,000 1,200
v.— Wady Dowasir. 50 100,000 4,000
VL— Selej'yel 14 30,000 1,400
VII.— Wosiiem 20 80,000 4,000
VIII.— Sedeyr 25 140,000 5,200
IX.— Kaseem 60 300.000 11.000
X.— Hasa 50 160,000 7,000
XI.— Kateef 22 100,000
316 1,219,000 47,300 »
After a time, Palgrave was sent for by Abdallah,
the eldest son of King Feysul, who pretended that
he wished to learn something of the medical art.
This led to a regular intercourse, >vhich at least en-
abled tlie traveller to learn many things concerning
the Wahaljcc government. Another important re-
ADVENTURES IN HI' AD 235
isnlt was an opportunity of visiting the royal stables,
where the finest specimens of the famous Nedjed
breed of horses are kept. Of these he gives the fol-
lowing interesting description :
" The stables are situated some way out of the
town, to the northeast, a little to the left of the road
which we had followed at our first arrival, and not
far from the gardens of 'Abd-er-Kahman the Waha-
bee. They cover a large square space, about 150
yards each way, and are open in the centre, with a
long shed rutming round the inner walls ; under this
covering the horses, about tiiree hundred in number
when I saw them, are picketed during the night ;
in the daytime they may stretch their legs at pleas-
ure within the central court-yard. The greater num-
ber were accordingly loose ; a few, however, were
tied up at their stalls ; some, but not many, had
horse-cloths over them. The heavy dews which fall
in Wady Haneefah do not permit their remaining
with impunity in the open night air ; I was told also
that a northerly wind will occasionally injure the
animals here, no less than the land wind does now
and then their brethren in India. About half the
royal stud was present before me, the rest were out
at ffrass ; Fevsul's entire muster is reckoned at six
hundred, or rather more.
" No Arab dreams of tying up a horse by the
neck ; a tether replaces the halter, and one of the
animars hind legs is encircled about the pastern by a
light iron ring, furnished with a padlock, and con-
nected with an iron chain of two feet or thereabouts
in length, ending in a rope, which is fastened to the
236 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ground at some distance by an iron peg ; such is the
customary method. But should tlie animal be rest-
less and troublesome, a foreleg is put under similar
restraint. It is well known that in Arabia horses are
much less frequently vicious or refractory than in
Europe, and this is the reason why geldings are here
so rare, though not unknown. No particular prej-
udice, that I could discover, exists against the opera-
tion itself ; only it is seldom performed, because not
otherwise necessary, and tending, of course, to dimin-
ish the value of the animal.
" But to return to the horses now before us ; never
had I seen or imagined so lovely a collection. Their
stature was indeed somewhat low ; I do not think
that any came fully up to fifteen hands ; fourteen
appeared to me about their average, but they were so
exquisitely well shaped that want of greater size
seemed hardly, if at all, a defect. Remarkably full
in the haunches, with a shoulder of a slope so elegant
as to make one, in the words of an Arab poet, ' go
raving mad about it ; ' a little, a very little, saddle-
backed, just the curve which indicates springiness
without any weakness ; a head broad above, and
tapering down to a nose fine enougli to verify the
phrase of ' drinking from a pint pot,' did pint pots
exist in Nedjed ; a most intelligent and yet a singu-
larly gentle look, full eye, sharp thorn-like little ear,
less fore and hind that seemed as if made of ham-
mered iron, so clean and yet so well twisted witli
sinew ; a neat, round hoof, just the requisite for hard
ground ; the tail set on, or rather thrown out at a
perfect arch ; coats smooth, shining, and light, the
ADVENTURES IN BI'AD 237
mane long, but not overgrown nor heavy, and an air
and step that seemed to say, ' Look at me, am I not
pretty ? ' their appearance justified all reputation, all
value, all poetry. The prevailing color was chestnut
or gray ; a light bay, an iron color, white or black,
were less common ; full bay, flea-bitten or piebald,
none. But if asked what are, after all, the specially
distinctive points of the Nedjee horse, I should reply,
the slope of the shoulder, the extreme cleanness of
the shank, and the full, rounded haunch, though
ever}' other part, too, has a perfection and a harmony
unwitnessed (at least by my eyes) anywhere else.
" Nedjee horses are especially esteemed for great
speed and endurance of fatigue ; indeed, in this latter
quality, none come up to them. To pass twenty-
four hours on the road without drink and without
flagging is certainly something ; but to keep up the
same abstinence and labor conjoined under the burn-
ing Arabian sky for forty-eight hours at a stretch, is,
I believe, peculiar to the animals of the breed. Be-
sides, they have a delicacy, I cannot say of mouth,
for it is common to ride them without bit or bridle,
but of feeling and obedience to the knee and thigh,
to the slightest check of the halter and the voice of
the rider, far surpassing whatever the most elaborate
manege gives a European horse, though furnished
with snaffle, curb, and all. I often mounted them at
the invitation of their owners, and without saddle,
rein, or stirrup, set them off at full gallop, wheeled
them round, brought them up in mid career at a
dead halt, and that without the least difficulty or the
smallest want of .correspondence between the horse's
238 TRA VEL8 IN ARABIA
movements and mj own will; the rider on their back
really feels himself the man-half of a centaur, not a
distinct being."
During the last week in November the Persian
Na'ib, who had been little edified by his experiences
in Kedjed, set off for Bagdad. In the meantime,
Fej'sul had made great preparations toward collect-
ing an army for the reduction of the city of Oney-
zah (near Bereydah), which still held out gallantly.
Troops were summoned from the eastern coast and
the adjoining provinces, and Sa'ood, the second son
of Feysul, was ordered to bring them together at the
capital, when the command was to be given to Abdal-
lah, the eldest son. Palgrave had then his only op-
portunity of seeing the old King of the Wahabees.
" Sa'ood speedily arrived, and with him about two
hundi'ed horsemen ; the rest of his men, more than
two thousand, were mounted on camels. When they
entered Ri'ad, Feysul, for the first and last time dur-
ing our stay, gave a public audience at the palace
gate. It was a scene for a painter. There sat the
blind old tyrant, corpulent, decrepit, yet imposing,
with his large, broad forehead, white beard, and
tlioughtful air, clad in all the simplicity of a Waha-
bee ; the gold-hafted sword at his side his only orna-
ment or distinction. Beside him the ministers, the
officers of liis court, and a crowd of the nobler and
wealthier citizens. Abdallah, the heir to the throne,
was alone absent. Up came Sa'ood with the bear-
ing of a liussar officer, richly clad in cashmere
shawls and a gold-wronglit mantle, while man by
man followed his red-dressed cavaliers, their spears
ADVENTURES IN EI 'AD 239
over their shoulders, and their swords hanging
down ; a musket, too, was sknig behind the saddle
of each warrior ; and the sharp dagger of Ilareek
glittered in every girdle. Next came the common
soldiers on camels or dromedaries, some with spears
only, some with spears and guns, till the wide square
was filled with armed men and gazing spectators, as
the whole troop drew up before the great autocrat,
and Sa'ood alighted to bend and kiss his father's
liand. ' God save Feysul ! God give the victory to
the armies of the Muslims ! ' was shouted out on
every side, and all faces kindled into the fierce smile
of concentrated enthusiasm and conscious strength.
Feysul arose from his seat and placed his son at his
side ; another moment, and they entered the castle
together."
CHAPTER XY.
PALGRAVE'S TRAVELS— HIS ESCAPE TO THE EASTERN
COAST
" r^OE. a foreigner to enter Ili'ad is not always easy,
1 but to get away from it is harder still ; Rey-
nard himself would have been justly shy of venturing
on this royal cave. There exists in the capital of
Xedjed two approved means of barring the exit
against those on whom mistrust may have fallen.
The first and readiest is that of which it has been
emphatically said, Btone-dead hath no fellow. But
should circumstances render the bonds of death in-
expedient, the bonds of Hymen and a Ri'ad estab-
lishment may and occasionally do suppl}^ their office.
By this latter proceeding, the more amiable of the
two, Abdallah resolved to enchain us.
"Accordingly, one morning arrived at our dwell-
ing an attendant of the palace, with a smiling face,
presage of some good in reserve, and many fair
speeches. After inquiries about our health, comfort,
well-being, etc., he added that Abdallah thought we
might be desirous of purchasing this oi- that, and
begged us to accept of a small present. It was a
fair sum of money, just twice so much as the ordi-
nary token of good-will, namely, four rials in place
of two. After which the messenger took his leave.
ESCAPE FROM RI'AD 241
Aboo-'Eysa had been present at the interview : ' Ee
on the look-out,' said he, ' there is something wrong.'
" That very afternoon AbdaHah sent for me, and
with abundance of encomiums and of promises, de-
clared that he could not think of letting Ri'ad lose
so valuable a physician, that I must accordingly take
up a permanent abode in the capital, where I might
rely on his patronage, and on all good things ; that
he had already resolved on giving me a house and a
garden, specifying them, with a suitable household,
and a fair face to keep me company ; he concluded
by inviting me to go without delay and see whether
the new abode fitted me, and take possession.
" Much and long did I fight off ; talked about a
winter visit to the coast, and coming back in the
spring; tried first one pretext and then anotlier ;
but none would avail, and Abdallah continued to in-
sist. To quiet him, I consented to go and see the
house. For the intended Calypso, I had ready an
argument derived from Mahometan law, which put
her out of the question, but its explanation would
require more space than these pages can afford.
" The winter season was now setting in ; it was
the third week in November ; and a thunder-storm,
the first we had witnessed in Central Arabia, ushered
in a marked change for cold in the temperature of
Wady Haneefah. Rain fell abundantly, and sent
torrents down the dry watercourses of the valley,
changing its large hollows into temporary tanks.
None of the streams showed, however, any disposi-
tion to reach the sea, nor indeed could they, for this
part of Nedjed is entirely hemmed in to the east by
242 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the Toweyk range. The inliabitants welcomed the
copious showers, pledges of fertility for the coming
year, while at 'Oneyzah the same rains produced at
least one excellent effect, but which I may well defy
my readers to guess. The hostile armies, com-
manded by Zamil and Mohammed-ebn-Sa'ood, were
drawn up in face of each other, and on the point of
fierce conflict, when the storm burst on them, and by
putting out the lighted matchlocks of either party,
prevented the discharge of bullets and the effusion
of blood."
Abdaliah, who hated his second brother, Sa'ood,
and had many other fierce enmities in the capital,
then accidentally learned that Palgrave had employed
a deadly poison (strychnine) in making a remarkable
cure. Thenceforth all his powers of persuasion were
employed in endeavoring to procure some of the
drug ; but Palgrave, suspecting his real design, posi-
tively refused to let him have any. His rage was
suddenly and strongly expressed on his countenance,
foreboding no good to the traveller, who took the
first opportunity of returning to his house.
" There Aboo-'Eysa, Barakat, and myself," he
says, " immediately held council to consider what
was now to be done. That an outbreak must shortly
take place seemed certain ; to await it was dangerous,
yet we could not safely leave the town in an over-
precipitate manner, nor without some kind of per-
mission. We resolved together to go on in quiet
and caution a few days more, to sound the court,
make our adieus at Feysul's palace, get a good word
from Mahboob (no diflicult matter), and then slip off
ESCAPE FROM El 'AD 243
without attracting too much notice. But our destiny
was not to run so smoothly."
Late ill the evening of November 21st, Palgrave
was summoned to Abdallali's palace. The messenger
refused to allow Barakat or Aboo-'Eysa to accompany
him. The occasion seemed portentous, but disobe-
dience was out of the question. Palgrave followed
the messenger. On entering the reception-room, he
found Abdallah, Abd-el-Lateef, the successor of the
Wahabee, Mahboob, and a few others. All were si-
lent, and none returned his first salutation. " I sa-
luted Abdallah," says Palgrave, " who replied in an
undertone, and gave me a signal to sit down at a little
distance from him, but on the same side of the divan.
My readers may suppose that I was not at the mo-
ment ambitious of too intimate a vicinity.
" After an interval of silence, Abdallah turned
half roiand toward me, and with his blackest look and
a deep voice said, ' I now know perfectly well what
you are ; you are no doctors, you are Christians,
spies, and revolutionists, come hither to ruin our re-
ligion and state in behalf of those who sent you.
The penalty for such as you is death, that you know,
and I am determined to inflict it without delay.'
" ' Threatened folks live long,' thought I, and had
no difficulty in showing the calm which I really felt.
So looking him coolly in the face, I replied, ''Istagh-
fir Allah^ literally, ' Ask pardon of God.' This is
the phrase commonly addressed to one who has said
something extremely out of place.
" The answer was unexpected : he started, and
said, ' Why so % '
244 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" 'Because,' I rejoined, 'you have just now uttered
a sheer absurdity. " Christians," be it so ; but " spies,"
" revolutionists"— as if we were not known by every-
body in your town for quiet doctors, neither more nor
less ! And then to talk about putting me to death !
You cannot, and 3'OU dare not.'
" ' But I can and dare,' answered Abdallah, ' and
who shall prevent me ? You shall soon learn that to
your cost.'
" ' jSTeither can nor dare,' repeated I. ' We are
here your father's guests, and yours for a month and
more, known as such, received as such. What have
we done to justify a breach of the laws of hospitality
in Nedjed ? It is impossible for you to do what you
say,' continued I, thinking the while that it was a
great deal too possible, after all ; ' the obloquy of the
deed would be too much for you.'
" He remained a moment thoughtful, then said,
' As if anyone need know who did it. I have the
means, and can dispose of you without talk or rumor.
Tliose who are at my bidding can take a suitable time
and place for that, without vay name being ever men-
tioned in the affair.'
" The advantage was now evidently on my side ; I
followed it up, and said with a quiet laugh, 'Neither
is that within your power. Am 1 not known to your
father, to all in his palace ? to your own brother Sa'-
ood among the rest ? Is not the fact of this my ac
tual visit to you known without your gates ? Or is
there no one here ? ' added I, with a glance at Mah-
boob, ' who can report elsewhere what you have
just now said:" Hotter for you to leave off this
ESCAPE FROM lil'AD 245
nonsense ; do jou take me for a child of four days
old?'
" He muttered a repetition of his threat. ' Bear
witness, all here present,' said I, raising my voice so
as to be heard from one end of the room to the
otlier, ' that if any mishap befalls my companion or
myself from Ri'ad to the shores of the Persian Gulf,
it is all Abdallah's doing. And the consequences
shall be on his head, worse consequences than he ex-
pects or dreams.'
" The prince made no reply. All were silent ;
Mahboob kept his eyes steadily fixed on the fire-
place ; 'Abd-el-Lateef looked much and said nothing.
"'Bring cofPee,' called out Abdallah to the ser-
vants. Before a minute had elapsed, a black slave
approached with one, and only one, coffee-cup in iiis
hand. At a second sign from his master he came be-
fore me and presented it.
"Of coui'se the worst might be conjectured of so
unusual and solitary a draught. Bat I thought it
highly improbable that matters should have been so
accurately prepared ; besides, his main cause of anger
was precisely the refusal of poisons, a fact which im-
plied that he had none by him ready for use. So I
said ' Blsmillah^ took the cup, looked very hard at
Abdallah, drank it off, and then said to the slave,
' Pour me out a second.' This he did ; I swallowed
it, and said, ' Kow you may take the cup away.'
" The desired effect was fully attained. Abd-
allah's face announced defeat, while the rest of the
assembly whispered together. The prince turned to
'Abd-el-Lateef and began talking about the dangers
24G TRAVELS IN ARABIA
to which th.e land was exposed from spies, and the
wicked designs of intidels for ruining the kingdona
of the Muslims. The Kadee and his companions
chimed in, and the story of a pseudo - Darweesh
traveller killed at Derey'eeyah, and of another (but
who he was I cannot fancy ; perhaps a Persian, who
had, said Abdallah, been also recognized for an in-
triguer, but had escaped to Muscat, and thus baffled
the penalty due to his crimes), were now brought
forward and commented on. Mahboob now at last
spoke, but it was to ridicule such apprehensions.
' The thing is in itself unlikely,' said he, ' and were
it so, what harm could they do ? ' alluding to my
companion and myself.
" On this I took up the word, and a general con-
versation ensued, in which I did my best to explode
the idea of spies and spymanship, appealed to our
own quiet and inoffensive conduct, got into a virtu-
ous indignation against such a requital of evil for
good after all the services which we had rendered
court and town, and quoted verses of the Koran re-
garding the wickedness of ungrounded suspicion, and
the obligation of not judging ill without clear evi-
dence. Abdallah made no direct answer, and the
others, whatever they may have thought, could not
support a charge abandoned by their master.
" What amused me not a little was that the Wa-
habee prince had after all very nearly hit the right
nail on the head, and that I was snubbing liim only
for having guessed too well. But there was no help
for it, and I had the pleasure of seeing that, though
at heart unchanged in his opinion about us, he was
ESCAPE FROM III'AD 247
yet sufficienty cowed to render a respite certain, and
our escape thereby practicable.
" This kind of talk continued a while, and I pur-
posely kept my seat, to show the unconcern of inno-
cence, till Mahboob made me a sign that I might
safely retire. On this I took leave of Abdallah and
quitted the palace unaccompanied. It was now near
midnight, not a light to be seen in the houses, not a
sound to be heard in the streets ; the sky too was
dark and overcast, till, for the first time, a feeling of
lonely dread came over me, and I confess that more
than once I turned my head to look and see if no
one was following with ' evil,' as Arabs say, in his
hand. Bat there was none, and I reached the quiet
alley and low door where a gleam through the chinks
announced the anxious watch of my companions, who
now opened the entrance, overjoyed at seeing me
back sound and safe from so critical a parley.
" Our plan for the future was soon formed. A day
or two we were yet to remain in Ri'ad, lest haste
should seem to imply fear, and thereby encourage
pursuit. But during that period we would avoid
the palace, out-walks in gardens or after nightfall,
and keep at home as much as possible. Meanwhile
Aboo-'Eysa was to get his dromedaries ready, and
pat them in a courtyard immediately adjoining the
house, to be laden at a moment's notice.
" A band of travellers was to leave Ri'ad for Hasa
a few days later. Aboo-'Eysa gave out publicly that
he would accompany them to liofhoof, while we were
supposed to intend following the northern or Sedeyr
track, by which the ISTa'ib, after many reciprocal fare-
248 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
wells and assurances of lasting friendship, should we
ever meet again, had lately departed, Mobej^reek, a
black servant in Aboo-'Eysa's pay, occupied himself
diligentl}^ in feeding up the camels for their long
march with clover and vetches, both abundant here ;
and we continued our medical avocations, but quietly,
and without much leavino- the house.
" During the afternoon of the 24th we brought
three of Aboo-'Eysa's camels into our courtyard, shut
the outer door, packed, and laded. We then awaited
the moment of evening prayer ; it came, and the
voice of the Mu'eddineen summoned all g-ood Waha-
bees, the men of the town-guard not excepted, to the
different mosques. When about ten minutes had
gone by, and all might be supposed at their prayers,
we opened our door, Mobeyreek gave a glance up
and down the street to ascertain that no one was in
sight, and we led out the camels. Aboo-'Eysa accom-
panied us. Avoiding the larger thoroughfares, we
took our way by by-lanes and side-passages toward a
small town-gate, the nearest to our house, and open-
ing on the north, A late comer fell in with us on
his way to the Mesjid, and as he passed summoned
us also to the public service. But Aboo-'Eysa unhes-
itatingly replied, ' We have this moment come from
prayers,' and our interlocutor, fearing to be himself
too late and thus to fall under reprehension and pun-
ishment, rushed off to the nearest oratory, leaving the
road clear. Nobody was in watch at the gate. We
crossed its threshold, turned southeast, and under the
rapid twilight reached a range of small hillocks, be-
hind which we sheltered ourselves till the stars came
ESCAPE FROM EI 'AB 249
out, and the ' wing of night,' to quote Arab poets,
spread black over town and country.
" So far so good. But f urtlier difficulties remained
before us. It was now more than ever absolutely es-
sential to get clear of N^edjed unobserved, to put the
desert between us and the Wahabee court and capi-
tal ; and no less necessary was it that Aboo-'Eysa, so
closely connected as he was with Ri'ad and its gov-
ernment, should seem nohow implicated in our un-
cei'emonious departure, nor any way concerned with
our onward movements. In a word, an apparent sep-
aration of paths between him and us was necessary
before we could again come together and complete
the remainder of our explorations.
" In order to manage this, and while ensuring our
own safety to throw a little dust in Wahabee eyes, it
was agreed that before next morning's sunrise Aboo-
'Eysa should return to the town, and to his dwelling,
as though nothing had occurred, and should there
await the departure of the great merchant caravan,
mentioned previously, and composed mainly of men
from Hasa and Kateef, now bound for Hofhoof.
This assemblage was expected to start within three
days at latest. Meanwhile oui- friend should take care
to show liimself openly in the palaces of Feysul and
Abdallah, and if asked about us should answer
vaguely, with the off-hand air of one who had no
further care regarding us. We ourselves should in
the interim make the best of our way, with Mobey-
reek for guide, to Wady Soley', and there remain
concealed in a given spot, till Aboo-'Eysa should
come and pick us up.
250 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
" All this was arranged ; at break of dawn, Aboo-
'Ejsa took Ills leave, and Barakat, Mobejreek, and
myself were once more high-perched on our dromeda-
ries, their heads turned to the southeast, keeping the
hillock range between us and Ki'ad, which we saw no
more. Our path led us over low undulating ground,
a continuation of Wady Haneefah, till after about
four hours' march we were before the gates of Man-
foohah, a considerable town, surrounded by gardens
nothing inferior in extent and fertility to those of
Ri'ad ; but its fortifications, once strong, have long
since been dismantled and broken down by the jeal-
ousy of the neighboring capital.
After winding here and there, we reached the spot
assigned by Aboo-'Eysa for our hiding-place. It was
a small sandy depth, lying some way oif the beaten
track, amid hillocks and brushwood, and without
water ; of this latter article we had taken enough in
the goat-skins to last us for three days. Here we
halted, and made up our minds to patience and ex-
pectation.
" Two days passed drearily enough. "We could not
but long for our guide's arrival, nor be wholly with-
out fear on more than one score. Once or twice a
stray peasant stumbled on us, and was much sur-
prised at our encampment in so droughty a locality;
So the hours went by, till the third day bronght closer
expectation and anxiety, still increasing while the sun
declined, and at last went down ; yet nobody ap-
peared. But jnst as darkness closed in, and we were
sitting in a dispirited group beside our little fire, for
the night air blew chill, Aboo-'Eysa came suddenly
ESCAPE FROM RI'AD 251
up, and all was changed for question and answer, for
cheerfulness and laughter.
" Early on November 28tli we resumed our march
through a light valley-mist, and soon fell in with our
companions of the road.
" N^ext morning the whole countrj', hill and dale,
trees and bushes, was wrapped in a thick blanket of
mist, fitter for Surrey than for Arabia. So dense
was the milky fog, that we fairly lost our way, and
went on at random, shouting and hallooing, driving
our beasts now here, now there, over broken ground
and amid tangling shrubs, till the sun gained strength
and the vapor cleared off, showing us the path at
some distance on our right. Before we had followed
it far, we saw a black mass advancing from the east
to meet us. It was the first division of the Hasa
troops on their way to lii'ad ; they were not less than
four or five liundred in number. Like true Arabs,
they marched with a noble contempt of order and
discipline — walking, galloping, ainbling, singing,
shouting, alone or in bands, as fancy led. We inter-
changed a few words of greeting with these brisk
boys, who avowed, without hesitation or shame, that
they should much have preferred to stay at home,
and that enforced necessity, not any military or re-
ligious ardor, was taking them to the field. "We
laughed, and wished them Zamil's head, or him
theirs, whereon they laughed also, shouted, and
passed on.
" On we went, but through a country of much
more varied scenery than wliat we had traversed the
day before, enjoying the ' pleasure situate in hill and
252 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
dale,' till we arrived at the foot of a high white cliff,
almost like that of Dover; but these crags, instead
of having the sea at their foot, overlooked a wide
valley full of trees, and bearing traces of many vio-
lent winter torrents from east to west ; none M'ere
now flowing. Here we halted, and passed an indif-
ferent night, much annoyed by 'chill November's
surly blast,' hardly less ungenial here than on the
banks of Ayr, though sweeping over a latitude of
25°, not 56°.
" Before the starlight had faded from the cold
morning sky; we were up and in movement, for a
long march was before us. At sunrise we stood on
the last, and here the highest, ledge of Toweyk, that
long chalky wall which bounds and backs up Ned-
jed on the east ; beyond is the desert, and then the
coast.
" After about three hours of level route we began
to descend, not rapidly, but by degrees, and at noon
we reached a singular depression, a huge natural
basin, hollowed out in the limestone rock, with
tracks resembling deep trenches leading to it from
every side. At the bottom of this crater-like valley
were a dozen or more wells, so abundant in their
supply that they not unfrequently overflow the whole
space, and form a small lake ; the water is clear and
good, but no other is to be met with on the entire
line hence to Ilasa.
" For the rest of the day we continued steadily to
descend the broad even slope, whose extreme bar-
renness and inanimate monotony reminded me of the
pebbly uplands near Ma'an on the opposite side of
ESCAPE FROM RI'AD 253
t/ie peninsula, traversed bj us exactly seven months
before. The sun set, night caine on, and many of
the travellers would gladly have halted, but Aboo-
'Eysa insisted on continuing the march. We were
now many hundred feet lower than the crest behind
us, and the air felt warm and heavy, when we no-
ticed that the ground, hitherto hard beneath our feet,
was changing step by step into a light sand, that
seemed to encroach on the rocky soil. It was at
first a shallow ripple, then deepened, and before long
presented the well-known ridges and undulations
characteristic of the land ocean when several fath-
oms in depth. Our beasts ploughed laboriously on
through the yielding surface ; the night was dark,
but starry, and we could just discern amid the shade
a white glimmer of spectral sand-hills, rising around
us on every side, but no track or indication of a
route.
"It was the great Dahna, or 'Red Desert,' the
bugbear of even the wandering Bedouin, and never
traversed by ordinary wayfarers without an appre-
hension which has too often been justified by fatal
incidents. So light are the sands, so capricious the
breezes that shape and reshape them daily into un-
stable hills and valleys, that no traces of preceding
travellers remain to those who follow ; while intense
heat and glaring light reflected on all sides combine
with drought and weariness to confuse and bewilder
the adventurer, till he loses his compass and wanders
up and down at random amid a waste solitude Mdiich
soon becomes his grave. Many have thus perished ;
even whole caravans have been known to disappear
^54 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
ill the Dalina without a vestige, till the wild Arab
tales of demons cairjiiig off wanderers, or ghouls
devouring them, obtain a half credit among many
accustomed elsewhere to laugh at such fictions.
" For, after about three hours of night travelling,
or rather wading, among the sand-waves, till men
and beasts alike were ready to sink for weariness, a
sharp altercation arose between Aboo-'Eysa and El-
Ghannam, each proposing a different direction of
march. "We all halted a moment, and raised our
eyes, heavy with drowsiness and fatigue, as if to see
which of the contending parties was in the right. It
will be long before I forget the impression of that
moment. Above us was the deep black sky, span-
gled with huge stars of a brilliancy denied to all but
an Arab gaze, while what is elsewhere a ray of the
third magnitude becomes liere of the first amid the
pure vacuum of a mistless, vaporless air ; around us
loomed high ridges, shutting us in before and behind
with their white, ghost-like outlines ; below our feet
the lifeless sand, and everywhere a silence that
seemed to belong to some strange and dreamy world
where man might not venture.
" When not far from the midmost of the Dalina, we
fell in with a few Bedouins, belonging to the Aal-
Mori-ah clan, sole tenants of this desert. They were
leading their goats to little spots of scattered herbage
and shrubs which here and there fix a precarious ex-
istence in the hollows of the sands.
'' Theirs is the great desert from Nedjed to Had-
ramaut. Kot that they actually cover this immense
space, a good fourth of the peninsula, but that they
ESCAPE FROM RI'AD 255
have the free and undisputed range of the oases
which it occasionally offers, where herbs, shrubs, and
dwarf-pahus cluster round some well of scant and
briny water. These oases are sufficiently numerous
to preserve a stray Bedouin or two from perishing,
though not enough so to become landmarks for any
regular route across the central Dahna, from the
main body of which runs out the long and broad arm
which we were now traversing.
" Another night's bivouac, and then again over the
white down-sloping plain.
"It was now three days and a half since our last
supply of water, an"d Aboo-'Eysa was anxious to
reach the journey's end without delay. As darkness
closed around we reached the farthermost heights of
the coast-range of Hasa. Hence we overlooked the
plains of Hasa, but could distinguish nothing through
the deceptive rays of the rising moon ; we seemed to
gaze into a vast milky ocean. After an hour's halt
for supper we wandered on, now up, now down, over
pass and crag, till a long, corkscrew descent down the
precipitous sea-side of the mountain, for a thousand
feet or near it, placed us fairly upon the low level of
Hasa, and within the warm, damp air of the sea-
coast.
" The ground glimmered white to the moon, and
gave a firm footing to our dromedaries, who, by their
renewed agility, seemed to partake in the joy of
their riders, and to understand that rest was near.
We were, in fact, all so eager to find ourselves at
liome and homestead, that although the town of
Hofhoof, our destined goal, was yet full fifteen miles
256 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
to the northeast, we pressed on for the capital. And
there, in fact, we sliould liave all arrived in a body
before day-dawn, had not a singular occurrence re-
tarded by far the greater number of our companions.
" Soon after, the crags in our rear had shut out,
perhaps for years, perhaps forever, the desert and
Central Arabia from our view, while before and
around us lay the indistinct undulations and uncer-
tain breaks of the great Ilasa plain, when on a slop-
ing bank at a short distance in front we discerned
certain large black patches, in strong contrast with
the white glister of the soil around, and at the same
time our attention was attracted by a strange whiz-
zing like that of a flight of hornets, close along the
ground, while our dromedaries capered and started
as though struck with sudden insanity. The cause
of all this was a vast swarm of locusts, here alighted
in their northerly wanderings from their birthplace
in the Dahna ; their camp extended far and wide,
and we had already disturbed their outposts. These
insects are wont to settle on the ground after sunset,
and there, half stupefied by the night chill, to await
the morning rays, which warm them once more into
life and movement. This time our dromedaries did
the work of the sun, and it would be hard to say
which of the two were the most frightened, they or
the locusts. It was truly laughable to see so Imge a
beast lose his wits for fear at the flight of a harmless,
stingless insect ; of all timid ci*eatures none equals
the ' ship of the desert ' for cowardice.
" The swarm now before us was a thorough god-
send for our Arabs, on no account to be neglected.
ESCAPE FROM RI'AD 257
Tliirst, weariness, all was forgotten, and down the
riders leapt from their starting camels ; this one
spread out a cloak, that one a saddle-bag, a third
liis shirt, over the unlucky creatures destined for the
morrow's meal. Some flew away whirring across
our feet, others were caught and tied up in cloths
and sacks. Cornish wreckers at work about a shat-
tered East Indiaman would be beaten by Ghannam
and his companions with the locusts. However,
Barakat and myself felt no special interest in the
chase, nor had we much desire to turn our dress and
accoutrements into receptacles for living game.
Luckily Aboo-'Eysa still retained enough of his
North Syrian education to be of our mind also. Ac-
cordingly we left our associates hard at work, turned
our startled and still unruly dromedaries in the di-
rection of Hofhoof, and set off full speed over the
plain.
" It was not till near morning that we saw before
us in indistinct row the long black lines of the im-
mense date-groves that surround Hofhoof. Then,
winding on amid rice-grounds and cornfields, we left
on our right an isolated fort (to be described by day-
light), passed some scattered villas, with their gardens,
approached the ruined town walls, and entered the
southern gate, now open and unguarded. Farther
on a few streets brought us before the door of Aboo-
'Eysa's house, our desired resting-place.
" It was still night. All was silent in the street
and house, at the entrance of which we now stood ;
indeed, none but the master of a domicile could
think of knocking at such an hour, nor was Aboo-
258 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
'Eysa expected at that precise moment. Witli much
difficulty he contrived to awake the tenants ; next
the shrill voice of the lady was heard within in ac-
cents of joy and welcome ; the door at last opened,
and Aboo-'Eysa invited us into a daik passage,
where a gas-light would have been a remarkable im-
pi-ovement, and by this ushered us into the k'hawah.
Here we lighted a fire, and after a hasty refreshment
all lay down to sleep, nor awoke till the following
forenoon."
CHAPTER XYI.
PALGRAVES TRAVELS— EASTERN ARABIA
"/^^UR stay at Hoflioof was verj pleasant and in-
V_y teresting, not indeed through personal inci-
dents and hairbreadth escapes — of which we had onr
fair portion at Ri'ad and elsewhere — but in the in-
formation here acquired, and in the novel character
of everything around us, whether nature, art, or man.
Aboo-'Eysa was very anxious that we should see as
much as possible of the country, and procured us all
means requisite for so doing, while tlie shelter of his
roof, and the precautions which he adopted or sug-
gested, obviated whatever dangers and inconveniences
we had experienced in former stages of the journey.
Besides, the general disposition of the inhabitants of
Hasa is very different from that met with in Kedjed,
and even in Shomer or Djowf, and much better
adapted to make a stranger feel himself at home. A
sea-coast people, looking mainly to foreign lands and
the ocean for livelihood and commerce, accustomed
to see among them not unfrequently men of dress,
manners, and religion different from their own, many
of them themselves travellers or voyagers to Basrah,
Bagdad, Bahreyn, Oman, and some even farther,
they are commonly free from that half-wondering,
260 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
half-suspicious feeling which the sight of a stranger
occasions in the isolated, desert-girded centre. In
short, experience, that best of masters, has gone far
to unteach the lessons of ignorance, intolerance, and
national aversion.
Hofhoof, whose ample circuit contained during the
last generation about thirtv thousand inhabitants, now
dwindled to twenty-three or twenty-four thousand, is
divided into three quarters or districts. The general
form of the town is tiiat of a large oval. The public
square, an oblong space of about three hundred yards
in length by a fourth of the same in width, occupies
the meeting point of these quarters ; the Ivot lies on
its northeast, the Rifey'eeyah on the noi'thwest and
west, and the Ka'athar on the east and south. h\
this last quarter was our present home ; moreover, it
stood in the part farthest removed from the Ivot and
its sinister influences, while it was also sufficiently
distant from the overturbulent neighborhood of the
Rifey'eeyah, the centre of anti-Wahabee movements,
aud the name of which alone excited distrust and un-
easiness in ISTedjean minds.
" The Kot itself is a vast citadel, surrounded by a
deep trench, with walls and towers of unusual height
and thickness, earth-built, with an occasional inter-
mixture of stone, the work of the old Carmathian
rulers ; it is neai-ly square, being about one-third of
a mile in length by one-quarter in breadth.
" On the opposite side of the square, and conse-
quently belonging to the Rifey'eeyah, is the vaulted
market-place, or ' Keysareeyah,' a name by which con^
structions of this nature must henceforth be called up
EASTERN ARABIA 261
to Mascat itself, though how tliis Latinisni found its
way across the peninsula to lands which seem to have
liad so little coninieice with the Roman or Byzantine
empires, I cannot readily conjectui-e. This Key-
sareeyah is in forma long barrel-vaulted arcade, with
a portal at either end ; the folding doors that should
protect the entrances have here in Hofhoof been
taken away, elsewhere they are always to be found.
Tlie sides are composed of shops, set apart in general
for wares of cost, or at least what is here esteemed
costly ; thus, weapons, cloth embroidery, gold and
silver ornament, and analogous articles, are the or-
dinary stock-in-hand in the Keysareeyah. Around
it cluster several alleys, roofed with palm-leaves
against the heat, and tolerably symmetrical ; in the
shops we may see the merchandise of Bahreyn,
Oman, Persia, and India exposed for sale, mixed with
the manufactured produce of the country ; workshops,
smithies, carpenters' and shoemakers' stalls, and the
like, are here also. In the open square itself stand
countless booths for the sale of dates, vegetables,
wood, salted locusts, and small ware of many kinds.
" The Rifey'eeyah, or noble quarter, covers a con-
siderable extent, and is chiefly composed of tolerable,
in some places of even handsome, dwellings. The
comparative elegance of domestic architectui-e in Hof-
hoof is due to the use of the arch, which, after the
long interval from Ma'an to ITasa, now at last reap-
pears, arid gives to the constructions of this province
a lightness and a variety unknown in the monotonous
and heavy piles of Kedjed and Shomer. Another
improvement is that the walls, whether of earth or
262 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
stone, or of both mixed, as is often the case, are here
very generally coated with line white plaster, much
resembling the ' chunam ' of Southern India ; orna-
ment, too, is aimed at about the doorways and the
ogee-headed windows, and is sometimes attained.
" The Na'athar is the largest quarter ; it forms, in-
deed, a good half of the town, and completes its oval.
In it every description of dwelling is to be seen — for
ricli and poor, for high and low, palace or hovel.
Here, too, but near the Kot, has the pious policy of
Feysul constructed the great mosque.
" But perhaps my reader, after accompanying me
thus far, may feel thirsty, for the heat, even in De-
cember, is almost oppressive, and the sky cloudless
as though it were June or July, So let us turn aside
into that grassy plantation, where half a dozen buffa-
loes are cooling their ugly hides in a pool, and drink
a little from the source that supplies it. When be-
hold ! the water is warm, almost hot. Do not be
surprised ; all the fountain sources and wells of Ilasa
are so, more or less ; in some one can hardly bear to
plunge one's hand ; others are less above the average
temperature, while a decidedly sulphurous taste is
now and then perceptible. In fact, from the ex-
treme north of this province down to its southern-
most frontier, this same sign of subterranean fire is
everywhere to be found. The rocks, too, are here
very frequently of tufa and basalt, another mark of
igneous agency.
" The products of Hasa are many and various ; the
monotony of Arab vegetation, its eternal palm and
ithel, ithel and palm, are here varied by new foliage,
EASTERN ARABIA 263
and growths unknown to Nedjed and Shomer. True,
the date-pahn still predominates, nay, liere attains its
greatest perfection. But the nabak, with its rounded
leaves and little crab-apple fruit, a mere bush in Cen-
tral Arabia, becomes in Hasa a stately tree ; the pa-
pay, too, so well known in the more easterly penin-
sula, appears, though seldom, and stunted in growth,
along with some other trees, common on the coast
from Cutch to Bombay. Indigo is here cultivated,
though not sufficiently for the demands of commerce ;
cotton is much more widely grown than in Yeraamah ;
rice fields abound, and the sugar-cane is often planted,
though not, I believe, for the extraction of the sugar.
The peasants of Hasa sell the reed by retail bundles
in the market-place, and the purchasers take it home
to gnaw at leisure in their houses. Corn, maize, mil-
let, vetches of every kind, radishes, onions, gai'lic,
beans, in short, almost all legumina and cei'ealia, bar-
ley excepted (at least I neither saw nor heard of any),
cover the plain, and under a better administration
might be multiplied tenfold.
"The climate of Hasa, as I have already implied,
is very different from that of the uplands, and not
equally favorable to health and physical activity.
Hence, a doctor, like myself, if my readers will
allow me the title, has here more work and better
fees ; this latter circumstance is also owing to the
greater amount of ready money in circulation, and
the higher value set on medical science by men
whose intellects are much more cultivated than those
of their Nedjean neighbors. In appearance, the
inhabitants of Hasa are generally good-sized and
264 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
well-proportioned, but soiDewliat sallow in the face,
and of a less muscular development than is usual
inland ; their features, though regular, are less
marked than those of the Kedjeans, and do not ex-
hibit the same half-Jewish type. On the contrary,
there is something in them that reminds a beholder
of the Rajpoot or the Guzeratee, They are passion-
ately fond of literature and poetry.
" I have already said that our great endeavor in
Hasa was to observe unobserved, and thus to render
our time as barren as might be in incidents and
catastrophes, Not that we went into the opposite
extreme of leading an absolutely retired and there-
fore uneventful life. Aboo-'Eysa took care from the
first to bring us into contact with the best and the
most cultivated families of the town, nor had my
medical profession anywhere a wider range for its
exercise, or better success than in Hofhoof. Friendly
invitations, now to dinner, now to supper, were of
daily occurrence ; and we sat at tables where fish,
no longer mere salted shrimps, announced our vicin-
ity to the coast ; vermicelli, too, and other kinds of
pastry, denoted the influence of Persian art on the
kitchen. Smoking within doors was general ; but
the nargheelah often replaced, and that advanta-
geously, the short Arab pipe ; perfumes are no less
here in use than in Nedjed.
" We had passed about a week in the town when
Aboo-'Eysa entered the side room where Barakat
and I were enjoying a moment of quiet, and copying
out ' Nabtee' poeti-y, and shut the door behind him.
He then announced to us, with a face and tone of
EASTERN ARABIA 265
serious anxiety, tliat two of the principal Nedjean
agents belonging to the Kot had just come into the
k'hawah, under pretext of medical consultation, but
in reality, said he, to identify the strangers. We put
on our cloaks — a preliminary measure of decorum
equivalent to face- and hand-washing in Europe — and
presented ourselves before our inquisitors with an
air of conscious innocence and scientific solemnity.
Conversation ensued, and we talked so learnedly
about bilious and sanguine complexions, cephalic
veins, and Indian drugs, with such apposite citations
from the Koran, and such loyal phrases for Feysul,
that Aboo-'Eysa was beside himself for joy ; and the
spies, after receiving some prescriptions of the bread-
pill and aromatic-water formula, left the house no
wiser than before. Our friends, too, and they were
now many, well guessing what we might really be,
partly from our own appearance and partly from the
known character of our host (according to old
Homer's true saying. Heaven always leads like to
liJce), did each and all their best to throw sand into
Wahabee eyes, and everything went on sociably and
smoothly. A blessing on the medical profession !
None other gives such excellent opportunities for se-
curing everywhere confidence and friendship.
" Before we leave Hasa I must add a few remarks
to complete the sketch given of the province and of
its inhabitants. Want of a suitable opportunity for
inserting them before has thrown them together at
this point of my narrative.
" My fair readers will be pleased to learn that the
veil and other restraints inflicted on the geiitle sex
18
266 TRAVELS IN AUABIA
by Islamitic rigorism, not to say worse, are nnicli less
universal, and more easily dispensed with in Ilasa ;
while in addition, the ladies of the land enjoy a re-
markable share of those natural gifts which no insti-
tutions, and even no cosmetics, can confer ; namely,
beauty of face and elegance of form. Might I vent-
ure on the delicate and somewhat invidious task of
constructing a ' beauty-scale ' for Arabia, and for
Arabia alone, the Bedouin women would, on this
kalometer, be represented by zero, or at most 1° ; a
degree higher would represent the female sex of Ked-
jed ; above them rank the women of Shomer, who are
in their turn surmounted by those of Djowf . The fifth
or sixth degree symbolizes the fair ones of Hasa ; the
seventh those of Katar ; and lastly, by a sudden rise
of ten degrees at least, the seventeenth or eighteenth
would denote the pre-eminent beauties of Oman.
Arab poets occasionally languish after the charmers
of Hedjaz ; I never saw anyone to charm me, but
then I only skirted the province. All bear witness
to the absence of female loveliness in Yemen ; and I
should much doubt whether the mulatto races and
dusky complexions of Hadramaut have much to vaunt
of. But in Hasa a decided improvement on this im-
portant point is agreeably evident to the traveller
arriving from Nedjed, and he will be yet further de-
lighted on finding his Calypsos much more conversi-
ble, and having much more, too, in their conversa-
tion than those he left behind him in Sedeyr and
'Aared.
" During our stay at Ilofhoof, Aboo-'Eysa left un-
tried no arts of Arab rhetoric and ])er6uasion to do-
EASTERN ARABIA 267
termine me to visit Oman, assuring me again and
again that whatever we had jet seen, even in his
favorite Ilasa, was nothing compared to what re-
mained to see in that more remote country. My
companion, tired of our long journey, and thinking
the long distance already laid between him and his
Syrian home quite sufficient in itself without further
leagues tacked on to it, was very little disposed for
a supplementary expedition. Englishmen, on the
contrary, are rovers by descent and habit ; my own
mind was now fully made up to visit Oman at all
risks, whether Barakat came with me or not. Mean-
while, we formed our plan for the next immediate
stage of our route. My companion and I were to
quit Hofhoof together, leaving Aboo-'Eysa behind
us for a week or two at llasa, while we journeyed
northward to Kateef, and thence took ship for the
town of Menamah in Bahreyn. In this latter place
Aboo-'Eysa was to rejoin us. Our main reason for
thus separating our movements in time and in direc-
tion, was to avoid the too glaring appearance of act-
ing in concert while yet in a land under Wahabee
government and full of Wahabee spies and reporters,
especially after the suspicions thrown on us at Bi'ad.
The Oman arangements were to be deferred till we
should all meet again.
" Barakat and myself prepared for our departure ;
we purchased a few objects of local curiosity, got in
our dues of medical attendance, paid and received
the customary P. P. C. visits, and even tendered our
respects to the negro governor Belal, where he sat
at his palace door in the Kot, holding a public au-
268 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
dience, and looking mudi like any other well-dressed
black. No passport was required for setting out on
the road to Kateef, which in the eyes of government
forms only one and the same province with Ilasa,
though in many respects very different from it.
The road is perfectly secure ; plundering Bedouins
or highway robbers are here out of the question.
However, we stood in need of companions, not for
escort, but as guides. Aboo-'Eysa made inquiries in
the town, and found three men who chanced to be
just then setting out on their way for Kateef, who
readily consented to join band with us for the road.
Our Abyssinian hostess supplied us with a whole
sack of provisions, and our Hofhoof associates found
us in camels. Thus equipped and mounted, we took
an almost touching leave of Aboo-'Eysa's good-
natured wife, kissed the babj^, exchanged an au re-
voi?' with its father, and set out on the afternoon of
December 19th, leaving behind us many pleasant
acquaintances, from some of whom I received mes-
sasres and letters while at Bahrevn. So far as in-
habitants are concerned, to no town in Arabia should
I return with equal confidence of finding a hearty
greeting and a welcome reception, than to Hofhoof
and its amiable and intelligent merchants.
" We quitted the town by the northeastern gate of
the Rifey-'eeyah, where the friends, who, according
to Arab custom, had accompanied us thus far in a
sort of procession, wished us a prosperous journey,
took a last adieu, and returned home. After some
hours we bivouacked on a little hillock of clean sand,
with the dark line of the Hofhoof woods on our
EASTERN ARABIA 269
left, while at some distance in front a copious foun-
tain poured out its rushing waters with a noise dis-
tinctly audible in the stillness of the night, and ir-
rigated a garden worthy of Damascus or Antioch.
The night air was temperate, neither cold like that
of Xedjed, nor stifling like tliat of Southern India ;
the sky clear and stai-ry. From our commanding
position on the hill I could distinguish Soheyl or
Canopus, now setting ; and following him, not far
above the horizon, the three upper stars of the
Southern Cross, an old Indian acquaintance ; two
months later in Oman I had the view of the entire
constellation.
" Next morning we traversed a large plain of light
and sandy soil, intersected by occasional ridges of
basalt and sandstone.
" We journeyed on all day, meeting no Bedouins
and few travellers. At evening we encamped in a
shallow valley, near a cluster of brimming wells,
some sweet, some brackish, where the traces of half-
obliterated watercourses and the vestiges of crumbling
house-walls indicated the former existence of a village,
now also deserted. We passed a comfortable night
under the shelter of palms and high brushwood,
mixed with gigantic aloes and yuccas, and rose next
morning early to our way. Our direction lay north-
east. In the afternoon we caught our first glimpse
of Djebel Mushahhar, a pyramidical peak some seven
hundred feet high and about ten miles south of
Ivateef. But the sea, though I looked toward it and
for it with an eagerness somewhat resembling that
of the Ten Thousand on their approach to the Eux-
270 TEA VELS IN ARABIA
ine, remained shut out from view by a further con-
tinuation of the heights.
" Next day we rose at dawn, and crossed the liills
of Kateef by a long winding path, till after some
hours of labyrinthine track we came in sight of the
dark plantation-line that girdles Kateef itself land-
ward. The sea lies immediately beyond ; this we
knew, but we could not obtain a glimpse of its waters
through the verdant curtain stretched between.
" About midday we descended the last slope, a
steep sandstone cliff, which looks as though it liad
been the sea-limit of a former period. We now stood
on the coast itself. Its level is as nearly as pos-
sible that of the Gulf beyond ; a few feet of a
higher tide than usual would cover it up to the cliffs.
Hence it is a decidedly unhealthy land, though fertile
and even populous ; but the inhabitants are mostly
weak in frame and sallow in complexion. The at-
mosphei'e was thick and oppressive, the heat intense,
and the vegetation hung rich and heavy around ; my
companions talked about suffocation, and I remem-
bered once more the Indian coast. Another hour of
afternoon march brought us to Kateef itself, at its
western portal ; a high stone arch of elegant form,
and flaidvcd by walls and towers, but all dismantled
and ruinous. Close by the two burial-grounds, one
for the people of the land, the other for the Nedjean
rulers and colony — divided even after death by mu-
tual hatred and anathema. Folly, if you will, but
folly not peculiar to the East.
" The town itself is crowded, damp, and dirty, and
lias altogctiier a gloomy, what for want of a better
EASTERN ARABIA 271
epitliet I would call a mouldy, look ; much business
was going on iu the market and streets, but the ill-
favored and very un-Arab look of the shopkeepers
and workmen confirms what history tells of the Per-
sian colonization of this city. Indeed, the inhabitants
of the entire district, but more especially of the capi-
tal, are a mongrel race, in which Persian blood pre-
dominates, mixed with that of Bassora, Bagdad, and
the 'Irak.
" We urged our starting dromedaries across the
open square in front of tlie market-place, traversed
the town in its width, which is scarce a quarter of its
length (like other coast towns), till we emerged from
the opposite gate, and then looked out with greedy
eyes for the sea, now scarce ten minutes distant. In
vain as yet, so low lies the land, and so thick cluster
the trees. But after a turn or two we came along-
side of the outer walls, belonging to the huge fortress
of Karmoot, and immediately afterward the valley
opening out showed us almost at our feet the dead
shallow flats of the bay. How different from the
bright waters of the Mediterranean, all glitter and
life, where we had bidden them farewell eight
months before at Gaza ! Like a leaden sheet, half
ooze, half sedge, the muddy sea lay in view, wave-
less, motionless ; to our left the massive walls of the
castle went down almost to the water's edge, and then
turned to leave a narrow esplanade between its cir-
cuit and the Gulf. On this ledge were ranged a few
rusty guns of large calibre, to show how the place
was once guarded ; and just in front of the main gate
a crumbling outwork, which a single cannon-shot
272 TRAVELS IN AHABIA
would level with the ground, displayed six pieces ot
honey-combed artilleiy, their mouths pointing sea-
ward. Long stone benches without invited us to leave
our camels crouching on the esplanade, while we
seated ourselves and rested a little before requesting
the governor to grant us a day's hospitality, and per-
mission to embark for Bahreyn.
" Barakat and I sat still to gaze, speculating on the
difference between the two sides of Arabia, But our
companions, like true Arabs, thought it high time for
* refreshment,' and accordingly began their inquiries
at the castle-gate where the governor might be, and
whether he was to be spoken to. When, behold ! the
majesty of Feysul's vicegerent issuing in person from
his palace to visit the new man-of-war. My aboli-
tionist friends will be gratified to learn that this ex-
alted dignitary is, no less than he of Hofhoof, a
negro, brought up from a curly-headed imp to a
wool 1}'- headed black in Feysul's own palace, and now
governor of the most iniportant harbor owned by
I^edjed on the Persian Gulf, and of the town once
capital of that fierce dynasty which levelled the Kaa-
bah with the dust, and filled Kateef with the plunder
of Yemen and Syria. Farhat, to give him his proper
name, common among those of his complexion, was a
fine tall negro of about fifty years old, good-natured,
cliatty, hospitable, and furnished with pei-haps a trifle
more than the average amount of negro intellect.
" Aboo-'Eysa, who had friends and acquaintances
everywhere, and whose kindly manner made him
always a special favorite with negroes high or low,
had furnished us with an introductory letter to Far-
EASTERN ARABIA 273
hat, intended to make matters smooth for our future
route. But as matters went there was little need of
caution. The fortunate coincidence of a strong north
wind, just then blowing down the Gulf, gave a satis-
factory reason for not embarking on board of a Bas-
sora cruiser, while it rendered a voyage to Bahreyn,
our real object, equally specious and easy. Besides,
Farhat himself, who was a good, easy-going sort of
man, had hardly opened Aboo-'Eysa's note, than
without more ado he bade us a hearty Avelconie,
ordered our luggage to be brought within the castle
precincts, and requested us to step in ourselves and
take a cup of coffee, awaiting his return for further
conversation after his daily visit of inspection to
Feysul's abridged fleet.
" The next day passed, partly in Farhat's k'hawah,
partly in strolling about the castle, town, gardens,
and beach, making, meanwhile, random inquiries
after boats and boatmen.
"It was noon when we fell in with a ship captain,
ready to sail that very night, wind and tide permit-
ting. Farhat's men had spoken with him, and he
readily offered to take us on board. "We then paid a
visit to the custom-house officer to settle the em-
barkation dues for men and goods. This foreman of
the Ma'asher, whether in accordance with orders
from Farhat, or of his own free will and inclination,
I know not, proved wonderfully gracious, and de-
clared that to take a farthing of duty from such nse-
f ul servants of the public as doctors, would be ' sheyn
w' khata',' ' shame and sin.' Alas, that European
custom house officials should be far removed from
274 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
such generous and patriotic sentiments ! Lastly, of
his own accord be furnished us with men to carry our
baggage through knee-deep water and thigh-deep
mud to tlie little cuttei", where she lay some ht'ty
yards from shore. Evening now came on, and Far-
hat sent for us to congratulate us, but with a polite
regret on having found so speedy convej'ance for our
voyage. Meanwhile he let us understand how he
was himself invited for the evening to supper witli a
rich merchant of the town, and that we were expected
to join the party ; nor need that make us anxious
about our passage, since our ship captain was also in-
vited, nor could the vessel possibly sail before the full
tide at midnight.
" From our town supper we returned by torchlight
to the castle ; our baggage, no great burden, had
been already taken down to the sea gate, where stood
two of the captain's men waiting for us. In their
company we descended to the beach, and then with
garments tucked up to the waist w-aded to the vessel,
not without difficulty, for the tide was rapidly com-
ing in, and we had ahnost to swim for it. At last
we reached the ship and scrambled up her side ;
most heartily glad was 1 to find myself at sea once
more on the other side of Arabia."
After a slow voyage of three days Palgrave
reached Bahreyn, the headquarters of the pearl fish-
eries, and established hin)self in the little town of
Moharrek, to wait for the arrival of Aboo-'Eysa be-
fore undertaking his projected exploration of Oman,
lie and his companion enjoyed a grateful feeling of
rest and security in this seaport among the sailors, to
EASTERN ARABIA 275
whom all varieties of foreignei's were well known,
and who, having no prejudices, felt no suspicion.
On Januar}^ 9, 1863, Aboo-'E^'sa an-ived, and
after much earnest consultation the following plan
was adopted : Aboo-'Ejsa was to send twenty loads
of the best Ilasa dates, and a handsome mantle,
as presents to the Sultan of Oman, with three ad-
ditional mantles for the three chiefs whose terri-
tories intervened between Bahreyn and Muscat.
Palgrave was to accompany these gifts, under liis
character of a skilled physician in quest of certain
rare and mysterious herbs of Oman. Meanwhile,
Aboo-'Eysa and Barakat would take passage for
Aboo-Shahr (Busheer), in Persia, whei'e the former
would be employed for three months in making up
Iiis next caravan of Mecca pilgrims. Here Palgrave
was to rejoin them after his journe3\
In place of Barakat his companion was a curious
individual named Yoosef, whom Aboo-'Eysa had res-
cued from misery and maintained in a decent condi-
tion. He was a native of Hasa, half a jester and
half a knave ; witty, reckless, hai'e brained to the last
degree, full of jocose or pathetic stories, of poetry,
traditions, and fun of every description. When
everything had been arranged the four parted com-
pany, Palgrave and his new companion sailing for
the port of Bedaa', on the Arabian coast, where re-
sided the first of the three chiefs whose protection it
was necessary to secure. They reached there after a
cruise of five or six days, finding the place very bar-
ren and desolate, with scarcely a tree or a garden ;
but, as the chief said to Palgrave, " We are all, from
276 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
the highest to the lowest, the slaves of one master —
Pearl." The bay contains the best pearl-fishei-y on
the coast, and the town depends for its existence on
the trade in these gems.
The chief was intelligent and friendly, and appears
to have interposed no obstacle to the proposed jour-
ney into the interior, but Palgrave decided to go on
by sea to the town of Sharjah, on the northern side
of the peninsula of Oman. Embarking again on
Febrnary 6th, the vessel was driven by violent winds
across to the Persian shore, and ten days elapsed be-
fore it was possible to reach Sharjah. Here, again,
although their reception was liospitable, the travellers
gave up their land journey and re-embarked in an-
other vessel to pass around the peninsula, through
the Straits of Ormuz, and land on the southern shore,
in the territory of Muscat.
In three days they reached the island of Ormuz,
of which Palgrave says : " I was not at all sorry to
have an opportunity of visiting an island once so re-
nowned for its commerce, and of which its Portu-
guese occupants used to say, ' that, were the world a
golden ring Ormuz would be the diamond signet.'
The general appearance of Ormuz indicates an ex-
tinguished volcano, and such I believe it really is ;
the circumference consists of a wide oval M'all,
formed by steep crags, fire-worn and ragged ; these
enclose a central basin, where grow shrubs and grass ;
the basaltic slopes of the outer barrier run in many
places clean down into the sea, amid splinter-like
pinnacles and fantastic crags of many colors, like
those which lava often assumes on cooling. Between
EASTERN ARABIA 277
the west and north a long triangular promontory,
low and level, advances to a considerable distance,
and narrows into a neck of land, which is terminated
by a few rocks and a strong fortress, the work of
Portuguese builders, but worthy of taking rank
among Roman ruins — so solid are the walls, so com-
pact the masonry and well-selected brickwork, against
M'hich three long centuries of sea-storm have broken
themselves in vain. The greater part of the promon-
tory itself is covered with ruins. Here stood the once
thriving town, now a confused extent of desolate
heaps, amid which the vestiges of several fine dwell-
ings, of baths, and of a large church may yet be
clearly made out. Close by the fort cluster a hun-
di'ed or more wretched earth-hovels, the abode of
fishermen or shepherds, whose flocks pasture within
the crater ; one single shed, where dried dates, rai-
sins, and tobacco are exposed for sale, is all that now
remains of the trade of Ormuz."
After being detained three days at Ormuz b}' a
storm, the vessel passed through the Strait, skirted
the southern coast of the peninsula, and I'cached the
harbor of Sohar on March 3d. Palgrave deter-
mined to set off with Yoosef the same evening on
the land-journey of eight or nine days to Muscat ; but
he had already lost so much time by delays since
leaving Bahreyn that he yielded to the persuasions of
the captain of another vessel, who promised to take
him to Muscat by sea in two days. He sailed on the
6th, weighed down with a vague presentiment of
coming evil, which was soon to be justified. His
wanderings in Arabia, and also in this world, very
278 TRAVELS IN AliABIA
nearly came to an end. The vessel slowly glided on
for two days, and Muscat was almost in sight when a
dead, ominous calm befell them near the Sowadah
Islands — some low reefs of barren rocks, about three
leagues from shore. It proved to be a calm, ominous
indeed for Palgrave, as well as for the captain of the
vessel and all on board. It was followed by a furious
storm that ended in the wreck of the dhow, and the
loss of several lives, together with the entire outfit of
the expedition. Palgrave and the survivors of the
crew and passengers, nine in number, barely escaped
with their lives, and reached the shore utterly ex-
hausted, with nothing but the shirts they wore.
In sorry plight the traveller made his way along
the coast to Muscat. He was obliged to give up the
idea of exploring the interior of Oman, partly on ac-
count of the loss of the stores but chiefly because his
identity' as a European had been disclosed ; and so
in this disastrous manner ended the most important
and interesting journey that had yet been made by
any traveller in Arabia.
CHAPTER XVII.
LADY BLUNT'S PILGRIMAGE TO NEJD
IN 1878-79, sixteen years after Palgrave's journey,
Lady Anne Blunt, with her husband and several
native servants, accomplished a journey, which, in
many respects was more remarkable than the exploits
of any of their predecessors. Whereas Palgrave and
others had travelled in disguise, believing it impossi-
ble to penetrate into the interior otherwise than as
mussulmans, the Blunts made no pretences of the
kind, but went as European travellers, desirous of
seeing the country, and visiting its rulers. They tra-
versed the whole breadth of the peninsula, from Bey-
rout on the Mediterranean coast, to Bagdad on the
Tigris, crossing the Great Nefood, or central desert,
and visiting Hail, Jebel Shammer, and other places
in Nejd.*
On their return Lady Blunt published the remark-
ably interesting story of their adventures, under the
title of "A Pilgrimage to Nejd," a book which
added greatly to our knowledge of the Arabian in-
* It is well to point out here that Palgrave and Lady Blunt
spell the names of places quite differently, which makes it rather
difficult at times to identify them as referring to places mutually
visited. Thus, Blunt's "Hail" and Palgrave's " Ha'yel '' are
one; as are also "J(^f" and "Djowf." Other differences are
" Nejd,'' " Nejed," " Djebel Shomer," '* Jebel Shammer,'' etc.
280 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
terior, and to which the compiler of this chapter is
largely indebted.
The travellers entered upon their adventurous un-
dertaking with the advantage of experiences gained
on a previous journey among the Arab tribes of the
Euphrates Valley, and a knowledge of the Arab
tongue. Their native servants, who had accompanied
them on their previous expedition, eagerly joined
their service for the new venture ; camels, horses, and
all necessary supplies for the journey were purchased
at Damascus, and on December 12th, 1879, the start
was made.
Though unwilling to travel under false colors as to
race or nationality, the English travellers found it
convenient to adopt the Bedouin costume for the de-
sert journey, to avoid attracting more notice than was
necessary. Their first objective point was Jof, an
important oasis in the desert, four hundred miles
away. Lady Blunt, describing the start from Damas-
cus, says :
" At first we skirted the city, passing the gate
where St. Paul is said to have entered, and the place
where he got over the wall, and then along the sub-
urb of Maid an, which is the quarter occupied b}''
Bedouins when they come to town, and where we had
found the Tudmuri and our camels. Here we were
to have met the Jerdeh, and we waited some time
outside the Bawabat Allah, or ' Gates of God,' while
Mohammed went in to make inquiries and take leave
of his Tudmuri friends.
" It is in front of this gate that the pilgriujs assem-
ble on the day of their start for Mecca, and fi-om it
LADF BLUNT '8 PILGRIMAGE 281
the Haj road leads away in a nearly straight line
southward. The llaj road is to be onr ronte as far
as Mezarib, and is a broad, well-worn track, though
of course not a road at all according to English ideas.
It has, nevertheless, a sort of romantic interest, one
cannot help feeling, going as it does so far and
through such desolate lands, a track so many thou-
sand travellers have followed never to return. I sup-
pose in its long history a grave may have been dug
for every yard or its course from Damascus to Me-
dina, for, especially on the return journey, there are
constantl}^ deaths among the pilgrims from weari-
ness and insnflScient food."
A leisurely journey of a week brought the party
to Salkhad, a Druse community at the edge of the
desert, where Huseyn, the Sheykli of the Druses
provided them with guides to the Ivaf oasis, a five
days" journey into the desert. On the way to Kaf
they passed areas of sand, white as snow, and encoun-
tered violent sand-storms, in one of which they lost a
camel who seized his opportunity to escape back to
Mezarib. Beyond Kaf they met with rather a thrill-
ing adventure, which is thus graphically described :
" Friday, January 3d. — We have had an adven-
ture at last, and rather a disagreeable one ; a severe
lesson as to the danger of encamping near wells. We
started early, but were delayed a whole hour at
Jerawi taking water, and did not leave the wells till
nearly eight o'clock. Then we turned back nearly
due east across the wady. The soil of pure white
sand was heavy going, and we went slowly, crossing
low undulations without other landmark than the
19
282 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
tells we had left behind us. Here and there rose
little mounds, tufted with ghada. To one of these
Wilfrid and I cantered on, leaving the camels behind
us, and dismounting, tied our mares to the bushes,
that we might enjoy a few miiintes' rest and eat our
midday mouthful ; the gi-eyhounds meanwhile played
about and chased each other in the sand.
" We had finished, and wei'e talking of I know not
what, when the camels passed us. They were hardly
a couple of hundred yards in front, when suddenly
we heard a thud, thud, thud, on the sand, a sound of
galloping. Wilfrid jumped to his feet, looked
round, and called out : ' Get on your mare. This is
a ghazu ! '
" As I scrambled round the bush to my mare, I
saw a troop of horsemen charging down at full gal-
lop with their lances, not two hundred yards off.
Wilfrid was up as he spoke, and so should I have
been but for my sprained knee and the deep sand,
both of which gave way as I was rising. I fell back.
There was no time to think, and I had hardly strug-
gled to my feet when the enemy was upon us, and I
was knocked down by a spear. Then they all turned
on Wilfrid, who had waited for me, some of them
jumping down on foot to get hold of his mare's hal-
ter, lie had my gun with him, which I had just
before lianded to him, but unloaded, his own gun
and his sword being on his deliil (riding camel). He
fortunately had on very thick clothes, tM'o abbas one
over the other, and English clothes underneath, so
tlie lances did hini no harm. At last his assailants
managed to get his gun from him and broke it over
LADY BLUNT -S PILGRIMAGE 283
his head, hitting him three times and smashing the
stock.
" Resistance seemed to me useless, and I shouted
to the nearest horseman, ' Ajia dahilah ' (I am un-
der your protection), tlie usual form of surrender.
Wilfrid hearing this, and thinking he had had
enough of tins imequal contest, one against twelve,
threw himself off his mare. The Khayal (horse-
men) having seized both the mares, paused, and as
soon as they had gathered breath, began to ask us
who we were and where we came from.
" ' English, and we have come from Damascus,'
we replied, ' and our camels are close by. Come
with us and you shall hear about it.'
" Our caravan, while all this had happened, and it
only lasted about five minutes, had formed itself into
a square, and the camels were kneeling down, as we
could plainly see from where we were. I hardly ex-
pected the horsemen to do as we asked, but the mau
who seemed to be their leader at once let us walk on
(a process causing me acute pain), and followed with
the others to the caravan. We found Mohammed
and the rest of our party entrenched behind the
camels with their guns pointed, and as we approached,
Mohammed stepped out and came forward.
" ' Min entum ? ' (Who are you ?) was the first ques-
tion.
" ' Roala min Ibn Debaa.' ' Wallah ? ' (Will you
swear by God?) ' AVallah 1 ' (We swear).
"'And you?' 'Mohammed ibn Aruk of Tud-
mur,'
" ' Wallah ? ' ' Wallah ! ' ' And these are Fran j is
284 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
travelling with you?' 'Wallah! Franjis, friends
of Ibn Shaalan.'
" It was all right ; we had fallen into the hands of
friends, Ibn Shaalan, our host of last year, was
bound to protect us, even so far away in the desert,
and none of his people dared meddle with us, knowing
this. Besides, Mohammed was a Tudmuri, and as
such could not be molested by Roala, for Tudmur
pays tribute to Ibn Shaalan, and the Tudmuris have
a right to his protection. So as soon as the circum-
stances were made clear orders were given hy the
chief of the party to his followers to bring back our
mares, and the gun, and everything which had been
dropped in the scuffle. Even to Wilfrid's tobacco-
bag, all was restored."
The robbers and the travellers fraternized after
the affair was over, and the former were very much
ashamed of themselves for having used their spears
against a woman. Lady Blunt apologizes for them,
however, as the Bedouin dress she wore for riding
prevented them distinguishing her sex in the confu-
sion of the sudden attack.
Two days after the encounter in the desert the
party arrived at Jof, where they spent three days,
and found the people very hospitable. Their chief
servant and camel-driver, Mohammed, was an Arab,
who had distant connections in this part of Arabia ;
and as tribal kinship, no matter how remote, is re-
garded as a matter of great importance, this rela-
tionship was of material aid in securing them the
irood-will of the inhabitants. The Blunts were less
favorably impressed with Jof than was Palgrave,
LADY BLUNT'S PILGRIMAOE 285
who, however, uses the term " Djowf " in a broader
sense, as includinii; a nnniber of oases situated in "a
large oval depression of sixty or seventy miles long
by ten or twelve broad, lying between the northern
desert that separates it from Syria and the Enphrates,
and the sonthern Nefood, or sandy waste, and inter-
posed between it and tlie nearest mountains of the
Central Arabian plateau."
Lady Blunt writes of it: " Jof is not at all what we
expected. We thought we should find it a large cul-
tivated district, and it turns out to be merely a small
town. There is nothing at all outside the walls ex-
cept a few square patches, half an acre or so each,
green with young corn," etc.
How true is it that no two travellers see things
with the same eyes. Doubtless both these distin-
guished travellers are reasonablv correct in their de-
scriptions, but summed up their impressions from
opposite stand-points in a topographical sense ; a
common enough mistake in Asia, where the name of
a place often indicates, equally accurately, a large scope
of country and the central spot in it. In Central
Asia, for example, there is Merv, which is the name
of a city, and also of the large fertile oasis in which
it is situated ; also Herat, meaning a broad area of
oases, with a population of probably half a million
people, in which the fortress-city Herat stands, no
less than the city itself.
Important political changes had taken place since
Palgrave's visit. The rule of the AVahabees had
been overthrown in Jof, and the only representatives
of staple authority found there were a Sheykli and
286 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
six soldiers, who represented the authority of Mo-
hammed ibn Rashid, Emir of Jebel Shammar, with
his seat of government at IlaiL
From Jof the travellers proceeded toward Plail,
crossing the dreaded Xefood, of which they give a
very interesting, and far less gloomy, account than
did Palgrave. They, however, crossed it in January,
while Palgrave crossed it in midsummer; so that,
in the case of the Nefood, as with Jof, the appar-
ently conflicting accounts are doubtless both fairly
accurate, the one describing the desert in winter, the
other in summer. On January 12th, the travellers
found themselves on the edge of the desert.
" At half-past three o'clock we saw a red streak
on the horizon before us, which rose and gathered as
we approached it, stretching out east and west in an
unbroken line. It might at first have been taken for
an effect of mirage, but on coming nearer we found
it broken into billows, and but for its red color not
unlike a stormy sea seen from the shore, for it rose
up, as the sea seems to rise, when the waves are high,
above the level of the land. Somebody called out
* Nefud,' and though for a while we were incredulous,
we were soon convinced. What surprised us was its
color, tliat of rhubarb and magnesia, nothing at all
like what we had expected. Yet the Kefud it was,
the great red desert of Central Arabia. In a few
minutes we had cantered up to it, and our mares
were standing with their feet in its first waves.
"January 13th. — We have been all day in the Ne-
fud, which is interesting beyond our hopes, and
charminir into the barirain." After takinjj; issue with
LADY BLUNT 'S PILORIMAOE 2S7
Mr. Palgrave, who. Lady Blunt thinks, overlooked
its bi-ighter side, the narrator continues her own ob-
servations thus :
" The thing that strikes one first about the Nefiid
is its color. It is not white like the sand dunes we
passed yesterday, nor yellow as the sand is in parts
of the Egyptian desert, but a really bright red, al-
most crimson in the morning, when it is wet with
dew. The sand is rather coarse, but absolutely pure,
without admixture of any foreign substance, pebble,
grit, or earth, and exactly the same in tint and text-
ure everywhere. It is, however, a great mistake to
suppose it barren. The Nefud, on the contrary, is
better wooded and richer in pasture than any part of
the desert we have passed since leaving Damascus.
It is tufted all over with ghada bushes, and bushes of
another kind called yerta^ which at this time of the
year, when there are no leaves, is exactly like a
thickly matted vine.
" There are, besides, several kinds of camel past-
ure, especially on^e new to us, called adr, on which
they say sheep can feed for a month without wanting
water, and more than one kind of grass. Both cam-
els and mares ai'e therefore pleased with the place,
and we are delighted with the abundance of firewood
for our camps, Wilfrid says that the Nefud has
solved for him at last the mystery of horse-breeding
in Central Arabia. In the hard desert there is noth-
ing a horse can eat, but here there is plenty. The
Kefud accounts for everything. Instead of being the
terrible place it has been described by the few travel-
lers who have seen it, it is in reality the home of the
288 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Bedouins during a great part of the year. Its only
want is water, for it contains but few wells ; all along
the edge it is thickly inhabited, and Radi tells us
that in the spring, when the grass is green after rain,
the Bedouins care nothing for water, as their camels
are in milk, and they go for weeks without it, wan-
dering far into the interior of the sand desert."
In the desert of sand the travellers found many
cnrious hollows, which the native guide called fulj.
Some of these holes were a quarter of a mile in di-
ameter, and as much as 230 feet deep. They were
chiefly of horse-hoof shape. They took observations,
and at one point on the desert found the elevation to
be 3,300 feet above sea-level. After seven days in
the Kefud, the last two of which tried the endurance
of men and beasts, the party reached the oasis of
Jobba, which is described as being one of the most
curious, as also most beautiful, places in the world.
" Its name Jobba, meaning a well, explains its po-
sition, for it lies in a hole or well in the Nefud ; not in-
deed in a fulj, for the basin of Jobba is quite on an-
other scale, and has nothing in common with the
liorse-hoof depressions I have hitherto described. It
is, all the same, extremely singular, and quite as dif-
ficult to account for geologically as the fuljes. It is
a great bare space in the ocean of sand, from four to
five hundred feet below its average level, and about
three miles wide ; a hollow, in fact, not unlike that
of Jof, but with the Nefud round it instead of sand-
stone cliffs. That it has once been a lake is pretty
evident, for there are distinct water marks on the
rocks, which crop up out of the bed just above the
LADY BLUNT 'S PILGRIM AGE 289
town ; and, strange to say, there is a tradition still ex-
tant of there having been formerly water there. The
wonder is liow this space is kept clear of sand. What
force is it that walls out the Nefud and prevents en-
croachments ? As you look across the subbkha, or
dry bed of the lake, the Nefud seems like a wall of
water which must overwhelm it ; and yet no sand
shifts down into the hollow, and its limits are accu-
rately maintained."
At length the Xefud was ovei-come and the trav-
ellers approached Hail, not without apprehensions
as to the reception that might await them. Their
guide from Jof enlightened them in regai'd to many
changes that had occurred since Palgrave's visit,
changes that will be equally interesting to readers
who have followed Palgrave's narrative in preceding
chapters.
Telal, then despotic ruler at Hail (Ha'yel), had gone
insane and committed suicide by stabbing himself with
his own dagger four years after Palgrave's visit. He
was succeeded by his brother Metaab, who, however,
died suddenly after reigning three years ; when a
dispute arose between his brother Mohammed and
Telal's oldest son, Bender, about the succession. Mo-
hammed being away at the time, Bender, a youth of
twenty, was proclaimed Emir. Mohammed returned,
and in a violent quai-rel with his nephew drew his
dagger and stabbed him to death.
"Then Mohammed galloped back to the castle, and
finding Hamiid (son of Obeyd, uncle of Telal) there,
got his help and took possession of the palace. He
then seized the younger sons of Tellal (Palgrave's
290 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Telal), Bender's brothers, all but one child, Kaif, and
Bedr, who was away from Hail, and had their heads
cut off bj his slaves in the court-vard of the castle.
They say, however, that Hamiid protested against
this. But Mohammed was reckless, or wished to
strike terror, and not satisfied with what he had al-
ready done, went on destroymg his relations.
" He had some cousins, sons of Jabar, a younger
brother of Abdallah and Obeyd ; and these he sent for.
They came in some alarm to the castle, each with his
slave. They were all young men, beautiful to look
at, and of the highest distinction ; and their slaves
had been brought up with them, as the custom is,
more like brothers than servants. They were shown
into the kahwah of the castle, and received with great
formality, Mohammed's servants coming forward to
invite them in. It is the custom at Hail, whenever
a person pays a visit, that before sitting down he
should hang up his sword on one of the wooden pegs
fixed into the wall, and this the sons of Jabar did, and
their slaves likewise. Then they sat down and waited
and waited, but still no coffee was served to them. At
last Mohammed appeared, surrounded by his guard,
but there was no ' salaam aleykum,' and instantly he
gave orders that his cousins should be seized and
bound. They made a rush for their swords, but were
intercepted by the slaves of the castle and made pris-
oners. Mohammed then, with horrible barbarity,
ordered their hands and their feet to be cut off, and
the hands and feet of their slaves, and had them, still
living, dragged cut into the court-yard of the palace,
where they lay till they died.
LADY BLUNT 'S PILGRIMAOE 291
" These gliastly crimes, more ghastly than ever in
a country where wilful bloodshed is so unusual, seem
to have struck terror far and wide, and no one has
since dared to raise a hand against Mohannned."
The knowledge of these terrible doings naturally
mado the travellers feel that they were venturing
into dangerous quarters as they rode up to the gates
of Hail. The Emir, whose title was Mohainmed-ibn-
Rashid (Mohammed, son of Rashid), however, re-
ceived them kindly; and it was discovered that, apart
from the bloody work of the succession, he had turned
out to be not a bad ruler. In any part of his domin-
ions, it was understood that a person might travel
unarmed, and with any amount of gold on him, with-
out fear of molestation. Moreover, he seemed to
have been deeply stricken with remorse for his past
misdeeds, lived in constant fear of assassination, and
was endeavoring to make what amends he could by
lavishing honors and kindness on the youth Naif, the
only one of his nephews he had spared — for Bedr,
too, had been executed.
It all reads much like a tale from the " Arabian
Nights;" and that Arabia is still the land of romance
and poetry is confirmed by a curious bit of news
learned of Obeyd, about whom it will be remembered
Mr. Palgrave had also a good deal to say.
" He (Obeyd) lived to a great age, and died only
nine years ago {i.e., 1869). It is related of him that
he left no property behind him, having given away
everything during his lifetime — no property but his
sword, his mare, and his young wife. These he left
to his nephew Mohammed-ibn-Rashid, the reigning
292 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
Emir, with the request that liis sword should remain
undrawn, his mare unridden, and his wife unmarried
forever after."
The travellers give an interesting account of the
Emir's horses, the most famous stud in Nejd.
Though interested, they were, on the whole, disap-
pointed with the horses of Nejd as compared with
those of Xorthern Arabia. " In comparing M'hat we
see here with what we saw last year in the north, the
first thing that strikes us is that these are ponies, the
others horses. It is not so much the actual difference
in height, though there must be quite three inches on
an average, as the shape, which produces this impres-
sion."
Tlie average height was found to be under fourteen
hands ; and though great care was taken to obtain
and preserve pure strains of blood, in the matter of
feeding and grooming, gross negligence seemed to be
the rule, even in the royal stud. The stables were
mere open yards, in which the animals stood, each
tethered to a manger. Xo shelter was provided, but
each horse was protected by a heavy rug. They
wore no headstalls, being fastened solely with ropes
or chains about the fetlocks. No regular exercise
was given them, their food was almost exclusively
diw barley, and their appearance generally was far
different from what Europeans would naturally ex-
pect of the finest stable of horses in the " horse
peninsula."
The travellers also enlighten us, on the subject of
liorses, in other directions. Except in the north,
horses were found to be exceedingly rare. It is pes-
LADY BLUNT'S PILGRIMAGE 293
sible to travel vast distances withont meeting a single
horse, or even crossing a horse-track ; on the whole
journey across the Xefud, and on to the Euphrates,
they scarcely saw a horse, apart from the stables of
the rich and great in the cities. The horse is a lux-
ury to be afforded only by people of wealth or posi-
tion. Journej's and raids and wars are all made on
camels ; the Sheykhs who have horses, when going
to war save them to mount at the moment of actual
engagement with the enemy. It was considered a
great boast by a Nejd tribe of Bedouins that they
could mount one hundred horsemen ; while the Mu-
teyr tribe, reputed to be the greatest breeders of thor-
oughbred stock in Central Arabia, would be expected
to muster not more than four hundred mares.
Mohammed -ibn-Rashid recruited his stables by
compelling the Sheykhs of tributary tribes to sell
him their best animals, an improvement on some of
his predecessors, who kept their studs up to the
proper mark becoming Arab royalty by making raids
against the tribes for the purpose of bringing in cele-
brated mares, waiving the matter of payment.
In the spring the horses of the Emir's stables are
distributed among the neighboring Bedouins to be
pastured on the Nefud, which at that period affords
excellent grazing. Had the visitors seen the herd
after a month on the Nef (id, they would likely have
carried away a much more favorable impression.
During the winter quartering the colts seemed to
fare even worse than their dams and sires, from the
following :
'' Besides the full-grown animals, Ibn Rashid's
294 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
yards contain thirty or forty foals and yearlings,
beautiful little creatures, but terribly starved and
miserable. Foals bred in the desert are poor enough,
but those in town have a positively sickly appearance.
Tied all day long by the foot, they seem to have quite
lost heart, and show none of the playfulness of their
age. Their tameness, like that of the ' fowl and the
brute,' is shocking to see."
The contrast between the actual treatment of these
royal animals and the following Arab recipe for rear-
ing a colt is sufficiently striking:
"During the first month of his life let him be con-
tent with his mother's milk ; it will be suflficient for
him. Then, during five months, add to this natural
supply goats' milk, as much as he will drink. For
six months more give him the milk of camels, and
besides a measure of wheat steeped in water for a
quarter of an hour and served in a nose-bag. At a
year old the colt will have done with milk ; he must
be fed on wheat and grass, the wheat dry from a
nose-bag, the grass green, if there is any.
" At two years old he must work or he will be
worthless. Feed him now, like a full-grown horse,
on barley ; but in summer let him also have gruel
daily at mid-day. Make the gruel thus : Take a
donble-handful of flour and mix it in water well with
your hands till the water seems like milk, then strain
it, leaving the dregs of the flour, and give what is
liquid to the colt to drink.
"Be careful, from the hour he is born, to let him
stand in the sun ; shade hurts horses ; but let him
have water in plenty when the day is hot. The colt
LADY BLUNTS PILGRIMAOE 295
must now be mounted and taken bj liis owner every-
where with him, so that he shall see everything and
learn courage. He must be kept constantly in exer-
cise, and never remain long at his manger. He
eliould be taken on a journey, for the work will
fortify his limbs. At three years old he should be
trained to gallop ; then, if he be true blood, he will
not be left behind. Yalla ! "
Lady Blunt thinks this represents a traditional
practice of rearing colts in Arabia since the days of
the Prophet Mohammet.
From Hail, the party joined the Haj, or caravan
of Persian pilgrims, returning home from Mecca
and Medina ; and after eighty-four days' travel from
Damascus their Arabian journey came to an end
at Bagdad. Their route from Hail took them far
north of Palgrave's route, so that they did not visit
Ri'ad, the headquarters, in Palgrave's time, of the
Wahabee ruler Feysul, Lady Blunt, however, in
an appendix to her narrative enlightens us in re-
gard to the end of Feysul, and the continued de-
cline of the Wahabee regime after the visit of
Palgrave.
Three years after Palgrave's visit Feysul died,
and the Wahabee state, which under him had re-
gained much of its power and influence (which had
been all but crushed by the Turks after the Crimean
war) was again weakened by internal dissensions.
Feysul left two sons, Abdallah and Saoud, Avho quar-
relled and put themselves at the head of their respec-
tive adherents. Saoud proved himself the stronger
party, and in 1871 Abdallah fled to Jebel Sham-
296 TRAVELS IN ARABIA
mar and sought the aid of Midhat Pasha, Turkish
governor at Bagdad.
The result was that a Turkish expedition of 5,000
regular troops occupied the seaboard territory of
Ilasa, and took possession of Hofhoof (mentioned by
Palgrave) ; whilst Abdallah and his adherents, and a
third rival, Abdallah-ibn-Turki, attacked Saoud at
Ri'ad. Saoud w^as defeated, and Abdallah essayed to
govern at Ri'ad ; but in the following year he was
again ejected by Saoud who reigned till 1874, when
he died, not without suspicion of poison.
Lady Blunt's account of affairs at the Wahabee
capital ends with the information that Abdallah and
a half-brother, Abderralnnan, were in joint and ami-
cable control, Abdallah as Emir, the latter as his
chief minister. Hasa and the seaboard was held by
the Turks, whose policy was the stirring up of strife
and feudal enmity among the Arabs, with a view to
weakening the power and authority of the Emir at
Ki'ad, and so making the country easy prey whenever
opportunity arrives for its incorporation in the Otto-
man dominions. The power and fanaticism of the
once powerful AYahabee Empire, has become but lit-
tle more than a name and a remembrance among the
Bedouin tribes, who once paid tribute to its Emirs ;
and whatever was national in thought and respecta-
ble in inspiration in Central Arabia seemed to be
grouping itself around the new dynasty of the Emir
of Jebel Shammar, Mohammed-ibn-Rashid of Hail.
THE END.
T^i
m
UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
AA 000 904 350 6
UiMiVbK.-
M.
LUb ANGEJMS
UBRARY