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The Land of Midian, Vol. 1

R >> Richard Burton >> The Land of Midian, Vol. 1




The first notable event in the history of the Beni 'Ukbah was a
quarrel that arose between them and their brother-tribe, the Beni
'Amr. The 'Ayn el-Tabbákhah,[EN#93] the fine water of Wady
Madyan, now called Wady Makná, was discovered by a Hutaymi
shepherd of the Beni 'Ali clan, while tending his flocks; others
say that the lucky man was a hunter following a gazelle. However
that may be, the find was reported to the Shaykh of the Musálimah
(Beni 'Ukbah), who had married 'Ayayfah, the sister of Ali ibn
Nejdi, the Beni 'Amr chief, whilst the latter had also taken his
brother-in-law's sister to wife. The discoverer was promised a
Jinu or Sabátah ("date-bunch") from each palm-tree; and the
rivals waxed hot upon the subject. The Musálimah declared that
they would never yield their rights, a certain ancestor,
'Asaylah, having first pitched tent upon the Rughámat Makná, or
white "horse" of Makná. A furious quarrel ensued, and, as usual
in Arabia as in Hibernia, both claimants prepared to fight it
out.

To repeat the words of our oral genealogist, Furayj: "Now, when
the wife of the Shaykh of the Musálimah had heard and understood
what Satan was tempting her husband to do against her tribe, she
rose up, and sent a secret message to her brother of the Beni
'Amr, warning him that a certain person (Fulán) was about to lay
violent hands on the beautiful valley of El-Madyan. Hearing this,
the Beni 'Amr mustered their young men, and mounted their horses
and dromedaries, and rode forth with jingling arms; and at
midnight they found their opponents asleep in El-Khabt,[EN#94]
the beasts being tied up by the side of their lords. So they cut
the cords of the camels, they gagged the hunter who guided the
attack, they threatened him with death if he refused to obey, and
they carried him away with them towards Makná.

"When the Musálimah awoke, they discovered the deceit, they
secured their beasts, and they hastened after the enemy,
following his track like Azrail. Both met at Makná, when a battle
took place, and Allah inclined the balance towards the Beni 'Amr.
The Musálimah, therefore, became exiles, and took refuge in
Egypt. And in the flow of days it so happened that the Shaykh of
the Beni' Amr awoke suddenly at midnight, and heard his wife, as
she sat grinding at the quern, sing this quatrain:--

'If the handmill (of Fate) grind down our tribe
We will bear it, O Thou (Allah) that aidest to bear!
But if the mill grind the foeman tribe,
We will pound and pound them as thin as flour.'

"Whereupon the Shaykh, in his wrath, seized a stone, and cast it
at his wife, and knocked out one of her front teeth. She said
nothing, but she took the tooth and wrapped it in a rag, and sent
it with a message to her brother, the Shaykh of the Musálimah.
Now, this chief was unable to revenge his sister single-handed,
so he travelled to Syria, and threw himself at the feet of the
great Shaykh of the Wuhaydi tribe, who was also a Sherif.

"The Wuhaydi despatched his host together with the warriors of
the Musálimah, and both went forth to do battle with the Beni
'Amr. The latter being camped in a valley near 'Aynúnah, tethered
their dogs and, some say, left behind their old people,[EN#95]
and lit huge bonfires; whence the name of the place is Wady Umm
Nírán ('the Mother of Fires') to this day. Before early dawn they
had reached in flight the Wady 'Arawwah of the Jibál el-Tihámah.
In the morning the Musálimah and the Wuhaydi, finding that a
trick had been practiced upon them, followed the foe, and beat
him in the Wady 'Arawwah, killing the Shaykh. And the chief of
the Musálimah gave his widowed sister as wife to the Wuhaydi, and
settled with his people in their old homes. The Beni 'Amr fled to
the Hismá, and exiled themselves to Kerak in Syria, where they
still dwell, owning the plain called Ganán Shabíb. There is now
peace between the Beni 'Ukbah and their kinsmen the Beni 'Amr."

The second event in the history of the tribe, the "Tale of Abú
Rísh,"[EN#96] shall also be told in the words of Furayj:--"After
the course of time the Beni 'Ukbah, aided by the Ma'ázah, made
war against the Shurafá, who were great lords in those days, and
plundered them and drove them from their lands. The victors were
headed by one Salámah, a Huwayti who dwelt at El-'Akabah, and who
had become their guest. In those ages the daughters of the tribe
were wont to ride before the host in their Hawádig
('camel-litters'), singing the war-song to make the warriors
brave. As Salámah was the chief Mubáriz ('champion in single
combat'), the girls begged him to wear, when fighting, a white
ostrich feather in his chain-helmet, that they might note his
deeds and chant in his name. Hence his title, Abú Rísh--the
'Father of a Feather.' The Sherifs, being beaten, made peace,
taking the lands between Wady Dámah and El-Hejaz; whilst the Beni
'Ukbah occupied Midian Proper (North Midian), between 'Dámah' and
'Shámah' (Syria).

"Abú Rísh, who was a friend to both victor and vanquished,
settled among the Sherifs in the Sirr country south of Wady
Dámah. He had received to wife, as a reward for his bravery, the
daughter of the Shaykh of the Beni 'Ukbah; and she bare him a
son, 'Id, whose tomb is in the Wady Ghál, between Zibá and
El-Muwaylah. On the Yaum el-Subúh ('seventh day after birth'),
the mother of 'Id followed the custom of the Arabs; and, after
the usual banquet, presented the babe to the guests, including
her father, who made over Wady 'Aynúnah in free gift to his
grandson. Now, 'Id used to lead caravans to Cairo, for the
purpose of buying provisions; and he was often plundered by the
Ma'ázah, who had occupied by force the Wadys Sharmá, Tiryam, and
Surr of El-Muwaylah.

"This 'Id ibn Salámah left, by a Huwayti woman, a son 'Alayán,
surnamed Abú Takíkah ('Father of a Scar') from a sabre-cut in the
forehead: he was the founder of the Tugaygát-Huwaytát clan, and
his descendants still swear by his name. Once upon a time, when
leading his caravan, he reached the Wady 'Afál, and he learned
that his enemies, the Ma'ázah, and the black slaves who
garrisoned El-Muwaylah, were lurking in the Wady Marayr. So he
placed his loads under a strong guard; and he hastened, with his
kinsmen of the Huwaytát, to the Hismá, where the Ma'ázah had left
their camels undefended: these he drove off, and rejoined his
caravan rejoicing. The Ma'ázah, hearing of their disaster,
hurried inland to find out the extent of the loss, abandoning the
black slaves, who, nevertheless, were still determined to plunder
the Káfilah. 'Alayán was apprized of their project; and, reaching
the Wady Umm Gehaylah, he left his caravan under a guard, and
secretly posted fifty matchlock-men in El-Suwayrah, east of the
hills of El-Muwaylah. He then (behold his cunning!) tethered
between the two hosts, at a place called Zila'h, east of the tomb
of Shaykh Abdullah,[EN#97] ten camel-colts without their dams.
Roused by the bleating, the negro slaves followed the sound and
fell into the ambush, and were all slain.

"'Alayán returned to the Sirr country, when his tribe, the
Huwaytát, said to him, 'Hayya (up!) to battle with these Ma'ázah
and Beni 'Ukbah; either they uproot us or we uproot them!' So he
gathered the clan, and marched to a place called El-Bayzá,[EN#98]
where he found the foe in front. On the next day the battle
began, and it was fought out from Friday to Friday; a truce was
then made, and it was covenanted to last between evening and
morning. But at midnight the enemy arose, left his tents pitched,
and fled to the Hismá. 'Alayán followed the fugitives, came up
with them in the Wady Sadr, and broke them to pieces. Upon this
they took refuge in Egypt and Syria.

"After a time the Beni 'Ukbah returned, and obtained pardon from
'Alaya'n the Huwayti, who imposed upon them six conditions.
Firstly, having lost all right to the land, they thus became
'brothers' (i.e. serviles). Secondly, they agreed to give up the
privilege of escorting the Hajj-caravan. Thirdly, if a Huwayti
were proved to have plundered a pilgrim, his tribe should make
good the loss; but if the thief escaped detection, the Beni
'Ukbah should pay the value of the stolen property in coin or in
kind. Fourthly, they were bound not to receive as guests any
tribe (enumerating a score or so) at enmity with the Huwaytát.
Fifthly, if a Shaykh of Huwaytát fancied a dromedary belonging to
one of the Beni 'Ukbah, the latter must sell it under cost price.
And, sixthly, the Beni 'Ukbah were not allowed to wear the 'Abá
or Arab cloak."[EN#99]

The Beni 'Ukbah were again attacked and worsted, in the days of
Sultan Selim, by their hereditary foe, the Ma'ázah. They
complained at Cairo; and the Mamlúk Beys sent down an army which
beat the enemy in the Wady Surr. They had many quarrels with
their southern neighbours, the Baliyy: at last peace was made,
and the land was divided, the Beni 'Ukbah taking the tract
between Wadys Da'mah and El-Muzayrib. Since that time the tribe
has been much encroached upon by the Huwayta't. It still claims,
however, as has been said, all the lands between El-Muwaylah and
Makná, where they have settlements, and the Jebel Harb, where
they feed their camels. They number some twenty-five to thirty
tents, boasting that they have hundreds; and, as will appear,
their Shaykh, Hasan el-'Ukbi, amuses himself by occasionally
attacking and plundering the wretched Maknáwis, or people of
Makná, a tribe weaker than his own.





Chapter VI.
To Makná, and Our Work There--the Magáni or Maknáwis.



After a silly fortnight at old Madiáma, I resolved to march upon
its seaport, Makná, the of Ptolemy, which the people
call also "Madyan."[EN#100] We set out at seven a.m. (January
25th); and, after a walk of forty-five minutes, we were shown by
Furayj a Ghadír, or shallow basin of clay, shining and bald as an
old scalp from the chronic sinking of water. In the middle stood
two low heaps of fine white cement, mixed with brick and gravel;
while to the west we could trace the framework of a mortared
Fiskíyyah ("cistern"), measuring five metres each way. The ruin
lies a little south of west (241 deg. mag.) from the greater
"Shigd;" and it is directly under the catacombed hill which bears
the "Praying-place of Jethro." A tank in these regions always
presupposes a water-pit, and there are lingering traditions that
this is the "Well of Moses," so generally noticed by mediæval
Arab geographers. It is the only one in the Wady Makná, not to
mention a modern pit about an hour and a half further down the
valley, sunk by the Bedawin some twenty feet deep: the walls of
the latter are apparently falling in, and it is now bone-dry. But
the veritable "Moses' Well" seems to have been upon the coast;
and, if such be the case, it is clean forgotten. True, Masá'íd,
the mad old Ma'ázi, attempted to trace a well inside our camp by
the seashore; but the Beni 'Ukbah, to whom the land belongs, had
never heard of it.

After marching about six miles, we entered a gorge called Umm
el-Bíbán, "the Mother of Gates," formed by the stony spurs of the
Wady bank: the number of birds and trees, especially in the
syenitic valleys, showed that water could not be far off. At
10.10 a.m. a halt was called at the half-way place, a bay or
hollow in the left cliff, El-Humayrah--"the Little Red"--an
overhanging wall of ruddy grit some eighty feet high, with strata
varying in depth from a few lines to as many fathoms, all
differing in colour, and all honeycombed, fretted, and sculptured
by wind and rain. Above the red grit, weathered into a thousand
queer shapes, stood strata of chloritic sand, a pale
yellow-green, and capping it rose the usual dull-brown carbonate
of lime. Large fossil oysters lay in numbers about the base,
suggesting a prehistoric feast of the Titans. Amongst them is the
monstrous Tridacna (gigantea), which sometimes attains a growth
of a yard and a half; one of these is used as a bénitier at the
church of Saint Sulpice, Paris. Amongst the layers were wavy
bands of water-rolled crystals, jaspers, bloodstones,
iron-revetted pebbles, and "almonds," which, in the Brazil,
accompany and betray the diamond.[EN#101] We had no time to make
a serious search; but, when the metals shall be worked, it will,
perhaps, be advisable to import a skilled prospecter from the
Brazil or the Cape of Good Hope.

At noon we met the "heaven-sent, life-sustaining sea-breeze;" and
now the broad and well-marked Wady Makná, with its rosy-pink
sands, narrowed to a gut, flanked and choked on both sides, north
and south, by rocks of the strangest tricolour, green-black,
yellow-white, and rusty-red. The gloomy peak, which had long
appeared capping the heights ahead, proved to be the culmination
of a huge upthrust of porphyritic trap. Bottle-green when seen
under certain angles, and dull dead sable at others, it was
variegated by cliffs and slopes polished like dark mirrors, and
by sooty sand-shunts disposed at the natural slope. Crumbling
outside, the lower strata pass from the cellular to the compact,
and are often metalliferous when in contact with the quartz: at
these Salbandes the richest mineral deposits are always found.
Set in and on the black flanks, and looking from afar like the
gouts of a bloodstone, are horizontal beds, perpendicular spines,
and detached blocks of felsitic porphyry and of rusty-red
syenite, altered, broken, and burnt by plutonic heat. In places,
where the trap has cut through the more modern formations, it has
been degraded by time from a dyke to a ditch, the latter walled
by the ruddy rocks, and sharply cut as a castle-moat. And already
we could see, on the right of the Wady, those cones and crests of
ghastly, glaring white gypsum, which we had called "the Hats."

These gloomy cliffs, approaching the maritime plain, sweep away
to the south, and melt into the "Red Hills" visited on our first
excursion. They are known as the Jebel el-'Abdayn--"of the Two
Slaves:" this, perhaps, is the Doric pronunciation of the Bedawin
for Abdín--"slaves." Presently we sighted the familiar features
of the seaboard, described in my first volume, especially the
Rughámat el-Margas to the north; and westward the Gulf of
'Akabah, looking cool and blue in the Arabian glare. After five
hours and thirty minutes (= seventeen miles and a half) in the
saddle we reached Makná.

I had thought of encamping near the "Praying-place of Moses," a
fine breezy site which storms would have made untenable. As at
Sharmá, camels must turn off to the right over the banks when
approaching the mouth of the Wady Madyan, whose bed is made
impassable by rocks and palm-thicket. We then proposed to pitch
the tents upon the valley sands within the "Gate," but this was
overruled by the Sayyid, who told grisly tales of fever and ague.
Finally, we returned to our former ground, near the old
conglomerates and the mass of new shells, which ledge the shore
of the little harbour. Approaching it, we were delighted to see
the gunboat Mukhbir steaming up, despite the contrary wind, from
Sharm Yáhárr; she was towing the Sambúk, which brought from
'Aynúnah Bay our heavy gear, rations, and tools. This was a
stroke of good luck: already we were on half rations, and provant
for men and mules threatened to run short.

Our week at Makná (January 25--February 2) justified the pleasant
impression left by the first visit, and enabled us to correct the
inaccuracies of a flying survey.

This "Valley of Waters," with its pink and yellow (chloritic)
sands, is bounded on the right near the sea by a sandbank about
one hundred feet high, a loose sheet thinly covering the dykes of
syenite and the porphyritic trap which in places peep out.
Possibly it contains, like the left flank, veins of quartz,
lowered by corrosion, and concealed by the sand-drift spread by
the prevalent western winds. The high-level abounds in detached
springs, probably the drainage of the Rughámat Makná, the huge
"horse" or buttress of gypsum bearing north-east from the
harbour. The principal veins number three. The uppermost and
sweetest is the Ayn el-Tabbákhah; in the middle height is
El-Túyuri (Umm el-Tuyúr), with the dwarf cataract and its
tinkling song; whilst the brackish 'Ayn el-Fara'í occupies the
valley sole. Besides these a streak of palms, perpendicular to
the run of the Wady, shows a rain-basin, dry during the droughts,
and, higher up, the outlying dates springing from the arid sands,
are fed by thin veins which damp the rocky base. Hence, probably,
Dr. Beke identified the place with the "Elim" of the Exodus: his
artist's sketch from the sea (p. 340) is, however, absolutely
unrecognizable.

The high-level spring and the middle water rise in sandy basins;
course down deeply furrowed beds of grit; and, after passing
through a tangle of vegetation, a dense forest of palms, alive
and dead, and open patches sown with grain, wilfully waste their
treasures in the upper slope of the right bank. This abundance of
water has developed a certain amount of industry; although the
Bedawin tear to pieces the young male-dates, whose tender green
growth, at the base of the fronds, supplies them with a "chaw." A
number of artificial runners has been trained to water dwarf
barley-plots, whose fences of date-fronds defend them from sheep
and goats; and further down the bank are the fruit trees which
first attracted our attention.

The low-level water consists of two springs. The upper is the
'Ayn el-'Aryánah, springing from the sands under the date-trees
which line the right and left sides: apparently it is the
drainage of a gypsum "hat," called El-Kulayb, "the Little
Dog"--in their Doric the Bedawin pronounce the word Galáib.
Further down the bed, and divided by a tract of dry sand, is the
'Ayn el-Fara'i, which also rises from both banks, forms a single
stream, sleeps in deep pellucid pools like fairy baths among the
huge boulders of grey granite, and finally sinks before reaching
the shore. When these waters shall again be regulated, as of old,
they will prove amply sufficient for the vegetable and the
mineral. Anton, the Greek, who everywhere saw the shop, was so
charmed with the spot, that he at once laid out his
establishment: here shall be the hotel; there the billiard and
gambling room, and there the garden, the kiosk, the buvette--in
fact, he projected a miner's paradise.

On the crest of this right bank, above the vegetation, lies the
traditional Musallat Musá ("Moses' Oratory"), of which the
foundations, or rather the base-stones, are in situ. The larger
enceinte measures, without including two walls projecting from
the north-east and north-west angles, an oblong of thirty-seven
by twenty-five feet; and, as usual with Midianite ruins, it has
been built of all manner of material. The inner sanctum opens to
the west, the northern and southern basement-lines only
remaining: the former is composed of eight blocks of gypsum
resembling alabaster, five being larger than the others; and the
southern of three. Upon these the Bedawin still deposit their
simple ex-votos, oyster and other shells, potsherds, and coloured
pebbles.[EN#102]

The left or opposite bank, which wants water, is formed by the
tall conglomerate-capped cliffs, which support the "Muttali'" or
hauteville, and by the warty block called Jebel el-Fahísát. In
"The Gold-Mines of Midian" (Chap. XII.) it is called El-Muzayndi,
an error of my informants for El-Muzeúdi: the latter is the name
of the small red hill north of our camp. I again visited the high
town, which is about a hundred feet above the valley: presently
it will disappear bodily, as its base is being corroded, like the
Jebel el-Safrá of Magháir Shu'ayb. The walls still standing form
a long room running north-south; and the two adjoining closets
set off to the north-east and south-east. This sadly shrunken
upper settlement covers the remnant of the rocky plateau to the
east: there are also traces of building on the southern slopes.
Ruined heaps of the usual material, gypsum, dot and line the
short broad valley to the north, which rejoices in the neat and
handy name, Wady Majrá Sayl Jebel el-Marú. Here, however, they
are hardly to be distinguished from the chloritic spines and
natural sandbanks that stud the bed. The only antiquities found
in the "Muttali"' were a stone cut into parallel bands, and the
fragment of a basalt door with its pivot acting as hinge in the
upper part: it reminded me of the Græco-Roman townlets in the
Haurán, where the credulous discovered "giant Cities" and similar
ineptitudes. Our search for Midianite money was in vain; Mr.
Clarke, however, picked up, near the sea, a silver "Taymúr," the
Moghal, with a curiously twisted Kufic inscription. (A.H. 734).

The 'Ushash or frond-huts of the Maknáwi and the Beni 'Ukbah were
still mostly empty. At this season, all along the seaboard of
North-Western Arabia, the Bedawin are grazing their animals in
the uplands, and they will not return coastwards till July and
August supply the date-harvest. The village shows the
inconséquence of doors and wooden keys to defend an interior made
of Cadjan, or "dry date-fronds," which, bound in bundles, make a
good hedge, but at all times a bad wall. One of its peculiar
features is what looks like a truncated and roofless oven; in
this swish cylinder they pound without soaking the date-kernels
that feed their camels, sheep, and goats. A few youths, however,
who remained in this apology for a "deserted village," assisted
us in night-fishing with the lantern; and they brought from the
adjoining reefs the most delicate of shell and scale fish. The
best were the langoustes (Palinurus vulgaris), the clawless
lobsters called crawfish (crayfish) in the United States, and the
agosta or avagosta of the Adriatic: it was confounded by the
Egyptian officers with "Abú Galambo,"[EN#103] the crab (Cancer
pelagicus). The echinidae of various species, large-spined and
small-spined, the latter white as well as dull-red, were
preserved in spirits.[EN#104] Amongst the excellent fish, the
Marján (a Sciœna) the Sultan el-Bahr, the Palamita (Scomber), the
Makli (red mullets, Mugil cephalus), and the Búri, were monstrous
animals, with big eyes and long beaks like woodcocks; some of
these were garnished with rows of ridiculously big teeth. I
failed to procure live specimens of small turtle, and yet the
huts were full of carapaces, all broken and eight-ribbed. One
species, the Sakar, supplies tortoise-shell sold at Suez for 150
piastres per Ratl or pound; the Bísa'h, another large kind
without carapace, is used only for eating: both are caught off
the reefs and islets. An eel-like water-snake (Marrína = Murœna
Ophis) showed fight when attacked. The Arabs do not eat it, yet
they will not refuse the Shaggah, or large black land-snake.

The enforced delay at Makná gave us the opportunity of making
careful reconnaissances in its neighbourhood. During the last
spring I had heard of a Jebel el-Kibí't ("sulphur-hill") on the
road to 'Aynúnah, but no guide was then procurable. Shortly after
our return, a Bedawi named Jázi brought in fine specimens of
brimstone, pure crystals adhering to the Secondary calcaire, and
possibly formed by decomposition of the sulphate of lime. If this
be the case we may hope to find the mineral generally diffused
throughout these immense formations; of course, in some places
the yield will be richer and in others poorer. Further
investigation introduced us, as will be seen, to two southern
deposits, without including one heard of in Northern Sinai. All
lie within a short distance of the sea, and all are virgin: the
Bedawin import their sulphur from the "Barr el-'Ajam," the
popular name for Egypt, properly meaning Persia or any non-Arab
land. Thus, in one important article Midian rivals, if not
excels, the riches of the opposite African shore, where for a
single mine thirty millions of francs have been demanded by way
of indemnity.

Betimes on January 26th, a caravan of four camels, for the two
quarrymen and the guide, set off southwards, carrying sacks,
tools, and other necessaries. They did not return till the
morning of the third day; Jázi had lost the road, and the Bedawin
rather repented of having been so ready to disclose their
treasures. Of course, our men could not ascertain the extent of
the deposits; but they brought back rich specimens which
determined me to have the place surveyed. Unfortunately I had
forgotten a sulphur-still; and the engineer vainly attempted to
extract the ore by luting together two iron mortars, and by
heating them to a red heat. The only result was the diffusion of
the sulphur crystals in the surrounding gypsum. This discovery
gave me abundant trouble; the second search-party was a failure;
and it was not till February 18th that I could obtain a
satisfactory plan of the northern Jebel el-Kibrít.

At Makná I was much puzzled by the presence of the porous basalt,
which had yielded to the first Expedition a veinlet of
"electron"--gold and silver mixed by the hand of Nature. The
plutonic rock, absent from the Wady Makná, appears in scatters
along the shore to the north. Our friend Furayj knew nothing
nearer than El-Harrah, the volcanic tract bounding the Hismá on
the east, and distant some five days' march. This was going too
far; querns of the same material, found in all the ruins,
suggested a neighbouring outcrop. Moreover, during the last
spring, I had heard of a mining site called Nakhil Tayyib Ism,
the "Palm-orchard (of the Mountain) of the Good Name," in the
so-called range to the north of Makná.

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