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The Land of Midian, Vol. 2

R >> Richard Burton >> The Land of Midian, Vol. 2




Ibn Mukarrib then arose and went forth, with his son and the
slave, to the place whence came the water (that fed the palms):
this he closed up, and fared towards the north. One day it so
happened that the three were sitting under the shade of a
Marakh-tree and eating its berries. Quoth the sire to the son,
"Say, which is the sweeter, the eating of the Marakh fruit or the
dates of our orchard?" And the youth rejoined, "O my father! far
sweeter is the eating of the fruit of our palm-yard;" when his
sire at once arose and slew him with the sword (to wipe away the
disgrace of such want of manliness).

Then Ibn Mukarrib turned to the slave, and asked him the question
which he had asked of his son. Whereupon the slave replied in
this quatrain:

"Eating wild grain in the house of respect;
And not eating dates in the house of contempt:
And walking in honour but a single day;
And not sitting in disgrace for a thousand years!"

Ibn Mukarrib, pleased with these words, forthwith adopted the
slave; both marched to the north and dwelt there till the end of
their days. The palm-trees, deprived of irrigation, all died; and
Bújat-Badá, the beautiful, became a wilderness. About twenty
years ago, the wells were reopened and the dates were replanted.
So much for the past: as for the future, we may safely predict
that, unless occupied by a civilized people, the Badá plain will
again see worse times. Nothing would be easier than to rebuild
the town, and to prepare the basin for irrigation and
cultivation; but destruction is more in the Bedawi line.





Chapter XVIII.
Coal a "Myth"--March to Marwát--Arrival at the Wady Hamz.



Before leaving Badá I was careful to make all manner of inquiries
concerning stone-coal; and the guides confirmed the suspicions
which had long suggested themselves. His Highness the Viceroy had
laid great stress upon the search: the first question to me on
return was whether the fuel had been found; and a shade of
disappointment appeared when the answer distinctly declared it a
myth.

This coal, it appears, is an old story. My learned friend
Sprenger wrote to me (June 13, 1877): "It is likely that west of
Marwa, on the way to Hawrá (which lies on the sea-shore), coal is
found: I confess that the prospect of discovering much coal in
Arabia does not appear to me very great; still it would be worth
while to make inquiries." Subsequently (December 8, 1877), he
gave up all hopes of the pure mineral, but he still clave to
bituminous schist. El-Mukaddasi (p. 103),[EN#68] treating of the
marvels of the land, has the following passage unconnected with
those which precede and succeed it:--"A fire arose between
El-Marwat and El-Haurá, and it burned, even as charcoal (el-Fahm)
burns." Probably Sprenger had read, "and it (the stone) burned as
charcoal burns," suggesting that the houses and huts were built
of inflammable material, like the bituminous schist of the
Brazil; and that the Arabs were surprised to find them taking
fire. Evidently, however, the text refers to an eruption in one
of the many Harrahs or volcanic districts. El-Mukaddasi describes
the "houses artful (farihín, alluding to the Thamúdites in the
Koran, xxvi. 149), and made of admirable stone (alabaster?); over
the doors were knots (‘Ukúd), and ornaments (Turúh), and carvings
(Nukúsh)."

Landing at El-Wijh, I at once consulted our intelligent friend,
the Wakíl Mohammed Shahádah. He had sent for a camel-load of the
stuff, which, he declared, would not burn, although it had burned
his money. He then travelled in person to the Jebel el-Muharrak
("Burnt Mountain"), five short marches inland from El-Badá plain,
and behind its northern curtain, the Jibál el-Shafah. According
to him, El-Muharrak is part of the great Harrah; and the
unexplored Jaww, which lies north (?) of it, is a prolongation of
the Hismá plateau, here belonging to the Balawíyyah or
Baliyy-land. The mountain is tall and black, apparently
consisting of the "coal." Near its summit lies the Bir el-Shifá'
("Well of Healing"), a pit of cold sulphur-water, excellent for
the eyes; and generally a "Pool of Bethesda," whither Arabs flock
from afar. At Abá'l-Gezáz, Mohammed destroyed all our surviving
hopes by picking up a black stone which, he declared, belonged to
El-Muharrak. It was schist, with a natural fracture not unlike
coal, and weathered into the semblance of wood: unfortunately it
was hard as iron, and it did not contain an atom of bitumen.

At Badá old Shaykh ‘Afnán, whose tents are now pitched one day
ahead of us, was taken into consultation upon the subject. He
confirmed these statements of the Wakíl, adding that the Shafah
Mountains are a mere ridge, not the seaward walls of a plateau,
and that the land east of them is exactly that which we have
already traversed. He had bathed in the sulphur-water; he spoke
of brimstone being picked up on the hill-flanks, and he had heard
of El-Kohl (stibium, collyrium, antimony) being found about
El-Muharrak.[EN#69]

These details, apparently authentic, did not tempt me to waste
precious time upon El-Muharrak. I do not yet despair, as has been
said, of finding coal in Arabia; but we must hardly expect
volcanic ground to yield it.

Our preparations for a march southwards were made under
difficulties. The Baliyy evidently like the prospect of some £6
per diem; and do not like the idea of approaching the frontier,
where their camels may be stolen. Every silly, childish pretext
was used to suggest delay. We ought not to move without seeing
the "Nazarenes' Ruin" at El-‘Arayfát. Again, I had sent a certain
Salim, a cousin of the Shaykh, with orders for fresh supplies
from El-Wijh: he was certain to miss us if we marched. Still
again, old ‘Afnán's dromedary had a thorn in the foot--u. s. w.

Nevertheless, an order was given for the return march on April
5th.

No matter how philosophical the traveller may be, I defy him not
to feel some emotion when, his Desert work being duly done, he
throws his leg over the saddle, and turn the animal's head
homewards--towards London. Such was our pleasant predicament;
for, though the détour would be considerable, and the delay still
more so, I could distinguish the bourne at the far end of the
very long perspective.

We were now in excellent marching order, not, however, including
the mules, of which two had broken down with sore backs, and the
others were breaking fast. The réveillé sounded at 3 to 3.30
p.m.; the "general" followed at four; and the start took place
immediately afterwards. The camels are wretched animals, that
work equally badly full and fasting: when hungry, they break
their halters to graze along the path; and when gorged they are
too lazy to go beyond a saunter of two miles an hour. Yet they
can work well when pushed: the man Sa'lim came up with us on the
evening of the fourth day, after a forced march of thirty-two
hours.

We took the track which crosses the Bújat-Badá to the south-east.
For a short way it was vilely rat-eaten; presently it issued upon
good, hard, stony ground; and, after four miles, it entered the
Wady el-Marwát. This gorge, marked by the Jebel Wásil, a round
head to the north, is a commonplace affair of trap and white
clay; broad, rough, and unpicturesque. The sole shows many piles
of dry stone, ruins of "boxes," in which the travelling Arab
passes the night, whilst his camels are tethered outside. The
watercourse heads in a Khuraytah, the usual rock-ladder; we
reached it after eleven miles' riding. Nájí, the sea-lawyer of
the party, assured us that we had not finished a third of the
way, when two-thirds would have been nearer the truth.

The Wady sides and head showed traces of hard work, especially
where three veins of snowy quartz had been deeply cut into. The
summit of the Col, some 2100 feet above sea-level, carried a fine
reef of "Marú," measuring eight feet at the widest, and trending
332° (mag.) Around it lay the usual barbarous ruins, mere
basements, surrounded by spalled stone: from this place I carried
off a portable Kufic inscription. The view down the regular and
tree-dotted slope of the Wady el-Marwát, as far as the flats of
Badá, was charming, an Argelèz without its over-verdure.

From the Col two roads lead to our day's destination. The short
cut to the right was reported stony: as most of our mules were
casting their irons and falling lame, I avoided it by the advice
of Furayj, thereby giving huge offence to old ‘Afnán. We followed
the long slope trending to the Wady el-Kurr, which drains the
notable block of that name. Seeing the Wakíl, and the others in
front, cutting over the root to prevent rounding a prodigiously
long tongue-tip, I was on the qui vive for the normal dodge; and
presently the mulatto Abdullah screamed out that the Nakb must be
avoided, as it was all rock. We persisted and found the path
almost as smooth as a main road. The object was to halt for the
night at a neighbouring water-hole in the rocks; and, when their
trick failed, the Baliyy with a naive infantine candour, talked
and laughed over their failure, sans vergogne and within earshot.

Despite the many Zawábahs ("dust-devils"), this was one of our
finest travelling days. After the usual ante-meridian halt, we
pushed on down the valley, meeting only a few donkey-drivers. At
2.15 p.m. (seven hours = twenty miles and a half), we reached the
beautiful ‘Ayn el-Kurr, some ten direct miles east of the Wady
Rábigh; and the caravan was only one hour behind us. This Wady is
a great and important affluent of the Wady el-Miyáh already
mentioned. The reach where we camped runs from north to south;
and the "gate" of porphyritic trap, red, green, yellow, and white
with clay, almost envelops the quartz-streaked granite. The walls
are high enough to give shade between eight a.m. and 2.15 p.m.;
and the level sole of the cleanest sand is dotted, near the right
side, with holes and pools of the sweetest water. Here "green
grow the rushes," especially the big-headed Kasbá (Arundo donax);
the yellow-tipped Namas or flags (Scirpus holoschænus) form a
dense thicket; the ‘Ushr, with its cork-like bark which makes the
best tinder, is a tree, not a shrub; and there are large natural
plantations of the saffron-flowered, tobacco-like Verbascum, the
Arab's Uzn el-Humár ("Donkey's Ear"). Add scattered clusters of
date-trees, domineering over clumps of fan-palm; and, lastly,
marvellous to relate, a few hundred feet of greensward, of
regular turf--a luxury not expected in North-Western Arabia--a
paradise for frogs and toads (Bufo vulgaris), grasshoppers, and
white pigeons; and you will sympathize with our enjoyment at the
‘Ayn el-Kurr. In such a place extensive ruins of the "Old Ones"
were to be expected. Apparently there is no trace of man beyond
Wasm on the rocks; a few old Bedawi graves in a dwarf Wady
inflowing from the west; a rude modern watercourse close above
its mouth, and Arab fences round the trimmed dates and newly set
palm shoots.

During the afternoon the Shaykhs came to us with very long faces.
At this season, and as long as the Baliyy are in the Shafah
uplands, the almost deserted frontier districts, which we are
about to enter, suffer from the Gaum, or razzia, of the
neighbouring ‘Anezah and the Juhaynah;--the two tribes, however,
not mixing. The bandits, numbering, they say, from fifty to
sixty, mounted on horses and dromedaries, only aspire to plunder
some poor devil-shepherd of a few camels, goats, and muttons.
They never attack in rear; they always sleep at night, save when
every moment is precious for "loot"-driving; and their weapons,
which may be deadly in the narrows, are despicable in the open
country.

I suspected at first that this was another "dodge" to enhance the
services of our Arabs, but the amount of risk we were to run was
soon found out by consulting Furayj. He said that we must march
in rear of the caravan for a day or two; and that such attacks
were possible, but only once in a hundred cases. There might have
been treachery in camp; the Egyptian officers suggested that a
Baliyy scout could have been sent on to announce the approach of
a rich caravan. Accordingly, I ordered an evening review of our
"Remingtons;" and chose a large mark purposely, that the Bedawi
lookers-on might not have cause to scoff. The escort redeemed
many a past lâche, by showing that their weapons had been kept
bright and clean, and by firing neatly enough. The Baliyy, who
had never seen a breech-loader, were delighted; but one of our
party so disliked the smell of powder, that he almost quarrelled
with me for bringing him into such imminent deadly risk. He was
hardly to be blamed; his nerves had been terribly shaken by a
viper killed in his tent.

Next morning (April 6th) saw the most unpleasant of our marches.
The young Shaykh Sulaymán, accompanied by his cousin Sálim, set
out in the dark as éclaireurs: they were supposed to lead eight
or ten of the best matchlock-men, whereas I doubt whether the
whole camp contained that total. Presently it appeared that they
were alone, and the farce was hardly kept up through the next
day. At 5.15 a.m. we followed them, marching militairement, as my
friend Sefer Pasha had strongly advised at Cairo. It is no joke
to follow starveling beasts whose best speed seldom attains two
miles and a half per hour. However, the effect was excellent:
never had there been so little straggling; never had the
halting-places been reached in such good time and good order.

A pleasant surprise awaited us in the grandest display of quartz
that we had yet seen. The descent of the Wady el-Kurr seemed to
be as flat, stale, and profitless as possible, when "Mará"
appeared on the left side in mounds, veins, and strews. Presently
we turned south, and passed the brackish well, El-Hufayrah ("the
Little Pit"), in a bay of the left bank, distant about eight
miles from our last camp. Here the whole Wady, some two miles
broad, was barred with quartz, in gravel of the same rock, and in
veins which, protruding from the dark schist, suggested that it
underlies the whole surface. Nothing more remarkable than the
variety of forms and tints mingling in the mighty mass--the
amorphous, the crystallized, the hyaline, the burnt; here mottled
and banded, there plain red and pink, green and brown, slaty and
chocolate, purple, kaolin-white; and, rarest of all,
honeycomb-yellow. The richest part was at the Majrá el-Kabsh
("Divide of the Ram"), where we alighted and secured specimens.

From this point the Wady el-Kurr flows down the right side of its
valley, and disappears to the west; while the far side of the
Majrá shows the Wady Gámirah (Kámirah), another influent of the
Wady el-Miyáh. Various minor divides led to the Wady el-Laylah,
where ruins were spoken of by our confidant, ‘Audah, although his
information was discredited by the Shaykhs. Quartz-hills now
appeared on either side, creamy-coated cones, each capped by its
own sparkle whose brilliancy was set off by the gloomy traps
which they sheeted and topped. In some places the material may
have been the usual hard, white, heat-altered clay; but the
valley-sole showed only the purest "Marú." The height of several
hills was nearly double that of the northern Jebel el-Abyaz; and
the reef-crests were apparently unworked.

After the march had extended to seven hours (= 18 miles), there
were loud complaints about its length, the venerable ‘Afnán
himself begging us to spare his camels--which, being interpreted,
meant spoiling our pockets. I therefore gave orders to camp in
the broad and open Wady Laylah. We were far from water, but the
evening was pleasant, and the night was still more agreeable.

At five a.m. next day (April 7th) we rode up the Wady Laylah,
which gave us another surprise, and an unexpected joy, in the
shifting scenery of the Jibál el-Safhah. The "Mountains of the
Plain," so called because they start suddenly from a dead level,
are a section of the Tihámat-Balawíyyah range; yet they are
worthy links of a chain which boasts of a Shárr. Rising hard on
our left, beyond the dull traps that hem in the Wadys, these
blocks, especially the lower features, the mere foot-hills,
assume every quaintest nuance of hue and form. The fawn-grey
colour, here shining as if polished by "slickensides," there dull
and roughened by the rude touch of Time, is a neutral ground that
takes all the tints with which sun and moon, mist and cloud,
paint and glaze the world: changeable as the chameleon's, the
coating is never the same for two brief hours. The protean shape,
seen in profile and foreshortened from the north or south,
appears a block bristling with "Pins" and points, horns and
beaks. Viewed from the east the range splits into a double line,
whose ranks have never been "dressed" nor sized; whilst a
diagonal prospect so alters their forms and relations that they
apparently belong to another range.

The background, lying upon the most distant visible plane, is the
white-streaked and regular wall of the Jebel el-Ward, which we
have already seen from the sea. Its northern foot-ranges are the
pale-white and jagged ‘Afayr, whose utter isolation makes it
interesting; and the low and long, the dark and dumpy Jebel
Tufayyah. It is separated by a broad valley from its southern
neighbour, the Jebel el-Ughlub, or El-Ghalab as some call it.
This typical block consists chiefly of a monstrous "Parrot's
Beak" of granite, continued by a long dorsum to the south. Its
outliers number four. These are, first, the Umm Natash, two sets
of perpendicular buttresses pressed together like sausages or
cigars. Then comes the Talát Muhajjah, a broken saddleback, whose
cantle from the south-east appears split into a pair of
steeple-like boulders--an architect of Alexander the Great's day
would have easily cut and trimmed them into such towers as the
world has never seen. Follows the Umm el-Natákah, bristling like
the fretful porcupine, and apparently disdaining to receive the
foot of man; while the last item, the Jebel el-Khausilah, has
outlines so thoroughly architectural that we seem to gaze upon a
pile of building.

About five miles behind or south of El-Khausilah runs the Wady
Hamz. Thus the two blocks, El-Ward and El-Ughlub, form the Safhah
proper. The line is continued, after a considerable break, by the
two blue and conical peaks in the Tihámat-Jahaníyyah, known as
the Jebelayn el-Rál. They are divided and drained to the Wady
Hamz by the broad Wady el-Sula'; and the latter is the short cut
down which the Egyptian Hajj, returning northwards from
El-Medínah, debouches upon the maritime plain of South Midian.

The Wady Laylah, draining both the Shafah and the Tihámah ranges,
including the block El-Ward, assumes, as usual, various names: we
shall follow it till it is received into the mighty arms of the
Wady Hamz, some three miles from the sea. After riding eight
hours, we sighted the long line of Daum-palms which announce the
approach to El-Birkah, "the Tank." Here the huge Fiumara,
sweeping grandly from north-east to south-west, forms a charming
narrow and a river-like run about a mile and a half
long--phenomenal again in sun-scorched Arabia. The water,
collecting under the masses of trap which wall in the left bank,
flows down for some distance in threads, à ciel ouvert, and
finally combines in a single large blue-green pool on the right
side. A turquoise set in enamel of the brightest verdure, it
attracts by its dense and shady beds of rushes a variety of
water-fowl--one of our Bedawin killed a black-headed duck with a
bullet, which spoilt it as a specimen. About the water-run are
dwarf enclosures, and even water-melons were sown; unhappily the
torrent came down and carried all away.

We halted near the upper spring at 8.20 a.m., after the usual
accident which now occurred daily about that hour. On this
occasion Lieutenant Yusuf's shoe stuck in the stirrup when he was
dismounting from an unsteady mule; the animal threw him, and he
had a somewhat narrow escape from being dragged to death. Man and
beast would have lingered long over the pleasures of watering and
refection, but I forced them onwards at nine a.m., whilst the hot
sun-rays were still tempered by the cool land-breeze. The threads
of water and the wet ground extended some two kilometres beyond
the Birkat. Further on was another fine "gate," whose eastern or
right jamb was the Jibál el-Tibgh, fronting the Wady M'jirmah.
The narrows showed two Arab wells, with the usual platform of dry
trunks that make a footing round the mouth. There was no break in
the continuity of the quartz: the black trap enclosed, here
sheets, there veins, and there almonds in puddings.

At the halting-place a "cerastes" (Echis carinata, Merr.), so
called from the warty hollows over the eyes (?), was brought to
me in a water-bag; the bearer transferred it to the spirit-bottle
by neatly thrusting a packing-needle through the head. The pretty
specimen of an amiable, and much oppressed, race did not show an
atom of vice. I cannot conceive what has caused the absurd
prejudice against snakes, even the most harmless. Perhaps we must
trace it to the curious resemblance of the profile, with the
flattened forehead, the steely bright eye, the formidable biting
apparatus, and the vanishing chin, to the genus woman, species
Lorette. It is hard to imagine that this little beast, which some
one called a "Cleopatra's hasp," could be fatal: its small bag
can hardly contain a couple of drops. Yet the vox populi is
distinctly against me.

The Shaykhs were anxious to push on for another half-hour, where,
they declared, a rain-hole is found in the next ravine, the Sha'b
el-Kahafah. But we had been privily told of another further down
the valley, at the Sha'b el-Hárr; and, although we much wanted a
bottleful for photography, we determined to run the risk. The
result is curious, showing how jealously water-secrets are kept
in these lands. The next thing I heard was that the water had
waxed salt; then it had dried up; and, lastly, it was in the best
condition, the truth being that there was none at all.
Consequently we were compelled to send back four camels and two
cameleers from our next camping-ground to the Kahafah. Venerable
‘Afnán made many a difficulty, and an uncommon favour, of risking
the plundering of the dromedaries and the lives of his caterans
by a razzia. The fellows set off after nightfall towards the
upper ravine, distant some two hours' slow march: they must there
have had a pleasant, refreshing sleep; and they did not return,
doubtless by order, till late next morning. This gave the Shaykhs
a good opportunity of fearing greatly for the safety of their
people, and of delaying our march as much as possible.

Resuming the road at 2.30 p.m., we entered the western
prolongation of the Wady el-Birkah. Here it becomes the Wady
Abá'l-‘Agág (‘Ajáj), and preserves that name till it anastomoses
with the Hamz. There have been some wells in the bed; but all are
now filled up, and water must be carried from El-Birkah. We
camped at a noble reach, garnished with a mimic forest of old
tamarisks, whose small voices, united in chorus, passably
imitated the mighty murmur of the sea. Our day's march had
covered a score of miles; hard work, considering the condition of
the mules.

After a splendid night, we set out London-wards at five a.m.,
April 8th, delayed, as has been said, by the politiké of the
Shaykhs. Moreover, one of the party, whose motto should have been
halt's maul, had remarked that the camels appeared fewer than
before--another reason for stopping to count them. Half an hour
placed us at a lower and a grander carrefour, abounding in fuel
and seducing with tamarisk-shade: its water is known as the Máyat
el-Badí'ah. Presently the hilly encasement of the Wady el-‘Ajáj
ended with El-‘Adrá, a red butte to the left, and the Jebel
el-Yakhmúm on the right. This knob was copiously veined with
quartz, of which a prodigious depôt, explored on the next day,
exists in the heights behind it. The Wady now flares out; we have
done with the Tihámah Mountains, and we are again in maritime
South Midian.

Although we were standing some four hundred feet above the
wassersspiegel, there was no view of the sea, and we had to cross
a wave of ground before we pulled off our hats to Father Neptune,
as he lay smiling in front of us. There was nothing monotonous in
the scene. The mirage raised high in air the yellow mound of Ras
Kurkumah ("Turmeric Head"), which bounded the water-line to the
south. Nearer, but still far to the left, ran the high right bank
of the Wady Hamz, sweeping with a great curve from north-east to
west, till it stood athwart our path. Knobby hills were scattered
over the plain; and on our right rose El-Juwayy, a black mound
with white-sided and scarred head, whose peculiar shape, a crest
upon a slope, showed us once more the familiar Secondary
formation of North-Western Arabia. Thus the gypsum has been
traced from the Sinaitic shore as far south as the Wady Hamz.

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