The Land of Midian, Vol. 2

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

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Wady Salmá is the smallest and the northernmost of the three
basins which we have just visited; the central being the Dámah,
and the southern Wady Shaghab-Aslah-Aznab. Steaming southwards we
shall note the mouths of all these watercourses. We presently
passed on the right bank the debouchure of the Wady Ruways, and
left there a guard to direct the caravan, in case it should
disobey orders, and march up to Umm Ámil. Here the valley gave
forage to a herd of milch-camels, apparently unguarded; each had
her foal, some newborn, others dating from January or February.
After one hour and forty-five minutes (= six miles) we camped on
the fine sands that floor the dull line hemmed in by tall masses
of red and green trap. The adjacent scatter of Arab wells in the
bed is known as the Má el-Badí'ah. I carefully inquired
concerning ruins in the neighbourhood; and we climbed the
torrent-sides to command a (very limited) bird's-eye view of the
hills. According to the guides, there are no remains of the "old
ones" nearer than Umm Ámil

Setting out early next morning (5.45 a.m., March 5th), after half
an hour down the Wady Salmá, we saw its lower course becoming a
mere gorge, constricted by two opposite rocks. On the left bank,
above this narrow, lies a group of Arab graves, which may have
been built upon older foundations. The right side here receives
the Wady Haraymal ("Little Peganum-plant"), the Haráímil of the
broad-speaking Bedawin. As we struck up its dull ascent, the
southern form of the Shárr-giant suddenly broke upon us, all
glorious in his morning robes of ethereal gauzy pink. The
foreshortened view, from the south as well as the north, shows a
compact prism-formed mass which has been compared with an
iceberg. The main peak, Abú Shenázir, here No. 4 from the north,
proudly bears a mural crown of granite towers, which it hides
from El-Muwaylah; and the southern end, a mere vanishing ridge at
this angle, but shown en face to the seaboard abreast of it,
breaks into three distinctly marked bluffs and heads.[EN#12]

A divide then led upwards and downwards to the Wady Abá Rikayy,
remarkable only for warm pools, and crystal-clear runners,
springing from the sole. The fringings of white show the presence
of salt; the shallows are covered with the greenest mosses, and
beetles chase one another over the depths where the waters sleep.
The lower course takes the name of Wady Kifáfí, and discharges
into the sea north of the Wady Salmá, with which it has
erroneously been united, as in Niebuhr's Selmá wa Kafâfa.
According to the Kátib Chelebi, who, over two centuries ago, made
the "Kabr Shaykh el-Kifáfí" the second pilgrim-station south of
El-Muwaylah, a certain Bedawi chief, El-Kifáfí, was killed with a
spear, and his tomb became a place of pious visitation. It is
said still to exist between the Wadys Salmá and Kifáfí. A third
divide to the north led along the eastern flank of the Jebel Abú
Rísh, which exposes its head to the sea; and, reaching the Col,
we had the pleasure of once more greeting the blue cove that
forms the port of Zibá.

We then descended into the Wady Sidrah, whose left bank is formed
by the Safrá Zibá--"the Yellow (hill) of Zibá." This small
outlying peak is clad in the gaudiest of colours, especially a
vivid citron-yellow, set off by red and rusty surroundings, which
are streaked with a dead chalky-white. The citizens declare that
it is absolutely useless, because it does not supply sulphur.
During our day's halt at Zibá, M. Marie brought from it quartz of
several kinds; the waxy, the heat-altered, and the blue, stained
with carbonate of copper. Possibly this metal may be abundant at
a lower horizon

The "Valley of the (one) Jujube-tree," after narrowing to a stony
gut, suddenly flares out into the Wady Zibá, the vulgar feature of
these regions, provided with the normal "Gate" some three hundred
yards broad. Beyond it, the flat surrounding the head of the cove is
remarkably well grown with palms, clumps of the Daum, and scattered
date-trees, of which one is walled round. Hence I am disposed to
consider Zibá the , or Phoenicon Vicus, of Ptolemy: although
he places it in north lat. 26° 20', or between Sharm Dumayghah and
El-Wijh, when it lies in north lat. 27° 20'. I have already
protested against the derivation of the word--which is written
"Dhoba" by Wallin, "Deba" by Niebuhr, and "Zibber" by the
Hydrographic Chart--proposed by my learned friend Sprenger.[EN#13]
His theory was probably suggested by El-Yákút (iii. 464), who, in
the twelfth century, describes "Dhabba" as "a village on the coast,
opposite to which is a settlement with flowing water, called Badá:
the two are separated by seventy miles." An older name for the
station is Bir el-Sultáni--the "Well of the Sultán" (Selim?): we
shall presently inspect these remains. Itineraries also give Kabr
el-Tawáshi, "the Eunuch's Tomb;" and this we still find near the
palms at the head of the inner baylet. It is a square measuring six
paces each way, mud and coralline showing traces of plaster outside.
Like Wellsted (II. X.) we failed to discover any sign of the Birkat
("tank") mentioned in a guide-book which Burckhardt quotes; nor had
the citizens ever heard of a "reservoir."

The camping-ground of the pilgrims lies between the "Gate" and
the cove-head. Around the wells sat at squat a small gathering of
the filthy "Moghrebin" (Allah yakharrib-hum!). About 260 of these
rufffians were being carried gratis, by some charitable merchant,
in a Sambúk that lay at the harbour-mouth. A party had lately
slaughtered a camel, of course not their own property; and yet
they wondered that the Bedawin shoot them. They showed their
insolence by threatening with an axe the dog Juno, when she
sportively sallied out to greet them; and were highly offended
because, in view of cholera and smallpox, I stationed sentries to
keep them at a distance. Had there been contagious disease among
them, it would have spread in no time. They haunted the wells,
which were visited all day by women driving asses from the
settlement; even the single old beggar of Zibá--unfailing sign of
civilization--was here; and the black tents of the Arabs, who
grazed their flocks at the cove-head, lay within easy shot of
infection. On the evening of the next day, when the Sambúk made
sail, the shouting and screaming, the brawling, cudgelling, and
fighting, heard a mile off, reminded me of the foul company of
Maghrabís on board the Golden Wire.

"Sultán Selim's Well" has now grown to four, all large and
masonry-lined. That to the south-east is dry; travellers are
confined to the western, whose strong coping they have managed to
tear down; whilst the northern shows hard old kerb-stones, deeply
grooved and rope-channelled like that of Beersheba. We
breakfasted at the head of the inner bay, whilst the Sayyid rode
forward to meet his brother Mahmúd, who had kindly brought us the
news from El-Muwaylah. Here we could see the townlet covering a
low point projecting into the Sharm; a few large and some small
tenements formed the body, whilst the head was the little Burj
built, some fourteen years ago, upon the tall sea-bank to the
north. It bore, by way of welcome, the Viceroy's flag.

The camp was pitched upon the northern shore of the inner cove,
behind the new town, and sheltered by the tall sea-cliff: here
stood Old Zibá, whose stones, buried for ages under the sand, are
now dug up to build its successor. I thought better of the
settlement and of the port after visiting them a second time. We
had looked forward to it even as to a petit Paris: so Damascus
and the Syrian cities appear centres of civilization to Westerns
coming from the East--not from the West. It is far superior,
especially in the article water, to El-Muwaylah; it exports
charcoal in large quantities, and it does a thriving business
with the Bedawi. Here are signs of a pier, and a mosque is to be
built. The fish is excellent and abundant; lobsters are caught by
night near the reef, and oysters in the bay when the tide is out.
We succeeded, at last, in having our batterie de cuisine properly
tinned, and we replenished our stores.[EN#14] As at El-‘Akabah,
"Hashísh" may be bought in any quantity, but no ‘Ráki--hence,
perhaps, the paleness and pastiness of the local complexion--and
yet our old acquaintance, Mohammed el-Musalmáni, is a Copt who
finds it convenient to be a Moslem. He aided us in collecting
curiosities, especially a chalcedony (agate) intended for a
talisman and roughly inscribed in Kufic characters, archaic and
pointed like Bengali, with the Koranic chapter (xcii.) that
testifies the Unity, "Kul, Huw' Allah," etc. As regards the port,
Wellsted (Il. X.) is too severe upon it: "At Sherm Dhobá the
anchorage is small and inconvenient, and could only be made
available for boats or small vessels." Dredging the sand-bar and
cutting a passage in the soft coralline reef will give excellent
shelter and, some say, a depth of seventeen fathoms.

Our first care was to walk straight into the sea, travelling
clothes and all. I then received the notables, including Mohammed
Selámah of El-Wijh, and at once began to inquire about the Jebel
el-Fayrúz. The chief trader pleaded ignorance: he was a stranger,
a new-comer; he had never been out of the settlement. The others
opposed to me hard and unmitigated Iying: they knew nothing about
turquoises; there were no such stones; the mines were exhausted.

And yet I knew that this coast is visited for turquoises by
Europeans; and that the gem has been, and still is, sold at Suez
and Cairo. Mr. Clarke had many uncut specimens at Zagázig,
embedded in a dark gangue, which he called "porphyry," as opposed
to the limestone which bears the silicate of copper. Upon our
first Expedition, we had noticed a splendid specimen, set in a
Bedawi matchlock; and the people of El-‘Akabah praised highly the
produce of the Jebel el-Ghál. Lastly, I happened to have heard
that an Arab lately brought to Zibá a turquoise which sold there
for £3. Evidently the mine, like the gold-sands before alluded
to, would be carefully hidden from us. This reticence explained
how, on our first visit, the two Staff-officers sent to prospect
the diggings had been misdirected to a block lying north of the
townlet, the "Red Hills," alias the Jebel el-Shegayg.

Shortly after I left Egypt an Italian, Sig. F--, returned to Suez
from El-Muwaylah, with some fine pearls worth each from £20 to
£30, and turquoises which appeared equally good. He was then
bound for Italy, but he intended returning to Midian in a month
or two. These are the men who teach the ready natives the very
latest "dodges;" such as stimulating the peculiar properties of
the pearl-oyster by inserting grains of sand.

I also collected notes concerning the ruins of M'jirmah, of which
we had heard so many tales. The site, they said, is a branch of
the Wady Azlam, the first of the three marches between Zibá and
El-Wijh, and seven and a half hours' sail along the coast. This
watercourse shows, above the modern Hajj-station, the ruins of a
fort built by Sultán Selim: Wellsted (II. X.) also mentions a
castle lying three miles inland. From the head of the Sharm
Dumayghah, seventy to seventy-two knots south of El-Muwaylah,
Shaykh Furayj pointed out to us the pale-blue peaks of the Jebel
Zafar:[EN#15] in the upper part of its Wady, the ‘Amúd Zafar, a
southern branch valley of the Azlam, lies the ruin. He made it
six hours' march from the seaboard. It was an ancient gold-mine
(?), whose house-foundations and a "well with steps" still
remain. "M'jirmah," which must not be confounded with the "Umm
Jirmah," an atelier that we shall visit to-morrow, has been
identified with the (Rhaunathi Pagus) of Ptolemy
(north lat. 25° 40'). We will return to this subject when
steaming down coast.

Our day of rest ended, at seven p.m., with a heavy storm of wind
and rain from the north: the sun had been unusually hot for some
days, and the sky looked ugly in the evening. As usual, all
assured us that the clouds contained wind, not rain. Despite
which, when the mess-tent had been nearly blown down, owing to
our men being unwilling to leave their warm retreats, a heavy
drenching downfall set in, and continued till eleven p.m. After a
short lull, wind and rain again raged at midnight; and then the
gale gradually blew itself out. The next two mornings were
delightfully brisk and bracing; and deep puddles dotted the
rocks.

On March 7th the caravan marched straight northwards, by the
Hajj-road, along the shore to its camping-ground, an affair of
two hours, while M. Marie and I set off for the turquoise mine.
Furayj, who had never passed that way, engaged as guide one
Sulaym el-Makrafi; and this old dromedary-rider's son had been
sent on to bring into camp all the Fayruz he could find. Crossing
at six a.m. the broad pilgrim-track, we struck eastward at a
place where the Secondary gypsum subtends the old coralline
cliff. After three-quarters of an hour, we traversed the Wady
Zahakán, the southernmost Pass over the Shárr (proper); and
presently we ascended a branch that falls into the right bank. As
we advanced, it became a rock-walled, stonesoled tunnel; winding,
contracting and widening, rising and flattening, and generally
interesting, compared with the dull flat breadth of such features
as the Wady Salmá. The overfalls of rock and the unfriendly
thorn-trees, selfishly taking up all the room, necessitate
frequent zigzags up and down the rocky, precipitous banks. After
a number of divides we entered the Wady Háskshah, which was wider
and good for riding; and at 8.30 a.m. we passed into the Wady Umm
Jirmah.

In this broad basin we found none of the ruins so often reported;
but immense quantities of broken quartz showed the Mashghal or
atelier. The material was distinguished, from all the outcrops
hitherto observed, by its pretty pink, stained with oxide of
iron: it appeared in large ramifications mostly striking
east-west, and in little pitons dotting the valley sole and
sides. A subsequent visit to Wady Umm Jirmah found many furnaces
surrounded by well-worked scoriae; of these, specimens were
secured.

After another half-hour, we dismounted at the watershed of the
Wady el-Ghál, where the old guide lost no time in losing his
head. The Jebel el-Ghál, whose folds fall into its watercourse,
is a detached block, rising nearly due south of the "Sharp Peak,"
as the Chart calls Abú Kusayb, the northernmost horn of the
Shárr; while the Ghál cove, breaking the sea-cliff, bears 270°
(mag.) from the summit. The hill, which may measure 250 feet
above sea-level (aner. 29.75), is composed of porphyritic trap
and of the hardest felspars, veined with chocolate-coloured
quartz, the true gangue. While we examined the formation, Furayj
and old Sulaym, who became more and more "moony," ransacked the
block in all directions, and notably failed to find a trace of
mining. Evidently Athor, the genius of the "Turquoise Mountain,"
was not to be conquered by a coup de main; so I determined to
tire her out.

After building a stone-man on the finial of the Jebel el-Ghál,
and a short rest in the north-western Wady, we remounted and
struck seawards. Some ugly divides led us, after half an hour, to
a broad Fiumara, well grown with palm-bush, the veritable Wady
el-Ghál. From this point a total of four miles, and a grand total
of fourteen, led us to the camp: it had been pitched at the
Mahattat el-Gha'l, on the north bank, where the "winter-torrent,"
falling into the cove, has broken through the sea cliff.

Here the best of news was in store for us. Lieutenant Yusuf, who
had this morning rejoined the Expedition, brought our mails from
the Sambúk, which I had ordered by letter at El-‘Akabah; and
reported that his Highness's frigate Sinnár, an old friend, would
relieve the lively Mukhbir in taking us to our last journey
southwards. Rations for men and mules, and supplies for
ourselves, all were coming. We felt truly grateful to the Viceroy
and the Prince Minister for the gracious interest they had taken
in the Expedition; and we looked forward with excitement to the
proper finish of our labours. Without the third march, the
exploration of Midian would have been Abtar, as the Arabs say,
"tail-less;" that is, lame and impotent in point of conclusion.

But I would not be beaten by the enemy upon the subject of the
lapis Pharanitis mine. During the course of the day, a Jeráfín
Bedawi, Selím ibn Musallim, brought in scoriae of copper and
iron; and on the morrow I sent him as guide to Lieutenant Yusuf,
with an escort of two soldiers and eight quarrymen on seven
camels. After three days' absence (March 8--10) the officer
rejoined us and reported as follows:--

Leaving the Mahattat el-Ghál, he rode up its watercourse, and
then turned southwards into the long Wady Umm Jirmah. After seven
miles and a half (= direct five and three-quarters), he came upon
the Jebel el-Fayrúz. It is a rounded eminence of no great height,
showing many signs of work, especially three or four cuttings
some twenty metres deep. A hillock to the north-west supplied the
scoriæ before mentioned. Lieutenant Yusuf blasted the
chocolate-coloured quartzose rock in four places, filled as many
sacks, and struck the pilgrim-road in the Wady el-Mu'arrash,
leaving its red block, the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, to the left. His
specimens were very satisfactory; except to the learned
geologists of the Citadel, Cairo, who pronounced them to be
carbonate of copper! Dr. L. Karl Moser, of Trieste, examined them
and found crystals of turquoise, or rather "johnite," as Dana has
it, embedded in or spread upon the quartz. One specimen,
moreover, contained silver. So much for the Zibá or southern
turquoise-diggings.

Our journey ended on March 8th with a dull ride along the
Hajj-road northwards. Passing the creek Abú Sharír, which, like
many upon this coast, is rendered futile by a wall of coral reef,
we threaded a long flat, and after two hours (= seven miles) we
entered a valley where the Secondary formation again showed its
débris. Here is the Mahattat el-Husan ("the Stallion's Leap"), a
large boulder lying to the left of the track, and pitted with
holes which a little imagination may convert into hoof-prints.
The name of the noble animal was El-Mashhúr; that of its owner
is, characteristically enough, forgotten by the Arabs: it lived
in the Days of Ignorance; others add, more vaguely still, when
the Beni ‘Ukbah, the lords of the land, were warring with the
Baliyy. The gorge was then a mere cutting, blocked up by this
rock. El-Mashhúr "negotiated" it, alighting upon the surface like
a Galway hunter taking a stone wall; and carried to Wady Tiryam
its rider, whose throat was incontinently cut by the foeman in
pursuit. The legend is known to all, and the Bedawin still scrape
away the sands which threaten to bury the boulder: it has its
value, showing that in regions where the horse is now unknown,
where, in fact, nothing but a donkey can live, noble blood was
once bred. The same remark is made by Professor Palmer ("The
Desert of the Exodus," p. 42) concerning the Mangaz Hisán Abú
Zená ("Leap of the Stallion of the Father of Adultery"), two
heaps of stone near the Sinaitic Wady Gharandal. There, however,
the animal is cursed, while here it is blessed: perhaps, also,
the Midianite tradition may descend from a source which, still
older, named the . Is this too far-fetched? And yet,
peradventure, it may be true.

We then fell into the Wady Jibbah; passed the Jebel el-Kibrít,
examined M. Philipin's work, and, led over a very vile and very
long "short cut," found ourselves once more on board the Mukhbir.

Note on the Supplies Procurable at Zibá.

The chief stores are:--

Rice (good Yemani), per Kis, or bag of five and a half Kaylah
(each twenty-one Ratl = eighteen pounds), four to six dollars.

Durrah (Sorghum), per Ardebb (each = twelve Kaylah), seven and a
half to eight dollars.

Dukhn (millet), not common, per Ardebb, eight dollars.

Wheat, always procurable, per Ardebb, ten to twelve dollars.

Barley, always procurable, per Ardebb, five to six dollars.

‘Adas (lentils, Revalenta Arabica), per Ardebb, ten to twelve

Samn (liquified butter), per Ratl, seven and a half to eight
dollars.

Coffee (green), per pound, eighteen-pence.

‘Ajwah (pressed dates), 100 to 110 piastres per Kantar (= 100
Ratl).

Eggs, thirty-five to the shilling.

It is generally possible to buy small quantities of Hummus
(lupins or chick-peas), Kharru'b (carob-pods), "hot" and coarse
tobacco for the Arabs, and cigarette-paper, matches, etc.

Chapter XIII.
A Week Around and upon the Shárr Mountain–Résumé of the March
Through Eastern or Central Midian.

For months the Jebel Shárr, the grand block which backs
El-Muwaylah, had haunted us, starting up unexpectedly in all
directions, with its towering heads, that shifted shape and
colour from every angle, and with each successive change of
weather. We could hardly leave unexplored the classical "Hippos
Mons," the Moslem's El-Ishárah ("the Landmark"), and the
Bullock's Horns of the prosaic British tar.[EN#16] The few vacant
days before the arrival of the Sinnár offered an excellent
opportunity for studying the Alpine ranges of maritime Midian.
Their stony heights, they said, contain wells and water in
abundance, with palms, remains of furnaces, and other
attractions. Every gun was brought into requisition, by tales of
leopard and ibex, the latter attaining the size of bullocks (!)
and occasionally finding their way to the fort:--it was curious
to hear our friends, who, as usual, were great upon "le shport,"
gravely debating whether it would be safe to fire upon le
léopard. I was anxious to collect specimens of botany and natural
history from an altitude hitherto unreached by any traveller in
Western Arabia; and, lastly, there was geography as well as
mineralogy to be done.

The Hydrographic Chart gives the Mountain a maximum of nine
thousand[EN#17] feet, evidently a clerical error often
repeated--really those Admiralty gentleman are too incurious:
Wellsted, who surveyed it, remarks (II. X.), "The height of the
most elevated peak was found to be 6500 feet, and it obtained
from us the appellation of ‘Mowilabh High Peak"'--when there are
native names for every head. We had been convinced that the
lesser is the true measure, by our view from the Hismá plateau,
3800 feet above sea-level. Again, the form, the size, and the
inclination of the noble massif are wrongly laid down by the
hydrographers. It is a compact block, everywhere rising abruptly
from low and sandy watercourses, and completely detached from its
neighbours by broad Wadys--the Surr to the north and east, while
southwards run the Kuwayd and the Zahakán. The huge long-oval
prism measures nineteen and a half by five miles (= ninety-seven
and a half square miles of area); and its lay is 320° (mag.),
thus deflected 40° westward of the magnetic north. The general
appearance, seen in profile from the west, is a Pentedactylon, a
central apex, with two others on each side, tossed, as it were,
to the north and south, and turning, like chiens de faïence,
their backs upon one another.

Moreover, the Chart assigns to its "Mount Mowilah" only two great
culminations--"Sharp Peak, 6330 feet," to the north; and south of
it, "High Peak, 9000." The surveyors doubtless found difficulty
in obtaining the Bedawi names for the several features, which are
unknown to the citizens of the coast; but they might easily have
consulted the only authorities, the Jeráfín-Huwaytát, who graze
their flocks and herds on and around the mountain. As usual in
Arabia, the four several main "horns" are called after the
Fiumaras that drain them. The northernmost is the Abú Gusayb
(Kusayb) or Ras el-Gusayb (the "Little Reed"), a unity composed
of a single block and of three knobs in a knot; the tallest of
the latter, especially when viewed from the south, resembles an
erect and reflexed thumb--hence our "Sharp Peak." Follows Umm
el-Furút (the "Mother of Plenty"), a mural crest, a quoin-shaped
wall, cliffing to the south: the face, perpendicular where it
looks seawards, bears a succession of scars, upright gashes, the
work of wind and weather; and the body which supports it is a
slope disposed at the natural angle. An innominatus, in the shape
of a similar quoin, is separated by a deep Col, apparently a
torrent-bed, from a huge Beco de Papagaio--the "Parrot's Bill" so
common in the Brazil. This is the Abú Shenázir or Shaykhánib (the
"Father of Columns"); and, as if two names did not suffice, it
has a third, Ras el-Huwayz ("of the Little Cistern"). It is our
"High Peak," the most remarkable feature of the sea-façade, even
when it conceals the pair of towering pillars that show
conspicuously to the north and south. From the beak-shaped apex
the range begins to decline and fall; there is little to notice
in the fourth horn, whose unimportant items, the Ras Lahyánah,
the Jebel Maí'h, and the Umm Gisr (Jisr), end the wall. Each has
its huge white Wady, striping the country in alternation with
dark-brown divides, and trending coastwards in the usual network.

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