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The Land of Midian, Vol. 2

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




The material of the four crests is the normal grey granite,
enormous lumps and masses rounded by degradation; all chasms and
naked columns, with here and there a sheet burnished by ancient
cataracts, and a slide trickling with water, unseen in the shade
and flashing in the sun like a sheet of crystal. The granite,
however, is a mere mask or excrescence, being everywhere based
upon and backed by the green and red plutonic traps which have
enveloped it. And the prism has no easy inland slopes, as a first
glance suggests; instead of being the sea-wall of a great
plateau, it falls abruptly to the east as well as to the west.
The country behind it shows a perspective of high and low hills,
lines of dark rock divided from one another by Wadys of the usual
exaggerated size. Of these minor heights only one, the Jebel
el-Sahhárah looks down upon the sea, rising between the
Dibbagh-Kh'shabríyyah block to the north, and the Shárr to the
south. Beyond the broken eastern ground, the ruddy Hismá and the
gloomy Harrah form the fitting horizon.

After this much for geography, we may view the monarch of
Midianite mountains in the beauty and the majesty of his
picturesque form. Seen from El-Muwaylah, he is equally
magnificent in the flush of morning, in the still of noon, and in
the evening glow. As the rays, which suggested the obelisk, are
shooting over the southern crests, leaving the basement blue with
a tint between the amethyst and the lapis lazuli, its northern
third lies wrapped in a cloak of cold azure grey, and its central
length already dons a half-light of warmer hue. Meanwhile, the
side next the sun is flooded with an aerial aureole of subtle
mist, a drift of liquid gold, a gush of living light, rippling
from the unrisen orb, decreasing in warmth and brilliancy, paling
and fading and waxing faint with infinite gradations proportioned
to the increase of distance. Again, after the clear brooding
sheen of day has set off the "stark strength and grandeur of
rock-form contrasted with the brilliancy and sprightliness of
sea," the sinking sun paints the scene with the most gorgeous of
blazonings. The colours of the pale rock-skeleton are so faint
that there is nothing to interfere with the perfect development
of atmospheric effects: it is a white sheet spread to catch the
grand illumination, lambent lights of saffron and peach-blossom
and shades of purple and hyacinth. As indescribably lovely is the
after-glow, the zodiacal light which may have originated the
pyramid; the lively pink reflection from the upper atmosphere;
the vast variety of tints with which the greens and the reds, the
purples and the fiery crimsons of the western sky tincture the
receptive surface of the neutral-hued granites; and the
chameleon-shiftings of the dying day, as it sinks into the arms
of night. Nor less admirable are the feats of the fairy
Refraction. The mighty curtain seems to rise and fall as if by
magic: it imitates, as it were, the framework of man. In early
morning the dancing of the air adds many a hundred cubits to its
apparent stature: it is now a giant, when at midnight, after the
equipoise of atmospheric currents, it becomes a dwarf replica of
its former self.

* * * * * *

I had neglected to order overnight the camels from El-Muwaylah, a
penny-wise proceeding which delayed our departure. It was nearly
nine a.m. (March 13th) before we left the Mukhbir, whose
unhappies still sighed and yearned for the civilization and
dissipation of Suez; landed at the head of the Sharm Yáhárr, and
marched up the Wady Hárr. We were guided by two Jeráfín, Sulayman
ibn Musallim and Farj ibn ‘Awayz; the former a model hill-man, a
sturdy, thick-legged, huge-calved, gruff-voiced, full-bearded
fellow, hot-tempered, good-humoured, and renowned as an
ibex-hunter. His gun, marked "Lazari Coitinaz," was a
long-barrelled Spanish musket, degraded to a matchlock: it had
often changed hands, probably by theft, and the present owner
declared that he had bought it for seventy dollars--nearly £15!
Yet its only luxury was the bottom of a breechloader brass
cartridge, inlaid and flanked by the sharp incisors of the little
Wabar, or mountain coney. These Bedawin make gunpowder for
themselves; they find saltpetre in every cavern, and they buy
from Egypt the sulphur which is found in their own hills.

After a few minutes we left the Hárr, which drains the tallest of
the inland hillock-ranges, and the red block "Hamrá el-Maysarah;"
and we struck south-east into the Wady Sanawíyyah. It is a vulgar
valley with a novelty, the Tamrat Faraj. This cairn of
brick-coloured boulders buttressing the right bank has, or is
said to have, the Memnonic property of emitting sounds--Yarinn is
the Bedawi word. The boomings and bellowings are said to be
loudest at sunrise and sunset. The "hideous hum" of such
subterraneous thunderings is alluded to by all travellers in the
Dalmatian Island of Melada, and in the Narenta Valley. The marvel
has been accounted for by the escape of imprisoned air unequally
expanded, but "a veil of mystery hangs over the whole."[EN#18]
The valley-sides of dark trap were striped with white veins of
heat-altered argil; the sole with black magnetic sand; and
patches of the bed were buttercup-yellow with the Handán
(dandelion), the Cytisus, and the Zaram (Panicum turgidum) loved
by camels. Their jaundiced hue contrasted vividly with the red
and mauve blossoms of the boragine El-Kahlá, the blue flowerets
of the Lavandula (El-Zayti), and the delicate green of the
useless[EN#19] asphodel (El-Borag), which now gave a faint and
shadowy aspect of verdure to the slopes. Although the rise was
inconsiderable, the importance of the vegetation palpably
decreased as we advanced inland.

After four miles we reached the Wady-head, and wasted a couple of
hours awaiting the camels that carried our supplies. The path
then struck over a stony divide, with the Hamrá to the left or
north, and on the other side the Hamrá el-Mu'arrash, made
familiar to us by our last march. The latter ends in an isolated
peak, the Jebel Gharghúr, which, on our return, was mistaken for
the sulphur-hill of Jibbah. Presently we renewed acquaintance
with the Wady el-Bayzá, whose lower course we had crossed south
of Sharm Yáhárr: here it is a long and broad, white and
tree-dotted expanse, glaring withal, and subtending all this
section of the Shárr's sea-facing base. We reached, after a total
of eight miles, the Jibál el-Kawáim, or "the Perpendiculars," one
of the features which the Bedawin picturesquely call the Aulád
el-Shárr ("Sons of the Sha'rr"). The three heads, projected
westwards from the Umm Furút peak and then trending northwards,
form a lateral valley, a bay known as Wady el-Káimah. It is a
picturesque feature with its dark sands and red grit, while the
profile of No. 3 head, the Káimat Abú Rákí, shows a snub-nosed
face in a judicial wig, the trees forming an apology for a beard.
I thought of "Buzfuz Bovill."

We camped early, as the Safh el-Shárr (the "Plain of the Shárr")
and the lateral valley were found strewed with quartzes, white,
pink, and deep slate-blue. The guides had accidentally mentioned
a "Jebel el-Marú," and I determined to visit it next morning. The
night was warm and still. The radiation of heat from the huge
rock-range explained the absence of cold, so remarkable during
all this excursion--hence the African traveller ever avoids
camping near bare stones. Dew, however, wetted our boxes like
thin rain: the meteor, remarked for the first time on March 13th,
will last, they say, three months, and will greatly forward
vegetation. It seems to be uncertain, or rather to be influenced
by conditions which we had no opportunity of studying: at times
it would be exceptionally heavy, and in other places it was
entirely absent. Before evening new contract-boots, bought from
the Mukhbir, were distributed to the soldiers and all the
quarrymen, who limped painfully on their poor bare feet:--next
day all wore their well-hidden old boots.

Early on March 14th we ascended the Wady el-Káimah, which showed
a singular spectacle, and read us another lecture upon the
diversity of formation which distinguishes this region. An abrupt
turn then led over rough ground, the lower folds of the Umm
Furút, where a great granite gorge, the Nakb Abú Shár, ran up to
a depression in the dorsum, an apparently practicable Col.
Suddenly the rocks assumed the quaintest hues and forms. The
quartz, slaty-blue and black, was here spotted and streaked with
a dull, dead white, as though stained by the droppings of myriad
birds: there it lay veined and marbled with the most vivid of
rainbow colours-- reds and purples, greens and yellows, set off
by the pale chalky white. Evident signs of work were remarked in
a made road running up to the Jebel el-Marú (proper), whose
strike is 38° (mag.), and whose dip is westward. It is an arête,
a cock's-comb of snowy quartz some sixty feet high by forty-five
broad at the base; crowning a granitic fold that descends
abruptly, with a deep fall on either side, from the "Mother of
Plenty." This strangely isolated wall, left standing by the
denudation that swept away the containing stone, had been broken
by perpendicular rifts into four distinct sections; the colour
became whiter as it neared the coping, and each rock was crowned
with a capping that sparkled like silver in the sudden glance of
the "cloud-compelling" sun. The sight delighted us; and M. Lacaze
here made one of his most effective croquis, showing the
explorers reduced to the size of ants. As yet we had seen nothing
of the kind; nor shall we see a similar vein till we reach
Abú'l-Marwah, near our farthest southern point. I expected a
corresponding formation upon the opposite eastern versant: we
found only a huge crest, a spine of black plutonic rock,
intensely ugly and repulsive. As we rode back down the "Valley of
the Perpendiculars," the aspect of the Jebel el-Marú was
épâtant--to use another favourite camp-word. Standing sharply out
from its vague and gloomy background made gloomier by the morning
mists, the Col, whose steep rain-cut slopes and sole were
scattered with dark trees and darker rocks, this glittering wall
became the shell of an enchanted castle in Gustave Doré.

Returning to our old camping-ground after a ride of three hours
and thirty minutes (= nine miles), we crossed two short divides,
and descended the Wady el-Kusayb, which gives a name to "Sharp
Peak." Here a few formless stone-heaps and straggling bushes
represented the ruins, the gardens of palms, and the bullrushes
of the Bedawi shepherd lads.[EN#20] Our tents had been pitched in
the rond-point of the Wady Surr, which before had given us
hospitality (February 19th), on a Safh or high bouldery ledge of
the left bank, where it receives the broad Kusayb watercourse.
The day had been sultry; the sun was a "rain sun," while the
clouds massed thick to the south-west; and at night the lamps of
heaven shone with a reddish, lurid light. The tent-pegs were
weighted with camel-boxes against the storm; nevertheless, our
mess-tent was levelled in a moment by the howling
north-easter--warm withal--which, setting in about midnight, made
all things uncomfortable enough.

Whilst the caravan was ordered to march straight up the noble
Wady Surr, we set off next morning at six a.m. up the Wady Malíh,
the north-eastern branch of the bulge in the bed. A few Arab
tents were scattered about the bushes above the mouth; and among
the yelping curs was a smoky-faced tyke which might have been
Eskimo-bred:--hereabouts poor ‘Brahim had been lost, and was not
fated to be found. A cross-country climb led to the Jebel Malíh,
whose fame for metallic wealth gave us the smallest
expectations--hitherto all our discoveries came by surprise. A
careful examination showed nothing at all; but a few days
afterwards glorious specimens of cast copper were brought in, the
Bedawi declaring that he had found them amongst the adjoining
hills. In the re-entering angles of the subjacent Wady the thrust
of a stick is everywhere followed by the reappearance of
stored-up rain, and the sole shows a large puddle of brackish and
polluted water. Perhaps the Malayh of the Bedawin may mean "the
salt" (Málih), not "the pleasant" (Malíh). Malíh, or Mallih, is
also the name of a plant, the Reaumuria vernice of Forskâl.

Resuming our ride up the torrent-bed, and crossing to the Wady
Daumah (of the "Single Daum-palm"), we dragged our mules down a
ladder of rock and boulder, the left bank of the upper Surr. The
great valley now defines, sharply as a knife-cut, the
northernmost outlines of the Shárr, whose apex, El-Kusayb,
towered above our heads. Thorn-trees are abundant; fan-palm bush
grows in patches; and we came upon what looked like a flowing
stream ruffled by the morning breeze: the guides declared that it
is a rain-pool, dry as a bone in summer. Presently the rocky bed
made a sharp turn; and its "Gate," opened upon another widening,
the meeting place of four Wadys, the northern being the Wady
Zibayyib that drains ruddy Abá‘l-bárid.

After a short halt to examine the rude ruins reported by Mr.
Clarke,[EN#21] we resumed the ascent of the Surr, whose left bank
still defines the eastern edge of the Shárr. The latter presently
puts forth the jagged spine of black and repulsive plutonic rock,
which notes the Sha'b Makhúl, the corresponding versant of the
Nakb Abú Sha'r. The Bedawin, who, as usual, luxuriate in
nomenclature, distinguish between the eastern and western faces
of the same block, and between the Wadys of the scarp and the
counter-scarp. For instance, the eastern front of the Ras
el-Kusayb is called Abú Kurayg (Kurayj). This is natural, as the
formations, often of a different material, show completely
different features.

A little further on, the continuity of the right bank is broken
by the Wady el-Hámah. It receives the Wady Kh'shabríyyah, which,
bifurcating in the upper bed, drains the Dibbagh and the Umm
Jedayl blocks; and in the fork lie, we were told, the ruins of
El-Fara', some five hours' march from this section of the Surr.
At the confluence of El-Hámah we found the camels grazing and the
tents pitched without orders: the two Shaykhs were determined to
waste another day, so they were directed to reload while we
breakfasted. Everything was in favour of a long march; the dusty,
gusty north-easter had blown itself out in favour of a pleasant
southerly wind, a sea breeze deflected from the west.

After marching three miles we camped at the foot of the ridge to
be ascended next morning: the place is called Safhat el-Mu'ayrah
from a slaty schistose hill on the eastern bank. The guides
declared that the only practicable line to the summit was from
this place; and that the Sha'bs (Cols) generally cannot be
climbed even by the Arabs--I have reason to believe the reverse.
Musallim, an old Bedawi, brought, amongst other specimens from
the adjacent atelier, the Mashghal el-Mu'ayrah, a bright bead
about the size of No. 5 shot: in the evening dusk it was taken
for gold, and it already aroused debates concerning the proper
direction of the promised reward, fifty dollars. The morning
light showed fine copper. Here free metal was distinctly
traceable in the scoriæ, and it was the first time that we had
seen slag so carelessly worked. Not a little merriment was caused
by the ostentatious display of "gold-stones," marked by M.
Philipin's copper-nailed boots. Sulaymán, the Bedawi, had killed
a Wabar, whose sadly mutilated form appeared to be that of the
Syrian hill coney: these men split the bullet into four; "pot" at
the shortest distance, and, of course, blow to pieces any small
game they may happen to hit.

Early on March 16th we attacked the Shárr in a general direction
from north to south, where the ascent looked easy enough. On the
left bank a porphyritic block, up whose side a mule can be
ridden, is disposed in a slope of the palest and most languid of
greens, broken by piles of black rock so regular as to appear
artificial. This step leads to a horizontal crest, a broken wall
forming its summit: it is evidently an outlier; and experience
asked, What will be behind it? The more distant plane showed only
the heads of the Shenázir or "Pins," the two quaint columns which
are visible as far as the Shárr itself. This lower block is
bounded, north and south, by gorges; fissures that date from the
birth of the mountain, deepened by age and raging torrents:
apparently they offered no passage. In the former direction yawns
the Rushúh Abú Tinázib, so called from its growth--the
Tanzub-tree[EN#22] (Sodada decidua); and in the latter the Sháb
Umm Khárgah (Khárjah). I should have preferred a likely looking
Nakb, south of this southern gorge, but the Bedawin, and
especially Abú Khartúm, who had fed his camels and sheep upon the
mountain, overruled me.

The ascent of the outlier occupied three very slow hours, spent
mostly in prospecting and collecting. At nine a.m. we stood 3200
feet above sea-level (aner. 26.79), high enough to make our tents
look like bits of white macadam. What most struck us was the
increased importance of the vegetation, both in quantity and
quality; the result, doubtless, of more abundant dew and rain, as
well as of shade from each passing mist-cloud. The view formed a
startling contrast of fertility and barrenness. At every hundred
yards the growths of the plain became more luxuriant in the rich
humus filling the fissures, and, contrary to the general rule,
the plants, especially the sorrel (Rumex) and the dandelion
(Taraxacum), instead of dwindling, gained in stature. The
strong-smelling Ferula looked like a bush, and the Sarh grew into
a tree: the Ar'ar,[EN#23] a homely hawthorn (hawthorn-leaved
Rhus), whose appearance was a surprise, equalled the Cratœgus of
Syria; and the upper heights must have been a forest of fine
junipers (Habíbah = Juniperus Phœnicea), with trunks thick as a
man's body. The guides spoke of wild figs, but we failed to find
them. Our chasseurs, who had their guns, eagerly conned over the
traces of ibex and hyenas, and the earths, as well as the large
round footprints, of un léopard; but none of the larger animals
were seen. The Bedawi matchlock has made them wary; chance might
give a shot the first day: on the other hand, skill might be
baffled for a month or two--I passed six weeks upon the
Anti-Libanus before seeing a bear. The noble Shinnár-partridge
again appeared; an eagle's feather lay on the ground; two white
papillons and one yellow butterfly reminded me of the Camarones
Mountain; the wild bee and the ladybird-like Ba'úzah stuck to us
as though they loved us; and we were pestered by the attentions
of the common fly. The Egyptian symbol for "Paul Pry" is supposed
to denote an abundance of organic matter: it musters strong
throughout Midian, even in the dreariest wastes; and it
accompanies us everywhere, whole swarms riding upon our backs.

The only semblance of climbing was over the crest of brown,
burnished, and quartzless traps. Even there the hands were hardly
required, although our poor feet regretted the want of
Spartelles.[EN#24] Here the track debouched upon an inverted
arch, with a hill, or rather a tall and knobby outcrop of rock,
on either flank of the keystone. The inland or eastward view was
a map of the region over which we had travelled; a panorama of
little chains mostly running parallel with the great range, and
separated from it by Wadys, lateral, oblique, and perpendicular.
Of these torrent-beds some were yellow, others pink, and others
faint sickly green with decomposed trap; whilst all bore a fair
growth of thorn-trees--Acacias and Mimosas. High over and beyond
the monarch of the Shafah Mountains, Jebel Sahhárah, whose blue
poll shows far out at sea, ran the red levels of the Hismá,
backed at a greater elevation by the black-blue Harrah. The whole
Tihámah range, now so familiar to us, assumed a novel expression.
The staple material proved to be blocks and crests of granite,
protruding from the younger plutonics, which enfolded and
enveloped their bases and backs. The one exception was the dwarf
Umm Jedayl, a heap composed only of grey granite. The Jebel
Kh'shabríyyah in the Dibbagh block attracted every eye; the head
was supported by a neck swathed as with an old-fashioned cravat.

The summit of the outlier is tolerably level, and here the
shepherds had built small hollow piles of dry stone, in which
their newly yeaned lambs are sheltered from the rude blasts. The
view westwards, or towards the sea, which is not seen, almost
justifies by its peculiarity the wild traditions of built wells,
of a "moaning mountain," and of furnaces upon the loftiest
slopes: it is notable that the higher we went, the less we heard
of these features, which at last vanished into thin air. Our
platform is, as I suspected, cut off from the higher plane by a
dividing gorge; but the depth is only three hundred feet, and to
the south it is bridged by a connecting ridge. Beyond it rises
the great mask of granite forming the apex, a bonier skeleton
than any before seen. Down the northern sheet-rocks trickled a
thin stream that caught the sun's eye; thus the ravine is well
supplied with water in two places. South of it rises a tempting
Col, with a slope apparently easy, separating a dull mass of
granite on the right from the peculiar formation to the left. The
latter is a dome of smooth, polished, and slippery grey granite,
evidently unpleasant climbing; and from its landward slope rise
abrupt, as if hand-built, two isolated gigantic "Pins," which can
hardly measure less than four hundred feet in stature. They are
the remains of a sharp granitic comb whose apex was once the
"Parrot's Beak." The mass, formerly mammilated, has been broken
and denticulated by the destruction of softer strata. Already the
lower crest, bounding the Sha'b Umm Khárgah, shows perpendicular
fissures which, when these huge columns shall be gnawed away by
the tooth of Time, will form a new range of pillars for the
benefit of those ascending the Shárr, let us say in about A.D.
10,000. Such are the "Pins" which name the mountain; and which,
concealed from the coast, make so curious a show to the north,
south, and east of this petrified glacier.

After breaking their fast, M.M. Clarke, Lacaze, and Philipin
volunteered to climb the tempting Col. None of them had ever
ascended a mountain, and they duly despised the obstacles offered
by big rocks distance-dwarfed to paving-stones; and of sharp
angles, especially the upper, perspective-blunted to easy slopes.
However, all three did exceeding well: for such a "forlorn hope"
young recruits are better than old soldiers. They set out at
eleven a.m., and lost no time in falling asunder; whilst the
quarrymen, who accompanied them with the water-skins, shirked
work as usual, lagged behind, sat and slept in some snug hollow,
and returned, when dead-tired of slumber, declaring that they had
missed the "Effendis."

M. Philipin took singly the sloping side of the connecting ridge;
and, turning to the right, made straight for the "Pins," below
which was spread a fleck of lean and languid green. The ascent
was comparatively mild, except where it became a sheet of smooth
and slippery granite; but when he reached a clump of large
junipers, his course was arrested by a bergschrund, which divides
this block--evidently a second outlier--from the apex of the
Shárr, the "Dome" and the "Parrot's Beak." It was vain to attempt
a passage of the deep gash, with perpendicular upper walls, and
lower slopes overgrown with vegetation; nor could he advance to
the right and rejoin his companions, who were parted from him by
the precipices on the near side of the Col. Consequently, he beat
a retreat, and returned to us at 2.30 p.m., after three hours and
thirty minutes of exceedingly thirsty work: the air felt brisk
and cool, but the sun shone pitilessly, unveiled by the smallest
scrap of mist. He brought with him an ibex-horn still stained
with blood, and a branch of juniper, straight enough to make an
excellent walking-stick.

The other two struck across the valley, and at once breasted the
couloir leading to the Col, where we had them well in sight. They
found the ascent much "harder on the collar" than they expected:
fortunately the sole of the huge gutter yielded a trickle of
water. The upper part was, to their naive surprise, mere climbing
on all fours; and they reached the summit, visible from our
halting-place, in two hours. Here they also were summarily
stopped by perpendicular rocks on either side, and by the deep
gorge or crevasse, shedding seawards and landwards, upon whose
further side rose the "Parrot's Beak." The time employed would
give about two thousand feet, not including the ascent from the
valley (three hundred feet); and thus their highest point could
hardly be less than 5200 feet. Allowing another thousand for the
apex, which they could not reach,[EN#25] the altitude of the
Shárr would be between 6000 and 6500 feet.

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