Travels in Syria and the Holy Land Part 51

31. (4) The famous Beder [Arabic], where Mohammed laid the foundation of his power by his victory over his combined enemies. It contains upwards of five hundred houses, with a rivulet. The Egyptian pilgrim caravan generally meets here the Syrian.

32. (5) El Kaa [Arabic], a spot in the desert without any water. From thence a long march to

33. (6) El Akdyd [Arabic], which is twenty-eight hours distant from Beder.

34. (7) Rabagh [Arabic], a village. Between Rabagh and Khalysz, the Red sea is seen from the Hadj route. There are Wadys coming from the Red sea, which in times of high flood are filled with the sea water; it remains sometimes during the whole summer, at a distance of six and seven hours from the sea. The water brings with it a large quant.i.ty of fish. The camels and horses drink the water of these Wadys.

35. (8) Khalysz [Arabic], a village with a rivulet.

36. (9) El Szafan [Arabic], two wells.

37.(10) Wady Fatme [Arabic], a rivulet, with a village and gardens.

38. Mekke.

[FN#1] To the southward of Kerek all the women on the Hadj route wear the Egyptian face veil or Berkoa [Arabic], which is not a Syrian fashion.

[p.662] APPENDIX. No. IV.

Description of the Route from Boszra in the Haouran, to the Djebel Shammor.

ON the western side of the Djebel Haouran, at a small distance from its southern extremity, lies Boszra. On the eastern foot and declivity of Djebel Haouran, are upwards of two hundred villages built of black stone in ruins, at a quarter or half an hour?s distance from each other. The country beyond them is completely level and is called El Hammad [Arabic]. About five hours to the S. of the Djebel, lies the half ruined town of Szalkhat [Arabic]; it has a large castle, with strong walls, several cisterns and Birkets of rainwater. From that place begins the Wady Serhhan [Arabic], which runs to the E.S.E. It is a low ground, with sloping sides; at every three or four hours a well is met with in the Wady, with a little gra.s.s round it, but even in winter there is no running stream; though water is found in many places at a small depth below the surface of the earth. The traveller frequently pa.s.ses in that Wady small hills (Tels), which consist of thin layers of salt (about six inches thick), alternating with layers of earth of the same thickness.

The Arabs sell the salt in the villages of the Haouran. Following the course of that Wady, which at length takes a more southerly direction, you arrive, after ten or eleven days journey (with camels about eight days), in the country called Djof [Arabic]. The Tels about Djof are called Kara [Arabic]. The Djof is a collection of seven or eight villages, built at a distance of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour from each other, in an easterly line. The ground is pure sand. These villages are called Souk (or markets), the princ.i.p.al of them are: Souk Ain Um Salim [Arabic], Souk Eddourra [Arabic], Souk Esseideiin [Arabic], Souk Douma [Arabic], Souk Mared [Arabic]. These villages are all built alike: the houses are built round the inside of a large square mud wall, which has but one entrance. This wall therefore serves as a common back wall to all the houses, which amount in some of the Souks to one hundred and twenty, in others from eighty to one hundred. The middle part of the enclosed square is empty. The roofs of the houses are made of palm wood, and their walls of bricks, called Leben, dried in the sun, which are about two feet square, and one foot thick. When strangers arrive, their camels remain in the middle of the Souk, and they themselves lodge at the different houses. Round the Souk are gardens of palm trees, which the inhabitants call Houta [Arabic]: in several of these are deep [p.663] wells, the water from some of which is conducted by small ca.n.a.ls [Arabic] into the gardens of those, who not having any wells are obliged to purchase water from their neighbours. She camels are employed to draw the water out of the wells; this is done by tying a rope round the camel, which walks away from the well till the bucket, which is fastened to the other end of the rope, is drawn up, and empties its contents into the ca.n.a.ls. These she camels are called Sanie [Arabic]. Most of the inhabitants of the Djof are either petty merchants or artificers; they work in leather, wood, iron, and make boots, sword hilts, horse shoes, lance heads, &c. which they sell to the Arabs, together with the produce of their palm trees; in return they, take camels. They sow very little wheat; the small extent of ground which they cultivate is worked with the hand; for they have no ploughs. They eat very little bread, living upon dates, b.u.t.ter, and flesh meat. Besides the game which they hunt in the neighbourhood, they eat camels flesh almost daily, and they even devour the ostriches and wild dogs, the former of which are sold to them by the Arabs Sherarat. They preserve their dates in large earthen jars for the use of the great Arab tribes which often pa.s.s here; of these the Rowalla come almost every year: before the time of the Wahabi, the El Hessene and Beni Szakher likewise visited the Djof.

The Felahein of the Djof are called Karaune [Arabic], a name which in the neighbourhood of Damascus is given to all Syrians or those who are presumed to be of Syrian origin. Although Fellahs, the people of the Djof intermarry with Arab girls, whence it happens that many Arabs of Shammor and Serhan have settled here and become Fellahs; and they continue notwithstanding, to be looked upon in their respective tribes by the heads of families, as proper husbands for their daughters. The workmen or artificers [Arabic], on the contrary, never can marry Arab girls, nor even the daughters of the Fellahs, their immediate neighbours; they intermarry exclusively amongst themselves, or amongst the workmen who have settled in the Bedouin encampments.

Every Souk has a Sheikh or chief; the name of the present grand Sheikh is Ibn Deraa [Arabic]. It is about twenty years since they were converted to the Wahabi creed. Their grand Sheikh collects the tribute or Zika [Arabic], for Ibn Saoud, and lodges it in a particular house; after taking from it the necessary expense for entertaining strangers, or for provisions for Wahabi corps which pa.s.s by, he sends the remainder to Saoud. The people of the Djof are all armed with firelocks; they have no horses.

At Souk Mared is an ancient tower of remarkable structure. Its height, I was told, is greater than the Minaret near my lodgings at Damascus, which I should compute at about forty-five feet. Its basis is square, it rises in steps and ends in a point; I had already heard at Aleppo from some travelling Turks, that there were in the desert, towards Deraye, pyramids like those of Cairo; by which they probably meant the Souk Mared. The door of the tower is about ten feet high and eight broad; but it is half filled up. The Kasr gate of Salamia,[FN#2] which is of wood with iron bars, has been transported here by the Arabs to serve as a gate for the tower. [p.664] The inside is not paved. There are three floors, and staircases leading from one to the other. There are very small windows in the sides of the tower, which seem rather to have been destined for loop holes for musquetty. The walls of the tower are built of large square white stones, and are in good preservation. The two floors one over the other are not vaulted. On the top of the tower a watchman constantly resides, to give notice of the arrival of strangers.

To the E. and somewhat to the S. from Djof, three hours, begins the plain called Eddhahi or Taous [Arabic], a sandy desert full of small hills or Tels, from which it derives the name of [Arabic]. Although there is no water in the plain, a tree is very abundant which the Arabs call Ghada [Arabic], about eight feet high; the people of Djof burn it as fire wood. Near the trees grows in spring a kind of gra.s.s, which in summer soon dries up, it is called Na.s.sy [Arabic], and resembles wheat.

Wild cows [Arabic] are found here. My man told me that they resemble in every particular the domestic cow. The Arabs Sherarat kill them, eat them, and make of the leather targets, which are much esteemed [Arabic].

Of their horns the people of Djof make knife handles. Wild dogs, Derboun [Arabic], of a black colour, are likewise met with here; the Arabs kill and eat them. It is princ.i.p.ally in the Dhahy that ostriches breed, and great quant.i.ties of them are killed there. This desert is moreover inhabited by a large lizard called Dhab [Arabic], of one foot and a half in length with a tail of half a foot, exactly resembling in shape the common lizard, but larger. The Arabs eat them in defiance of the laws of their prophet; the scaly skin serves them instead of a goat skin to preserve their b.u.t.ter in. These Arabs likewise eat all the eagles [Arabic] and crows which they can kill. The plain of Eddhahi continues for three days camel?s march (with a caravan it would take six days), without any water, extending as far as the chain of mountains called Djebel Shammor [Arabic] which runs in an easterly direction five or six days journey. From where it ends to Deraye, the seat of Ibn Saoud, are ten days more. The Djebel Shammor is inhabited by the Arabs Shammor, many of whom have become Fellahs, and live in villages in these mountains. They are true and faithful Wahabis.

[FN#2] Salamia is a ruin eight or ten hours S.E. of Hamah.

[p.665] APPENDIX. No. V.

A Route to the eastward of the Castle El Ha.s.sa.

FROM Kalaat el Ha.s.sa, towards E.S.E. continues the already mentioned Wady el Ha.s.sa. Pa.s.sing the Tel Esshehak, two days journey from it, you meet with a great number of Tels, in the midst of which there is a well of good spring water called Byr Bair [Arabic]; near it is a tombstone, said to be the burial place of the son of Sultan Ha.s.san. From Bair eastwards the Wady and its vicinity are called the district of Hudrush [Arabic]; it is without water, with the exception of the rain water which collects in the low grounds. The Hudrush extends for two days, as far as the country called Ettebig [Arabic]. From the beginning of Hudrush the Wady makes a bend to the N. and describing a half circle, again returns in the Tebig to its original direction. To the N. from Hudrush and Tebig the plain takes the name of Szauan [Arabic], (i.e.

flint) and extends for two days till it borders upon the Wady Serhhan.

The plain Szauan is covered so thickly with small black flints, that the Arabs, whenever they are about to light a fire there, cover the ground with earth, which they carry with them, in order to prevent the splinters of the flint heated by the fire, from flying about and hurting them. There is but one spring in the Szauan: it is about two hours from Wady Serhhan, and at the same distance from Hudrush and Tebig, and is called Byr Naam el aatta Allah [Arabic], in honour of a Christian travelling merchant, who about sixty years ago lying upon the flint, heard the noise of the water under his head, and thus discovered the spring. On the western side of the Szauan, nearer to the Wady Serhhan than to the Hudrush, is a castle called Kaszr Amera [Arabic], and at a quarter of an hour from it, on the foot of a hill, the ruins of a village. Between the Kaszr and the village is a low ground where the rain water collects, and forms a small lake in winter half an hour in length. Before the castle is a well more than thirty feet deep, walled in by large stones, but without water. Over the well are four white marble columns, which support a vaulted roof or Kubbe, such as are often seen at wells in these countries. The castle is built of white square stones, which seem not to have been cemented together. Its dimensions are thirty-six or forty feet from W. to E. and twenty-five from S. to N.

The entrance door, which is only about three feet high, is on the S.

side, and leads into an apartment half the size of the whole building.

In the middle of the western wall of this apartment is another door, as low as the former, leading to a second apartment of the [p.666] same size as the former, except that one corner is part.i.tioned off to form a third chamber. Each of the two latter have a window in the western wall.

The roof of the apartments are vaulted below, and flat above. The walls which divide the apartments are two yards in thickness; in the two first rooms there is a stone pavement, in the small room the Arabs have taken up the pavement to dig for treasures; but they found nothing underneath, except small pieces of planks and some rusty iron. The ceiling of all the three apartments is chalked over, and looks quite new. In the small room it is painted all over with serpents, hares, gazelles, mares, and birds; there are neither human figures nor trees amongst the paintings.

The colour of the paintings is red, green, and yellow, and they look as bright and well preserved, as if they had been done a short time ago.

There are no kinds of niches, bas-reliefs, or inscriptions in the walls.

From Hudrush branches out a Wady towards Wady Serhhan, called Chadef [Arabic]. Four days beyond Tebig you arrive at a Byr called El Sheben or Szefan [Arabic], situated upon a small ascent. According to my informant the Byr is two hundred yards in depth. To the north of that well the desert is called Beseita [Arabic]. For two days farther the earth is covered to the depth of six inches with small black gray stones, looking like flints. The plant Samah [Arabic] grows there, which is collected by the people of Djof. From the end of the Beseita to the Djof is one day?s journey farther, and the Beseita ends in the Dhahi.

All the Arabs along this road from El Ha.s.sa, are Sherarat, the Aeneze do not come this way.

Between Tebig, Szauan, Hudrush, and to the S. of these places, are a quant.i.ty of wild a.s.ses, which the Arabs Sherarat hunt, and eat (secretly). Their skins and hoofs are sold to the wandering Christian pedlars, and in the towns of Syria. Of the hoofs rings are made, which the Fellahs of eastern Syria wear on the thumb, or tied with a thread round the arm-pit, to prevent, or to heal rheumatic complaints. I may here make a general remark that there is an infinity of names of places in the desert. Every Tel, every declivity, or, elevation in a Wady, every extent of plain ground, where a particular herb grows, has its name, well known to the Arabs. The Khabera [Arabic], or places where the rain-water collects, winter-time, are generally distinguished by the name of some well known Sheikh who once pitched his tent near them; as Khabera Ibn Ghebein [Arabic], the watering places of Ibn Ghebein.

The side of a Wady where the Arab descends is called by him Hadhera [Arabic], the opposite side, where he re-ascends Sende [Arabic].

A Ghadir [Arabic] is distinguished from a Wady, the two sides of the latter are hills which rise above the surface of the adjacent plain; the Ghadir on the contrary is only a hollow in the plain. The Wady is seen from afar, the Ghadir only on arriving near the descent.

[p.667]APPENDIX. No. VI.

Description of the Desert from the Neighbourhood of Damascus towards the Euphrates.

From the Wady Serhhan northward and north-eastward, the whole desert is called El Hammad [Arabic], till it reaches the neighbourhood of the Euphrates, where the broad valley of the river is by the Arabs called Oerak (Irak). That name therefore is not exclusively applied to the Djezire or island between the Tigris and the Euphrates, but (in the Bedouin acceptation of the word at least), to the fertile country also between the desert and the river?s right bank.

At the end of the Ghouta or Merdj of Damascus, begins the Djebel Haouran,[FN#3] which takes a south direction; to the north runs the Djebel Ruak (towards Tedmor). The intermediate plain, which is about a day and a half in breadth, is called Ard Esseikal [Arabic], having journied for two days in this plain, the mountains to the S. are no more visible, and a waterless plain lies before the traveller, which according to the camels strength may be crossed in seven, eight, or ten days. Water is met with on the road, only in winter, when rainwater collects in the low grounds, and Ghadirs. There are no hills or Wadys.

Small pipe heads, in the eastern fashion, and made of stone, are frequently found in the plain. The Arabs say that an ancient tribe called Beni Tamour [Arabic] fabricated them. At the end of the number of days above-mentioned, a high insulated hill is met with, which is visible all round to the distance of two days journey. The Arabs call it [p.668] Djebel Laha [Arabic]. It consists of sandy earth: there are no springs near it. From the Djebel Laha run two Wadys towards the Euphrates, the one called Wady Haouran [Arabic], begins on the hill?s western side; the other Wady Tebbel [Arabic], on its northern side. They run in a parallel direction, till they unite in the vicinity of the Euphrates. To the N.W. of the Laha, at one day?s march, is another Wady, called Souan [Arabic], which takes the same direction with the other two, and joins them, near their termination. In the middle of the Wady Tebbel is spring water. To the E. of Laha, about three days from it, is a low ground called Kaar [Arabic] (the general name given to such places), which is four or five days in circuit. It extends towards the Euphrates. The descent into it is two hundred or two hundred and fifty yards. There are two watering places in it, at a good day?s march from each other; Rahh [Arabic], with a number of springs, and Mola.s.sa [Arabic]. There is always some verdure in the Kaar, and when the Aeneze pa.s.s that way, the whole tribe encamps there. From Mola.s.s it is one day?s journey to Gebesse, a poor village in a N.E. direction, from thence to Hit one. Hit, or Ith, is a well known station and village on the banks of the Euphrates.

The Djebel Ruak and the Djebel Abiad (which comes from the west) are united behind Tedmor with the Djebel Belaes [Arabic] which continues its course in a northerly direction, (somewhat to the E.) for two days.

There is water in the Belaes but no villages. This mountain at the end of two days changes its name to Djebel Bishr [Arabic], and terminates after one day?s journey in the Zor [Arabic], which is the name of the broad valley of the Euphrates, on its right bank, from Byr down to Aene and Hit. There are sources in the Bishr, and ruins of villages. It produces also a tree which is about eight feet high, and whose root has so little hold, that the smallest effort will throw it down.

London: Printed by W. Bulmer and W. Nicol, Cleveland-row, St. James?s.

[FN#3] This northern part of the Djebel Haouran is called Es-Szaffa [Arabic]. On the eastern side of it is a pa.s.s called Bab es-Szaffa, where the mountain is entered by a deep clet in the perpendicular rock, about two yards broad. The pa.s.sage is about one hundred yards long, it leads to a plain in the middle of the mountain, also called Szaffa, which has no other known entrance, and is two days in circuit. This pa.s.s and plain are famed among the Arabs, who often retire there, before the troops of the Pasha of Damascus. There is no water in the Szaffa, except the ponds formed by the winter-rains. The earth is fertile and is occasionally sown by he Arabs when they remain there a sufficient time.