The Land of Midian (Revisited) Volume I Part 17

b.u.t.tressing the left bank of the broad watercourse was the dwarf hill of which we had been told so many tales. By day its red sands gleam and glisten like burnished copper; during the night fire flashes from the summit: in truth, its sole peculiarity is that of being yellow amongst the gloomy heights around it; whilst the Wady el-Safra, higher up to the left, discharges from its Jebel a torrent of quartz and syenite, gravel and sand. Abu Khartam, the author of the romance, was among the party: he only smiled when complimented upon the power of his imagination.

This was a day of excitement: even the mules kept their ears p.r.i.c.ked up. After a short nine miles we had camped below the Jebel Kibar, and we had remounted our animals to ascend a neighbouring hill commanding a bird's-eye view of the Hisma plain. There was evidently much excitement amongst the Bedawi shepherds around us; and presently Ahmed el-?Ukbi, our messenger, appeared in sight, officially heading the five chiefs of the Ma'azah, who were followed by a tail of some thirty clansmen.

Only two rode horses, wretched garrons stolen from the Ruwala, the great branch of the Anezah, which holds the eastern regions; the rest rode fine st.u.r.dy and long-coated camels, which looked Syrian rather than Midianite.[EN#154] We returned hurriedly to make arrangements for the reception: our Shaykhs could not, without derogating, go forth to meet the strangers; but the latter were saluted with due ceremony by the bugler and the escort, drawn up in line before the mess-tent.

After the usual half-hour's delay, the "palaver," to speak Africanice, "came up," and M. Lacaze had a good opportunity of privily sketching the scene. The Shaykh, Mohammed bin ?Atiyyah, who boasts (falsely) that he commands more than half the two thousand males composing the tribe, is a tall, sinewy man of about fifty, straight-featured, full-bearded, and gruff-voiced: his official style of speaking from the throat, a kind of vaccine low, imitated in camp for many a day, never failed to cause merriment. His costume rose to the height of Desert-fas.h.i.+on, described when pourtraying Shaykh Khizr the ?Imrani; his manners were those of a gentleman below the Pa.s.s, and above it he became an unmitigated ruffian, who merited his soubriquet El-Kalb ("the Hound"). On one side sat his son Salim, a large, beardless lad, who had begun work by presenting us with a sheep--Giorgi (cook) said it cost us 40. On the other was his eldest brother and alter ego: the wrinkled Sagr (Sakr) has been a resident at Cairo, and still boasts that he received the "tribute" of a horse from the Viceroy, whom he affects to treat as an equal or rather an inferior. The others were old Sagr's ill-visaged son Ali, and, lastly, a cunning-eyed villain, ?Abayd bin Salim, the rightful heir to the chieftains.h.i.+p, which, however, he had been unable to keep. All the Shaykhs were dressed in brand-new garments and glaring glossy Kufiyahs ("head-kerchiefs"); they trade chiefly with Mezarib in the Hauran; and, during the annual pa.s.sage to and fro of the Damascus caravan, they await it at Tabuk, and threaten to cut off the road unless liberally propitiated with presents of raiment and rations. The Muratibah (honorarium) contributed by El-Sham would be about one hundred dollars in ready money to the headman, diminis.h.i.+ng with degree to one dollar per annum: this would not include "free gifts" by pilgrims. The Ma'azah are under Syria, that is, under no rule at all; and they are supposed to be tributary to, when in reality they demand tribute from, the Porte. In fact, nothing can be more p.r.o.nounced than the contrast of the Bedawin who are subject to Egypt, and those supposed to be governed by the wretched Ottoman.

During the palaver all outside was sweet as honey, to use the Arab phrase, and bitter as gall inside. The Ma'azah, many of whom now saw Europeans for the first time, eyed the barneta (hat) curiously, with a certain facial movement which meant, "This is the first time we have let Christian dogs into our land!" They were minute in observing the escort, and not a little astonished to find that all were negroes--in the old day Egyptian soldiers, under the great Mohammed Ali Pasha and his stepson, Ibrahim Pasha, had made themselves a terror to the Wild Man. "What had now become of them?" was the mental question. When asked whence they had procured the two horses, they answered curtly, Min Rabbina--"From our Lord," thus signifying stolen goods; and, like mediaeval knights, they took a pride in avowing that not one of their number could read or write. Finally a tent was a.s.signed to them; food was ordered, and they promised us escort to their dens on the morrow.

During the raw and gusty night the mercury sank to 38 F., the aneroid (26.91) showing about three thousand feet above sea-level; and blazing fires kept up within and without the tents, hardly sufficed for comfort. On the morning of February 24th

"Over the wold the wind blew cold;"

and the Egyptian officers all donned their gloves. The early hours were spent in a last struggle with our Shaykhs, who now felt themselves and their camels hopelessly entering the lion's lair. The sole available pretext for delay was that their animals could never carry the boxes and tents up the Pa.s.s; but, though very ugly reports prevailed concerning the reception of Ahmed el-?Ukbi, and the observations that had been made last night, not a word was suffered to reach my ears until our retreat had been resolved upon. Such concealment would have been inexcusable in a European; in the East it is the rule.

At 7.15 a.m. we struck the camp at Jebel Kibar, and moved due eastward towards the Pa.s.s. This north-eastern Khuraytah (Col) is termed the Khuraytat el-Hisma or el-Jils, after a hillock on the plateau-summit, to distinguish it from the similar feature to the south-west: the latter is known as the Khuraytat el-Ziba; or el-T h m , the local p.r.o.nunciation of Tihamah. About two miles of rough and broken ground lead to the foot of the ladder. The zigzags then follow the line of a mountain torrent, the natural Pa.s.s, crossing its bed from left to right and from right again to left: the path is the rudest of corniches, worn by the feet of man and beast; and showing some ugly abrupt turns. The absolute height of the ascent is about 450 feet (aner. 26.70--26.25) and the length half a mile. The ground, composed mostly of irregular rock-steps, has little difficulty for horses and mules; but camels laden with boards (the mess-table) and long tent-poles must have had a queer time--I should almost expect after this to see an oyster walking up stairs. Of course, they took their leisure, feeling each stone before they trusted it, but they all arrived without the shadow of an accident; and the same was the case during the two subsequent descents.

We halted on the Sath el-Nakb ("the Pa.s.stop") to expect the caravan, and to prospect the surrounding novelties. Heaps and piles of dark trap dotted the summit like old graves; many of the stones were inscribed with tribal marks, and not a few were capped with snowy lumps of quartz detached from their veins in the porphyry. This custom, which appears universal throughout Midian, has many interpretations. According to some it denotes the terminus of a successful raid; others make it show where a dispute was settled without bloodshed; whilst as a rule it is an expression of grat.i.tude: the Bedawi erects it in honour of the man who protected or who did a service to him, saying at the same time, Abyaz ?alayk ya Fula'n--"White (or happy) be it to thee!"

naming the person. Amongst these votive stones we picked up copper-stained quartz like that of ?Aynunah, fine specimens of iron, and the dove-coloured serpentine, with silvery threads, so plentiful in the Wady Surr. The Wasm in most cases showed some form of a cross, which is held to be a potent charm by the Sinaitic Bedawin; and on two detached water-rolled pebbles were distinctly inscribed lH and Vl, which looked exceedingly like Europe. Apparently the custom is dying out: the modern Midianites have forgotten the art and mystery of tribal signs (Wusum). In many places the people cannot distinguish between inscriptions and "Bill Snooks his mark," and they can interpret very few of the latter.

Looking westward through the inverted arch formed by the two hill-staples of the Khuraytah, and down the long valley which had given us pa.s.sage, the eye distinguishes a dozen distances whose several planes are marked by all the shades of colour that the most varied vegetation can show. There are black-browns, chocolate-browns, and light umber-browns; bright-reds and dull-reds; gra.s.s-greens and cypress-greens; neutral tints and French greys contrasting with the rosy pinks, the azures, the purples, and the golden yellows with which distance paints the horizon. From a few feet above the Col-floor appear the eastern faces of the giants of the coast-range; and our alt.i.tude, some 3800 feet, gave us to a certain extent a measure of their grand proportions.

We now stand upon the westernmost edge of the great central Arabian plateau, known as El-Nejd ("the Highlands"), opposed to El-Tihamah, the lowland regions. In Africa we should call it the "true" subtending the "false" coast; delightful Dahome compared with leprous Lagos. This upland, running parallel with the "Lip"-range and with the maritime Ghats, is the far-famed Hisma.

It probably represents a remnant of the old terrace which, like the Secondary gypseous formation, has been torn to pieces by the volcanic region to the east, and by the plutonic upheavals to the west. The length may be 170 miles; the northern limit is either close to or a little south of Fort Ma'an; and we shall see its southern terminus sharply defined on a parallel with the central Sharr, not including "El-Jaww."[EN#155] An inaccessible fortress to the south, it is approached on the south-west by difficult pa.s.ses, easily defended against man and beast. Further north, however, the Wadys ?Afal near El-Sharaf, El-Hakl (Hagul), and El-Yitm at El-?Akabah, are easy lines without Wa'r ("stony ground") or Nakb ("ravines").

The Hisma material is a loose modern sandstone, showing every hue between blood-red, rose pink, and dead, dull white: again and again fragments had been pointed out to us near the coast, in ruined buildings and in the remains of handmills and rub-stones.

Possibly the true coal-measures may underlie it, especially if the rocks east of Petra be, as some travellers state, a region of the Old, not the New Red. According to my informants, the Hisma has no hills of quartz, a rock which appears everywhere except here; nor should I expect the region to be metalliferous.

We ascended the Jebel el-Khuraytah, a trap hillock some 120 feet high, the southern jamb of the Khuraytah gate: the summit, where stands a ruined Burj measuring fourteen metres in diameter, gives a striking and suggestive view. After hard dry living on grisly mountain and unlovely Wady, this fine open plain, slightly concave in the centre, was a delightful change of diet to the eye--the first enjoyable sensation of the kind, since we had gazed lovingly upon the broad bosom of the Wady el-?Arabah. The general appearance is that of Eastern Syria, especially the Hauran: at the present season all is a sheet of pinkish red, which in later March will turn to lively green. On this parallel the diameter does not exceed a day's march, but we see it broadening to the north. Looking in that direction over the gloomy-metalled porphyritic slopes upon which we stand, the glance extends to a manner of sea-horizon; while the several planes below it are dotted with hills and hill-ranges, white, red, and black, all dwarfed by distance to the size of thimbles and pincus.h.i.+ons. The guides especially pointed out the ridge El-Mukaykam, a red block upon red sands, and a far-famed rendezvous for raid and razzia. Nearer, the dark lumps of El-Khayrani rise from a similar surface; nearer still lie the two white dots, El-Rakhamatayn; and nearest is the ruddy ridge Jebel and Jils el-Rawiyan, containing, they say, ruins and inscriptions of which Wallin did not even hear.

The eastern versant of the Hisma is marked by long chaplets of tree and shrub, disposed along the selvage of the watercourses; and the latter are pitted with wells sunk after the fas.h.i.+on of the Bedawin. In this rhumb the horizon is bounded by El-Harrah, the volcanic region whose black porous lavas and honey-combed basalts, often charged with white zeolite, are still brought down even to the coast to serve as mortars and handmills. The profile is a long straight and regular line, as if formed under water, capped here and there by a tiny head like the Syrian Kulayb Hauran: its peculiar dorsum makes it distinguishable from afar, and we could easily trace it from the upper heights of the Sharr.

It is evidently a section of the mighty plutonic outburst which has done so much to change the aspect of the parallel Midian seaboard. Wallin's account of it (p. 307) is confined to the place where he crossed the lava-flood; and he rendered El-Harrah, which in Arabic always applies to a burnt region, by "red-coloured sandstone."

The Bedawin far more reasonably declare that this Harrah is not a mere patch as it appears in Wallin's map, a narrow oblong not exceeding sixty miles (north lat. 27--28), disposed diagonally from north-west to south-east. According to them, it is a region at least as large as the Hisma; and it extends southwards not only to the parallel of El-Medinah, but to the neighbourhood of Yambu'. The upper region has two great divisions: the Harrat-Hisma or the Harrah par excellence, which belongs to the Ma'azah, and which extends southwards through El-Sulaysilah as far as the Jaww. The latter region, a tract of yellow sand, dotted with ruddy hills, apparently a prolongation of the Hisma, separates it from the Harrat el-?Awayraz, in which the Jebel el-Muharrak lies.[EN#156] This line of volcanism is continued south by the Harrat el-Mushrif (P.N. of a man); by the Harrat Sutuh Jayda; and, finally, by the Harrat el-Buhayri. the latter shows close behind the sh.o.r.e at El-Haura, in nearly the same lat.i.tude as El-Medinah, where we shall presently sight it. There is great interest and a general importance in this large coast-subtending eruptive range, whose eastern counterslope demands long and careful study.

Sweeping the glance round to south, we see the southern of the two Jilsayn, tall mounds of horizontal strata, with ironstone in harder lines and finial blocks. This is the Jils el-Daim, so distinguished from the northern Jils el-Rawiyan. The lower edge of the Hisma swells up in red and quoin-like ma.s.ses, the Jibal el-Zawiyah, and then falls suddenly, with a succession of great breaks, into the sub-maritime levels. During our next ten days'

travel we shall be almost in continuous sight of its southern ramparts and b.u.t.tresses. Far over the precipices lie the low yellow sands of the Rahabah, alias the Wady Damah; and behind it rises the sky-blue mountain block, which takes a name from the ruins of s.h.a.ghab and Shuwak.

We breakfasted upon the Khuraytah crest; and Mr. Clarke set out to shoot the fine red-legged "Greek" partridges (caccabis) that haunt the hilltops, whilst the rest of us marched with the caravan to the nearest camping-ground. About a mile from the Col, and lying to the west of the Jils el-Rawiyan, it is supplied with excellent drinking-water by the Miyah el-Jedayd, lying nine hundred to a thousand metres to the south-east. On the other hand, fuel, here a necessary of life, was wanting; nor could the camels find forage. Thus we were camped upon the western edge of the Hisma. The Ma'azah Shaykhs, who vainly urged us forwards, showed a suspicious disappointment at our not reaching their quarters on the far side, where, they said, a camel was awaiting to be slaughtered for our reception.

Meanwhile, we were enjoying the reverse of hospitality. The Bedawin evidently now held that all which was ours had become theirs. Their excessive greed made them imprudent. Not satisfied with "eating us up," with a coffee-pot ever on the fire, with demanding endless tobacco, and with making their two garrons devour more barley than our eight mules, they began to debate, aloud as usual, how much ready money they should demand. This was at last settled at four hundred dollars; and the talk was reported to me by the Bash-Buzuk Husayn, whom they had compelled to cook for them. At the same time unpleasant discussions were beginning: "This man stole my camel!" "That man killed my father," already took the form of threats; in fact, I almost repented having brought the Huwaytat and their camels into the trap. Still they all respected Furayj, as might be seen by their rising and making room for him whenever he approached the fire.

At last an evil rumour arose that the Ma'azah had determined to supply us with transport, and had sent messengers in all directions to collect the animals. This step looked uncommonly like a gathering of war-men. I was sorely disappointed, for more reasons than one. The state of affairs rendered a distant march to the east highly unadvisable. The princ.i.p.al object of this journey had been to investigate the inland depth of the metalliferous deposits; in fact, their extent from west to east.

Their north-south length would be easily ascertained, but the width would still remain unknown. The "Land of Midian," through which we have been travelling, has evidently been worked, and in places well worked; thus the only chance of finding a virgin California would be in the unknown tracts lying to the east of the "Harrahs." Too bad to be thwarted in such a project by the exorbitant demands of a handful of thieves!

The disappointment was aggravated by other considerations. From all that I had heard, the Hisma is a region full of archaeological interest. Already we were almost in sight of the ruins of Ruafa, lying to the north between the two white dots El-Rakhamatayn.

Further eastward, and north of the pilgrim-station Zat-Hajj, are the remains of Karayya, still unvisited by Europeans. Finally, I had been shown, when too late to inspect the place, a fragment of a Nabathaean inscription, finely cut in soft white sandstone:[EN#157] it had been barbarously broken, and two other pieces were en route. The stone is said to be ten feet long (?), all covered with "writings," from which annalistic information might be expected: it lies, or is said to lie, about two hours'

ride north of our camp, and beyond the Jils el-Rawiyan famed for Hawawit. At first I thought of having it cut to portable size; but second thoughts determined me to leave it for another visit or for some more fortunate visitor. Lastly, we were informed, a few weeks afterwards, that the Ma'azah Shaykhs had carried it off to their tents--I fear piecemeal.

It was not pleasant to beat a retreat; but, under the circ.u.mstances, what else could be done? No one was to be relied upon but the Europeans, and not all even of them. The black escort, emanc.i.p.ated slaves, would have run away at the first shot; except only Acting-Corporal Khayr. And when I told the officers a.s.sembled at mess that we should march back early next morning, the general joy showed how little they relished the prospect of an advance. Then came out in ma.s.s the details--many doubtless apocryphal--which should have been reported to me, and which had carefully been kept secret. The Ma'azah, when our messenger first notified our visit, had declared that they would have no Nazarenes in their mountains; that they did not care a fico for Egypt. Why had not "Effendina" written to them? they were his equals, not his subjects! It was then debated whether they should not raise a force of dromedary-men to fall upon us.

Some of them proposed to summon to their aid the rival chief, Ibn Hermas; but the majority thought it would be better to reserve for themselves the hundred dollars per diem, of which they proposed to fleece us.

Of course, everything around us was intrigue; the Mayat taht el-Tibn ("water under the straw") of the Arab saying. Furayj, it is true, looked serene, and privately offered me to fight the affair out; but he was alone in the idea. The Sayyid was tranquil, as usual; Hasan the ?Ukbi wore an unpleasant appearance of satisfaction, as if he had been offered a share in the plunder of the Huwaytat; and ?Alayan, a brave man on his own ground, could hardly conceal his dejection. I might, it is evident, have seized Shaykh Mohammed, placed a pistol to his ear, and carried him off a prisoner; but such grands moyens must be reserved for great occasions. The worst symptoms in camp were that the Ma'azah at once knew the whole of my project; while the Egyptian officers were ever going to their tents, and one stayed talking with them till near midnight.

February 25th was a day of humiliation. I aroused the camp at 4.30 a.m., and at once gave orders to strike the tents and load.

The command was obeyed in double quick time; but not before Shaykh Mohammed had visited us to propose a march to his home in the east. He was not comfortable; probably his reinforcements had still to arrive: his face was calm, as the Eastern's generally is; but his feet trembled, and his toes twitched. I drily told him of our changed plans, and he left us in high dudgeon. The tragi-comedy which followed may be divided into six acts:--

1. The Ma'azah mount their horses and camels: I walk up to them, and expostulate about so abrupt a departure without even drinking a friendly cup of coffee.

2. They dismount, and squat in council round the fire, sending on three dromedary-riders to crown a hill commanding the pa.s.s. The "burning question" is now whether armed clansmen are or are not lurking behind the heights.

3. Shaykh Mohammed comes forward, and demands blackmail to the extent of two hundred dollars. I offer one hundred dollars.

4. Our hosts break off the debate in a towering rage; refuse coffee, and declare that the caravan of "Effendina" (the Viceroy) shall not be loaded. Mohammed's feet twitch more violently as the camels are made to kneel.

5. The caravan shows too much emotion. I pay the two hundred dollars into the chief's hands. He at once demands his Sharaf ("honour") in the shape of a Kiswah, or handsome dress, and, that failing, an additional twenty-five dollars for each of the five headmen. I promise that a robe shall be sent from El-Muwaylah.[EN#158]

6. The caravan sets out for the Pa.s.s, when the three dromedary-riders open with the war-cry: it is stopped with much apparatus by the Shaykhs, who affect to look upon it as dangerous.

We now marched without delay upon the Col, which was reached at 8:15 a.m.; Mohammed bin ?Atiyyah having meanwhile disappeared. We descended the Khuraytat el-Jils in twenty-six minutes, and dismissed the remainder of our Ma'azah escort at the foot. I vainly offered them safeguard to El-Muwaylah, which they have not visited for the last dozen years; all refused absolutely to pa.s.s their own frontiers.

Au revoir Mohammed ibn ?Atiyyah and company!

Having broken our fast and sent forward the caravan, we at once began to descend the southern Pa.s.s, the Khuraytat el-Ziba. Here the watershed of the Wady Surr heads; and merchants object to travel by its shorter line, because their camels must ascend two ladders of rocks, instead of one at the top of the Wady Sadr. The Col was much longer and but little less troublesome than its northern neighbour; the formation was the same, and forty-five minutes placed us in a gully, that presently widened to a big valley, the Wady Dahal or El-Khuraytah. We reached it at 12:30 p.m., and laid down the distance from the summit of the northern Col at about five miles and a quarter. The air felt tepid, the sun waxed hot; drinking-water was found on the left of the bed, and a hole in the sole represented a spring, which the people say is perennial: we were dismounting to quench our thirst at the latter, when Juno plunged into it, and stood quietly eyeing us with an air of intense satisfaction.

We spent that night at a place lower down the Wady Dahal, known as the Jayb el-Khuraytah ("Collar of the Col"). The term "Jayb"

is locally applied to two places only; the other being the Jayb el-Sa'luwwah, which we shall presently visit. A larger feature than a Wady, it reminds us of a Norfolk "broad," but it is of course waterless. Guards were placed around the camp; and a wholesome dread of the Ma'azah kept them wide awake. The only evil which resulted was that none dared to lead our mules to water; and the poor animals were hardly rideable on the next day.

Of the Hisma in its present state, we may say as of Ushant, Qui voit Ouessant, voit la mort. Nothing can be done towards working the mines of Midian until this den of thieves is cleared out. It is an asylum for every murderer and bandit who can make his way there--a centre of turbulence which spreads trouble all around it. Under the sham rule of miserable Sham (Syria), with its Turkish Walis, men like the late Ras.h.i.+d Pasha, matters can only wax worse. Subject to Egypt, the people will learn discipline and cease to torment the land.

Happily for their neighbours there will be no difficulty in reducing the Ma'azah. They are surrounded by enemies, and they have lately been obliged to pay "brother-tax" to the Ruwala as a defence against being plundered: the tribute consists of one piece of hair-cloth about twenty cubits long. On the north, as far as El-Ma'an, they meet the hostile Beni Sakr (Jawazi), under the Shaykh Mohammed ibn Jazi; southwards the Baliyy, commanded by Shaykh ?Afnan, are on terms of "blood" with them; eastward stand the ?Anezah and the warlike Shararat-Hutaym, who ever covet their two thousand camels: westward lie in wait their hereditary foes, the Huwaytat. Shaykh Furayj, the tactician, has long ago proposed a general onslaught of his tribesmen by a simultaneous movement up the Wadys Surr, Sadr, Urnub, and ?Afal: they seemed to have some inkling of his intentions, as they hastened to conclude with him a five months' ?Altwah or "truce." Finally, a small disciplined force, marching down the Damascus-Medinah pilgrimage-road to the east, and co-operating with the Huwayta't on the west would place this vermin between two fires.

The tale of my disappointment may conclude with an ethnological notice of those who caused it.

The Ma'azah is a Syro-Egypto-Bedawi clan, originally Arab, or rather Syrian, but migratory, as are all Arabs. It now extends high up the valley of the Nile, and it is still found in the Wady Musa (of Suez) and on the Za'faranah block. Even in Egypt it is turbulent and dangerous: the men are professional robbers; and their treachery is uncontrolled by the Bedawi law of honour--they will eat bread and salt with the traveller whom they intend to murder. For many years it was unsafe to visit the camps within sight of Suez, until a compulsory residence at head-quarters taught the Shaykhs manners. The habitat in Arabia stretches from the Wady Musa of Petra, where they are kinsmen of the Tiyahah, the Bedawin of the Tih-desert; and through Ma'an as far as the Birkat el-Mu'azzamah, south of Tabuk. Finally, they occupy the greater part of the Hisma and the northern Harrah.

According to Mohammed el-Kalb, these bandits own the bluest of blue blood. Their forefather was one Wail, who left by his descendants two great tribes. The first and the eldest took a name from their Ma'az ("he-goats"); while the junior called themselves after the Annaz ("she-goats"): from the latter sprung the great Anezah family, which occupies the largest and the choicest provinces of the Arabian peninsula. Meanwhile genealogists ignore the Ma'azah.

Wallin would divide the tribe into two, the Ma'azah and the "Beni ?Atiya:" of the latter in Midian I could hear nothing except that they represent the kinsmen of the Shaykh's family. We find "Benoo Ateeyah" in maps like that of Crichton's (1834), where the Ma'azah are laid down further south; and northwards the Beni ?Atiyyah are a powerful clan who push their razzias as far as the frontiers of Moab. My informants declare that the numbers of fighting men in the Midianite division of the race may be two thousand (two hundred?), and that they are separated only by allegiance to two rival Shaykhs. The greater half, under Ibn Hermas, is distributed into five clans, of whom the first, ?Orban Khumaysah, contain two septs. Under Mohammed ibn ?Atiyyah (El-Kalb) they number also five divisions. Amongst them are the Subut or Beni Sabt, "Sons of the Sabbath," that is, Sat.u.r.day; whom Wallin suspects to be of Jewish origin, relying, it would appear, princ.i.p.ally upon their name. The ringing of the large bell suspended to the middle pole of the tents at sunset, "to hail the return of the camels and the mystic hour of descending night," is an old custom still maintained, because it confers a Barakat ("blessing") upon the flocks and herds. Certainly there is nothing of the Bedawi in this practice, and it is distinctly contrary to the tradition of El-Islam; yet many such survivals hold their ground amongst the highly conservative Wild Men, and they must be looked upon only as local and tribal peculiarities.

End of Vol. I.