Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/140

 and steep slopes, the eastern sides of which are covered with sand.

All night long quite a strong northeast wind had been blowing. At sunrise the wind abated, but at 7.28 A. M. it began to blow from the southwest.

At 8.40 we entered the šeʻîb of al-Mḫaṣṣab. In the sand drifts on both sides of this šeʻîb there is a luxuriant growth of tonẓob bushes, which in places form low trees. As soon as the south-southwesterly wind began to blow, the air was filled with innumerable horizontal veils of vapor, which rested nearly on the ground. The sun’s rays then penetrated and heated them, so that they became as a sweltering furnace. At 9.10 we again caught sight of the Red Sea through a gap in the šeʻîb of al-Mḫaṣṣab. It was not red, but of a pale and even yellowish blue. The flat marshy shores merge into it without any sharp transition. Our guide Ḥsejn caught a large ẓabb lizard, which he tied up in his cloak, wishing to take it home as a delicacy.

At 9.25 we passed from the hillock range to the flat shore, and proceeded to the southeast through a region covered with rimṯ shrubs and sejâl trees that make it resemble our orchards. But neither the rimṯ nor the sejâl was green; all the trees and shrubs were a pale yellow or a parched gray. Towards the northeast this coastal plain joins a green hillock range, behind and above which there rise the granite mountains. To the west, rising above the sea, were the pink rocks of the islands of Tîrân, Ṣenâfîr, Abu Šušwa, Rajamân, Umm as-Sjêle, Barḳân, and al-Maḳṣûd. Close to the shore itself we observed numerous islets, among which a white sail was wending its way.

At 9.42 we saw to the southeast the green palm groves in the oasis of ʻAjnûna, which belongs to the Ḏijâbîn and Zamâhre clans of the Ḥwêṭât at-Tihama. It is situated at the foot of the red hillock range of Berḳ al-Mḫaṣṣab at the point where the latter is penetrated by the Râwa šeʻîb. Beneath the trees could be seen a number of white huts constructed of palm leaves.