Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/162

 I endeavored to persuade it to enter the cleft. For a long time it refused and turned back, but at last it jumped on to the path and the rest of the camels followed, but only so long as they could see one another. As soon as the front camel disappeared around a bend the next animal stopped, and all the rest came to a halt behind it. We had to bring the leading camel back in order to persuade the others to continue the march. It was not only difficult but frequently even dangerous to turn round on the narrow and precipitous pathway. The baggage fell from the backs of two of the camels and slipped down on the tail of the third one, so that the beast knelt. The fallen baggage went rolling down the slope, and it was no easy task to carry it up again and load it on the camel. Both men and animals found it almost impossible to breathe, and the sweat was pouring off us.

At last we climbed on to a rocky wall and entered a narrow crevice known as aẓ-Ẓjejḳe, through which we climbed comfortably after a few minutes. In two places the water had formed puddles, but they were full of leeches of various sizes, so that not even our camels could drink from them. Suddenly the crevice was barred by a steep wall over four hundred meters high, which prevented us from continuing our journey. Nowhere could we see a trace of any path. After a few minutes Mḥammad discovered on the eastern slope, behind a clump of palms, a smooth strip leading steeply to a small spur. This was the path. The spur projected scarcely sixty meters above the crevice, but it took us more than an hour to mount it. The first third of the way consisted of high, steep, twisting steps. My camel jumped up to the first step, thence to the second; behind it came the camels of Rifʻat, Tûmân, and Ismaʻîn, and in a short time our mounts were all side by side on the spur, where we persuaded them to kneel down and tied up their feet. Not seeing the rest of my companions, I climbed downwards and saw two camels with baggage already standing on the steps, but the third was still in the cleft. Ordering Mḥammad and Ismaʻîn to hold the two front camels, I hurried down into the ravine to persuade the stubborn animal to move forward. I led it away from the path until it could see the two camels higher up, then I drove it behind them and it actually jumped up to the first step. But at that moment a stone of no great size worked itself loose from the top of the slope, rolled down, and rebounded in front of the first