Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/214

 wall of some tombs is semicircular, and in front of some there is a hollow bordered with stones and measuring about forty centimeters in diameter. The Arabs place small green ratam twigs upon the slabs and pour water into the hollow, this being their manner of honoring the dead.

Not far beyond the burial place, in a šeʻîb enclosed on all sides, at the foot of the north side of az-Zuṛba (Fig. 79) we found a fairly good pasture, where, consequently, we encamped at 5.10. In the evening we ascertained the latitude (temperature: 30.2° C).

On Tuesday, June 28, 1910, we left our camping place at 4.30 A.M. (temperature: 16.5° C) and at five o’clock mounted a height from which we had a delightful view to the south. The region is only slightly undulating and is covered with yellowish ratam and coffee-colored šîḥ which appeared to I have a dark-blue veil over it. In the background hovered the isolated broken cone of al-Watar, from which what seemed to be small clouds of smoke were being carried eastward by the wind. In front of al-Watar towered the cone of al-Lâja, and to the north of both of these mountains lay the brilliant uplands of Ǧdejdîlât, an-Naʻâme, an-Nimrijjât, and an-Naʻâjem. The first rays of the rising sun