Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/239

 large, rugged boulders, often ten to twenty meters high. After abundant cloud-bursts, foaming cataracts are formed in these beds. Nowhere did we see any water, nor any vegetation except ṭalḥ trees and rimṯ bushes.

At 1.30 we had the volcano of Bâḳûr on our left, and at 1.52 to the northeast we saw the black volcano of Sâlûm standing out conspicuously from its gray surroundings; to the west of it were the elevations of Abu Ṭôr (or Ṭowr) and to the northwest the eminence of ar-Rmêmijje. With difficulty we drove the camels forward, while we ourselves all went on foot. Finally, at 3.46, we entered the šeʻîb of al-ʻEšš, the bed of which is covered with sand, so that our camels were able to get along more easily. In the sand we observed numerous traces of rodents, wabrân, hiding on the rocky slopes. We should have liked to have halted, but nowhere could we find any pasturage. At last, at 4.40 (temperature: 36° C), we reached some blossoming ṭalḥ trees, on the blossoms and shoots of which our hungry animals grazed until 6.52.

The šeʻîb of al-ʻEšš gradually opens out into a gray, undulating plain connected with the lowland of al-Mṣaḥḥ through which wind the railway and the Pilgrim Road.

At 7.08 we rode around some ruined huts once inhabited by workmen engaged upon the construction of the railway. Then, on the right, could be seen the flat elevation Matent al-Habwa extending from south to north. On the eastern spur of the elevations of Ḥlejlât abu Ṭarfa we perceived the glow of a small fire. As this region is continually frequented by marauding bands and we had heard of the warlike expedition of the Âjde and Fuḳara’, we were afraid that we might be attacked. With loaded rifles we hastened northward. The animals, who had scarcely crawled during the night, suddenly started off at a swift and regular trot. Listening carefully to every movement and sound, we rode round the fire, reached the railway, and encamped in a dense ṭalḥ thicket in the channel of al-Ḥâka at 8.50. Throughout all this time the camels made no noise whatever. Amid deep silence we unloaded our baggage, arranged the beasts in a circle, lay down around them, and kept watch all night, not knowing whether we had been observed.