Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/347

Rh name. Here we remained about fifty days, guests at the court of the old king Feysul Ebn Sa’ood and his son ’Abd-Allah, as physicians in the town.

The total number of provinces belonging to the Wahhabee empire is eleven, namely, Sedeyr, ’Aared, Washem, Aflaj, Yemanah (these five constitute Nejed-el-’Aala, or Upper Nejed), besides Kaseem on the west, Wadi Dowasir, Wadi Soleyyel, and Hareek to the south, and Hasa and Kateef on the east. The entire population is about 1,700,000, the military force about 60,000. The government is an absolute monarchy; but its weight is shared by a Prime Minister (Mahboob, son of a Georgian slave-woman), a Minister for Foreign Affairs (Abd-el-’Azeez, a Nejdean), the Kadee ’Abd-el-Lateef, great grandson of the first Wahhabee, and a council of twenty-two Meddey’eeyah, or “zelators.” Agriculture, pasture, and war are the main occupations of Nejed. Commerce was once so, but it has much gone down under the Wahhabee system; nor is there any considerable manufacture, except what belongs to shoe or sandal makers and blacksmiths.

Quitting Aared and Yemamah, to follow the Wadi Soley, we cross the furthermost highlands of Djebel Toweyk eastward; fill our water-skins for four days’ provision at the wells of Oweysit, on its extreme verge, and then traverse the arm of the “Dahna,” or great desert, that immediately succeeds it. Here we toil for about 80 miles, till on its eastern margin we reach the desolate and waterless labyrinths of Wadi Farook, where our guides, though well accustomed to the country, nearly lost their way. About 15 miles more, and we reach the first coast-range of Hasa, and descend the wild and abrupt passes of Ghar and Ghoweyr, to the sea-coast level, a little south of the town of Hofhouf, capital of the province.

Here we find ourselves at once in another climate, and in an entirely new region. From the limits of the Djowf to the furthest boundaries of Nejed and Djebel Toweyk, we have met with no running stream (except a very small one of no importance between Djeldjil and Roweydah, in Sedeyr), no above-ground watercourse; wells and buckets supply the land as best they may. But here the waters gush out on the face of the earth in numerous rivulets, or, where yet confined in wells, stand brimming at the margin. One large fountain, about six miles north of the town of Mebarraz, furnishes from its deep and circular basin no less than seven streams, each one sufficient to turn a good-sized mill, and hence its name of Omm Sebaa, or “Mother of the Seven.” The central basin measures about 60 feet in breadth. Other similar springs, especially in the neighbourhood of Hofhoof and Kelabeeyah, overflow large tracts of ground, rendering them complete marshes: and further on the waters of Wab extend far towards the sea, though they do not actually reach it.