The Arab sets out on his journey with a provision of flour, kuskasa, onions, mutton suet, and oil or butter; and some of the richer class add to this store, a proportion of biscuit, and of dried flesh. As soon as the camels are halted and the baggage unladen, the drivers and slaves dig a small hole in the sands wherein to make a fire, and then proceed in search of wood, and of three stones to be placed round the cavity, for the purpose of confining the embers and supporting the cauldron. The cauldron, (which is of copper,) being set over, the time till the water begins to boil is employed first in discussing, and then in preparing, what the mess of the day shall consist of. The ordinary meal is of hasside, a stiff farinaceous pap, served up in a copper dish, which, in due economy of utensils and luggage, is at other times used for serving water to the camels: when this pap or pudding is thus served on table, it is diluted with a soup poured on it, enriched or seasoned with the monachie dried and finely pulverized. At other times, the dinner consists of flour kneaded into a strong dough, which being divided into small cakes and boiled, affords a species of hard dumplins called mijotta. A yet better repast is made of dried meat boiled together with mutton suet, onions sliced thin, crumbled biscuits, salt, and a good quantity of pepper. The meat is at dinner time taken out and reserved for the master, and the broth alone is the mess of his followers. The slaughtering of a camel affords a feast to the camel drivers and slaves. The friends of the owner of the beast have a preference in the purchase; and after dividing the carcase, every slave comes in for a share: no part of the animal capable of being gnawed by human tooth, is suffered to be lost; the very bones pass through various hands and mouths, before they are thrown away. They make sandals of the skin, and they weave the hair into twine.
It is not on every occasion that time can be allowed, or materials found, for dressing victuals: in the anticipation of such an exigency, the traveller provides a food called simitée: it consists of barley boiled until it swells, then dried in the sun, and then further dried over the fire; and lastly, being ground into a powder, it is mixed with salt, pepper, and carraway-seed, and put into a leather bag: when it is to be used, it is kneaded into a dough, with just water enough to give it consistency, and is served up with butter or oil. If further diluted with water, then dates are added to the meal, and it is called rouin. Such is the food of the traveller when there is a scarcity of fuel or of water; and none can be expended in boiling. I was often, for days together, without other food than this cold farinaceous pap, mixed with a few dates. Onions and red Spanish pepper are the general and the only seasonings of each meal, with the addition of salt.
On the seventh day, after a march of four hours, we reached Biljoradec, commonly called Jahudie, a term implying that the water is bad, or that other water is not to be found but at a considerable distance.
The three following days, travelling occasionally in the night, we were forty hours in actual journey. On the first of these, (being the ninth day since leaving the vicinity of Cairo,) we reached the chain of mountains which bounded the uniform desert through which we had passed. On the tenth, mounting these hills, I observed the plain on their summit to consist of a saline mass spread over so large a tract of surface, that in one direction no eye could reach its termination, and what might be called its width, I computed at several miles. The clods of salt discoloured with sand lay thick and close, and gave to this vast plain the appearance of a recently ploughed field.
On the summit of this eminence, and almost in the middle of this saline tract, (on computation of its width) I discovered a spring; and the passage of Herodotus[2] occurring to my mind, in which he mentions springs of fresh water on the salt hills, I eagerly made up to its brink. I found it edged with salt: some poor pilgrims attending me tasted the water, but it was so saturated with saline matter, as to be wholly unfit for drink.
On the eleventh day (September the 15th), we came to an inhabited spot; after five hours march arriving at the small village of Ummesogeir.
SECTION II.
Observations on the Desert, from the Valley of Natron to the Mountains of Ummesogier.
The Desert forms a natural boundary to Egypt, on the west extending from the Natron Valley to the mountains of Ummesogier; to the north, the dreary and barren plain is bounded by a chain of lofty hills, in view during the whole course of the caravan; and to the south, extends a journey, probably, of several days, by the ordinary mode of computation in these countries; but in this direction its limits are not defined, or are not known.
In this vast tract of sands, petrified wood is found, of various forms and size: sometimes are seen whole trunks of trees, of twelve feet circumference or more; sometimes only branches and twigs, scarcely of a quarter of an inch diameter; and sometimes merely pieces of bark of various kinds, and in particular of the oak, are to be found. Many of the great stems yet retain their side branches, and in many the natural timber has undergone so little change, that the circular ranges of the wood are discernible, and especially in those trunks which apparently were of oak. The interior of other bodies of timber was become a petrifaction, shewing no distinctions of grain or fibre, but bearing the appearance of mere stone; though the outward coat and form of the substance clearly denoted the tree.