Wild flowers and shrubs are not wanting; and the former are often very fragrant. I observed among those that are so, a prevalence in their names of the letter غ (gh); as Ghurrah,
Ghubbeh, Ghurkud, Ghuraim, etc. They brought me a handful of meijainineh, which was said to be good for pains in the stomach; and the starry flower, called dibbaihh, not unlike a wild pink, is eaten by the people, both petals, calyx, and stalk.
The tul’hh, or mimosa-tree, has a strange appearance, very like an open fan, or the letter V filled up.
The green foliage of it is particularly vivid at the season when we saw it, and the thorns long and sharp. [304]
Distances are hard to judge of in such
extensive plains and in so clear an atmosphere. We had been nearly two days in sight of Mount Hor, straight before us; yet the mountain only grew in size as we approached it, not in distinctness.
As we came nearer to the eastern mountains, we found innumerable and huge blocks of porphyry rock scattered over the ground. The Arabs called the range of Seir by the name of Jebel Sherreh.
At about eight hours from our last night’s station, we turned off the Wadi ’Arabah by the narrow Wadi Tayibeh into the heart of the mountains, at the foot of Hor.
Ascended a series of precipices, and, at some elevation, met two young English gentlemen, with a pair of double-barrelled pistols shared between them, and their fingers ready on the triggers. They had a tale to relate of grievous exactions made by the Fellahheen of Petra,—which, however, seemed to me, by their account, to have been