nature, and next arrived in a valley strewed with huge fragments, angular, not rounded boulders, yet fallen from the adjacent mountains. But we were still high above the wide level of the ’Arabah.
Halted at half-past five; thermometer, Fahrenheit 71¼°, and, during our dinner, old Selâmeh rejoined us, having failed in his dealings with the Alaween, who refused to restore their plunder, as they said their object was to punish the Jehâleen, for bringing travellers through their country, instead of making them go by way of Egypt. [320] He reported that thirty more Arabs had arrived at Petra, half-an-hour after our starting.
April 8th.—Sunrise, Fahrenheit 59°. Moving again at six o’clock. In half an hour we were clear of the mountains of Seir or Edom; but for another hour the ground was still strewn with blocks of porphyry and green syenite, too hard for any of our implements to break off bits from them, and fragments small enough to be carried away were very difficult to find; however, we got some. These large stumbling-blocks, together with dry watercourses, rendered our travelling unusually troublesome to the horses and camels, and wearisome to ourselves.
At length we got upon the free ’Arabah, among green shrubs and trees of tul’hh and neb’k.
At nine o’clock we came to a high sandbank, beneath which was a verdant line of tamarisk, and ghâr, and tall canes, with frogs croaking among them. All of these were indications of water; and, accordingly, we found a spring named ’Ain Taäsân, being one of those which together form the stream of Buwairdeh. Here we filled our water vessels to the utmost, as it was not expected we should find any more good water for two days to come.
The surrounding prospect was one of utter desolation, and I took out my Bible and read the words of 2 Kings iii. 8,-9, and 20: “And he said, Which way shall we go up? And he answered, The way through the wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom; and they fetched a compass of seven days’ journey: and there was no water for the host, and for the cattle that followed them . . . And it came to pass in the morning, when the meat-offering was offered, that, behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with water.”
On the spot, as well as at the present time, I remembered with pain the deplorable weakness and wickedness of the remarks on this event contained in Paine’s “Age of Reason,” and which I do not choose to repeat. The most charitable opinion that one can entertain of such writers is that they know nothing of the nature of the country under
consideration. Thank God that the world at large, and that land in particular, is now better known than formerly, and, as a consequence, our evidences of the truth of the blessed Bible are daily the more confirmed.
We then proceeded northwards along the bed of that stream; but in a few minutes its water was lost in the sand. In another hour we entered the dry bed of the Wadi el Jaib, and continued along its course in the direction of the Dead Sea.
The hills were misty on both sides, and the ground hot beneath, as we tramped along, all our voices hushed during the “strength of the heat,” (according to Arab expression,) and the footfall of the camels entirely without noise.