The most substantial merchants of our caravan were fitted out in the same style as to provisions for the journey: the only dainties which some of them carried, were dried flesh, honey, and cheese; the latter, although certainly agreeable in travelling, is not a proper article of food in the desert: where the traveller should abstain from whatever excites thirst. Several of our people had among their camels she-camels in full milk, which gave them a daily supply of this agreeable beverage.
On the 1st of March, all the traders had assembled at Daraou, and early in the morning of the 2d the different goods, for loading the camels, were carried to a public place, in front of the village called Barzet el Gellabe (برزت الجلابه).
At noon, the camels were watered,i[1] and knelt down by the side of their respective loads. Just before the lading commenced, the Ababde women appeared with earthen vessels in their hands, filled with burning coals. They set them before the several loads, and threw salt upon them. At the rising of the bluish flame, produced by the burning of the salt, they exclaimed, “may you be blessed in going and in coming.” The devil and every evil genius are thus, they say, removed.
We were accompanied for about half an hour beyond the village by all the women and children. My principal friend at Daraou, Hadji Hosseyn el Aloüan (الحاج حسين العلوان), at whose house I had lived, and who had obtained from me a variety of presents, in making me believe that he intended to undertake the journey in person, in which case he might have proved to me a most useful companion on the road, had declared the day before, that he should remain at Daraou; but his brother and his son Aly joined the caravan, and their party formed the largest and most wealthy party of the Fellah traders among us. The old man followed us with his women to a distance from the village, and at parting, recommended me to his relations; “he is your brother,” he said to his son, “and there,” opening his son’s waistcoat, and putting his hand upon his bosom, “there let him be placed:” a way of recommendation much in use in the Arabian desert likewise, where it has some meaning, but among these miserable Egyptians it has become a mere form of speech. We then proceeded upon a sandy plain, in great disorder, as it always happens upon the first setting out of a journey. Many loads were badly laid on, several were thrown off by the camels who had for some time been unused to them, and we were obliged to encamp for the night in a small valley, with shrubs in it, about two hours and a half to the S. S. E. of Daraou, where we feasted upon the dainties which had been prepared by the ladies of Daraou; large fires were lighted, and the whole night was passed in singing and noise.
3d March. We departed early from our resting place, and entered Wady Om Rokbe (وادي اُم رُكبه), a broad valley with good pasture, which we followed for upwards of two hours; we then ascended a steep hill, and after several ascents and descents, encamped in a valley near the source of water called Abou Kebeyr (ابو كبير), having proceeded to day about six hours, very slow march There are a few trees in this valley; and water is found every where by digging pits in the sand. The source of Abou Kebeyr which yields a very scanty supply, had attracted some Ababde Bedouins from whom we bought some sheep. The mountains we had traversed to day, were all composed of flint.
4th. March. Our route this morning lay through sandy valleys until we arrived, after about four hours march, at a steep ascent, or Akaba, where the sand and flint hills terminate. After crossing over the Akaba which is composed of granite schistus, we arrived, at the end of six hours, at a fine natural reservoir of rain water, among the granite rocks called Abou Adjadj (ابو عجاج); our route was in a S. S. W. direction. From hence to Assouan the distance is six hours. Just beyond the bason of rain water, begins a narrow pass among the rocks, where loaded camels proceed with difficulty. In here turning round a corner of the mountain we found our advanced men, loudly quarreling with a strong party of armed Bedouins, and before I could inform myself of the particulars, the Ababde belonging to our caravan had armed themselves, and proceeded to attack the enemy. The latter were likewise Ababde, but of a different tribe. Having been informed of our departure from Daraou, they had left their homes at Khattar (خطّار), a village near Assouan, to way-lay us in this narrow pass, and to levy a contribution upon us as passage money. They were about thirty, and our Ababdes as many. The individuals of both parties were naked, for it is a rule among them never to fight with any incumbrance upon their bodies, and merely to wrap a rag or napkin round their waists.i[2] They were armed with long two-edged swords, and short lances and targets, which latter were particularly useful to them in warding off the shower of stones with which the attack commenced. When I saw them thus attack each other, and then under the most horrible clamour come to close action with swords believing that we were attacked by robbers, I was about to join our people, and had already levelled my musquet at the principal man of the assailants, when one of our Ababdes cried out to me, for God’s sake not to fire, as he hoped there should be no blood between them. By the advice of our guides, the Egyptian merchants, who were armed with swords, (for nobody had a gun but myself, and few had pistols) willingly took charge of the defence of our baggage in the rear, for the Ababde were anxious to fight out the quarrel amongst themselves. After about twenty minutes’ rather shy fighting, the battle ceased by the interference of the chiefs on both sides, and both parties claimed the victory. The whole damage amounted to three men slightly wounded and one shield cleft in two. Our people however gained their point, for we passed without paying any tribute, and I was somewhat gratified in seeing how far our Arabs might be depended upon in any future attack in the course of the journey. As for the Egyptians they had given evident proofs of the most cowardly disposition, notwithstanding their boasting language. Several Shikhs of the Ababde have a right to claim a tribute from the caravan. Others set up unfounded pretensions of the same kind, and it is the duty of the guides (Khobara plur. of Khabir, خَبير) to protect the caravan from such extortions. No caravan can cross the desert in safety without being accompanied by some of the Ababde, and although many of the Fellah merchants perfectly know the road, they never venture to perform it alone.
Our assailants retreated after a long parley, which succeeded the fight; and although we had at first intended to remain at Abou Adjadj for the night, our guides now thought it adviseable to push further on, because they were afraid that the opposite party might send during the night for a reinforcement of men from their village. We therefore rode three hours farther over a rocky ground until we arrived in a wide valley called Wady Houd (وادي هود), where we halted. During the whole of this afternoon’s march we had observed among the barren granite rocks, great quantities of locusts.
March 5th. Wady Houd is a broad valley full of shrubs and pasturage, bordered on both sides by rocks of fine granite, similar to those of Assouan and the Cataract. We pursued our road for two hours along the valley; and at the end of three hours march came to sandrocks intersected by layers of quartz. We then ascended a slightly sloping plain, and at the end of four hours entered a wide sandy valley, in which we continued in a direction, S. W. by S. for several hours, until we reached, after about seven hours march, a narrow Wady called Om el Hebal (اُم الحبال), or the mother of ropes; so called from its numerous windings. Here we halted after a day’s march of about seven hours and a half. The Wady is full of thorny trees of the acacia species, the dark-green leaves of which are in singular unison with the surrounding granite rocks, the surface of which is smooth and shining, and of the deepest black. The valley is in few places more than sixty yards across; the highest summits of the rocks, which are every where steep cliffs, may be about two or three hundred feet above the level ground. This evening we lighted our fires with the dried dung of the camels that had rested here before; indeed we seldom halted in the evening without finding fuel of this kind, for the traders rarely go out of the accustomed track, nor can they choose their resting places at random, being fixed to those spots where there is some pasturage of herbs and shrubs, or at least some acacia trees, upon the leaves and branches of which their camels may feed for a few hours in the evening. I found much less order at the encamping of this caravan, than I had observed among other caravans in the Eastern Desert. Our party consisted of thirty nine loaded camels, thirty five asses, and about eighty men, and it was divided into a dozen different families or messes, each of which on the halting ground formed a separate bivouac. We had two men from Assouan, the others were from Daraou, Klit, and Esne, and a few from Gous, and Farshiout. People from Siout seldom travel this road. Although the chief of the Ababde was the acknowledged head of the caravan, yet the Fellah merchants generally followed their own humour in moving and halting;i[3] and there was every evening some quarrelling about the place of halting. None of the traders had any tent; we all slept in the open air, but none ever shut his eyes without placing his baggage in such a manner as to render it difficult for thieves to attempt it without awaking him. We were not afraid of robbers from without, but it was too well known that many of our own people were of a pilfering disposition, and notwithstanding every precaution, they repeatedly indulged themselves in it in the course of the journey.
6th March. We continued in Wady el Hebal for about three hours, when we stopped near an inlet in the western chain of hills, where we found among the rocks a large natural reservoir of rain water, delightfully clear, sweet, and cool. The place is called Damhit (دمحيت), and is much praised by the Arabs, because the water is very seldom dried up. It is situated in a cleft of the mountain, which has the appearance of having been rent asunder by a violent earthquake. Large blocks of granite are heaped up at the entrance; these masses increase in quantity, in ascending through the cliff, and rise to a considerable height, among them are two other reservoirs of water of equal size with the lower, but of difficult access. The Wady itself is not without its natural beauties. It is about forty yards across, overgrown with acacia or (سنط) Sant trees, and bordered on both sides by steep shattered granite cliffs, of grotesque shapes. During heavy rains, which often happen here, the water descending from the western chain collects in a large torrent, which, as I was informed, empties itself into the Nile, near the village of Dehmyt, eight hours south of Assouan. About four hours distant from Damhit, in a S. W. direction, is a spring of good water called El Moeleh (الموِيلَح); it is resorted to by the caravans, which set out from Assouan. We remained here the whole day, for it is a general rule among caravans in the east, to make slow marches during the three or four first days of a long journey, in order to accustom the cattle, which are generally allowed several months of rest before the journey, to fatigue by degrees; and this is particularly the case when the ground affords good pasturage. Loss of time is seldom taken into consideration by eastern merchants, and least of all by Arabs, and thus I have heard it related at Damascus that the caravans from thence to Bagdad are, in the spring, sometimes three months in crossing the desert. We again met great numbers of locusts. These rapacious insects had spread sometimes in such quantities over the mountain as to eat up every green vegetable: the cattle of the Bedouins are some times reduced by these animals to the greatest distress.
7th March. After two hours we issued from the Wady and met several Bisharein Arabs. These Bedouins, whom I have already mentioned in my journey towards Dóngola, remain in winter time in the mountains near the Red Sea, where the rains produce plenty of pasture; but there being very few wells and springs in that quarter, they are obliged to approach in summer nearer to the Nile, where wells are more numerous. We were now upon an open sandy plain, without any vegetation, bordered on the east by high mountains, and towards the west, at a shorter distance, by lower hills. The whole valley of Om el Hebal is of granite, but here in the plain I again found sandstone with quartz. We were about five hours in crossing this plain, which bears the name of Birket Zokhan (بركت زُخان), and then after seven hours slow march (in the direction S. 1° ½ E.) we stopped at the entrance of a chain of low mountains, where we found very luxuriant pasture. The herb called Towyle (طويله) grows here in abundance, and is an excellent food for the camels. From my first setting out from Daraou, I had been involved in continual disputes with the man, to whom I had sold my camel, and who carried my baggage. He had undertaken to take more baggage than the camel was able to bear, and in order to lighten it, he was constantly endeavouring to transfer my baggage, for the carriage of which I paid him, to my ass. This evening the camel broke down, when he accused me of having cheated him, in selling him an unsound animal, insisting at the same time upon having his money returned, a demand which was however soon over-ruled. According to justice, and to the customs even of the traders themselves, he would have been obliged to pay the further freight of my baggage out of his own pocket; but he was so loud in his oaths and lamentations, exclaiming that he was a ruined man, and besmearing his face with dirt and dust, in sign of excessive grief, that he brought the chiefs of the caravan all over to his side, and I was obliged to contract a second time for the freight of my goods and provisions, with one of the Bedouins Ababde. As we had already been six days on our journey, our provisions were considerably diminished, and the camel’s load became every day lighter. Upon this the traders always reckon, never taking any spare camels from Egypt with them, as other desert caravans usually do, and if camels break down, their loads are distributed among the others, and the carriage is paid for according to a fair calculation. No man can ever refuse to charge his camel with part of such load, if necessity demands it, and his own camel is strong enough. We again set out after sunset, and marched about three hours farther, through several vallies, until we came to the low mountains called Om Hereyzel (اُم حُريذَل), where we stopped.