34. (7) Rabagh [Arabic], a village. Between Rabagh and Khalysz, the Red sea is seen from the Hadj route. There are Wadys coming from the Red sea, which in times of high flood are filled with the sea water; it remains sometimes during the whole summer, at a distance of six and seven hours from the sea. The water brings with it a large quantity of fish. The camels and horses drink the water of these Wadys.
35. (8) Khalysz [Arabic], a village with a rivulet.
36. (9) El Szafan [Arabic], two wells.
37.(10) Wady Fatme [Arabic], a rivulet, with a village and gardens.
38. Mekke.
[FN#1] To the southward of Kerek all the women on the Hadj route wear the Egyptian face veil or Berkoa [Arabic], which is not a Syrian fashion.
[p.662] APPENDIX. No. IV.
Description of the Route from Boszra in the Haouran, to the Djebel
Shammor.
ON the western side of the Djebel Haouran, at a small distance from its southern extremity, lies Boszra. On the eastern foot and declivity of Djebel Haouran, are upwards of two hundred villages built of black stone in ruins, at a quarter or half an hours distance from each other. The country beyond them is completely level and is called El Hammad [Arabic]. About five hours to the S. of the Djebel, lies the half ruined town of Szalkhat [Arabic]; it has a large castle, with strong walls, several cisterns and Birkets of rainwater. From that place begins the Wady Serhhan [Arabic], which runs to the E.S.E. It is a low ground, with sloping sides; at every three or four hours a well is met with in the Wady, with a little grass round it, but even in winter there is no running stream; though water is found in many places at a small depth below the surface of the earth. The traveller frequently passes in that Wady small hills (Tels), which consist of thin layers of salt (about six inches thick), alternating with layers of earth of the same thickness. The Arabs sell the salt in the villages of the Haouran. Following the course of that Wady, which at length takes a more southerly direction, you arrive, after ten or eleven days journey (with camels about eight days), in the country called Djof [Arabic]. The Tels about Djof are called Kara [Arabic]. The Djof is a collection of seven or eight villages, built at a distance of ten minutes or a quarter of an hour from each other, in an easterly line. The ground is pure sand. These villages are called Souk (or markets), the principal of them are: Souk Ain Um Salim [Arabic], Souk Eddourra [Arabic], Souk Esseideiin [Arabic], Souk Douma [Arabic], Souk Mared [Arabic]. These villages are all built alike: the houses are built round the inside of a large square mud wall, which has but one entrance. This wall therefore serves as a common back wall to all the houses, which amount in some of the Souks to one hundred and twenty, in others from eighty to one hundred. The middle part of the enclosed square is empty. The roofs of the houses are made of palm wood, and their walls of bricks, called Leben, dried in the sun, which are about two feet square, and one foot thick. When strangers arrive, their camels remain in the middle of the Souk, and they themselves lodge at the different houses. Round the Souk are gardens of palm trees, which the inhabitants call Houta [Arabic]: in several of these are deep [p.663] wells, the water from some of which is conducted by small canals [Arabic] into the gardens of those, who not having any wells are obliged to purchase water from their neighbours. She camels are employed to draw the water out of the wells; this is done by tying a rope round the camel, which walks away from the well till the bucket, which is fastened to the other end of the rope, is drawn up, and empties its contents into the canals. These she camels are called Sanie [Arabic]. Most of the inhabitants of the Djof are either petty merchants or artificers; they work in leather, wood, iron, and make boots, sword hilts, horse shoes, lance heads, &c. which they sell to the Arabs, together with the produce of their palm trees; in return they, take camels. They sow very little wheat; the small extent of ground which they cultivate is worked with the hand; for they have no ploughs. They eat very little bread, living upon dates, butter, and flesh meat. Besides the game which they hunt in the neighbourhood, they eat camels flesh almost daily, and they even devour the ostriches and wild dogs, the former of which are sold to them by the Arabs Sherarat. They preserve their dates in large earthen jars for the use of the great Arab tribes which often pass here; of these the Rowalla come almost every year: before the time of the Wahabi, the El Hessene and Beni Szakher likewise visited the Djof.
The Felahein of the Djof are called Karaune [Arabic], a name which in the neighbourhood of Damascus is given to all Syrians or those who are presumed to be of Syrian origin. Although Fellahs, the people of the Djof intermarry with Arab girls, whence it happens that many Arabs of Shammor and Serhan have settled here and become Fellahs; and they continue notwithstanding, to be looked upon in their respective tribes by the heads of families, as proper husbands for their daughters. The workmen or artificers [Arabic], on the contrary, never can marry Arab girls, nor even the daughters of the Fellahs, their immediate neighbours; they intermarry exclusively amongst themselves, or amongst the workmen who have settled in the Bedouin encampments.