The Land of Midian

e f m m .31 ZJ * 2 w£i H », P ?v .^sfe'.. r* ^j^^^h &* :tf*^£4 -^ A » \ ' - :% *\\ \ 4k victoria R'S" COLLECTION BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY 3 1197 22902 6171 BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY H.SOTHEHAN *. CS.nOOKSELLERS l*t>. ST R A ND -LONDON. THE LAND OF MIDIAN II. a — By the same Author. Second Edition. Demy 8vo, cloth, price \8s. THE GOLD-MINES OF MIDIAN AND THE RUINED MIDIANITE CITIES. A Fortnight's Tour in North- Western Arabia. With Numerous Illustrations. "There is a freshness about his [Captain Burton's] book, which must engross the attention of all who turn to the pages of this, his latest con- tribution to geographical literature." Athenaeum. London : C. Regan Paul & Co., i, Paternoster Square. THO* KELL, l:t« +0,KING S^ CCV "pins" of the sh^rr (6000 FEET HIGH.) : THE LAND OF MIDIAN (REVISITED). BY RICHARD F. BURTON. WITH MAP, AND ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD AND BY CHR0M0-L1 THOGRAPHY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON C. KEGAN PAUL & CO., i, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1879. 'The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved?) OPB CONTENTS. PART II. THE MARCH THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN MIDIAN. (Continued.) CHAPTER XI. PAGE The Unknown Lands SouthSot of the Hisma—Ruins of Shuwak and Shaghab CHAPTER XII. From Shaghab to Ziba—Ruins of El-Khandaki and Umm Amil—The Turquoise Mine—Return to El- Muwaylah ... ... ... ... ... ... 32 CHAPTER XIII. A Week around and upon the Sharr Mountain— Resume of the March through Eastern or Central Midian ... ... ... ... ... 56 CHAPTER XIV. Down South—To El-Wijh—Notes on the Quarantine —The Hutaym Tribe ... ... ... ... 89 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. PAGE The Southern Sulphur-Hill—The Cruise to El-Haura —Notes on the Baliyy Tribe and the Volcanic Centres of North-Western Arabia ... ... 122 CHAPTER XVI. Our Last March—The Inland Fort—Ruins of the Gold-Mines at Umm el-Karayat and Umm el- Harab ... ... ... ... ... ... 147 CHAPTER XVII. The March continued to El-Bada — Description of the Plain Badais ... ... ... ... ... 177 CHAPTER XVIII. Coal a "Myth"—March to Marwat—Arrival at the Wady Hamz ... ... ... ... ... 199 CHAPTER XIX. The Wady Hamz—The Classical Ruin— Aba'l-Maru, the Mine of " Marwah "—Return to El-Wijh— Resume of the Southern Journey ... ... 219 Conclusion ... ... ... ... ... ... 245 APPENDIX I. Dates of the Three Journeys (Northern, Central, and Southern) made by the Second Khedivial Expedition ... ... ... ... ... 263 APPENDIX II. Expenses of the Expedition to Midian, commanded by Captain R. F. Burton, H.B.M. Consul, Trieste 266 CONTENTS. vii APPENDIX III. PAGE Preserved Provisions and other Stores, supplied by Messrs. Voltera Bros., of the Ezbekiyyah, Cairo 269 APPENDIX IV. Botany and List of Insects ... ... ... ... 273 APPENDIX V. Meteorological Journal ... ... ... ... 282 Index ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 313 PART II. THE MARCH THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN MIDI AN. {Continued) VOL. II, THE LAND OF MIDIAN REVISITED. CHAPTER XL THE UNKNOWN LANDS SOUTH OF THE HISMA—RUINS OF SHUWAK AND SHAGHAB. We have now left the region explored by Europeans; and our line to the south and the south-east will lie over ground wholly new. In front of us the land is no longer Arz Madyan : we are entering South Midian, which will extend to El-Hejaz. As the march might last longer than had been ex- pected, I ordered fresh supplies from El-Muwaylah to meet us in the interior via Ziba. A very small boy acted dromedary-man ; and on the next day he reached the fort, distant some thirty-five and a half direct geographical miles eastward with a trifling of northing. We left the Jayb el-Khuraytah on a delicious 4 THE LAND OF MIDIAN. morning (6.15 a.m., February 26th), startling the gazelles and the hares from their breakfast graze. The former showed in troops of six ; and the latter were still breeding, as frequent captures of the long- eared young proved. The track lay down the Wady Dahal and other influents of the great Wady Sa'luwwah, a main feeder of the Damah. We made a considerable ddtour between south-south-east and south-east to avoid the rocks and stones discharged by the valleys of the Shafah range on our left. To the right rose the Jibal el-Tihamah, over whose nearer brown heights appeared the pale blue peaks of Jebel Sharr and its southern neighbour, Jebel Sa'liiwwah. At nine a.m. we turned abruptly eastward up the Wady el-Sulaysalah, whose head falls sharply from the Shafah range. The surface is still Hisma ground, red sand with blocks of ruddy grit, washed down from the plateau on the left ; and, according to Furayj, it forms the south-western limit of the Harrah. The valley is honeycombed into man- traps by rats and lizards, causing many a tumble, and notably developing the mulish instinct. We then crossed a rough and rocky divide, Arabice a Majrd, or, as the Bedawin here pronounce it, a " Magrah,"* which takes its name from the tor- mented Ruways ridge on the right. After a hot, * " The word is explained in my Itineraries," part ii. sect. 3. THE "LITTLE STEP." 5 unlively march of four hours (= eleven miles), on mules worn out by want of water, we dismounted at a queer isolated lump on the left of the track. This Jebel el-Muraytbah (" of the Little Step ") is lumpy grey granite of the coarsest elements, whose false strata, tilted up till they have become quasi- vertical, and worn down to pillars and drums, crown the crest like gigantic columnar crystallizations. We shall see the same freak of nature far more grandly developed into the "Pins" of the Shirr. It has evidently upraised the trap, of which large and small blocks are here and there imbedded in it. The granite is cut in its turn by long horizontal dykes of the hardest quadrangular basalt, occasionally pud ding'd with banded lumps of red jasper and oxydu- lated iron : from afar they look like water-lines, and in places they form walls, regular as if built. The rounded forms result from the granites flaking off in curved laminae, like onion-coats. Want of homo- geneity in the texture causes the granite to degrade into caves and holes : the huge blocks which have fallen from the upper heights often show unexpected hollows in the under and lower sides. Above the water we found an immense natural dolmen, under which apparently the Bedawin take shelter. After El-Murayfbah the regular granitic sequence disappears, nor will it again be visible till we reach Shaghab (March 2nd). 6 THE LAND OF MIDIAN. About noon we remounted and rounded the south of the block, disturbing by vain shots two fine black eagles. I had reckoned upon the "Water of El-Murayt'bah," in order to make an exceptional march after so many days of deadly slow going. But the cry arose that the rain-puddle was dry. We had not brought a sufficient supply with us, and twenty-two miles to and from the Wady Dahal was a long way for camels, to say nothing of their owners and the danger of prowling Ma'azah. In front water lay still farther off, according to the guides, who, it will be seen, notably deceived us. So I ordered the camp to be pitched, after recon- noitring the locale of the water ; and we all pro- ceeded to work, with a detachment of soldiers and quarrymen. It was not a rain-puddle, but a spring rising slowly in the sand, which had filled up a fissure in the granite about four feet broad ; of these crevices three were disposed parallel to one another, and at different heights. They wanted only clearing out ; the produce was abundant, and though slightly flavoured with iron and sulphur, it was drinkable. The thirsty mules amused us not a little: they smelt water at once ; hobbled as they were, all hopped like kangaroos over the plain, and with long ears well to the fore, they stood superintending the operation till it was their turn to be happy. Our evening at the foot of El-Ruways was NOBLE VIEW. 7 cheered, despite the flies, the earwigs, and the biting Bauzah beetle, which here first put in an appearance, by the weird and fascinating aspect of the southern Hisma-wall, standing opposite to us, and distant about a mile from the dull drab-coloured basin, El- Majra. Based upon mighty massive foundations of brown and green trap, the undulating junction being perfectly defined by a horizontal white line, the capping of sandstone rises regular as if laid in courses, with a huge rampart falling perpendicular upon the natural slope of its glacis. This bounding curtain is called the Taur el-Shafah, the " inacces- sible part of the Lip-range." Further eastward the continuity of the coping has been broken and weathered into the most remarkable castellations : you pass mile after mile of cathedrals, domes, spires, minarets, and pinnacles ; of fortresses, dungeons, bulwarks, walls, and towers ; of platforms, buttresses, and flying buttresses. These Girdgir (Jirajir), as the Bedawin call them, change shape at every new point of view, and the eye never wearies of their infinite variety. Nor are the tints less remarkable than the forms. When the light of day warms them with its gorgeous glaze, the buildings wear the brightest hues of red concrete, like a certain house near Prince's Gate, set off by lambent lights of lively pink and balas-ruby, and by shades of deep transparent purple, while here and there a dwarf dome or a " 8 THE LAND OF MIDIAN. tumulus gleams sparkling white in the hot sun-ray. The even-glow is indescribably lovely, and all the lovelier because unlasting : the moment the red disc disappears, the glorious rosy smile fades away, leaving the pale grey ghosts of their former selves to gloom against the gloaming of the eastern sky.

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