the shape of Ghufr we should give nothing. If he was in rebellion against the government, we only wanted to know it, that we might make our report accordingly; at any rate we should make a report of his conduct to the English and American consuls in Cairo, who would lay the affair before the Pasha, and take measures that future travellers should not be thus exposed to exactions. After all, we were now in his power, and if he chose to rob or kill us outright, we were ready; but he must abide the consequences. Here the matter rested for some time. It was already past 10 o'clock, and we began to be impatient at this delay. Rather than give up the ascent of Mount Hor, (although we had now seen it fully from below,) we thought it best to tender to the old man through Sheikh Hussân, at first, what the chief Sheikh of the Jehâlin had told us would be enough, viz. forty piastres. It was returned; and also afterwards eighty, which we offered. I would have gone up to one hundred piastres; but the tenacious Sheikh was now so certain of his prey, that he would hear of nothing short of the full thousand. We therefore concluded, that it would be better on the whole, as we could not carry the matter through by force, to take him at his word, and return the way we came. The followers of Abu Zeitûn had gradually increased to nearly forty armed men, including some of the 'Ammârin, and a brother of Sheikh Husein the 'Alawy. Keeping our own counsel, we ordered the camels to be loaded, which was done without hindrance from any one; and we mounted. Not wishing however to give up the point except from actual compulsion, we now attempted to set off on the way to Mount Hor, Sheikh Hussân leading the forward camel; but the hostile party at a signal from Abu Zeitûn instantly closed around, and swords were drawn and brandished; which however, among these Arabs, as we had now learned, means nothing more than to make a flourish. The heads of our camels were seized and turned in the opposite direction, with orders to go by the way we came. Not a step, my companion replied, except by force; and dismounting he stood up before them and told them: We now knew them to be robbers, and were ready for them; let them rob and kill us if they chose, but not a para more of money should they get, than we had offered them. They replied, that not for a para less than a thousand piastres should we go to Mount Hor. Our resolute Komeh next seized the halter of the head camel and tried to go on as before; but with no better success. He then in great wrath, threw down his gun and pistol and pipe on the ground before them, (the pipe was shivered in pieces,) declaring them to be thieves and robbers, and calling on them to take possession of his arins and all that he had.-All this however was of no avail; and we accordingly, about 11 o'clock, turned the heads of our camels the other way, and proceeded on the path which issues from the northeast corner of the area, leading close along under the tombs in the eastern cliffs. Our departure in this manner seemed, after all, to be wholly unexpected to the adverse party. The old Sheikh had reckoned upon us so surely, that this movement took him by surprise and threatened to thwart his plans. He detained our Arabs long in consultation; and when Sheikh Hussân at length came up, he brought an offer that we might return and stay as long as we pleased on paying five hundred piastres. To this of course we paid no regard; being determined not to renew the negotiation. At this time our five Haweitât, whom we were desirous to retain at least for the present, thinking it a favourable moment to profit by our necessities, demanded their wages, and refused to accompany us any further, except at an extravagant price. We paid them off, and let them go. There now remained with us only our four Jehâlin, in these mountains teeming with such ruffians. But we put our trust in God, and went forward; not knowing but that at any moment we might be overtaken and plundered. After we had proceeded for nearly an hour, a man from Abu Zeitûn overtook us, inviting us to return; the Sheikh did not wish us to depart thus; our good will was worth more to him than money; and we might come back and finish our observations without paying any thing. We sent word to the effect, that we had seen all we desired in the valley; that he had driven us away, and we should not return; but should make our report to Cairo. After another hour came a second messenger, begging us at least to wait until the Sheikh himself could come up and (6 'get our good will;" which means, being interpreted, to part with words of peace, but get a bakhshish if possible. We were now on the plain of Sutûh Beida, nearly opposite Dibdiba; and turning aside under the shade of the western precipice, we waited accordingly. The old man came at length on his dromedary, and most of his company with him. Dismounting, he seated himself near us, repeated coldly the assurance, that our good will was dearer to him than money; said we might return if we chose, and whatever we might please to give him would be acceptable; or, if we chose to go on, we might go in peace. We told him, he was now too late, and we should go on; and left him coldly, without his present.-I proposed indeed to my companion, that we should so far put his good will to the test, as to let him give us a guide to conduct us to Mount Hor by some other route, not leading through Wady Musa. But to this my friend was averse; thinking it better when once out of the old man's clutches, not to place ourselves again in his power. We therefore reluctantly gave up Mount Hor, and proceeded on our way, after having been thus delayed for about an hour. The head Sheikh of the Jehâlîn afterwards assured us, that such an exaction had never been attempted nor such a claim set up by Abu Zeitûn, before the present year; but this has probably been owing, as already suggested, to the shortness of the visits made by travellers, whose arrival did not become known to the Sheikh. The peasants, it was said, had sometimes come around, and asked for bakhshish; and a few piastres had occasionally been given them. At any rate, we were probably the first, on whom the old miscreant had once laid his grasp, who ever escaped from it without yielding to his demand; and we received many compliments from the Sheikhs of the Jehâlîn and others at Hebron for the boldness and address, with which we had extricated ourselves from his power. We owed our escape, no doubt, to the awe in which he stood of the strong arm of Muhammed 'Aly; a circumstance of which we did not discover the full extent until after we had left him. Hussân remained behind; and him he charged, that the Jehâlîn should bring no more Christians to Wady Musa, without an express paper with the seal of the government; such a paper he would obey. This means, of course, nothing more than a Tezkirah from the governor of Gaza, under whose jurisdiction this region belongs; or probably one from Jerusalem or Hebron would answer just as well. We had committed the oversight of leaving our Firmân among our other papers at Hebron; not dreaming that it could be necessary to us in these mountains. But I am since persuaded, that had we had the Firmân to flourish in the old man's face, and more especially the Tezkirah of Sheikh Sa'îd, which had been offered to us in Gaza,' we should have carried our point without much difficulty. As it was, this could be done only by submitting to his demand, or by force. To the former we were not disposed, either for our own sakes or for the sake of those travellers who should come after us; and the latter was all on the adverse side. We suppose it was the same awe of Muhammed 'Aly, which alone prevented them from plundering us outright; helping themselves to that which we refused them. See p. 37, above. 'We afterwards presented a written report of this whole affair to the American consul at Cairo, whom we met at Alexandria; but nothing appears to have been done in the matter. Mr Roberts, the English artist, and his party, who went to Wady Musa in 1839, were met by the Sheikh before they reached the spot; but got off with paying three hun dred piastres instead of one thousand. Kinnear's Cairo, Petra, etc. p. 137.—In 1840, a large party of sixteen individuals, English, Americans, and Germans, making up a caravan of some fifty camels, visited Wady Mûsa together; and paid to the Arabs of the place, (as I am informed by one of the party,) not less than seventy-five piastres for cach, or twelve hundred piastres in all Thus ended our visit to Wady Musa, after we had seen and accomplished all which lay within our original plan, except ascending Mount Hor. Although we might have gladly spent several days in searching out and studying the wonders of the place, yet our plans and the advance of the season called us elsewhere; and there was nothing for which I could have wished to return to the valley itself, except to look at the few inscriptions and seek for others. I had indeed a strong desire to ascend Mount Hor, for the sake of the wide prospect, and in order to take its bearings from other known points; but chiefly perhaps because it is one of the most definitely marked spots, on which the great Hebrew lawgiver actually stood,-where took place the closing scene between the prophet brothers, when the elder yielded up the ghost in the presence of the younger and of his own son, "and died there in the top of the mount." The Wely Neby Hârûn upon the summit, is in nothing different from other Arab tombs of saints, which are so common upon the mountains and hills of Palestine. There is an inscription in Arabic and another in Hebrew, the work of casual visitors, and of no importance whatever. These had been copied by Lord Prudhoe during his recent visit; and we had already seen and read them in Jerusalem.2 We had set off from Wady Mûsa at 11 o'clock; the way passing along beneath the eastern cliff and up the side of one of the Wadys which enter from the N. N. E. Then crossing one or two similar Wadys, we reached the plain Sutûh Beida, and came to the place where we had yesterday bought the sheep and sent forward our baggage. Here it was that we waited for Abu Zeitûn; and here we left him at 2 o'clock. Our way was now the same we had come the preceding day. A long and tedious ride brought us at 5 o'clock to the top of the pass of Nemela; where we stopped for a moment to enjoy the wide prospect and verify our former observations. The air was now serene and clearer than before, and the view finer. The junction of the erâfeh with el-Jeib in the 'Arabah, and the cliff el-Mukrâh beyond, were perfectly distinct; as was also the winding course. of the Jeib further south. We descended the pass in forty-five minutes; and following down the valleys below, reached the lower edge of the porphyry formation, where the Wady turns down though the lower limestone cliffs. Here at 63 o'clock we halted for rest and refreshment. for permission to examine the ruins. All 2 The first Frank travellers to ascend Mount Hor and visit the Wely Neby Hârûn, were Irby and Mangles and their party in 1818. It has been several times described within the last five years; but the account of Irby and Mangles remains as yet the most definite and exact. The reader will find it in Note XXXVI, end of the volume. As there would be moonlight until an hour after midnight, our Arabs were desirous to push forward during that interval across the plain. They represented, and with justice, that it would be prudent to get away as soon as possible from the vicinity of these mountains thus teeming with ruffians; since although we had nothing to fear from Abu Zeitun himself, it was yet very possible that some of his tribe, not satisfied with our having thus slipped from their grasp, might still pursue and plunder us by night; or that some of the Ma'âz, hearing of our departure in this manner with only four men, might also think it a good occasion to follow and rob us, and throw the responsibility upon the Bedûn. We assented therefore to the proposal of our guides; and that the more readily, because we wished, before Sunday, to escape from the burning desert of the 'Arabah. Accordingly at ten minutes past 9 o'clock we again mounted; and aided by the bright moonlight, descended the stony slope which skirts the western base of the mountains.. All was still; no one was allowed to talk or smoke; even the tread of the camels seemed more noiseless. A man on foot led the way; but he sometimes missed the path among the rocks, which the more sagacious camels readily recovered. Our object was to strike obliquely across the 'Arabah to the fountain el-Weibeh. Here was no path; the usual route from the pass er-Rubâ'y to Hebron leads by el-Weibeh; but that from Nemela crosses to the fountain el-Khurâr further north. Our guides took the present course partly in accordance with our wish to visit el-Weibeh; and partly as a blind in case we should be pursued. Our general course was now about N. W. by W. After an hour we left the stones, and struck out upon the gravelly desert plain, intersected by sandy Wadys with shrubs. We were in doubt at the time whether we did not pass to the northward of 'Ain el-Buweirideh; but a bearing which we took next morning served to show the contrary. After crossing several deep gullies running in a westerly direction, we struck at 12 o'clock a large and deep Wady called es-Sikákîn, and descending into its bed followed it for some time. It runs northwest obviously to join Wady el-Jeib; and breaks through a range of gravel hills one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in height, extending from east to west across the 'Arabah. Having passed these hills, we left the Wady and kept along their northern base until 1 o'clock. The moon had now gone down; we therefore stopped, and spreading our canvass and carpets on the sand, lay down to rest, and slept for three hours peacefully and sweetly. |