The Land of Midian, Vol. 1 by Richard Burton

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Dinner, at seven p.m., is a copy of what was served before noon.
It is followed by another sitting round the fire, which is built
inside the mess tent when cold compels. At times the conversation
lasts till midnight; and, when cognac or whisky is plentiful, I
have heard it abut upon the Battle of Waterloo and the
Immortality of the Soul. Piquet and ecarte are reserved for life
on board ship. Our only reading consists of newspapers, which
come by camel post every three weeks; and a few "Tauchnitz,"
often odd volumes. I marvel, as much as Hamlet ever did, to see
the passionate influence of the storyteller upon those full-grown
children, bearded men; to find them, in the midst of this wild
new nature, so utterly absorbed by the fictitious weal and woe of
some poor creature of the author's brain, that they neglect even
what they call their "meals ;" allow their "teas" to cool, and
strain their eyesight poring over page after page in the dim
light of a rusty lantern. Thus also the Egyptian, after sitting
in his cafe with all his ears and eyes opened their widest,
whilst the story-teller drones out the old tale of Abu Zayd, will
dispute till midnight, and walk home disputing about what, under
such and such circumstances, they themselves would have done. To
me the main use of "Tauchnitz" was to make Arabia appear the
happier, by viewing, from the calm vantage-ground of the Desert,
the meanness and the littlenesses of civilized life--in novels.

The marching-day is only the halting-day in movement. By seven
a.m. in winter and four a.m. in spring, we have breakfasted and
are ready to mount mule or dromedary; more generally, however, we
set out, accompanied by the Sayyid and the Shaykhs, for a morning
walk. The tents and, most important of all, the tent-table are
left to follow under the charge of the Egyptian officers, who
allow no dawdling. With us are the cook and the two
body-servants, riding of course: they carry meat, drink, and
tobacco in my big tin cylinder intended to collect plants; and
they prefer to give us cold whilst we fight for hot breakfasts.
After resting between ten a.m. and noon in some shady spot,
generally under a thorn, we ride on to the camping-ground, which
we reach between two and three p.m. This is the worst part of the
day for man and beast, especially for the mules--hence the
necessity of early rising.

The average work rarely exceeds six hours (= eighteen to twenty
miles). Even this, if kept up day after day, is hard labour for
our montures, venerable animals whose chests, galled by the
breast-straps, show that they have not been broken to the saddle.
Accustomed through life to ply in a state of semi-somnolence,
between Cairo and the Citadel, they begin by proving how
unintelligent want of education can make one of the most
intelligent of beasts. They trip over every pebble, and are
almost useless on rough and broken ground; they start and swerve
at a man, a tree, a rock, a distant view or a glimpse of the sea;
they will not leave one another, and they indulge their pet
dislikes: this shies at a camel, that kicks at a dog. Presently
Tamaddun, as the Arabs say, "urbanity," or, more literally, being
"citified," asserts itself, as in the human cockney; and at last
they become cleverer and more knowing than any country-bred. They
climb up the ladders of stone with marvellous caution, and slip
down the slopes of sand on their haunches; they round every
rat-hole which would admit a hoof; and they know better than we
do where water is. They are not always well treated; the
"galloping griff" is amongst us, who enjoys "lambing" and
"bucketing" even a half-donkey. Of course, the more sensible
animal of the two is knocked up; whilst the rider assumes the
airs of one versed in the haute ecole. The only difficulty, by no
fault of the mules, was the matter of irons: shoeless they could
travel only in sand; and, as has been said, the farrier was
forgotten.

Amongst our recreant Shaykhs I must not include Furayj bin Rafi'a
el-Huwayti, a man of whom any tribe might be proud, and a living
proof that the Bedawi may still be a true gentleman. A short
figure, meagre of course, as becomes the denizen of the Desert,
but "hard as nails," he has straight comely features, a clean
dark skin, and a comparatively full beard, already, like his
hair, waxing white, although he cannot be forty-five. A bullet in
the back, and both hands distorted by sabre-cuts, attempts at
assassination due to his own kin, do not prevent his using sword,
gun, and pistol. He is the 'Agid of the tribe, the African
"Captain of War;" as opposed to the civil authority, the Shayhk,
and to the judicial, the Kazi. At first it is somewhat startling
to hear him prescribe a slit weasand as a cure for lying; yet he
seems to be known, loved, and respected by all around him,
including his hereditary foes, the Ma'azah. He is the only Bedawi
in camp who prays. Naturally he is a genealogist, rich in local
lore. He counteracts all the intrigues by which that rat-faced
little rascal, Shaykh Hasan el-'Ukbi, tries to breed mischief
between friends. He is a walking map; it would be easy to draw up
a rude plan of the country from his information. He does not know
hours and miles, but he can tell to a nicety the comparative
length of a march; and, when ignorant, he has the courage to say
M'adri, "don't know." He never asked me for anything, nor told a
lie, nor even hid a water-hole. Willing and ready to undertake
the longest march, the hardest work, his word is Hazir--"I'm
here"--and he will even walk to mount a tired man. Seated upon
his loud-voiced little Hijn,[EN#89] remarkable because it is of
the noble Bishari strain, bred between the Nile and the Red Sea,
he is ever the guide in chief. At last it ends with Nadi Shaykh
Furayj!--"Call Shaykh Furayj"--when anything is to be done, to be
explained, to be discovered. I would willingly have recommended
him for the chieftainship of his tribe, but he is not wealthy; he
wisely prefers to see the dignity in the hands of his cousin
'Alayan, who, by-the-by, is helpless without him. He remained
with us to the end: he seemed to take a pride in accompanying the
expedition by sea to El-Haura, and by land to the Wady Hamz, far
beyond the limits of his tribe. When derided for mounting a pair
of Government "bluchers," tied over bare feet, with bits of
glaring tassel-string from his camel-saddle, he quoted the
proverb, "Whoso liveth with a people forty days becomes of them."
We parted after the most friendly adieu, or rather au revoir, and
he was delighted with some small gifts of useful weapons:--I
wonder whether Shaykh Furayj will prove "milk," to use Sir Walter
Scott's phrase, "which can stand more than one skimming."

In such wild travel, the traveller's comfort depends mainly upon
weather. Usually the air of Maghair Shu'ayb was keen, pure, and
invigorating, with a distinct alternation of land-breeze by
night, and of sea-breeze by day. Nothing could be more charming
than the flushing of the mountains at sunrise and sunset, and the
magnificence of the windy, wintry noon. The rocky spires,
pinnacles, and domes, glowing with gorgeous golden light, and the
lower ranges, shaded with hazy blue, umber-red, and luminous
purple, fell into picture and formed prospects indescribably pure
and pellucid. But the average of the aneroid (29.19) gave an
altitude of eight hundred feet; and even in this submaritime
region, the minimum temperature was 42 deg. F., ranging to a
maximum of 85 deg F. in the shade. These are extremes which the
soft Egyptian body, reared in the house or the hut, could hardly
support.

Darwaysh Effendi followed suit after Yusuf Effendi; it was a
study to see him swathed to the nose, bundled in the thickest
clothes, with an umbrella opened against the sun, and with a
soldier leading his staid old mule. Bukhayt Ahmar and several of
the soldiers were laid up; Ahmed Kaptan was incapacitated for
work by an old and inveterate hernia, the effect, he said, of
riding his violent little beast; and a sound ague and fever,
which continued three days, obliterated in my own case the last
evils of Karlsbad. We had one night of rain (January 15),
beginning gently at 2.30 a.m., and ending in a heavy
downfall--unfortunately a pluviometer was one of the forgotten
articles. Before the shower, earth was dry as a bone; shortly
after it, sprouts of the greenest grass began to appear in the
low places, and under the shadow of the perennial shrubs. The
cold damp seemed to make even the snakes torpid: for the first
time in my life I trod upon one--a clairvoyante having already
warned me against serpents and scorpions. There were also bursts
of heat, ending in the normal three grey days of raw piercing
norther; and followed by a still warmer spell. Upon the Gulf of
El-'Akabah a violent gale was blowing. On the whole the winter
climate of inland Midian is trying, and a speedy return to the
seaboard air is at times advisable, while South Midian feels like
Thebes after Cairo. The coast climate is simply perfect, save and
except when El-Ayli, the storm-wind from 'Akabat Aylah, is
abroad. My meteorological journal was carefully kept, despite the
imperfection of the instruments. Mr. Clarke registered the
observations during my illness; Mr. Duguid and Nasir Kaptan made
simultaneous observations on board the ships; and Dr. Maclean
kindly corrected the instrumental errors after our return to
Cairo.[EN#90]

I had proposed to march upon the Hisma, or sandy plateau to the
east, which can be made from Maghair Shu'ayb without the
mortification of a Nakb, or ladder of stone. Thereupon our
Tagaygat-Huwaytat Shaykhs and camel-men began to express great
fear of the 'Imran-Huwaytat, refusing to enter their lands
without express leave and the presence of a Ghafir ("surety").
Our caravan-leader, the gallant Sayyid, at once set off in search
of 'Brahim bin Makbul, second chief of the 'Imran, and recognized
by the Egyptian Government as the avocat, spokesman and
diplomatist, the liar and intriguer of his tribe. This man was
found near El-Hakl (Hagul), two long marches ahead: he came in
readily enough, holding in hand my kerchief as a pledge of
protection, and accompanied by three petty chiefs, Musallam,
Sa'd, and Muhaysin, all with an eye to "bakhshish." In fact,
every naked-footed "cousin," a little above the average clansman,
would call himself a Shaykh, and claim his Mushahirah, or monthly
pay; not a cateran came near us but affected to hold himself
dishonoured if not provided at once with the regular salary.
'Brahim was wholly beardless, and our Egyptians quoted their
proverb, Sabah el-Kurud, wa la Saban el-'Ajrud--"Better (see
ill-omened) monkeys in the morning than the beardless man." As
the corruption of the best turns to the worst, so the Bedawi, a
noble race in its own wilds, becomes thoroughly degraded by
contact with civilization. I remember a certain chief of the Wuld
Ali tribe, near Damascus, who was made a Freemason at Bayrut, and
the result was that "brother" Mohammed became a model villain.

By way of payment for escort and conveyance to the Hisma, 'Brahim
expected a recognition of his claim upon the soil of Maghair
Shu'ayb, which belongs to the wretched Masa'id. He held the true
Ishmaelitic tenet, that as Sayyidna (our Lord) Adam had died
intestate, so all men (Arabs) have a right to all things,
provided the right can be established by might. Hence the saying
of the Fellah, "Shun the Arab and the itch." Thus encouraged by
the Shaykhs, the "dodges" of the clansmen became as manifold as
they were palpable. They wanted us to pay for camping-ground;
they complained aloud when we cut a palm-frond for palms, or used
a rotten fallen trunk for fuel. They made their sheep appear fat
by drenching them with water. The people of the Fort el-Muwaylah,
determined not to deroger, sent to us, for sale, the eggs laid by
our own fowls. And so forth.

Presently 'Brahim brought in his elder brother, Khizr bin Makbul,
about as ill-conditioned a "cuss" as himself. Very dark, with the
left eye clean gone, this worthy appeared pretentiously dressed
in the pink of Desert fashion--a scarlet cloak, sheepskin-lined,
and bearing a huge patch of blue cloth between the shoulders; a
crimson caftan, and red morocco boots with irons resembling
ice-cramps at the heels. Like 'Brahim, he uses his Bakur, or
crooked stick, to trace lines and dots upon the ground;
similarly, the Yankee whittles to hide the trick that lurks in
his eyes. Khizr tents in the Hisma, and his manners are wild and
rough as his dwelling-place; possibly manly, brusque certainly,
like the Desert Druzes of the Jebel Hauran. He paid his first
visit when our Shaykhs were being operated upon by the
photographer: I fancied that such a novelty would have attracted
his attention for the moment. But no: his first question was,
Aysh 'Ujrati?--"What is the hire for my camels?" Finally, these
men threw so many difficulties in our way, that I was compelled
to defer our exploration of the eastern region to a later day.

After a week of washing for metals at Maghair Shu'ayb, it was
time to move further afield. On January 17th, the Egyptian
Staff-officers rode up the Wady 'Afal, and beyond the two
pyramidal rocks of white stone, which have fallen from the
towered "Shigd," they found on its right bank the ruins of a
small atelier. It lies nearly opposite the mouth of the Wady
Tafrigh, which is bounded north by a hill of the same name; and
south by the lesser "Shigd." Beyond it comes the Wady Nimir, the
broad drain of the Jibal el-Nimir, "Hills of the Leopard,"
feeding the 'Afal: the upper valley is said to have water and
palms. After a "leg" to the north-east (45 deg. mag.), they found
the 'Afal running from due north; and one hour (= three miles)
led them to other ruins on the eastern side of the low hills that
prolong to the north the greater "Shigd." The names of both sites
were unknown even to Shaykh Furayj. The foundations of uncut
boulders showed a semicircle of buildings measuring 229 paces
across the horseshoe. They counted eleven tenements--probably
occupied by the slave-owners and superintendents--squares and
oblongs, separated by intervals of from forty-five to
ninety-seven or a hundred paces. On the north-north-east lay the
chief furnace, a parallelogram of some twenty-three paces, built
of stone and surrounded by scatters of broken white quartz and
scoria. These two workshops seem to argue that the country was
formerly much better watered than it is now. Moreover, it
convinced me that the only rock regularly treated by the
ancients, in this region, was the metallic Maru (quartz).

I had heard by mere chance of a "White Mountain," at no great
distance, in the mass of hills bounding to the north the
Secondary formations of Maghair Shu'ayb. On January 21st, M.
Marie and Lieutenant Amir were detached to inspect it. They were
guided by the active Furayj and a Bedawi lad, Hamdan of the
Amirat, who on receiving a "stone dollar" (i.e. silver) could not
understand its use. Travelling in a general northern direction,
the little party reached their destination in about three hours
(= nine miles). They found some difficulty in threading a mile
and a quarter of very ugly road, a Nakb, passing through rocks
glittering with mica; a ladder of stony steps and overfalls, with
angles and zigzags where camels can carry only half-loads. The
European dismounted; the Egyptian, who was firm in the saddle,
rode his mule the whole way. We afterwards, however, explored a
comparatively good road, via the Wady Murakh, to the seaboard,
which will spare the future metal-smelter much trouble and
expense.

The quartz mountain is, like almost all the others, the expanded
mushroom-like head of a huge filon or vein; and minor filets
thread all the neighbouring heights. The latter are the
foot-hills of the great Jebel Zanah, a towering, dark, and
dome-shaped mass clearly visible from Maghair Shu'ayb. This
remarkable block appeared to me the tallest we had hitherto seen;
it is probably the "Tayyibat Ism, 6000," of the Hydrographic
Chart. The travellers ascended the Jebel el-Maru, trembling the
while with cold; and from its summit, some fifteen hundred feet
above sea-level, they had a grand view of the seaboard and the
sea. They brought home specimens of the rock, and fondly fancied
that they had struck gold: it was again that abominable
"crow-gold" (pyrites), which has played the unwary traveller so
many a foul practical joke.

During our stay at Maghair Shu'ayb the camp had been much excited
by Bedawi reports of many marvels in the lands to the north and
the north-east. The Arabs soon learned to think that everything
was worth showing: they led M. Lacaze for long miles to a rock
where bees were hiving. A half-naked 'Umayri shepherd, one Suwayd
bin Sa'id, had told us of a Hajar masdud ("closed stone") about
the size of a tent, with another of darker colour set in it; the
Arabs had been unable to break it open, but they succeeded with a
similar rock in the Hisma, finding inside only Tibn ("tribulated
straw") and charcoal. Another had seen a Kidr Dahab ("golden
pot"), in the 'Aligan section of the Wady el-Hakl (Hagul) where
it leaves the Hisma; and a matchlock-man had brought down with
his bullet a bit of precious metal from the upper part. This
report prevails in many places: it may have come all the way from
"Pharaoh's Treasury" at Petra, or from the Sinaitic Wady Leja. At
the mouth of the latter is the Hajar el-Kidr ("Potrock"), which
every passing Arab either stones or strikes with his staff,
hoping that the mysterious utensil will burst and shed its golden
shower. Moreover, a half-witted Ma'azi, by name Masa'i, had
tantalized us with a glorious account of the "House of 'Antar" in
the Hisma, and the cistern where that negro hero and poet used to
water his horses. Near its massive walls rises a Hazbah ("steep
and solitary hillock") with Dims or layers of ashlar atop: he had
actually broken off a bit of greenstone sticking in the masonry,
and sold it to a man from Tor (Khwajeh Kostantin?) for a large
sum--two napoleons, a new shirt, and a quantity of coffee. A
similar story is found in the Badiyat el-Tih, the Desert north of
the Sinaitic Peninsula. At the ruined cairns of Khara'bat Lussan
(the ancient Lysa), an Arab saw a glimmer of light proceeding
from a bit of curiously cut stone. "This he carried away with him
and sold to a Christian at Jerusalem for three pounds."[EN#91]

Shaykh 'Brahim had also heard of this marvel; but he called it
the Harab 'Antar ("Ruin of 'Antar"), and he placed it in the Wady
el-Hakl, about an hour's ride south of the Wady 'Afal. Finally, a
tablet in the Wady Hawwayi', adorned with a dragon and other
animals, was reported to me; and the memory of inscriptions
mentioned in the Jihan-numa was still importunate. Evidently all
these were mere fancies; or, at best, gross distortions of facts.
The Bedawin repeat them in the forlorn hope of "bakhshish," and
never expect action to be taken: next morning they will probably
declare the whole to be an invention. Yet it is never safe to
neglect the cry of "wolf": our most remarkable discovery, the
Temple at the Wady Hamz, was made when report promised least.

Accordingly, on January 24th, I despatched, with Shaykhs Khizr
and 'Brahim as guides, Mr. Clarke and the two Staff-lieutenants
towards El-Rijm, the next station of the pilgrim-caravan. Riding
up the Wady 'Afal, they reached, after an hour and
three-quarters, the ruins known as Igar Muas--a name of truly
barbarous sound. The settlement had occupied both banks, but the
principal mass was on the left: here two blocks, separated by a
hillock, lay to north-east and south-west of each other.
Apparently dwelling-places, they were composed of a
masonry-cistern and of fourteen buildings, detached squares and
oblongs, irregular both in orientation and in size; the largest
measuring eighty by fifty metres, and the smallest five by four.
The material was of water-rolled boulders, huge pebbles without
mortar or cement. There were no signs of a furnace, nor were the
usual fragments of glass and pottery strewed about. To the north
and running up the north-north-eastern slope stood a line of wall
two metres broad and three hundred long: it ended at the
south-western extremity in five round towers razed to their
foundations. It was suggested that this formed part of a street,
laid out on the plan of the Jebel el-Safra, the hauteville of
Maghair Shu'ayb. On the right bank of the Wady appeared a heap of
stones suggesting a Burj. Fine, hard, compact, and purple-blue
slate was collected in the ruins; and the red conglomerates on
either side of the watercourse suggested that Cascalho had been
worked.

After riding their dromedaries some three hours, halts not
included, the travellers were asked why they had not brought
their tents. "Because we expect to return to camp this evening!"
Then it leaked out that they had not reached half-way to the
"closed stone," while the dragon-tablet would take a whole day.
Unprepared for a wintry night in the open, some twelve hundred
feet above sea-level, they rode back at full speed, greatly to
the disgust of the Arabs, who, at this hungry season, rarely push
their lean beasts beyond three and a half to four miles an hour.
Lieutenant Amir, who is invaluable in the field, would have
pressed forward: not so the European.

I did not see Shaykhs Khizr or 'Brahim for many a day; nor did we
attempt any more reconnaissances to the north of Maghair Shu'ayb.

Not the least pleasant part of our evening's work was collecting
information concerning the origin of the tribes inhabiting modern
Midian; and, as on such occasions a mixed multitude was always
present, angry passions were often let rise. As my previous
volume showed, the tribes in this Egyptian corner of
North-Western Arabia number three--the Huwaytat, the Maknawi, and
the Beni 'Ukbah; the two former of late date, and all more or
less connected with the Nile Valley. Amongst them I do not
include the Hutaym or Hitaym, a tribe of Pariahs who, like the
Akhdam ("serviles") of Maskat and Yemen, live scattered amongst,
although never intermarrying with, their neighbours. As a rule
the numbers of all these tribes are grossly exaggerated, the
object being to impose upon the pilgrim-caravans, and to draw
black-mail from the Government of Egypt. The Huwaytat, for
instance, modestly declare that they can put 5000 matchlocks into
the field: I do not believe that they have 500. The Ma'azah speak
of 2000, which may be reduced in the same proportion; whilst the
Baliyy have introduced their 37,000 into European books of
geography, when 370 would be nearer the mark. I anticipate no
difficulty in persuading these Egypto-Arabs to do a fair day's
work for a fair and moderate wage. The Bedawin flocked to the
Suez Canal, took an active part in the diggings, and left a good
name there. They will be as useful to the mines; and thus shall
Midian escape the mortification of the "red-flannel-shirted
Jove," while enjoying his golden shower.

I first took the opportunity of rectifying my notes on the origin
of the Huwayta't tribe.[EN#92] According to their own oral
genealogists, the first forefather was a lad called 'Alayan, who,
travelling in company with certain Shurafa ("descendants of the
Apostle"), and ergo held by his descendants to have been also a
Sherif, fell sick on the way. At El-'Akabah he was taken in
charge by 'Atiyyah, Shaykh of the then powerful Ma'azah tribe,
who owned the land upon which the fort stands. A "clerk," able to
read and to write, he served his adopted father by superintending
the accounts of stores and provisions supplied to the Hajj. The
Arabs, who before that time embezzled at discretion, called him
El-Huwayti' ("the Man of the Little Wall") because his learning
was a fence against their frauds He was sent for by his Egyptian
friends; these, however, were satisfied by a false report of his
death: he married his benefactor's daughter; he became Shaykh
after the demise of his father-in-law; he drove the Ma'azah from
El-'Akabah, and he left four sons, the progenitors and eponymi of
the Midianite Huwaytat. Their names are 'Alwan, 'Imran, Suway'id,
and Sa'id; and the list of nineteen tribes, which I gave in "The
Gold-Mines of Midian," is confined to the descendants of the
third brother.

The Huwaytat tribe is not only an intruder, it is also the
aggressive element in the Midianite family of Bedawin; and, of
late years, it has made great additions to its territory. If it
advances at the present rate it will, after a few generations,
either "eat up," as Africans say, all the other races or, by a
more peaceful process, assimilate them to its own body.

We also consulted Shaykh Hasan and his cousin Ahmed, alias Abu
Khartum, concerning the origin of his tribe, the Beni 'Ukbah.
According to our friend Furayj, the name means "Sons of the Heel"
('Akab) because, in the early wars and conquests of El-Islam,
they fought during the day by the Moslems' side; and at night,
when going over to the Nazarenes, they lost the "spoor" by
wearing their sandals heel foremost, and by shoeing their horses
the wrong way. All this they indignantly deny; and they are borne
out by the written genealogies, who derive them from "Ukbah, the
son of Maghrabah, son of Heram," of the Kahtaniyyah (Joctanite)
Arabs, some of the noblest of Bedawi blood. They preserve the
memory of their ancestor 'Ukbah, and declare that they come from
the south; that is, they are of Hejazi descent, consequently far
more ancient than the Huwaytat. At first called "El-Musalimah,"
they were lords of all the broad lands extending southward
between Shamah (Syria) and the Wady Damah below the port of Ziba;
and this fine valley retains, under its Huwayti occupants, the
title of 'Ukbiyyah--'Ukbah-land. Thus they still claim as Milk,
or "unalienable property," the Wadys Gharr, Sharma, 'Aynunah, and
others; whilst their right to the ground upon which Fort
el-Muwaylah is built has never been questioned.

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