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ARABS  HAMAIDE.
the  upper  part  of  the  mountain  the  ground  is  covered  with  large
blocks  of  the  black  Haouran  stone,*  which  I  found  to  be  more
porous  than  any  specimens  of  it  which  I  had  seen  further  northward. ¬
  On  the  summit  of  this  steep  southern  ascent  are  the  ruins
of  a  large  square  building,  of  which  the  foundations  only  remain,
covered  with  heaps  of  stone  ;  they  are  directly  opposite  Araayr,  and
the  ruins  above  mentioned  are  also  called  Mehatet  el  Hadj.  I  believe ¬
  them  to  be  of  modern  date.
We  had  now  again  reached  a  high  plain.  To  our  right,  about
three  quarters  of  an  hour,  was  the  Djebel  Shyhhan,  an  insulated
mountain,  with  the  ruined  village  of  that  name  on  its  summit.  To
our  left,  on  the  E.  side  of  the  Ledjoum,  about  two  or  three  hours
distant,  is  a  chain  of  low  mountains,  called  El  Ghoweythe  ()),
running  from  N.  to  S.  about  three  or  four  hours.  To  the  south  of
El  Ghoweythe  begins  a  chain  of  low  hills,  called  El  Tarfouye
),  which  farther  south  takes  the  name  of  Orokaraye  ();
it  then  turns  westward,  and  terminates  to  the  south-west  of  Kerek.
From  the  Mehatet  el  Hadj  we  followed  the  paved  road  which
leads  in  a  straight  line  towards  Rabba,  in  a  S.  W.  direction;  in
half  an  hour,  we  met  some  shepherds  with  a  flock  of  sheep,  who  led
us  to  the  tents  of  their  people  behind  a  hill  near  the  side  of  the
road.  We  were  much  fatigued,  but  the  kindness  of  our  hosts
soon  made  us  forget  our  laborious  day’s  march.  We  alighted
under  the  tent  of  the  Sheikh,  who  was  dying  of  a  wound  he  had
received  a  few  days  before  from  a  thrust  of  a  lance  ;  but  such  is
the  hospitality  of  these  people,  and  their  attention  to  the  comforts
*  It  is  from  this  black  and  heavy  stone,  (wvhich  M.  Seetzen  calls  a  basalt,  but  which  1
rather  conceive  to  belong  to  the  species  called  tufwacke  by  the  Germans),  that  the  ancient ¬
  opinion  of  there  having  been  mountains  of  iron  on  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan
appears  to  have  arisen.  Even  now  the  Arabs  believe  that  these  stones  consist  chiefly
ofiron,  and  I  was  often  asked  if  I  did  not  know  how  to  extract  it.