EL HEREYEK. 
237 
obliging him to fly, he repaired to the Aeneze, with whom he found 
security and protection. 
Half an hour from Aaere we passed Wady Ghothe (d,eo,), with 
the village of Ghothe to our left ; route N. W. b. N. One hour and 
a half, the village Om Waled (,1), one hour and three quarters, 
the village El Esleha (), inhabited principally by Christians. 
Two hours and a quarter, passed Wady Soueida. Two hours 
and a half the village Thale (ab), to the west of which, one hour, 
is Tel Hossein, with the village Kheraba. At three hours and 
a quarter is the village El Daara (s), with Wady Daara; 
here we dined at an encampment of Arabs of Djebel Haouran, 
who are in the habit of descending into the plain to pasture 
their cattle, as soon as the country is evacuated by the Aeneze. 
At four hours and three quarters is Melieha el Aattash ( 
), in a direction N. W. from Daara ; from thence our route 
lay W. by N. Not more than one-third of the plain was cultivated, 
though the peasants had sown more grain this year, than they had 
done for many years back. S. of Melieha half an hour lies the 
village Rakham (). Five hours and a half the village El Herak 
). Five hours and three quarters, the village El Hereyek 
).In all these villages are several reservoirs of water, for 
the supply of the inhabitants during summer, and which are filled 
either by the winter torrents descendingfrom the Djebel Haouran, 
or by rain water, which is conducted into them from every side by 
narrow channels : they are all of ancient date, and built entirely 
with the black Haouran stone ; but I saw in none of the villages 
any edifice of magnitude. Near Hereyek we fell in with the encamp 
ment of the Damascus beggars, who make an excursion every 
spring to the Haouran, to collect alms from the peasants and 
Arabs; thesc contributions are principally in butter and wool,