SOUF.
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higher up oaks become more frequent, and the forest thickens ;
near the top, which we reached in five hours and a quarter from
Remtha, are some remains of the foundations of ancient buildings.
The Djebel Kafkafa (4 ), as this summit is called, commands
a beautiful view over the plain of Djerash and the neighbouring
mountains of Zerka and Belka. The ruins of Djerash, which were
distinctly seen, and the highest points of Djebel Belka behind them,
bore S. S. W.; the highest points of Djebel Zerka S. The district -
of Zoueit terminates at Djebel Kafkafa; and the country
called El Moerad (), lying S. W. and W. commences: to
the S. the Zoueit runs parallel with the Moerad as far as Wady
Zerka.
On gaining Djebel Kafkafa, our guide discovered that he had
gone astray, for it was not our intention, on setting out, to make
directly for Djerash, but to rest for the night in the village of Souf,
We
and from thence to visit the ruins on the following morning.
therefore turned more to the westward on quitting the Djebel, and
fell in with the road, which continued through a thick wood, till we
saw Souf, an hour and a half distant before us, bearing W. S. W.
At the end of seven hours and a quarter from Remtha, we reached
the spring of Souf, and allayed our thirst, for we had been without ¬
water the whole day; there being very few springs in the
Djebel Zoueit; though it abounds in luxuriant pasture, and is
full of hares and partridges. In seven hours and a half we reached
the village of Souf (,.), where I alighted, at the house of the
Sheikh El Dendel, an honest and hospitable man.
Souf is situated on the declivity of the mountain, on the western
side of a Wady called El Deir, the stream of which, called also El
Kerouan (), is supplied from three copious springs that issue
from under a rock near the village, at a short distance from each
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