KAYT BEG. 
458 
travels in Syria, where the orders of the Pasha of Damascus were 
much slighted in several of the districts under his dominion. 
A fortnight before I set out for Mount Sinai I had applied to 
the Pasha through his Dragoman, for a letter to the Bedouin 
Sheikh; but I was kept waiting for it day after day, and after thus 
delaying my departure a whole week, I was at last obliged to set off 
without it. The want of it was the cause of some embarrassment to 
me, and prevented me from reaching Akaba. It is not improba 
ble that on being applied to for the letter, the Pasha gave the same 
answer as he gave at Tayf, when I asked him for a Firmahn, 
namely, that as I was sufficiently acquainted with the language and 
manners of the Arabs, I needed no further recommendation. 
The Arabs of Mount Sinai usually alight at Cairo in the quarter 
called El Djemelye, where some of them are almost constantly to 
be found. Having gone thither, I met with the same Bedouin 
with whom I had come last year from Tor to Cairo; I hired two 
camels from him for myself and servant, and laid in provisions for 
about six weeks consumption. We left Cairo on the evening of 
the 20th of April, and slept that night among the ruined tombs of 
the village called Kayt Beg, a mile from the city. From this vil 
lage, at which the Bedouins usually alight, the caravans for Suez 
often depart ; it is also the resort of smugglers from Suez and 
Syria. 
April 21st.—We set out from Kayt Beg in the course of the 
morning, in the company of a caravan bound for Suez, compris 
ing about twenty camels, some of which belonged to Moggrebyn 
pilgrims, who had come by sea from Tunis to Alexandria; the 
others to a Hedjaz merchant, and to the Bedouins of Mount Sinai, 
who had brought passengers from Suez to Cairo, and were now re 
turning with corn to their mountains. As I knew the character of 
these Bedouins by former experience, and that the road was per¬