499
WASTA.
holding out to me promises of safety beyond that point. This
was all that I wished, for the present, thinking that when we ar
rived thither, I should be able to prevail on him to continue farther.
Szaleh now gave me reason to suspect that, from the moment of our
setting out, he had had treacherous intentions. He secretly endea
voured to persuade Hamd to return, and finding the latter resolved
to fulfil his engagements, he declared that he had now shown us
enough of the way, that we had only to follow the shore to
reach Akaba, and that the weakness of his camel would not allow
it to proceed farther. I replied that he was at liberty to take him
self off, but that, on my return to the convent, I should pay him
only for the three days he had travelled with me. This was not to
his liking, and he therefore preferred going on. Before we left this
place Ayd told me that as I had treated him with a supper last
night, it was his duty to give me a breakfast this morning. While he
kneaded a loaf of flour, and baked it in the ashes, his companion
caught some fish, which we boiled, and made a soup of the broth
mixed with bread. The deaf man was made to understand by signs
that he was to wait for the return of Ayd, and we set out together
before mid-day. Before us lay a small bay, which we skirted;
the sands on the shore every where bore the impression of the pas
sage of serpents, crossing each other in many directions, and some
of them appeared to be made by animals whose bodies could not
be less than two inches in diameter. Ayd told me that serpents
were very common in these parts; that the fishermen were much
afraid of them, and extinguished their fires in the evening before
they went to sleep, because the light was known to attract them.
As serpents are so numerous on this side, they are probably not de
ficient towards the head of the gulf on its opposite shore, where
it appears that the Israelites passed, when they journeyed from
mount Hor, by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of
