588
WADY RAHABA.
S. b. W. I found here a small chain of white and red sand-stone
hills in the midst of granite. The morning was so very cold that
we were obliged to stop and light a fire, round which we sat till
sunrise; my feet and hands were absolutely benumbed, for neither
gloves or stockings are in fashion among Bedouins. We continued
in the valley, crossing several hills, till at four hours and a half
we reached Wady Rahaba (), in the lower parts of which we
had passed a very rainy night on the 17th. Rahaba is one of the
principal valleys on this side of the peninsula; it is broad, and
affords good pasturage. We halted under a granite rock in the middle ¬
of it, close by about a dozen small buildings, which are called
by the Bedouins Makhsen (magazines), and which serve them as a
place of deposit for their provision, clothes, money, &c. As Bedouins ¬
are continually moving about, they find it inconvenient to
carry with them what they do not constantly want; they therefore
leave whatever they have not immediate need of in these magazines, ¬
to which they repair as occasion requires. Almost
every Bedouin in easy circumstances has one of them ; I have
met with them in several parts of the mountains, always in clusters ¬
of ten or twenty together. They are at most ten feet high,
generally about ten or twelve feet square, constructed with loose
stones, covered with the trunks of date trees, and closed with a
wooden door and lock. These buildings are altogether so slight,
and the doors so insecure, that a stone would be sufficient to
break them open ; no watchmen are left to guard them, and they
are in such solitary spots that they might casily be plundered in the
night, without the thief being ever discovered. But such is the
good faith of the Towara towards each other, that robberies of this
kind are almost unheard of; and their Sheikh Szaleh, whose magazine -
is well known to contain fine dresses, shawls, and dollars,
considers his property as safe there as it would be in the best
