WADY ERTAMA.
8004
The narrowness of the valley of Feiran, which is not more than
an hundred paces across, the high mountains on each side, and the
thick woods of date-trees, render the heat extremely oppressive,
and the unhealthiness of the situation is increased by the badness ¬
of the water. The Tebna are far from being as robust and
healthy as their neighbours, and in spring and summer dangerous
fevers reign here. The few among them who have cattle, live
during those seasons under tents in the mountains, leaving a few
persons in care of the trees.
As Mount Serbal forms a very prominent feature in the topography ¬
of the peninsula, I was determined if possible to visit it, and
Hamd having never been at the top of it, I was under the necessity
of inquiring for a guide. None of the Tebna present knew the
road, but I found a young man who guided us to the tent of a
Djebalye, which was pitched in the lower heights of Serbal,
and who being a great sportsman, was known to have often
ascended the mountain. Leaving the servant with the camels, I
set out in the evening on foot with Hamd and the guide, carrying -
nothing with us but some butter-milk in a small skin, together ¬
with some meal, and ground Nebek, enough to last us for
two days. We ascended Wady el Sheikh for about three quarters -
of an hour, and then turned to the right, up a narrow valley ¬
called Wady Ertama () in the higher part of which
a few date-trees grow. In crossing over a steep ascent at its
upper extremity, I met with several inscriptions on insulated
blocks, consisting only of one line in the usual ancient character ¬
; but I did not copy them, being desirous to conceal from my
new guide that I was a writing man, as it might have induced
him to dissuade the Arabs in the mountains from accompanying
me farther up. On the other side of this ascent we fell in with
Wady Rymm, which I have already mentioned, and found here
