606
MOUNT  SERBAL.
whole  day,  I  offered  him  three  piastres,  but  he  was  inflexible,  and
replied,  that  were  it  not  for  his  friendship  for  Hamd,  he  would
not  take  less  than  a  hundred  piastres.  I  rose  to  eight  piastres,
but  on  his  smiling,  and  shrugging  up  his  shoulders  at  this,  1  rose,
and  declared  that  we  would  try  our  luck  alone.
We  took  our  guns  and  our  provision  sack,  filled  our  water  skin
at  a  neighbouring  well,  called  Ain  Rymm  (),  and  began  as.
cending  the  mountain  straight  before  us.  I  soon  began  to  wish
that  I  had  come  to  some  terms  with  the  Djebalye;  we  walked
over  sharp  rocks  without  any  path,  till  we  came  to  the  almost  perpendicular ¬
  side  of  the  upper  Serbal,  which  we  ascended  in  a
narrow  difficult  cleft.  The  day  grew  excessively  hot,  not  a  breath
of  wind  was  stirring,  and  it  took  us  four  hours  to  climb  up  to
the  lower  summit  of  the  mountain,  where  I  arrived  completely
exhausted.  Here  is  a  small  plain  with  some  trees,  and  the  ruins
of  a  small  stone  reservoir  for  water.  On  several  blocks  of  granite -
  are  inscriptions,  but  most  of  them  are  illegible  ;  I  copied  the
two  following  :
17sh
6
After  reposing  a  little,  Iascended  the  eastern  peak,  which  was  to
our  left  hand,  and  reached  its  top  in  three  quarters  of  an  hour,  after
great  exertions,  for  the  rock  is  so  smooth  and  slippery,  as  well  as
steep,  that  even  barefooted  as  I  was,  I  was  obliged  frequently  to  crawl