WADY  ALEYAT.
614
7.  Upon  a  large  rock  beyond  the  spring,  and  towards  Wady
Feiran  :
g
8.  Further  down,  upon  a  rock,  being  one  of  the  clearest  inscriptions ¬
  which  I  saw  :
On  many  stones  were  drawings  of  goats  and  camels.  This  was
once  probably  the  main  road  to  the  top  of  Serbal,  which  continued
along  its  foot,  and  turned  by  Deir  Sigillye  round  its  eastern  side,
thus  passing  the  cleft  and  the  road  by  which  we  had  ascended,  and
which  nowhere  bears  traces  of  having  ever  been  a  regular  and
frequented  route.
After  my  departure  in  the  morning  for  Mount  Serbal,  the  messenger ¬
  dispatched  by  the  Arabs  assembled  in  Sheikh  Szaleh,
arrived  at  Wady  Feiran,  and  forbad  the  people  from  guiding  me
to  the  top  of  Serbal  ;  the  news  of  this  order  had  spread  along  the
whole  valley,  so  that  on  our  reaching  the  first  habitations  under  the
date-trees,  where  I  intended  to  rest  for  the  night,  all  the  Arabs