623
MORKHA.
el Dhafary); it is sometimes frequented by the Arabs,
because it furnishes the only sweet water between Tor and Suez,
though it is out of the direct road, and the well of Morkha is at
no great distance. Some rain had fallen here in the winter,
and water was therefore met with in several ponds among the
rocks. This is the lowest part of the primitive chain of mountains,
and, I believe, the only place, on the road between Tor and Suez,
where they approach the sea, which is only three miles distant,
with a stony plain ascending from it. A slave of a Towara Bedouin ¬
here partook of our breakfast ; he had been sent to these
mountains by his master several weeks ago, to collect wood and
burn charcoal, which he was doing quite alone, with no other provision ¬
than a sack of meal. Charcoal, commonly called Fahm in
Arabic, is by these Bedouins called Habesh, a term which I never
heard given to it by any other Arabs; this word may perhaps be
the origin of the name of Abyssinia, which may have been called
Habesh by the Arabs from the colour of its inhabitants. Travellers ¬
will do well to enquire for the Dhafary, in their way to Feiran, ¬
as the water of the Morkha is of the very worst kind; this
memorandum would be particularly useful to any person intending
to copy the inscriptions of Wady Mokatteb.
We reached Morkha, (), which bears from Dhafary
N. W. b. N. in half an hour, the road leading over level but very
rocky ground. Morkha is a small pond in the sand-stone rock,
close to the foot of the mountains. Two date-trees grow near its
margin. The bad taste of the water seems to be owing partly to
the weeds, moss, and dirt, with which the pond is filled, but
chiefly, no doubt, to the saline nature of the soil around it. Next
to Ayoun Mousa, in the vicinity of Suez, and Gharendel, it is the
principal station on this road. After watering our camels, which
was our only motive for coming to the Morkha, we returned to the
