APPENDIX. No. V.
666
same size as the former, except that one corner is partitioned off to form a third chamber. Each
of the two latter have a window in the western wall. The roof of the apartments are vaulted
below, and flat above. The walls which divide the apartments are two yards in thickness;
in the two first rooins there is a stone pavement, in the small room the Arabs have taken
up the pavement to dig for treasures ; but they found nothing underneath, except small
pieces of planks and some rusty iron. The ceiling of all the three apartments is chalked
over, and looks quite new. In the small room it is painted all over with serpents, hares,
gazelles, mares, and birds ; there are neither human figures nor trees amongst the paintings.
The colour of the paintings is red, green, and yellow, and they look as bright and well preserved, -
as if they had been done a short time ago. There are no kinds of niches, bas-reliefs, -
or inscriptions in the walls.
From Hudrush branches out a Wady towarda Wady Serhhan, called Chadef (aé).
Four days beyond Tebig you arrive at a Byr called El Sheben or Szefan (, ),
situated upon a small ascent. According to my informant the Byr is two hundred yards in
depth. To the north of that well the desert is called Beseita (). For two days farther
the earth is covered to the depth of six inches with small black gray stones, looking like
flints. The plant Samah () grows there, which is collected by the people of Djof. From
the end of the Beseita to the Djof is one day’s journey farther, and the Beseita ends in the
Dhahi.
All the Arabs along this road from El Hassa, are Sherarat, the Aeneze do not come this
way.
Between Tebig, Szauan, Hudrush, and to the S. of these places, are a quantity of wild
asses, which the Arabs Sherarat hunt, and eat (secretly). Their skins and hoofs are sold to
the wandering Christian pedlars, and in the towns of Syria. Of the hoofs rings are made,
which the Fellahs of easter Syria wear on the thumb, or tied with a thread round the armpit, ¬
to prevent, or to heal rheumatic complaints, 1 may here make a general remark that there
is an infinity of names of places in the desert. Every Tel, every declivity, or elevation in
a Wady, every extent of plain ground, where a particular herb grows, has its name, well
known to the Arabs. The Khabera (5,), or places where the rain-water collects in winter.
time, are generally distinguished by the name of some well known Sheikh who once pitched
his tent near them ; as Khabera Ibn Ghebein (é), the watering places of Ibn Ghebein.
The side of a Wady where the Arab descends is called by him Hadhera (), the opposite -
side, where he re-ascends Sende ().
A Ghadir („é) is distinguished from a Wady, the two sides of the latter are hills which
rise above the surface of the adjacent plain; the Ghadir on the contrary is only a hollow
in the plain. The Wady is seen from afar, the Ghadir only on arriving near the descent.
