Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/209

We rode through a šeʻîb toward the south-southeast until we reached the cleft of aš-Šelûl, which contains a tiny spring. From there we turned eastward at one o’clock. We had lost the path. From 2.10 to three o’clock the camels grazed on a strip of fresh eṯmân, which we found in a ravine of no great size. I had sent Sbejḥ to look for the path, but he had not returned. Finally we found him on the height, reposing under a crag, cursing the day on which he had allowed himself to be hired as our guide, complaining of his weariness, and consigning us, together with our wages, to the nethermost hell. Ḫalîl and especially Šerîf grew so angry that they threatened to beat him, but this I would not permit. Sbejḥ was unwilling to go any farther with us. He wanted to get back. I should have dismissed him without further ado, but this was not possible until we had secured another member of the Beni ʻAṭijje tribe as guide, and hence also as protector, for otherwise they would certainly have robbed and possibly even killed us. I sat down by the side of Sbejḥ, gave him medicine which refreshed him somewhat, and asked him not to leave us and at least to show us the direction in which we could reach the spring of al-Ḥadara. At last he got up and led the way through a plain covered with lava to the northwestern slope of the elevation of al-Ḫalâwi. There he lay down again and asked us to pay no heed to him, but to go our way. We were standing on a horizontal ridge somewhere in the middle of the slope. On our left there rose a steep rock, on the right yawned a ravine about one hundred and fifty meters deep; ahead of us appeared a semicircular rocky rift. Ḫalîl and Šerîf looked for the path, but in vain. Leading our camels into the rift, we searched about to see whether we could descend by its right-hand slope, which formed a narrow, precipitous spur. Up this spur we could lead the camels in zigzags part of the way, but this was possible only here and there. In places we had to form steps by means of the stones and elsewhere to roll the stones away. Having reached the top, we found in front of us still another ravine, where we discovered a path leading to the rocky plain, in which it was lost once more. I scrambled out on to the summit no great distance away and inspected the region. Southward I looked over red, high, billowing crags amongst which the šeʻîb wound. East and west the view was shut off by heights. Somewhere about the middle of the southern slope