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Near the southern entrance is the market-place, or Es'-Souk Djedeyde, which appeared to be of greater extent than that of Szafra; but it is now almost in ruins. From thence the valley becomes still narrower, running between steep rocks for about one hour.
The dress of the people of Szafra consists of a shirt, and a short gown of coarse Indian coloured calico, over which they wear a white abba of light texture, the same as that worn by the Bedouins of the Euphrates, near Aleppo, and which is similar to the dress of all the Beni Harb who have become settlers; while the Bedouins of the tribe wear the brown and white striped abba.
After proceeding over a sandy plain, covered with low brush-wood for two hours and a half, we had Djebel Ayoub about six miles distant: then begins a lower ridge of mountains, running parallel to the road. Here we quitted the great Hadj route, which turns off in a more westerly direction, and we proceeded towards the mountains N. 15 E. to reach Szafra by the nearest route. After a
In speaking of this pass, the Arabs generally join the two names, and say, "the valley of Szafra and Djedeyde." Beyond El Kheyf the valley widens, and forms many windings. Our caravan was here in constant fear of robbers, which kept us awake, though the severe cold during the night would not have suffered us to sleep.
No traces of it now remain. In the market-street of Szafra, which is called Souk-es'-Szafra, dates are the principal article for sale. The pound, which costs twenty-five paras at Mekka, was sold here for ten. Honey, preserved in sheep-skins, forms another article of trade here. The neighbouring mountains are full of bee-hives.
Like the before-mentioned Bedouin villages, Szafra is a market-place for all the surrounding tribes: its houses are built on the declivity of the mountain, and in the valley, which is narrow, leaving scarcely room enough for the date-groves which line both sides of it.
I saw here some of the latter sort, in a small sheep-skin, which the Bedouins use in bringing it to market: it had a strong, turpentine smell, and its taste was bitter. The people of Szafra usually adulterate it with sesamum oil, and tar. When they try its purity, they dip their finger into it and then set fire to it; if it burn
Below Waset the the valley is considered as belonging to Wady Beder, and above it to Szafra. Djedyd has very few date-trees and fields; it stands upon a plain, through which the torrent passes, after having irrigated the upper plantations of the wady.
Our direction was N. 10 E. I found the rock here composed throughout of red Thon stone, with transverse strata of the same substance, but of a green colour; beyond Djedeyde, a little higher up, I found, in my return from Medina, feldspar rocks. At one hour from the Souk, we passed a similar village in the valley, called El Kharma, which is comprised within the Wady Szafra.
The date-groves extend about four miles; they belong to the inhabitants of Szafra, as well as of neighbouring Bedouins, who keep some of their own people, or Arab labourers, employed in irrigating the grounds, and repair hither themselves when
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