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According to the Katib Chelebi, who, over two centuries ago, made the "Kabr Shaykh el-Kifafi" the second pilgrim-station south of El-Muwaylah, a certain Bedawi chief, El-Kifafi, was killed with a spear, and his tomb became a place of pious visitation. It is said still to exist between the Wadys Salma and Kifafi.
We had looked forward to it even as to a petit Paris: so Damascus and the Syrian cities appear centres of civilization to Westerns coming from the East not from the West. It is far superior, especially in the article water, to El-Muwaylah; it exports charcoal in large quantities, and it does a thriving business with the Bedawi. Here are signs of a pier, and a mosque is to be built.
Beyond the broken eastern ground, the ruddy Hisma and the gloomy Harrah form the fitting horizon. After this much for geography, we may view the monarch of Midianite mountains in the beauty and the majesty of his picturesque form. Seen from El-Muwaylah, he is equally magnificent in the flush of morning, in the still of noon, and in the evening glow.
I had neglected to order overnight the camels from El-Muwaylah, a penny-wise proceeding which delayed our departure. It was nearly nine a.m. We were guided by two Jerafin, Sulayman ibn Musallim and Farj ibn 'Awayz; the former a model hill-man, a sturdy, thick-legged, huge-calved, gruff-voiced, full-bearded fellow, hot-tempered, good-humoured, and renowned as an ibex-hunter.
The log showed a total of 102 miles between the Sharms Yaharr and El-Wijh, or 107 from the latter to El-Muwaylah. "El-Wijh," meaning the face, a word which the Egyptian Fellah perverts to "Wish," lies in north lat. 26 14'. It is the northernmost of the townlets on the West Arabian shore, which gain importance as you go south; e.g., Yamba', Jeddah, Mocha, and Aden.
Hence the Bedawin always give it precedence Shaghab wa Shuwak; moreover, we remarked a better style of building in the former; and we picked up glass as well as pottery. From Shaghab to Ziba ruins of El-Khandaki' and Umm Amil the Turquoise Mine-Return to El-Muwaylah.
The result of all such ruthless ruining was simply null. The imaginative Naji declared, it is true, that a stone dog had been found; but this animal went the way of the "iron fish," which all at El-Muwaylah asserted to have been dug up at El-Wijh the latter place never having heard of it.
About El-Haura, I have said, the volcanic formations, some sixty miles inland on the parallel of El-Muwaylah, approach the coast. We were guided to the ruins by the shouts of sundry Arabs defending their harvest against a dangerous enemy, the birds rattles and scarecrows were anything but scarce. Apparently the sand contains some fertilizing matter.
For months the Jebel Sharr, the grand block which backs El-Muwaylah, had haunted us, starting up unexpectedly in all directions, with its towering heads, that shifted shape and colour from every angle, and with each successive change of weather. Their stony heights, they said, contain wells and water in abundance, with palms, remains of furnaces, and other attractions.
That to the south-east is dry; travellers are confined to the western, whose strong coping they have managed to tear down; whilst the northern shows hard old kerb-stones, deeply grooved and rope-channelled like that of Beersheba. We breakfasted at the head of the inner bay, whilst the Sayyid rode forward to meet his brother Mahmud, who had kindly brought us the news from El-Muwaylah.
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