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Updated: May 25, 2025
Landing at El-Wijh, I at once consulted our intelligent friend, the Wakil Mohammed Shahadah. He had sent for a camel-load of the stuff, which, he declared, would not burn, although it had burned his money. The mountain is tall and black, apparently consisting of the "coal."
We ran out of El-Wijh at 1.45 p.m., our convoy consisting of fifty-eight camels, forty-four of which were loaded; seven were dromedaries, and an equal number carried water. All had assured us that the rains of the two past years had been wanting: last winter they were scanty; this cold season they were nil. In truth, the land was suffering terribly from drought.
The following notes upon the ruins of the Wady Hamz were supplied to me by the Baliyy Bedawin and the citizens of El-Wijh. Six stages up the lower valley, whose direction lies nearly north-east, lead to El-'Ila, Wallin's "Ela," which belongs to the 'Anezah.
The Baliyy evidently like the prospect of some L6 per diem; and do not like the idea of approaching the frontier, where their camels may be stolen. We ought not to move without seeing the "Nazarenes' Ruin" at El-'Arayfat. Again, I had sent a certain Salim, a cousin of the Shaykh, with orders for fresh supplies from El-Wijh: he was certain to miss us if we marched.
The inhabitants of El-Wijh may number twelve hundred, without including chance travellers and the few wretched Bedawin, Hutaym and others, who pitch their black tents, like those of Alexandrian "Ramleh," about and beyond the town. The people live well; and the merchants are large and portly men, who evidently thrive upon meat and rice.
It locates the inland fort six miles and three-quarters from the anchorage, but the mine is thrust eastwards ten miles and a quarter from the fort; the latter distance being, as has been seen, little more than the former. Moreover, the ruins are placed to the north, when they lie nearly on the same parallel of latitude as El-Wijh.
Charred circlets in the sand showed where alkali had been burned: the ashes, packed in skins, are shipped at El-Wijh for Syria, where they serve to make soap. Camels eat it, whereas mules refuse it, unless half-starved. This plant apparently did not extend all up the Wady.
Thus they crossed the mouths of the watercourses, whose heads we shall sight during the inland march, and whose mid-lengths we shall pass when marching back to El-Wijh. These exceedingly broad beds are divided, as usual, by long lines of Nature-metalled ground.
Its snug retreat gave hospitality to half a dozen Juhayni Sambuks, fishers and divers for mother-of-pearl, riding beyond sight of the outer world, and utterly safe from the lighthouse dues of El-Wijh. I resolved to pass a day at these old quarters of a certain Haji 'Abdullah.
It receives a multitude of important secondary valleys; amongst which is the Wady el-'Uwaynid, universally so pronounced. If my conjecture prove true, we thus have a reason why this important line has been inexplicably neglected. Higher up it belongs to the Alaydan-'Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak these were the Bedawin who, during our stay at the port, brought their caravan to El-Wijh.
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