CHAPTER V
MADIAN TO THE OASIS OF ŠARMA
AL-MALḲAṬA TO AL-ḪRAJBE
Having left the ruins of al-Malḳaṭa, we reached the ancient Pilgrim Route at noon and proceeded along it toward the south-southeast. After a short while we met two riders on camels, subjects of the chief Abu Ṭḳêḳa, who were carrying a message to the ʻImrân. They informed us that ʻAfnân, the son of the chief, was living at al-Ḫrajbe. The Mesâʻîd, who until now had been watching us from a distance, disappeared as soon as they saw that we were talking to the riders.
The Pilgrim Road leads across a stony, bare, and almost flat plain, al-Ṛarâma, bordered on the east by the red peaks of aš-Šedîḫ and aḏ-Ḏbejbi. At 1.30 P. M. we crossed the šeʻîb of al-Mhâš, and at two o’clock al-Marra umm Ǧarda. From 2.30 to 3.25 we halted by al-Ḳtejbe in order to make a sketch of the surrounding district. At 4.05 we crossed the broad channel of Mšâš al-Ḥawa and perceived on the left a deep gap through which the šeʻîb of al-Kûs proceeds from the mountain. We reached this šeʻîb at 4.30 and at 5.48 came to the channel of ar-Râka, or Arâka, in which grew a quantity of green plants of the same name, but these our camels refused to touch. The šeʻîb of ar-Râka joins that of al-Ḫrob. We searched vainly in the undulating plain, with its broad and shallow valleys, for pasture for our camels, but nowhere could we find any green vegetation, for everything was completely dried up. But at 6.15 we found extensive groves of low dûm palms, from which the ʻarâd shrubs stood out here and there by reason of their yellow color. Branching off eastward from the highroad, we encamped at 6.45 in the deep šeʻîb of al-Ḫrob, which was covered with a growth of ʻarâd shrubs (temperature: 33.8° C). Our camels could now graze. I was feeling far from well, as I was racked with fever and physically quite exhausted. Fearing the rapacious Mesâʻîd, we kept guard all night over our baggage and camels.
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