The Sun.
London, England, 1854-06-19 00:00:00

.ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.

At the last meeting of the session of this society, Sir
Roderick I. Murchison; Vice-President, in the chair, the
papers read were :-
1. Late Tour to Medina and Mecca, made by Lieutenant
R. Burton, of the Indian Army, at the expense of the society,
with route from Yamba on the Red Sea. Condensed by Sir
Gardner Wilkinson.
The object of Lieutenant Burton's journey in Arabia was to
cross• the Peninsula from El Medeeneh to Muscat, or from
Mecca to Makulla on the Indian Ocean ; but finding the state
• of the' country too unsettled at the time, and his leave of ab-
sence too short to admit of his waiting for a more propitious
moment, he was only enabled to perform the two short jour-
neys from Yambo (Emba) to Medeeneh, and from this last to
Mecca. The, former of these is the subject of the present
eommunication.
After noticing his departure from Southampton, in April,
1853, and his arrival in Cairo, he describes the precautions
he adopted for travelling through the " Holy Land" of Arabia,
so rigidly forbidden to Christians, and the disguise he assumed
for this purpose. During his stay at Cairo he became an.ln-
dian doctor, and having supplied himself with " one of those
preposterous outfits, thought necessary for all Eastern travel-
lers to the Hedjaz, which can only find a parallel in the baggage
of our East India cadets," he proceeded to Suez, where by
good fortune a young man of Mecca and a respectable party of
Medeeneh people, believing him to be what his second d-
enise proclaimed, an Affghan pilgrim, became his friends,ins
end offered to take him to their native city. By this mane._
a.
he was enabled to reach Medeeneh without suspicion,
mosque,
to the " prophet's burial place" managed to visit thie
environs
to sketch the town, and to visit all the consecrahte:
with. the exception of Khaybar. At Mecca, too,
after-
wards an opportunity of seeing all the ceremonies
01 if al ntdne li
aigythpte
;11adj), made a plan of the Kaabah, and,
returned
most interesting objects of that holy city,na .i ; visitinged te E
which may do
with the title and character of a realasioud
in these countries.
aim good service on some future occasion
Suez must be given in his
The narrative of his journey from
awn words, though somewhat curtailedinero:l--der to accommo-
late it to the necessary limits of thisl pap
_v.•
.1 .
like.l ra
ship,th a
" We embarked on board, the Gnoedrenrigk
and build,
apigi
eelonging to a merchant of Suez.
ef all the Red Sea craft, have a general resemblance to the
Indian pattimar, which I believe to be the most ancient shape
in the Eastern world after the ' Catamaran and the ' loni' '
or hollowed mango trunk. The Western Arabs still know only
q vessels, the eambuk'* and the ' Baghlah,'l•
twodiffering kinds
of :
in tonnage, not in shape; while the Eastern Arabs
have almost as many varieties of craft as we have. This arises
from the circumstance that timber for ship building is not to
be found on the shore of the Red See, for which reason the
' people never were and are not a nation of mariners ; whereas
the inhabitants of Oman, Hadramaut, and Yemen easily sup-
plied their want of wood by trading for teak with Malabar.
This traffic, which began doubtless in early ages, gave the
Eastern Arabs a spirit of adventure familiarising them with
navigation, afforded them an opportunity of colonising, and
opened India to their energy and industry.
."The owner of the Golden Wire had agreed to take 60
passengers—a cargo quite sufficient, with the mountainous
heap of baggage, for an open decked vessel of about 75 tons.
Favoured by fortune, he filled it with 130 human beings,
meetly Bedawin, from Elallaegbrab (' Western' Africa), per-
haps the greatest ruffians in Islam.
"I will not describe the daily fights wo witnessed, and had
sometimes to join iu. Two men were stabbed in the port of
Suezaaml before we 'were halfway between Egypt and Jambo,
the second class generally made an energetic attempt to share
with the first the lofty loop of the Golden Wire. But we re-
ceived them with our quarterstaves, and after an elegant little
defence of our vantage ground, we forced them to beat a re-
treat, when, in token of their repentance, they kissed our
heads, shoulders, andknees, and having promised not to offend
again during the rest of the voyage, they contented themselves
with cursing us. We crept slowly down the coast of the Red
Sea, and.on the sth day we slanted across the Gulf of Aka-
bah, when, in the course of conversation, one of my compa-
nions mentioned a hill N.E. of Muwaylah (Moileh) called Ge-
bel. Rumen (Mountain of the Romans), and assured me it is
covered with remains of ancient buildings. They might be
worth exploring, and since Burekhardt's glorious restoration
of retra to the world, and that profoundest of Arab travellers
Dr; •George Wallin of Finland, there has been no discovery in
this region more iuteresting than would be the remains •f a
Rom in civilization in the wilds of Arabia. Near Muwayah
gold. is still found. A Hadji of Cairo extracted with quicksilver
no less than 6 drachms of dust out of 52 of sand collected in
'a torrent bed, and according to the testimony of the ancients,
the precious metal was at one time plentiful in Arabia.
• ,4 We made Yamboo on the 12th day after leaving Suez, and
tottered -ashore with cramped legs ; sonic feverish, others co-
vexedewith boils, and all suffering from the burning heat of
tha‘sun. . Abstemiousness had been my safeguard during this
voiage, as 'on my two subsequent journeys, and the pilgri-
mage time, When my bare head and almost naked body were
extiosedto the fires of an Arabian September. As precau-
tions I avoided washing, because warm water debilitates and
cold. gives fever; a little oil or melted butter and occasionally
a bath of lukewarm water and henna paste to cool the skin
were found amply sufficient. For thirst, I neither chewed
bullets nor washed hands, face, or feet, nor anointed my jaws
with clarified butter, nor drank great quantities of liquid ;
the only remedy is patience, and ater suffering for au hour
or two the task is an easy one. When the skin is burned by
the sun, white of eggs cures the sore, which, if not attended
to in these regions, may become very serious. And as in hot
climates cold is injuriorus, it is as well not to be underdressed
by day, and at night to sleep- wilhea sheet drawn over the
bead as well at the body. '
"Of Yambo I have nothing now to say, except that its po-
pulation is considered the most bigoted and the best mariners
in Western Arabia. We left on the 18th Jnly, and followed
a path directly eastward along the plain, between the
Eadlivrah hills and the sea. There was uo regular road ; a
teodden line traversed hard and level ground, strewed with
ilfunps of granite, greenstone, and schist, rounded by the
action of water, with here and, there a little stunted vegeta-
tion' in the shape of accacias'and tufts of grass, coarse enough
for brooms. The pace of the Hodjazi camel in a caravan is
tiro miles an hour WilCn travelling over a plain, and our first
march was a short ono of eight hours. Halting at three a.m.,
we found a grain-cafila (or caravan) of about 200 head, with
its aimed drivers, and an escort of seven irregular Turkish
horsemen, tolerably mounted, and each supplied with an ar-
Moury in epitome.
" July 19, at nine p.m., we arose. Prayers were said and
pipes were smoked, and we congratulated ourselves on our
escape from the towns. And here I may observe that
my companions were strictly devout whenever we met
strangers, wheresa at all other times one only (the grandson
of the Mufti -of EI-Medeeneh) ever dreamed of prefer-
ring a prayer to a 'pipe. At a mile westward of our en-
itempment lay' the little • Village of Muzabhal, a straggling
line of.miserable clay hovels; au the south was a bright blue
saripeof the Red Sea, and all around stretched a plain of
vebbles and gravel, bounded northwards by a wall of blackish
cock, with here and there a shrub only fit for fuel, or a tuft
Of herbage crisp with heat. At three pm. we were ready to
Start, and with jorsaw a huge black cloud rise behind the
shoulders of Radhweh, and array itself like a good genius be-
tween us and our fierce enemy the sun. All hoped that it
contained rain ; but it was only a ' dry storm'—blasts of
wind; hot as from a volcano; and fine sand—a phenomenon
lere common; at this time of the year, and supposed to pre-
tede-the autumnal rains. The same kind of desolate country
continued the whole of that and the following day ; and be-
tween ten and eleven p.m. we sighted human habitations for
the first Since leaving Muzahhal, in the long straggling village
called El-Hamra, from the' red' colour of the ravine on which
tstatids, and ElMasitah, from being the ' half-way' sta.ion
between Yinibo and El-Medeeneh. We wandered in search
•of an 'encamping ground nearly an hour ; for the hospitable
villagers contented themselves with ordering us off every flat
patch of ground where we proposed to pitch our tents ; dining
which operation I was secretly warned by my companions to
speak Arabic only, otherwise the gentry of El-Hamra would
claim black mail for permitting me to pass through their
Streets. After much wrangling we found an encamping,
Place; our jaded beasts were unloaded, the boxes and bag-
gage were disposed as a defence, and my friends spreading
their rugs upon their valuables, prepared to sleep. I was
invited to join them, but firmly delined the vicinity of se
Many steaming and snoring fellow-creatures ; and if some
Wonder was excited by the Affghan Hadji's obstinate restless-
ness, it was thought that a man from Cabul might be allowed
to do strange things.
-. "The village is built on a narrow shelf between a high steep
bill and a sandy' ravine, about half a mile broad, with a wind-
ing bed. On all sides are rocks, so that you here find your-
self-in one of those punch-bowls which the Arabs seem to
prefer to plains. The ravine threads the heights all the way
from the. Medeeneh plateau ; and during the rainy sea-
son it becomes a raging torrent, carrying westward to
the Red Sea the drainage of a hundred hills. Good water
IS. found in it by digging a few feet below the surface, at
-the 're-entering angles ; and El-Hamra is further supplied
by a fine spring, which bubbles up from the base of the
southern hills. The village is a collection of stunted houses,
or rather hovels, made of unburnt bricks and mud, roofed
over with date leaves, rarely boasting a bit of plank for a
shutter, thickly peopled where the walls are standing, but,
. like all settlements in the Hedjaz, half in rnins. It contains
,a few shops in a long lane, and this bazaar, like the other
streets, is full of glare and dust. Palm groves of considerable
. extent supply it with dabes, And my io-mpanions found grain
so cheap_that they' laid in a store far 'their families at El-
'Medeeneh.
.
' "Ready-made bread, horse-plantains, rice, butter, and
,:similar edibles are also plentiful ; and flocks of sheep and
‘goats, driven in by surly shepherds, who would give no milk
Leven in exchange for bread and meat. But I bought a large
Jamb for a pillar dollar; and we breakfasted merrily. Near
r encampment was a fort, held by a troop of Arnauts
`Toned -to thifend the village and to escort merchant travellers,
consisting of a wall loop-holed for musketry. El-Hamra is
the third_s_taiti, en from El-Medeeneh, on the Derbees-Sottedee
(shorea
to 'lli nithread'), the westerly highway along the sea-
((
Wh6l raberB Permit them, pilgrims prefer this route to
all others, on account of the facility of procuring supplies,
. , e
ancL ei Passing through the Ahisoly place of 'diedr.'
After midday of the
El-Medeenele entered Ell a caravan en route from Mecca
'to procure an escort and Permission and had interest enough
-We joined since s from
our
to proceed without delay,
a band
of
Berdllalt at 5 p.m., and after a
41elay, occasioned by
win having positively ob-
,4ooted to admit our escort of 200 i
rregulaxs we passed about
_midnight through another straggling vas '
.Razgrae cailtled Gadaydah,
or Ei.Khayf, a 'declivity.' Like F 1
.Ham
A little beyot a
itfor.t and
.._ is the
~`springs of tolerable
Thihar, or defile, h
' the eHarbi-Bedawin ateelihme
13ey. wore totally where
eated byE thtian arraY izder
'''' Whabis in 1811 A.D. (anddisastrous da of sax
g afterwards mentioned by the ae, and
.soldiery'GadaYalli'n was Egypt with feelings of horror and gr ) ---rk-ish
hving travelled 24 miles druee-eeatsi., we en-
camped ; A t four.-- ; n. ,
Its position is like that of ELF/am—a: at Bir-Abbas.
to pro-
and it has a stone fort, whore e-re troopers are stationed ---,
tea travellers. Nothing worthy of note happened e
durine
our journey, till on the morning of
.the . 04th July, at day-
break, we entered the ill-famed gorge called
we neared it, loudealled Shuah-el-Rag
`(Shab-el-Iladj), ' the Pilgrim's Pass.'
' talkers became silent, and in their faces fear was written in a
'Rue clear hand. Presently from the cliff on the left a thin
'curl of smoke rose in the morning air, preluding_ entmherr
wtecrhe-
lock's loud ring. A number of Bedawin, boys and
swarming like hornets over the crest, and clambering with ad.-
mirable agility up the precipices, till comfortably seated behind
a breastwork of stones, piled up as a defence and as a rifle rest,
. they fired down upon us with perfect convenience to them-
. selves. It was useless to invite them to fight us upon the
plain like men. On the eastern coast the robbers will some-
times do this, but not in the Hedjaz; and it was equally un-
ProfitableAo shoot at stones. Moreover, had a Bedawi been
kilted, the country would have risen en masse, and 3,000 or
4,000 robbers might have the courage to overpower a caravan,
lin which ease there would have been a general cutting of throats.
Their fire was directed principally against the Arnauts, who
call7,l%rds)saietance from the yarty of Shayks that had ac-
. -
.4 als frOinißir-Abbas ; but those dignified ancients,
.iffstadttnifitig spalsquatting round-their pipes in council, came
e'4o' the- Pqn-e-lugklikittt as the
"' ere the-
4to their ii,likag t,. Bedawin world probably turn a
~,,, ,3 ;_ : _ ~., , . ..ey had better spare themselves the
(tirn
Thlo,r,--1 e:_ of 'Broecp3g4.; il, we blazed* away as much powder,
'' tied -availed . bnraalyees .1 as thick
a cloud, as roeEible

'', * This name is the more remarkable, as Atilandus deserioes
,
the musical instrument called " Sauibuca" as " resembling a
ship with a ladder placed °Ter it.",
'Y A mule.