ght have entailed upon us a long delay, and a formal trial in a council
of elders of different tribes, collected for the purpose; followed by the
penalty awarded by the unwritten laws which obtain in the desert, namely,
a payment of as much fine wheat as would entirely cover the dog when held
up by his tail, and the nose touching the ground, and this is no small
quantity; such delay would have probably thwarted our whole journey.

At a narrow pass, called _Daiket 'Arar_, was the shell of an old
building, now roofless. Near this, and by the wayside, as we advanced,
were considerable remains of foundations of houses. There must have been
a town of note at that place, it is the 'Aroer of 1 Sam. xxx. 28. Our
course now suddenly trended towards the east, instead of southwards.

In less than another hour we came to _Kubbet el Baul_, merely the
foundation of a small weli. Selameh told us that this had belonged to a
tribe called Bali, (or Baul in the plural.) I have no doubt that this is
the site of _Balah_ of Joshua xix. 3; and that from it the Arabs,
settling near it afterwards, derived their appellation.

We soon afterwards, 3 P.M., passed _Curnub_, a ruined place on the right,
and descended the slope of _Muzaikah_.

In another hour and a half, namely, at half-past four, we halted for the
night, after a journey of ten hours. It was on a smooth, pebbly plain,
dotted with shrubs, having lines of chalky hills to the south-west, for
which our people had no other name than _Jebel el Ghurb_, or the "western
mountain." The whole scene was that of a mere desert; no creatures were
to be seen or heard but ourselves. No Turkish authorities ever intrude
into this purely Arab wilderness; still less was the landscape spoiled by
the smoke of European factories. No speck of cloud had we seen the whole
day through.

Not far from this must have transpired the incidents recorded of Hagar
and Ishmael,--incidents that might have occurred yesterday, or last week;
for a few thousand years count but little in so primitive a region.

Our ragged fellows ran about singing, in search of thorns or long roots,
or even the straggling plants of bitter colocynth, as fuel for our
cooking-fire.

Stars arose, but such stars! not like the spangles of the English poet's
conception, those "patines of bright gold," though that idea is
beautiful; but one could see that they were round orbs that flashed
streams of diamond light from out their bigness.