event a speedy evaporation of the
water by the sun's heat. These spots were shaded likewise by tul'hh,
sunt, and neb'k-trees. There we watered the cattle and filled our
vessels. {302} In another half hour we rested for the night, having made
a march of nearly twelve hours, over more tiring ground than that of
yesterday.

_'Ain Weibeh_ was to our right, which Robinson conjectured to be Kadesh
Barnea.

We perceived footprints of gazelles and of hyenas.

_April_ 5. Sunrise, Fahrenheit, 62.25 degrees. Our Jerusalem bread
being now exhausted, we took to that of the desert-baking, which is very
good while fresh and hot from the stones on which the improvisation of
baking is performed, but not otherwise for a European digestion: and our
servants, with the Bedaween, had to chase the chickens every morning.
The survivors of those brought from Jerusalem being humanely let out of
their cages for feeding every evening, the scene of running after them,
or flinging cloaks in the air when they took short flights, not to
mention the shouts of the men and the screams of the birds, was very
ludicrous, but annoying, when time is precious. The merry little Salem
enjoyed all this, as well as the amusements of our people, during the
monotony of daily travelling: as, for instance, the captain rolling
oranges along the ground, as prizes for running, or his mounting a camel
himself, or riding backwards, etc.--anything for variety.

The desert may be described as a dried pudding of sand and pebbles, in
different proportions in different places,--sometimes the sand
predominating, and sometimes the pebbles,--with occasionally an abundance
of very small fragments of flint, serving to give a firmer consistency to
the sand. Round boulders are also met with on approaching the
hill-sides. In one place large drifts of soft yellow sand were wrinkled
by the wind, as a smooth sea-beach is by the ripples of a receding tide.
These wrinkles, together with the glare of a burning sun upon them,
affected the eyes, so as to make the head giddy in passing over them.

Wild flowers and shrubs are not wanting; and the former are often very
fragrant. I observed among those that are so, a prevalence in their
names of the letter [Arabic letter] (gh); as Ghurrah, Ghubbeh, Ghurkud,
Ghuraim, etc. They brought me a handful of _meijainineh_, which was said
to be good for pains in the stomach; and the starry flower, called
_dibbaihh_, not unlike a wild pink, is