e of the Bedawi poem,
beginning--

"Shemali, ya hawa ed-deeret shemali."

"The north! O thou wind of the northern direction,
It has increased my blessing, and all that belongs to me,
And after weakness of state, has changed my condition."

I find, however, that this literal translation gives but a very poor idea
of the feeling concentrated in the words of the original, and only feebly
expresses the reminiscence of that time as still preserved at the moment
of this writing.

Soon after eight o'clock we were out of the Wadi el Jaib, that is to say,
the high cliffs of marl on each side abruptly terminated, previous to
which, they had been at first more than a hundred feet above our heads,
and then gradually diminishing in height as we advanced. We descended
gradually into the semicircular expanse of marshes called El Ghuwair or
the Little Ghor, with the large Dead Sea and the _Khash'm Usdum_, or salt
mountain of Sodom, spread out before us.

The course of the wadi we had left trended from south-east to north-east,
on issuing from which we took the line on the western side of the
Ghuwair, and easily descended over small eminences. This place is most
probably the "ascent of Akrabbim," (Num. xxxiv. 4, and Josh. xv. 3,) the
southern boundary of the land given to Israel, and named after its
abundance of scorpions. In our hasty passage over it we saw none of
these.

Among the marshes we found several palms growing wild. They were stumpy
in stature, and ragged in form for want of cultivation, or perhaps of
congenial soil. The miasma was strongly perceptible to the smell, and
our horses were plagued with flies and gnats. How great was this change
from the pure dry air of the mountains!

Quarter to ten at _'Ain 'Aroos_, (the bridegroom's fountain,) but the
water was brackish.

Thermometer in the shade, 83.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

For an hour past our people had been on the alert, on account of a feud
between them and the Ghawarineh Arabs. On coming up to the print of a
human footstep, this was carefully examined as to its size, direction of
the tread, etc. The circumstances were not, however, exactly parallel to
the occurrence in Robinson Crusoe, which naturally came to mind.

At twenty minutes to eleven, having completed the western curve of the
Ghuwair, we fell in with the _Wadi Hhuggereh_, which came up from the
south-west, and on looking back, perceived a distinct mirage visible over
the dry