s, and made an attack upon the enemy with our small army, which
amounted to about three hundred in all. With the loss only of one man
and a woman on our side, we completely defeated the Arabians of whom we
slew 1500 men. This victory is not to be wondered at, considering that
the Arabians are almost entirely unarmed being almost naked, and having
only a thin loose vesture, while their horses are very ill provided for
battle, having no saddles or other caparisons.

Continuing our march after this victory, we came in eight days to a
mountain about ten or twelve miles in circuit, which was inhabited by
about 5000 Jews. These were of very small stature, hardly exceeding five
or six spans in height, and some much less[37]. They have small shrill
voices like women, and are of very dark complexions, some blacker than
the rest. Their only food is the flesh of goats. They are all
circumcised and follow the Jewish law, and when any Mahometan falls into
their hands they flea him alive. We found a hole at the foot of the
mountain out of which there flowed an abundant source of water, at which
we laded 16,000 camels, giving great offence to the Jews. These people
wander about their mountain like so many goats or deer, not daring to
descend into the plain for fear of the Arabians. At the bottom of the
mountain we found a small grove of seven or eight thorn trees, among
which we found a pair of turtle doves, which were to us a great rarity,
as during our long journey hitherto we had seen neither beast nor bird.

[Footnote 37: This account of the stature of the Jewish tribe cannot
fail to be much exaggerated, otherwise the text must have been corrupted
at this place; as we cannot well conceive of a tribe in Arabia not
exceeding four feet two inches in average height.--E.]

Proceeding two days journey from the mountain of the Jews, we came to
_Medinathalhabi_[38] or Medina. Four miles from this city we found a
well, where the caravan rested and remained for a whole day, that we
might wash ourselves and put on clean garments to appear decently in the
city. Medina contains about three hundred houses of stone or brick, and
is well peopled, being surrounded by bulwarks of earth. The soil is
utterly barren, except at about two miles from the city there are about
fifty palm trees which bear dates. At that place, beside a garden, there
is a water-course which runs into a lower plain, where the pilgrims are
accustomed to water their camels. I