. The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration . ed to a heavy woodenplank, by means of which they drag up the loosened earthto pile it up in the required spot ; the embankment is thentrodden down until it forms a solid glacis. For six or sevenmiles we continued thus ; here and there a tributary torrentran down into the Wadi, Ghulwa and Izhal from the left,Sammu from the right, in whose upper course are the hamletand palm-groves of Sufaiya, then Qirdha and Qutba fromthe left, beyond which a high projecting ridge from the leftdeflects the Wadi somewhat more to the west. From thispoin
. The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration . ed to a heavy woodenplank, by means of which they drag up the loosened earthto pile it up in the required spot ; the embankment is thentrodden down until it forms a solid glacis. For six or sevenmiles we continued thus ; here and there a tributary torrentran down into the Wadi, Ghulwa and Izhal from the left,Sammu from the right, in whose upper course are the hamletand palm-groves of Sufaiya, then Qirdha and Qutba fromthe left, beyond which a high projecting ridge from the leftdeflects the Wadi somewhat more to the west. From thispoint, which marks the end of Wadi Shamiyya and thebeginning of Wadi al Laimun, as the next section of WadiFatima is called, we saw the first palms of the village ofMadhiq. A few steps brought us to an orchard, at whose edge wewatered our camels at the babbling brook of Ain Bardan,a perennial stream rising in the hillside on our left andproviding the whole of the Madhiq settlement with we found the valley straitened by sheer ^ The crows < THE HOLY LAND 213 precipices on either side to a narrow neck, beyond whiciithe tropical beauty of Wadi al Laimun burst suddenlyupon our admiring gaze ; orange and palm groves, bananaplantations, and iSelds of young corn and lucerne blendedtheir different shades of green in a wild highland setting ;on either side the mountains reared their rugged heads toa height of 1000 feet and here and there stood lesser knollsof rock crowned with hamlets of rough-hewn stone. Inthe whole breadth of Arabia I had not seen beauty such asthis ; in all my wanderings thereafter I saw not its like orequal. Such might be Taif in springtide, but here was natureunadorned and perfect. We were welcomed here by an imposing cavalcade headedby Sharif Haudhan, Amir of Madhiq, and Shaikh Musaid,the Kings secretary, the latter mounted on a sleek, fat the interchange of cordial greetings they led us downthe valley to the foot of the knoll on w
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1922
