Book contents
- Frontmatter
- THE PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I THE PERAEA; AMMON AND MOAB
- CHAPTER II THE MOUNTAIN OF EDOM: ARABIA PETRAEA
- CHAPTER III THE HAJ JOURNEYING IN ARABIA
- CHAPTER IV MEDÁIN [THE “CITIES” OF] SÂLIḤ
- CHAPTER V MEDÁIN SÂLIḤ AND EL-‘ALLY
- CHAPTER VI EL-‘ALLY, EL-KHREYBY, MEDÁIN
- CHAPTER VII RETURN OF THE HAJ
- CHAPTER VIII THE NOMAD LIFE IN THE DESERT
- CHAPTER IX LIFE IN THE WANDERING VILLAGE
- CHAPTER X THE NOMADS IN THE DESERT VISIT TO TEYMA
- CHAPTER XI THE FUKARA WANDERING AS FUGITIVES IN ANOTHER DÎRA
- CHAPTER XII PEACE IN THE DESERT
- CHAPTER XIII MEDÁIN REVISITED. PASSAGE OF THE HARRA
- CHAPTER XIV WANDERING UPON THE HARRA WITH THE MOAHÎB
- CHAPTER XV OUR LIFE UPON THE HARRA
- CHAPTER XVI THE AARAB FORSAKE THE HARRA AND DESCEND TO THEIR SUMMER STATION IN WADY THIRBA
- CHAPTER XVII THE MOAHIB SUMMER CAMP IN WADY THIRBA. VISIT TO EL-‘ALLY
- CHAPTER XVIII THE FUKARA SUMMERING AT EL-HEJR
- CHAPTER XIX TEYMA
- CHAPTER XX THE DATE HARVEST
- CHAPTER XXI THE JEBEL
- CHAPTER XXII HÂYIL
- Appendix to Vol. I
- Plate section
CHAPTER XVII - THE MOAHIB SUMMER CAMP IN WADY THIRBA. VISIT TO EL-‘ALLY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 December 2010
- Frontmatter
- THE PREFACE
- Contents
- CHAPTER I THE PERAEA; AMMON AND MOAB
- CHAPTER II THE MOUNTAIN OF EDOM: ARABIA PETRAEA
- CHAPTER III THE HAJ JOURNEYING IN ARABIA
- CHAPTER IV MEDÁIN [THE “CITIES” OF] SÂLIḤ
- CHAPTER V MEDÁIN SÂLIḤ AND EL-‘ALLY
- CHAPTER VI EL-‘ALLY, EL-KHREYBY, MEDÁIN
- CHAPTER VII RETURN OF THE HAJ
- CHAPTER VIII THE NOMAD LIFE IN THE DESERT
- CHAPTER IX LIFE IN THE WANDERING VILLAGE
- CHAPTER X THE NOMADS IN THE DESERT VISIT TO TEYMA
- CHAPTER XI THE FUKARA WANDERING AS FUGITIVES IN ANOTHER DÎRA
- CHAPTER XII PEACE IN THE DESERT
- CHAPTER XIII MEDÁIN REVISITED. PASSAGE OF THE HARRA
- CHAPTER XIV WANDERING UPON THE HARRA WITH THE MOAHÎB
- CHAPTER XV OUR LIFE UPON THE HARRA
- CHAPTER XVI THE AARAB FORSAKE THE HARRA AND DESCEND TO THEIR SUMMER STATION IN WADY THIRBA
- CHAPTER XVII THE MOAHIB SUMMER CAMP IN WADY THIRBA. VISIT TO EL-‘ALLY
- CHAPTER XVIII THE FUKARA SUMMERING AT EL-HEJR
- CHAPTER XIX TEYMA
- CHAPTER XX THE DATE HARVEST
- CHAPTER XXI THE JEBEL
- CHAPTER XXII HÂYIL
- Appendix to Vol. I
- Plate section
Summary
One of these nights, a little before dawn, a sudden awful rushing sound startled the Beduw from their dreams; for a thunder-din resounded marvellously through the waste mountain above us: it seemed as if this world went to wrack. I was awake, and heard it at the full; the sound was double, a loud lasting uproar in the head of the Harra; then some shorter, it might be a vast echo that rumbled in the valley. A moment I dreaded to see the old vulcanic flames, that slumber so long under this soil, and the lava-floods break forth upon us: then I thought some vast rock had fallen in the distant Harra; or was it the noise of a shoot of stones in the abrupt head of the wady? It was a lofty sound such as is heard in the calving of ice in the glacial mountains. The Beduins, with ears full of the strange rumour, were ere day come together at the kahwa. Some neighbours, as they went by, stayed to ask the Nasrâny, “What is it?”—“You do not know your own dîra!”-“But fetch thy books and see; wilt thou not tell us, Khalîl?”—“Was it a rock falling?”-”It is more, there are wennys in this dîra.” The most in the mejlis were of opinion that a “star” had fallen; the sheykh's son at the moment was untying his filly and saw the shooting star, whereupon that thunder-noise followed.
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- Travels in Arabia Deserta , pp. 462 - 485Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1888