116 MEMOIR OP BURCKHARDT. 



not very common. The Arabs spoke of a voracious 

 animal called Slyb, supposed by them to be a breed 

 between the leopard and the wolf ^ and of another 

 beast of prey, called Wober, said to be of the size of 

 a large dog, with a pointed head like a hog, and 

 inhabiting only the most retired parts of the penin- 

 sula. The wild goats are abundant, and require as 

 much enterprise and patience in the hunter to 

 catch them as the chamois of the Alps. 



In some of the valleys, fennel grows three or four 

 feet high; the Bedouins eat the stalks raw, and 

 pretend that it cools the blood. The tamarisk, or 

 tarfa, is met with ; and though it is a common tree 

 in the East, in Nubia, and in every part of Arabia, 

 Burckhardt remarks that he never heard of its 

 producing manna, except in Mount Sinai. The 

 Bedouins still call it mann^ and gather it in the 

 month of June. It is collected before sunrise, when 

 it is coagulated ; but it dissolves as soon as the sun 

 shines upon it. When they have cleaned away the 

 leaves and dirt that adhere to it, they boil it, and 

 strain it through a coarse cloth ; after which it is 

 put into leathern skins, and preserved for use during 

 the year. The apple, pear, and apricot trees grow 

 only in the elevated regions of the Upper Sinai; 

 while the valleys produce cucumbers, gourds, me- 

 lons, onions, tobacco, hemp for smoking, &c. 



Among other antiquities in the peninsula, of 

 which Burckhardt gives some account, are the nu- 

 merous inscriptions with which the rocks in several 

 places are almost entirely covered The most cele- 



