i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 533 



quite intolerable, that he is a camel and not a mule, and 

 will stand none of your confounded nonsense. Having 

 relieved his feelings he usually does what you bid him ; 

 but he is always uncertain in his temper, and when really 

 roused has an ugly trick of turning round and snapping 

 at the foot of the rider, which his jaws are quite strong 

 enough to bite through. 



In the most deserted part of the road near the top of a 

 rocky pass, we came upon a stone with a tolerably level 

 side, on which was scored a rough inscription, one or two 

 names in Arabic, and a few hieroglyphics, which appeared 

 to be imitations of the tribal marks used in branding 

 animals, with a rough figure of the camel. The inscription 

 was so far interesting that it had a certain kinship to the 

 much more ancient inscriptions of Taif , which are executed 

 in the same way by chipping the natural surface of a 

 brownish stone, so that the writing appears in a lighter 

 colour. My men were a little surprised at the stone, and 

 said that the Bedouins never make such scratchings now. 

 It cannot, however, have been very old. Beyond this 

 pass we entered a glade full of acacia trees, and met 

 a party of Oteibe taking camels to Mecca, who looked 

 at us rather suspiciously, but fraternised with Marzook. 

 Presently, at the wayside, we came on the shrine of a 

 Salih or saint. It was merely a circular wall of loose 

 stones, open on the eastern side, and three or four feet 

 high. It was hung with rags, the offerings of devotees, 

 and Marzook told me that the Bedouins were accustomed 

 to sacrifice a lamb before it. Farther down the glen we 

 met several solitary women. One seldom comes on a 

 man alone in the desert, but women go everywhere alone, 

 tending the flocks or gathering firewood. Among the 

 more primitive tribes the women and children have the 

 whole charge of the flocks, with which it would be humili 

 ating for a man to concern himself. Among the Oteibe 

 the women also help with the camels, which they ride 

 barebacked as boldly as the men ; but this was related 



