544 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



art, we gain a very early date for the monument, which, 

 on this hypothesis, can hardly be much later than the 

 Christian era. 



As the afternoon was already declining, my escort 

 hurried me away from the monument, that we might 

 clear the pass before dark. An hour before sunset we 

 emerged on an opener country, and crossing a torrent 

 bed where water is always to be found in the holes, 

 ascended the famous plateau of Okatz (the Hejaz pro 

 nunciation is Okath, with a palatal &quot; th &quot; instead of the 

 palatal &quot; z &quot; or &quot; d &quot; used by Syrians and Arabians ; 

 but I adopt &quot; tz &quot; as a conventional spelling to distinguish 

 from the ordinary &quot; th,&quot; which is also sounded in Hejaz 

 and the Nejd, and not changed to &quot; s &quot; or &quot; t,&quot; as is 

 done in Jeddah, Cairo, and many parts of Syria). 



Okatz, as I mentioned in my last letter, is a plateau 

 of the characteristic Hejaz type, a lofty plain of gravel 

 studded with granite bosses, the summits of hills whose 

 bases are buried in the debris of long centuries of dis 

 integration. In the south-east corner of the small plain, 

 which is barely two miles across, rises a hill of loose 

 granite rocks, crowned by an enormous pillar standing 

 quite erect, and flanked by lower masses. I do not think 

 this pillar can be less than 50 or 60 feet in height, and its 

 extraordinary aspect, standing between two lesser guards 

 on either side, is the first thing that strikes the eye on 

 nearing the plain. Now, we know that the sanctuary of 

 Okatz was no temple, but consisted of rocks, round which 

 the pilgrims made procession. The worship of remark 

 able rocks is a well-known feature in the religion of the 

 ancient Arabs, and it is natural to suppose that the group 

 selected for worship at Okatz was the most striking that 

 rose from the plain. I could not learn that there is any 

 tradition by which one could make quite sure of the 

 points, and the name of the sanctuary Al Otheyda 

 was not recognised by Al Mas, who had lived for years in 

 the immediate vicinity ; but the isolated hill suits the 



