^1$ TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



fhowers. It is alfo called Beladullah, or the Country of God, 

 on account of this double blelling. The dates of Gerri are 

 fent to the Mek, and are referved on purpofe for him. They 

 are dry, and never ripen, nor have any of the moift and 

 pulpy fubilance of the dates of Barbary. They arc firm 

 and fmooth in the fkin, and of a golden colour. 



On the ifl of October, at half pafl five in the morning 

 ^ve left Gerri, the Acaba continuing on the eafl. and weft, 

 hut the two extremities curving like a bow or an amphi- 

 theatre. This ridge of mountains is compofed of bare, red 

 flone, without any grais. At ten minutes after eight we 

 changed our road to N. E. endeavouring to turn the point 

 of the Acaba about three miles off, and at ten o'clock alight- 

 ed among green trees to f<;ed our camels. At three o'clock 

 in the afternoon we left our refting-place in the wood. The 

 mountains, which were then on our left hand, are thofe of 

 the Acaba of Gerri ; but thofe on the right ftill ran parallel 

 to our courfe, and ended in the Acaba of Mornefs : we were 

 now two miles from the river, its courfe due north. About 

 twenty minutes part four we came to the Acaba of Mornefs, 

 ji ridge of bare, (lony hills, and half an hour after we palled 

 it. There is very little afcent, and the road is only loofe^ 

 broken ftones, which laft about a quarter of an hour. 



At {iX o'clock in the evening we came to Hajar el AfTad, 

 • or Hajar Serrareek, the firil fjgnifying the Lion's Stone, the 

 next the Stone of Thieves, a beggarly, ftraggling village, 

 where there is 'a fakia, and fmall ftripes of dora, as if fown 

 in a garden, and watered from the well at pleafure. Hajar 

 el AlTad is the boundary between Wed Ageeb and the Mek 

 ..of Chendi ; it is a yellow Hone fet upon a rock, which they 

 2 imagine 



