50 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



trees, but its noxious climate renders it unfit for 

 habitation. 



• Nejed is the largest province in Arabia, occupy- 

 ing the great central desert (the Arabia Deserta), 

 from Hejaz on the west to the narrow strip of El 

 Hassa on the east. . Until within the last twenty- 

 five years it was nearly a blank in the maps of Eu- 

 rope ; or filled with names at random, according to 

 the recital of travellers who had never visited it. 

 Its breadth, according to Captain SadUer, who trav- 

 ersed the whole peninsula from sea to sea in 1819, 

 cannot be less than 750 miles. According to Jomard, 

 the distance between the two gulfs, in a straight line 

 from El Katif to Yembo, may be estimated at 270 

 leagues ; the extent of the Nejed, from north to 

 south, he reckons at 260.* The surface is diver- 

 sified with momitains and plains; but it is by no 

 means that barren and desolate region which it has 

 been hitherto represented. On the north, from the 

 Hauran to the banks of the Euphrates, the whole 

 tract is one immense level, called El Hamad, without 

 the slightest elevation, and showing no trace of town 

 or village ; but affording vigorous growth to a few 

 thorny shrubs, by which the traveller's eye is some- 

 times relieved. Xenophon's description of these 

 regions, which were successively trodden by the 

 armies of Cyi'us and Julian, is as applicable at the 

 present day as it was nearly 2300 years ago. " The 

 country," says the Greek historian, " Avas a plain 

 throughout, as flat as the sea, and full of wormwood ; 

 and if any other shrubs or reeds grew there, they 

 had all an aromatic smell ; but no trees could be 

 seen. Bustards, ostriches, antelopes, and wild asses 

 appeared to be the only inhabitants."t SouthAvard 



