72 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



Burckhardt seems inclined to follow the opinions 

 of Shaw and Niebuhr. Referring to the distance 

 between Ayoun Mousa and the Well of Howara, he 

 conjectures that this is the desert of three days, said 

 to have been crossed by the Israehtes nnniediately 

 after their passing the Red Sea, and at the end of 

 which they arrived at Marah. " In moving with a 

 whole nation, the march (nearly forty miles) may 

 well be supposed to have occupied three days ; and 

 the bitter well at Marah, Avhich was sweetened by 

 Moses, corresponds exactly with that of Howara. 

 This is the usual route to Mount Sinai, and was 

 probably, therefore, that which the Israelites took 

 on their escape from Egypt ; provided it be admitted 

 that they crossed the gulf near Suez, as Niebuhr 

 with good reason conjectures. There is no other 

 road of three days' march on the way from Suez 

 towards Sinai, nor is there any other well absolutely 

 bitter on the whole of this coast, as far as Ras Mo- 

 hammed. The complaints of the bitterness of the 

 water by the children of Israel, who had been accus- 

 tomed to the sweet water of the Nile, are such as 

 may be daily heard from the Egyptian servants and 

 peasants who travel in Arabia." 



With respect to the means employed by Moses 

 to sweeten the waters, Burckhardt frequently in- 

 quired among the Arabs in different parts, whether 

 they possessed any means of effecting such a change, 

 by throwing wood into it, or by any other process ; 

 but he never could learn that such an art vras 

 knoAvn. Forskal, Avho travelled with Niebuhr as 

 botanist, indicates a plant having this property, 

 which is said to be known in the East Indies ; and 

 Burckhardt suggests the red berry of the gharkad, a 

 shrub which grows in the neighbourhood, and which 

 he thought might perhaps effect this change, in the 

 same manner as is done by the juice of pomegranate 

 grains. If Howara is the Marali of Exodus (chap. 

 XV. 23), then Wady Gharendel is probably Ehm 



