164 Bedouin Tribes of the EjipJu^ates. [cH.xxnr. 



insignificant tells and wadys figuring on it as hills 

 and watercourses, — and this for no better purpose 

 than that the map should look more maplike to the 

 eyes of the engraver. 



I have traced one or two of these improvements 

 to their source. Thus, in 1872, a Prussian lieu- 

 tenant, named Thielman, crosses the Hamad from 

 Bagdad to Damascus, and, being a conscientious 

 officer, notes down all that he sees on his way. He 

 observes, amongst other things, a certain range of 

 hills (the broken edge, most probably, of a plateau 

 or table-land), and he asks his guide "What is 

 that ? " " El berriye," answers the Agheyl, " the 

 desert," meaning thereby that he sees nothing he 

 recognises ; and in the next edition of Kiepert's 

 Hand Atlas, Jehel el Berrie appears as a mountain 

 chain. In another map, Jebel Rudk figures as a 

 single peak ; and in a third, Tudmur stands in a 

 valley. The fact is that, with the exception of the 

 Euphrates, which was surveyed by Colonel Chesney 

 forty years ago, no part of Northern Arabia has yet 

 been professionally examined. ]\Iap-makers, then, 

 would do well to imitate Mr. Stanford, who, in 

 default of reliable information from modern tra- 

 vellers, sticks courageously by the old traditions. 

 His map looks bare but is accm^ate, and is the only 

 one we have found of any use. 



But to resume : The physical features of the 

 desert are those of a plain clothed with aromatic 

 shrubs, stunted but woody, of which wild lavender 



