FAUNA AND FLORA OF SINAI, PETRA, AND WADY 'ARABAH. 45 



The following observations were obtained from Sheikh Seyd, of the 

 Ghawarniheh, with regard to the Gh6r : 



' Rain generally falls on about ten or twelve days of the year, usually 

 during December and January. Some years there is none. Much more 

 is seen on the highlands on either side, which does not reach the Ghor. 



' They grow wheat, barley, oats, dhourra (sorghum), indigo (one sort), 

 tobacco, and Indian corn. 



' Wheat, barley, and dhourra are sown in January ; Indian corn in 

 March. Tobacco is sown in January. Indigo is sown in March. They 

 grow some white grapes on trellises. They do not know henna (Lawsonia). 

 Zukkum (Balanites) is common, but made no use of. Mallow is boiled 

 and eaten. Osher (Calotropis) is given to women when barren, or to pro- 

 cure milk, the milk of the bush being taken. Water-melons and cucumbers 

 are cultivated. Of the fruit of the Salvadora (arak) they make a sort of 

 treacle or sweet mixture. Never heard it called " Khardal "; Khardal 

 is mustard, but they have none. 



' They (the Ghawarniheh) mostly leave the Ghor and go up to the hill 

 country in the hottest weather. Snakes and insects are very bad and very 

 numerous in the Gh6r at that season.' 



My inquiries about Salvadora were made relative to its claims to being 

 the tree of the mustard-seed parable. I could get no corroboration from 

 these Bedawin of this view, first put forward by Irby and Mangles, who 

 are not, however, responsible for the statement that it is called ' Khardal ' 

 (mustard), nor do they say, as has been misquoted, that they found the 

 ' Ghorneys ' using it as mustard. The theory has not, in fact, ' a leg to 

 stand on.' 



Mr. Merrill, U.S. Consul at Jerusalem, has kindly made inquiries for 

 me as to the origin of the seed sown by the Arabs. He informs me they 

 save it from year to year, but if they should run short they obtain 

 supplies from Jerusalem. It is to the Mediterranean sea-board west- 

 wards, therefore, we must look for the home of any suspicious weeds of 

 cultivation in the Ghdr ; and those which are not natives of this region 

 may perhaps be held less open to the question as to their being indigenous 

 in the Ghdr. 



No sooner has the river Hessi issued from its unfruitful ravine than 



7 



