CHAP. I. 
JOURNEY IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
S3 
in kind a certain portion of his harvest. The Jews are employed 
to weigh and prepare the Bey's share, and are well paid by the 
Arabs, in order that they may give short measure ; for although 
using false weights is by the law of Mohammed a heinous crime, 
yet they fancy the sin is not incurred if the Jews defraud for 
them. 
Of the dress, food, &c. of the Arabs, I shall treat more fully in a 
future page. 
Saturday, ISth February. — At seven A. M. we left this de- 
lightful spot for Benioleed. Our road was through very difficult 
passes in the mountains, where we found some rain water, with 
which we filled our gerbas, or water-skins, with a sufficient supply 
for three days. 
Our road the latter part of this day lay over a barren, stony 
plain ; and having proceeded south 40° east twenty-five miles, we 
encamped at sunset in a small valley amongst some bushes. Our 
fellow travellers, after prefacing their stories by boasting of their 
own courage and expertness in fighting, gave us most frightful 
accounts of the banditti who were said to frequent this track ; but 
how these rogues, or any one else, could manage to exist at all in 
such a place, was a riddle which our friends could not explain. 
Muskets and pistols were laid at the Chowse's head, and two bottles 
of wine were drank to fortify his stomach, so that he slept undis- 
turbed through the night. 
Sunday, 14th. — The country onward presented one unvaried 
scene of desolation : not a living creature appeared during the day ; 
but at night the jackals kept up a continual howling. At noon, we 
passed a deep ravine, for about eight miles, of basalt, which ap- « 
peared as if it had been rent open by some convulsion of nature. 
At five, we crossed a dry water-course, and stopped on its bank 
