CHAP. I. 
JOURNEY IN THE MOUNTAINS. 
29 
height of the spot on which we stood, we found it difficult to distin- 
guish many objects, which from the plain had appeared very con- 
spicuous. Unfortunately, before we ascended this mountain we had 
broken our Barometer, and were thence unable to ascertain its 
precise elevation. Here is the tomb of a Maraboot, whose sanctity 
is the subject of many extraordinary stories. 
It was from hence that the Arabs, when they declared war 
against the Bashaw (which formerly happened very frequently), 
announced their rising to their allies and neighbouring tribes, by 
signals of a fire at night, and a smoke by day. Three poor Arabs 
followed us up the mountain, pointing out to us the most re- 
markable surrounding objects : they gathered for us some small 
black berries from a low thorny tree, with yellow flowers, which they 
called Dummagh ^Uli or " brains," and which had an astringent taste, 
somewhat resembling that of a ripe sloe, but the fruit was much 
smaller. They told us that the Arabs of Gharian always spoke 
with gratitude of the English Consul, who had once persuaded tlie 
Bashaw not to increase their tribute, as he intended. 
At noon we arrived at a cluster of nests called El Guasem j^U!l 
about six miles from Beni abbas : all the habitations of this place 
are of the same kind as those already described ; we, however, 
found a small uninhabited shed above ground, situated at the foot 
of a little turret, where we deposited our goods, and determined 
on passing the night. From the inscriptions which we found in 
this building, it must be about 150 years old. The present Bashaw, 
his father, grand and great grandfather, had all slept in the smoky 
corner, of which we now took possession. The turret itself is con- 
structed in a mode common to many others in these mountains. 
At about half way down one of the subterranean passages, a hole 
is cut upwards in an awkward way through the rock into the first 
floor of the turret, which is even with the ground, and perfectly 
4 
