VI. 
250 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, their other customs, particularly the delight 
they take in horsemanship, and the estimation 
in which high-bred horses are held among them, 
V. ould be only to repeat what has been already 
related, with admirable conciseness, truth, and 
judgment, hy D'j4rvieux; whose work, already 
referred to, is worthy the regard of every . 
reader ^ He has preserved the address of an 
Arab to his mare, as delivered in his own 
presence ; and this, more eloquent than whole 
pages of descriptive information, presents us 
(I) Of all the Arab trihes, there is not one which at present excites 
so much interest as that of the TVahahees ; whose very existence had 
scarcely merited attention when the author was engaged in these 
travels. Ibn Saoud, the present ffahabee Chief, made, in July 1810, 
an incursion into the neighbourhood of Damascus. This happened 
about the time the enterprising Burckhardt arrived in that city, 
from Palmyra; and it is from his correspondence with the author 
that the substance of this note is derived. " The inhabitants of 
Damascus," (says he, in a letter dated Aleppo, May 3, 181 ],) " knowing 
the Pasha's feeble resources for the defence of the city, were so much 
terrified, that many began to send off their most valuable effects to 
the mountain of the Druses. The TVahahees, however, executed 
their design in the true Arab style. Ibn Saoud remained only two 
days and a half in the Hauran (a mountainous district of Libanus, 
south-east of Daynascus, still retaining its antient patriarchal name) ; 
overran, in that time, a space of at least 140 miles ; plundered and 
ransacked above thirty villages ; and returned, flying into the heart of 
his desert dominions. The Pasha had issued from Damascus, with 
a corps of above six thousand men, but did not choose to hazard an 
engagement. Ibn S^oud was for several hours in view of him ; but 
contented himself with awkwardly firing his guns. The TVahahees 
were, for the greater part, mounted upon she-camels, whose milk 
afforded, in the desert, subsistence to themselves, and to the few- 
horses which accompanied them. Their strength was between six 
and 
