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| Title | Picturesque Palestine, Sinai, and Egypt, Vol. 2 |
| Creator (LCNAF) |
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| Publisher | D. Appleton and Company |
| Date | 1883 |
| Description | Index: Phoenicia and Lebanon / by the Rev. H. W. Jessup -- The Phoenician plain / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- Acre, the key of Palestine, Mount Carmel and the river Kishon, Maritime cities and plains of Palestine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Lydda and Ramleh, Philistia / By Lt. Col. Warren -- The south country of Judaea / by the Rev. Canon Tristram -- The southern borderland and Dead Sea / by Professor Palmer -- Mount Hor and the cliffs of Edom, The convent of St. Catherine / by Miss M. E. Rogers -- Sinai / by the Rev. C. P. Clarke -- The land of Goshen, Cairo, Memphis, Thebes, Edfu and Philae / by S. Lane-Poole. |
| Subject.Geographic (TGN) |
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| Genre (AAT) |
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| Language | English |
| Type (DCMI) |
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| Original Item Location | DS107 .W73 v.2 |
| Original Item URL | http://library.uh.edu/record=b1703789~S11 |
| Digital Collection | Exotic Impressions: Views of Foreign Lands |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/exotic |
| Repository | Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room, William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/william-r-jenkins-architecture-art-library |
| Use and Reproduction | No Copyright - United States |
| Identifier | exotic_201304_015 |
| Title | Page 292 |
| Format (IMT) |
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| File Name | exotic_201304_015_316.jpg |
| Transcript | 292 PICTURESQUE PALESTINE. sunlight; while there one fancies a regular set of stone benches and tables has been arranged bv giant hands for giant travellers. This sandstone is so inviting in its softness that one beoins unconsciously to scratch a record of one's visit, as thousands may have done centuries ao-o Allusion has been already made to these inscriptions, consisting for the most part of a word or two, and then some rough figure of a man, or of animals like the camel, or of birds like the ostrich. There are undoubtedly a very great number of them, and this may be accounted for either by the probable supposition that in this valley (in some respects more convenient than Wady Feiran) must have been large markets to which would have been attracted a great concourse of foreign merchants—or else that at one period, for some reason or other, this valley was occupied by a foreign migratory people, driven here, perhaps, by the exigencies of war or persecution. In itself there is nothing in the valley, either traditionally or otherwise, which would have made it an object of pilgrimage. There is no shrine, no temple ; and there is no legend of any such shrine or temple as would have drawn worshippers to the locality. One knows how deep-seated is the love of scribbling in most people. Some go further than this—for I remember seeing a traveller at Philae who, armed with hammer and chisel, had begun cutting his miserable name on the imperishable stones of the celebrated inner propylon! These Mukatteb inscriptions damage nothing; there is no "bad taste" about them, except it be their apparent valuelessness. Most of them are dotted in with a sharp stone; and altogether the impression is conveyed that one day some more lounging spirit than another commenced writing his name in a sort of haphazard manner, and that this grew into a fashion and habit of the place. Of course fresh light may yet be thrown on these inscriptions. Possibly a tragic story may be connected with some of them ; a long interval of years, sufficient for a hundred tragedies to have been enacted here, detaches large groups of them from their neighbours-- but as yet the missing link has not been found which will bind them to history. From the watershed of Wady Mukatteb the view is very fine. Jebel Mukatteb, taking its name from the wady, as is so commonly the case in Arab nomenclature, is a large bold mountain on the right hand, and rises about two thousand four hundred feet from the Wady Feiran, which it forces out of its course. This wady, one of the grandest and longest in the peninsula, exhibits best the peculiar features of a wady. It is not altogether correct to speak of wadies as being the same as our valleys, for there are striking points of difference. The word means properly a " hollow between hills, whether dry or moist," and is derivable from a verb signifying radically " to perforate by water." There is no limit as to length, or depth, or breadth; while the constancy of the mountain torrent by which they may have been grooved out is immaterial. For a few days or weeks in winter some of these valleys have the appearance of rapid streams. The Wady Shellal, for instance, bears every trace of water at some seasons rushing down its floor. Their usual aspect, however, is naked and waste. Possibly the barrenness is increased by the constant signs and indications of water which is no longer seen. The great river beds in |