Page 446 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XXV.] NAKAB EL HAJAR. 407

at once to place myself under their protection

and proceed with them. Accordingly, I de­
spatched my boat to the vessel, with an inti­

mation that I hoped at the expiration of
three days, to be at the village of ’Ain, on

the sea-coast, where it could again be sent for
me. Having filled our water-skins, at three

p.m., accompanied by an ill-looking fellow
(styling himself the brother of Hamed) and

another Bedowin, we mounted our camels and
set forward. The road, after leaving Ba-’l-

haff, extends along the shore to the westward.
On the beach we saw a great variety of

shells; among them the Pinna fragilis, the
Solen, the Voluta musica, and several varieties

of Olives were the most common. Fragments
of red tubular coral, and the branch kind of

the white, were also very numerous. Under
a dark barn-shaped hill, which we passed to

the right, our guides pointed out the remains
of an old tower, but as we were told there
were no inscriptions, and as its appearance

from the ship indicated its being of Arab

construction, we did not stay to examine it.
At 4 o0 we passed a small fishing village,

called Jilleh, consisting of about twenty huts,