without confuming the body o f the tree. After the tropical!
rains begin, the vegetation immediately returns ; the fpringk
inereafe, the rivers run, and the pools are filled with water..
' A ll forts o f verdure being now in the grea'teft luxuriancy,.
the Arabs revifit their former ftations. This'conflagration'
is performed at two feafons ; the fir ft, b y th eS h an g a lla and
hunters on the fouthern parts o f this woody Country, begins
lii the month o f October, on the return o f the fun, the cir-
eumftances o f which-1 have already mentioned■; the latter
which happens in March, and laftV all April, befides providT
in g future fuftenance for their flocks, is likewife intended to :
prevent, at lfeaft to diminifli, the ravages o f the fly ; a plague-
o f the m oil extraordinary kind, already defcribed.
Wr left Qivaicha a little before four in the morning:
o f the 19th o f March, and at h a lf an hour pad five we came
to Jibbel Achmar, a fmall mountain,- or rather m o u n t; for
it is- o f a- very regular form* and not above 300.feet high,
but covered with green grafs to the top.- What has-giveri
it the name o f Jibbel Achmar, or the Red'Mountain, I
know not. Alb the country is- o f red- earth about i t ; but
as it hath much grafs,^it ihould be ca lled* the Green
Mountain, in the middle o f the red country ; though there
is nothing more vague or Undetermined than the language -
of; the Arabs, when- they fpeak o f colours. This hill, fur-
rounded with impenetrable woods,' is-in the beginning o f
autumn the rendezvous o f the Arabs Daveina, when there-
is w a te r ; at which time the rhinoceros and many forts o f
beafts, crowd hithe r; tho’ few elephants, hut they are thoft
o f
* Xibbel A ch d a r .
-Of the largeft kind, moilly males ; .fo that the Arabs make
this a favourite ftation, after the grafs is burnt, efpecially
the young part o f them, who are hunters.
We reached Imferrha at h a lf paft eleven, the water
being about h a lf a mile diftant to the S. W. The wells
are fituated'upon a fmall ridge that mns nearly eaft and
■weft. At one extremity o f this is a fmall-pointed mountain,
upon which was formerly a village belonging to the Arabs,
called Jehaina, now totally deftroyed by the hunting parties
o f the Daveina, the great tyrants o f this country, who, together
with the fcarcity o f water, are the principal caufes
that this whole territory is defolate; For though the foil
is fandy and improper for agriculture, yet it is thickly overgrown
with trees ; and were the places where water is
found fufficiently flocked with inhabitants, great numbers
o f cattle might be paftured here, every fpecies o f which
live upon the leaves and the young branches o f trees, even
on fpots where grafs is abundant.
On the 20th, at fix o’clock in the morning we fet out
from Imferrha, and in two hours arrived at Raihid, where
> we were fufpnied to fee- the branches of the 'ihrubs- and
buih.es all covered with a ihell o f that fpecies o f univalve
called Turbines, white and red ; fome o f them from three
to four inches long, and not to be diftinguifhed by the niceft
eye from thofe fea-ihells, o f the fame fpecies, w hich are
brought in great quantities from the Weft India iflands,
efpecially St Domingo.
How thefe came firft in a fandy defert fo far from the
fea is a difquifition I fliall not now enter into. There are-
U U 2 o f