_April_ 5. Sunrise, Fahrenheit, 62.25 degrees. Our Jerusalem bread being now exhausted, we took to that of the desert-baking, which is very good while fresh and hot from the stones on which the improvisation of baking is performed, but not otherwise for a European digestion: and our servants, with the Bedaween, had to chase the chickens every morning. The survivors of those brought from Jerusalem being humanely let out of their cages for feeding every evening, the scene of running after them, or flinging cloaks in the air when they took short flights, not to mention the shouts of the men and the screams of the birds, was very ludicrous, but annoying, when time is precious. The merry little Salem enjoyed all this, as well as the amusements of our people, during the monotony of daily travelling: as, for instance, the captain rolling oranges along the ground, as prizes for running, or his mounting a camel himself, or riding backwards, etc.--anything for variety. The desert may be described as a dried pudding of sand and pebbles, in different proportions in different places,--sometimes the sand predominating, and sometimes the pebbles,--with occasionally an abundance of very small fragments of flint, serving to give a firmer consistency to the sand. Round boulders are also met with on approaching the hill-sides. In one place large drifts of soft yellow sand were wrinkled by the wind, as a smooth sea-beach is by the ripples of a receding tide. These wrinkles, together with the glare of a burning sun upon them, affected the eyes, so as to make the head giddy in passing over them. Wild flowers and shrubs are not wanting; and the former are often very fragrant. I observed among those that are so, a prevalence in their names of the letter [Arabic letter] (gh); as Ghurrah, Ghubbeh, Ghurkud, Ghuraim, etc. They brought me a handful of _meijainineh_, which was said to be good for pains in the stomach; and the starry flower, called _dibbaihh_, not unlike a wild pink, is eaten by the people, both petals, calyx, and stalk. The tul'hh, or mimosa-tree, has a strange appearance, very like an open fan, or the letter V filled up. The green foliage of it is particularly vivid at the season when we saw it, and the thorns long and sharp. {304} Distances are hard to judge of in such extensive plains and in so clear an atmosphere. We had been nearly two days in sight of Mount Hor, straight before us; yet the mountain only grew in size as we approached it, not in distinctness. [Picture: Tul'hh Trees] As we came nearer to the eastern mountains, we found innumerable and huge blocks of porphyry rock scattered over the ground. The Arabs called the range of Seir by the name of _Jebel Sherreh_. At about eight hours from our last night's station, we turned off the Wadi 'Arabah by the narrow _Wadi Tayibeh_ into the heart of the mountains, at the foot of Hor.