The three normal days of El-Aylí had come and gone; still the Fortuna[EN#115] did not fall. The water, paved with dark slate, and domed with an awning of milky-white clouds, patched here and there with rags and shreds of black wintry mist that poured westward from the Suez Gulf, showed us how ugly the Birkat 'Akabah can look. As in Iceland also, the higher rose the barometer, the higher rose the norther; the latter being a cold dry wind is, consequently, a heavy wind. And when the sky was comparatively clear and blue, the display of cirri was noticeable. In some places they formed filmy crosses and thready lozenges; in others the wrack fell into the shape of the letter Z; and from the western horizon the curl-clouds shot up thin rays, with a common centre hid behind the mountains of Sinai, affecting all the airs of the sun. Before leaving Makná I must give an account of its peculiar tribe, concerning which "The Gold-Mines of Midian"[EN#116] contained sundry inaccuracies. These men are not the "pauper descendants of the wealthy Midianites; they cannot boast of ancient race or of noble blood; and their speech differs in nothing from that of the Arabs around them. There can be no greater mistake than to suppose that they represent in any way the ancient Nabathæans. In features, complexion, and dress they resemble the half-settled Bedawin around them; and, like these, they show a kind of connection with the Sinaitic tribes. The Magáni,[EN#117] to whom only the southern clump of huts at Makná belongs, call themselves Fawá'idah, Zubáidah, and Ramázání, after families of the Juhayni stock; and the Fawá'idah have, by descent, some title to the name. They are, however, considered to be Khaddamín ("serviles"), like the Hutaym race, by their neighbours, who give tile following account of their origin.