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CHAP. XXII .J INTERIOR OF THE COUNTRY. 575
thousands of sheep feed upon a thin short grass, which grows The interior
in almost every part of the country at present known to us. Seated. 7 Cul '
Moreover, we learn from sacred as well as profane history,
that the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, the Hebrews, and the
Egyptians crossed the wilderness of Arabia at various times
with immense armies, and consequently the country could
not have been then a barren desert: the practicability of
such movements was evident to me in my two journeys from
and to Damascus. During the first, which was towards the
end of the autumn of 1830, the coolness, even in the day
time, rendered a cloudless sky desirable, whilst we suffered
severely from frost at night. In the second journey, which
was in the summer of 1837, the heat was very oppressive
during the greater part of the day, but the nights were most
agreeable. We were gratified also from sun-set to day-break,
and more especially in the evenings and mornings, by the
sweetly cheering notes of the nightingale, issuing from the
liquorice bushes, which generally covered the plain; but as
we approached the lower temperature, at the foot of the
Syrian mountains, we no longer heard this unexpected tenant
of the wilderness. 1 Malte-Brun mentions this bird as being
met with in that portion of the peninsula which is so gene
rally considered altogether desert, and where most certainly
there is but little cultivation.
To the observations made by Monsieur Mengin, whilst Sources of
serving with Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. s army, as well as those of Cap-
respecting it.
tain Sadleir, whilst crossing from El Katif to the shores of
the Red Sea, and to the verbal narration of M. Borowski,
we are indebted for much information regarding the real state
of the interior. Almost the only notices previously obtained
were drawn from the works of Yusuf-el-Miliky or other
oriental writers, and from an English traveller of the name
of Reinaud ; 2 to which may be added the recollections of Mr.
Rassam, who, when quite a boy, accompanied Ibn Wahidol
into Arabia.
1 This is the bulbul of Syria and the nightingale of England; the bulhul
of Persia is our thrush.—See Ainsworth's Assyria and Chaldea, p. 43.
2 See Zach's Corresp., vol. XII., p. 237, &c.