little in Midian.

We set out early on the next day (5.30 a.m., March 30th) in
disorderly style. The night had been cool and comfortable, dry
and dewless; but the Shaykhs were torpid after the feast, and the
escort and quarrymen had been demoralized by a week of sweet
"do-nothing." Striking up the Wady el-Wijh, which now becomes
narrow and gorge-like, with old and new wells and water-pits
dotting the sole, we were stopped, after half an hour's walk, by
a "written rock" on the right side of the bed. None of the guides
seemed to know or, at any rate, to care for it; although I
afterwards learnt that Admiral M'Killop (Pasha), during his last
visit to El-Wijh, obtained a squeeze of the inscriptions.
Wellsted (II. x.) erroneously calls this valley "Wadi el-Moyah,"
the name of a feature further south--thus leading me to expect
the find elsewhere. Moreover, he has copied the scrawls with a
carelessness so prodigious, that we failed at first to recognize
the original. He has hit upon the notable expedient of massing
together in a single dwarf wood-cut (Vol. II. p. 189) what covers
many square feet of stone; and I was fool enough to republish his
copy.[EN#55]

A tall, fissured rock, of the hardest porphyritic greenstone,
high raised from the valley-sole, facing north-west, and
reducible to two main blocks, is scattered over with these
"inscriptions," that spread in all directions. Most of them are
Arab Wusum, others are rude drawings of men and beasts, amongst
which are conspicuous the artless camel and the serpent; and
there is a duello between two funny warriors armed with sword and
shield. These efforts of art resemble, not a little, the "Totem"