the Aristida grass, and other familiar growths. Tents, shepherds,
and large flocks of goats and kids showed that water was not
distant; and, here in Baliyy-land, even the few young women
seemed to have no fear of the white face.

After a slow, dull ride in the burning and sickly wind, we
crossed the head of our former route, Wady Zurayb the Ugly, and
presently entered the Wady el-Kubbah ("of the Cupola,"), where
our immediate destination rose before us. It is a grisly black
saddleback, banded with two perpendicular stripes of dark stone
that shines like specular iron; and upon its tall northern end,
the pommel, stands a small ruin, the oft spoken of "Dome."
Sketches of paths wind up the western flank; but upon this line,
we were assured, no ruins are seen save a few pits. So we rounded
the block by the north, following the broad Wady to the Mayat
el-Kubbah, water-pits in the sand whose produce had not been
libelled when described as salt, scanty, and stinking. The track
then turned up a short, broad branch-Wady, running from south to
north, and falling into the left bank of the "Dome Valley:" a few
yards brought us to a halt at the ruins of El-Kubbah. We had
pushed on sharply during the last half of the way, and our
morning's ride had lasted four hours (= thirteen miles).

The remains lie in the uneven quartzose basin at the head of the
little lateral watercourse: they are built with good cement, and
they evidently belong to the race that worked the "Mother of the
Villages;" but there is nothing to distinguish them except the
ruins of a large Sakiyah ("draw-well"), with its basin of
weathered alabaster. We were perplexed by the shallow conical
pits in the porphyritic trap, to the east and west of the "Dome