The only inhabitants of the cave, bats and lizards (Gongylus
ocellatus, L., etc.), did not prevent M. Lacaze making careful
study of the excavation; the necessity of brown shadows, however,
robs the scene of its charm, the delicate white which still
shimmers under its transparent veil of shade. Similar features
exist at El-Muwaylah and El-Aujah, in the wilderness of Kadesh:
but those are latomia; these are gold mines.[EN#62]

Another sign of superior labour is shown by the quartz-crushing
implements. Here they are of three kinds: coarse and rough
basaltic lava for the first and rudest work; red granite and
syenitic granite for the next stage; and, lastly, an admirable
handmill of the compactest grey granite, smooth as glass and hard
as iron. Around the pin-hole are raised and depressed concentric
circles intended for ornament; and the "dishing" towards the rim
is regular as if turned by machinery. We have seen as yet nothing
like this work; nor shall we see anything superior to it. All are
nether millstones, so carefully smashed that one can hardly help
suspecting the kind of superstitious feeling which suggested
iconoclasm. The venerable Shaykh 'Afnan showed a touching
ignorance concerning the labours of the ancients; and, when
lectured about the Nabat (Nabathaans), only exclaimed, "Allah,
Allah!"

In the evening we ascended the porphyry hills to the north of the
little camping-basin; and we found the heights striped by two
large vertical bands of quartz. The eastern vein, like the Jebel
el-Maru, has a north-east to south-west strike (45 mag.); the
western runs east-west with a dip to south. From the summit we
could see that the quartz-mountain, as usual an exaggerated vein,