We then crossed the Wady Rabigh, another of the short broad
valleys which distinguish this section of South Midian. The bed
sides, especially the right, are heaps and mounds of snowy
quartz, with glittering crowns of block and boulder: all prove to
be veins in the grey granite, whose large coarse elements are
decomposed by weather. The dark and rusty walls of the valley
also discharge the white stone in shunts and shoots: here and
there they might be mistaken for Goz ("sand-banks") heaped up by
the wind, except that these are clad in thin vegetation, whereas
the "Maru'" is mostly mother-naked. We halted here for rest and
to examine these features: despite the Khamsin, the Great Gaster
became querulous; hunger was now the chief complaint, and even
the bon ordinaire had lost much of its attraction. A harmless
snake was killed and bottled; its silver robe was beautifully
banded with a line, pink as the circles of the "cobra coral,"
which ran along the whole length of the back. It proved to be a
new species; and Dr. Gunther named it Zamenis elegantissimus.

Beyond the Rabigh, we ascended a lateral valley, whence a low
divide led to the Wady el-Bahrah ("of the Basin"), another feeder
of the Sirr. It was also snow-white, and on the right of the path
lay black heaps, Hawawit, "ruins" not worth the delay of a visit.
Then began a short up-slope with a longer counterslope, on which
we met a party of Huwaytat, camel-men and foot-men going to buy
grain at El-Wigh. Another apparition was a spear-man bestriding a
bare-backed colt; after reconnoitering us for some time, he
yielded to the temptations of curiosity. It afterwards struck us
that, mounted on our mules, preceded and followed by the Shaykhs
riding their dromedaries, we must have looked mighty like a party
of prisoners being marched inland. The horseman was followed by a