the Wady Nejd, the upper course of the Aba'l-Gezaz: a jagged
black curtain, the Jebel Dausal, forms its southern jaw. Further
south the Tihamah Mountains begin with the peaky Jebel el-Kurr,
another remarkable block which has long been in sight. Its
neighbour is the bluff-headed Jebel el-Wasil of Marwat; whilst
the trap-blocks, already mentioned as the Jibal el-'Akabil,
finish the circle.

The better to understand the shape of the ruins, we will ascend
the irregular block which rises a few furlongs to the north-east
of the palm-orchard. It has only three names: 'Araygat Bada
("Veinlet of Bada"); Zeba'yat Bada, "the Low-lying (Hill) of
Bada;" and Shahib el-Bum, "the Ash-coloured (Hill) of the Owl." I
will prefer the latter, as we actually sighted one of those dear
birds on its western flank. It is an outcrop of grey granite,
pigeon-holed by weather, and veined by a variety of dykes. Here
we find greenstone breccia'd with the blackest hornblende; there
huge filons of hard, red, heat-altered clays, faced with iron,
whilst the fracture is white as trachyte; and there filets of
quartz, traversing large curtains and sheets of light-coloured
argils. This was evidently the main quarry: the sides still show
signs of made zigzags; and the red blocks and boulders, all round
the hill, bear the prayers and pious ejaculations of the
Faithful. The characters range between square Kufic, hardly
antedating four centuries, and the cursive form of our day. Some
are merely scraped; others are deeply and laboriously cut in the
hard material, a work more appropriate for the miner than for the
passing pilgrim.

From the ruined look-out on the summit the shape of the city