and it is said to head fifteen days inland, in fact beyond
El-Medinah, towards which it curves with a south-easterly bend.
It receives a multitude of important secondary valleys; amongst
which is the Wady el-'Uwaynid, universally so pronounced. I
cannot help thinking that this is El-'Aunid of El-Mukaddasi,
which El-Idrisi (erroneously?) throws into the sea opposite
Nu'ma'n Island. If my conjecture prove true, we thus have a
reason why this important line has been inexplicably neglected.
Another branch is the Wady el-'Is, Sprenger's "Al-'Ys" (pp. 28,
29), which he calls "a valley in the Juhaynah country," and makes
the northern boundary of that tribe.

Ethnologically considered, the lower Wady Hamz is now the
southern boundary of the Balawiyyah (Baliyy country), and the
northern limit of the Jahaniyyah, or Juhaynah-land: the latter is
popularly described as stretching down coast to Wady Burmah, one
march beyond Yambu' (?). Higher up it belongs to the
Alaydan-'Anezahs, under Shaykh Mutlak--these were the Bedawin
who, during our stay at the port, brought their caravan to
El-Wijh. Both tribes are unsafe, and they will wax worse as they
go south. Yet there is no difficulty in travelling up the Hamz,
at least for those who can afford time and money to engage the
escort of Shaykh Mutlak. A delay of twelve days to a fortnight
would be necessary, and common prudence would suggest the normal
precaution of detaining, as hostage in the seaboard settlement,
one of his Alaydan cousins. Water is to be found the whole way,
and the usual provisions are to be bought at certain places.

The following notes upon the ruins of the Wady Hamz were supplied
to me by the Baliyy Bedawin and the citizens of El-Wijh. Six