[p.59] covered with sands, and almost wholly destitute of vegetation,
with hills on both sides, equally barren, lead to Muna. At half an hour
from the garden-house of the Sherif, the country opens a little to the
left. There the canal passes which supplies Mekka with sweet water; and
we saw, about two miles distant, at the extremity of the opening, a
conical mountain, called Djebel el Nour, considered holy by the
pilgrims, as will be subsequently mentioned. We passed on our right, in
an hour and a half, a large tank, built of stones. This, in the time of
the Hadj, is filled with water from the canal, which passes close by it.
I believe this to be the place called Sebyl-es-Sett. One of the side-
valleys between Mekka and Muna is called Wady Mohsab. El Fasy, the
historian of Mekka, says that there were formerly sixteen wells between
that city and Muna. At the end of two hours, after having ascended a
little by a paved causeway formed across the valley, which is about
forty yards in breadth, we entered Wady Muna. Near the causeway we saw a
small field, irrigated by means of a brackish well, where a few
miserable Bedouins raised onions and leeks for the market at Mekka. I
shall give hereafter a more detailed description of Wady Muna, where the
Hadj remains three days after its return from Arafat.