Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

164 Bedouin Tribes of the EjipJu^ates. [cH.xxnr.
insignificant tells and wadys figuring on it as hills
and watercourses,—and this for no better purpose
than that the map should look more maplike to the
eyes of the engraver.
I have traced one or two of these improvements
to their source. Thus, in 1872, a Prussian lieutenant,
named Thielman, crosses the Hamad from
Bagdad to Damascus, and, being a conscientious
officer, notes down all that he sees on his way. He
observes, amongst other things, a certain range of
hills (the broken
edge, most probably, of a plateau
or table-land), and he asks his guide "What is
that ? " " El berriye," answers the Agheyl, " the
desert," meaning thereby that he sees nothing he
recognises ; and in the next edition of Kiepert's
Hand Atlas, Jehel el Berrie appears as a mountain
chain. In another map, Jebel Rudk figures as a
single peak ; and in a third, Tudmur stands in a
valley. The fact is that, with the exception of the
Euphrates, which was surveyed by Colonel Chesney
forty years ago, no part of Northern Arabia has yet
been professionally examined. ]\Iap-makers, then,
would do well to imitate Mr. Stanford, who, in
default of reliable information from modern travellers,
sticks courageously by the old traditions.
His map looks bare but is
accm^ate, and is the only
one we have found of any use.
But to resume : The physical features of the
desert are those of a plain clothed with aromatic
shrubs, stunted but woody, of which wild lavender