the very black," is applied to
the northern part of the Red Sea, in contradistinction to
Uaz-Oirit, Uazit-Oirit, "the very green," the
Mediterranean; a town, probably built at a short distance
from the village of Maghfar, had taken its name from the
gulf on which it was situated, and was also called Kim-
Oirit.

The marauders took advantage of any inequality in the ground to approach
unperceived, and they were often successful in getting through the
lines; they scattered themselves over the country, surprised a village
or two, bore off such women and children as they could lay their hands
on, took possession of herds of animals, and, without carrying their
depredations further, hastened to regain their solitudes before
information of their exploits could have reached the garrison. If their
expeditions became numerous, the general of the Eastern Marches, or the
Pharaoh himself, at the head of a small army, started on a campaign of
reprisals against them. The marauders did not wait to be attacked, but
betook themselves to refuges constructed by them beforehand at certain
points in their territory. They erected here and there, on the crest of
some steep hill, or at the confluence of several wadys, stone towers put
together without mortar, and rounded at the top like so many beehives,
in unequal groups of three, ten, or thirty; here they massed themselves
as well as they could, and defended the position with the greatest
obstinacy, in the hope that their assailants, from the lack of water and
provisions, would soon be forced to retreat.*

* The members of the English Commission do not hesitate to
attribute the construction of these towers to the remotest
antiquity; the Bedouin call them "namus," plur. "nawamis,"
mosquito-houses, and they say that the children of Israel
built them as a shelter during the night from mosquitos at
the time of the Exodus. The resemblance of these buildings
to the "Talayot" of the Balearic Isles, and to the Scotch
beehive-shaped houses, has struck all travellers.

Elsewhere they possessed fortified "duars," where not only their
families but also their herds could find a refuge--circular or oval
enclosures, surrounded by low walls of massive rough stones crowned by a
thick rampart made of branches of acacia interlaced with thorny bushes,
the tents or huts being ranged behind, while in the centre was an empty
space for the ca