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© 2024 David Degner
Wadi Malaha is a well placed oasis, but bedouins don't harvest dates or built homes nearby because it is haunted. A few hundred years ago a man was hunting in the desert near Ras Sheitan and stopped at an oasis that had sweet water. He saw the footprints of a tiger in the water so he stayed there and ate some dates. The next year he passed by the same oasis and saw that the date seeds had become trees. On returning home he told his sons the good news. Many years later his sons needed dates so they went to gather them at the oasis their father had mentioned. On the first night the younger one had a bad dream of a ghost saying "Don't cut down the dates or I'll kill you". He woke up, looked around and didn't see anything so he fell asleep again. He heard the same warning from the ghost and he woke up again, didn't see anything and thought maybe he was sleeping in a bad position so he moved a bit and feel asleep again. The ghost came to him a third time and said this was the last warning, he woke up and couldn't sleep again. In the morning he told his brother, who called him a child and easily frightened. He left back to the beach but his brother ignored the warning, climbed a tree, fell and died.
