Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-63), etc

Front matter

i . NARRATIVE OF A YEAR'S JOURNEY THROUGH CENTRAL AND EASTERN ARABIA (1862-63) BY WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE LATE OF THE EIGHTH REGDIENT EOMBAT N. I. Not in vain the nation-strivings, nor by chance the currents flow ; Error-mazed, yet truth-directed, to their certain goal they go. Tey'veetat el Kobra', by Ebs-el-Faeid IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I bonbon mib Cambribge MACMILLAN AND CO. TO THE MEMORY or CARSTEN NIEBUHR IN HONOUR OF THAT INTELLIGENCE AND COURAGE WHICH FIRST OPENED ARABIA TO EUROPE | r£Sj}«ff«l!jT gibitafc THE RESULTS OF A JOURNEY ITSELF INSPIRED BY THAT GREAT MEMORY VOL. I. a

Preface

A joukiney undertaken through Central and Eastern Arabia, with the purpose of observing rather than of publishing, put me in possession of certain details upon those parts of the great Peninsula, which may be worth recording. It is true that the circumstances of my visit, and the restraints inseparable from native disguise, abridged antiquarian research, impeded botanical or geological en quiry, and deprived me of the means for exact and scien tific investigation ; for instance, of the customary requisites for verifying longitudes and latitudes, or determining the degrees of heat and cold, of moisture and aridity. Worse yet ! I was at times unable to take down a single note, much less could I display a sketching book or photographic apparatus, however fair the landscape and tempting the sun ; and hence my pen must unaided do the work of the pencil as well as its own, while my reader's imagination may help to supply the rest.

Why this was so, a few pages of the narrative will make clear. On the other hand long years, the best part of my life indeed, passed in the East, familiarity with the Arabic language till it became to me almost a mother tongue, and experience in the ways and manners of " Semitic " nations, to give them their general or symbolic name, supplied me with advan tages counterbalancing in some degree the drawbacks a VI

PREFACE.

enumerated above. Besides, the men of the land, rather than the land of the men, were my main object of research and principal study. My attention was directed to the moral, intellectual, and political conditions of living Arabia, rather than to the physical phenomena of the country, — of great indeed, but, to me, of inferior interest. Meanwhile whatever observations on antiquity and science, on plants and stones, geography and meteorology I was able to make, I shall give, regretting only their inevitable imperfection. In the hard attempt to render Arab orthography by Enghsh letters, I have for the most part followed tlie system adopted by Lane in his delightful " Modern Egyp tians," as the nearest approximation intelligible to English readers. However, in representing the initial " Jeem " by " Dj " rather than by " j " (as in the middle or at the end of a word), I have quitted our countryman for the universal foreign method ; nor have I generally thought it neces sary to accent vowels, contenting myself with an occasional mark ( ~ ) of length, where uniformity of pronunciation appeared to require it.

Some mistakes, or at least ir regularities, will, I fear, have eluded the vigilance of correctors and revisers in a first edition ; a second will, I trust, remove such anomalies. The few maps annexed, though without pretension to that exact nicety which sextants and measuring-lines can alone afford, may serve in some measure to illustrate the leading features and divisions of the principal provinces, towns, and country in general. Readers may perhaps be desirous to learn what was

PREFACE.

VII the special object and what the determining circumstances of the journey now before them. The hope of doing something towards the permanent social good of these wide regions ; the desire of bringing the stagnant waters of Eastern life into contact with the quickening stream of European progress ; perhaps a natural curiosity to know the yet unknown, and the restlessness of enterprise not rare in Englishmen ; these were the principal motives. The author may add that at the time of the undertaking he was in comiection with the Order of the Jesuits, an Order well known in the annals of philanthropic daring ; he has also gratefully to acknowledge that the necessary funds were furnished by the liberality of the present Emperor of the French. It is a matter of real importance to form a correct idea of nations with whom events tend to bring us ever more and more into contact, and of whose future destinies we seem likely to be in no small measure, under Provi dence, the arbitrators.

Ideas which, I regret to say, appear to me often distorted and exaggerated, prevail in the West regarding our Eastern fellow-men ; ideas due in part to the defective observation, perhaps the prejudices, of travellers, too preoccupied by their own thoughts and fancies to appreciate or even understand the phases of mind and manners among nations other than their own ; while at times an enthusiastic imagination has thrown a prismatic colouring over the faded East. My principal object and endeavour in this work has been, accordingly, to give a tolerably correct notion of the Arab race, — of their condition, intellectual and political, social

PREFACE.

VIII and rehgious ; such at least as it appeared to me ; and should it be my good fortune to have effected this, I ask no more. Much herein will not only serve for the nations and tribes that inhabit the Arabian Peninsula, but may also afford useful hints for understanding other Oriental lands and peoples ; for Egypt, Syria, Mesopo tamia, nay even for Anatolia, Curdistan, and Persia, all which have been deeply modified in many respects by Arab influence, partly too by Arab intermixture and colonization. Thus a clear apprehension of the causes of prosperity and decline in Arabia and within its inde pendent limits, may give no small aid towards solving many a riddle in the phases' of the adjacent Ottoman Empire, and even of other Asiatic Governments, each in its proportion and degree. Besides, the practical working and the results of that strange phenomenon of the human mind, Mahometanism, or, more compendiously and more correctly, Islam, will hereby receive especial illustration ; a point which I would especially desire to commend to the notice of those in East or West who are inclined to bestow their credence or admiration on the Prophet and his work.

With regard to the correctness of facts or statements bearing on the present or past of Arabia, given in this work, it may be well to remark that I have all alone carefully discriminated between what I have myself seen in person or ascertained by actual investigation, what I have merely inferred or conjectured, and what I have gathered at secondhand from the natives of the country. Dividing thus the subject-matter into three classes, I claim

PREFACE.

IX for the first that degree of certainty and reliance which can be placed on an Englishman saying " I have seen," or " I have heard," and no more. The second I must leave to my reader's own free criticism, trusting that years of Oriental study, observation, and intercourse may incline the verdict, where doubtful, in my favour ; nor do I wish to impose my theories and conclusions on those who may have their reasons for thinking them erroneous. The third, or hearsay statements have each invariably their preface to announce them for what they are ; and to them my reader may give what degree of value he thinks fit. The only point on which I lay any stress, when quoting authorities of this nature, is whether they were natives of, or at least neighbours to, the country they described, and eye-witnesses of the facts they averred, or otherwise.

But it hardly seemed requisite to set down, as a general rule, their individual names and surnames, or to fill my pages with the catalogue of Mohammed, Hasan, and Alee — an enumeration which in England could afford no more guarantee for veracity than Thomas, John, or William, in Arabia. Nor have I deemed it needful, in a work of this character, to state beneath every page the names of Eastern authors cited or alluded to. Should, however, any Oriental scholar desire to know who they are? I may mention as the principal among the works wliich oppor tunity and leisure have best enabled me to consult, — the Hamasah of Aboo-Temmam,the well-known Mo'allakat of Amroo-1-Ke'ys and his fellow-poets, the writings of Aboo-1-Feda, Makreezee, the Dimishkee Shems-ed-Deen, X

PREFACE.

Ebn-Khallikan, Ebn-Khaldoon, Hareeree, Makarree, the proverbs of Meydanee, the famous Alf-Leyl-w-Leylah, or Thousand-and-One Nights (a book in which often " more is meant than meets the ear ") ; the stories of Antarah, Aboo-Zeyd, Benoo-Hilal, and the gallant Zeer ; the poems or "divans" of 'Omr'-ebn-Abee-Rabee'ah, of Djereer, Akhtal, Ferazdak, El-Moghrebee, Motenebbi, Ebn-Farid, Aboo-l-'Ola, the Nabloosee, the Divan of Hodheyl ; be sides the Coranic commentaries of Beydawee, Zamakh sharee, Djelal-ed-Deen, and others, with the ascetical writings of El-Ghazalee, the Kibreet-el-Ahmar, the Anwar el-Kadeeseeyah, the treatises of Mohee-d-Deen, and others of whom only scraps and fragments have remained to us ; lastly, several anonymous manuscript collections of historical and moral incident, put into my hands by native acquaintances in Syria and Egypt, and mostly destroyed or pilfered by my friends the Druses when in 1860 they burnt Zahleh, and therein my residence.

To the above-mentioned sources, accordingly, I refer my learned readers for the investigation and verification of allusions, facts, or theories collected from their pages. Of European works regarding the lands of the East, of travels in Arabia and its vicinity, I have read but little, from want not of will, but of leisure. Niebuhr's cool and impartial style led me to study his Arabian journey with special attention, and I have had every reason to admire the great truthfulness and the judicious observation of that eminent traveller. In some few points, indeed, he appears to me slightly mistaken or misinformed, and such I have noticed in the course of my work, with all due

PREFACE.

XI respect for the authority of the learned German, and leaving my readers to judge for themselves between the conflicting statements thus brought forward. Subsequent to my return home, Capt. Welsted's and Mr. Wallm's Memoirs, as given among the Papers of the Royal Geographical Society, have been kindly put at my disposal. So far as my experience goes, it confirms their accuracy. The researches of these gentlemen having been mainly topographical, they naturally paid but a subordinate attention to the circumstances of the inhabi tants, and this blank in their narratives is precisely what I now desire to fill up. With the travels of Pococke, Burckhardt, and others, I have not sufficient acquaintance for much positive con firmation or dissidence. It seems to me that in Burckhardt's work there is somewhat of an exaggerated view, not un frequent in other authors, regarding Bedouins and Bedouin hfe ; perhaps, too, a want of clearness and accuracy in the social picture, even in the statistical enumerations.

Few writers, indeed, appear to me to have arrived at a just appreciation of the wandering, fewer still of the settled, population of Arabia ; few to have well understood the workings of the clan-system in either element of society, and where hes the strength, where, the weakness of the land. For this the collective estimate is often too vague, and the isolated details partial and insufficient. Yet, considering the difficulties in their way, we should be more ready to praise European investigators for what they have done, than to criticize them for omissions. If, however, from the pages of a past generation I have PREFa4CE derived comparatively little assistance, I have not been without the kind help of those living friends whose erudi tion and Oriental acquirements rendered them best able to suggest, amend, and supply.

Professor Rodiguer at Berlin, and Mr. Stanley Poole in London, have both laid me in this way under real and lasting obligations ; and their names I mention with pleasure, not to exclude other friends, but as the abridgment of a long list at the head of which they stand. In the minute and laborious details of the general map of Arabia prefixed to this volume, Professor E!iepert of Berlin lent his learned and conscien tious accuracy ; the Geographical Societies of London and Berlin, with their respective Presidents, Sir Roderick Murchison and Professor Barth, have alike honoured me with friendly support. In short, nothing which kindness could do in my behalf has been left undone in the capitals of England and of Northern Germany, and hence I have the less excuse to offer for what defects may exist in the work now laid before the judgment of the reader, although my best has truly been done to render them few But I hope he is now willing, or even wishful, to start with me on our way.

And thus without further preface, let us mount and go. WILLIAM GIFFORD PALGRAVE Berlin : April 29, CONTENTS OI THE FIRST VOLUME CHAP. PAGE I . . . THE DESERT AND ITS INHABITANTS 1 II . . . THE DJOWF 46 in . . . THE NEFOOD AND DJEBEL SHOMER ... 90 IV . . . LIFE IN HA'YEL 139 V . . . COURT INCIDENTS AT HA'YEL 187 VI . . . JOURNEY FROM HA'YEL TO BEREYDAH 216 VII . . . BEREYDAH . .273 VIII . . . FROM BEREYDAH TO RIAD 323 IX . . . RIAD . 389 MAP AND PLANS Portrait of the Author .... To face title-page Map of Arabia , page 1 Pean of Ha'yel „ ,,139 „ Eiap „ „ JOUENEY AND RESIDENCE IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN ARABIA

Chapter I

The Desert and its Inhabitants But I hold the gray barbarian lower than the Christian child. — A. Tennyson DEPARTURE FROM MA'aN — OUR BEDOUIN COMPANIONS— OUR OWN EQUIP- MENT AND DISGUISE ; ITS REASON AND CHARACTER — INCIDENT *n RILE AT MA' AN BEDOUIN SUN-WORSHIP — REMARKS ON BEDOUIN RELIGION AND MORALITY — WELLS OF WO*fJ3A — FIVE DATS OF STONY DESKllX — MODE OF TRAVELLING— FIRST NEWS OF TELAX-EBN-RASHEED — Wj APPROACH TO WADI SEE-IAN — HILLS — SEMOOM — VIEW OF THE DESERT — ITS CHANGE AT WADI SERHAN — 8HERARAT ENCAMPMENT — BEDOUiN HOSPITALITY AND CONVERSATION — THEIR SOCIAL CONDITION — SAMH AND MESAA' — EFFECT OF TELAL'S GOVERNMENT ON TIBE BEDOUINS ANECDOTE i THEIR WAB.S GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRS* FORMATION OF ARAB - NATIONALITY, AND ITS DIVISION INTO THE FI*_ED AND THE NOMADE POPULA'-fONS * THEIR RESPECTIVE VALUE — ROUTE OF WADI SERJ*£AN : 1 SAND-HILLS AND GHADA — REMARKS ON THE CAMEL — 'AZZAM SHERARAT OF MA'GOOA' CHANGE OF GUIDES — ROUTE TO DJOWF : OSntlCB-BS, SCORPIONS DJEBAL-EL-D JOWF : VILLAGE OF D.TOON FIRST MEETING WITH THE MEN OF DJOWF — GORGES OF THE VALLEY.

" Once for all let us attempt to acquire a fairly correct and comprehensive knowledge of the Arabian Peninsula. With its coasts we are already in great measure acquainted; several of its maritime provinces have been, if not thoroughly, at least sufficiently, explored; Yemen and Hejaz, Mecca and Medinah, are no longer mysteries to us, nor are we wholly vol. :. n without information on the districts of Hadramaut and 'Oman. But of the interior of the vast region, of its plains and mountains, its tribes and cities, of its governments and institutions, of its inhabitants, their ways and customs, of their social con dition, how far advanced in civilization or sunk in barbarism, what do we as yet really know, save from accounts necessarily wanting in fulness and precision ? It is time to fill up this blank in the map of Asia, and this, at whatever risks, we will now endeavour ; either the land before us shall be our tomb, or we will traverse it in its fullest breadth, and know what it contains from shore to shore.

Vestigia nxdla retrorsum." Such were my thoughts, and such, more or less, I should sup pose, those of my companion, when we found ourselves at fall of night without the eastern gate of Ma'an, while the Arabs, our guides and fellow-travellers, filled their water-skins from a gush ing source hard by the town walls, and adjusted the saddles and the burdens of their camels, in preparation for the long journey that lay before us and them. It was the evening of the 16th June 1862 ; the largest stars were already visible in the deep blue depths of a cloudless sky, while the crescent moon, high to the west, shone as she shines in those heavens, and promised us assistance for some hours of our night march. We were soon mounted on our meagre long-necked beasts, "as if," according to the expression of an Arab poet, " we and our men were at mast-heads," and now we set our faces to the east.

Behind us lay, in a mass of dark outline, the walls and castle of Ma'an, its houses and gardens, and farther back in the distance the high and barren range of the Sberaa' mountains, merging into the coast-chain of Hejaz. Before and around us extended a wide and level plain, blackened over with countless pebbles of basalt and flint, except where the moonbeams gleamed white on little intervening patches of clear sand, or on yellowish streaks of withered grass, the scanty product of the winter rains, and now dried into hay. Over all a deep silence, which even our Arab companions seemed fearful of breaking ; when they spoke it was in a half whisper and in few words, while the noiseless tread of our camels sped stealthily but rapidly through the gloom, without disturbing its stillness. Some precaution was not indeed wholly out of place, for Chap. I] MA'AN TO THE DJOWF 3 that stage of the journey on which we were now entering was anything but safe.

We were bound for the Djowf, the nearest inhabited district of Central Arabia, its outlying station, in fact. Now the intervening tract offered for the most part the double danger of robbers and of thirst, of marauding bands and of the summer season. The distance itself to be traversed was near two hundred miles in a straight line, and unavoidable circumstances were likely to render it much longer. For the wells, the landmarks of the traveller, and according to which he needs must shape his course, are not ordinarily arranged in lines of matbematical straightness ; and, besides, the neces sity of avoiding districts frequented by hostile or suspected tribes often obliges the Bedouin to adopt some unaccustomed and circuitous route. Nor was the society itself that we were actually in of a nature much to reassure the mind, especially at the outset of such a journey.

On my own comrade, indeed — a native of the village of Zahleh, in the plains of Cœlo-Syria — I could fully rely. Hardy, young, and enterprising, he belonged to a locality whose inhabitants are accustomed to danger, while the contempt with which they look down on the neighbouring populations renders them habitually less susceptible than most of their countrymen to the ordinary impressions of fear in a strange land. But our Bedouin companions were a strange set : they were three in number ; their leader, Salim-el-'Atneh, belonged to the Howeytat Arabs, a numerous and energetic tribe inhabiting the mountain district from Kerak on the Dead Sea shore to Ma'an. Our friend him self was a member of a powerful family among them, and near akin to the chiefs of the clan ; but he had rendered himself so un fortunately conspicuous by repeated acts of robbery and pillage, with a supplementary murder now and then, that his position was at present hardly better than that of an outlaw.

Lean in make and swarthy of features, his thin compressed lips implied settled resolution and daring purpose, while the calmness of his grey eye showed a cool and thoughtful disposition, not without some possible intimation of treachery. I may here remark, that the favourable picture occasionally drawn by travellers of the inviolability of Bedouin good faith is not always in that exact accordance with real facts which one could B desire. On the contrary, deeds of the most cold-blooded perfidy are by no means uncommon among these nomades; and strangers under their guidance and protection, nay, even their own kindred brethren of the desert, are but too often the victims of such conduct. To lead travellers astray in the wilderness till they fall exhausted by thirst and weariness, and then to plunder and leave them to die, is no unfrequent Bedouin procedure; and the instances on record are too many to be considered as mere chance exceptions from a better rule.

Thus, for example, • a numerous caravan, composed principally of wealthy Jews, on their way across the desert from Damascus to Bagdad, was, not many years since, betrayed by its Bedouin guides; and the travellers perished to a man, while their faithless conductors, after keeping aloof till they were sure that thirst and the burning sun had done their work, returned to the scene of death and constituted themselves the sole and universal legatees of the moveable goods, gear, and wealth of their too confiding companions. I myself, during my stay at the town of Ha'yel, in Central Arabia, met with a large Hebrew folio, once the property of one of these unfortunate Israebtes. The Bedouin to whose lot it had fallen, amid his share of the plunder, had brought it thus far, in hope of rendering his treason so far pro fitable by the sale of a work all the more valuable in Eastern opinion for being totally unintelligible.

However, as to Salim, whatever drawbacks might exist in his outward appearance, or in his too well known personal history, his good sense and manly character afforded some "round of confidence in his present fidelity ; a brave and foresighted man however unprincipled, may always be trusted to a certain extent. But I can hardly say so much for his two companions, 'Alee and Djordee, Sherarat Bedouins, and utter barbarians in appearance no less than in character, wild, fickle, reckless, and the capacity of whose intellect was as scanty as its cultivation. Indeed Salim himself more than once advised us to avoid all familiarity with them, lest it should diminish the involuntary awe of the savage for civilized man. A long and very dirty shirt, reaching nearly to the ankles, a black cotton handkerchief over the head, fastened on by a twist of camel's hair, a tattered cloak, striped white and brown a CHAr.

I] MA'AN TO THE DJOWF 5 leather girdle, much the worse for wear, from which dangled a rusty knife, a long-barrelled and cumbrous matchlock, a yet longer sharp-pointed spear, a powder-belt, broken and coarsely patched up with thread — such was the accoutrement of these worthies, and such, indeed, is the ordinary Bedouin guise on a journey. Salim's own rigging out was of the same description, only the respective items were of a somewhat better quality. Myself and my companion were dressed like ordinary middle class travellers of inner Syria ; an equipment in which we had already made our way from Gaza on the sea-coast to Ma'an without much remark or unseasonable questioning from those whom we fell in with, while we traversed a country so often described already by Pococke, Laborde, and downwards, under the somewhat pedantic name of Arabia Petræa, that it would be superfluous for me to enter into any new account of it in the present work.

Our dress then consisted partly of a long stout blouse of Egyptian hemp, and under it, unlike our Bedouin fellow-travellers, we indulged in the luxury of the loose cotton drawers common in the East, while our coloured head-kerchiefs, though simple enough, were girt by 'akkals or head-bands of some pretension to elegance ; the loose red leather boots of the country completed our toilet. But in the large travelling-sacks at our camels' sides were contained suits of a more elegant appearance, carefully concealed from Bedouin gaze, but destined for appearance when we should reach better inhabited and more civilized districts. This reserve toilet numbered articles like the following :. coloured over dresses, the Syrian combaz, handkerchiefs where silk stripes relieved the plebeian cotton, and girdles of good material and tasteful colouring ; such clothes being absolutely requisite to maintain our assumed character.

Mine was that of a native travelling doctor, a quack if you will; and accordingly a tolerable dress was indispensable for the credit of my medical practice. My comrade, who by a slight but necessary fiction passed for my brother-in-law, appeared sometimes as a retail merchant, such as not unfrequently visit these countries, and sometimes as my pupil or associate in my assumed profession. Our pharmacopœia consisted of a few but well selected and efficacious drugs, inclosed in small tight-fitting tin boxes, stowed away for the present in the ample recesses of our travelling bags ; about fifty of these little cases contained wherewithal to kill or cure half the sick men of Arabia. Medicines of a liquid form had been as much as possible omitted, not only from the difficulty of ensuring them a safe transport amid so rough a mode of journeying, but also on account of the rapid evaporation un avoidable in this dry and burning climate.

In fact two or three small bottles, whose contents had seemed to me of absolute necessity, soon retained nothing save their labels to indicate what they had held, in spite of air-tight stoppers and double coverings. I record this, because the hint may be useful to any one who should be inclined to embark in similar guise on the same adventures. Some other objects requisite in medical practice, two or three European books for my own private use, and kept carefully secret from Arab curiosity, with a couple of Esculapian treatises in good Arabic, intended for professional ostentation, completed this part of our fitting-out. But besides these, an ample provision of cloth, handkerchiefs, glass necklaces, pipe-bowls, and the like, for sale in whatever localities might not offer sufficient facility for the healing art, filled up our saddle-bags well nigh to bursting.

Last, but not least, two large sacks of coffee, the sheet-anchor and main hope of our commerce, formed alone a sufficient load for a vigorous camel. Perhaps my reader may wonder at so complicated an apparatus of disguise, and even condemn it as at any rate superfluous. But for those who desire to travel with anything like security in Central Arabia, all these, or at least equivalent measures, are, if not absolutely necessary, at least extremely advantageous ; tbe why and wherefore I shall leave to the course of my narrative to explain. In the mean time my friendly readers may take it on my word that had it not been for all this they would never have had the satisfaction, whatever that may be, of making their journey across the great Peninsula book in hand and by their snug fireside, with somewhat less risk and discomfort than the travellers themselves had in their time to undergo.

Could we, however, when first starting, have foreknown the real nature of the countries before us, we might have very well dispensed with a good part of our mercantile provisions, designed mainly for Bedouin purchasers, and augmented on the other Chap. I] MA'AN TO THE DJOWF 7 hand our medical supplies, more adapted to townsmen and villagers. But supposing, like most people, that Arabia was almost exclusively the territory of nomades, and that the fixed population must be proportionally small and unimportant, we deemed the former class of articles at least as available as the latter ; a grievous mistake, and of which we soon became aware. For after once traversing this first stage of our journey, the rest of our way across the inner provinces, and up to the very shores of the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, lay, with very little exception, through countries where Bedouins stand for little or nothing, whereas, on the contrary, the settled inhabitants of the soil, with their towns, tillage, and governments, are everything.

But all this we had yet to learn. Already, indeed, our semi-mercantile appearance had caused us serious inconveniences, while our medical character had on the contrary preserved us from a total defeat. The occasion was as follows : — Ma'an, from which we had just parted, is a small town, or rather village, situated on either side of the great pilgrim road from Damascus to Mecca, at about thirteen days' march distant from the former, and full twice as much from the latter. The locality itself has been sufficiently described by Mr. Wallin in his North-Arabian journey. Now as we happened to arrive there, on our way from Wadi 'Akabah, just in the midmost of the pilgrim season, we found the town occupied by a small Turkish garrison, stationed there during the months of the Hajj for the better protection of the route, while the whole population was in an unusual state of alertness ; all untoward circumstances for us, who wished to slip through as quietly and unnoticed as possible.

While we here awaited for ten weary days the appearance of guides capable of serving our turn in our onward journey, the magistrates of the place, together with the Turkish Effendis and garrison, fell to observing us rather too closely, a.nd could not exactly understand why merchants like ourselves should abandon the sure prospect of a good and profitable sale on the line of Mecca, especially at such a season, for a wild-goose chase after traffic in the easterly desert. Accordingly, out of sheer good will to us and our business, though not, perhaps, without some degree of suspicion, they [Chap. I 8 THE DESERT AND ITS INHABITANTS used every effort to persuade us to take the Meccan road, and our non-compbance could not but look very awkward and unreasonable, not to say more. However, others, who had paid more attention to our medical art and skill, made the lucky conjecture that our real object in thus obstinately insisting on going towards Djowf must be the search after treasures con cealed, heaven knows when and by whom, in the depths of Arabia, and in quest of which Moghrebee adventurers, of equal reputation for their proficiency in the healing and in the occult sciences, occasionally traverse these frontiers.