Mon. Feb 23. [23 February 1914] The Nefud [Nafud, An] was very big till we got near to Dubi'. I went on my old bearing, 78?, till 7.30, for I could not see Dubi ahead. When I got it, it was 80 and we passed under it, leaving to the left about a mile away, at 10.5. At 9.30 I took our forward bearing as 90, Dubi' as 84, Umm al Gulban [Umm al Qulban] (a village which I did not see but only the point over it) as 66 and the middle point of al Twal, very far away as 63. At 10.5 I got the E cliff of 'Ajja [Aja, Jabal] (which I believe Awjeh) as 126. At 10.20 I got Khashab as 207-208 and Dulu' as 217-220. There were two outstanding rocks to the right, Rock 1 I took as 109 and we passed under it at 10.47 when it was 143 - I daresay less than a mile from it. At 11.35 we joined the Jubbah road. For nearly all the morning we had been following a very distinct track through the Nefud, but this way a real hollow road through the sand. Umm al Gulban is a village of the Amir's. He sends his horses to pasture there. It is only some 10 houses. At 11.40 we saw the palms and ethl of Gna' and reached it at 12.5. It pays no ziqat and belongs to a man who is noted for his hospitality. It stands at the junction of 7 roads ["7 khulul" written above], Hayyil [Hail], Jubbah, Twaiyyah [Tuwayyah, At], Mujay, Umm al Gulban, al Htair al Hafar. Ayyadeh ibn Abicheh is its owner and has a few palm gardens, corn plots, about 20 houses, Indian corn durra, jet, and plum trees khokh which were in flower. The men went to him to buy some tobacco but came back with stuff not fit to smoke. I had made them laugh in their despair by telling them they were like Umm Salim. Dughaz, dughaz! said Ali Hatha mithl al sitt. But just out of Gna' we met 2 tajirs who had come from Hayyil that morning and bought some sweet Baghdad tobacco from them. We followed the road till 1.20 and camped on the very edge of the Nefud. We clothed al Hailam with a Qumbaz an abbayya and a kerchief. He put them on over his filthy old tob and kerchief and is as proud as Punch. Horrible strong W wind and stuffy hot. Ther. 74 when we came into camp. There was thunder and rain over 'Ajja but only the very skirts of the rain reached us. There is not more that 1/2 an hour between Umm al Gulban and Gna'. On this side of Ajja there is a low and broken parallel ridge called al Nahaib pl of al Nahadeh.