Sun. March 15. [15 March 1914] Off at 5.40 and got into the W. al
Khadd [Khadd, Wadi ad] at 6. We marched down it past a marah of
Ibn Rashid with the brush wood filed round the place of the tents, there
must have been 50 of them, and a mihrab marked out with stones.
Just below, at 7.50, we reached the Jeltah, where the valley drew
together in a little drop and narrowed between low rocky banks. But
we found no water - we marched on down it, by patches of sidr thorns
and thick grass till at 9.25 we found a big pool where we watered. We
went on by the valley till 10.30 and shortly after we left it, it lost itself in a
low bottom and that was the end of it. At 10.35 the jelib of al Raq'ah
lay to the right. There are several other gulban here to the right,
exactly where I do not know. They are all called generally[?] al
Hazlan. We went on over flat and rather stony ground with occasional
patches of grass and shih (I saw an iris) till at 12.50 we reached Loqah
[Lawqah]. Here there are 3 or 4 wells in use from 15 to 25 ba' deep,
the shallowest being in the low ground to the S. There are a great
number of other wells madfun. It is a summering place of the
Shammar. A masjid marked out by the wells. Beyond it we came into
a land of very low banks and at 3.15 camped near some Sinjara. It
was hot in the afternoon; a tedious day but we covered a good deal of
ground. Last night Mashkhur observed that he had been to Medinah
[Al Madinah (Medina)] and he had been with the shuyukh but no one
had ever informed him that there existed anyone like has sitt. He wd
return to the shuyukh and he wd have a great deal to say. He wd say
Oh Shuyukh you cook your burghul with water but 'and has sitt the
burghul is cooked with semen.