Wed. Jan. 21. [21 January 1914] I have been beset for the last few
hours with a desire to talk to you - see now, I write. We are still at Ba'ir.
I spent the whole morning planning the ruins and the whole afternoon
drawing out the plan. I think I have got it fairly right but it was a difficult
job. At noon I took a latitude and made out our position to be 30? 43'
about; it must be fairly right. Mr Carruthers and I had calculated that
Ba'ir should be somewhere a little N. of 30?. And when all was done
Muhammad called me and said he wished me to see the grave of al
Mara'i who came up with the Beni Hallal when first they came out of
Nejd [Najd] - "And conquered Tunis" added Sayyah. The grave was
near a dry well; it is some 4 metres square. "This was his length" said
'Ali, selecting one direction at a venture. "They were tall the Beni
Hallal." "They were broad too" I observed (Heaven forgive me!)
"He was entirely square." "No" replied 'Ali gravely,"it is a chamber."
At this I had a fou rire and was so busily choking down my untimely
laughter that I scarcely heard the miraculous story of the snake which
fell on al Mara'i's head and was killed by a stroke of his good sword.
The mark of the snake's body is there upon a stone by the well and
the dent made by al Mara'i's sword, if you should doubt my word. We
sat down by the edge of the dry well, Muhammad, Sayyah and I, and
Muhammad took up the tale. "My lady" said he "when I first came
here, 30 years ago, eigh yes - the big well was filled up. Upon a day
of days the 'Isa fell here upon the Sukhur and the Sukhur killed of them
two camel riders and they killed a horseman. They the Sukhur took
the camels and the two men and threw them into the well and rolled
stones on top." "Haram!" said I "it is forbidden." "No wallah" he
answered "the 'Isa thirsted and if they had drunk the water of the well
they would have followed the Sukhur and killed them." "It was a good
thought" said Sayyah. "Shayyatin al 'Arab" said Muhammad "they
are devils, the Arab" "Shayyatin" said Sayyah. "They are the very
devil" said I with conviction - with such conviction that Sayyah looked
up at me and laughed and laughed - it was his turn now. How I wish
you were here to laugh too. You may take this as typical of our
conversations, for Ba'ir is the very trysting place of ghazzus - but not
now, the desert to the S. is "closed", Hathmel is there and half the
People of the North - so we speak here of the Beni Sakhr. There is a
new grave among the castle walls. As I was working this morning
Sayyah came up and looked at it. "Sharari" said he reading the
wasm " a man of the Sherarat. And then he looked again. "He was
killed" he observed. I looked too. The red cotton keffiyyeh and a bit
of cotton clothing, thrown down on the stones that covered the grave,
were steeped in blood. Occasionally I wonder whether I shall come
out of this adventure alive. But the doubt has no shadow of anxiety in
it - I am so profoundly indifferent. Last night the talk by the camp fire
turned on the years of a man's life. "The limits of man's age are 104
years" postulated Fattuh. "Oh father of Elyas" said Muhammad "call
upon the Prophet! there are no limit to a man's age. What says the
Injil, oh Lady." "The Torat" said I "the Old Testament says that a
man's life is 70 years and if he live longer he has little profit." "You
have spoken the truth" said Muhammad. I quoted Labid: "And if he
live to 70 years and even more, what remains but the stick and the
fingers closed over it." And as I quoted, the old words took on fresh
colour from the surround wilderness where first they were welded
together, for the stick of Labid's verse is that very camel stick which
we all carry every day of our journey, the asa'i. Mine comes from
Nejd - Muhammad gave it to me and it was given to him by
Muhammad ibn al Rashid when he rode with him, raiding, and his own
camel stick broke in his hand. I ride with it now - to good or ill, it is all
one.