Monday March 22. [22 March 1909] The camels and ourselves
(including Muhammad) got off at 6.30 and we rode on a few minutes to
the S where the sulphur stream comes down to the corn and then we
found the traces of a large town and of a 4 square castle with round
corner towers. I do not think any of the ruins were very old but there
were large stones making a kind of platform below the castle and
various traces of stone walls (large stones) and foundations that
looked as if there had been a town there for a long time. We left at
7.10, caught up the camels and rode up into some low broken ground
called Jebel Mukharijeh which we reached at 7.30. From there we
rode across the desert levels till we came to Wady Themail
[Thumayl, Wadi] at 10. W. Burdan, W.. Lbayya near Kheltan and W.
Hauran [Hawran, Wadi], all run to the west as far as the Hauran, but
not Themail. At 10.5 we reached Themail standing up on its mound
above a big sulphur spring - the camels got in at 10.30. I worked and
lunched; the camels left at 11.15 and we at 11.30. The present
building is no more than a comparatively modern four square mud fort
with round towers at the corners. There are also traces of round
bastions in the middle of the walls which have been pulled down and
built straight - I think. But the tell is very high and no doubt contains
older castles. The present building is of mud and a few uncut stones.
There was corn here and Deleim tents; they gave us leben for lunch.
We rode on 31/2 hours - the camels took 4 - to El 'Asileh which is in
the W. Burdan (the Bedu call it Al Radaf). Kiepert calls it guellanreich
but Muhammad says there is no water in it anywhere in it but at this
place where it springs up from the ground into cup-like holes which the
Arabs dig. Tamarisk grow all about. It is a great 'Anazeh camping
ground. There is absolutely no permanent water eastwards except at
Wizeh where you have to go far into the ground with a fanus[?] to look
for it. We got in at 3, the camels at 3.30. Muhammad is a merry fellow
- a fab[?]. He has sung us the kasida he made when he acompanied
Mr Forbes in his motor from Ana ['Anah] to Baghdad in a day "eh
billah." He remembers that Mr Forbes called an arab[?] her, eh
wallah. He pointed out all the places where he had raided and slain
his enemies - they were many for the Deleim are without friends,
except apparantly the Amarat, and not always them for about an hour
from here he killed 5 of them in a raid. As we rode this morning he
pointed to some prints of mares' feet and said calmly that those two
were of their enemies. About 2 hours from here we saw a little smoke
of a wood fire rising from Tash, 6 hours away and about 1 hour from
the Euphrates. We saw a fox this morning, and a most enormous
lizard called thobb. The conversation turned the other day on the evil
eye in which they all believe. Fattuh says there is a man in Baghdad
who can kill all the horses he looks at. He has had 3 horses die in a
day because a friend of his looked at them. There was a priest in
Aleppo [Halab] who had one evil eye which he had to keep bound
up. They said: If you looked at that chandelier with your evil eye
would it fall down? Yes, said he; unbound his eye, looked and it fell.
Fuwwaz says there is a man at Kebeisa [Kubaysah] who daren't look
at his son. Fattuh told Muhammad there was a sheikh at 'Ana who
wrote charms against bullet wounds, but Muhammad said if the bullet
hit or missed was from God. We saw a good deal of Sidr today. Also
a green bush called Shubsum. Muhammad always speaks of the
'Anazeh as the Bedu. They have no crops. The Weldeh are also
Bedu; the Ruwalla and Amarat both belong to the 'Anazeh; the
Shammar are of course Bedu; the Deleim and Jeraif are near akin
and count with the Bedu - the Anazeh inter marry with them - but the
Afadh are Agedat and the others won't marry their women.
Muhammad has a rifle with the Govt mark on which is written the name
of 'Abd ul Aziz ibn Rashid. He took it in a ghazu. All their ammunition
they get from Kweit [Al Kuwayt (Kuwait)] and say it is English. The
most wonderful sunset and sunrise glow. White tamarisk flowers.