Fri. Jan 16 [16 January 1914] Fearful rows among the men. Fattuh at
last got them pacified and they rode off with the camels. Presently M.
[Muhammad] and Salim returned saying that the Agail had beaten M.
with his own sword, and shortly the 3 Agail turned up and said they wd
go no further. We got a Sherari from the farm and took on the Agaili
follower, 'Ali. Then I rode down to Yadudeh [Yaduda, El] where I
explained my difficulties to the Jawaberi and they said they wd give
me two Sherarat if I wanted them. So we all rode off together, with
Nimrud, past Tnaid [Tuneib, Et] which is now a village with houses.
The lands between Juwaideh [Juweiyida, El] and Tnaid belong to a
Skhari and the lands round Qastal to Fawwaz who has built a house in
the camp. They are always ploughing up new land. It is very hard at
first and they sow hunta[?]. Turn up the ground ever so little at first.
Curious to see the long furrows, often a single line, running out into the
desert covered with shajar where no cultivation has been for so long.
Nimrud says that Salah al Din transported all the population from
here to the Jebel Ajlun where, he says, villages of the same name as
these are to be found. The price of land is now £T2 a dallam; when
these men's fathers came it was worth a mejideh or less. They
complain of prices having gone up - but they themselves reap most of
the profit. They send their produce to Jerusalem [El Quds esh Sherif.
Yerushalayim)] where prices are higher than in Dam. [Dimashq
(Damascus, Esh Sham, Damas)] and get what they don't produce
from Jerusalem and Dam. Abu Salih was last year in Egypt and was
amazed at what he saw there. He asked me carefully which part of
Turkey was richest and I said I thought 'Iraq. "Ya khadrat al sitt.
There is a row on here among the Sukhur. Dadagh, brother of the
Nahur[?] with whom I dined 9 years ago recently killed his cousin
Khazir, brother of Fawwaz - no, Fawwaz killed Khazir and took camels
from him. Therefore Dadagh is on the lookout for Fawwaz and F.
scarcely dares to stir from his house at Zizia. One night he slept in the
house of a Sherari for fear of D. D. has a little band of 9 men - mostly
Sherarat boys - with him and goes about plundering as he can. A
regular freebooter. They say he is like a madman. He is said to be
now E. of the Ghadaf [Ghadaf, Wadi el] in the Sirhan [Sirhan, Wadi].
We asked for letters at Ziza [Jiza] station but got none. Here we saw
the camels ahead and just before Ziza F. was waiting for us. M. had
stayed at Ziza and said he wd not come on. So F. went back to fetch
him and meantime we all lunched on the remains of yesterday's
dinner and bread, and oranges and potatoes which Abu Salih had
brought. Sun really hot today. F. came back with M. We took a
Sakhari called Sayyah and a Sherari boy as rafiqs and bade farewell
to Nimrud and the Jawaberi, who poured blessings upon me in their
deep voices. An hour and a half further on we found the men
encamped by a ghadir; it is near a bridge on the rly, 270.7 kilometres
from Dam. Peace at last! and the empty desert. Says Salim Nahna
kullna mabsutin; shamaina rihat al hawa[?]. M. very anxious to ride
back to Ziza for a debt and Sa'id wants to send money to his family,
but I refused to let anyone go. 'Ajezt! hayyat Allah. And the links are
cut now. The desert now I am in it again, seems full of security. When
I asked the Umm al Bsharra how they cd afford to feed so many
guests, she replied Wain al lokanda fi hal barriyyeh? I said to Shibli
that I heard Khazir was a rogue. Yes replied[?] but he was a good
man, very generous. Yusef Chowwish took away Sayyah's rifle,
saying it was a Govt. rifle - and indeed it is numbered. Whereupon
Sayyah said he was ma'al sitt and M. observed that there wd be no
ned to telegraph to the Qaimmaqam. Thereat the rifle was returned!