Mon. March 16. [16 March 1914] I paid off Mashkhur giving him 5 mej for camel hire and 5 mej bakhshish over and above the 10 reals which was the shart at Hayyil [Hail] - these he had received there. The old man, Salim, who had agree to come with me, battal this morning. We engaged a young man called Zaid who went off to get his dulul and never turned up. The Sinjara were rahilin and we all rode off together, horsemen and camels and flocks. One man with a lance. We went off on our way and 2 hours later one of the old men who had sat round our campfire and brought us milk turned up with his brother behind him on the dulul. The brother he deposited with us as rafiq. We rode all day over broken ground, broad flat bottoms separated by low banks. Patches of green grass and yellow flowering weeds of dandelion kind, and the blue grey ajram which has not greened yet, and the blue grey shih. Cold and windy. About 2 we saw tareh[?] ahead and sheered off a little to the left, coming into camp under some banks. The 'aishb fairly good. The men brought in kamr (chamr) which they toasted over the fire. Our rafiq has innocently told us the true story of Ibn Rashids raid. They reached Skakah [Sakakah]; the people abandoned their houses and took refuge in the qasr. The Shammar pillaged the houses - provisions were all they found for the valuables and the women were in the castle. Did you not take Jof [Jawf, Al (Al Jauf)]? said I. No he said wa ash shuf ma shufna. Sahih? said I. Egh Wallah. Wallah? said I. Egh Billah. Ali says that Mashkhur was strictly charged to convey me to the Amir. I asked him whether he thought that when in our rafiq's tales "Ibn Rashid" said Ya Shammar - so and so - it was Sa'ud or Zamil? Ali said Zamil, Sa'ud was only the resm[?]. He says his uncles have been offered blood money by Ibn Sa'ud if they will come back to 'Anezeh but they have refused, saying they must have life for life. Their idea is to profit by the Rashid help and arms, to take 'Anezah, and their revenge, send away the Slaim - and then hold 'Anezah under the protection of Ibn Sa'ud. The Rashids have been ruined by their family quarrels says Ali and are on the decline. If it had not been for the support of the Ott. govt. they wd have gone long ago. He told the tale of Ibn Sa'ud's recapture of Riyad [Ar Riyad (Riyadh)]. Ibn Sabah offered him 500 men but he asked for 14 only, 2 being his own cousins. They rode out and alighted at Der'aya [Ad Diriyah]. Abd al A. and his 2 cousins went alone at night to the town. He climbed on the back of the other 2 who hoisted him over the wall of the qasr into the haram. He knocked at the door. A slave girl sleeping at the door woke and answered. He said "Go fetch 'ammatik." She brought A. al A's wife, Umm Nirah, saying "One knocks at the door." Umm N. came and said Ent min. She feared it might be Ibn Rashid's rajajil. He answered Wa min enti? She said again Ent min? He said None other than Halalik. She opened and fell on his neck. He said this is not the time for kisses and for love, ba'd ain inshallah. Then he called the women and asked them where Ibn Rashid's rajajil lodged and who slept in the qasr. He hauled in his 2 cousins by rope and they crept over the roofs, found the rajajil sleeping, killed the chief man and the others threw up the game. He sent for the remaining jaish, the rest of the 14 and brought them into the qasr. Next morning the town was apprized of the fact that Abd al A had come back and held the qasr and acquiesced in the accomplished fact bit ghasb[?] ,whether they liked it or not. Ibn Rashid's rajajil, to the number of some 50 were sent away and it was only when all this was done that Ibn Sabah's jaish appeared.