Ap. 25. [25 April 1914] The muscle is better, you will be glad to hear.
But I think I must have strained my foot - I wonder how? We crossed
endless uplands and valleys today, without incident, except that
Fattuh once raised an alarm of zol, and everyone to his rifle. But they
were children of mist again. At half past ten I lifted up my eyes to see
whether my last bearing was working out right, and on the furthest
horizon I saw - mountains! So faint, so far away, such children of the
mist, that I would not let myself believe that they were there. But an
hour later when we had climbed the next ridge, they were indeed there
and unmistakable, beautiful gracious heights, the mountain range of
Palmyra [Tadmur]. And I have seen no hills since the granite crags of
'Ajja [Aja, Jabal] sank below the Nefud [Nafud, An]. This means that
we are further on our way than I thought, and that we shall reach
Bukharra tomorrow - Bukharra and the Roman empire, of which it was
an outlying settlement. At noon we found an encampment of the
Slubba in a valley bottom and alighted at their tents to ask news and
buy a little semen. One of the men was clad in a robe of gazelle
skins. They were very friendly, the good Slubba, pressed us to stay,
saying that they had never seen a khatun before (they were just as
must interested in me as I was in them!) and gave us good news of the
desert ahead. There is an encampment of Fed'an 'Anazeh
somewhere near, against whom I am assured through one of my
rafiqs, and all is quiet. We went on for another couple of hours and
came into camp in a solitary valley. My open tent faces the hills.