Fri 18. [18 May 1900] Breakfasted at 8. Met the Agha out walking and
he took me to a garden of his where we sat under the trees and talked
politics. Then he took me to the house of his sister Umm es Suleim,
she had just arrived from Jerud [Jayrud]. Cloudy and warm but a cool
air. I went back to lunch with the women at 11 and left at 12. The Agha
did not lunch with us but his son Ahmed did. Handsome women. U es
S retired with her narghileh directly she had finished. Slept and had
tea. Our Ahmed came to guide us riding a dromedary, he was
clothed in white. Off at 5.30 cloudy and heavy in the west and a few
drops of rain. Rode through the gardens past a spring and empty
cornfields, then out into the dark desert, Jebel el Batideh in front of us.
Ain el Wu'ul was 7 hours from it. Very dark. We soon left all vestige
of a path and went up and down over shallow Wads and much stone.
Ali Shawwish was taken very sick but we rode on. The moon rose at
10 and we cd see our way in spite of cloud. Talked to Muhammad the
soldier who is very intelligent and to M the Muleteer who had given his
donkey to Hannah for a bit and mounted H's horse. He had been to
Palmyra [Tadmur] this year with the clergyman who had travelled out
to Smyrna [Izmir] with me. A little before midnight we passed the
Jebel B. The hills fell .... behind it, to the left always the grey and white
desert with great pits of white earth here and there.