A Pilgrimage to Nejd Volume Ii Part 3

They are Shammar, and have been on business to Hal.

_February_ 12.-Our disappointment about water yesterday, has forced us back on to the Haj road and the wells of Khuddra, thirteen or fourteen miles east of last night's camp. We had, however, some sport on our way.

First, a hare was started and the falcon flown. The Nefd is so covered with bushes, that without the a.s.sistance of the bird the dogs could have had no chance, for it was only by watching the hawk's flight that they were able to keep on the hare's track. It was a pretty sight, the bird above doubling as the hare doubled, and the three dogs below following with their noses in the air. We made the best of our way after them, but the sand being very deep they were soon out of sight. Suddenly we came to the edge of the Nefd, and there, a few hundred yards from the foot of the last sand-bank, we saw the falcon and the greyhounds all sitting in a circle on the ground, watching a large hole into which the hare had just bolted. The four pursuers looked so puzzled and foolish, that in spite of the annoyance of losing the game, we could not help laughing. Hares in the desert always go to ground. Mohammed and Abdallah and Awwad were keen for digging out this one, and they all worked away like navvies for more than half an hour, till they were up to their shoulders in the sandy earth (here firm ground), but it was in vain, the hole was big enough for a hyaena, and reached down into the rock below. Further on, however, we had better luck, and having run another hare to ground, pulled out not only it, but a little silver grey fox, where they were both crouched together. I do not think the hares ever dig holes, but they make use of any they can find when pressed. We also coursed some gazelles.

There are fourteen wells at Khuddra, mere holes in the ground, without parapet or anything to mark their position, and as we drew near, we were rather alarmed at finding them occupied by a large party of Bedouins. It looked like a ghazu, for there were as many men as camels, thirty or forty of them with spears; and the camels wore shedads instead of pack saddles. They did not, however, molest us, though their looks were far from agreeable. They told us they were Dafir waiting like the rest for the Haj; that their Sheykh, Ibn Sueyti, was still two days' march to the eastwards, beyond Lina, which is another group of wells something like these; and they added, that they had heard of us and of our presents to the Emir, the rifle which fired twelve shots, and the rest. It is extraordinary how news travels in the desert. I noticed that Mohammed when questioned by them, said that he was from Mosul, and he explained afterwards that the Tudmur people had an old standing blood feud with the Dafir in consequence of some ghazu made long before his time, in which twenty of the latter were killed. {63} This has decided us not to pay Ibn Sueyti the visit we had intended. It appears that there has been a battle lately between the Dafir and the Amarrat (anazeh), in which a member of the Ibn Haddal family was killed. This proves that the anazeh ghazus sometimes come as far south as the Nefd. These wells are seventy feet deep, and the water when first drawn smells of rotten eggs; but the smell goes off on exposure to the air.

The zodiacal light is very bright this evening; it is brightest about two hours after sunset, but though I have often looked out for it, I have never seen it in the morning before sunrise. It is a very remarkable and beautiful phenomenon, seen only, I believe, in Arabia. It is a cone of light extending from the horizon half-way to the zenith, and is rather brighter than the Milky Way.

_February_ 13.-We have travelled quite twenty-four miles to-day, having had nothing to distract our attention from the road, and have reached the first of the reservoirs of Zobeydeh.

To my surprise this, instead of being on low ground, is as it were on the top of a hill. At least, we had to ascend quite two hundred feet to get to it, though there was higher ground beyond. It is built across a narrow wady of ma.s.sive concrete, six feet thick, and is nearly square, eighty yards by fifty. The inside descends in steps for the convenience of those who come for water, but a great rent in the masonry has let most of this out, and now there is only a small mud-hole full of filthy water in the centre. We found some Arabs there with their camels, who went away when they saw us, but we sent after them to make inquiries, and learnt that they were Beni Wahari, a new artificial compound tribe of Sherarat, Shammar and others, made up by Ibn Rashid with a slave of his own for their Sheykh. They are employed in taking care of camels and mares for the Emir. They talk of eight days' journey now to Meshhed Ali, but Wilfrid says it cannot be less than fifteen or sixteen.

Mohammed, who has been very anxious to make himself agreeable, now he is quite away from Hal influences, has been telling us a number of stories and legends, all more or less connected with his birthplace Tudmur. He has a real talent as a narrator, an excellent memory, and that most valuable gift, the manner of a man who believes what he relates. Here is one of his tales, a fair specimen of the extraordinary mixture of fable and historic tradition to be found in all of them:

Suliman ibn Daoud (Solomon, son of David) loved a Nasraniyeh (a Christian woman), named the Sitt Belkis, {65} and married her. This Christian lady wished to have a house between Damascus and Irak (Babylonia), because the air of the desert was good, but no such a house could be found. Then Solomon, who was king of the birds as well as king of men, sent for all the birds of the air to tell him where he should look for the place Belkis desired, and they all answered his summons but one, Nissr (the eagle), who did not come. And Solomon asked them if any knew of a spot between Damascus and Irak, in the desert where the air was good. But they answered that they knew of none. And he counted them to see if all were there, and found that the eagle was missing. Then he sent for the eagle, and they brought him to Solomon, and Solomon asked him why he had disobeyed the first summons. And Nissr answered, that he was tending his father, an old eagle, so old that he had lost all his feathers, and could not fly or feed himself unless his son was there. And Solomon asked Nissr if he knew of the place wanted by Belkis; and Nissr answered that his father knew, for he knew every place in the world, having lived four thousand years. And Solomon commanded that he should be brought before him in a box, for the eagle could not fly. But when they tried to carry the eagle he was so heavy that they could not lift him. Then Solomon gave them an ointment, and told them to rub the bird with it and stroke him thus, and thus, and that he would grow young again. And they did so, and the feathers grew on his back and wings, and he flew to Solomon, and alighted before the throne. And Solomon asked him, "where is the palace that the Sitt Belkis requires, between Damascus and Irak, in the desert where the air is good?" and the eagle answered, "It is Tudmur, the city which lies beneath the sand." And he showed them the place. And Solomon ordered the jinns to remove the sand, and when they had done so, there lay Tudmur with its beautiful ruins and columns.

Still there was no water. For the water was locked up in a cave in the hills by a serpent twenty thousand double arms' length long, which blocked the mouth of the cave. And Solomon called on the serpent to come out. But the serpent answered that she was afraid. And Solomon promised that he would not kill her. But as soon as she was half way out of the cave (and they knew it by a black mark on her body which marked half her length), Solomon set his seal upon her and she died. And the jinns dragged her wholly out and the water ran. Still it was poisonous with the venom of the serpent, and the people could not drink. Then Solomon took sulphur (kubrit) and threw it into the cave, and the water became sweet. And the sulphur is found there to this day.

Mohammed says also that ghosts (afrit) are very common among the ruins at Tudmur-also (more curious still) that there is a man at Tudmur more than a hundred years old, and that when he reached his hundredth year he cut a complete new set of teeth, and is now able to eat like a young man. {67} So he beguiled the evening.

_February_ 14.-We have pa.s.sed more birkehs in better repair than the first, and being now in the neighbourhood of water, find a good many Bedouins on the road. Jedur (the Shammar with the mother, with whom we are still travelling, and whom we like particularly) knows everybody, and it is well that he is with us, as some of these Bedouins are rough looking fellows with hang-dog countenances (especially the Dafir and the Sellem), which we don't quite like. To-day, as Wilfrid and I were riding apart from our caravan, a number of men ran towards us without any salaam aleyk.u.m and began calling to us to stop. But we did not let them get within arm's length, and bade them ask their questions from a distance.

We shall have to keep watch to-night. The road is now regularly marked out with a double wall, which we are told was built by Zobeydeh to hang an awning from, so that the pilgrims might travel in the shade. But this must be nonsense. It is more likely that it is merely the effect of the road having been cleared of the big stones which here cover the plain.

Since writing this a curious thing has happened. We encamped early inside a ruined birkeh and had just got all in order for the night, when we perceived six men on dromedaries riding down from the northeast, straight towards us. There was much speculation of course amongst us, as to who they might be, honest men or robbers, Shammar or Dafir. They evidently were not a mere party of camels for the Haj, as each delul was mounted by a man with a lance, and they came on at a trot. They rode straight to where we were, made their camels kneel down, took off khurjs and shedads and then arranged their bivouac for the night. Then they came up to our tents and accosted Mohammed and the servants, who of course invited them to sit down and drink coffee. Mohammed presently came to us and whispered that he felt convinced they were Dafir, but that we should presently know for certain. They sat down and began talking on general subjects, as the custom is till coffee has been served, but afterwards Mohammed asked them whence they had come and whither they were going. They answered that they were Ketherin, sent by their Sheykh to Hal on business, and explained further that their object was to find a certain relative of their Sheykh's whom he had heard of as being a guest at Ibn Rashid's and to invite him to their tents. Perhaps we might have heard of him, his name was Mohammed ibn Ark. And their Sheykh's name?

Muttlak ibn Ark! Here is a _coup de theatre_! Mohammed's long-lost relation, the third brother of the three who left Aared in the eighteenth century and parted company at Jof, has been discovered in his descendant, whose servants are at this moment in our camp. Imagine the joy of Mohammed and the triumph of so appropriate an occasion for reciting once more the kasid Ibn Ark! The rhymes of that well-known legend, recited by Mohammed and responded to by the new comers in chorus, were indeed the first intimation we had of what had happened. Then the Ketherin amba.s.sadors were brought to our tent and their story told. Now all ideas of Bussorah and Meshhed Ali and the Haj are abandoned, and, for the moment, there is no other plan for any of us but an immediate visit to these new relations. One of the Ketherin has already started off homewards to announce the joyful event, and the rest will turn back with us to-morrow. Muttlak's tents are not more than a day's journey from where we now are, and we shall see these long-lost cousins to-morrow before the sun goes down. "Yallah," exclaimed Mohammed, beaming with joy and pride.

_February_ 15.-We made a late start, for Mohammed has lost his head again and is playing the fine gentleman, as he did at Hal, afraid or ashamed to be seen by his new acquaintances doing any sort of work. Instead of helping to pack or load the camels, he would do nothing but sit on the ground playing with his beads, and calling to Awwad to saddle his delul,-airs and graces which, I am glad to see, are thrown away on the Ketherin, who, as Bedouins, care little for the vanities of life. Even when started, we did not get far, for it began to thunder and lighten, and presently to rain heavily, so that Wilfrid ordered a halt at half-past ten. We have now come to the great birkehs which are full of water. They stand in a valley called the Wady Roseh, from a plant of that name which grows in it, and is much prized as pasture for both camels and horses. There are two tanks near us, one round, the other square, and both of the same fashion as the first we saw. We have been examining the construction and find that the walls were originally built hollow, of stone, and filled up with concrete. This is now as hard as granite, and has a fine polish on the surface. The water is beautifully clear and good. The largest of the tanks is sixty-four yards by thirty-seven, and perhaps twelve feet deep. There is a ruined khan of the same date close by, and Wilfrid has discovered an immense well ten feet wide at the mouth and very deep. All these were constructed by Zobeydeh, the wife of the Caliph Haroun er-Rashid, who nearly died of thirst on her way back from Mecca and so had the wells and tanks dug.

Wilfrid believes that no European has visited them before, though they are marked vaguely on Chesney's map. A wild day has ended with a fine sunset. Dinner, not of stalled ox, nor of herbs, but of boiled locusts and rice, with such bread as we can manage to make of flour well mixed with sand.

Mohammed, who has been in the agonies of poetic composition for a week past, has at last delivered himself of the following kasid or ballad, which I believe is intended as a pendant to the original Ibn Ark kasid, with which he sees we are bored.

KASiD IBN ARK EL JEDiDE.

Naharrma min esh Sham, el belad el bayide, Nemshi ma el wudian wa el Beg khalawa.

Wa tobeyt aela Jof, dar jedide.

Yaaz ma tilfi ubrobok khalawi.

Naharret 'Abu Turki, aalumi bayide, Dabakha lil khottar heyle semane.

Ya marhaba bil Beg wa es Sitt Khatun.

Talobbt bintu gal jaatka atiye.

Wa siaghahu min el Beg khamsin mia.

Khatun, ya bint el akram wa el juwadi.

Khatun, ya bint el Amava wa el kebar.

Ya Robb, selemli akhui el Beg wa es Sitt Khatun.

Ya Robb, wasalhom diyar essalami, Wa dar el Ajjem wa belad hade Hand, Wa yetobb aal bahr sebba khalawi, Wa yetobb aala Londra wa yekellem efnun, Wa yehagg el sahibe aala ma sar jari.

NEW BALLAD OF IBN ARK.

I went out from Damascus, the far-off country.

I marched through the lone valley, with the Beg alone.

I lighted down at Jof, at a new built dwelling.

Dear are the souls it shelters. "Guests," he said, "sit down."

"See, Abu Turki, see," I called, "thy kinsmen."

"Bring first for these," he cried, "a fatted lamb.

"Welcome, O Beg, welcome O Lady Khatun, Welcome, O distant kinsman, to your home."

I asked him for his daughter. "Take her dowerless."

"Her dower be these, five thousand," said the Beg.

Lady, O daughter of the great the generous!

Lady, O daughter of a princely line!

O Lord, keep safe my brother and the Khatum.

Grant them to reach the dwellings of repose.

Guide them through Persia and far Hind and lead them By all the seven seas in safety home.

Let them once more behold their friends and London.

Let them relate the things that they have done.

CHAPTER XV.

"Here lie I down, and measure out my grave, Farewell, kind master."-SHAKESPEARE.

Muttlak Ibn Ark and the Ketherin-Their horses-We are adopted by the tribe-The Haj again-Ambar sends round the hat-A forced march of one hundred and seventy miles-Terrible loss of camels-Nejef.

_February_ 16.-Two Asian Shammar of the Jezireh came last night, and recognised us as having been in Ferhan Pasha's camp, last year, in Mesopotamia,-a very pleasant meeting, though we have no distinct recollection of either of them. They gave us all the latest Jezireh news in politics. Ferhan and his brother Faris are now at open war, though Ferhan is no fighter himself, and leaves the conduct of affairs to his eldest son, Aa.s.sa. All the Shammar of the Jezireh are with Faris, except Ferhan's own tail, and the Abde, and the a.s.slan, Muttany's men, and our old friend Smeyr ibn-Zeydan. It is true also that Faris is now friends with Jedaan. All this we are glad to hear.

This morning, Jedur and his mother left us, as they are not going any further our way. I like them both, and should have been glad to give the mother some small remembrance of our journey together, but, as Arabs do, they went away without saying good-bye. Our march to-day was a short one, nine or ten miles, still down the Wady Roseh, where water has actually been running since the late storm, and where there are pools still here and there, and a large swamp full of ducks, storks, and snipe,-the first water above ground we have seen since the Wady er-Rajel, nearly two months ago. There is capital gra.s.s, too, in the wady, a few inches high, which our hungry mares enjoy thoroughly. As we were stopping to let them and the camels graze on a particularly inviting spot, suddenly we perceived about thirty delul riders coming over the hill to our right. Although it was probable that this was Muttlak, we all prepared for defence, making the camels kneel down, and seizing each his best weapon,-Wilfrid the rifle, I the gun, and Mohammed his large revolver. Awwad stood ready, sword in hand, and Abdallah squatted with his long gun pointed towards the new-comers; the rest, except Izzar, who possesses a sword, had only sticks, but made a formidable appearance.

There was no need, however, for alarm, for, presently, one of the approaching party detached himself from the rest, and trotting his dromedary towards us, saluted us in a loud voice, and we saw that it was Hazzam, the man who had gone on to announce our coming to Muttlak. In another five minutes the Sheykh himself had dismounted. There was of course a great deal of kissing and embracing between Mohammed and his new found relations, and Wilfrid came in for a share of it. Muttlak is a charming old man, very quiet and very modest, but possessed of considerable dignity. He has an expression of extreme kindness and gentleness which is very attractive, and we already like him better than any of Mohammed's Jof relations. Unlike the Ibn Arks of Jof and Tudmur, this branch of the family has remained Bedouin, and unmixed by any fellahin alliances. Mohammed's rather vulgar pretensions to birth and dignity have fallen, ashamed before the simplicity of this good old man, the true representative of the Ibn Arks of Aared, and though the kasid has been trotted out once more, and the family genealogy stated and compared, it has been with modesty and decorum, and the sadness which befits decayed fortunes. There can be no question here who shall take the upper place, the Sheykh himself being always ready to take the lowest. To us he is charming in his attentions, and without false dignity in his thanks for the small presents {75} we have made him. He is to stay with us to-night, and then he will take us to his tents to-morrow.

Muttlak has brought us three sheep for a present. He has with him a very handsome falcon, a lanner like ours, but larger.

_February_ 17.-We left our camp in the Wady Roseh, where Muttlak told us there was better pasture than we should find with him, and rode off on our mares to pay him a morning visit and return at night. Muttlak has with him his own little mare, the counterpart of himself, old and without other pretension than extreme purity of descent. She is a kehilet Omm Jera.s.s (mother of bells), and was once in Ibn Saoud's stables. It is difficult to describe her, for her merits are not on the surface; I am sure nine out of ten English dealers would pa.s.s her over, if they saw her at Tattersall's or Barnet Fair, as an insignificant little pony. She is very small, hardly over 13 hands, for even Mohammed's mokhra looks tall beside her, chestnut with four white feet and a blaze, a good but not a pretty head, and, but for a proud carriage of the tail, no style or action; an old brood mare never ridden except on state occasions like the present, for on ordinary occasions no Arab of Nejd thinks of riding anything but a delul. As Muttlak said, very gravely, "When G.o.d has given you a mare that is _asil_, it is not that _you_ should ride, but that _she_ should breed foals." The old man stuck to his delul, and the little mare was ridden by his cousin Shatti, who went with us, and gave us some valuable information by the way. The Ketherin, like all the tribes of Nejd, were formerly under Ibn Saoud. They are a branch of the Beni Khalid, who, in their turn, are a branch of the Beni Laam, an ancient and n.o.ble tribe, of which the main stock is still found between Aared and Katif, while another branch settled some centuries ago beyond the Tigris, on the Persian frontier. The Ketherin are now few in number and decayed in circ.u.mstances, but Shatti informed us, with some pride, they can still turn out a hundred khayal on occasion; that is to say, if they are attacked and obliged to fight. This shows more than anything the small number of horses possessed by the tribes of Nejd. I asked Shatti which of the tribes still under Ibn Saoud are now most in repute as breeders of horses; and he told me the Muteyr or Dushan (for it seems they have both names), who could turn out four hundred hors.e.m.e.n. Their best breeds are Kehilan Ajuz, Kehilan el-Krush, Abeyan Sherrak, Maneghy Hedruj, and Rabdan Kesheyban. They have no Seglawis at all; the Krushiehs of Ibn Rashid came originally from them, Feysul having bought them from the tribe. It must not, however, be supposed, he said, that all the Dushan mares were asil. The Dushan, like every other tribe in Nejd and elsewhere, has "meha.s.saneh," or half-breds, what the anazeh would call "beni" or "banat hossan;" that is to say, animals with a stain in their pedigree, and therefore not asil, though often nearly as good and as good-looking. Their own breeds (that is to say, the Ketherin's) are princ.i.p.ally Wadnan, Rishan, Rabdan, and Shueyman. As we got near the Ketherin tents we met two men on a delul, leading a lovely little bay colt, one of the prettiest I ever saw, which Shatti told us was a Wadnan Horsan.

After nearly three hours' riding we arrived at the _buyut shaar_ (houses of hair), and were soon being hospitably entertained. It is the custom here, as it is in the Sahara, that the Sheykh should receive ill.u.s.trious strangers, not in his own tent, but in a special tent set up for the purpose. It was a poor place, little more than an awning, but the welcome was hearty and sincere. Here all the princ.i.p.al people of the tribe a.s.sembled as soon as the news of our arrival spread, and a feast was prepared of tummin and fresh b.u.t.ter, and naga's milk. The Arabs, never kill a lamb except for the evening meal.

After this entertainment I went to visit Muttlak's family, and on my return I found Wilfrid inspecting the mares which we had already seen grazing near the tents. There were half-a-dozen of them, fair average animals, but nothing first-rate, or so handsome as the Wadnan colt, nor any over fourteen hands high. We were looking at these rather disappointedly, when Hazzam ibn Ark, Muttlak's brother, rode up on a really beautiful mare, which he told us was a Seglawieh Jedran, the only one left in Nejd. He added that they had been obliged to conceal the name of her breed for some years on account of the danger incurred of her being taken by force. In former times, when the Wahhabis were all powerful, any famous mare ran great risk of being seized for the Riad stables. Ibn Saoud would declare war with a tribe merely as an excuse for robbing it of its mares. Ibn Rashid, at the present day, put great pressure on the owners of valuable mares to make them sell; but he paid for what he took. This mare had been often asked about both for Ibn Rashid, and for Na.s.sr el-Ashgar, Sheykh of the Montefyk, who (or rather his brother Fahad now) has the best collection of horses after Ibn Rashid and Ibn Saoud. She is a fine bright bay, muttlak-el-yemin, snip on the nose; has a splendid way of moving when ridden, action like Hamud's mare at Hal, _handsome_ rather than _racing_. The head is good, the eye bright and large, the forehead rather flat, the jowl deep; the wither high and back short, quarters round, like all the Nejd horses, sinews good, and hoofs large and round.

Hazzam's mare is under fourteen hands, but stands over much ground, and ought to be up to weight, being wonderfully compact. We had some hopes at one moment of being able to purchase her, and for a good price and money down I think it might have been done, for they are all most anxious to oblige us. But we have no money and our cheque on Bagdad would be difficult for them to cash. The Ketherin are this year in great distress, as there was no autumn rain, and until a month ago, nothing that horses can eat. They are without corn or even dates, and but for the locusts, which have been abundant all the winter, they must have starved. Indeed locusts are still their main article of food, for man as well as beast. Great piles of these insects, dried over the fire, may be seen in every tent.

Amid a general chorus of good wishes, we at last took our leave of these good people. "You," they said to Wilfrid, "shall be our Sheykh whenever you return to us. Muttlak will not be jealous. We will make war for you on all your enemies, and be friends with your friends." Muttlak himself has promised that there shall be a general council to-night to decide whether the tribe shall move northwards as has been proposed, or not, and that if it is decided that it shall be so, he will join us to-morrow morning, and travel with us to Meshhed to make arrangements with the intervening tribes, whose consent must first be obtained. It is strange what friendship we have made with these simple-hearted people in a few hours. We are the first Europeans they have seen, and they look upon us as beings of a superior world.

As we came back to the crest of the hill overlooking Wady Roseh, we saw away to the south a smoke rising-the Haj.

_February_ 18.-We had walked down to the birkeh to try and stalk some ducks when the first runners of the Haj arrived, and presently the Haj itself, now swelled to double its former size, swept past us down the Wady. At the same moment Muttlak appeared on his delul ready to go with us. This gave us great pleasure. He has got the consent of his tribe, and what is of more importance of the women of his family, to go with us to Meshhed Ali, and see what arrangements can be made with the anazeh Sheykhs for a migration of the Ketherin northwards. Such migrations have, I fancy, taken place in all ages among the Bedouins of Arabia; the want of pasture constantly driving them outwards from Central Arabia to the richer deserts of Syria and Mesopotamia. In this way the Shammar and the anazeh obtained their present inheritance of the Hamad and the Jezireh, and thus in still earlier times the Ta abandoned Nejd.

[Picture: Reservoir of Zobeydeh]