volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

198 We Lose Our Way in the Desert.
his way to Der az-Zur all the same, and we set out and
rode until 7 a.m., November nth. Then Muhammad
suddenly said, " the way is lost," and he did not know
where we were, although he had an idea ; but he was
quite certain from the nature of the ground that we
had lost our way. He said we must sit down and wait
for the sand in the air to settle, and that it was useless
to attempt to move untU he could see two hills, one on
the west bank of the Euphrates and one on the east
bank, " side by side, like a woman's breasts." We
therefore sat down and waited, and he kept his eyes
fixed in an easterly direction. About ten a light wind
from the south-east began to blow, and very soon after
we saw a line of trees and vegetation which marked the
course of the Euphrates. We mounted and rode towards
it, and suddenly he pointed right ahead, and we saw
the two hills he was looking for. They looked exactly
like two large rounded shields, and though they were
many miles apart they seemed to be close together. ^
But unfortunately, when we set out after the sandstorm
we rode too much to the north of the road to
Der az-Zur, and when we found our bearings we were
still many miles from the town. But there was no
place near the river V\^here we could stop for the night,
so we dragged ourselves slowly over the rocky track
and reached Der az-Zur, or, as natives say, "Ad-Der,"
i.e., " the Monastery," about two o'clock. Our beasts
did not wait to be unloaded but rushed to the river
bank and thrust their muzzles into the beautiful water
of the Euphrates and drank as if they had never drunk
before.
Der az-Zur is a small and unimportant town on the west
bank of the Euphrates, with a few thousand inhabitants,
several hundreds of whom are Christians. The ancient
history of the town is unknown, but judging by the size
of the quarries which are near it, and the remains of a
1 The eastern hill is called "IJujer al-Jazirah," i.e., the "little
shield of Jazirah," and the western"Hujer ash-Sham," i.e., the"little
shield of Syria."