Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates Vol 2 - The Search For Mecca

loo Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [en. xx.
As we moved away, we came across
a mass of
men, women, and camels moving more or less in our
own direction, and found, on inquiry, that they
were the Welled Ali, an Anazeh tribe, usually
friends of the Eodla, but who have sided with the
Sebda in their present quarrel. Their sheykh,
Mohammed Dukhi ibn Smeyr, is a man of considerable
importance and enjoyed, I believe, the protection
of the British Consulate at Damascus some
years ago, in an intrigue he set on foot to get the
monopoly of conducting the IMecca pilgrims as far
as Maan ; so we had hardly appeared among his
people before we received a polite message from
him hoping that we would go no further than to
his tents, which he was about to pitch not three
miles from our late encampment. Presently afterwards,
the sheykh himself rode up and repeated the
invitation, and, although we had already sent word
to Ibn Mershid of the Gomussa to announce a visit,
we could not well refuse this new invitation. Besides,
we were anxious to make Mohammed Dukhi's
acq[uaintance.
So our tents have been pitched with
his.
Mohammed Dukhi ibn Smeyr is
a man of about
fifty. He is short and thick set, wears a grizzled
beard, and has little dark twinkling eyes, expressive
of some humour.
His face, though not a disagreeable
one, hardly inspires one Avith full confidence,
and he is said to have committed acts of cruelty
and treachery in his day. To us, however, he is