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

126 Bedouin Tribes of the Etiphrates. [ch. xx.
the galloping amazingly. We were travelling all
day towards tlie hills, at the foot of which the well
was said to be, and our impatience and the fast
pace of our camels carried us in front of the whole
Anazeh army. Their march was indeed like that
of a flight of locusts, as it covered perhaps ten
miles in breadth, eating up every green thing before
it. Green things just here were scarce enough,
though every now and then we crossed a wady with
some good grass. We had been told that we should
see a ruined tower, and that the wells would be
found near it, so we pushed on till we were quite
alone, and our day's march must have been close
on forty miles.
It was half-past three when we at last reached
the delightful shade of the ruin, the first building
we have seen since leaving Arak. It seems
to have been a convent once, in the days when
Palmyra was a city, for there is a cross cut
on the stone lintel of the gateway, and we have
discovered cells and the foundations of a church.
It must even then have been a solitary place,
though perhaps the
lower Damascus road may have
passed near it. There are several wells, with a
good supply of water, and one can make out the
traces of ancient fields or gardens in the wady,
watered from these. Now, all is desolate enough.
A pair of rock pigeons and some kestrels are the
only inhabitants. The tower is square and of good
cut stone, in the same style
as the old buildings of