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

132 Bedouin Tribes of the Ettphrates. [ch. xxr.
shade at a well. We had been overtaken in the
course of the morning by a couple of men mounted
on a dromedary, who had been sent after us by
Meshur to show us the way. They were Eoala who
had gone to the Sebaa in the suite of their Sheykh's
wife, when she had chosen to return to her father
Jedaan ; and it shows how liberal the Bedouins are,
in their toleration of individuals while
at war, that
these men had been living for some weeks in Jedaan's
tent, at the very moment that their master,
Ibn Shaalan, was advancing against him. Now they
were being sent back without so much, I believe, as
a pledge not to reveal secrets. The truth is, in
Bedouin strategy as in Bedouin politics there is no
possibility of secrecy.
Every member of the tribe
has a right to know everything that happens, and,
from the very publicity of what goes on, there is no
fear of spies. It is useless to try and conceal the
truth, so no attempt to do so is made. The black
slave was very ill to-day, and lay in a half torpid
state on his camel, with his head hanging down
over its shoulder and exposed to the full glare of
the sun. But this is all the comfort Arabs expect
to get when they are ill. They somehow manage
to sleep in this position without falling off
At the well we were overtaken also by a small
party of Welled Ali, driving a hundred or so of
sheep and lambs l)efore them for the Easter sales
at Damascus. I cannot think many of them will
arrive there alive, for the weather is prodigiously