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

1 4 Bedouin Tribes of tJie Euphrates, [en. xvr.
some agent or friend of the Anazeb, for
such there
always are in the towns, and bringing him to us.
He was not long executing the commission, and
on the evenino- of the 22nd, came to us with two
men, one aj^parently a citizen of Deyr, but who
refused to give us his name, and the other a thin
dark-visaged Bedouin, whom Ghanim said he knew
as Ali of the Mehed, a follower and distant relation
of Jedaan himself.
These people informed us in a
confidential whisper, for fear of eavesdropj^ers, that
the Anazeh were on their march northwards, and
already within not many days' march of Deyr,
somewhere down in the Hamad, the great plain
which stretches southwards from the Blshari hills,
as far as Jebel Shammar.
This was great news indeed ;
and Ali agreed, for
a small sum, two mej idles, to take us to Jedaan, but
cautioned us to say nothing of where we were going
to Huseyn, or to mention that we had seen him,
" For," he explained, " the Pasha is a rogue, and
prevented you from seeing Jedaan before, when he
was close by, and will prevent you again, if
he can.
Jedaan knows you were here with the Consul Beglast
month, and is angry with the Pasha for having
interfered with your visit."
It was therefore settled
that we were to start, as' it were for Tudmur (Palmyra),
and that Ali was to be on the look-out to join
us as soon as we were well out of sight, when we
could alter our course and strike down into the
Hamad, straight for Jedaan. The exact position of