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

cH. XVII.] Women in the Desert. 25
plan tlirougli
tlie non-appearnncc of our accomplice
the Melied, and proposing a rendezvous at Sokhne
on our way to Tudmur. This he gave to the man,
who promised if Mr. S. should arrive while he was
at Deyr, to let him have it.
We then rode on.
After this we passed no one until about noon,
Avhen we came in sioht of some tents rather out of
our road, and to these we went also to ask for news.
They belonged to a party of Abu Serai, one of the
Euphrates tribes, and I believe, a section of the
Aghedaat, but the men were away, gone with
kemeyes to Damascus, and women only were at
home.
These received us very hospitably, bringing
milk and lebben, but could give us no information.
They had come out so far from the river, it seemed,
to gather truffles, for besides those that the men had
taken away to sell, there were plenty of others
sliced up and drying in the sun on the roofs of their
tents. The ^vomen were very merry and goodhumoured,
and I
think I never saw such swarms of
children. It shows how little real daiis-er there is
in the desert, that these people should be left all
alone with their flocks of sheep, and with only a few
old men and boys to protect them, while their
husbands were away for perhaps a month. Yet
they showed no sign of anxiety.
In the course of the mornimx we had come across
a number of large l)ustards, but they were too wild
to stalk, and now at about one o'clock we entered a
wady (Wady Mefass), cut pretty deeply in the plain.