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

26 Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [en. xvn,
and found there rock pigeons and partridges, showing
that there must be water close at hand.
Wilfrid
shot three partridges, and in climbing to the edge
of the ravine cauoht sio;ht of the guard-house of
Bir, lying in the Wady about a mile ahead of us.
We would willingly have avoided the place, for
Mohammed informed us it was occupied, and we
have now a perfect horror of soldiers and the police ;
but it was absolutely necessary we should fill our
waterskins, and the only well for many miles was
there. We are rather afraid still of the Pasha's
suddenly sending after us or coming himself, like
Pharaoh, who repented that
he had let the children
of Israel go, and would have liked to hide our encampment,
but this necessity of water compelled us,
and luckily, as it
a,uthentic news.
turned out, for we have obtained
The well of Bir (as you say the "harbour of
Oporto") is an important feature in this part of the
world, for it is the only watering-place between
Deyr and Soklme, and it has been occu^^ied for
some years as a strategical point by the government.
There is a square guard-house on the usual
Euphrates model, and we found it
occupied by a
sergeant and three men. The building was in
rather a dilapidated state, as Jedaan burnt all that
could be burnt in it last winter on his way from
the Bishari hills, which, by the way, we saw pretty
plainly this morning. The well is a very ancient
one, cased with solid stone and about sixty feet