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

28 Bedouin Tribes of the Enphrates. [en. xvn.
donkey are feeding. Ferlian is sitting on a point of
rock above, calling every now and then to the
camels ^' Ha-6 ! lia-6 ! lia-6!" whereat they stop
and turn their heads round to listen. Hanna has
got the three partridges in a pot, and is very merry,
while Ghanim has brought up his rebdh and is
tuning it for one of his chants. There are a pair of
kestrels wheeling about, and I think they have a
nest somewhere close by. The evening i& calm, and
we are all in good spirits again.
March 26.—Alas ! alas ! I suppose I must have
forgotten to say " inshallah " when I wrote my
journal last night, for dinner was hardly over and
the mares tied up and our beds laid, when a sound
of shoutino; in the direction of Bir announced that
some people were coming our way. For a moment
we deluded ourselves with the vain hope that it
might be robbers, or merely some of the Abu Kamis
going home, but our hearts misgave us already
that something worse had happened. In a few
minutes, four zaptiehs apj^eared at the door of the
servants' tent, piled their arms in front of the fire,
and sat down.
Neither Wilfrid nor I had the heart
to inquire Avhat the meaning of this was, but Mohammed
shortly afterwards came to our tent with
the message, which we guessed before it was out of
his lips. The Pasha had sent an express, with
orders that we were to
proceed no further, but to
wait for the caravan, which would arrive to-morrow,
and then we should receive further instructions.