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

34 Bedoinn Tribes of the Eiiplirates. [ch. xvn.
Another fox-liunt ; but tliis time an unsuccessful
one, for lie had too much start, and after three
miles at a racing pace, we got among some low hills
where he escaped, though only a few yards in front
of us. The mares do their work in a marvellous
manner, considering that
they have to travel every
day and are only grass fed, but Hagar, directly she
sees a fox, goes off, and nothing will stop her. I
follow as I can on Tamarisk, who, though slow, is a
stayer.
AVe also saw three gazelles, and tried to get
some houbdras, or frilled bustards, by riding round
them in a circle as we have done in the Sahara, but
here they refuse to hide their heads in the bushes,
and take flight always just too soon. At eleven
o'clock we came to a broad flat wady with white
chalk clifis,
in the middle of which was a small pool
of rainwater, rapidly drying up, but still sufficient
for our purpose of filling the skins. Several false
snipes were running along the edge of it,
Avao;tails.
and water
After this we left the track, I hardly know where,
and took a point more to the
south so as to avoid a
low ridge of hills, which is a sort of spur from the
main ridge towards which we have gradually been
•convergino:. We can see the white chalk cliffs under
which JMohammed tells us the villaoe of Sokhne
(hot) lies, so called, not because it is, as it must be,
a little furnace in summer, but because there are
hot springs. We do not care to go into the village,
but intend to send Ghduim in to-morrow as we pass