Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/145

 ʻAfnân was riding on a very lean white camel, and his two negroes went on foot. His father, the head chief Abu Ṭḳêḳa, generally resided in the settlement of Ẓbe’ where the muḥâfeẓ of the wâli of the town of Jidda also dwelt.

The tribe of the Ḥwêṭât at-Tihama is composed of the following clans:

al-ʻEmêrât

al-Mesâʻîd

aḏ-Ḏijâbîn

az-Zamâhre

aṭ-Ṭḳêḳât

Selêmijjîn

al-ʻObejjât

al-Mawase

al-Mešâhîr

al-Ḳurʻân

al-Ǧawâhre

al-Ḳbêẓât

al-Faḥâmîn

al-Ǧerâfîn

Until 3.40 we rode along the shore in an almost easterly direction and then turned southward. We met four men going to al-Ḫrajbe. They were farmers who tended ʻAfnân’s gardens at Šarma in return for a quarter of the net yield. They joined us. At 4.15 we rode into the broad, marshy lowland of Wâdi Šarma. Here and there rise low, sandy drifts and cones, from which grow tonẓob and rimṯ. Between them stand serried groups of sejâl trees. We saw, on the peninsula of Mṣajbet Šarma before us, a large ruined building and in front of it Ḳṣêr abu Ṭḳêḳa, a large, roofless, four-cornered house with broken windows. Both buildings had been erected for the use of pilgrims by the chief Abu Ṭḳêḳa, but as the number of pilgrims was growing smaller year by year, the houses were deserted and falling into decay.

At 4.50 we encamped near a small hovel constructed of palm leaves, which also belongs to the family of Abu Ṭḳêḳa, the members of which use it as a nocturnal lodging when they visit the oasis of Šarma. They are afraid of the oasis, because the ague is said to lurk there at night and to attack every stranger who ventures within its domain. The oasis itself appeared to us as a broad, dark strip lying towards the east-northeast.

Sitting down with ʻAfnân about one hundred paces from the rest of the party, I asked him whether the inhabitants of the coast were satisfied with the Turkish Government. His reply was voluble: