Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/204

 difficult and that our weary camels would perish after a few days. I had not intended to change the direction. I wished to make my way due southeast, but the guide Sbejḥ declared that he was unacquainted with this territory, and, as the Ḥwêṭi would not accompany us, I could not venture to enter the volcanic and almost impassable region without a guide. Then too, the journey would have been useless, because I should have been unable to note down the names of the places which I saw. Sbejḥ was willing to accompany us as far as the “great ruins” of al-Ḳena’, where he said we could certainly find the ʻAṭâwne, from whom we could then select a guide who would accompany us farther to the south. At these “great ruins,” he said, there are gardens, aqueducts, and ruined houses; the Ḥwêṭi confirmed this, and I had heard the same thing from Sâlem at Tebûk. I agreed that Sbejḥ