Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/250

 Tamra, and to the northwest gushes the spring ʻAjn abu ʻAǧejǧât. At 1.42 we crossed through the šeʻîb of Ẓabʻân, at two o’clock we traversed the broad river bed of ʻArejḳên, and at 2.05 we dismounted in front of the quarantine.

ʻAbdarraḥmân Effendi, the director of the quarantine, greeted us with great joy, for the news had spread at Tebûk that we had been attacked and murdered. In the last two days Tebûk had been surrounded by a marauding band of al-Âjde, numbering more than fifty warriors, and the foot soldiers had been unable to do anything against the mounted attackers. The raiders had stolen the camels belonging to the soldiers, as well as two large flocks of goats and sheep, which had been intended as food for the officials and soldiers at Tebûk. They had driven their booty to the gardens of ar-Râjes, where they had killed and cooked some of the animals. The rest they had then driven away to the southeast before evening on the previous day. If the Bedouins had actually attacked Tebûk, not a single soldier or official would have escaped. The soldiers and officials live a long distance from each other, their homes are neither fenced in nor fortified, and they have no cisterns, so that after two days they would be compelled to surrender by thirst and hunger. And all the tribes, the Beni ʻAṭijje, Ḥwêṭât, and the Weld ʻAli complain of the Turkish garrisons and curse them.

From Ǧwâd, who throughout the period of our journey had remained in the infirmary, I learnt that the mudîr as well as Sâlem, the deputy of Ḥarb eben ʻAṭijje, had been in a rage when they had discovered that I had departed without their consent. Immediately after my departure an order had arrived from Damascus that I should not be allowed to leave Tebûk except by railway. That is why the mudîr had sent two gendarmes and Sâlem three Bedouins to follow us and bring us back. But after two days they had returned reporting that they had been unable to find us, because, they said, we had gone through the defile of al-Ḫrejṭa to the coast.

In the immediate vicinity of Tebûk there was scarcely any pasture for our camels, and they could not graze at a greater distance because they might have been stolen.