Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/90

 cudgels; all were shouting and cursing. Our guide Ḥammâd, recognizing the assailants as his fellow tribesmen, shouted to them that he, their chief, was guiding and protecting us, and, when they paid no heed to his words, he pulled his splendid mantle from his shoulders and, waving it in the air in his right hand, went leaping down towards them, jumping from boulder to boulder. As soon as the marauders perceived him they came to a standstill. Gradually the women went away, and at last the men also took their departure. After this incident we could complete our work. When, after sunset, we returned, I thanked Ḥammâd for his protection; but the negro Mḥammad declared that we had not been saved by the chief but by the chief’s red and yellow cloak. Mḥammad said that as soon as the assailants had caught sight of this garment selected and sent to Ḥammâd by the Sultan—they had been struck blind and had therefore been compelled to depart. So long as this cloak was with us, not a single thief among the ʻImrân would venture to steal anything from us. But Ḥammâd had no such faith in the great power of his cloak, and he urged me to post a guard to watch over our camels and baggage throughout the night. The chief Sâlem offered to keep watch until morning, if I would fill his bag with tobacco and give him a can full of coffee to boil. I sat up with him nearly all night, as I was suffering from a severe pain in my right eye.

On Monday, June 6, 1910, at 4.40 A. M., we rode out from camp toward the southwest, through the šeʻîb of Swêbeṭ (temperature: 14° C), and at 5.44 we crossed to the watercourse of Sâbeṭ. This šeʻîb runs from southeast to northwest through the sloping basin Ḫawr Ǧerîs, from which protrude only a few low, rocky ribs. The largest of these is called al-Meḳjâl. The whole basin and surroundings of the šeʻîb of Sâbeṭ were covered with a thick growth of grass and shrubs, a sign that there had been an abundance of rain during the last rainy season. Many snakes were crawling about among the vegetation, and we saw at least twenty of them. They were about thirty centimeters long, very thin, and their backs were covered with black scales. Ḥammâd praised the “richness of the pasture that year (rîf has-sene).”