Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/93

 vapors, which formed broad layers and shut out the view (temperature: 37.2° C). They quivered in the hot rays of the sun and were continually changing their position. My left eye also began to hurt and I trembled with fever.



Toward five o’clock my companions brought back the camels, and at 5.13 we set off between the rocks of al-Ḳejṭûn, al-Ḫalal, and al-Ḥmejra on the left and al-Mkasseb on the right. At six o’clock, on our right beneath the spring of aš-Šerîʻa, we observed a large encampment of the ʻAsbân clan, who also belong to the ʻImrân. The chief, Kâsem, ran up to us with about twenty men and entreated me and my companions to be his guests. Tormented by fever and by the pain in my eyes, which was so severe that I could scarcely hold myself in the saddle, I craved rest and peace. I prayed the chief to allow us to sit down in the shadow of his tent and beneath the protection of his countenance, saying that we should everywhere extol and proclaim his bountifulness. At 6.12 we settled down beneath a rock of no great size near