Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/95

 held by the horns with his left hand. He offered it to me as a gift, expecting, of course, a much more valuable gift from me. The evening before he had invited us to come to his tent as guests, but in the meanwhile he and his followers visited us, consumed all my companions’ supper, and drank four cans full of coffee. But he nevertheless continued to regard himself as my host and demanded a gift. My companions were very much annoyed with him, and Mḥammad signaled to me that I should give him nothing. When Šerîf, at my hint, paid him three meǧîdijjât, Ḳâsem mounted his camel and rode away without a word of thanks: he had expected a much greater gift. On the heels of the chief about fifteen other men came up and all begged for gifts. I was glad when we rode away at 4.58 P. M.

The ʻImrân comprise the following clans:

The head chief of the ʻImrân is Sâlem eben Maḳbûl. He receives 250 Turkish gold pounds ($ 1125) annually from the Sultan. The territory of the ʻImrân from aẓ-Ẓjejḳe in the north to ad-Dabr in the south is about sixty kilometers long by thirty-five kilometers broad. They have a clear and distinct pronunciation of ḳ, k, and ǧ; their ẓ is nearer to ḍ; ta’ marbûṭa sounds nearly always like a.

At 5.45 we rode through a grove of sejâl trees which covered not only the valley but also the northern foot of Mount aẓ-Ẓabʻi. The wâdi forms a basin open on the east but shut in on the west by the steep walls of Mount Lebenân. The latter are made of black, reddened, and blue strata, broken perpendicularly.