1 4 Bedouin Tribes of tJie Euphrates, [en. xvr. 



some agent or friend of the Anazeb, for such there 

 always are in the towns, and bringing him to us. 



He was not long executing the commission, and 

 on the evenino- of the 22nd, came to us with two 

 men, one aj^parently a citizen of Deyr, but who 

 refused to give us his name, and the other a thin 

 dark-visaged Bedouin, whom Ghanim said he knew 

 as Ali of the Mehed, a follower and distant relation 

 of Jedaan himself. These people informed us in a 

 confidential whisper, for fear of eavesdropj^ers, that 

 the Anazeh were on their march northwards, and 

 already within not many days' march of Deyr, 

 somewhere down in the Hamad, the great plain 

 which stretches southwards from the Blshari hills, 

 as far as Jebel Shammar. 



This was great news indeed ; and Ali agreed, for 

 a small sum, two mej idles, to take us to Jedaan, but 

 cautioned us to say nothing of where we were going 

 to Huseyn, or to mention that we had seen him, 

 " For," he explained, " the Pasha is a rogue, and 

 prevented you from seeing Jedaan before, when he 

 was close by, and will prevent you again, if he can. 

 Jedaan knows you were here with the Consul Beg- 

 last month, and is angry with the Pasha for having 

 interfered with your visit." It was therefore settled 

 that we were to start, as' it were for Tudmur (Pal- 

 myra), and that Ali was to be on the look-out to join 

 us as soon as we were well out of sight, when we 

 could alter our course and strike down into the 

 Hamad, straight for Jedaan. The exact position of 



