cH. XVII.] Women in the Desert. 25 



plan tlirougli tlie non-appearnncc of our accomplice 

 the Melied, and proposing a rendezvous at Sokhne 

 on our way to Tudmur. This he gave to the man, 

 who promised if Mr. S. should arrive while he was 

 at Deyr, to let him have it. We then rode on. 



After this we passed no one until about noon, 

 Avhen we came in sioht of some tents rather out of 

 our road, and to these we went also to ask for news. 

 They belonged to a party of Abu Serai, one of the 

 Euphrates tribes, and I believe, a section of the 

 Aghedaat, but the men were away, gone with 

 kemeyes to Damascus, and women only were at 

 home. These received us very hospitably, bringing 

 milk and lebben, but could give us no information. 

 They had come out so far from the river, it seemed, 

 to gather truffles, for besides those that the men had 

 taken away to sell, there were plenty of others 

 sliced up and drying in the sun on the roofs of their 

 tents. The ^vomen were very merry and good- 

 humoured, and I think I never saw such swarms of 

 children. It shows how little real daiis-er there is 

 in the desert, that these people should be left all 

 alone with their flocks of sheep, and with only a few 

 old men and boys to protect them, while their 

 husbands were away for perhaps a month. Yet 

 they showed no sign of anxiety. 



In the course of the mornimx we had come across 

 a number of large l)ustards, but they were too wild 

 to stalk, and now at about one o'clock we entered a 

 wady (Wady Mefass), cut pretty deeply in the plain. 



