loo Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, [en. xx. 



As we moved away, we came across a mass of 

 men, women, and camels moving more or less in our 

 own direction, and found, on inquiry, that they 

 were the Welled Ali, an Anazeh tribe, usually 

 friends of the Eodla, but who have sided with the 

 Sebda in their present quarrel. Their sheykh, 

 Mohammed Dukhi ibn Smeyr, is a man of consider- 

 able importance and enjoyed, I believe, the protec- 

 tion of the British Consulate at Damascus some 

 years ago, in an intrigue he set on foot to get the 

 monopoly of conducting the IMecca pilgrims as far 

 as Maan ; so we had hardly appeared among his 

 people before we received a polite message from 

 him hoping that we would go no further than to 

 his tents, which he was about to pitch not three 

 miles from our late encampment. Presently after- 

 wards, the sheykh himself rode up and repeated the 

 invitation, and, although we had already sent word 

 to Ibn Mershid of the Gomussa to announce a visit, 

 we could not well refuse this new invitation. Be- 

 sides, we were anxious to make Mohammed Dukhi's 

 acq[uaintance. So our tents have been pitched with 

 his. 



Mohammed Dukhi ibn Smeyr is a man of about 

 fifty. He is short and thick set, wears a grizzled 

 beard, and has little dark twinkling eyes, expressive 

 of some humour. His face, though not a disagree- 

 able one, hardly inspires one Avith full confidence, 

 and he is said to have committed acts of cruelty 

 and treachery in his day. To us, however, he is 



