126 Bedouin Tribes of the Etiphrates. [ch. xx. 



the galloping amazingly. We were travelling all 

 day towards tlie hills, at the foot of which the well 

 was said to be, and our impatience and the fast 

 pace of our camels carried us in front of the whole 

 Anazeh army. Their march was indeed like that 

 of a flight of locusts, as it covered perhaps ten 

 miles in breadth, eating up every green thing before 

 it. Green things just here were scarce enough, 

 though every now and then we crossed a wady with 

 some good grass. We had been told that we should 

 see a ruined tower, and that the wells would be 

 found near it, so we pushed on till we were quite 

 alone, and our day's march must have been close 

 on forty miles. 



It was half-past three when we at last reached 

 the delightful shade of the ruin, the first build- 

 ing we have seen since leaving Arak. It seems 

 to have been a convent once, in the days when 

 Palmyra was a city, for there is a cross cut 

 on the stone lintel of the gateway, and we have 

 discovered cells and the foundations of a church. 

 It must even then have been a solitary place, 

 though perhaps the lower Damascus road may have 

 passed near it. There are several wells, with a 

 good supply of water, and one can make out the 

 traces of ancient fields or gardens in the wady, 

 watered from these. Now, all is desolate enough. 

 A pair of rock pigeons and some kestrels are the 

 only inhabitants. The tower is square and of good 

 cut stone, in the same style as the old buildings of 



