CH. XXI.] The Rodla move Camp. 147 



AVe liave seut our mares cand donkeys for water 

 to the lulls wliicli rise north of the plain, here 

 called " Jebel Euak," where there is a spring of 

 excellent water, Bir Shedeli, and they have not 

 yet returned, though all the Eoala tents are do\vii 

 and the march begun. Sotamm out of politeness 

 kept his own tent standing to the last, Init now he 

 cannot wait any longer, and has come to wish us 

 good-bye. AVc are to meet him again to-night or 

 to-morrow, but he has to see his tribe across the 

 liills first, and will then join us on the road, and go 

 with us to Damascus. I watched him riding away 

 with a few followers, and four mares, and a delul 

 with her foal, which he is taking as gifts to the 

 Pasha. The mares were nothing very remarkable. 

 Now they are all gone. 



It is a very curious feeling to perceive the plain 

 gradually emptied of its inhabitants (we can still 

 watch them streaming by half-a-dozcu different 

 passes up the hills), and to find all this tumultuous 

 camp suddenly fallen into silence, and ourselves 

 alone in the desert. Except the trampled pasture, 

 there is not a trace of the people who are gone, for 

 the Arabs leave nothing behind them, not even the 

 scraps of paper one finds in Europe after a pic-nic. 

 Only two camels, probably of those lately captured 

 and too lame to go further, remain for the next 

 person who likes to appropriate. One of them 

 Ghanim is very anxious to drive off and sell at 

 Damascus, but this Wilfrid will not allow. 



