150 Bcdotiiii Tribes of tJic FAipJirates. [ch. xxr. 



Sotamm has not made his appearance, and we do 

 not expect now to meet him, till we get to Da- 

 mascus. 



A'pril 16. — The weather has broken up, but no 

 matter. AVe are just at the end of our journey. 

 In the night I saw a fine lunar rainbow, the moon 

 shining against a heavy shower. The whole bow 

 was visible, but the colours were indistinct. 



Soon after ' starting, we passed a small outlying 

 Eoala camp, but without alighting. Two of the 

 horsemen belonging to it joined our party and rode 

 a mile or two with us, but we could get no infor- 

 mation from them, as the younger was shy, and the 

 elder had an impediment in his speech, which made 

 him imj^ossil^le to understand. Then we parted 

 company, they passing over hills to the right to 

 join the main body of Eoala at Jerud, we keeping 

 straight towards ]\Iount Hcrmon, or Jebel-esh- 

 Sheykh, as it is called. At ten o'clock we reached 

 the first cultivated fields and some fine Greek ruins, 

 and, a little further on, a })lentiful spring of living 

 water, such as we had not seen for weeks. It 

 seemed unnatural, if not impossible to find so much 

 water starting out of the ground. Immediately 

 afterwards the village of Dumeyr was reached, the 

 furthest outpost of civilization towards the desert. 

 It is a flourishing place, surrounded with gardens 

 and fields of corn. Countrymen with pale faces 

 and wearing turbans appeared, riding donkeys in- 

 stead of camels, and answering our salutations, in 



