<ir. XXIV.] The Anazeh Invasion. 1 79 



their cities and waiting patiently for events. The 

 commerce of the desert ceased entirely, and caravans, 

 abandoning the old direct routes, now followed the 

 long road which passes outside tlie desert through 

 Mardin and Orfa, and did so in fear and tremljliug. 

 Meanwhile the Montefik, and the Beni Laam, had 

 occupied Irak; and the Avhole country between 

 Syria and Persia, a few isolated towns excepted, 

 became a portion of independent Arabia. This state 

 of things continued unchanged down to our own 

 day. 



The fortunes of the Bedouin tribes are continually 

 changing in the desert. A succession of lucky 

 breeding seasons for their camels brings wealth, and 

 the courage or Avisdom of a Sheykh importance to 

 a tribe, so that one year it may be this, and another 

 that tribe which appears in the ascendant. But the 

 general superiority of the Shammar and Anazeh 

 over the minor tribes has never been called in ques- 

 tion since they first appeared in Northern Arabia. 

 The Anazeh have it all their own way in the 

 Hamad, and as far north as Aleppo, and the Sham- 

 mar are supreme in Mesopotamia. The war which 

 began between them so long ago has gone on ever 

 since, not always actively, for there have been 

 seasons of truce ; but peace has never been made 

 between them, and raids of Anazeh into the Sham- 

 mar country, and of Shammar into the Anazeh may 

 be counted on with as much certainty every summer 

 as the appearance of swallows in ]\Iay. Both tribes 



