HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 271 



money with them. The well required alms, and 

 the officers of the Temple expected their gratuities; 

 and these pious debts the Bedouins discharged by 

 giving them twenty or thirty grains of very coarse 

 gunpowder, small bits of lead, or a few grains of 

 coffee. The guides that repeated their prayers, and 

 the barbers who shaved their heads, were paid in 

 the same coin. On these occasions Saoud, perhaps 

 dreading the fate of his father, always kept himself 

 surrounded with his chosen guard, even while mak- 

 ing his turns round the Kaaba ; and, instead of seat- 

 ing himself during his devotions in the usual place, 

 he mounted on the roof of the well, as being a more 

 safe position. 



While Hejaz thus remained tranquil, the Waha- 

 bees chiefly directed their expeditions against their 

 neighbours in the east and the north. The district 

 about Bussora being rich in cattle and dates, the 

 banks of the Shat el Arab and of the Euphrates up to 

 Anah, were the scenes of their annual attacks. A 

 negro slave of Saoud's, called Hark, at the head of a 

 strong detachment, made various incursions into the 

 Syrian Desert, and frightened the Arab tribes in the 

 vicinity of Aleppo. In 1810, the plains of Houran 

 were invaded by the commander in person ; and so 

 rapid and unexpected were his movements that, al- 

 though it required more than a month to arrive at 

 the point of attack, thirty- five villages were sacked 

 and laid in ashes by his soldiers before the Pasha 

 of Damascus, who had only two day's notice of his 

 approach, could make any demonstrations of defence. 

 Towards the south the Wahabees were not idle in 

 extending the influence of their arms over some of 

 the still unconquered provinces. Abu Nokta, near 

 the close of 1804, descended with a numerous body 

 of Arabs from the mountains, and spread dismay 

 over the country. The towns of Loheia and Hode- 

 ida were plundered ; after which he retired to the 

 hills, where he kept the whole frontier of Yemen in 



