234 HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 



Bedouin soldiers were placed under the charge of 

 Sheriff Rajah, a relation of Ghaleb, and a distin- 

 guished leader of the Wahabees in Hejaz, who had 

 been won over to the side of the enemy. 



One obstacle alone retarded the immediate adop- 

 tion of offensive measures. The campaign had 

 proved most destructive to the Egyptian camels: 

 hundreds of their dead bodies strewed the roads be- 

 tween Jidda and Taif, and occasioned such a pesti- 

 lential stench that the inhabitants were obliged to 

 consume them to ashes with dry grass from the 

 adjoining mountains. At a moderate calculation, 

 during the three years of the war, 30,000 of these 

 animals belonging to the army had perished in Hejaz. 

 The arrival of the pilgrim-caravans in November 

 brought a reinforcement of 6000 or 7000, chiefly of 

 the Syrian breed, which were better adapted than 

 the others for military purposes. 



While these measures were in preparation, the 

 Wahabees had made frequent incursions towards 

 Taif, and against the tribes which had espoused the 

 cause of the pasha. To intercept the communica- 

 tion between Jidda and Mecca, they attacked the 

 camp at Bahra, which they pillaged of its baggage, 

 carrying off a small caravan, and massacring all the 

 inhabitants they could find. The pride of the Turks 

 was still farther humbled by another defeat. Abdin 

 Bey, with his Arnaouts, who occupied certain dis- 

 tricts in the province of Tehama, had laid desolate 

 the country to the extent of forty miles, that by 

 means of this artificial desert he might prevent the 

 sudden incursions of the enemy. Notwithstanding 

 these cruel precautions, the Sheik Bakrouj, at the 

 head of his Arabs and a strong detachment from 

 Tami, stole by surprise into the Turkish camp at 

 Barush about daybreak, and fell upon the sleeping 

 soldiers, of whom they slaughtered 800, besides 80 

 horsemen. Bakrouj pursued the fugitives during 

 two days ; and not an individual would have es- 



