HISTORY OP THE WAHABEES. 307 



which they carried on their shoulders. These cere- 

 monies done, they rushed to the Zemzem Well, but 

 in such crowds, and with such precipitation, that 

 in a few moments, ropes, buckets, and pulleys, were 

 laid in ruins. The servants abandoned their posts ; 

 and in this emergency the Wahabees contrived to 

 obtain the miraculous liquid, by forming a chain of 

 each other's hands, which enabled them to descend 

 to the water. Unfortunately for the numerous cha- 

 rities of the mosque the reformers had brought no 

 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 excursions into the Syrian 

 Desert, and frightened the Arab tribes in the vicinity 

 of Aleppo. In 1810, the plains of Hauran were in- 



