‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the cradle of the Arab race. A visit to the court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign."' [‎40] (83/334)

4°
A Pilgrimage to Nejd
[ch. ii.
mainland. There is a great concourse of people
with horses, and donkeys, and camels, and more
are constantly coming from each quarter of the
compass. They have not as yet paid much at
tention to us, so that we have been able to make
ourselves comfortable. There is a fresh wind
blowing from the south, and there is a look in
the clouds of something like rain. I have never
before wished for rain on a journey, but I do so
heartily now ; these poor people want it badly.
December 16.—To-day we have done nothing
but receive visits. First there came a Haurani, who
announced himself as a sheykh, and gave us the in
formation that Sotamm ibn Shaalan and the Koala
are somewhere near Ezrak. If this be true it will
be a great piece of good luck for us, but other
accounts have made it doubtful. A more interest
ing visitor was a young man, a native of Bereydeh
in Nejd, who, hearing that we were on our w T ay to
Jof, came to make friends with us. Though a well-
mannered youth, he is evidently nothing particular
in the way of position at home, and admits having
been somebody's servant at Bagdad, but on the
strength of a supposed descent from the Beni Laam
in Nejd, he has claimed kinship with Mohammed
and they have been sitting together affectionately
all the morning, holding each an end of Moham
med's rosary. We have cross-questioned him about
Nejd; but though he knows Hail and Kasim and
other places, he can give us little real informa-