‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the cradle of the Arab race. A visit to the court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign."' [‎49] (92/334)

ch. nr.]
The Sheykh of GJdzeh.
49
told us that a Frank passed this way two years ago,
and had told him that there must be an ancient
well somewhere among the ruins of which the
village is built, and he has been looking for it ever
since. He entreated us to tell him the most likely
spot either for finding the old well or digging a
new one. We are much distressed at not being
engineers enough to do this for him; and I can t
help thinking how much a real reformer (not a
Midhat) might do in Turkey by attending to such
crying wants as these. Ghizeh is w T ithin fifty miles
from Damascus as the crow flies, and there are
scores of villages in like condition throughout the
Hauran, which a Syrian governor might relieve at
the cost of sending round an engineer. But until
tramways and railroads and new bazaars have been
made, I suppose there is little chance for mere wells
under the present regime.
Besides meat and drink, Hassan has given us
useful advice. He has reminded Mohammed of
another old friend of his fathers, who he thinks
might be of more service to us than anybody else
could be, and he advises us to go first t o him. 1 his
is Huseyn ibn Nejm el-Atrash, a powerful Druse
Sheykh, who lives somewhere beyond the Hauran
mountains. He must certainly have relations with
some of the Bedouin tribes beyond, for it appears
he lives in a little town quite on the extreme edge
of the inhabited country towards the Wady Sirhdn.
We have always heard of this Druse country as
VOL. 1. E