‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the cradle of the Arab race. A visit to the court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign."' [‎110] (157/334)

I IO
A Pilgrimage to Nejd.
[ch^v.
out of their wits. They were quite poor people,
dressed only in old shirts, and they had a skin of
dates on one side the camel and a skin of water on
the other. They were out, they said, to look for a
man who had been lost in the Wady Sirhdn, one of
the men sent by Ibn Rashid to Kaf for the tribute.
He had been taken ill, and had stopped behind his
companions, and nobody had seen him since. They
had been sent out by the governor of J of to look for
him. They said that we were only a few hours
from the town.
Meanwhile, I had remained with our camels,
listening to the remarks of Awwad and Hamddn,
both dying with curiosity about the two zellems
from Jof. At last Awwad could wait no longer,
and begged Hamddn to go with him. They both
jumped down from the camels they were riding,
and set off as hard as they could run to meet the
Jofi, who by this time had proceeded on their way,
while Wilfrid and Mohammed were returning.
Wilfrid on arriving held out to me a handful of the
best dates I have ever eaten, which the men had
given him. The Sherari and Awwad presently came
back with no dates, but a great deal of J6f gossip.
We are encamped this evening near some curious
tells of red, yellow, and purple sandstone, a forma
tion exactly similar to parts of the Sinai penin
sula. There is a splendid view to the south, and
we can see far away a blue line of hills * which,
• Jebel el TawH.