‘A Pilgrimage to Nejd, the cradle of the Arab race. A visit to the court of the Arab Emir, and "Our Persian Campaign."' [‎174] (227/334)

174 A Pilgrimage to Nejd. [ch . vm.
gets down from his deliil, and pulls some ghada
branches, which are very brittle, and adds them to
piles of wood he has formerly made. These can be
seen a good way off. We have learned, too, to make
out a sort of road after all, of an intermittent kind,
marked by the dung of camels, and occasionally on
the side of a steep slope there is a distinct footway.
Along this line our guide feels his way, here and
there making a cast, as hounds do when they are
off the scent. Neither he nor Mohammed, nor any
of the Arabs with us, have the least notion of steeriDg
by the sun, and when Wilfrid asked Mohammed if he
thought he could find his way back to Shakik, he
answered, " How could I do so ? Every one of these
sand-hills is like the last/"
We have been entertained by Radi with more
blood and bones stories, the most terrible of which
is that of some Turkish soldiers," 55 " who many years
ago were treacherously abandoned in the Nefud.
They had occupied Hail in the days of the first Ibn
Rashid, and had been left there as a garrison. But
either the Sultan could not communicate with them
or forgot them, and after a certain time they wished
to go home. Many of them had died at Hail, and
the remainder of them, about five hundred, easily
agreed to set out for Damascus under the escort of
Obeyd, the Emir's brother, who had resolved to
destroy them. They left Hail on horseback and
• These were no doubt the Egyptians of Ibrahim Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. 's army,
left behind at Aneyzeh.