'Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society, from September 1850 to June 1852. Edited by the Secretary. Volume X.' [‎63] (196/458)

MEMOIR ON THE » TIGRIS.” gg
should be raised by a downpour from the NW # which—the clouds
congregating in that quarter towards sunset—threatened before the
morning. These appearances were not belied, and by midnight we had
a succession of squalls from all parts of the compass, attended by thun
der vivid lightning, and rain. To sleep was out of the question amid
the chaos of noises. Between the thunder claps the snorting of the
{lightened horses that had broke from their fastenings was commingled
with the heavy sound of their hoofs and the anathemas of the grooms,
launched forth in the choicest patois the Arabic affords, as they drove
them towards the tent,—which these worthies regarded only as a net,
from its many lines, to catch stray cattle in : added to these, the violent
gusts of wind, veering on all sides, brought the rain in upon us, and kept
us in an unenviable state amid the impenetrable darkness of a night like
Erebus. Every instant we expected the tent would be swept from its
fastenings, loosened or torn up as they were by the floundering of the
horses amongst them ; but our “ N'usseeb, ,, * as the Arabs say, was in the
ascendant, for v*ith the dawn the veil was removed, and all traces of the
previous clamour had subsided, as the increasing NW. breeze drove
the heavy vapours to the South. The drowsy grooms, wrapped in their
wet , Aabas,f shivering with the sudden cold, were now assembled in
groups around half-lighted and sullen fires, awaiting in anxiety the
rising of the sun, whose appearance was welcomed by every one ; the
picketed horses even neighing aloud, expressed a delight which we
ourselves felt at the change since yesterday. By half-past ten the fog
that lingered on the ground was dispelled, and having taken the obser
vations for the position of Tel Goosh,$ we resumed our march to the
Northward.
Entering upon the districts of Suadiyeh, a cultivated strip only,
adjoining the Tigris North of that of Taji, it occupied two hours—over
a desert covered only with a parched-up scrub, here and there dotted
with the broken lines of the Suk Canal—in reaching the deserted
♦ Nusseeb 4t fortune,” or M destiny”—the Arab equivalent of the Persian
bahht. ^
f ’Aab&s V'® a mantle, of either goat’s pr camel’s hair, universally worn,—the latter are
of superior texture.
$ See Appendix H.