We encamped at six hours’ distance, at Maytal el Ebbed, where we rested eight days. Saker came there to us, and it was agreed that he alone should undertake to raise the Bedouins of these districts, while we should return into Syria, lest by too long abandoning our first conquest, our enemies should take advantage of our absence to embroil our affairs and detach the tribes from our alliance.
Besides, the spring was already advanced, and it behooved us to hasten thither, lest the pasturages of Syria and Mesopotamia should be occupied by others. We deferred then, till the year following, the project of pushing our recognizance as far as the frontiers of India. By that period, Saker would have had time to prepare the tribes of his neighbourhood to second us; “for,” said he, “the tree is uprooted by one of its branches.”
Some days’ march brought us back to Mesopotamia. In two more we crossed the Euphrates near Mansour and the desert called El Hamad. We encamped in a place where water is only to be had by digging deep holes, and is at last only fit for the beasts. Man cannot drink of it. The place is called Halib El Dow, because milk is here the only beverage.
We went from thence to El Sarha, a district abundantly supplied with water and herbage, and here expected to be indemnified for our privations; but a particular circumstance speedily dashed our hopes. The soil is covered with an herb called Kraffour, which the camels eat with avidity, and which has the property of inebriating them to the point of madness. They run to the right and left, breaking every thing they encounter, overthrowing the tents, and pursuing the men.
During four-and-twenty hours no one could get any rest; the Bedouins were constantly employed in mastering the camels and in calming their fury. I should have preferred actual war to this continual struggle with animals whose prodigious strength, and delirious exaltation presented incalculable dangers. But it appears that the triumphs of skill over force has great charms for these children of nature; for, when I went to the Drayhy to deplore the state of fever in which this novel revolution held us, he only laughed, and assured me it was one of the greatest amusements of the Bedouins. While we were talking, a camel of the largest size made straight towards us, with his head erect, and kicking up the dust with his great feet. The Drayhy, seizing one of the stakes of his tent, waited for the furious animal, and struck him a violent blow on the head. The weapon broke, and the camel turned away to exercise his ravages elsewhere. A dispute then arose as to which was the strongest, the camel or the sheik. The latter averred, that if his club had resisted, he should have cleft the skull of his adversary; the attendants maintained the superiority of the animal, who had broken the obstacle opposed to him; and my decision, that their strength was equal, because it was a drawn battle, excited the mirth of the whole audience.
The next day we broke up our camp, and were overtaken on the road by a messenger from Saker, who sent us an account of the ill-success of his negotiation with Bargiass. Our enemy Absi, who was high in favour with the latter chief, had exasperated him against us; had persuaded him to join Mehanna, and then to form an alliance with the Wahabees, who were to send an army for our destruction. The Drayhy answered, that this was no cause for uneasiness—that God was stronger than they were, and could with ease give the victory to the good cause. After this incident we continued our journey.
We next learned that the tribe El Calfa was encamped at Zualma. The Drayhy considered it important to secure the co-operation of this powerful and courageous tribe. Its sheik, Giassem, was an old friend of the Drayhy; but he could neither read nor write, and it therefore became dangerous to address a letter to him, which would be read by a Turk, and might be essentially injurious to our affairs, as experience had taught us in the instance of the scribe Absi. Again, then, the negotiation was committed to me; and I was sent to him, with an escort of six men mounted on dromedaries. We arrived, after a journey of three days, at the spot indicated, and were greatly disconcerted to find that the tribe had removed their camp, leaving no trace of the road they had taken. We passed the night without eating or drinking, and deliberated the following day on what we were to do. The affair of most immediate necessity was to find water; for it is well known that thirst is more insupportable than hunger, and we might also reasonably expect at the same time to meet both with the springs and the tribe. We wandered three entire days without finding either water or food. My palate was so perfectly dry, that I could neither move my tongue nor articulate a sound; I had exhausted all the artificial means of mitigating thirst, as keeping pebbles and balls of lead in my mouth; my face was become black, and my strength was forsaking me, when suddenly my companions cried out, “Gioub el Ghamin!” (the name of a well in the desert,) and darted forward. These men, inured to fatigue, sustained privations in a manner inconceivable to me, and were far from imagining to what a deplorable condition I was reduced. On seeing them run from me, the irritation of my nerves, excited by fatigue, made me despair of reaching the well, where I fancied they would not leave a single drop of water for me; and I threw myself on the ground weeping. Seeing me thus overcome, they returned, and encouraged me to make an effort to follow them. We arrived at length at the well, and one of them leaning over the parapet, drew his sabre, declaring he would cut off the head of the first man who dared approach. “Be governed by my experience,” said he, “or you will all perish.” The authoritative tone he assumed had its effect upon us, and we all obeyed in silence. He called us one by one, beginning with me, and made us first lean over the margin of the well to inhale some of its moisture. Then drawing a small quantity of water, he wetted our lips with his fingers; by degrees he allowed us to drink a few drops, then a small cup full; and having pursued this rational treatment for three hours, he said, “You may now drink without risk; but if you had not listened to me, you would have been all dead men; for drinking without precaution, after long privation, is certain destruction.” We passed the night on this spot, drinking continually, as much for nourishment as to slake our thirst, which, notwithstanding this indulgence, seemed insatiable. In the morning we climbed an eminence that we might see farther round us; alas! nothing but the boundless desert met our view. At length, however, one of the Bedouins thought he descried an object in the distance, and soon asserted that it was an howdah covered with scarlet cloth, and borne by a camel of great size. His companions saw nothing, but having no better guide to follow, we turned our steps in the direction indicated; and, in fact, soon afterwards we found ourselves approaching a great tribe, and distinctly saw the howdah which had served us for a pharos: happily it proved to be the tribe we were in quest of.
Giassem received us kindly, and did his best to remedy our fatigue. I satisfactorily accomplished the object of my mission to him, and he dictated a letter to the Drayhy, in which he undertook to place his men and goods under his orders, saying that the alliance between them ought to be of the closest kind, on account of their long-standing friendship. I set out on my return, provided with this important document, but, on the other hand, much interested in the news he had imparted to me of the arrival of a princess, daughter of the King of England, in Syria, where she was displaying the luxuries of royalty, and had been received with all sorts of honours by the Turks. She had made magnificent presents to Mehanna el Fadel, and had been escorted by him to Palmyra, where she had profusely distributed her largesses, and had made a formidable party among the Bedouins, who had proclaimed her queen.[K] Sheik Ibrahim, to whom I carried this intelligence, was greatly disturbed by it, believing it to be an intrigue to ruin our plans.
The Drayhy, perceiving our misgivings, reassured us by declaring that if they sowed sacks of gold from Hama to the gates of India, they would be unable to detach a single tribe from the solemn engagement which had been contracted.
“The word of a Bedouin is sacred,” he added; “follow up your projects without uneasiness. For my part, my campaign is planned. I am going to the Horan to watch the proceedings of Ebn Sihoud, whom alone we have cause to fear. I shall then return, and encamp in the environs of Homs.”