commander immediately offered me some of his own for sale. His flour was clear white, but half mixed with potato flour. The officer and the soldiers declared that they had enough to eat, but that they were suffering from various diseases. They were afraid of water, especially of sea water. Not a single one would bathe in the sea, and they washed only when it was absolutely necessary and then only in a superficial manner so as to carry out the command of their religion. They were firmly convinced that all the diseases which were rampant at al-Ḫrajbe came from the sea and that the deeper a man plunged into the sea water, the sooner he would catch them. They were afraid of water, but they drank distilled liquor, ʻaraḳ, which was brought by the vessels from Suez. The officer’s family dwelt a cottage of palm leaves built in an old cellar which had been somewhat cleaned out. The commander showed me a rectangular pool to the east of the barracks where the aqueduct from ʻAjnûna ends.
Southwest of the pool had been laid out gardens of date palms, which, though not large, were carefully tended. They were the property of the chief, Abu Ṭḳêḳa, and his son ʻAfnân was then inspecting the promised harvest for that year. As soon as I left the commander, the chief’s son came to call upon me. He was about twenty years of age, puny and frail, with a dark-colored face like all the coast dwellers. On his head he wore a fine white kerchief fastened with a broad, bright-colored string. A thin white shirt, over which was a loose white cloak, covered his body, and he wore large sandals on his feet. The expression of his face was gentle, his eyes were large, and the edges of his eyelids were darkly tinted with koḥl (collyrium, antimony powder). After the usual greetings I asked him to furnish me with a guide to Tebûk. He told me to visit the territory of his tribe and then to travel to Tebûk from Ẓbe’. I thanked him for his kind invitation and promised him that I would be sure to visit their territory, but not for about a fortnight. The scientific investigation of the territory of the Ḥwêṭât at-Tihama demanded at least twenty days, and our supplies were not sufficient for that length of time. When leaving Maʻân, I had taken supplies for only fifteen to twenty days, for I had supposed that I should be able to survey the region lying east of the railway and within the allotted time reach Tebûk, to which place I had arranged that all my supplies
