north or not, and it was likewise uncertain how they would receive us and whether the mudîr would allow us to leave Tebûk without interference. I therefore decided to depart for Maʻân, transporting the wearied camels by railway (Fig. 86), and from Maʻân to proceed to one of the camps of the Ḥwêṭât and rest there. But it was not easy to get the camels into a railway van. In Tebûk there was no gangway on which the animals could have entered the van, and, as they had to jump, they became much frightened. It took more than three hours before we got them in by force and tied them up there.
Having reached Maʻân on Saturday; July 9, 1910, at noon, we immediately departed westward to the ridge of as-Semne, where we found pasturage and from where we could make sketch maps of the western region. But now the results of our fatigue manifested themselves. Rifʻat, Tûmân, and Šerîf fell ill and declared that they could not move. The camels ran away, three lost their saddles, and it took a long time before I found them with the aid of the guide and drove them up to the fire. The guide guarded the animals while I went to look for the lost saddles.
On Sunday, July 10, 1910, my European companions could not get up, and there was nothing for us to do but to help them on to the camels and to return with them to the station of Maʻân, where they lay down at the inn of Mr. Sarikakis.
Accompanied by Ǧwâd, I proceeded on Monday, July 11, to the town of Maʻân to the ḳâjmaḳâm. He also informed me that he had received from Damascus a telegraphic order not to permit me to leave the railway line. To my question whether he knew where the Ḥwêṭât were encamped, he replied that they had all left the region west of the railway and that they were threatening the Government with revolt if they were not paid the money that was due them. He added that he would be glad to pay them the amount to which they were entitled but that the wâli had sent no money from Damascus. While I was talking with him, we heard three shots and after that a cry of pain. The frightened soldiers and gendarmes scrambled into the Government building and began to close the heavy gate, declaring that a revolt had broken out at Maʻân. After a while they brought a severely wounded gendarme to the gate and asked me to examine his wound. A bullet had passed through the right
