they themselves asked that the journey be cut short and that they return to Tebûk. When the strangers later heard from their servant that they had been cheated, they wanted to set out on the journey afresh, but then nobody would accompany them. They asked to have their money returned to them but obtained nothing.
Ḫalîl wished me to take him as a companion. He had a numerous family, and his income as a gendarme was not enough for food, let alone for clothing for his two wives and children. He admitted that he did not know the names of the localities, but on the other hand he was acquainted with the chiefs of the Beni ʻAṭijje, as he had spent fifteen years in Tebûk and the neighborhood. He had been the commander of a Turkish garrison in the oasis of Tejma and had returned from there not long previously. What he had saved at Tejma had been taken from him by the Šammar of Eben Rašîd, so that he and his family had arrived empty-handed. I liked him. I wanted to help him, and I knew that in return for such help I should win him over so that he would not cause me any difficulties on my journey. He was the best of all the gendarmes of Tebûk who had hitherto offered me their services, and accordingly I told him that he and nobody else should accompany me. But this caused him misgivings; he wished to have instructions from his superiors that he might come with me. He was surprised that no answer had yet arrived from Damascus to the telegraphic inquiry whether any gendarme was to accompany me or not. The telegraphic inquiry, he said, had been written by the young gendarme; it stated that I wished to proceed from Tebûk to Eben Rašîd and to Eben Šaʻlân. I could not understand how a gendarme could send such an inquiry to Damascus, seeing that I had not said a word about my intentions of going to those two men. I had distinctly told the mudîr that I wished to remain only in the region to the west of the railway between Tebûk and Medâjen Ṣâleḥ.
Toward noon Ǧwâd informed me that Sâlem would not allow Sbejḥ to accompany me, because the mudîr announced that I should obtain no guide and should not be allowed to leave Tebûk until an answer had arrived from Damascus. He had given the gendarmes instructions to watch me so that I should not leave without permission. Sâlem assured me that both he and the mudîr were alarmed for my safety and that
