Page:The Northern Ḥeǧâz (1926).djvu/204

difficult and that our weary camels would perish after a few days. I had not intended to change the direction. I wished to make my way due southeast, but the guide Sbejḥ declared that he was unacquainted with this territory, and, as the Ḥwêṭi would not accompany us,
Fig. 72—Ṛwâfa and environs. I could not venture to enter the volcanic and almost impassable region without a guide. Then too, the journey would have been useless, because I should have been unable to note down the names of the places which I saw. Sbejḥ was willing to accompany us as far as the “great ruins” of al-Ḳena’, where he said we could certainly find the ʻAṭâwne, from whom we could then select a guide who would accompany us farther to the south. At these “great ruins,” he said, there are gardens, aqueducts, and ruined houses; the Ḥwêṭi confirmed this, and I had heard the same thing from Sâlem at Tebûk. I agreed that Sbejḥ