to keep watch on them or to supply the Government with reports concerning them. Thus the Government never succeeded in achieving what it set out to do. Of course, it would call upon this or that chief, enjoining him to collect taxes on his herds or to find out what had become of stolen flocks; but in such cases the chief generally would plead disobedience on the part of his subordinates, or would announce that they had left him and that he did not even know where they were encamped. These statements were true and could be corroborated by numerous witnesses. In the autumn, when these tribes used to penetrate more deeply into the desert, they would again rally round their chief and remain with him until the end of May or the beginning of June. Then they would return to the frontier of the cultivated territory under Government jurisdiction, separating and scattering again in order to evade the governmental demands. During this season they would rob and plunder in the villages subordinated to the Government. The peasants who had been robbed often enough recognized the plunderer and reported him to the Government, which would then send his chief a written order that the culprit be produced immediately with his booty. But the chief, supported by witnesses, would assert that the culprit was not encamped with him and that he did not know where he was to be found. Meantime, the lawbreaker had packed up his tent and departed with his booty to join another chief, to whom he would give a share of the plunder remaining with him, safe in the knowledge that he would not be reported. Even when a whole tribe engaged in a raid on Government territory, the Government was unable to discover the culprits.
In March, 1908, a band of the Ḥwêṭât attacked the large settlement of Salamja, situated southeast of Ḥama’, and made off with about twenty horses and a hundred and sixty camels. All these animals were branded with the mark of the inhabitants of Salamja, yet the Government was unable to discover a single one of them. The victims complained to the Government that they had been robbed by the Ḥwêṭât, who were under the control of the chiefs ʻAwde abu Tâjeh and ʻArʻar eben Ǧâzi. The Government requested the two chiefs to restore the stolen animals and then sought to imprison them; but both ʻArʻar and ʻAwde were able to prove that they had not taken part in the raid. ʻArʻar had been detained
