Then commenced the negotiations and disputes between them and ours; noise and menace speedily ensued, alternated with diplomatic manoeuvres, for our champion, Selameh, was an able practitioner in such matters, at least he had a reputation for it. The stormy scenes were not concluded till late in the night, and they ended by an arrangement that travellers, arriving by the new road from Jerusalem, should pay the same pecuniary acknowledgment to the territorial owners as had been hitherto claimed from those arriving under Alaween escort from Nukh'l or 'Akabah; and this agreement I ratified orally, as writing or sealing would have been altogether out of place there. One might think that so simple a matter could have been finished in five minutes; but just as in European business of that nature, it is always necessary for the contracting parties to be allowed scope for the display of their professional talents. _April_ 7_th_.--Sunrise, Fahrenheit 65.75 degrees. An inundation of strange Arabs from the desert had arrived during the night, and it was computed that there were not less than two hundred guns round our tents, while our party had not more than five, with a few pistols. We were hemmed in by the newcomers, and the crags over us were occupied by men with guns laid in position between crevices. Some men were scattered about, shooting at birds; but it seemed to me their real object was rather the making of signals. These people were 'Ali Rasheed's branch of the Alaween, from a district not so distant as 'Akabah. Our Jehaleen party looked very insignificant among them; they had evidently not expected this turn of events. As soon as we Europeans showed ourselves after breakfast, the Fellahheen rushed forward to serve as guides in exhibiting the curiosities. Feeling rather lame, I decided on remaining at the tents with my two kawwases as sentinels; the more disposed to do so, as the strangers had, during the night, purloined some articles from the Jehaleen.