At Bazahel, Abdullah Mareh-bin-Talib-bin-Said, chief of the Jabberi,
welcomed us to his own house later in the day, a most unwonted piece of
hospitality. He is much stained with indigo, a very elastic and naked
sovereign, who bends his fingers back in a way horrible to behold when he
wishes to emphasise his remarks, as he did when he spoke of the Kattiri
and his wars with them, and his constantly losing men in raids, as is
also the case in his fights with the Hamoumi. As we sat around drinking
his coffee, he boasted of his direct descent from Jabber of Hiyal, the
friend and councillor of Mohammed, and told us that his family pedigree
was safely kept at Terim, with those of all the surrounding tribes of
Arabs. Somehow or other we did not care for the Jabberi at all
afterwards, and for the rest of our journey to the coast our quarrels
with Talib, the son of Abdullah, and the difficulties he would throw in
our way, were daily sources of annoyance to us.
We left Bazahel at half-past six next morning with the intention of
climbing up to the tableland again. The Wadi bin Ali is not very wide and
the ground is bare, though there are many villages scattered about. At
rather a large one, where the wadi forks, and which we reached at eight
o'clock, we were to begin our ascent. To our dismay the camels were made
to sit down and the camel-men said we must stay there the night, as there
was no water up above. We declared we knew there was, and that we would
go on; they must fill the twenty water-skins which we always carried.
Some men were inclined to go on, but were overruled by the majority.
After half an hour's contention we rode away with a good many people,
leaving a few soldiers with the baggage, to show our determination to
proceed, we being told that the others would be afraid to stay behind. We
sat down once or twice in full view of the village, to survey the camels
and wonder if they were coming, and much perplexed were we. We had
expected to change camels the following day, and this was the last day
with those men, who by delaying us wished to spin out another day's
journey at twenty-five rupees. Those soldiers who were with us
recommended us to push on round a corner, where the wadi ran in, and
conceal ourselves behind rocks, which there stood up between the path and
the village, that the camel-men might not think there was any hesitation
on our part; so men, and beasts, and I were carefully hidden, and one who
peeped without his turban, reported that some camels were rising, and
finally, eight starting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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