File:The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration (1922) (14772547785).jpg

Identifier: heartofarabiarec01philuoft (find matches)
Title: The heart of Arabia, a record of travel and exploration
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Philby, H. St. J. B. (Harry St. John Bridger), 1885-1960
Subjects: Arabian Peninsula -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, Constable
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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rritoryinto that of the Hudhail, from all accounts a very primitivepastoral community distantly related to the Harb andliving in extreme squalor and poverty in worsted boothsof a diminutive type, perhaps not more than three or fourfeet in height, among their rugged mountain fastnesses.They extend along Wadi Fatima to the confines of theTihama, tending bees and sheep and doing a certain amountof cultivation on the torrent-irrigated terraces found atfrequent intervals in the Wadi ; they also rear camels ofa diminutive and extremely hardy highland breed, of whichit is said that they can climb up the steep flanks of the hillsas surely as goats. Musaiyis had left us at Sail pleadingbusiness ; he and his servant had performed the journeyfrom Taif respectively on a fine she-mule and a broken-down ass, the latter collapsing several times during the dayunder the prodigious burden of baggage it was expected tocarry in addition to its rider. Barely a mile farther on we arrived at a confluence of
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c y. THE HOLY LAND 211 Wadis, the Haradha, in which we had been marching, andthe Birri, a broad torrent-bed descending from due east,merging at this point with Wadi Fatima or Wadi Shamiyya,as its upper reaches are more commonly called, by whichthe stream of Syrian pilgrims has flowed down year afteryear through the ages to the House of God. The alternativecoast-route, passing from Madina to Mecca by way of Rabigh,is avoided in the summer season owing to the fierce heat ofthe Tihama lowlands, but at times the exactions and depre-dations of the Hudhail on the inland route have compelledthe official Hajj to make a virtue of necessity, risking thedangers of the fever-ridden Httoral rather than the savageimportunities of a human scourge. In no problem have theTurks failed so signally as in the management and under-standing of the Arab tribes ; on the Hai, on the Euphrates,in the Hasa, in the Yaman, in the Hijaz, to mention onlya few outstanding examples, the Turkish flag has everflown prec

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