enough to be haunted ground, the domain of the Fata Morgana, a
glimpse of the City of Brass built by Shaddaa, son of 'Ad. When
the stars began to glitter sharp and clear, our men fell to
singing and dancing; and the boy Husayn Ganinah again
distinguished himself by his superior ribaldry. Our work was more
respectable and prosaic, firing a mule with a swollen back.

Within a mile or so of us stood some Bedawi tents, which we had
passed on the march: they were deserted by the men, here
Sulaymat, who drive their camels to the wilds sometimes for a
week at a time. An old wife who brought us a goat for sale, and
who begged that Husayn, the Bash-Buzuk, might pass the night with
her, in order to shoot an especially objectionable wolf, had a
long tale to tell of neighbouring ruins. She also reported that
near the same place there is a well with steps, into which the
Arabs had descended some seven fathoms; presently they found
houses occupying the galleries at the bottom, and fled in terror.

Lieutenant Amir was sent to sketch and survey the site next
morning; and he was lucky enough to be guided by one Sa'id bin
Zayfullah, the Sulaymi, whose prime dated from the palmy days of
the great Mohammed Ali Pasha. He acknowledged as his friends the
grandfather, and even the father, of our guide Furayj; but the
latter he ignored, looking upon him as a mere Walad ("lad").
Moreover, he remembered the birth of Shaykh Mohammed 'Afnan,
chief of the Baliyy, which took place when he himself had already
become a hunter of the gazelle.[EN#4] According to him, the
remains are still known as the Dar ("house") or Diyar ("houses")
El-Nasara--"of the Nazarenes," that is, of the Nabathaeans. The
former term is retained here, as in Sinai, by popular tradition;