Page 32 - A Hand Book of Arabia Vol 2_Neat

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METHODS OF TRANSPORT
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fco set up indefinitely, nor would he be in touch with the foreign

m In*Central Arabia the trade is conducted from the Qaslm. The
‘Uqeil buy camels at the beginning of the summer, after the harvest,
and towards the end of the summer when the Bedouins need money
to provide themselves with clothes and provisions for autumn and
winter. There is a complete cessation of the trade during the
winter. The Arabs are not in need of money, for they have laid in
their winter stock of clothes and provisions, and they prefer to
reserve their camels for breeding and for milk. Moreover, there is
no difficulty in feeding them after the first winter rains have fallen
in November. The cUqeil go out to the Qahtan and the Ateibah,
but they buy the Dawasir, Murrah, and Muteir camels in the Hasa.
They bring in their purchases to the Qasim district and keep them
out at pasture during the winter. In the early spring they drive
them north to the springs of Hazil and across the Hamad, either
by Jauf or by more direct lines over the desert. They take raflqs
(guides and sureties) from the great Sheikhs of the Anazah, from
Ibn Hadhdhal, Ibn Sha'lan, Ibn Mijlad. Ibn Muheid, Ibn Dughmi,
or Ibn Murshid, and cross the desert in complete security, travelling
slowly and letting the camels pasture as they go. The journey to
Damascus takes about two months. They bring the camels either
to Damascus and so down into Egypt, or in small numbers across
Sinai. The few Damascenes who buy from Central Arabia come
down across the Nefud to the Shammar, the Wuld Suleiman, and
the ‘Abdah (these two last have not, however, many camels) and
return by the same road, taking a Shammar rafiq with them.
* The largest number of camels come from the Anazah. Like the
Nejd camels, they are bought in the summer when prices are lowest,
and the same ‘Uqeili who has come up from Nejd with his two or
three ra'Iyahs in the early summer, may be employed to buy from
the Anazah in the neighbourhood of Damascus. He will go down
to the Jaulan or to the Eastern Belqa near Qasr el-Azraq, where the
Ruweilah are to be found, or to the pasturages round Homs and
Hamah, to buy from the Hasanah and the Siba\ The Fedcan must
be followed into the JezTrah, where they camp in summer in the
Khabur valley ; the ‘Amarat are mostly on the Euphrates near
Museyyib at that season. The purchasing of camels is done through
one of the Sheikhs ; the 5Uqeii buyer lives in his tent and the Sheikh
sees that the animals are delivered at a fair price. In return for
11Sqji P anc^ protection he receives a riyal on every camel purchased.
oheikh who attempts to raise his fee runs the risk of losing his
cus om, and unless he has sufficient authority with his people to