'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎11v] (27/100)

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and from beneath which here and there peep out remnants of
the walls and houses of the old city. Besides a number of scat
tered qasrs Yamama comprises four small hamlets built close
together in a semi-circle in the middle of the oasis, which on the
whole is more luxuriant than that of Sulaimiya and dependent
entirely on wells about five fathoms deep, the water being
drawn from the latter by asses and cattle of very diminutive
and inferior breed and in some few cases by camels. The
hamlets are walled, each about the size of or somewhat smaller
than Sulaimiya and contain a mixed population, whose chief
elements are Zaab (a section of A1 Murrah) including the Amir,
Beni Hajar and Aiyidh, of about 2,000 souls, who in addition
to the groves of Yamama itself own two groups of wells, qasrs
and cornfields called Hayathim and Munaisif about four miles
away south-west up the valley.
ihe Nafudh tract does not extend south of Yamama, at one
mile south-south-west of which lies the northern limit of the area
irrigated by the Saih stream, a narrow strip of fertile land perhaps
one mile broad and five miles long from the ruined qasrs of the
northern extremity to the most southerly of the three reservoirs.
In the centre of this tract about half a mile west of the Qusaia
lidge of the Biyadh stands a large strongly-built fort, 150 yards
long and 100 yards broad and provided with numerous towers
and a single gateway, called Qurain, to the west of which lies
about one square mile of lucerne fields. The remains of one
or two mined qasrs and the marks of former cultivation over
a considerably greater area attest the former prosperity of the
place. The fort contains living accommodation for Ibn Sand's
master of the horse and a few servants and open stabling for
a out sixty or seventy horses. There were about fifty animals
m the fort at the time of my visit including four stallions, a
considerable number of mares, some foals, a mule or two and a
camel, each tethered to a circular manger of mud piled high
mth lucerne. The animals are never exercised or cleaned, the
stables are seldom cleared of refuse and all the greys were suffering
rom a disease called Dabbas said to be caused by a parasite
brought m with the lucerne and to be harmless though unsightly.
e sout em end of the Qurain tract lie the three reservoirs,
name 7 ln amha suirounded by a wall of rock twenty feet
high and measuring about eighty by forty paces, from a deep
narrow fissure m the northern side of which flows the Saih stream ;