'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎35r] (74/100)

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but not difficult path down to its bed, in which lay a number of
considerable pools of torrent water. Here for the first time
since leaving Kaka we fell in with signs of human habitation,
a few black tents being scattered about the valley.
Hence after a brief siesta we resumed our march in the
afternoon down the valley above which on both sides towered
precipitous cliffs 100 to 150 feet high. As we advanced the
Shaib opened out as other shaibs ran into it until at a distance
of about two miles from our camp it spread out into a broad
rock-girt hollow at the end of which stood the oasis of Haddar
at the head of the gorge through which the Hasraj runs to
join the Hunnu in the plains.
Backed by a steep high escarpment and girt around by gaunt
crags Haddar, which lies at an elevation of 2,600 feet at a distance
of 116 miles from the wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. , with its scattered palm-groves and
little mud hamlets partially hidden by a screen of verdure is
an extremely picturesque settlement, which according to local
report and to judge by its ruins has seen better days. At present
it comprises four distinct sections and is traversed from end to
end by the Hasraj storm channel whose waters are diverted
into the palm-groves on either side by primitive barriers of
palm branches and sand. Following down the Shaib one first
comes to a small Wuddain settlement on the right bank consisting
of seven or eight inferior palm-groves and a number of qasrs
containing perhaps a total population of 100 souls of the Khulaiyif
subsection; the second section lying on the same bank is the
most flourishing part of the oasis consisting of some fifteen
excellent palm-groves with thick undergrowth of fruit trees,
vegetables, etc., a considerable area of cornfields, a number of
isolated qasTS and a small unwalled but compact hamlet, the
total population of this section may be 300 persons, all of
the Misarir subsection of the Misaara Dawasir; the rest of
the oasis, except for two small palm-groves on the right bank,
lies on the left bank, one section containing a small hamlet
and outlying qasfs situated in the midst of a dozen palm-groves
and some corn patches being about half a mile downstream
of the Misarir section ; while the other, called Fuhail, lies a full
mile further down at the head of the gorge and consists of a
rather larger hamlet but only five or six groves ; both these
sections belong to the Nutaifat subsection of the Jumaila
section of Anaza, already mentioned as former settlers of