'Southern Nejd: Journey to Kharj, Aflaj, Sulaiyyil, and Wadi Dawasir in 1918.' [‎41r] (86/100)

— 73 —
precipitous cliffs to the important hamlet of A1 Buraik; a strag
gling group of palms extends from the same centre down the
Fara for a short distance, while a dense belt extends up the Faria
to the point where Shaib Sulamiya runs into it. Upstream of
this point lies the town of Hilwa which, so far as I was able to
judge from the portion (about one third) of it, which I saw,
extends some three-quarters of a mile in length with an average
breadth of 300 yards; round Hilwa are scattered palm-groves
extending for a short distance up the Faria beyond the end of
the town and up the Shaib Mirhij, in which lie a number of qasrs
and a fair-sized hamlet called Abu Tuyus; north of Hilwa at the
Sulamiya junction lies a large hamlet called Amairiya above
which in the same shaib are a number of qasrs with a few palms
and a good deal of corn cultivation,
Hilwa is unwalled and contains a flourishing Suq, its popula
tion, of close on 10,000, comprising miscellaneous elements of
Beni Khadhir and other stock, while the rest of the oasis is
occupied exclusively by Beni Tamim of the Husain and Marshad
sections, the former round the confluence and up the Faria
and the latter up the Majma in which are apparently three
other hamlets besides A1 Baraik. The Beni Tamim element,
which may amount to some 10,000 souls all told, originally
came from the town of Hauta io Sudair at a time when Hariq
was the only settlement in the Fara district, the new settlement
which has risen to its present pitch of prosperity entirely owing
to their labours, being long known as Hautat al Hariq.
The oasis of Hariq apparently lies some eight or nine miles
west of the western extremity of the Hauta oasis up the Majma
at the point where the latter comes into being by the confluence
of five or six small streams running down from the outer edge of
the Tuwaiq plateau. The oasis is some four or five miles in
length from west to east and is said to contain a central town
inhabited by 5,000 (probably an over estimate) persons, partly
belonging to the Hazazina section of Anaza and partly miscel
laneous Beni Khadhir, and two hamlets occupied respectively
by Hazazina and the Khathalin section of the Subai, the total
population of the oasis according to local reckoning being some
7,000 persons though this estimate should probably be reduced
to between 4,000 and 5,000.
These three oases enjoy a high reputation for their dates
and for the industry of the people in keeping their groves up to