"نجد الجنوبية: رحلة إلى الخرج والأفلاج والسليل ووادي الدواسر في سنة ١٩١٨." [و‎‎١‎٧] (١٠٠/٣٨)

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concubines and a bodyguard of 2,000 warriors with 2,000 fiery
steeds and the like appanages of a great kingdom. But in all
his glory he forgot his God, who rose up and smote him in his
wrath with the west wind, the terrible Dubar, which raged un
ceasingly for eight days and buried Ad and his earthly paradise
and his fair kingdom with mountains of sand. The Aflaj felt
the effect of the terrible catastrophe and lay in ruins until
restored to its present state in recent times ; but to this day
the ruins of its old cities and canals and the great sand desert
far away beyond the Biyadh bear testimony to God's handiwork
of old.
Modern Afiaj owes comparatively little to the sources of
its ancient vitality. It is true that Saih, irrigated by what
remains of the old canals, is the finest oasis in the district, but it
is readily admitted by its people that the best parts of it owe
their density to industrious well cultivation and to the floods,
which sweep down from the hills twice or thrice each year.
Ghauta and Banna in spite of their perennial streams are but
small and miserable settlements and all the rest of the Aflaj
oases live by well irrigation eked out by the floods, which descend
from the hills at intervals during winter and spring in three
shallow, sandy channels, namely, Umm al Jurf (known as Ghail or
Ashaira in the hills) irrigating the northern part of the settled
tract and passing between Umm Shinadhir and Wusaila, Batin
al Hamar (Kiriz in the hills) irrigating Kharfa and Saih, and
finally an unimportant stream from the lower slopes of Tuwaiq
called Harm, with a branch called Khirr, which passes through
the Badia oasis to Banna.
The northern section of the settled area of the Aflaj district
consists largely of corn land disposed in scattered patches
centreing on the twin villages of Umm Shinadhir* and Wusaila.
These two villages inhabited exclusively by Dawasir of the
Al Hasan section are generally considered as one under the name
of Wusaila; indeed we were actually camped in Umm Shinadhir
when, in answer to my enquiries, a resident of the village declared
that there was no place of this name in the neighbourhood and
it was not till later that I was told that the name while loosely
applied to the whole group of qasrs comprising the village
strictly belongs to a particular well. Nevertheless, the two
''One hundred and fifty-eight miles from Riyadh by my route, perhaps 145 miles if
my circuitous tour in Kharj be contracted.