T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 423

To Hogarth 16.12.1912 priced: it was rotten - an amulet possibly Syrian - and the ass X gave a mediCi for it. I bought a few poor things: Kenyon & your- self will not scramble for them: also I am sending such a mass of pottery chips: it took me two days to gather them. I must apolo- gize for their plainness - but so is the pottery. and the box of fine pieces, the select ones of last year, which I left with the X zeptiehs, is still (deleted) locked up: they put it in the store- room for safety and Smith attends with the key. is still locked up in Airlijk. It's rather good that the commissaire should be guard- ing my thefts in all innocence. I needn't talk here of the seals X & chips, since I will send a note sent a note with each. Truda & bottom of side: everything is in store still, and no talk of Constantinople. Tyuma sind wants rent for the store room; if not will I buy contents for half a lira, as he wants the space? ... I'll if I have half a chance. About halawi - I hope you remember the particularly sticky sweetmeat of which Thompson at Ayraji used to eat rounds last year. It has struck Haj Wahid as an excellent idea that he should send a mass of it as a present to Billy. He says he is just the age for it. I am encouraging him as far as possible, so some day you may find it arrived, and for weeks you will find tangles of it on the chairs and tables, and door-handles and flaxr floors and walls and lawns and books. Halawi is such affection- ate stuff, and yet so wholesome. Salaamat Aethir to you from Haj Wahid: he sends a seal, which .... shall be labelled. It's a family relic, and is not meant as a tip-crawler. He had no idea you spoke Arah. The village, which is admiring the writing of this letter, and interrupting vilely, also sends salaams in a body. It is looking forward very much to Cargill. I have found an incised inscription, short, at Yarmja; and a couple of fragments from Yunna. There is a new oath in the village - b'is-mait el xhowais - by ... the aid of myself: so I have thrust down the prophet from his place. I shall grow a beard. The diggings are not after the Yuauf Beg stone, so I will leave it till the summer. I hope while building the house that I may be able to wander about a bit and buy some seals and things. At present I am rather a ... crock: to the extent of being glad to have Haj Wahid with me. (note at top of page) This letter runneth like a river. Aleppo. Tuesday. Dec.19. I have got back, and have been trying to find out about the site. The Tyu... say they have a deed to it, and I'm sure Salem means ..troublemixnxty (business, deleted). It looks now as though Hassan ... and no right to any of it. There is a deed of sale of ... in Mr.Fontana's hands, and if this is in