He got down off his horse to look.

'Nay, many pieces.

This, by Allah, is no other than a battlefield unknown to fame.' 'How can a battle take place without public knowledge ?' I inquired, incredulous.
'The thing may happen when two factions quarrel for unlawful cause--it may be over stolen gains, or for some deadly wrong which cannot be avowed without dishonour--and when each side exterminates the other.' 'How can that happen ?' I exclaimed again.
Rashid could not at once reply, because in our avoidance of those human relics we found ourselves on broken ground and among trunks of trees, which called for the address of all our wits.

But when the horses once more plodded steadily, he assured me that the thing could happen, and had happened often in that country, where men's blood is hot.

He told me how a band of brigands once, in Anti-Lebanon, had fought over their spoils till the majority on both sides had been slain, and the survivors were so badly wounded that they could not move, but lay and died upon the battlefield; and how the people of two villages, both men and women, being mad with envy, had held a battle with the same result.