1926
Severe bouts with malaria hampered my own work considerably. Instead of trying to collect the crumbling wild wheat and wild barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum) under difficult circumstances, it was necessary to rest in bed for several hours a day. The warlike state of affairs in Khoran made it necessary to hasten the investigation and to head for where I could obtain medical assistance under emergency conditions. To my surprise, a French officer declared that since it was necessary for me to penetrate deeper into the area, there were no major objections to it. I had only to tie a white handkerchief to a stake as sign of peaceful intentions and I could go where I wanted, since meeting with the Druse [1] was dangerous only for the French but not for Russians or, even better, Bolsheviks.
Taking advantage of this exceptional advice, I proceeded, together with the teacher from the American University, into the mountains, to a Druse village. There we actually had a most cordial reception, obtained exhaustive information, went around on horseback over a considerable area of fields and peacefully, in the company of a Druse guide, rerurned to the railway station, where we took a train to Damascus.
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