"بلاد فارس والشأن الفارسي بقلم جورج ناثانييل كرزون، عضو البرلمان." [‎٤‎٤‎٥] (٧٤٨/٥٣٦)

THE PERSIAN GULF
445
nothing whatever to do—none of them having the slightest
intention of fighting if it could possibly be avoided—obeyed the
summons with equal alacrity. In this way a force of from 1,500 to
2,000 men was collected behind the walls of Muscat. Abdul Aziz
was rumoured to be in the immediate vicinity, though with a small
body of men, the tribes in general having declined to rally to his
invitation, and another and more formidable insurgent named
Ibrahim bin Kais, with whom the Sultan had lately been at war^
having refused to throw in his lot with the Old Pretender. A
detachment of Arabs was sent out from the city to effect a reconnais
sance of the invading force, while the huts outside the wall were
hastily evacuated by the humble population, who took refuge with
their belongiugs inside. Night fell; when the cry was raised
that the enemy was advancing, a movement being visible in the
quarter of the deserted huts. In a moment the city walls and
bastions, the forts, and mountain towers broke into a roaring line
of fire. An A.rab is seldom so happy as when letting off his gun,
particularly if it be in the dark; and accordingly from every rock
and parapet the bullets whistled into the night. The enemy, how
ever, declined to advance ; and, after three-quarters of an hour's
vigorous firing, it was apparent that the assault had been triumph
antly repelled. The next morning, when the field of action was
searched for the slain, it transpired that the enemy had never
moved from his encampment several miles away; but that the-
reconnoitring force, sent out from the town, preferring a certain
spoil to a precarious brush with the foe, had turned back to the •
huts so recently abandoned by their own partisans, and had
commenced to loot them of whatever contents had been left
behind. The list of killed and wounded in this heroic defence of
Muscat was said to have consisted of one old woman and a dog.
After this I was scarcely surprised to read in an old volume of
reports that there is a familiar Arab proverb, 4 As big a coward
as a Muscati.' The fact was that in this intestine warfare no one
meant business. Either side was ' bluffing,' and wanted to see how
far it could impose upon the other. Both parties belonged to the
same people, many of them to the same tribe; an uncle was the
principal on one side, a nephew on the other: and similar relation
ships were reproduced in their respective forces. No doubt, if the
town were left unguarded, Abdul Aziz, or some other pretender,
would be only too ready to slip in and dictate his own terms to the