'Selections from the Records of the Bombay Government' [‎14] (49/733)

14
PIRATE PORTS.
T ribe S hihiyyin.
From this cape to the first pirate port at Ramsej on a line of coast of
little more than fifteen leagues in extent, lie, at small distances from
each other, five towns belonging to the Tribe Shihiyyin, who also
possess Amsandam to the eastward of the cape. These towns are
named Dar Sinni, Khasab, Jadi, Jnlfar, and Boka. From Amsandam
to Dar Sinni is three Furseekhs to the south ; thence to Khasab four ;
thence to Jadi two ; and lastly to Boka four. Of these Khasab is now
the largest; and Julfar, at which the Portuguese once entertained an
establishment, protected by a fort, for the purpose of pearl fishing, is the
next in size. They are occupied by the stationary and more civilized
part of the tribe, who are employed in pearl fishing, in trade, and in
agriculture. Their food consists of dates, wheat, barley, meat, and fish,
in abundance. The remainder of the tribe is employed in gaining a
precarious livelihood, by fishing in the small bays on the coast, or in
the islands at the head of the cape, or else, in the character of pastoral
Arabs, wandering over the arid and barren rocks of the interior portion
of this country, which afford a scanty supply of burnt vegetation for
their flocks. These people live on milk and cheese, and dates also,
and some little fish, which they procure from their lowland clansmen
on the coast, in exchange for the produce of their flocks, which are
numerous. The male adults of this tribe are said to amount to fourteen
thousand; are the constant and persevering enemies of the Joasim,
friendly to Muskat, and easily conciliated. Their pearl fishery is
worth 3,000 Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. yearly, and they have a fleet of two hundred
and fifty small boats.
PIRATE PORTS.
R amse, &c.
Hence we enter on the Pirate Ports at Ramse, southward of Mussel-
dom, in lat. 25° 33 / N., at two days' journey from Khasab. The town
is composed of four hundred houses, under the government of Shaikh
Abdurrahman bin Saleh, of the Tribe Tannay ; and hence to Mahhara,
a small village of a hundred houses, under Hussan bin Ali Tannaiye, is
four Furseekhs. Two miles off shore is here found a depth of four and
a half fathoms ; the anchorage is in four and a half fathoms, sand, with
Ramse town SE.byE. three miles, and Ras-ool -Khyma six miles
distant.
Now the chain of rocky mountains, which formed the promontory of