'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎239] (288/552)

MERBAT AND AL HAFA
239
in their best silk robes on Friday, they were the most
fantastic little fellows one could wish to see.
Wali Suleiman was, as I have said, an austere and
unlovable man, but he was the man for his position:
taciturn and of few words, but these always to the point.
Before he would permit us to go forth and penetrate into
the recesses of the Gara mountains, he summoned the heads
of all the different families into which the tribe is divided
to A1 Hafa, and gave us into their charge, we agreeing to pay
for their escort, their protection, and the use of their camels
a fixed sum per diem in Maria Theresa dollars, the only coin
recognised in the country.
Such palavering there was over this stupendous piece of
diplomacy ! Wali Suleiman and the Gara sheikhs sat for
hours in solemn conclave in a palm-thatched barn about
fifty yards distant from the castle, which takes the place of
a parliament house in the kingdom of Dhofar. The wali,
his nephew, and Arab councillors smoked their narghilehs
complacently, whilst the Gara Bedouin took whiffs at their
little pipes, which they cut out of soft limestone that
hardens in the air, and all drank endless cups of coffee
served by slaves in huge coffee-pots with long, bird-like
beaks, and we looked on at this conference, which was to
decide our fate, from our roof, with no small amount of
impatience.
Before starting for the mountains we wandered hither
and thither over the plain of Dhofar for some days, visiting
sites of ruins, and other places of interest, and greatly
admired the rich cultivation we saw around us, and the
capacity of this plain for producing cotton, indigo, tobacco,
and cereals. W^ater is on the surface in stagnant pools, or
easily obtainable everywhere by digging shallow wells which
are worked by camels, sometimes three together, and so well
trained, that at the end of the walk they turn by themselves