'Political' [‎49v] (98/132)

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Bedouins. After a halt of two hours we started for Izz, a village in the direction of Adam and
about 5 miles from Manh, where we camped for the night.
On the following day, the 16th, leaving Izz at 7-80, we rode over a level but gently
descending plain, at a good pace, to Adam, which we reached at 1-30 , direction near y ue
south, a little east. At half an hour we passed the Wady Kalbuh, a fine stream of watej
which rises above Nezwa, and after running almost parallel to Wady Halfain, falls into the
Ghubbet Hashish. The plain we are crossing is quite uninhabited, and we met not a single
traveller on the road. There is plenty of game, however—houbara, partridge, and sandgrous e
rise up on all sides, while gazelles and hares start up occasionally from the dwarf mimosas and
bunches of desert grass about. As we approach Adam two low hills rise up in front, one on
each hand of the road. The one to our right is Jebel Sulakh and the other Jebel Mushmar 5
they are both perfectly arid, and appear to be about 800 or 1,000 feet in height. As one approaches
it the appearance of Adam with the dark lines of its extensive date groves is veiy icfieshing
to the eye after the glare and monotonous aspect of the plain we had traversed: it is a true
oasis in the desert. I was greeted very civilly here by all parties, and having been invited to
visit the town and forts I spent the whole afternoon in seeing what was to he seen. A
cousin of our leader Sayid Hamood took us first to the quarter of the Al-bu-Saidis, a walled
enclosure named the Jami, inhabited by about 150 families. Ihe chief object of inteiest luie
was the house in which the Imam Ahmad, the founder of the present dynasty, was born. He
was of low origin, being a camel driver like his father before him ; being a man of energy and
courage, however, he rose to be Jemadar of the garrison and then Wali of Sohar. He was
subsequently elected Imam by the people in gratitude for his expulsion of the Persians.
Taking leave of the Al-bu-Saidis at Jami I went over to the quarters of the town
occupied by their enemies, the Mohatik, which are five in number, and over which I was
shown successively by their Shaikh, Hamid-bin-Khamis, and by the Temimeh of the Jenebeh^
Saif-bin-Hamud. There are two other quarters occupied by the Shaibani and Beni Wail
tribes, making eight in all. As I visited one section after another, I was somewhat surprised
and amused at the intense curiosity exhibited by the Arabs here. They not only lined each
side of the road in great numbers as I walked through the date grove from one quarter to
another and blocked my path to stare at me, but after I had passed them would scamper round
another way to get in front again and so gain another gaze at the stranger. They were all
perfectly well behaved and did not attempt to offer the slightest rudeness, but 1 never saw
the like of their open-mouthed curiosity. There is a large fort here originally built by the
Imam Ahmad and repaired by the Imam Azzan in 1869, but it is hardly cared for and weakly
garrisoned, for in truth the Adamites are too distant from other tribes to be concerned in
the usual intestinal wars of Oman, and reserve their powder and lead for each other. The
population as near as I can guess numbers 1,500, composed of five tribes, the Moharik, Al-bu-
Saidis, Sheyabina, Majabera, and Beni Wail, of which the most important is the Moharik.
The elevation of Adam above the sea is 850 feet, being 500 feet lower than Manh and 1,300,
lower than Zikki, which is - 2,150. No other town of Oman lies nearly so far south as this
the outlying picket, as it were, towards the great sand desert which stretches away to the
Yeman and the Hejaz, and which is known here, as well as to all the Bedouins of Southern
Arabia, as the Roba-el-Khali. Looking towards the south and east, neither hill nor habit
ation meets the eye, the line of horizon is as unbroken as the sea; while northward in the
distance rises the grand pile of Jebel Akhdar which towers up to a height of 10,000 feet.
Most of the Bedouin tribes, which inhabit the border of the huge wilderness on the edge
of which we are standing, contribute contingents who roam over it with their camels, but
the number of these wanderers is necessarily very small, for the only water found is that
left in pools in the water-courses after rainfall and some springs of brackish vTater welling
up here and there. Animal life is not entirely absent,—the oryx, the wild ass, and two species
of gazelle are found everywhere, and the ostrich is met with in the northern and western
part of the desert: it does not approach Oman* The soil is said to be everywhere saltish
or nitrous.
17th .—I returned to Manh during the day and encamped here in one of the gardens
near the fort. Manh is rather a scattered town with a population of some 2,000 souls
of mixed tribes. ^ It has been well described by Wellsted, who cannot suppress a cry of admi
ration at the extent and luxuriance of the diversified cultivation around. He says :—
“ Minna differs from the other towns in having its cultivation in the open fields. As we crossed these, with lofty
almond, citron, and orange trees, yielding a delicious fragrance on either hand, exclamations of astonishment and
admiration hurst from us. Is this Arabia ? We said, this is the country we have looked on heretofore as a desert ?
Verdant fields of grain and sugar-cane stretching along for miles are before us; streams of water flowing in all
directions intersect our path, and the happy and contented appearance of the peasants agreeably helps to fill up the
smiling picture.” #