'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From January 1863 to December 1864. (Edited by the Secretary.) Volume XVII.' [‎120] (287/524)

120 ^
RECENT TOUR ROUND THE NORTHERN
from India are brought here in large bugalows and distributed amongst
smaller ones for conveyance to those smaller ports.
Teal- is imported and used for ship building, and a large number of
horses'the best exported from Arabia, are sent from here to Bombay.
The Bedouins assemble daily in a space outside the gate, and with
them there is a good sprinkling of the Slubba. The Arabs come
generally mounted on camels, bringing ghee and truffles, with donkeys
bearing brush.wood and camel’s dung. Sometimes, when hard up, the
* ! 'n horse for sale, but good ones are seldom sot
in that way.
The Slubba are a strange people, living on the flesh of the gazelle,
which they shoot, and dressing themselves m its skin.
They wander about amongst, and are friends with, all the Arab
tribes, and yet remain entirely distinct. What theii ieligion is I can
not tell. They adopt some of the forms of the Mahomedan faith, but
at feasts and marriages they raise the cross as a sign of rejoicing.
They are the best guides for the desert, knowing where water is to be
found and the position of the various tribes.
Those of them I saw seemed much more intelligent than the Arabs,
and they have more of a European than an Asiatic cast of countenance.
They come mounted on large white donkeys, bearing much the same
things as the Bedouins for sale.
The saddle is peculiar. There is first a pad in front, and behind an
upright piece of wood. To those two pieces of wood hollowed out are
attached side by side so as to form a hollow seat. They sit in this
hollow seat, cross their legs like tailors with the anterior upright
between their thighs, and their feet on either side of the donkey s neck.
They use no bridle.
The inhabitants of the desert are allowed to enter Koweit on deposit
ing their arms at the gate ; and it has been the custom from the time
of the present Sheik’s grandfather, to feed not only all who entei, but
— the poor of the place besides.
This is a very healthy town ; there is little or no ophthalmia at any
time, and very little intermittent fever. There has been no small-p ox
*or long. The chief diseases seem to he syphilis and gonorrhoea brought
from Bombay, and the consequent secondary syphilis and stnctuie.