'ARBITRATION CONCERNING BURAIMI AND THE COMMON FRONTIER BETWEEN ABU DHABI AND SA'ŪDI ARABIA' [With maps] [‎139v] (283/541)

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through the town and environs, and was surprised at the prosperity and
populousness of The place. Nearly all the ^^^^whoyery tSaya'
re 'Tti, en Bmi e Hina h h whoTare belSod“c°ed h exWnsively by Shaikh Hilal since
and the Bern Hinah, who have_been inirou _ Afa in which stands thg fort
he assumed power here. Sifala has six haras, viz ^ Khorasin - wall d
and which has a fine gate to its enclosure, Saal, unwaliea i^no , wauea
and contiguous to “ Akr.” “ Khorasin,” “ Haret-el-wady, and another The two
w,ri?^“ g Ralh„h” and “ Abvad ” divide the town and join near the fort by the
market Abyad has a mme abundant supply of water than Kalbuh and
consequent^suppli^more felejes. The fort consists of two parts, the ‘ Kila ’ and
the ?f Hisn.” The latter is a quadrangular enclosure, at one corner of which stands
the Kila, a huge circular tower 80 feet high, and considered by the Arabs o be by
far the strongest fort in Oman, I did not enter it, but Wells ted says that three-
fourths of the height, which he gives at 150 feet, are filled up solid with earth and
stones, and that the narrow passage inside, leading up from the doorway and
forming the only entrance, has seven iron doors to it. Leaving Nezwa at 4 30 I
marched to Tanuf, a distance of 8 miles, the same evening, having promise S ai kh
Suliman bin Saif bin Suliman-el-Riyami, who had intercepted me on the road the
day before, to spend a night in his town. It is a compact and substantial-looking
place, fortified with a wall, on which are mounted two guns, and there is a large
date grove in the ravine at the bank. This ravine is the Wady Hym, and up it
lies the road from Nezwa to Rostak known as the “ Tareek-el-Shas.”
22nd. Having procured fresh baggage camels we rode to-day m the direction
of the Akbat-el-Barak, by which we intended to cross over to Dhahireh. Our
road led over a stony plain crossed by numerous water-courses and very banen.
We passed several villages,—Homreh, Ghumriyer, and Belad Sait, &c., the
inhabitants of which were in a very excited state and usually fired at us on our
approach, but they quieted down very easily always when Shaikh Nasir Kelbani
had explained who we were. The cause of the panic was that a troop ot Jenebeh
had ridden by in the night; we could see the footprints of their camels; and as
they are at feud with the Beni Hinah, who occupy these villages and are the
predominant tribe in these parts, it was expected that the Jenebeh were on the
war-path, and that their object was to raid the district. We heard to-day also
that a band of seventy mounted marauders, coming from Dhahireh to raid the
outskirts of Manh, had crossed the Nejd-el Makharim and camped near
Yabrin the day we had left it, and our party congratulated themselves that we had
not gone by that road. We now enter the Wady Ghol, which unites with the Wady
Shams lower down to form the Wady Bahilah, and ascend its broad bed, here
tolerably well wooded and inhabited by shepherds, for two hours, until we reach a
hamlet called Mithar, near which we halt and bivouac for the night at an elevation
of 2,600 feet.
23rd.—The crossing of the pass to-day took us nine hours, and the camels were
rather tired when we reached our destination in the Wady Ain at 4 P.M. Con
tinuing to ascend the Wady Ghol, which becomes gradually rougher and steeper, we
reach the summit about 11 A.M., and find that the barometer indicates 3,700 feet.
From this point we look down a small valley running south, called the Wady
Seifam, and then commence to descend the other side of the Akbat-el-Barak, the
Jebel-el-Kor here towering 3,000 feet above us. After crossing a small stretch of
level ground, the road falls into the Wady Ein, a large and seemingly important
valley, with a running stream trending westwards. At 2 P.M. we arrive at Hail, a
village of the Beni Hinah, under a jagged, square, perpendicular cliff called Jebel
Misfit, or Mount Comb. Our approach threw the villagers at El Bin into some
trepidation, and they fired a volley at us, one of our camels having his leg grazed
by a bullet. They afterwards apologised and explained that they were not
accustomed to see so large a party enter their valley. It appears to be the fashion
at the larger towns for the soldiers to salute distinguished strangers with blank
cartridge; at the smaller and more defenceless places, they sometimes salute you
with bullets, but the Arabs are so skilful at missing with their quaint matchlocks,
that there is very rarely any harm done. The people here gave me the names of
several hamlets existing in the ravines and valleys formed by the spurs of Jebel-el-
Kor, viz.,— 44 Shedait,” 44 Nadan,” 44 Sint,” 44 Sunt,” &c.
Early the next morning we continued our journey down the Wady Bin for
some way, and then turned off to the right to Bat, a village of the Beni Kelban,
with two towers and four hundred inhabitants, where we halted for an hour:
distance about 12 miles. We then proceeded on to Wahaireh, at which place the