1864. ] Geography. 467 
equally good specimen of official centralization, and is a remarkable 
instance of a complete despotism, both as regards religion and politics. 
The religious practices of the Wahabees or Wahabites, are very peculiar. 
With them the next most heinous sin that can be committed after 
polytheism, by which they mean any kind of idolatry, is what they 
term “drinking the shameful,” by which they designate smoking. 
Compared with this, murder, theft, false witness, &c., are venial sins ; 
but this is not to be expiated in this world. In consequence of neg- 
lect on this point, and in the matter of wearing silk dresses, the 
cholera was supposed to have invaded the province some six years ago, 
upon which the king thought it advisable to appoint a council of twenty- 
two members, the strictest and most religious men that could be 
found, to inquire into the religious observance and morals of the 
community, and to inflict such corporal punishment as they deemed 
fitting. 'The king’s own brother, and one of the principal ministers, 
a sort of First Lord of the Treasury, suffered this castigation,—the 
latter to such a violent degree that he died the next day. All the 
inhabitants of the town are obliged to attend prayers five times a day 
on pain of a beating. They attribute every action performed by 
“man, animal, or physical law, to no intermediate cause, but at once 
to the Deity himself. As an instance of this, Mr. Palgrave mentions 
that a boy who, by way of introduction exhibited some dexterity with 
a top, addressed them as follows :—* Not by my strength, nor by my 
cleverness, but by the strength of God, and by the cleverness of God.” 
In this remarkable country, previously unvisited except by the 
victorious arms of Ibrahim Pasha, were found the most celebrated of 
the celebrated breed of Nejed horses. The colour of these was mostly 
grey, a few were white or chesnut, still fewer black, and none bay. 
They were beautiful beyond compare, with clean legs, delicate 
muzzles, graceful haunches, well set-on tails, and very sloping 
shoulders. The king had 130 in his stables, which Mr. Palgrave, in 
his character of physician, visited on more than one occasion. These 
horses never find their way to Europe, as they are never sold or 
bartered. Leaving this neighbourhood with extreme difficulty, owing 
to a quarrel with the king, whom Mr. Palgrave refused to supply with 
strychnine for the but slightly disguised object of disposing of his 
own brother and some others of the great men of whom he was afraid, 
the party arrived at Khatif, on the Persian Gulf. The journey 
thence was undertaken by the companions separately to Oman, at the 
mouth of the Gulf, where they visited and were well treated by the 
sovereign. They finally reached civilization and rest at Bagdad, 
after fourteen months’ constant travelling. 
Two interesting papers on the sister colonies of Vancouver’s Island 
and British Columbia were contributed to the Society by Dr. C. 
Forbes, R.N., and Lieut. H. 8. Palmer, R.E. The outlines of the 
coast of these two colonies seem to be similar, and to resemble the 
north-western coasts of Europe. A rugged sea board westwards, in- 
dented with numerous fiords, backed by undulating ground further 
inland, gives to the island as different an aspect on the two shores as 
England itself presents. In the colony, the gentler slopes lead on 
