GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 165 



annual rent,, usually payable in produce. Slaves are 

 here, as in all other parts of Arabia, employed in 

 agricultural labour ; but they are treated with uni- 

 form kindness and indulgence. Oman is by no means 

 celebrated for its manufactures. Turbans and waist- 

 bands, or girdles of cotton and silk, striped or checked 

 with blue ; cloaks, cotton, canvass, gunpowder, and 

 arms of inferior quality ; earthen jars, called murtu- 

 ban, for the Zanguebar market, comprise almost all 

 their fabrics. They also prepare an esteemed sweet- 

 meat, named hulwah, from honey or sugar, with 

 the gluten of wheat, and ghee, and a few almonds. 



The price of live stock at Muscat is extreme- 

 ly various. Camels, according to their blood and 

 quality, will bring from thirty to three hundred 

 dollars a-piece ; goats from four to six ; sheep from 

 one and a half to six ; mules are not reared, nei- 

 ther are horses abundant ; but the asses of Oman 

 are celebrated as the finest in Arabia. The price 

 of the common kind varies from one to forty dollars; 

 but the best breeds sell for very extravagant sums. 



The present imam is considered the richest and 

 most powerful sovereign on the Persian Gulf. Such 

 of the British officers and merchants as have visited 

 that port, represent him as a man of amiable dispo- 

 sitions, and possessed of superior talents and informa- 

 tion ; being much superior to the Arab chiefs in ge- 

 neral, and adored by his subjects. He administers 

 justice daily in person, sitting under a portico in 

 the vicinity of his palace ; and his decisions in ge- 

 neral are received without a murmur. Mr Fraser 

 describes his countenance as of mild and pleasing 

 features, his complexion of a light yellow, his 

 eyes dark and expressive, though rendered almost 



