GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA, 177 



firing had entirely ceased women were to be seen 

 walking among the dead and dying, totally regard- 

 less of the danger that surrounded them : their ob- 

 ject was, according to custom, to drag off their 

 friends who had been killed or wounded ; and it 

 appeared that some of them were actually engaged 

 in the attack. Notwithstanding the loss of hus- 

 bands and children, they bore no outward signs 

 of grief; nor did they utter one lamentation, or 

 shed openly one tear of regret or apprehension, at 

 the very moment when their fortress was blown up, 

 and they believed themselves to be included in the 

 work of destruction."* Part of the prisoners were 

 delivered over to the Imam of Muscat, and part 

 carried to Daristan, on the island of Kishma, to 

 which the troops left at Ras el Khyma had been 

 transferred, on account of bad health and the scarcity 

 of provisions. 



On the opposite coast of the Gulf, from the mouths 

 of the Euphrates nearly to those of the Indus, nu- 

 merous Arab tribes have formed settlements, where 

 they live in a state of independence under their own 

 laws. They lead a seafaring life, employing them- 

 selves in fishing and gathering pearls. The Beni 

 Houl, a powerful and formidable clan, occupy the 

 barren tract from Gombroon to Cape Berdistan. 

 They are highly esteemed for their valour ; but their 

 mode of government renders that quality of little 

 avail. Bushire and Bendereek are chiefly inhabited 

 by different tribes, originally from Oman. Their 

 fondness for the sea contrasts remarkably with the 

 disposition of the Persians, of whom all classes have 

 an unconquerable antipathy to that element. 

 * Fraser's Journey to Khorasan. Appendix A. 



