494 REPORT — 1895. 



at both ends, which he uses with great skill both in war and in the 

 chase. 



The Gara live chiefly, as stated above, in the deep caves of their 

 limestone mountains, which provide accommodation for the family and 

 many head of cattle. They have a large number of milch cows and 

 goats, and make ghee in great quantities, which is exported from here. 

 All their implements are of the most primitive description. The churn 

 is a skin hung on three sticks which a woman shakes about until butter 

 is formed ; to make their cows give milk freely they stretch a calf's skin 

 on two sticks, and give this to the cow to lick. The calves and kids are 

 kept in the innermost recesses of the caves during the absence of the clams 

 at the pasturage. 



Camel breeding is also a great industry among the Gara Bedouins, and 

 the animals are remarkably fine and healthy ; they have but little use for 

 these camels, but they take them to great fairs and recognised rendez- 

 vous of the Bedouins of the interior, and sell them. The camels are curious 

 feedei-s, bone being greatly appreciated by them, also small dried fish and 

 sections of a cactus which grows in the mountains. Some of the richer 

 Bedouins own as many as seventy camels and 500 head of cattle ; they 

 ' are, however, devoid of luxury, seldom constructing any habitation for 

 themselves, and never using tents. In the wet season, when they come 

 down to the plain of Dhofar for the pasturage, they erect as shelter for 

 themselves round beehive huts of grass and reeds, but in the mountains 

 they never require more than their ancestral caves, which are cool in the 

 heat and dry in the rain, and the floors of which are springy and soft with 

 the deposits of many generations of cattle. 



The Bedouins of the Gara mountains have many interesting customs : 

 their greetings are very complicated and curious to watch. For an acquaint- 

 ance they merely rub the palms of the hands when they meet, and then 

 kiss the tips of their fingers ; for an intimate friend they join hands and 

 kis^ each other ; for a relative they join hands, then rub noses, and finally 

 kiss on either cheek. 



The Gara are great believers in the existence of Jinnis, or spirits, in 

 their mountains and streams. As we passed by a great rock one day they 

 all set to work to sing the words ' Alaik Soubera,' which we were told 

 was a request to the Jin to let us pass in safety. Again, at a lake we 

 visited in the mountains they aflirmed their belief in the existence of Jinnis, 

 stating that it is dangerous to wet your feet in the lake, or you will catch a 

 fever. The Jinnis inhabit the caves, the trees, and the streams ; and at 

 an annual festival and gathering of the various families into which the 

 Gara tribe is divided, the great ceremony is the propitiating of the Jinni 

 of the lake by a magician who sits on a rock, and performs his incantations 

 whilst the people dance around. 



They believe that the Jinnis when propitiated are very helpful to 

 mankind ; and inasmuch as they inhabit the lower heaven, thej'can overhear 

 the conversation of the angels, and if disposed communicate their valuable 

 secrets to man. This would seem to be almost the only ti-ace of religious 

 observance amongst the Gara Bedouin ; they may have others which we 

 were unable to ascertain, but one thing is certain, that though they may 

 conform to the dictates of Islamisra when visiting the Arab villages en 

 the coast, when up in the mountains they observe neither prayer nor ablu- 

 tion, nor any of the ceremonies inculcated by that creed. The Arabs 

 attribute to the Bedouins certain pagan rites, and they are probably cor- 



