1839.] Account of a Journey to Beylah. 187 



had strayed some distance into the jungle, and the drivers being" un- 

 willing to go after them in the cold, became sulky and intractable when 

 ordered to do so. This brought on a quarrel between them and one of 

 the chiefs who attended us, which did not terminate until he drew his 

 sword, and threatened to slay them on the spot if they did not imme- 

 diately bring them in ; frightened at his meances, they departed in 

 haste to look for their beasts, but so much time elapsed before they 

 could be found, that we were not ready to start until near noon. 



Having proceeded four or five miles across a level plain, thickly 

 covered with low salt bushes, we came again upon the river, which at 

 this place is joined by the Rah to, a stream of some magnitude, flowing 

 from the mountains to the eastward ; at the point of junction the bed of 

 the Poorally is nearly a mile wide, and when full must form a fine 

 sheet of water. The greater part of it is overrun with jungle, and the 

 water meanders through it in two streams, about fifteen yards wide 

 and as many inches deep. The soil is covered in many places with 

 a thin saline incrustation, which from the taste appears to be natron. 

 Two alligators were lying asleep on the bank a short distance from the 

 place where we crossed. 



On the opposite side of the river we met a fine-looking young man, 

 mounted on a camel and attended by a few soldiers, who civilly stop- 

 ped to salute us. He was a son of Arab Oosmanany, the chief of the 

 Arab Gudoor tribe, and when he had been told that we did not under- 

 stand the language, endeavoured to find out from the interpreter 

 the object of my visit to Lus. 



Late in the afternoon we reached Oot, two small villages about five 

 miles from Beylah. During this day's journey the road gradually inclin- 

 ed toward the western range of mountains, and we had passed through 

 a level country, alternately overrun with saline bushes or thick jungle. 

 We were now not far from the head of the valley, which is encircled 

 by high mountains, and numerous thin columns of sand were visible 

 in every direction, caused by the eddying currents of wind sweeping 

 out of their recesses. They moved over the plain with great rapidity, 

 and whenever one came near us, I could hear the chief who guided 

 my camel mutter to himself, " Pass away from the road good demon, 

 and do us no harm ; I am only going to Beylah with the English gen- 

 tlemen who have brought presents for the Jam." Amused with this 

 odd request, I asked him the meaning of it, when he told me with 

 great gravity that we were now in the territory belonging to the an- 

 cient city Shuhr Roghun, once the favorite residence of the fairy Bad- 

 dul Jamaut, and that these columns were demons who had since taken 

 possession of it, to whom it was necessary to speak sweetly to prevent 

 them from playing us any tricks. 



