SAYYID SAID. 



303 



superintending bastinadoes administered with 

 Persian apparatus, made the Banyans crouch in 

 their shops with veiled faces, and the Arabs 

 thank Allah that their women were not like 

 those of the A'ajam. In a short time the lady 

 made herself so disagreeable, that her husband 

 sent her back divorced to her own country. 



The Sayyid kept a company of 60 or 70 concu- 

 bines, and he always avoided those that bore him 

 children. Though a man of strong frame and 

 vigorous constitution, he exhausted his powers 

 by excesses in the harem, he suffered from 

 Sarcocele (sinistral) during later life, and an 

 alarming emaciation argued consumption. The 

 heat of Maskat, which he last visited when 

 hostilities between England and Persia were 

 reported, brought him to his grave. In October, 

 1856, he died at sea off the Seychelles Islands, on 

 board his own frigate, the 6 Victoria.' Aged 67, 

 the 6 Second Omar,' as his subjects were fond of 

 calling him before his face, seems to have had 

 a presentiment of death ; before embarking he 

 prepared, contrary to Arab custom, a £ Sanduk 

 el Mayyit,' or coffin, and when dying he gave 

 orders that his remains should be thrown over- 

 board. The corpse, however, was carried to Zan- 

 zibar and interred in the city. 



