SAYYID SAID. 



309 



Azza bint Musa, of the Bii Khariban, a grand- 

 daughter of the Imam Ahmad, and consequently 

 a cousin. She is now (1857) in years, but her 

 ancient lineage and her noble manners retain 

 for her the public respect. She had but one 

 child, which died young : all the male issue of 

 the Prince are by slave-girls, a degradation in 

 the eyes of free-born Omani Arabs. As usual 

 amongst the wealthy and noble of the poly- 

 gamous East, the daughters are the more nu- 

 merous, 1 and many are old maids, the pride of 

 birth not allowing them, like the Sherifehs of 

 the Hejaz, to wed with any but equals. The 

 eldest of the fourteen sons, Sayyid Hilal, who, 

 in 1845, had visited England, it is said, after 

 an escapade, died at Aden en route to Meccah 

 in 1851. He was followed, after an interval of 

 a few months, by his next brother, Sayyid Kha- 

 lid, called the Banyan. The eldest surviving 



1 In the Journal of Anthropology (No. ii. Oct. 1870, Art. 

 ix.), James Campbell, Surgeon, E.N., produces a paper upon 

 'Polygamy; its influence on Sex and Population,' showing, 

 by 17 cases drawn from Siam, exceptions to the common 

 theory that in the patriarchal family more female than male 

 children are born. But the evidence is too superficial to 

 shake the belief of men who have passed their lives in poly- 

 gamous countries; moreover, in the families cited the male- 

 producing powers may either have been unusual, or they may 

 have been peculiarly stimulated. 



