NOTES ON OMAN 



93 



fort, we completed the distance of ninety- 

 odd miles in a little over four days. A 

 large part of the way we took was desert, 

 with no villages or even nomad booths ; 

 the more usual route by Wady Horn be- 

 ing a little unsafe, we followed Wady 

 Hitta. 



"On the second day we passed villages 

 and cultivated fields ; that night we slept 

 in the bed of the wady, surrounded by 

 thousands of sheep and goats, driven in 

 by Bedouin lasses from their mountain 

 pastures. Even among these shepherds 

 we found readers, and the colporteur 

 sold books wherever the camels halted 

 long enough to strike a bargain. It was 

 late on Wednesday, May 23, that we 

 entered the narrow pass of Hitta. Our 

 guides preceded, mounted, but with rifles 

 loaded and cocked ; then followed the 

 baggage camel, to which mine was 

 'towed,' and in similar fashion my com- 

 panion on the milch camel, followed by 

 its two colts. 



"We were not troubled with the heat 

 at night, but during the day it was in- 

 tense, and it was refreshing to come to 

 an oasis (common in this part of Oman), 

 where water burst from a big spring and 

 trees and flowers grew in luxury. In the 

 mountainous parts of Oman the roads 

 run almost invariably along the wady 

 beds ; sometimes these are sandy water- 

 courses ; again deep, rocky ravines or 

 broad, fertile valleys. Vegetation gen- 

 erally is tolerably abundant. Tamarisks, 

 oleanders, euphorbias, and acacias are 

 the most common trees and shrubs. 



"Where the country appears arid and 

 sterile we were surprised to find a con- 

 siderable population of shepherds and 

 goatherds. Their dwellings are mere 

 oval shanties constructed of boulders or 

 rocks, and they subsist on their flocks. 

 In the fertile valleys the population al- 

 ways centers in villages, and scarcely 

 ever is a dwelling found at any distance 

 from this common center. Here often 

 are the fresh-water wells with the watch- 

 tower to protect them. 



"Just at the top of the pass of Hitta is 

 the village 'Ajeeb, rightly named 'won- 

 derful.' The view down the mountains 



NATIVE OF THE: HILL COUNTRY OF OMAN 



over the fertile stretch of coast called El 

 Batna and out over the boundless Indian 

 Ocean was grand. We descended to the 

 sea, and the turbulent mountain stream, 

 so cold to our bare feet as we waded it 

 in the early dawn, dwindled to a brook, 

 and at last ebbed away along the beach, 

 a tiny stream of fresh water. These 

 perennial streams are the secret of the 

 fertile coast all the way from Wady 

 Horn to Birka." 



The whole country through which we 

 passed, as well as the region north of 

 Muscat, is capable of development if 

 only there was a good government and 

 intertribal warfare could be prevented. 

 The Batna coast is the exception to all 

 the maritime plains that surround so 

 large a part of the Arabian Peninsula. 

 In western and eastern Arabia these 



