1877.] Sohdr and el-Bereyml in 'Oman. 43 
Wahhabis. After another hour and a half we pass Wadi Wasit, up which 
lies a town of that name. Sheikh Rashid was very anxious I should visit 
this place, as the Sheikh Suleiman-bin-Sa’id el-Shamisi was a great friend 
of his and a man of some importance. It lay, however, too much out of the 
road, and time was of consequence. The next place we reached was el- 
Khoweyrej, a village of the same clan as Wasit, the Showamis, 
a sub-division of the Na’im, and having the protection of a fortlet 
and two towers. The cultivation here was extensive and very refreshing to 
the eye in contrast to the drear and arid rocks around. The fields were neatly 
arranged in terraces on the right bank, advantage being taken ingeniously 
of every availabble spot of ground capable of production. They were well 
kept and evidently received much attention, irrigation being carried on by 
means of channels leading from the copious stream above. Contiguous to 
this is Hail, another large village, the two forming the most considerable 
settlement I met with between Bereymi and Sohar. Hail has several 
towers, and on the opposite bank is el-Rabi, (ltLt 0 a pinnacle rock about 200 
feet high, on which is perched a tower surrounded by a low wall now crum¬ 
bling away. The work is ascribed to the Persians, and the position is well 
chosen for the purpose for which it is said to have been constructed, namely, 
to serve as an outpost to protect the maritime plain from the inroads of 
the Bedouins. This outpost not improbably marks the limit of the grasp 
of the Persians in the age immediately preceding the introduction of Islam, 
when they are related to have held the sea-coast of ’Oman, the Arabs main¬ 
taining themselves in the highlands and interior. Two petty clans of the 
Na’im, the Rashidat and Hadidat occupy Hail, and are at enmity with 
their neighbours the Showamis of Khoweyrej and Wasit. As may readily 
be imagined, quarrels among such very close neighbours are very bitter, and 
they are said to ripen every four or five years into a free fight, which is not 
terminated without bloodshed. In such cases the people of Hail have the 
advantage of being able to cut off the water-supply of those below by dam¬ 
ming up the stream, which is a very effective punishment, and is generally 
instrumental in bringing hostilities to a speedy termination. At Hail the 
Wadi Jezze is joined by its confluent, Wadi el-’Abeyleh, up which 
the road now leads. The course of Wadi Jezze above the junction is short, 
and lies W. S. W. towards Kabil and Seneyneh (<xlx.Lo). A few miles up 
it is a steep pass, marking, as my Sheikh informed me, the boundary of el- 
Dhahireh. We rested a little while at Hail, and then continued our route, 
soon reaching more open and level ground with woody ravines and scat¬ 
tered herbage. The highest point of this pass is called el-Nejd, where the 
aneroids showed an elevation of 1,860 feet, the peaks of the range on each 
side rising above us 1,000 feet or more. On descending the other side, we 
reached after an hour the Wadi ’Ain, which runs like all other water- 
