Page 349 - PERSIAN GULF ADMINISTRATION REPORTS V1

TKAR 187C-77. 101
AND Ml'SCAT POLITICAL AGENCY FOR TIIK

year on
way back from Mecca.
S'ini(<i(i‘>n.—Considering- the general character of the people, their
ignorance of some of the simplest and most essential hygienic laws, and
their «neat aversion to innovations of any kind, it is not to be wondered
at that there exists no public system of sanitation in Muscat or the neigh­
bouring towns and hamlets. Notwithstanding this, most of the largo
stn-ots'gencrally present a respectable appearance, are clean and free from
any offensive odour, which is to be attributed eutircly to the practice which
ol/tains amongst the Arabs principally, both inside and outside the town,
of cleaning the portions of the streets in the immediate neighbourhood of
their houses. The licloochecs, on the contrary, would 6ecm to take a
delight in raising mounds of dirt and filth of all kinds in the imme­
diate vicinity of their habitations, and as all their little hamlets are
built within an easy reach of large and open graveyards, for which
they seem to have a particular liking, the air around and inside
their lints is extremely vitiated, and the stench almost unbearable,
csjiecially in close weather. The conservaucy outside the town is of the
most primitive nature, but owing to the great heat of the sun and its
power of rapidly drying up the excreta, it does not seem to affect tho
health of the people in any particular way. Inside the town tho
system of cess-pits exists, the stink from which, when the air is stag­
nant, is offensive and injurious. They arc occasionally opened up for
the purpose of cleaning and disinfectants, such as common salt and lime,
pul in. In some houses a large quantity of ashes and salt are thrown
into the pits every or every other morning. This large accumulation
of decomposing cxcrcmcntalious matter in the subsoil would lead oue
to supjKjse that it would ho a fertile source of disease inside the town,
hut that such is not the ease is due in a great measure to the wells,
which supply the drinking water, being situated outside the town, and
also to the fact of tho ground-floor rooms of most of the houses in the
t'»wn being generally uninhabited. In Muttrah this cess-pit system does
n«»t exist; conservancy there is either of the primitive nature’mentioned
before, or the close proximity of the sea renders the immediate removal
of excreta more practicable.
Population.—Owing to the maritime position and importance of
Muscat, and its being the modern capital of the province ot Oman, its
Imputation presents great variety and fluctuation. Politically and com­
mercially speaking, Muscat may be supposed to include tbe lnrre town of
Muttrah, with its spacious harbour and the villages and hamlets in ita
neighbourhood, and the small towns of Kalbu, Itiam and Sadab. There
are no means of determining tho exact population, but it may be roughly
guessed to be about 40,000. This number may be considered to be the
nxctl population, but there is a constant fluctuation which is principally
observed amongst Bedouin-Arabs and Indian and other pilgrims.
II... ?/■ U‘U fixC<1 P°H?tion. V largest portion is composed of
' mean races, and the mixed race of Africans and Arabs, the former