Page 324 - PERSIAN 3 1883_1890

28 ADMINISTRATION REPORT OP THE PERSIAN OULP POLITICAL

absence of Sayid Ibrahim-bin-Kais, who had gone to Hazam. Wo sat down atSayid Hamad’s
house to rest ourselves, and while there up came Sayid Sand, the second son of the late Imam
Azzan, a bright, intelligent youth of 18, his face beaming with smiles to find so strange a party
in his out-of-the-way, quiet old town. They were all surprised to see us here, as Sayid Hamad
said they imagined I was still on the other side of Jobel Akhdar. Sayid Saud lives with h»«
uncle Ibrahim in the fort, a dilapidated meditoval castle, said to bo of pre-Islamitic days and
very ancient. Rostak is the second largest town in Oman, Seinail being the first; there are IB
villages in fief to Rostak, and the population including there is 14,000, There is a good
bazar of eighty shops here. The upper part of the valley in which Rostak is situated is
called Wady Auf, the lower part is Wady Farah. Its elevation is 800 feet.
On the 30th we rode down past the towns of Mansur and Jemmeh to Burka, 45 mile*
and the next day rode in along the coast to Muscat.