Page 106 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

VI.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 67

ral had managed to leap it, and were being-
ejected when we arrived. The Bedowins in

the Desert find it necessary for better se­
curity to keep their cattle near them, and, as

they are the last people in the world to aban­
don old customs, they do the same in the

towns when they reside there. Some months
ago, when the Assair tribe occupied Mocha,

they kept their sheep with them in the upper
apartments of the very lofty houses of that

town. The ladies received me seated on a
platform, raised about two feet from the

ground, and completely veiled from head to
foot, not a finger during the whole of the in-

terview was visible ; but, in order to compen­
sate, in some measure, for this disappoint­

ment, some very pretty Abyssinian females,
who were not veiled, remained in the room to

attend on them. They expressed themselves
highly delighted that an Englishman had, at

last, come among them, but spoke of Sayyid
S’aid with contempt, and did not conceal

their desire to throw off their present very
slight connexion with him.

“ It is the protection of the English we
want,” they observed, “and if your govern-

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