Page 129 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

<90 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [cH.

knew of no other,” said Hamed, “ nearer

than three days, but, being then too weak

to proceed further, we quietly laid our­
selves down to die. I recollect nothing after

that night, until I found myself lashed on a
camel, and my father alongside of me driving

it. From him I learnt that we were disco­
vered on the following morning by another

party of our own tribe, who had just filled
their skins at a well not half a mile from us,

and that we were now on our way with them
to our own hamlet.”

At seven hours we left our encampment,
and resumed our journey along Wadi BethA,

which still continues shallow, exhibiting on
its surface a few dwarfish bushes. At ten

hours we passed a halting place called

Roocsat, where there is water, and from
thence crossed over a plain and desert coun­
try, the face of which is furrowed by nume-

able appearance is also imparted to the water from grease, with
which the Arabs lubricate the inner side to prevent it from oozing
through. How immutable are Eastern customs! These arc the
bottles so frequently alluded to in the Scriptural narrative; and in
the Antiquities of Herculaneum, vol. vii. p. 197, will be seen the
representation of a female pouring wine into a vessel from a skin
precisely similar to what 1 have here described.