Page 230 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XII.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 191

thing could have afforded him more satisfac­
tion than this mark of our notice, and he was,

partly from this, and partly from his own
natural hospitality, most attentive to me dur­

ing my stay.
Seyyid Hilal, a cousin of Seyyid S’aid’s, is
about thirty-five years of age, and in point of

character, he stands of all the chiefs of Omfm

next to that prince: his figure is tall and
commanding; he excels in all warlike exer­
cises; is passionately attached to hunting and

other field sports; and though somewhat

spare in figure, is considered, in addition to
his extraordinary agility, the strongest man
of his nation : he is generous to profusion.

I have heard the Arabs in Maskat relate that
when upon a visit to the Imam, he has re­

ceived from him a present of eight hundred
or a thousand dollars; in the course of a

couple of hours afterwards, he has bestowed
the whole of it in presents to his followers.

When the surveying vessels visited this
coast in 1828, a large portion of the sur­
rounding country, including the extensive

groves of Kothra, and many towns on the

sea-coast, were tributary to this chief; but