Page 308 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XVII.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 269

search proved unsuccessful. “ I will now,”

said he, “ since I cannot gather oysters, dive
for and catch fish.” All ridiculed the idea.

He went down again, and great was our asto­
nishment to see him, aftei’ a short time, rise
to the surface with a small rock-fish in either

hand. His own explanation of the feat was,
that as he seated himself at the bottom, the

fish came around and nibbled at his skin.
Watching an opportunity, he seized and se­

cured his prey by thrusting his thumb and
fore-finger into their expanded gills.
Tuesday, March28t/i. Intelligence of Sayyid

ibn Mutluk’s advance on Bedi’ah, the details
of which I have given in my account of that

district, reached me this morning, and com ­
pletely annihilated all hopes of being able,
through his means, of reaching Der’ayyah. At

the same time I also learnt that the Im&m
had despatched messengers who, not finding

us at Bireimah, as was expected, had gone on
to Obri.
As it therefore became necessary that I

should now forego all present intentions of
advancing further into the country, I deter­

mined to pass the few remaining days of the