Page 153 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

I 14 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [CH.

fifty to one hundred, being generally mounted
on swift camels. No warning is of course

given of their approach ; and after a foray
they retreat with equal celerity. They often

possess themselves of the African slaves be­
longing to the town Arabs, which they bring

up in the same habits as themselves, and not
unfrequently marry their daughters to them.

Life is seldom taken in these affrays ; though
I saw a great number of people suffering from

sword and gun-shot wounds; the latter, it
occurs to me, are not unfrequently occasioned

by their own or their friends’ carelessness.
Every body on a journey carries a match

lighted, and no more care is taken of their
matchlock then, than when unloaded ; so that,

when these men clustered round upon our ap­
proach to any suspicious spot, I always thought

there was more reason to dread danger from
my friends than foes. At 4-25 we arrived at

Tulhat, where there are two small forts erected
on the pinnacles of a hill rising over the town.

The town itself is walled round ; the date
groves in its vicinity are very extensive, and a

noble stream of water passes through it.
Hitherto I have avoided sleeping in these