Page 154 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

VIII.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 115

groves, but here we were compelled to do so,
and the consequence was what I anticipated,

two of my servants being next day attacked
with severe fever. Fahrenheit’s thermome­

ter 58°.
Monday, 21^. We started at ten, and at

twelve, crossing a desert country, passed a

town at the base of the Green Mountains,
called Birket el Moge, bearing north, and dis­
tant about eight miles. At 12 30, we arrived

at Mayul, on the south side of which there

are two round forts; and at 130 we entered
the precincts of the town of Min nA.
Minn A differs from the other towns in hav­

ing its cultivation in the open fields. As we
crossed these, with lofty almond, citron, and

orange-trees, yielding a delicious fragrance on
either hand, exclamations of astonishment and

admiration burst from us. “ Is this Arabia,”
we said; “ this the country we have looked on

heretofore as a desert?” Verdant fields of
grain and sugar-cane stretching along for

miles are before us ; streams of water flowing
in all directions, intersect our path; and the

happy and contented appearance of the pea­
sants, agreeably helps to fill up the smiling

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