Page 247 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

208 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [di.

ridge, we gained the territory of the Beni Kal-

ban, whose acknowledgment of the Imam’s
authority so delighted old Saaf, that on dis­
mounting at the hour of prayer, he expressed
his satisfaction by giving his camel more
than half his supply of dates. We continued

journeying for three hours along the valley,
which is called Wadi Kalban, the name of
its inhabitants, and passed large clustering­

patches of aloes, bearing a greater resem­
blance to those of India than to the Aloe So-
crotina.
At 5’50 we halted, in the neighbourhood of
Muskin, near some inclosures of wheat, which

were secured from the intrusions of cattle by
means of a rude fence constructed with the
thorny branches of the nebek. Muskin is a

small village, and appears to have derived its
name from its peculiar situation amidst the
hills. I was highly delighted to observe
within these groves the whole process of

vegetation exhibited in various stages of ad­
vancement, by each particular species of tree.
The date-palms were shedding the last year’s

leaves ; the mango, the plantain, the nebek,
and the fig had renewed their foliage; the