Page 263 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

224 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [di.

Sehinas, to cross over to Bire'imah. I had
letters to the Wahhabi chief, and if I could
only reach him, I had little doubt but that I
might in safety continue on to the former

town.
Obri is one of the largest and most popu­
lous towns in Oman. Few of its inhabitants,

who are of the Yaknah tribe, engage in mer­
cantile pursuits of any kind, confining their
bartering to the mere necessaries of life, and
living on the produce of their date groves and

corn fields. Agricultural pursuits have in
other parts of the world a tendency to hu­
manize and soften the character of a people.

There they produce no such effects, and
where the husbandman endeavours, by an
assumed ferocity, to stifle or suppress any
softer feeling. I imagine they are urged to

this by a desire, when they mix with their
Bedowin neighbours, to make up by such
display, for the low estimation in which that

people not unfrequently regard all those who
follow occupations more peaceful than their
own.
Indigo, dates, and sugar are their exports,

and rice, spices, and white cotton cloth, sent