Page 378 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XX.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 339

Bedi’ah to demand some explanation of the

insult. They sat down at eight o’clock to
debate upon it, and several times the mes­

sengers rose, unsatisfied, to depart, in which

case hostilities must immediately have en­
sued. The elders of the party, however, in­

duced them again to seat themselves; and it
was not until sunset that the grave matter

was finally settled. A feast next day to
about twenty of the offended tribe effected a

perfect reconciliation.

A difference in the moral character of
those residing in towns on the sea-coast, and

such as occupy the inhabited parts of the
interior, is also quite as striking in Om&n as

in most other parts of the world. An open

profligacy of manners marks the lower classes
within the former, and the habits of some of

the higher orders are equally sensual and
degraded; but I would not be understood to

apply this generally, and the care taken to
prevent such irregularities from becoming

publicly known, is a sufficient proof that

they are not wholly indifferent to the state of
their moral character. As far as I could

learn, in commercial transactions with each

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