Page 384 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XXI.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 345

to obtain portentous information by means of
certain mystical characters which appear

after partial calcination. Certain days in the
month are set apart as unlucky, and on these

they will neither fight, land soldiers, or put
to sea. They have also recourse, for the de­
tection of theft, to the assistance of con­

jurors, who follow the same plans as those of
India. Both sexes are remarkably fond of

swinging, and sometimes pass hours in this
exercise; they seat themselves on a stick
attached to a single rope, which is usually

fastened to the branch of a tree. It is
singular that the Arabians, who, notwith­

standing the prohibition in the Koran, have
always been considered a musical nation, and

in whose language many treatises on har­
mony have been written, should possess no

musical instruments of their own, and that
even keeping them in their houses should
be considered disgraceful. They however

neither object nor refuse to listen to slaves
playing on such as they use, which are

brought from Africa; the principal one being
a rude guitar possessing six strings, which

pass across a piece of parchment, spread over