Page 385 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

346 TRAVELS IN OMAN. [CH.

a wooden bow], and produces notes by no

means unpleasing. The drum, an invention
of Arabia, is still used by the same class, an

earthen jar being very frequently substituted
for the belly of the instrument. It is often
used as a call to collect the troops together;

a long horn curved upwards is also applied
to the same purpose.

At Suwe ik, I witnessed the feast of the “ aid,”
instituted in commemoration of God staying

the hand of Abraham. It was less showy than
I have observed it to be in other parts of

Arabia; for the peculiar religion they profess
enjoins individuals of every class to abstain
from costly articles of dress. They have con­

sequently no expensive Cashmere shawls, as
at Shaer; nor do they paint their faces in

the same manner, or load their persons with
such a profusion of rings and silver orna­

ments. The men amused themselves with
horse and camel races, and with the same de­

scription of war-dance as I have described in
my account of the Beni-Abii-’Ali Arabs. They

also practised another, which I have never
seen elsewhere: two lines form at the dis­

tance of ten or fifteen yards, and approach