Page 60 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

II.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 21

cattle. When the animals fall sick, the
Banian pays them the utmost attention, and,

should they exhibit no symptoms of recovery,

they are, as in the towns on many other parts
of the coast, sent off to India. The habits of
this class are, however, too well known to

need any further mention here.

In Maskat the Banians constitute a body
of the principal merchants, who almost ex­

clusively monopolise the pearl trade from the
Persian Gulf, amounting, it is calculated, to

fifteen lacs of dollars annually. They enter as
largely into the supply of grain from India,

and have also most extensive dealings in
Indian cloths and piece-goods.

There are a few Jews in Maskat, who
mostly arrived there in 1828, being driven

from Baghdad, as we have before stated, by

the cruelties and extortions of the Pacha
Daud. Nearly the whole of this race were
compelled to fly. Some took refuge in

Persia, while others, in their passage towards

India, remained here. The same toleration
exercised towards all other persuasions is ex­
tended to the Beni Israel, no badge or mark,

as in Egypt or Syria, being insisted on : they