Page 112 - Neglected Arabia Vol 2

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>'. NEGLECTED ARABIA
The Mimi'h Mwllcul work in Mimcui In u new wurk re-oponeil this year
In Matrah after many yours of prayer and lunging since the death of Dr.
Thoms. Of its beginning Dr. Harrison writes, “We have had a good year
in Matrah. 'Hie work is developing well. We have been satisfied this
year \\ith small figures, but no field that we occupy offers more in the way
ot acute need’and certainly none a brighter prospect for real accomplish­
ment to those who by patience and faith inherit the promises. Political
equilibrium never reaches any real stability here. Sur, the leading com­
mercial center of Oman next to Muscat and Matrah, has been in more or
less active rebellion against the Sultan’s authority for the past year. . .
These uprisings are not really important and have little or no significance

jg Vaccination Day in Muscat

j| for our work except as they delay, missionary touring as they have this
H year. ’ - ^
9 “'The people of Oman are very poor. In Matrah a day’s wage is six
9 io eight annas (twelve to sixteen cents) and in the Bottina three annas
1 (six cents). The main support of the community is the date palm and the
I extreme drought of the past eight years has so reduced the water available
3 (or irrigation that perhaps a third of the gardens have dried up and been
9 abandoned. The people in Matrah dry fish and export them to Ceylon.
I In the Bottina wood is collected from the wide area ^between the date
Iprdens and the mountains and exported to the Gulf ports.
I “Most of the people *in Matrah are Beloochees but they have learned
I to talk Arabic. We see many Arabs from the interior. They come to
1 Matrah on business errands and can stay only a day or two, which makes
Itiuch of their medical treatment exceedingly unsatisfactory.
9 “We hold a religious service every Sunday afternoon in the hospital
v