Page 376 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)

XVII.] COAST OF NH HI A. 349

£ :

CHAPTER XVII.
Mersa Shab—Bichari Arabs—Costumes—Arms—Fondness for
Tobacco—Jebel Elba—Mountaineers—Working Silver Mines—
Anchorages—Sherm IJilaib—Wells —Pasturage— Character
of the Natives—Burial -places—Arab Jealousy—Mersa Marub
—Ruined Buildings—Pilgrims1 Tombs—Sherm3Abu Mishmish ;
—Conclusion of Northern Survey—Foul Bay Coast Line.
At Mersa Sliab, during low water, we lay

aground about one hundred and fifty yards
from the entrance, across which a heavy
swell was setting; but the interior has smooth
water and is completely sheltered south of
the anchorage: connected with it by a con­
tracted shallow channel, there is a lagoon
of considerable extent, which is overrun in
many places with mangrove bushes. The
neighbouring country exhibits a desert and
barren surface, covered near the sea with

saline incrustations, blistered by the heat
of the sun. We saw here several natives,
belonging to the Bichari Arabs, who, though
their complexion was quite as black as that