Page 248 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 6 -10

DIESTIO LIFE and appliances 301

.side than that nf Ncjd ; Palgrave claims for it an equal superiority
in the intellectual sphere and in the amenities of social intercourse.
The houses of the cultivators and fishermen, and the implements
which they employ, differ less from those of other parts of Arabia ;
huts arc commonly of mud or palm-fronds. Ploughing is done by
oxen or by asses, the former being of the humped variet}', like those
employed in India for the same purpose.

Products and Trade
The pearl-fisheries on the coast of Hasa occupy more than 1G0
• • •*. • *• boats and employ 3,500 men, but the chief industry is the culti­
vation of the well-irrigated oases. Dates are the chief product, the
best being among the finest in the world ; but rice, wheat, barley,
vegetables, and fruits are also raised. Cattle are abundant in the
planted area, sheep less numerous than in Nejcl; donkeys number
many thousands, about a quarter being of the famous white Hasa
breed. Plorses are rare ; but both riding- and baggage-camels are
easily obtained.
Manufactures are few and chiefly confined to Hofuf, where there
is some textile industry, producing fine abbas of wool, silk and wool,
or silk and cotton, enriched with embroidery of fine design and
borders of gold thread. The copper and brass coffee-pots of the
same town are so well known as to form an export.
The chief market is Hofuf, which, through the port of ‘Oqair,
serves not only the oasis and the nomad country depending upon
it, but, in part also, the S. district of Nejd. There is a weekly
caravan from Riyadh bringing ghi to Hofuf, and taking back cloth,
sugar, and rice, The trade of Qatlf with the interior is of less
importance.
The principal exports are dates, date-branches for fuel, reeds
i and mats, ghi, hides, abbas, donkeys, and pearls, mostly consigned
to Bahrein, Basra, Persia, and Bombay ; imports are piece-goods,
hardware, rice, coffee, wheat, barley, sugar, and spices, chiefly
from the same places. Manamah in Bahrein, the great entrepot for
*. •
foreign goods on the W. coast of the Gulf, is of cardinal importance
to the trade of Hasa. Many thousands of tons of dates are exported,
though the greater part of the crop is locally consumed. Camels
reared by the Dawasir, Murrah and Muteir are sold in Hasa for the,
Damascus market (see vol. ii, p. 18). A trade in negro slaves con­
tinued under Turkish rule.
Currency

The popular standard of currency is the riyCil or Maria-Tkeresa
dollar (worth about Is. 10}d.), though Indian rupees are accepted

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