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11
xx.] SOUTHERN ARABIA. 409

artificial rills leading from them : others are
fed by wells of most excellent water, about
fifteen feet in depth *.
I was forcibly struck with the resemblance
which the country bears to Egypt. There is
the same clearness and purity of atmosphere,
the same rich soil and verdure, the same .
lonely groups of palms, the same desert
margin : still, to complete the picture, we
%
want the humble Fellah and mighty Nile.
Here every man’s hand was armed for strife:
the husbandman carries with him to his la­
&
bour his matchlock and his spear; and though
his habitation is on the ground which he
tills, he fears to occupy it, and at the ap­
proach of night seeks shelter with his family
within the town. I
The Sultan had been desirous to see me, in
order to ascertain if we were disposed to aid
him in his operations against the Fdthalis.

* Niebuhr describes a river running past this town, which geo­
graphers, sceptical of its existence, have now omitted; but that
learned traveller was perfectly correct. It rises near Ab and
Jobba, and discharges its waters into the sea at Sheikh Ahmed,
five miles to the westward of Aden. Another branch, in the
rainy season, reaches Shugra.