Southern Arabia

If my fellow-traveller had lived, he intended to have put together in book form such information as we had gathered about Southern Arabia. Now, as he died four days after our return from our last journey there, I have had to undertake the task myself. It has been very sad to me, but I have been helped by knowing that, however imperfect this book may be, what is written here will surely be a help to those who, by following in our footsteps, will be able to get beyond them, and to whom I so heartily wish success and a Happy Home-coming, the best wish a traveller may have. It is for their information that I have included so many things about the price of camels, the payment of soldiers and so forth, and yet even casual readers may care to know these details of explorers' daily lives.

Much that is set down here has been published before, but a good deal is new.

My husband had written several articles in the Nineteenth Century, and by the kindness of the editor I have been able to make use of these; also I have incorporated the lectures he had given before the Royal Geographical Society and the British Association. The rest is from his note-books and from the 'Chronicles' that I always wrote during our journeys.

I thought at first of trying to keep our several writings apart; but, to avoid confusion of inverted commas, I decided, acting on advice, just to put the whole thing into as consecutive a form as possible, only saying that the least part of the writing is mine.

The bibliography is far from complete, as I can name only a few of the many books that my husband consulted on all the districts round those which we were going to penetrate.

As to the spelling of the Arabic, it must be remembered that it is a very widely spread language, and there are naturally many different forms of the same word--e.g. ibn, ben, bin--and such very various ways of pronouncing the name of the Moslem prophet, that I have heard it pronounced Memet, Mamad and Mad.

I must give hearty thanks in both our names to all who helped us on in these journeys, and especially to Mr. Headlam, who has given me much assistance by going through the proofs of this book. Mr. W. C. Irvine has kindly provided the column of literary Arabic for the vocabulary.

MABEL VIRGINIA ANNA BENT.

13 Great Cumberland Place, W: October 13, 1899.

CONTENTS

PAGE Bibliography ix

SOUTHERN ARABIA

chapter I. Manamah and Moharek 1 II. The Mounds of Ali 16 III. Our Visit to Rufa'a 30

MASKAT IV. Some Historical Facts about Oman 45 V. Maskat and the Outskirts 63

THE HADHRAMOUT VI. Makalla 71 VII. Our Departure into the Interior 81 VIII. The Akaba 88 IX. Through Wadi Kasr 98 X. Our Sojourn at Koton 111 XI. The Wadi Ser and Kabr Saleh 126 XII. The City of Shibahm 142 XIII. Farewell to the Sultan of Shibahm 162 XIV. Harassed by our Guides 177 XV. Retribution for our Foes 199 XVI. Coasting Eastward by Land 210 XVII. Coasting Westward by Sea 220

DHOFAR AND THE GARA MOUNTAINS XVIII. Merbat and Al Hafa 227 XIX. The Gara Tribe 244 XX. The Gara Mountains 256 XXI. The Identification of Abyssapolis 268 XXII. Sailing from Kosseir to Aden 277

AN AFRICAN INTERLUDE: THE EASTERN SOUDAN XXIII. Coasting along the Red Sea 287 XXIV. Halaib and Sawakin Kadim 298 XXV. Inland from Mersa Halaib 303 XXVI. Mohammed Gol 309 XXVII. 'Dancing on Tom Tiddler's Ground, Picking up Gold' 313 XXVIII. Behind the Jebel Erba 327