Southern Arabia | Page 3

quaint, unknown world of the present, more pleasing to most people
than anything pertaining to the past.

The group of islands known as Bahrein (dual form of Bahr, i.e. two
seas) lies in a bay of the same name in the Persian Gulf, about twenty
miles off the coast of El Hasa in Arabia.
Bahrein is really the name of the largest of the islands, which is
twenty-seven miles long by ten wide. The second in point of size is
Moharek, which lies north of Bahrein, and is separated from it by a
strait of horse-shoe form, five miles in length, and in a few places as
much as a mile wide, but for the greater part half a mile.
The rest of the group are mere rocks: Sitrah, four miles long, with a
village on it of the same name; Nebi Saleh, Sayeh, Khaseifa, and, to the
east of Moharek, Arad, with a palm-grove and a large double
Portuguese fort, an island or a peninsula according to the state of the
tide.
It was no use embarking on a steamer which would take us direct from
England to our destination, owing to the complete uncertainty of the
time when we should arrive, so we planned out our way viâ Karachi
and Maskat; then we had to go right up to Bushire, and again change
steamers there, for the boats going up the Gulf would not touch at
Bahrein. At Bushire we engaged five Persians to act as servants,
interpreter, and overseers over the workmen whom we should employ
in excavating.
We had as our personal servant and interpreter combined a very dirty
Hadji Abdullah, half Persian, half Arab. He was the best to be obtained,
and his English was decidedly faulty. He always said mules for meals,
foals for fowls, and any one who heard him say 'What time you eat
your mules to-day, Sahib?' 'I have boiled two foals for dinner,' or 'Mem
Sahib, now I go in bazaar to buy our perwisions of grub,' or 'What place
I give you your grub, Mem Sahib?' would have been surprised.
He had been a great deal on our men-of-war; he also took a present of
horses from the Sultan of Maskat to the Queen, so that he could boast 'I
been to Home,' and alluded to his stay in England as 'when I was in
Home.'

Abdullah always says chuck and never throw; and people unused to
him would not take in that 'Those peacock no good, carboys much
better,' referred to pickaxes and crowbars.
[Illustration: A MOSQUE AT MANAMAH, BAHREIN]
He used to come to the diggings and say: 'A couble of Sheikhs come
here in camp, Sahib. I am standing them some coffee; shall I stand
them some mixed biscuits, too?'
I must say I pity foreigners who have to trust to interpreters whose only
European language is such English as this.
With the whole of our party we embarked on the steamer which took us
to Bahrein, or rather as close as it could approach; for, owing to the
shallowness of the sea, while still far from shore we were placed in a
baggala in which we sailed for about twenty minutes. Then when a
smaller boat had conveyed us as near to the dry land as possible, we
were in mid-ocean transferred, bag and baggage, to asses, those lovely
white asses of Bahrein with tails and manes dyed yellow with henna,
and grotesque patterns illuminating their flanks; we had no reins or
stirrups, and as the asses, though more intelligent than our own, will
not unfrequently show obstinacy in the water, the rider, firmly grasping
his pommel, reaches with thankfulness the slimy, oozy beach of
Bahrein.
Manamah is the name of the town at which you land; it is the
commercial capital of the islands--just a streak of white houses and
bamboo huts, extending about a mile and a half along the shore. A few
mosques with low minarets may be seen, having stone steps up one
side, by which the priest ascends for the call to prayer. These mosques
and the towers of the richer pearl merchants show some decided
architectural features, having arches of the Saracenic order, with
fretwork of plaster and quaint stucco patterns.
On landing we were at once surrounded by a jabbering crowd of negro
slaves, and stately Arabs with long, flowing robes and twisted
camel-hair cords (akkal) around their heads.

Our home while in the town was one of the best of the battlemented
towers, and consisted of a room sixteen feet square, on a stone platform.
It had twenty-six windows with no glass in them, but pretty lattice of
plaster. Our wooden lock was highly decorated, and we had a wooden
key to close our door, which pleased us much. Even