Southern Arabia | Page 2

the Yafei Sultan 399 XXXVI. Among the Fadhli 412 XXXVII. From the Plain of Mis'hal to the Sea 421
Appendices 431
Index 451

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abu'lfida Ismael ibn Ali Imad ed din, Prince or King of Hamar.--G��ographie d'Aboulfida, traduite de l'Arabe et accompagn��e de notes et d'��claircissements par M. Reinaud, par M. S. Guyard. Paris, 1848-83.
Baros, Jo?o de.--Dos feitos que os Portugueses fizeram. 1778-80.
Binning, Robert.--A Journal of Two Years' Travel in Persia, Ceylon, &c. 1857.
Bunbury, Sir E. H.--Ancient Geography among the Greeks and Romans. 1879.
Cartas de Alfonzo de Albuquerque.--Commentaries of Albuquerque, Hakluyt Society, translated by W. de G. Birch. 1875.
Carter, Dr.--Paper in the Journal of the Asiatic Society. Bombay branch.
Chabas, Joseph.--Les Inscriptions des Mines d'or. 1862.
Correa, Gaspar.--Three Voyages of Vasco da Gama. Hakluyt Society, 1869.
Fernan Lopes de la Castanbeda.--Historia do descubrimento e conquista da India pe los Portugueses. Lisbon, 1833.
Glaser, Eduard.--Skizze der Geschichte der Geographie S��d-Arabiens. Berlin, 1890.
Goeje, J. de.--Bibliotheca geographicorum Arabicorum. 1870-85. M��moires d'histoire et de g��ographie orientales. 2nd edition, 1886.
Helps to the Study of the Bible.
Hommel, Fritz--S��d-Arabische Chrestomathie und Min?o-Sab?ischen Grammatik. M��nchen, 1893.
India Directory,
Part I. 1874.
Miles, Colonel.--Report of the Administration of the Persian Gulf Residency, 1884-88. Journey through Oman and Dhakrireh. Blue Book, ccxx.
Muhamad ibn Muhamad, Geographie d'Edrisi.--Traduite de l'Arabe. Paris, 1836-40.
Muhammad ibn Abdallah, called Ibn Batuta.
Muhammad ibn Muhammad.--Geographia Nubiensis, 1619, 4o.
M��ller, D. H.--Epigraphische Denkm?ler aus Arabien (Denkschriften der K.K. Ak. der Wissenschaften Wien). Phil. Hist. Cl. 37, 1894. Himyarische Studien (Z. D. M., �� 30). 1870.
Palgrave, W. G.--Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central Eastern Arabia. 1865.
Pollak, Dr. J. E.--Das Land und seine Bewohner. 1865.
Sprenger Aloys.--B��rger und Schl?sser S��d-Arabiens. Die Alte Geographie Arabiens.
Vincent, W.--The Commerce and Navigation of the Ancients in the Indian Ocean. 1886.
Wellsted, Lieut.--Visit to Dhofar in the 'Philomel.' 1883. Rough notes of a visit to Nakhl and Jebel Akhdar.
Ali Ibn al Husain, El Masudi, Abu al Hasan, Diodoros, Marco Polo, Sir John Maundeville, Pliny, the Periplus, Strabo, Ebn Said, Ptolemy, and others; but, as many of these names have been copied by me from rough notes of my husband's, I cannot be certain about the editions. I hope the imperfections of this bibliography will be excused.

ILLUSTRATIONS
A Mosque at Manamah, Bahrein to face p. 3
Theodore Bent Receiving Visitors at the Mounds, Bahrein 24 The Interior of Sheikh Saba's House at Rufa'a, Bahrein 34 The Castle of the Sultan of Shibahm at Al Koton 110 The Castle of the Sultan of Makalla at Shibahm 125 A Sab?an Altar 145 A Gara Forge 247 The Abyss of Abyssapolis, Dhofar 271 Elba Mountains From Shellal 304 Flute-Players in the Wadi Koukout, Soudan 337 The Plain of Eriosh, Sokotra 354 Theodore Bent making the Vocabulary at Fereghet 365 Vegetation in Sokotra 379 The Breakwater at Fereghet 383 Dragon's-Blood Trees at Yehazahaz 387 The Haghier Mountains from Suk 394 Castle at Kanfar 402 Dirgheg 408 Old Na'ab 413 Fadhli at Shariah, Wadi Reban, with Curious Sandal 418 Village of Mis'hal 421 Plain of Mis'hal and A��deli Tribe 425 Fragment of Alabasteroid Limestone 435 Sab?an Antiquities 436

MAPS
Arabia, showing the Routes of Mr. J. Theodore Bent to face p. xii Hadramut 70 Dhofar and the Gara-Range 226 Mount Erba and Surrounding Country 286 Sokotra 342 The Fadhli Country, South Arabia 400
[Illustration: Map of ARABIA
showing the routes of
M^r. J. THEODORE BENT.
Stanford's Geog.^l Estab.^t, London
London: Smith, Elder & Co.]

SOUTHERN ARABIA
CHAPTER I
MANAMAH AND MOHAREK
The first Arabian journey that we undertook was in 1889, when we visited the Islands of Bahrein in the Persian Gulf; we were attracted by stories of mysterious mounds, and we proposed to see what we could find inside them, hoping, as turned out to be the fact, that we should discover traces of Phoenician remains.
The search for traces of an old world takes an excavator now and again into strange corners of the new. Out of the ground he may extract treasures, or he may not--that is not our point here--out of the inhabitants and their strange ways he is sure, whether he likes it or not, to extract a great deal, and it is with this branch of an excavator's life we are now going to deal.
We thought we were on the track of Phoenician remains and our interest in our work was like the fingers of an aneroid, subject to sudden changes, but at the same time we had perpetually around us a 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