Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 2.djvu/258

Rh 238 A 11 A B I A [GENERAL FEATURES on tlie western slopes of the mountains in the neighbour hood of SanaA. The plant itself is too well known to require descrip tion ; it is enough here to remark that its principal flower ing season in Yemen is in March. The first crop of the berries ripens in May ; a second and a third crop succeed in the course of the year. The diffused atmospheric heat of an equatorial region is requisite for the growth of the coffee plant ; yet it needs also a large supply of moisture, and even of shade, to protect it from the too direct action of the sun. In order to obtain these conditions, large trees are often planted here and there among the shrubs, which are arranged on rock terraces, one above another, amphi theatre-wise, along the slopes, and are densely crowded together. The processes of gathering and drying the berries, of separating the husks, and of picking the kernels, are all performed by manual labour of the simplest kind. How the drink is prepared has been often and minutely described by travellers ; the method employed is tedious, but the result infinitely surpasses that obtained in any other country or by any other method. A slightly acid and very refreshing beverage is also made from an infusion of the &quot; kishr &quot; or outer husk. Its use is almost confined to the Yemen ; it is esteemed a febrifuge. Kaatshrub. A small shrub, called &quot;kaat,&quot; is common throughout the coffee plantations ; it resembles verbena in scent and growth; its leaves are chewed by the natives, much as those of tobacco are by some Europeans ; the effect is that of a gentle stimulant and anti-narcotic. This plant is only found in the south-western regions, and its use is limited to them. Hadra- Next to Yemen, and lying along the coast of the Indian iuaut. Ocean, from Aden to Cape Ras-el-Hadd, a distance of 1200 miles, are situated the provinces of Hadramaut and Mahrah, the former mentioned in Genesis under the name of Hazarmaveth, and more celebrated in ancient Arab chronicles, and in the notices of Strabo and Ptolemy, than it has been in later times. This coast has been visited and even partially explored by Captain Wellsted and other navigators. It presents everywhere much the same dreary appearance as that of the Hejaz and Tehamah, a narrow fringe of sand or of equally sterile shore ; beyond this rises a mountain range, varying, so far as any tolerably accurate calculations have been made, from 1000 to 3000 feet in height ; its formation appears to be in many places volcanic ; behind this comes a second and loftier mountain belt, Jurassic in its general character, resembling the high lands of Yemen; while far beyond stretches away the great sandy desert, varied, however, where it approaches the mountain-foot, by oases of considerable fertility, among which that of Wadi Doan is said to be the most extensive. Several barren islands and reefs fringe the waste. The mountains of Hadramaut form one system with those of Yemen, but, unlike the latter, seem to be of an almost monotonous sterility. Torrents descend from them, but no rivers ; nor, though lakes are mentioned in the very apocryphal records of the Arabs, has any sign of their existence been verified. The climate is intensely hot, and is said to be unhealthy, at least to strangers ; the vegeta tion is scanty. No part of the peninsula has been less explored than this, even by the Orientals themselves; and European travellers have supplied few reliable data for what regards the physical characteristics of the interior, any more than of its inhabitants and products. Oman. From Ras-el-Hadd to the extreme northern limits of Arabia, at the head of the Persian Gulf, the provinces of Oman and Hasa complete the sea- coast. Oman is a ountainous district, its principal range, that of Jebel Akhdar, or the &quot;Green Mountain,&quot; so called from the abundant vegetation that covers its sides, reaches an ascertained height of GOOO feet; several other minor chains run parallel with it and with the coast; the plains beneath, them are well watered and fertile, though, like every other part of Arabia, destitute of running rivers or streams, the want of which is here atoned by copious wells and springs, running over into large pools, and supplying an extensive system of irrigation. The rocks are chiefly granite on their upper, limestone on their loAver level; but here, too, as on the Red Sea coast, indications of volcanic action, though at a comparatively remote period, are frequently to be observed ; hot springs, too, such as those known by the title of Imam Alee, near Mascat, are not uncommon. The only good harbour on this part of the coast is that of Mascat, with which the immediately contiguous part of Matrah may be reckoned. By the sea-shore the climate is intensely hot, rivalling in this respect that of Aden, and far from wholesome ; among the mountains inland the air is cool and pure. Near Cape Musandam, at about 400 miles north-west Coast of of Ras-el-Hadd, the mountains (which, averaging in this the Persian promontory from 2000 to 3000 feet in height, come down Gulf - in precipices to the sea edge), are indented with numerous deep creeks and bays, several of which afford good anchor age and shelter, only they are cut off by the steepness of the surrounding cliffs from inland communication. West of Musandam, and following the sweep of the great bay of Sharjah and Katar, within the gulf itself, the coast be comes low and sandy, and henceforth offers no harbours, but mere roadsteads, often dangerous of approach by reason of the numerous banks and shoals in the sea. A few palm trees line the shore, which has a desolate appearance. Further still to the north-Avest, along the region of Hasa, and up to the head of the gulf, the coast continues low, but is enlivened by extensive green tracts of palm-groves and other semi-tropical vegetation. The mountains, situated a good way inland, and not exceeding 3000 feet in their extreme height, are of Jurassic formation. Copious springs, some of which are hot and others tepid, break out in many places at their base, but are again absorbed in the sand, or are dissipated by field irrigation before reaching the sea. The extreme northern angle of the gulf is com paratively desert. Owing to the rapid interchange of heat and cold occa- Physical sioned by the peculiar situation of the gulf between the character o: torrid levels of Arabia on the one side, and the high, not tlie coast * unfrequently snow-capped, mountains of Persia on the other, the climate of this coast is remarkably irregular in its seasons, and subject to sudden storms of great violence, with heavy rains. It is also decidedly unhealthy; and low fevers, sometimes of an intermittent, sometimes of a typhoid type, are never absent from the villages. Indeed the whole of the Arabian sea-shore, which we have now thus summarily surveyed, partakes more or less of the same unhealthy character, one often noticed by travellers, and experienced by some of them with fatal effect. We have seen, too, that in general outline it offers little variety, being mostly mountainous, especially in its southern part, with a narrow and rarely fertile shore-fringe ; while the mountains themselves vary in height and extent, being at their loftiest and widest in Yemen and Oman, where their rich vegetation, joined to a pure air, and a climate tempered by the elevation, offers an agreeable contrast to the dissimilar qualities of the coast itself, narrower and more barren elsewhere. We have now to consider the central plateau, or Nejd, Central an important region, regarded by the Arabs themselves as Arabia, or peculiarly their own the stronghold of their vigorous ejf&amp;gt; nationality, and the birthplace of their most cherished traditions and institutions. It is girded in on every side by a broad desert belt,