Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/332

122 Wadi Nejran on the west; the provinces of Hasa, of Hareek, of Aflaj, and the Wadi Dowasir, bound it to the north, and Hadramaut to the south; such are the limits of this broad base of the desert ring.

Its general type—at least so far as my own experience enables me to speak—is an exaggeration of the “Nefood” already described, and enormous tracts of its waste sands are in consequence never visited or traversed even by the most vagabond Bedouins. However, there exist in it occasional “oases,” little islets of a more tractable character, amid the depths of this desolate sand-sea, especially where the under stratum of limestone finds its way to the surface; while water rises through its clefts, and dwarf palms, or bushes of the dishevelled Ghada, familiar to Arab poetry, spring up around. Many such spots are said to occur on a line drawn south-east by east from ’Oman towards the Yemen, they become more frequent on approaching the limits of Hadramaut. Here, also, so I was told (for my own personal acquaintance with the Dahna is limited to its northern and eastern spaces), rocky peaks interrupt the sand from time to time; while a low calcareous range is stated by the Arabs to lie north-west of ’Oman ; it bears the name of “Akhāf.”

For some of these details respecting the “Dahna ” I am indebted to two intelligent Bedouins, the one belonging to the tribe named Menaseer, the other to Aal-Morrah, who had both of them traversed the Dahna in its greatest width, rather in consequence of chance circumstances than from any fixed purpose of doing so. They described the oases mentioned above as being inhabited by a few scattered negro and Abyssinian tribes; but far the greater extent of that region was, according to them, alike uninhabited and uninhabitable. The Menaseer Bedouin told me that he had taken nearly three months to cross the desert or khala’ from the frontiers of ’Oman to those of Yemen; but his line of journey was probably somewhat tortuous; and hence this circumstance affords no very exact idea regarding the real and geographical width of the “Dahna.”

The two tribes here alluded to—namely, the Menaseer and Aal-Morrah—frequent the eastern and northern frontiers of this region; while its westerly limits are the resort of Kahtan and other tribes of the Yemen. As for the inhabitants of the southern verge, they are mainly blacks; of negro, or, at least, of African origin.

But these tribes are of comparatively scanty number, and very miserable in condition, as might be well expected from the nature of the country they inhabit. The Menaseer alone, because the nearest to ’Oman, partake in some degree of the advantages of that fertile province. But the Aal-Morrah Bedouins are of a