Page:The journal of the Royal Geographic Society of London. Volume 34, 1864. (IA s572id13663720).pdf/354

144 but it is now much neglected, and only serves as a sort of stable for the horses and dromedaries of Mohammed Ebn Khalifah. A similar but much larger fort—a castle, indeed—exists, though entirely dismantled, on the main land of Bahreyn to the east of Menamah.

The number of villages on the two islands taken together is about eighty in all; some of them which I visited are of considerable dimensions, although the houses are for the most mere palm-branch sheds, such alone being required by the mildness of the climate: at intervals, however, large dwellings of brick and stone, and whose appearance is not inelegant, are interspersed among the huts of the poor.

Let us now cross over to the adjoining lands of Katar. This province embraces almost all the peninsula denominated in many maps as Bahran—an appellation, by the by, which I never heard used by the inhabitants—as well as the greater part of what is commonly called the Pearl Coast. It is dependent on ’Oman, through the medium of its numerous local chiefs, the principal of whom, Mohammed Ebn-Thanee by name, a fine old man, and famed for great prudence and gentleness of disposition, resides in the seaport town of Bedaa. But he has no direct powder over the other chiefs, such as the respective governors of Wokrah, Zabarah, Soor, &c. Mohammed Ebn Khalifah, of Bahreyn, exercises a sort of general influence throughout the district.

Its prevailing character towards the mainland is extreme barrenness; there are hardly any gardens or cultivated fields; water is scarce, and the wells deep; their supply barely suffices for domestic use, much less for irrigation. It is, in fact, merely a narrow strip of meagre pasture-land among the low hills which rise close to the coast, and thence stretch back for some distance towards the interior. Numerous villages, however, above forty in total number, stud the coast; but their maintenance comes from the sea, not the land. The population subsists almost exclusively by the pearl-fishery, here, perhaps, the most productive known on any point of the globe. Its season is from the end of March to about the middle of November, But the continuance of frequent and protracted diving gives rise to much disease among the inhabitants, and they are physically as well as morally, for the most of them, but a sorry race.

All along the inland hills, the diminished continuation of the Hasa coast-range, are placed from distance to distance round watch-towers; they serve also as forts and places of refuge for the Katar pastors when attacked, which is frequently the case, by their troublesome neighbours, Benoo Yass and Menaseer, or the restless Bedouins of Aal-Morrah. The entrance to these towers is pierced in the wall at about 12 feet above the ground, and can only be