Aboo-'Eysa had procured above twenty loads of the best Haşa dates, the genuine Khalaş, well packed in oblong rushcases, and at the same time he had given order for four handsome mantles of Hofhoof manufacture, woven and embroidered by the most skilful hands. Three very elegant ones were adapted to the wardrobe of subordinate chiefs; the fourth, of extraordinary richness and beauty, seemed to disdain any shoulders but those of a king. All these articles of luxury and show were to be put in charge of one of his retainers, and presented in Aboo-'Eysa's name, three of the robes to an equal number of chiefs whose domains lay between Bahreyn and Mascat, and with each robe was to be associated a suitable number of date-chests, to give additional sweetness to the present. The fourth and costliest garment, along with a third of the fruits of the land, was to find its destination in the Sultan of 'Oman himself, in acknowledgment of patronage afforded our friend on a former occasion. My readers perhaps know that to offer presents, though without any special or immediate object, but merely by way of a reminder or rekindler of good will, is a common proceeding in the East. They have besides the very general result of a return given on the spot by the receiver to the bearer, besides an assurance of future support and countenance when required. The expected fees were, so calculated Aboo-'Eysa, sufficient to requite his retainer for the difficulty and dangers of the journey. Meantime I was to accompany the gifts and their bearer under the scientific character of a deep-read physician, on the look-out for I know not what herbs and drugs, which I was to suppose discoverable in the south-eastern regions; and when under covert of the introduction thus obtained, and the good will likely to ensue, I had succeeded in sufficiently examining the land and the people, I was to return with my bear-leader to Aboo-Shahr, where I should find Barakāt arrived long before with Aboo-'Eysa. For this latter had about three months to pass at the above-mentioned town, while getting his pilgrims together, and preparing for their journey across Arabia to Mecca.

Barakat, so said Aboo-'Eysa, could not safely accompany me; much less could he take my place. The scheme was certainly clever, and may perhaps have a suggestive value for investi

gators, whenever their circumstances permit the like proceedings; but it was an adventurous project, requiring mature forethought and careful arrangement. Nor did my Syrian companion and myself like the idea of a severance which, though expected to last barely two months, might (and so in fact it did) prove much longer; indeed it had nearly been perpetual, at least for this stage of existence. But I was to appear a casual and unimportant associate to Aboo-'Eysa's messenger; and accordingly the companionship of a third would hardly have admitted of a plausible explanation, and might have engendered suspicion. It seemed also unadvisable and rash to expose both at once to a real danger of shipwreck; the season was unfavourable; part, indeed half the way, must be made by sea, and the Persian Gulf offers a somewhat dangerous navigation even for European sailing ships in the winter and early spring; much more for Arab sea craft. However Barakāt and I encouraged each other to hope the best in all ways, and I could not think of losing so good an opportunity for at least scraping an acquaintance, if I may be allowed the phrase, with 'Oman, though I knew that it could be only superficial this time; yet it might serve to open the way to a more thorough and lasting intimacy.

Yoosef-ebn-Khamees, for that was the name of my destined associate, was a very curious individual, and not unlike some of Shakespeare's supplementary characters. He was a native of Hasa, half a jester and half a knave; witty, reckless, harebrained to the last degree, full of jocose or pathetic stories, of poetry, traditions, and fun of every description, whether coarse or delicate. But he had one sterling quality, which in an affair like the present more than counterbalanced whatever weighed in the opposite scale, namely, a boundless attachment, a real devotion to Aboo-'Eysa, not inferior to that of Evan Maccombich to Fergus, or of Caleb to Ravenswood. The origin of this feeling was not however in kith and kin; it was due simply to Aboo-'Eysa's singular kindheartedness and liberality, which had rescued Yoosef from utter poverty, and had maintained him for a considerable time past in a decent and even honourable position. How their acquaintance first came about were long to tell; enough that for the five or six years during which

Aboo-'Eysa had inhabited Hofhoof, he had been constantly to Ebn-Khamees that best of friends, a friend in need; nor had all the careless prodigality of his protégé, who threw away whatever was bestowed on him faster than he received it, ever checked the munificence of Aboo-'Eysa in his favour.

Yoosef when a mere lad had borne arms, at least a lance, in the contest which gave Feyşul the ascendency over EbnTheney'yan. He had also been art and part in the great naval expedition already mentioned against Bahreyn, when the Nejdeans made their unsuccessful attempt at sea empire; and Ebn-Khamees, after imitating the poltroonery of Horace at Actium, had no more shame than that poet to recount his own ridiculous cowardice. For though adventurous enough in other respects, he had a horror of bloodshed which would have done. honour to the Peace Society itself; nay, he could not even stand by to see a sheep killed for dinner. Yoosef was now about thirty-six years of age, tall, and (notwithstanding a slightly comical turn of features) handsome, with a little black beard where some prematurely grey hairs, the result of horror on seeing an unlucky comrade killed by his side in the Bahreyn battle, contrasted oddly with his youthful appearance, and gave occasion to many a jest of others against him, and of him against himself. For Yoosef, like Falstaff of old, was "not only witty in himself, but the cause that wit was in other men;" although in physical conformation he was the very reverse of our own jovial knight, being remarkably slim and slender in form.

We had already become acquainted with each other at Hofhoof, where Yoosef was Aboo-'Eysa's constant guest, or rather satellite, and were on excellent terms. I had therefore no difficulty in accepting him for my guide, nor he any objection to my society, though he knew nothing about the real object of my coming.

Matters having been arranged on this footing, we awaited a favourable occasion for putting to sea. But the wind was adverse, and day by day dragged on till the 23rd of January, when a southerly breeze and a good ship combined to carry off Aboo-'Eysa and his retainers, with Barakat, to Aboo-Shahr, while Yoosef and I were to cross the channel next day for Moḥarrek, and there embark for the port of Bedaa' on the coast of Katar,

where resided Mohammed-ebn-Thanee, the first and nearest of the chiefs to whom our visit and our presents were addressed.

One of those presentiments which are not so uniformly explicable as frequently experienced by human creatures, regarding the shipwreck which in fact lay before me, led me to entrust Barakat with the keeping of all my papers, notes, and whatever I had of any value, except a small stock of money to meet the emergencies of the journey. A fortunate precaution, and without which the present work would have perished in embryo, with much else, off the Sowadah islands.

It was a fair and sunshiny afternoon when, after many good wishes for a speedy meeting, and mutual recommendations, as wont among parting friends, we separated--Aboo-'Eysa, accompanied by his retainers and Barakat, going on board their schooner for Aboo-Shahr, while Yoosef-ebn-Khamees and myself remained to keep house, and passed the evening in comparative loneliness and silence. During the fortnight that Aboo-'Eysa had been master of the dwelling, his hospitable and even showy habits had kept it continually full of talk and diversion, of visitors and coffee; a strange contrast to its present stillness, always more ungenial in a large house than elsewhere. We supped together as best we might, and held little conversation for the rest of that evening. I felt uncommonly lonely; but the hope of an interesting and well-occupied journey, followed by a prompt and successful return, went far to console me. Yoosef too,

though as melancholy as a gib-cat or a lugged bear at the departure of his patron, beguiled his fancy by prognosticating a prosperous voyage for Aboo-'Eysa, without sea-sickness or danger. Hope deceived us both, as events will show.

Next morning we took a small boat, and unannoyed this time by the custom-house officers, whose whole business lies with imports, we crossed over to Moḥarrek. There we found on enquiry that the Katar-bound vessel with which Aboo-'Eysa had made a previous arrangement for our freightage, was lying off the castle at the eastern extremity of the town. To reach it we had to walk about a quarter of a mile across wet sands and over a little dyke-like promontory, just broad enough to allow of a causeway between the ooze on either side, till we reached the large square fort, strongly built and provided with

artillery, though not precisely after the model of Woolwich; it stands on the extreme headland, and is surrounded by a thick outer wall of considerable extent. Here were once the quarters of a Bahreyn garrison; but now the building only serves as a stable for the handsome stud of Mohammed-elKhaleefah. Two dromedaries were grazing close under the walls; they had been sent a few days before as a present from the Sultan of 'Oman, in acknowledgment of some customary remittance of tribute. These animals were excellent specimens of the thoroughbred 'Omanee dromedary; the giraffe - like elegance of their form, the brightness and even something like intelligence of their eye, their smooth mouse-brown skin, and their airy step and gait, fully sufficed to distinguish them from those of any other race, and justified the high reputation of the breed.

Just off the Castle-point lay our bark, ill-built, ill-rigged, and ill-manned; but these defects mattered little, as we did not intend to take her farther than Katar, a short sail; besides, any ship however slight, if but guided by a knowing pilot, may venture almost fearlessly on the quiet waters of this bay, to which the Arabs have given the name of "Baḥr-ul-Benāt," or "the Girls' Sea;" whether from visions of mermaids-here, no less than the "Cacquets" of Brest, the object of popular credulity; or perhaps from the gentle, peaceful, and smiling character of the bay itself, which thus represents (in all but in its shallowness, I would trust), the likeness of an amiable young lady. We put our goods and chattels on board, recommended them to the care of the captain, an "old old man, with beard," which should have been "as white as snow "had it but been better washed and combed; and after receiving his assurance that all would be ready for sailing next morning at sunrise, we returned to the town.

As a whole, Moharrek is curious and worth the seeing, though it contains no particular building of notable importance. Curious, I say, from its Perso-Arabic appearance, its small snug houses, its paved market-place, and its high-raised benches everywhere along the walls, announcing an out-of-doors life; besides, it owns a degree of close packing and agglomeration, different from the straggling style of most Arab cities, where ground value

VOL. II.