Southern Arabia

apart; but, to avoid confusion of inverted commas, I decided, acting on advice, just to put the whole thing into as consecutive a form as possible, only saying that the least The bibliography is far from complete, as I can name only a few of the many books that my husband consulted on all the districts round those which we were going to penetrate. As to the spelling of the Arabic, it must be remembered that it is a very widely spread language, and there are naturally many different forms of the same word— e.g. ibn , ben , bin —and such very various ways of pronouncing the name of the Moslem prophet, that I have heard it pronounced Memet, Mamad and Mad. I must give hearty thanks in both our names to all who helped us on in these journeys, and especially to Mr. Headlam , who has given me much assistance by going through the proofs of this book. Mr. W. C. Irvine has kindly provided the column of literary Arabic for the vocabulary. MABEL VIRGINIA ANNA BENT. 13 Great Cumberland Place , W: October 13, 1899 . CONTENTS page Bibliography ix SOUTHERN ARABIA I Manamah and Moharek 1 II The Mounds of Ali 16 III Our Visit to Rufa'a 30 MASKAT IV Some Historical Facts about Oman 45 V Maskat and the Outskirts 63 THE HADHRAMOUT VI Makalla 71 VII Our Departure into the Interior 81 VIII The Akaba 88 IX Through Wadi Kasr 98 X Our Sojourn at Koton 111 XI The Wadi Ser and Kabr Saleh 126 XII The City of Shibahm 142 XIII Farewell to the Sultan of Shibahm 162 XIV Harassed by our Guides 177 XV Retribution for our Foes 199 XVI Coasting Eastward by Land 210 XVII Coasting Westward by Sea 220 DHOFAR AND THE GARA MOUNTAINS XVIII Merbat and Al Hafa 227 XIX The Gara Tribe 244 XX The Gara Mountains 256 XXI The Identification of Abyssapolis 268 XXII Sailing from Kosseir to Aden 277 AN AFRICAN INTERLUDE: THE EASTERN SOUDAN XXIII Coasting along the Red Sea 287 XXIV Halaib and Sawakin Kadim 298 XXV Inland from Mersa Halaib 303 XXVI Mohammed Gol 309 XXVII 'Dancing on Tom Tiddler's Ground, Picking up Gold' 313 XXVIII Behind the Jebel Erba 327 THE MAHRI ISLAND OF SOKOTRA XXIX Kalenzia 343 XXX Eriosh and Kadhoup 353 XXXI Tamarida or Hadibo 361 XXXII We Depart…