THE GARA MOUNTAINS
At length we turned our faces towards the Gara mountains, with
considerable interest and curiosity, and prepared to ascend them by a
tortuous valley, the Wadi Ghersìd, which dives into their very midst, and
forms the usual approach for camels, as the mountain sides in other parts
are too precipitous. After riding up the valley for a few miles, we came
across one of the small lakes of which we were in quest, nestling in a
rocky hole, and with its fine boulders hung with ferns and vegetation,
forming altogether one of the most ideal spots we had ever seen. That
arid Arabia could produce so lovely a spot, was to us one of the greatest
surprises of our lives. Water-birds and water-plants were here to be
found in abundance, and the hill slopes around were decked with fine
sycamores and acacia-trees, amongst the branches of which sweet white
jessamine, several species of convolvulus, and other creepers climbed.
The water was deliciously cool, rushing forth from three different points
in the rock among maidenhair and other ferns into the basin which formed
the lake, but it is impregnated with lime, which leaves a deposit all
down the valley along its course. Evidence of the mighty rush of water
during the rains is seen on all sides, rubbish is then cast into the
branches of the great fig-trees, and the Bedouin told us that at times
this valley is entirely full of water and quite impassable.
Next day we pursued our way up the gorge of Ghersìd, climbing higher and
higher, making our way through dense woods, often dangerous for the camel
riders, and obliging us frequently to dismount.
Merchants who visited Dhofar in pursuit of their trade knew of these
valleys, and not unnaturally brought home glowing accounts of their
fertility, and thus gained for Arabia a reputation which has been thought
to be exaggerated.
In the Wadi Ghersìd, amongst the dense vegetation which makes the spot a
veritable paradise, we came across many Bedouin of the Beit al Kathan
family tending their flocks and dwelling in the caves. They were all
exceedingly obsequious to Sheikh Sehel, and we soon found that he was a
veritable king amongst them, and forthwith we gave up any attempt to
guide our own footsteps, but left ourselves entirely in his hands, to
take us whither he would and spend as long about it as he liked. One
thing which interested us very much was to see the greetings of the
Bedouin: for an acquaintance they merely rub the palms of their hands
when they meet, and then kiss the tips of their respective fingers; for
an intimate friend they join hands and kiss each other; but for a
relative they not only join hands, but they rub noses and finally kiss on
either cheek. Whenever we met a party of their friends on our way, it was
a signal for a halt that these greetings might be observed, and then
followed a pipe. At first we rather resented these halts; but they take
such a short time over their whiff of tobacco, and are so disconsolate
without it, that we soon gave up complaints at these delays. They
literally only take one whiff and pass the stone pipe on, so that a halt
for a smoke seldom lasts more than five minutes, and all are satisfied.
Sheikh Sehel met many of his relatives in the Wadi Ghersìd, and his nose
was subject to many energetic rubs, and the novelty of this greeting,
about which one had vaguely read in years gone by, excited our interest
deeply, but at the same time we were thankful we were not likely to meet
any relatives in the valley, and to have to undergo the novel sensations
in person.
Every afternoon, when our tents were pitched and our baggage open, whole
rows of Bedouin would sit outside asking for medicine; pills, of special
violence of course, and quinine were the chief drugs required, and then
we had many sore eyes and revolting sores of every description, requiring
closer attention. As to the pills, we had some difficulty in getting the
Bedouin not to chew them, but when one man, Mas'ah by name, solemnly
chewed five Holloway's pills and was very sick after so doing, it began
to dawn upon them that our method was the right one. Most embarrassing of
all our patients was old Sheikh Sehel himself. Fortune had been kind to
him in most respects: she had given him wealth and power amongst men, and
the fickle goddess had bestowed upon him two wives, but alas! no
offspring, and to seek for a remedy for this, to a savage, overwhelming
disaster, he came with his head-men to the tent of the European medicine
men. It was in vain for my husband to tell him that he had brought no
remedy for this complaint. They had seen him on one or two occasions
consult a small medicine book, and their only reply to his negative was,
'The book; get out the book, Theodore,' and he had solemnly to pretend to
go through the volume before they could be convinced that he had no
medicine to meet the case.
It was curious to hear their morning greeting, 'Sabakh, Theodore! Sabakh,
Mabel!' The women of the Gara tribe are timid creatures, small, and not
altogether ill-looking; in fact the Garas are, as a tribe, undersized and
of small limbs, but exceedingly active and lithe. The women do not
possess the wealth in savage jewellery which we found to be the case in
the Hadhramout the previous year, nor do they paint themselves so
grotesquely with turmeric and other dyes, but indulge only in a few
patches of black, sticky stuff like cobbler's wax on their faces, and a
touch of antimony round their eyes and joining their eyebrows; they wear
no veils, and at first we could not get near them, as they ran away in
terror at our approach. They have but poor jewellery--silver necklaces,
armlets, nose, toe, and finger rings. One evening, when up in the
mountains, we were told that a harem wished to see us, and we were
conducted to a spot just out of sight of our tents, where sat three
females on the ground looking miserably shy, and in their nervousness
they plucked and ate grass, and constantly as we approached retreated
three or four steps back and seated themselves again. Presently, after
much persuasion, we got one of them to come to the tent and accept a
present of needles and other oddments, the delight of womankind all the
world over. Altogether these Gara women formed a marked and pleasant
contrast to the Bedouin women in the Hadhramout, who literally besieged
us in our tent, and never gave us any peace.
It is interesting to read in the 'Periplus' (p. 32) a description of this
coast and of the high mountains behind, 'where men dwell in holes.' We
often went to visit the troglodytes in their cave homes, where we found
men, women, and children living with their flocks and herds in happy
harmony. The floor of their caves is soft and springy, the result of the
deposits of generations of cattle; in the dark recesses of the cave the
kids are kept during their mother's absence at the pasture, and though
these caves are slightly odoriferous, we found them cool and refreshing
after the external heat. In some of them huts are erected for the
families, and in one cave we found almost a village of huts; but in the
smaller ones they have no covering, and when in the open the Gara cares
for nothing but a tree to shelter him. All their farm implements are of
the most primitive nature; the churn is just a skin hung on three sticks,
which a woman shakes about until she obtains her butter. Ghi or rancid
butter is one of the chief exports of Dhofar. They practise too, a pious
fraud on their cows by stretching a calf-skin on a stick, and when the
cow licks this she is satisfied and the milk comes freely. They have but
few pots and pans, and these of the dirtiest description, so when we got
milk from them we always sent our own utensils.
In these valleys, by rocks near the streams and under trees, live, the
Bedouin told us, those curious semi-divine spirits which they call
_jinni_, the propitiating of which seems to be the chief form of religion
amongst them. One morning, as we were riding up a narrow gorge beneath
the shade of a beetling cliff, our guides suddenly set up a sing-song
chant, which they continued for fully ten minutes. '_Aleik soubera, Aleik
soubera_,' were the words which they constantly repeated, and which were
addressed, they told us, to the jinni of the rocks, a supplication to
allow us to pass in safety.
Jinni also inhabit the lakes in the Gara mountains, and it is considered
dangerous to wet your feet in them, for you will catch a fever. We could
not induce the Bedouin to gather a water-plant we coveted in one of them
for this reason. They inhabit, too, the caves where the people dwell, and
have to be propitiated with suitable offerings. In fact, the fear of
jinni, and the skill of certain magicians in keeping them friendly, are
the only tangible form of religion that we could discover amongst them.
When at the coast villages they outwardly conform to the Mohammedan
customs, but when away in their mountains they abandon them altogether.
During the time we were with them they never performed either the prayers
or the ablutions required by the Moslem creed, and the only thing
approaching a religious festival amongst them that we heard of, is an
annual festival held by the Garas in November by the side of one of their
lakes, to which all the members of the different families repair, and at
which a magician sits on a rock in the centre of a group of dancing
Bedouin, to propitiate, with certain formulas, the jinni of the lake.
Amongst the Bedouin of the Hadhramout we noticed the same absence of
religious observances and the same superstitious dread of jinni, but at
the same time I fully believe they have their own sacred places and
festivals, which they conceal as much as possible from the fanatical
Moslems who dwell amongst them. A Bedouin never fasts during Ramazan, and
does not object to do his work during the month of abstinence, but he
goes to mosque and says his prayers when occasion brings him to the
coast. It seems to me a curious coincidence that in many other Mohammedan
countries we have visited we have come across the same story of concealed
religion as practised by the nomad races. We have the Ali-Ullah-hi in the
Persian mountains, about whose secret rites horrible stories are told; we
have the Ansairi and the Druses in the Lebanon, and the nomad Yourouks of
Asia Minor, and the Dünmeh of Salonika, about all of whom the strict
Mohammedans of the towns tell you exactly the same story that we heard
about the Bedouin of Southern Arabia. They are all looked upon as heathen
by the Moslems, and accredited with secret rites and ceremonies about
which no definite knowledge can be gained; and thus it would seem that
throughout the length and breadth of Islam there are survivals of more
ancient cults which the followers of Mohammed have never been able to
eradicate, cults which no doubt would offer points of vast interest to
the anthropologist if it were possible to unravel the mysteries which
surround them.
We were for ever hearing stories of jinni amongst the Gara Bedouin, and
all we could gather was that when propitiated they are friendly to the
human race. Old Sheikh Sehel and his men stuck to it that they had
constantly seen jinni, and their belief in them seems deeply rooted. This
word is pronounced ghinni in Southern Arabia.
On January 4 we were at Beit el Khatan. We had to climb on foot. The
valley became narrower as we went on, and the cliffs at the side were
full of long caverns, with great stumpy stalactites and stalagmites,
looking like teeth in gigantic mouths. The rocks we had to climb up were
very rough and rugged, but where millions of camels' feet in thousands of
years had polished them they were quite smooth and slippery. When we got
above the woods, all very hot, we were able to ride again, at an
elevation of 2,600 feet, on undulating, grassy ground.
We encamped under two large fig-trees, and the weather being cloudy and
windy were glad to find a quantity of wood ready gathered, the remains of
a night shelter. There was muddy water at a little distance. The climate
seems most healthy, in winter at least. Three kinds of figs grow here.
Some are little purple ones with narrow leaves, and some large red ones
with broad leaves.
Leaving the Wadi Ghersìd we had a beautiful journey. We two enjoyed every
minute of the three hours and a half.
We went up the valley through a thick forest of lovely trees. There were
myrtles, ilex, figs, acacia, and a quantity of other trees, with climbing
cacti and other creepers, and great high trees of jasmin. Sometimes it
was hard enough to get through the bushes and under the trees, perched up
aloft on our camels. We were down in the river-bed part of the time, and
then climbing through the forest to get to the top of the falls. Above
the forest rise tiers of cliffs, and there were trees at the top on a
tableland, as well as large isolated trees on most of the mountain tops,
sheltering many birds.
We had to wait fully an hour for our tent, as the servants' camels were
somehow belated, and it was considered to be all owing to the jinni,
whose abode we passed. Large white bustards assembled round our camp.
Once we were settled, there was the usual run on the medicine chest. A
very nice Bedou soldier, Aman, the head one, was given five pills into
one hand by my husband, and as he insisted on grasping his weapons with
his other, he had such difficulty in consuming them that I had to hold
the cup of water for him to sip from.
Madder trees grow about, and the Bedouin make clothes from the silky
fibres.
We ascended a good deal the following day, to a point whence our view
extended over the great central desert. It looked like a blue sea with a
yellow shore. We then turned a little to the south, then north again, and
found ourselves among a quantity of wooded spurs, and on the edge of a
deep wooded wadi.
Right up to the tops of the mountains, which reach an elevation of about
3,000 feet, the ground is fertile and covered with grass, on which large
herds of cattle feed; clusters of sycamores and limes growing here and
there give to the undulating hills quite a park-like appearance. As we
happened to be there in the dry season, the grass was all brown and
slippery, and there stood around us acres upon acres of hay with no one
to harvest it; but after the rains the aspect of the Gara hills must be
as green and pleasant as those of Derbyshire. The dry grass often catches
fire, and from the mountains in various directions we saw columns of
smoke arising as if from the chimneys of a manufacturing district. The
country through which we travelled for the next two days is covered with
thorny bushes and anthills, and is more like Africa than Arabia. The
anthills, though very extensive, were not so fantastic as those we saw in
Africa. We were going eastward over high ground; we decided to halt for
two nights near a pretty little hole full of maidenhair fern, where there
was water. It was nice and clean at first, but even at the end of the
first day it was much diminished and very muddy. Travellers like
ourselves must be a great nuisance drinking up the scanty supply of water
which might last the inhabitants for a long while.
We had hoped to get a good rest after our many days of marching, but
while we were here there came on the most frightful hurricane from the
north; it blew steadily for two days and nights and put all rest out of
the question. With difficulty could we keep our tents erect; when we were
in ours we had to be tightly tied in and sit next to the sunniest wall;
in the evening when the wind abated a little we used to sit by a large
fire, dressed in blankets.
The piercing blasts quite shrivelled up our poor unclad conductors, who
crouched in an inert mass round log fires which they made. We were
obliged to remain inactive, for they said the camels would not move
during this wind, though I believe the cause of inaction rose more from
their own dislike to travel in the cold; and so inert were they that we
could hardly get them to fetch us water from the neighbouring spring,
their whole energy being expended in fetching huge logs of wood to keep
the fires burning, and I think they were all pleased when the time came
to descend to the lower regions again and a warmer atmosphere.
We were afraid to start before the sun was up for fear the camels would
be too cold to move, and he did not visit us very early.
Sheikh Sehel promised to take us across the Gara border into Nejd if we
wished; but as it would have entailed a considerable delay and parley
with the sheikhs of the Nejd Bedouin, and as we could see from our
present vantage ground that the country would afford us absolutely no
objects of interest, we decided not to attempt this expedition.
On leaving our very exposed and nameless camping-ground, we pursued our
course in a north-east direction, still passing through the same
park-like scenery, through acres and acres of lovely hay, to be had for
nothing a ton. It is exceedingly slippery, and dangerous foothold for the
camels; consequently numerous falls were the result, and much of our
journey had to be done on foot.
We and they used involuntarily to sit down and slide and be brought up
suddenly by a concealed rock.
To the south the descent is abrupt and rocky to the plain of Dhofar and
the Indian Ocean, and the horizon line on either side is remarkably
similar, for in the far, far distance the sandy desert becomes a straight
blue line like a horizon of water. To the east and west the arid
barrenness of Arabia soon asserts itself, whereas the undulating Gara
range, like the Cotswold, is fertile, and rounded with deep valleys and
ravines running into it full of rich tropical vegetation.
On the second day we began again to descend a hideously steep path, and a
drop of about 1,500 feet brought us to a remarkable cave just above the
plain, and only about ten or twelve miles from Al Hafa. This cave burrows
far into the mountain side, and is curiously hung with stalactites, and
contains the deserted huts of a Bedou village, only inhabited during the
rains. Immediately below this cave in the Wadi Nahast are the ruins of an
extensive Sabæan town, in the centre of which is a natural hole 150 feet
deep and about 50 feet in diameter; around this hole are the remains of
walls, and the columns of a large entrance gate. We asked for information
about this place, but all we could get in reply was that it was the well
of the Addites, the name always associated with the ruins of the bygone
race. They also said the Minqui had lived in the town. In my opinion this
spot is the site of the oracle mentioned by Ptolemy and others, from
which the capital of Dhofar took its name. It much resembles the deep
natural holes, which we found in Cilicia in Asia Minor, where the oracles
of the Corycian and Olbian Zeus were situated. It is just below the great
cave I have mentioned, and, as a remarkable natural phenomenon, it must
have been looked upon with awe in ancient days, and it was a seat of
worship, as the ruined walls and gateway prove; furthermore, it is just
half a day's journey east of the city of Mansura or Zufar, where, Ibn
Batuta somewhat contemptuously says, 'is Al Akhaf, the abode of the
Addites,' and there is no other point on the plain of Dhofar where the
oracle could satisfactorily be located from existing evidence. Some time,
perhaps, an enterprising archæologist may be able to open the ruins about
here, and verify the identification from epigraphical evidence.
When we reached the valley Imam Sharif said: 'We do not know how we got
down that place, for all of our feet was each 36 inches from the other
foot.' We had such trouble squeezing through the trees, too.
We encamped not at all far from the deep hole, and at first were too hot
and tired after our tremendous clamber to look round, but my husband
found it in his sunset stroll, and came and called to me to hurry out
while light yet lingered in such joyful tones that I asked, 'Is it Dianæ
Oraculum?'
Before starting in the morning we went to visit some troglodytes, dirty,
but pleasant, and willing for us to see all there was to be seen, and as
anxious to see us; indeed, they wished to see more of me than I thought
convenient, but fortunately my husband's collar-stud came undone and they
all crowded to see his white chest amid shouts of 'Shouf Theodore!' (Look
at Theodore).
One of these people had fever and another neuralgia. We found neuralgia
pretty common in Arabia. Quassia-chips were given to each to steep in
water, but carefully tied up in different coloured cotton bags. Our way
was very uninteresting, due south to the sea at Rizat.
My husband's camel required repacking, and he and Hassan managed to lose
sight of the rest of the _kafila_. Imam Sharif and I went on without
perceiving that the rest had stopped. We had to wait an hour to be found.
I dismounted, and sat in a circle of thirteen men. When one of them
wished to attract my attention he tapped me on the knee with sword or
stick, saying, 'Ya (oh), Mabel!'
One of the first days I heard them consulting what my name might be;
several were suggested, but at last they thought it must be 'Fàtema' and
to try called 'Ya Fàtema!' I said 'My name is not "Fàtema";' then they
asked, and thus they learnt our names.
They said they did not wish us to give them orders of any kind as they
were sheikhs; certainly not through the soldiers. 'We are gentlemen, and
they are slaves, and if we choose we can kill them. What is it to us? We
shall have to pay 400 reals, but we can give a camel each and can well
afford it. We are rich.'
I must say these men were often very kind to me.