Report No.67 of 1863 detailing the tribes, trades and resources of the Gulf Littoral [‎4r] (7/58)

would be removed from his Government at the pleasure of the Bushire Governor.
Criminals would be sent to Bushire; and revenue, if not punctually paid, would be
levied by Mohussil, or failing this way, by force.
41. Reviewing the trade of this coast line as you pass along it from the
North, Southward; the first Bort that comes under notice is that of Bunder
Deelum. It is a small, busy, open town clustering round a square fort. It is
, , 0 one of two points, the other being Hindeean already
k e paragrap 1 o. remarked on, where sea borne trade lands, to
follow the Behbehan line; Zeitoon, the point of general trade convergence on the
Hindeean river, is distant from Deelum about 5^ fursacs. The stream is crossed
by a raft, or in the low season at a ford, a mile or two before you reach Zeitoon.
Formerly Zeitoon returned 9,000 Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. customs, per annum, but now yeilds
only 3,000 Tomans 10,000 Persian dinars, or a gold coin of that value. . This falling off, like that of both population and revenue
along the entire coastline from Mashoor to Congoon, is attributed to the absence
of attraction between the Government and the people; and to the consequent
emigration, or idleness of the latter. Deelum, like all other Forts along this
coast, is a mere entrepot; and the number of its resident inhabitants does not
adequately represent the extent of its commerce. Zeitoon is a fine agricultural
district. The trade of Deelum may be roughly stated as follows:
Exports.
Wheat and Barley to the value of. 30,000 Krans to Busreh, Koweit and Lingah.
Wool ditto 1C0,000 ditto Bushire and Koweit for India.
Bogun cherag ditto 10,000 ditto.
Grapes and Baisins ditto 20,000 ditto to Koweit and Busreh.
Bogun ditto 30,000 ditto.
Imports.
Piece goods 150,000 Krans value 1
Sugar 50,000 ditto > From Bushire and Koweit.
Tea 10,000 ditto J
Dates 50,000 ditto Equal to 1,000 Karehs from Busreh.
These imports go to Behbehan and also Bam Hormuz.
The Customs receipts may be from 15,000 to 20,000 Krans per annum, on both exports and
imports together.
42. Between Bunder Deelum and the next Port of Bunder Reegh lie the
traces of the ruins of an ancient Fort; and of ancient cities of immense
extent. This tract has been known as Genaweh from time immemorial.
Its upper portion is a confused tumbling of low, grotesquely shaped, sand
stone and earthy hills; in parts intersected with vertical lines of gypsum,
cropping up like the jagged edges of broken plate glass, or strewn over
the slopes, like pieces of ice. Leaving this rugged, confused region, you
emerge on the beautiful plain of the ancient Geramha, the chief town of
Genaweh, whose extensive ruins still hillock the soil for miles around. Some
hindoo looking Temples still stand on the outskirts, towards the beach; with their
acorn shaped domes of spiral brick or stone work, and with their invariable accom
paniments of two or three Banyan Merchant of Indian extraction. trees, the only ones to be found in the country.
The architecture of these temples, and of their neighbouring wells, seems still to
tell of a time, when Kafirs, whether Hindoos (as tradition asserts) or others,
flourished on this plain. Ferhaps, from that Fort of Grai, the wealth of the lowest
layer of debris in yonder mounds, the earliest Geramha, was exchanged with
that coming from Edom or Chaldea, through the earliest Geranhensis near the
present Grane or Koweit. It has happened to me to wonder over the traces of
many ancient cities. But no re-iteration of the scene ever mitigates the solemnity
of its reflection or the gloom of its forebodings. Whatever may have been the
histories of their rise and fall, one feels, in digging down these strata of silent
homes, that they formed, not one city, but successive cities; each leaving a con
glomerate of what it used, as its only record; each showing that man had come of
age, ere history began; and one and all revealing as from the grave, the common
doom of human power, on earth.