Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎20v] (40/42)

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comrade left jthe city- of Ha'yel,. and for six
days marched southeast through Te;i\l's cb-
minions to Kaseem which is divided in its §1-
legiaiice between Shonaer and the Wahabe®.
Another strip of Kefood, of which there.seea
to be <four in all, was crossed, and the town of
-Bereydah was reached, where were found a can-
van pf pilgrims headed by the unfortunate Quem
Dowager of Lucknow, who was cruelly victftnigefi
by the Wahabees. Here our physician and hs.
comrade made a new friend;—Aboo'Ejsa, a
Persian, who conducted th^m throughout the,
r^st .of their journey, and who was so faithfil.
that Mr. Palgrave entrusted him with his secre..
Before reaching Riad, the capital of the seconl
Wahabee empire which rose on the ruins cf
that laid low by the Egyptian pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , they passei
JDe"|ey,ah^ the ruined capital pf the first empjre,
Among the r.uins there are.still forty thousani
dwellei-s who reap the fruits of the rich planta
tions and well watered fields. A few hoars'
travelling brought therii to Riad, " the capita!
of. Nejed and half Arabia, its very heart of
hearts."
" Before us stretched a wild open valley, and in iM
foreground,, imipedlately below the pebbly slope
on whose summic we stood, lay the capital, large
and square, crowned by high towers and strong
walls of.defenee, a mass of 1'oofs and terraces, where
oyertopping all frowned the'huge.but irregular pile
of Feysul's royal castle, and hard by it rose the
scarce less conspicuous palace, built and inhabited
by his eldest son, 'Abdallah. Oth^r edifices, two of
remarkable appearance, broke hero and there through
the tnnze of grey roof-tops, hue their object and in-
dwellers were yet,to learn. All aroupd for full three
miles over the surrounding plain, but more especial
ly to the west and south, wayed a sea of palm-trees
aboye green fields and well-watered gardens ; while
the singing droning sound of the water-wheels reach
ed us even where we had halted, at a quarter of a
mile or more from the nearest town walls. , On the
opposite , side .southwards, the valley .opened oijt
.into the great ^nd eVeo pw^e.'-feirtiia plains of Y.ema-
mah, thickly do : tted with groves and villages, among
* Wfaijjb the large 'town of Jilarifoohah, hardly, inferior
in size to Rind itself, might b§ clearly distinguished.
Farther iri'ttie background raiiged the-blue hiMS; the
ragged .sierra, .of Yemamah, compared sotne tiiirteea
hunflred. years since by 'Amroo-ebn-Kelthpom, the
Snomente, to drawn swords in ' battle array ; and
behind them was concealed the immaasurable Deserij
of, the j^hna, , Q q. bhe west the, valley
closes in and narrows in its upward windings towards
Oerey'eeyah,-while to th 1 e s6ht'h--fc r est the low mounds
pf Af aj are the division between it and Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Dowasir.
But eastward . jt communicates through undulating
atid broken grdund with the long Valley of Solfey'-or
Wadi A seasonal or intermittent watercourse, or the valley in which it flows. Spley', whose.northecly branch runs far up ben
hind the inner ch^in of J'oweyk under the.mountain
of 'Atalah, while its sotft'herly extremity traverses a
broad extent' of saiKJa,-thinly sprinkled with anbe-
oasional grove or vhUge, and, passing through them,
ends at the town of Hootah, long the rival and now
the discontented vassal of Hiad. Here the province
of HaVeel^ borders the desert, and encroaches on-jj;
Jiorthv.ard and eastward, till ir, almost gives a hand
to the outskirts of Kal ar and the'limits of 'Otnanite
rule. Due east in the dist.nnce a long blee line marks
the furthest heights of Toweyk, and shuts out from
. view the low ground of Oasa and the shores of the
Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . la all the countries which I have
visited, and they are many, seldom has it been
mine lo survey a landscape equal to this in beauty
and in historical meaning, rich and full alike to eye
and mind.
'Twas easy to enter into this trap of the Waha
bees, but difficult to leave it. Feysul, the king,
is old and blind from ophthalmia contracted
when he was an exile in Egypt: he is ruled
by his illegitimate son and prima minister, a
mefe youth of great cruelty and treachei'y. His
two sons Abdallah and Sahood are jealous of
each other's influence and aspire io the throne,
which must: soon be vacant. The former is
the elder and the heir-apparent. After several
weeks of successful doctoring in ,the fanatical
city, Mr, Palgrave was forced to leave, because he
refused to supply him with stryehrdne for the
murder of his brother. When all 'tlxe- cifcizens
.were in the mosque at afternooh pi-ayer,.which;
they are forced to attend by roll-call and the
a; II E N D O F INDIA, i
fear of the bastinado, Mr. Palgrave and Barakat
'e^capp^. Some days after they wei'e joined by
Abop'Eysa, and his caravan, they passed over
a third Nefood, and were hospitably entertained
at Hofhoof and then at Kateef oa the Persian
Gulf. There Mr. Palgrave fortunately made oyer
his MSS. to his Syrian friend, and set off alone
: to_ visit the island of Bahrein, and the two coasts
of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. at and opposite Ras Mus-
sendom, extending his observations as far as
Muscat. In the course of this journey he was
; wrepked, losing all that he had. He finally re
turned by the Indian and Tigris steamers to
i Bagdad, and thence by the Aleppo route to Eu-
Irope which he reached in May lSi63. Whethpr
w^ ^ consider the novelty o^f his facts, the import-
ance of his researches, or the literary value of
his book, we must place him at the head of
those modern travellers who have within the
last few years made geography a new science—
yambery? Speke and Livingstone.
Mr. Pal grave's descriptions of the three great
Arabian,, kingdoms of Shomer with its capitai
Hiiyel under Telal, Nejed with its capital Riad
under the W^habee EeysuJ, and Oman with its
great towps of Sharjah, Soharand Muscat under
Sujtaii ^Thowgynee, are. new revelations to the pub-
Ijio. He festijpaatesi the population of the eleven
districts .of Oman—the most prosperous on.ac-
cpunM of its, sea , coasjt and trade — at 2 ? 280,0Q()
with , a military force of 112,0p0 and a wond
erfully strong, in aval force. He. states the re
venue of the Sultan at ,£l ? 650,G40 a year. To
the eleven prpvincps of the Wahabee kingdom
he assigns a population of l^l^OOO with a
military" ihustef of 47,300 and 'a revenue of
^FO^i'OO. The'Bedouin subjects of tbe Waha
bees are 76,^00 in eleven tribe ! S supplying 8,000
wan-iork''' 1 The kingdom of Shorner ; with'five
provinces has'274.d()d setlilfed aHd i'Ge^O ■ Be
douin subjects, with a military Torce of 30;0d6.
Si r. Pafgrave colild' dbtain n'6' exact statements'
oT 'Telal s ^evefiues, but estimates the'm at a
fourth' of Feysul's. Thowdjiiee, 'Fej'feur afad't'e-
lal, ■tlfe'^bvereigns' of Oman, Nej'ed.and 9589mer?
tlius'rule rather more than fotir'hiillidns 6f peo
ple," aba command'about two hundred thousand
soldiers.' And this in Arabia, hitherto vulgar
ly supposed ''to contam hO plkees of importance
but ifecc'a and Medina, beydiid which "all ^as
desert!
'BHOOTAN AKD THE POLITICAL IMPORT
ANCE OF ETHNOLOGY.
(F rom a C orresfondent.)
C alcutta, August 5.
Ethnology is not now a mere pastime or
even an abstract science, but is recognised to be
of the most extreme political and practical im
portance. Situated as we are in the East it is
of overwhelming and vital importance, and now
that we are fairly engaged in a Bhootan expedi
tion, it is i tft.be hoped that we have made those
Ethnological inquiries which are more important
than even the Jiilitary and Commissariat ar
rangements.
It is clear that not only mere physical features
but also moral and political qualities distinguish
different rslces-of men. More especially we are
interested in that - very ma,rked moral feature,
which, renders some races patient of foreign rule
and pth.er races wholly impatient of such a rule.
The former, are genprally.found to submit, even to
what appears physically a force insufficient to keep
them perma'nently down ; the latter do not know
when they are beaten, thby resist'arid'sometimes
Tor fohg-sti'ciJessfully- resist, a much superior-force.
Ttife wiral featiire Is*'by bo KiOans synonymous,
or in any degree c on te rim no us, with courage or
ueuenteu. uut Air. Ajoney must see that
progress is not arrested ; he must show for
the. future some interest in this hopeful
people and the district 'they inhabit. We
accept his letter to Government as a pledge
that he will do so, and with all the more
confidence since he frankly confesses—" I do
not think that all has beeu done which
might be done to .render less oppressive the
hold pf the mahajun over his creditor." He
proposes to meet this by an improved sys
tem of registration of bonds and " one or
two other matters." We trust roads are in
cluded in this phrase. It looks well to say
that legislation cannot cure usury. But ad
ministration can. The Sonthals are an imprud
ent race, we are told, and yet Government
gives the Bengalis a virtual monopoly of all
money and produce dealings with them. We
do not wish the rate of interest to be touched,
but we do wish the Commissioner to afford
every facility for capital to find its way
into the country, by the construction of
roads and the encom'agement of settlers.
There are no roads in the Pergunnahs.
Twelve miles from the railway station of
Bahawa is the mart of Burhait, yet its pn>
duce goes thirty-two miles to Dhoolian and
then makes'a detour of sixteen miles more to
the station of Pakoiir. In the absence of
roads the clumsy carts continue to roll on
discs of solid wood, and convey only half
an ordinary load. The Railway Company
made a good road for the conveyance of its
material parallel with the line, but the
authorities allowed it to relapse into jungle.
Competition will soortreduce the usurers' rate
of interest if the Commissioner will attract
capital by the most ordinary facilities. Then
the fertile valleys of Sonthalistan will begin i
to outstrip the rest of Bengal as much as
they have lingered behind it.
excellent soldiers. ¥ et tney **a.x . „ntly pa
tient of foreign rule, and in this is the true differ
ence between India and Algeria. Nowhere have
we met braver enemies, nowhere have we better
soldiers, than the Sikhs. But also nowhere have we
better subjects. They are quite as good soldiers
as the Affghans. In that capacity both races
serve us equally well. But as subjects the two
are wide as the poles asunder.
The Affghan war was, "it is now plain, a mere
ethnolo'gical blunder, or rather a blunder arising
out of an Ignorance'and disr'egard of ethnology.
Putting that apart, the policy 1 was exactly the
same which had been so often successful in Ind
ia. and doubtless if the; ethnological features
had been the same, it.would have been similarly
successful. Not even the physical difficulties of
the country had really much to do with our
failure. At first we surmounted them with emin
ent''silccess. The physi'ckd features of the Hi-
malyan territories are infinitely more difficult,'
and the-Western Himalayas are occupied by
Hindoos of a good military character—Rajpoots
and others—'On whom, during the centuries of
their .rule in India, the Mabommedans never
made the least impression.- Yet the part of pur
territories in India which at this moment we
bold * with the most complete security and the
leafet use of 5 military force, is that western Hi-
trialyan country, the distt-ict's of Kangra, Simla, 1
and Kumaon. Nowhere can a European pitch
his tent in such peace,/eomfort, and security—
wljile in Peshawur he pan hgrdly sleep safe in his
bed in the European military cantonment. The
explanation is,simply this, that the Himalyau
Hindoos are a race patient of a mild foreign
rule.
East of Kumaon beyond the Kahi, when we get*
into the Nepal Territory, Hindoo blood ceases
to predominate in the Himalaya. Throughout
the Nepal territory we haye races which appear
to be for the most part Thibeta^i. StMar as-
our knowledge goes ft seems to tend to the belief
that the Ihibetans are tolerably patient of for
eign rule. In Thibet Proper they seem to sub-
rnit to the Chinese Government in a way Which
can. hardly be, esplairr^d by any overwhelming
physical force—seeing the enormous distance and
difficulty of the routejljetwepn.Tehr.ee and Lhassa,
and the little military aptitude of the,. Chjjtiese.
Nejsal itself seems to be an example of,tire same
kind. The dominant Goorkhas are a small, tribe,
claiming to be—and who (it ! appears) "to a great
degree really are—Hindoos. For example, Maha
rajah Jung Bahadoor is as Atian as'tiny Brah-'
min in Calcutta; there is not a trace Of.the
Mongolian about him. But the men whom
we are Very absurdly in the habit of deMcrib-
ing as real Goorkhfis^—rth^ ..men wjjp'se faces
bear the Ultra-Mongolian type so much ap
preciated in our Goorkha Regiments—are not
Godrkhas at all. Most of these men belong to
two Thibetan tribes called " Magars" and Gur-
angs," inhabiting the Upper Hills of Western
Nepal between Katmandhoo and the Kumaon
frontier. Generally it may be said that the
Hindoo tribe of Gporkhas have risen to power in
Asia by the aid of soldiers of Thibetan blood, and
that they dominate successfully over races chief
ly Thibetan. These Thibetans are not only good
soldiers, and it would appear tolerably good sub
jects, but they seem to be also of a good intellect.
In the Sinrla Government School the boys of the
soldiers of the Goorkha Regiment were found
to be remarkably clever, and they decidedly beat
the Hindoos,
Passing- eastwards from' Nepal we come to
that part of the Himalyan range which we
call Bhootan, and. in which we are at present
more immediately interested. Who then are
the people of that country ? The dominant race
are officially called " Bhpotanese." But it seems
to b'e generally assumed that the termination of
the word Bhootati is like the 1 termination of
Hindoatan, ■ and signifies the oeuatry of th»
Bhoots or Bhooteas, just as Hindostan signifies