'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎357] (388/582)

THE PIRATE RAHMAH-BEN JABER. 357
by a stranger from the crowd of his attendants. He carries this
simplicity to a degree of filthiness which is disgusting, as his usual
dress is a shirt, which is never taken off to be washed from the
time it is first put on till it is worn out, no drawers or coverings
for the legs of any kind, and a large black goat's-hair cloak,
wrapped over all, with a greasy and dirty handkerchief, called the
keffeea, thrown loosely over his head.
Infamous as was this man's life and character, he was not only
cherished and courted by the people of Bushire, who dread him,
but was courteously received and respectfully entertained when
ever he visited the British factory An East India Company trading post. ! On one occasion, at which I
was present, he was sent for to give some medical gentlemen of the
navy and the Company's cruisers an opportunity of inspecting his
arm, which had been severely wounded. The wound was at first
made by grape-shot and splinters, and the arm was one mass of
blood about the part for several days, while the man himself was
with difficulty known to be alive. He gradually recovered, how
ever, without surgical aid, and the bone of the arm between the
elbow and the shoulder being completely shivered to pieces, the
fragments progressively worked out, and the singular appearance
was left of the fore arm and elbow connected to the shoulder
by flesh, skin, and tendons, without the least vestige of bone. This
man, when invited to the factory An East India Company trading post. for the purpose of making this
exhibition of his arm, was himself admitted to sit at the table and
take some tea, as it was breakfast-time, and some of his followers
took chairs around him. They were all as disgustingly filthy in
appearance as could well be imagined; and some of them did not
scruple to hunt for vermin on their skin, of which there was an
abundance, and throw them beside them on the floor. Rahmah,
ben-Jaber's figure presented a meagre trunk, with four lank mem
bers, all of them cut and hacked, and pierced with wounds of
sabres, spears, and bullets, in every part, to the number perhaps of
more than twenty different wounds. He had, besides, a face natu
rally ferocious and ugly, and now rendered still more so by several