'The Penetration of Arabia a record of the development of Western knowledge concerning the Arabian Peninsula with illustrations from drawings, photographs, and maps by J. G. Bartholomew.' [‎147] (224/496)

THE UNKNOWN SOUTH 147
from direct contact with the sea. To north stretches
unbroken the most terrible waste of sand-dunes in
Arabia (Ahkaf), never, to our knowledge, crossed;
and to east is the firmer but not less waterless
desert of Mahra. On the west there is passage, it
seems (for the roads are unexplored), across a nar
row steppe to the Yemen hinterland; but that hinter
land, become largely desert since the collapse of the
Sabsean dams, is itself not of ready access from
Yemen, thanks to the lofty and sterile mountain belt,
which forms the Red Sea watershed.
The population of the Wady Hadramaut, therefore,
and its tributary valleys, has had ample opportunity
to develop particularism. In more frequent commu
nication with Moslem communities outside Arabia
than within it, its religious spirit is of the exclusive
orthodox kind, which does not prevail in the other
southern districts, Yemen and Oman. It claims to
be the repository of the true tradition of the Prophet,
arrogating to itself the title Balad ad-Dln, " Land of
the Faith," and affecting especial reverence for the
present caliph. The fertility of its lands makes its
farmers self-sufficient, and jealous with the jealousy
of men who have much to lose; and while their
relations with Africa have caused them to have un
usual wealth of slaves, their relations with India,
greatly enhancing their material civilisation, have at
the same time made them fully aware of the nature
of European rule, and the danger of conceding en
trance to members of a race which condemns slavery.