azaar, according to the Turkish custom, consists of covered
passages, under which the merchants sit cross-legged before their
miserable stalls.

In the rocky valley in which Muscat lies the heat is very oppressive
(124 degrees Fah. in the sun), and the sunlight is very injurious to
the eyes, as it is not in the slightest degree softened by any
vegetation. Far and wide there are no trees, no shrubs or grass to
be seen. Every one who is in any way engaged here, go as soon as
their business is finished to their country-houses situated by the
open sea. There are no Europeans here; the climate is considered
fatal to them.

At the back of the town lies a long rocky valley, in which is a
village containing several burial-places, and, wonderful to say, a
little garden with six palms, a fig, and a pomegranate-tree. The
village is larger and more populous than the town; containing 6,000
inhabitants, while the latter has only 4,000. It is impossible to
form any conception of the poverty, filth, and stench in this
village; the huts stand nearly one over the other, are very small,
and built only of reeds and palm-leaves; every kind of refuse was
thrown before the doors. It requires considerable self-denial to
pass through such a place, and I wonder that plague, or some other
contagion, does not continually rage there. Diseases of the eyes
and blindness are, however, very frequent.

From this valley I passed into a second, which contains the greatest
curiosity of Muscat, a rather extensive garden, which, with its
date-palms, flowers, vegetables, and plantations, constitutes a true
picture of an oasis in the desert. The vegetation is only kept up,
for the most part, by continual watering. The garden belongs to the
Arabian prince. My guide seemed to be very proud of this wonderful
garden, and asked me whether there were such beautiful gardens in my
country!

The women in Muscat wear a kind of mask of blue stuff over the face,
fastened upon springs or wires, which project some distance beyond
the face; a hole is cut in the mask between the forehead and nose,
which allows something more than the eyes to be seen. These masks
are worn by the women only when they are at some distance from home;
in and near their houses they are not used. All the women that I
saw were very ugly; the men, also, had not the fine, proud features
which are so frequently met with among the Arabians. Great numbers
of negroes are employed here as