Indian Antiquary Vol 04

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 61

FEBRUARY, 1875.]
old days. The only building that has hitherto escaped the general ruin around is a small domed tomb, about fifteen feet square, standing in the highest part of the town. It contained an inscription in Neskh characters in coloured stucco, fragments of which bestrew the ground; and the walls were lined with coloured tiles, similar, probably, to those ornamenting the great mosque of this city, as described by Ibn Batuta. The dome is constructed in a somewhat primitive fashion, with bracketing work or pendentives. It is built entirely of unshaped stones and coral, as indeed were all the buildings in the city apparently, no hewn or shaped stones being visible anywhere. Near the tomb is a rectangular tank or reservoir, now filled with rubbish, with a broad arch over it, and probably intended as a storage tank for water. The line of fortifications by which the town was enclosed can still be traced without difficulty. On the south side the wall, flanked by three towers or bastions, ran with a slight bend from the sea to the abruptly rising hills, which formed a sufficient protection on that side. To the northwest the town was protected by two towers on a small eminence called El Sheikh, commanding that part of the town, and on this hill the governor of the city is said to have had his residence. Under this lies the present village of Kalhât, inhabited by the El Shaabain, a petty tribe of about two hundred souls, who live by fishing and doing a small trade in dates.
The Wady Issir, which seems the natural pass into the interior from Kalhât, is, however, so blocked up by huge boulders and fragments of limestone washed down from the lofty, precipitous walls above, that it is impassable for laden camels, and their place is here taken by asses; and I imagine, therefore, that the route by which SPECIMENS OF THE WEDDING SONGS THE GERMAN OF THE [Mr. Jellinghaus mentions that his translation is literal, and therefore but poorly represents the harmony of the original. The following is a literal rendering of Mr. Jellinghaus's German, made by a friend and rapidly glanced over by me.-J. M. Mitchell.]
WEDDING SONGS OF THE MUNDAH-KOLHS.
Speech of the bride, who is leaving her father's house, to her brother.
In one mother's womb we were sister and brother,
Drinking we have drunk a whole cask of milk,
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the bulk of the produce and merchandize was carried to and fro between the town and the interior was round by Sûr, which is easily reached by sea and land, and which lies open to the inland districts of El Sharkiyeh and Jaalan. About two miles up the wady is Sukherât, where there is room for a little cultivation, and where a small but perennial mountain stream, bounding and cascading among the rocks and stones, once fed an aqueduct that supplied the city with pure water, and the traces of which are still visible along the right bank of the wady, though generally destroyed by the hand of time and the action of the torrent. The beginning of the aqueduct is marked by a square chunammed cistern, which, with part of the canal leading from it, is still in good preservation. Meida, also alluded to by Ibn El Mojawir, is merely a deep pool in the bed of the ravine about half a mile from the town, and was at best a precarious source of supply. There are said to have been one hundred and one wells within the walls of the city, but none of them now contain water. In former times vessels are traditioned to have ascended the creeks and anchored abreast of the town half a mile from the sea, where they would of course find perfect shelter from every wind; but these creeks, apparently by the scour of the torrent, have now become filled up with detritus and sand from above, and are too shallow for any but the smallest boats to enter them. This fact is alone sufficient to account for the total eclipse of Kalhât as a commercial port, and its place is now to some extent taken by the neighbouring and flourishing town of Sûr, which, with its deep and capacious creek, has become next to Maskâtand Muttra h the greatest rendezvous for native shipping on the Omân coast.
OF THE MUNDA-KOLHS, FROM REV. TH. JELLINGHAUS.
Drinking we have drunk a whole cask of milk: Thy lot, O brother, is the father's wood-house; My lot, O brother, is the distant land. The mother weeps her whole life long, The father weeps six months,
The brother weeps during the (marriage) talking and eating,
The sister-in-law weeps a moment,
The fowls, calling out for me, already begin to smooth their combs again.