The Ordway new era., 1914-05-22

- - AIDES is built just under the
Persian gulf. and keeps It's wa
,ters hot. Arabs will tell you.
To prove their claim they
point to the luminous. phos.
phorescent balls which lazily float be-
meath the waters at night. and say they
are fragments of the everlasting
flames.
Maskat, the picturesque pirates re-
treat on the rocky Oman coast. is
called the hottest place In the world.
The sailors say a man who has spent
q summer in this blistering cove may
walk barefoot into Hades-and feel
chill. It was 124 degrees Fahrenheit
in the shade of our awnings when we
dropped a6chor in Maakat harbor. hve
days out Of Bombay. Lord Cur1on, who
visited Maskat, said: I'm the heats be-
tween June and August the ordinary
thermometer bursts: those graded
high enough have placed the solar n
diation at 189 Fahrenheit The ram
fall IL only three and onehalf inches.
and this all comes within = period OF
two or three weeks"
A new American consul to MaskAt
got in the same day did, writes Fred
erick Simpich in the Los Angeles
Times. In the silent. quivering hest
of MONDAY the old muzzle-loading guns
of the sultan's fortress. perched high
on the red rocks above the baking
town. crashed forth salute. The
Stars and Stripes, in honor of the new
consul, appeared for an instant above
the picturesque old fort. built by the
adventurous Portuguese when they
held this boiling inlet ages ago.
Aspset 10 Uneanny.
Gibraltar looks tame beside the
wild, scowiing cliffs of Maskat. Sharp.
splintered rocks rise hundreds Of feet
high, straight up from the hot sea.
From the north q narrow bay opens
into this mass Of peaks and crags. at
whose feet clings Maskat. The whole
aspect Of the place is uncanny and
weird-like Dores pictures Of Dante's
Inferno" Not q trace of vegetation
exists. Food Is largely brought from
India
Near the beach stands the sultan's
palace, . pretendous structure for this
part of the world. A huge lion from the
Arabian desert Is kept In an iron cage
near the entrance to tho palace. When
Lord Curzon was in Maakat he saw
woman, who was accused Of murder.
confined In . similar cage very near
the lion.
In the narrow, crowded bazaar.
every Arab met carried . long curved
knife, and . nrearm of some pattern
Their rifles were often inlaid with sill
yer, and had the stocks wrapped with
deerskin. Slavery was abolished-offi-
cially-by treaty with the British some
years ago. but SO many blacks had
been previously brought In that they
have left their impress on the people
of Maskat, with whom they have
mixed. The Maskat Arabs appear
much darker than those farther north.
Scores Of thick-lipped. woolly-headed
blacks from Abyssinia and Zanzibar
were mingled with the market throng;
many Of these were slaves belonging
to wealthy Arabs. The bazaar trade
itself, which seemed to consist largely
Of guns and ammunition. besides of
course the usual articles Of cloth.
skins and food, is in the hands OF Hin
du traders. Guns Of every description
were for sale, and 1t is from this traf-
10 that the sultan derives much OF his
income. Camel caravans take the guns
inland from Maskat, and carry them
around by land to Koweit. and even
ACROSS to Baluchistan. All the tribes
of the interior of Arabia secure arms
through this source. which they after
ward use against one another. the
Turks or the English in Baluchistan.
as the case may be.
Maskat is above all a city of song
and dance. Of good times and high life
AS Arabs know It In all Arabia. It
IL said, NO maids are so fair as those
of Maskat Here, too, flourish the
black arts and superstitious sorcertes
which are openly avowed and prac-
tised. "Baled-es-Soharah" the natives
call Oman. which means "The Land
of the Enchanters." The water front
n alive with weird yarns Of fancy
magic and occult mysteries. Half the
fiction of the Arabian Nights could
have been lifted bodily from any Of the
same sort Of stories which are told
and retold in the coffee shops Of Mas
kat any night, when the blazing sun u
set
From Maskat north the heat by day
aboard the Kola became more intense.
reaching 1875 Sailors stopped sea water