The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1914-07-24

ters hot, Arabs Will teii you
N To prove their claim thes
point to the luminous, phos-
phorescent balls which lazily float pc
meath the waters at night, and say tney
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 man who has spent
a summer in this blistering cove may
walk barefoot into Hades-and feel
chill. 1t was 124 degrees Fahrenheit
in the shade of our awnings when we
dropped anchor in Maskat harbor, nve
days out of Bombay. Lord Curzon, who
visited Maskat, said: "In the heats be-
tween June and August the ordinary
thermometer bursts; those graded
high enough have placed the solar ra-
diation at 1S9 Fahrenheit. The rain
fall is only three and one-half 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 heat
Of MONDAY the old muzsle-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.
Aspect ls uncanny.
Gibraltar looks tame beside the
wild, scowling cliffs of Maskat. Sharp,
splintered rocks rise hundreds of feet
high. straight up from the hot sea-
From the north 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 Dore's pictures of Dante's
Inferno" Not trace of vegetation
exists. Food Is largely brought from
India
Near the beach stands the sultan's
palace, pretentious structure for this
part OF the world. A huge lion from the
Arabian desert is kept In an iron cage
near the entrance to the palace. When
Lord Curzon was in Maskat he saw a
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 firearm of some pattern
Their rifles were often inlaid with sill
yer, and had the stocks wrapped with
deerskin. Slavery was abolished-o off
cially-by treaty with the British some
years ago, but so many blacks hat
been previously brought in that they
have left their impress on the people
of Maskat, with whom they have
mixed. The Maskat Arabs appeal
much darker than those farther north
Scores of thick-lipped. woolly-headet
blacks from Abyssinia and Zanzibar
we're mingled with the market throng
many of these were slaves belonging
to wealthy Arabs. The bazaar trade
itself, which seemed to consist largel,
Of guns and ammunition, besides o
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 trai
&c that the sultan derives much of hi
income Camel caravans take the gun
inland from Maskat. and carry ther
around by land to Koweit, and eve
across to Baluchistan. All the tribe
Of the interior Of Arabia secure arm
through this source, which they aftel
ward use against one another, tn
Turks or the English in Baluchistar
as the case maybe.
Maskat is above all city Of son
and dance, of good times and high lif
las Arabs know 1t. In all Arabia.
Is said, no maids are SO fair as thos
of Maskat. Here, too, flourish tn
black arts and superstitious sorcerie
which are openly avowed and pra