The Imaum of Muscat is passionately fond of horses, and devotes considerable time and attention to their breeding.  Of some of the finest horses in his stud, the Imaum makes presents to the governors of the Indian presidencies, and deserving officers in his own service.  Horses likewise form an article of trade between Muscat and India, and yield, as I have been told, a considerable profit.

(Intellect is not on the march at Bushire.  It contains a small school founded by the famous Joseph Wolff, and supported by the British residents in Persia.  Mr. Wolff projected much; but Mr. Stocqueler says:)

The school possessed, while I was at Bushire, no more than thirteen pupils, who were struggling through the rudiments of the Persian and Armenian languages, under the guidance of a sleepy old Armenian.

(At Koete, our author visited three brothers, “all dressed alike and so much resembling each other in feature, and in the total loss of the left eye, that it was difficult to discover my friend the supercargo, who had accompanied us from Bombay.”

Koete is about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad.  The houses are built of mud and stone, and flat roofed with the trunk of the date tree.  Around it is a wall, beyond which nothing is to be seen but a vast sandy plain, extending more than sixty miles.  Within the walls, it is equally sterile, it literally yields nothing; here, “all is barren,” and the water is far from sweet, yet 4,000 souls live, though the sheikh keeps up no standing army.  Mr. S. sails thence into the Shut-ul-Arab, [River of the Arabs,] the banks of which are more delightful than those of the Thames at Richmond.

At Bussorah—­a bain a la Turque.)

Entering the hummaum, I found myself suddenly in an apartment resembling a vaulted cellar, dimly lighted by small apertures, and glazed sky-lights in the dome.  Stone and brick benches, covered with cloths and coarse carpets, were ranged along the walls, and there was a fireplace where coffee and chibouks were prepared, and cloths dried.  Having been required to strip, and a cloth tied round my waist, I was led into a second apartment filled with steam, and of so high a temperature, that in one instant I lost my breath, and in the next was streaming from every pore.  I anticipated a speedy dissolution of my “solid flesh;” but on reaching a third apartment, (all vaulted and lighted, or rather darkened alike,) I had become somewhat relieved.  In this apartment were four cisterns nearly level with the floor, into which the hot water was drawn by cocks placed in the wall above.  As soon as I had decided that the water was hot enough, I was placed by the side of one of the cisterns, and then the operation commenced.

Act 1.—­Deluged with hot water from the hands of a stout Persian. Act 2.—­Conducted by said Persian to a stone ottoman in the centre of the room, and caused to sit down. Act 3.—­My whole body kneaded by the fists of the aforesaid; joints cracked, ears pulled, mustachoes dyed, limbs rubbed with a hair-cloth glove. Act 4.—­Enveloped in warm towels, and served with a pipe. Act 5.—­Wiped dry; led into the outer apartment dressed and—­Exit.