THE ESTUARIES OP JIBAN 43

the cliffs ran south-west to unite at no great distance in a
narrow bay forming the landward head of the depression.
From this head the estuary—that seems the most appro-
priate term to use in connection with these Jiban depres-
sions—splays out delta-wise towards the sea in a north-
easterly direction, the prominent headland of Ri' al Hamda
forming the seaward extremity of the northern cliff as it does
of the southern fringe of Jaub al Hirr.1 The true channel of
the estuary runs north-eastward along the northern cliff to
the vast salt-flats that extend to the waters of the Gulf of
Bahrain, while on the southern side of the valley a series of
broad rock-steps, Kberally covered with dunes and ridges of
sand, descends towards the salt-flats from the Ba'aij head-
land. Salwa lay about NNE. of our point of observation
though its palms and the sea were invisible to us in the after-
noon haze. And here and there on the flanks of the channel
strangely eroded stacks2 of rock stood out as evidence of the
progressive denudation and weathering of the cliffs, of which
doubtless they once formed part. One of these fragments,
known as Naslat al Tarad or c the rock of the battle/ pre-
serves the memory of a famous tribal encounter of some 30
or 35 years ago when 'Ali Jahman was a child. It was fought
between the Murra, who were in possession of the wells, and
the'Ajman, who entered the depression at, and launched their
attack from, this rock. The battle was stubbornly waged
throughout the day and in the end victory rested with the
home tribe, the Murra, who had as many as 50 casualties to
mourn, while the losses of the defeated 'Ajman were very
much heavier. That was in the good old days when cavalry
still counted in Arab warfare, but now the modern rifle has
deleted the horse from such affrays, while the thirty years'
peace of Ibn Sa'ud has all but eliminated war from the nor-
mal programme of the tribes. Gone are the days of horse-
breeding among the warlike Hurra, for now, as like as not,
if any man have a mare worth 'having she will inevitably
drift into the stables of Ibn Jiluwi, as fine a judge of horse
and camel flesh as lives to-day in Arabia, and a tiger, they

1 The word Jaub (plur. Jiban} signifies a depression.

2 Such isolated rocks are called Naala.