Before, however, I tell of my interview with Sultan Ali Mhasen, some little account of Lahej and its rulers is necessary. The tribe of Abdali, the inhabitants of Lahej, share with the Subaiha, Foudtheli, and Houshabi, the possession of the south-west coast of Arabia, from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, the gate of tears, to nearly one hundred miles east of Aden, and reaching inland an average distance of, roughly, some fifty miles. Of these, the Subaiha are the most warlike, being of a more distinctly wandering nature than the others; while, on the contrary, the Abdali tribe to whom Aden once belonged, whose capital is to-day Howta, are the richest and most peaceful, their habitations being fixed abodes, except in the case of such as are shepherds, and are thus necessitated to change their pasturage. As I have already said, the town of Howta lies in a great oasis, supplied with water from rivers flowing from the highlands farther inland. This oasis is richly cultivated, the principal products being durra—_jowaree_ the natives call it—cotton, and sesamum, and more especially vegetables and fodder for the Aden market. Besides palms, there are several other varieties, one a luxuriant shade-giving tree, called by the natives _b’dam_, of which a fine specimen can be seen close to the precincts of the Sultan’s palace. The soil produces no less than three crops in the year, the climate being almost equable. The town of Howta is situated some twenty-seven miles north-west of Aden, and extends over a large area. There is no possibility of obtaining any certain estimate of the number of its population, which probably reaches as many as ten or fifteen thousand, what with Arabs, Jews, a few natives of India, and a considerable number of Somalis. The extreme heat and dampness of the climate render the place too feverish to allow of Europeans residing there with any safety, and even a sojourn of a few days is generally sufficient to bring on an attack of malaria. The water, too, is very bad, and officers going to shoot there from Aden are warned to carefully avoid it.