itic towns and villages; and to trace the course of these
wadis to their junction at El Ish in the Dhu Husen country, and thence
onward to the Jauf. In 1889 he succeeded, again under Turkish escort, in
reaching Marib, where he obtained, during a stay of thirty days, a large
number of new Himyaritic inscriptions. He was unable, however, to
proceed farther east than his predecessors, and the problem of the Jauf
drainage and its possible connexion with the upper part of the Hadramut
valley still remains unsolved.

Exploration in Hadramut.

The earliest attempt to penetrate into the interior from the south coast
was made in 1835 when Lieuts. C. Cruttenden and J.R. Wellsted of the
"Palinurus," employed on the marine survey of the Arabian coast, visited
the ruins of Nakb (el Hajar) in the W. Mefat. The Himyaritic
inscriptions found there and at Husn Ghurab near Mukalla, were the first
records discovered of ancient Arabian civilization in Hadramut. Neither
of these officers was able to follow up their discoveries, but in 1843
Adolph von Wrede landed at Mukalla and, adopting the character of a
pilgrim to the shrine of the prophet Hud, made his way northward across
the high plateau into the W. Duwan, one of the main southern tributaries
of the Hadramut valley, and pushed on to the edge of the great southern
desert; on his return to the W. Duwan his disguise was detected and he
was obliged to return to Mukalla. Though he did not actually enter the
main Hadramut valley, which lay to the east of his track, his journey
established the existence of this populous and fertile district which
had been reported to the officers of the "Palinurus" as lying between
the coast range and the great desert to the north. This was at last
visited in 1893 by L. Hirsch under the protection of the sultan of
Mukalla, the head of the Kaiti family, and practically ruler of all
Hadramut, with the exception of the towns of Saiyun and Tarim, which
belong to the Kathiri tribe. Starting like von Wrede from Mukalla,
Hirsch first visited the W. Duwan and found ancient ruins and
inscriptions near the village of Hajren; thence he proceeded
north-eastward to Hauta in the main valley, where he was hospitably
received by the Kaiti sultan, and sent on to his deputy at Shibam. Here
he procured a Kathiri escort and pushed on through Saiyun to Tarim, the
former capital. After a very brief stay, however, he was compelled by
the hostility of the people to return in h