 CHAPTER XII THE HALT AT YEMBER The heat of the sun, the heavy dews, and the frequent washings of the waves, had so affected my foot that on landing at Yember I could scarcely place it upon the ground. But Traveller's duty was to be done, so leaning upon my slave's shoulder I started at once to see the town, while Sheikh Ahmed and the others of our party proceeded to the Custom House. YEMBER EL BAHR, YEMBER, or Fountain of the Sea FUTNUT YEMBER in Arabic is a fountain. YEMBER of the sea is so called to distinguish it from YEMBER of the palm grounds, a village that the foot of the mountains about 18 or 20 miles distant from the seaport. Hurley Bay places it one day's journey, east one degree, four degrees northeast from Yember El Bahr, and describes it as a pleasant place in a fertile valley. It is now known as Yember en Nakhil, see the land of Median revisited. Identified by Abyssinian Bruce, with the Iambia village of Tolemy, is a place of considerable importance and shares with others the title of the Gate of the Holy City. It is the third quarter of the Caravan Road from Cairo to Mecca, and here as well as at Badr pilgrims frequently leave behind them, in hired warehouses goods too heavy to be transported in haste or too valuable to risk in dangerous times. FUTNUT The first quarter of the Cairo Caravan is Al-Aqaba, the second is Manhal Selma, or Selma's place for watering camels, the third is Yember, and the fourth is Mecca, and Afutnut. Yember, being the port of Al-Madinah, as Jidda is of Mecca, is supported by a considerable transport trade and extensive imports from the harbours on the western coast of the Red Sea. It supplies its chief town with grain, dates, and henna. Here the Sultan's dominion is supposed to begin, whilst the authority of the Pasha or Egypt seizes. There is no nivam or regular army, however, in the town. FUTNUT The nivam, as Europeans now know, is the regular Turkish infantry. In Al-Hijaz these troops are not stationed in small towns like Yember. At such places a party of irregular horses, for the purpose of escorting travellers, is deemed sufficient. The Yember police seems to consist of the Sharif's sturdy negroes. In Alibay's time Yember belonged to the Sharif of Mecca, and it was garrisoned by him, and Afutnut. And the governor is a Sharif or Arab chief. I met him in the great bazaar. He is a fine young man of light complexion, and a usual high profile, handsomely dressed with a cashmere turban, armed to the extent of sword and dagger, and followed by two large fierce-looking negro slaves leaning upon enormous snapboots. The town itself is in no wise remarkable. Built on the edge of a sunburnt plain that extends between the mountains and the sea, it fronts the north end extremity of a narrow winding creek. Viewed from the harbour, it is a long line of buildings whose painful whiteness is set off by a sky-like cobalt and a sea-like indigo. Behind it lies the flat. Here a Mr. Brown, there of lively tawny, whilst the background is formed by this small roldwa, barren and bare and sightly and adorned. Outside the walls are a few little domes and tombs which by no means merit attention. Inside the streets are wide and each habitation is placed at an unsociable distance from its neighbour, except near the port and the bazaars where ground is valuable. The houses are roughly built of limestone and curling, and their walls full of fossils, crumble like almond cake. They have huge hanging windows and look mean after those in the Muslim quarters of Cairo. There is a souk, or market street, of the usual form, a long narrow lane darkened by a covering of palm trees, with little shops let into the walls of the houses on both sides. The cafes which abound here have already been described in the last chapter. They are rendered dirty, they are extreme by travellers, and it is impossible to sit in them without a fan to drive away the flies. The custom house fronts the landing-place upon the harbour. It is managed by Turkish officials, men dressed in tabooshes who repose a life-long day upon the D1s near the windows. In the case of us travellers they had very simple way of doing business, charging each person of the party three piasters for each large box, but by no means troubling themselves to meddle with the contents. Fitnut, this, as far as I could learn, is the only tax which the sultan's government derives from the north and hijaz. The people declare it to be, as one might expect, at this distance from the capital, liable to gross speculation, when the Wahhabis held Yembor, they assessed it like all other places for which their men is held in the liveliest abhorrence, and the Fitnut. Yembor, also boast of a hamam or hot bath, a mere date-leaf shed, tenanted by an old Turk who, with his surly Albanian assistant, lives by cleaning pilgrims and travellers, some white-washed mosques and minarets of exceedingly simple form, a wakala or two for the reception of merchants, and a saint's tomb complete the list of public buildings. In one point Yembor claims superiority over most other towns in this part of Al-Hijaz, those who can afford the luxury, drink sweet rainwater, collected amongst the hills in tanks and cisterns, and brought on camelback to the town. Two sources are especially praised, the Ain al-Birkat and Ain Ali, which suffice to supply the whole population. The brackish water of the wells is confined to course or purpose. Some of the old people here, as at Svez, are said to prefer the drink to which years of habit have accustomed them, and it is a standing joke that, arrived at Cairo, they salt the water of the Nile to make it palatable. The population of Yembor, one of the most bigoted and quarrelsome races in Al-Hijaz, strikes the eye after arriving from Egypt, as decidedly a new feature. The sheikh or gentleman is overarmed and overdressed, as fashion deterrent of the desert as well as the court dictates to a person of his consequence. The civilized traveller from El Medina sticks in his waist-shaal a loaded pistol, garnished with crimson silk cord, but he partially conceals the butt-end under the flap of his jacket. Civilians usually stick one pistol in the belt, soldiers and fighting men, too, or more, with all the necessary concomitance of pouches, turn-screws, and long iron ramrods, which, opening with a screw, disclose a long, thin pair of pincers, wherewith fire is put upon the chibok. The irregular soldier struts down the street, a small armory of weapons. One look at the man's countenance affices you what he is. Here and there stalk Grimbeduin, wild as their native waste, and in all the dignity of pride and dirt. They are also armed to the teeth, and even the presence of the policeman's quarter-staff cannot keep their sores in their scabbards. Footnote. The weapons with which nations are to be managed form a curious consideration. The Englishman tamely endures the staff, which would make a Frenchman mad with anger. And a Frenchman respects a sabre, which will fill an Englishman's bosom with civilian spleen. You order the Egyptian to strip and be flogged, he makes no objection to seeing his own blood flow in this way, but were a cutting weapon used, his friends would stop at nothing in their fury. Footnote. What we should call the peaceful part of the population never leave the house without a naboot over the right shoulder, and the larger, the longer, and the heavier the weapon is the more gallantry does the bearer claim. The people of Yambar practice the use of this implement diligently. They become expert in delivering a head blow so violent as to break through any guard, and with it they always decide their trivial quarrels. Footnote. In Arabia, generally, the wound is less considered by justice and revenge than the instrument with which it was inflicted. Sticks and stones are held to be venial weapons. Guns and pistols, swords and daggers are felonous. And a footnote. The dress of the women differs but little from the Egyptians except in the face veil, which is generally white. Footnote. Europeans invade against this article, which represents the loop of Lubbi the fourteenth time. For its hideousness and jealous concealment of charms may to be admired. It is, on the contrary, the most coquettish article of women's attire, accepting perhaps the lasam of Constantinople. It conceals coarse skins, fleshy noses, the wide mouths, and vanishing chins, whilst it sets off to best advantage, wherein these lands is almost lustrous and liquid, the eyes. Who has not remarked this at a masquerade ball? And a footnote. There is an independent bearing about the ember men, strange in the East. They are proud without insolence, and they look manly without blustering. Their walk partakes somewhat of the nature of a swagger, owing perhaps to the shape of the sandals, not a little assisted by the self-esteem of the wearer, but there is nothing offensive in it. Moreover, the population has a healthy appearance, and fresh from Egypt I could not help noticing their freedom from ophthalmic disease. The children, too, appear vigorous, nor are they here kept in the state of filth to which fear of the evil eye devotes them in the valley of the Nile. My companions found me in a coffee-house where I had sat down to rest from the fatigue of halting on my wounded foot through the town. They had passed their boxes through the custom-house, and were now inquiring in all directions, where is the Effendi? After sitting for half an hour we rose to depart, when an old Arab merchant whom I had met at Suez politely insisted upon paying for my coffee, still a remark of attention in Arabia as it was Willem in France. We then went to a Wakala, near the bazaar, in which my companions had secured an airy upper room on the terrace opposite the sea, and tolerably free from Yemba's plague, the flies. It had been tenanted by a party of travellers who were introduced to me as Omar Effendi's brothers. He had by accident met them in the streets the day before they started for Constantinople, where they were travelling to receive the Ikram. Footnote. Ikram is a certain stipend owned by the Sultan to the civilians, to the citizens of the Haramane, Mecca and Elmedina. It will be treated at length, in a future chapter. In the footnote. The family was, as I have said before, from Daghestan, or Circasia, and the male members still showed unequivocal signs of a northern origin in light yellowish skin, grey eyes fringed with dark lashes, red lips, and a very scant beard. They were broad-shouldered, large-limbed men, distinguished only by peculiar surliness of countenance. Perhaps their expression was the result of their suspecting me, for I have observed them narrowly watching every movement during Udu and prayer. This was a good opportunity for displaying the perfect nonchalance of a true believer, and my efforts were, I believe, successful, for afterwards they seemed to treat me as a mere stranger, from whom they could expect nothing and who therefore was hardly worth their notice. On the afternoon of the day of our arrival we sent for Umkhirrij, or hirer of conveyance, and began to treat for camels. Footnote. The sheikh, or agent of the camels, without whose assistance it would be difficult to hire beasts. He brings the Bedouin with him, talks them over to fair terms, sees the Arbun, or the earnest Mani, delivered to them, and is answerable for their not falling in their engagement. And a footnote. One Umjamel, a respectable native of Al-Madinah, who was on his way home, undertook to be the spokesman. After a long paliver for the sheikh of the camels and his attended Bedouin were men that fought for far things and were not far inferior to them, a bargain was struck. We agreed to pay three dollars for each beast, half in ready money, the other half after reaching our destination and to start on the evening of the next day with a grain caravan guarded by an escort of irregular cavalry. I hired two animals, one for my luggage and servant, the other for the boy Muhammad and myself, expressly stipulating that we were to ride the better beast and that if it broke down on the road its place should be supplied by another as good. My friends could not disemble their uneasiness when informed that the Muharrij and that the Hasimi tribe was out, and that travelers had to fight every day. The Dagestan is also contributed to their alarm. We met, they said, between two hundred and three hundred devils on a radia near Al-Madinah. We gave them the salam but they would not reply, although we were all on dromedaries. When they asked us if we were men of Al-Madinah and we replied yes. And lastly, they wanted to know the end of our journey so we said be it our bus. Footnote. Not returning salam was a sign on the part of the Bedouin that they were out to fight and not to make friends, and the dromedary riders who generally travel without much to rob thought this behaviour as declaration of desperate designs. The Bedouin asked if they were Al-Madinah men because the former do not like unless when absolutely necessary to plunder the people of the holy city. And the Dagestanis said their destination was Bir Abbas, a neighbouring instead of Yembo, a distant post, because those who travel on a long journey being supposed to have more funds with them are more likely to be molested. End of footnote. The Bedouin who had accompanied the Dagestanis belonged to some tribe unconnected with the Hasimi, the spokesman rolled his head as much as to say, Allah has preserved us. And a young Indian of the party, I shrewdly suspected him of having stolen my penknife that night, displayed the cowardice of a Mian by looking aghast at the memory of his imminent and deadly risk. Footnote. Mian is the Hindustani word for sir, is known to the Bedouin all over Hijaz. They always address Indian Muslims with this word, which has become contemptuous on account of the lowest team in which the race is held. End of footnote. Sir, said Sheikh Noor to me, we must wait till all of this is over. I told him to hold his tongue and sharply reproved the boy Muhammad upon whose manner the effect of finding himself suddenly in a fresh country had wrought a change for the worse. Why ye were lions at Cairo and here at Yambo your cat's hands? Footnote. That is to say, sneaks and cowards. I was astonished to see our Maghrib fellow passenger in the bazaar at Yambo, cringing and bowing to us more like courtiers than Bedouin. Such, however, is the effect of a strange place upon orientals generally. In the Persians such humility was excusable. In no part of al-Hijaz are they for a moment safe from abuse and blows. End of footnote. It was not long, however, before the youth's impudence returned upon him with increased violence. We sat through the afternoon in the little room on the terrace, whose reflected heat together with the fiery winds from the wilderness seemed to incommode even my companions. After sunset we dined in the open air, a body of twenty, masters, servants, children, and strangers. All the procurable rugs and pillows had been seized to make a D1, and we squatted together round a large cauldron of boiled rice containing square masses of mutton, the whole covered with clarified butter. Said the demon was now in his glory, with what anecdotes the occasions applied him. His tongue seemed to wag with a perpetual motion. For each man he had a boisterous greeting, and, to judge from his whisperings, he must have been in everyone's privacy and confidences. Conversation over pipes and coffee was prolonged to ten p.m. a late hour in these lands. Then we prayed Tasha, or Vespers, or Evening Prayer, and spreading our mats upon the terrace, slept in the open air. The forenoon of the next day was occupied in making sundry small purchases. We laid in seven days' provision for the journey, repacked our boxes, polished and loaded our arms, and attired ourselves appropriately for the road. By the advice of Am Jamal, Fitnu, Am literally means paternal uncle, in the Hijaz it is prefixed the names of respectable men who may also be addressed Ya Am Jamal, or O Uncle Jamal, as to say Ya Ammi, or O my uncle, is more familiar and would generally be used by a superior addressing an inferior and a Fitnu. Addressed as an Arab in order to avoid paying the jizyat, or the capitation tax which upon this road the settled tribes extort from stranger travelers, Fitnu, jizyat properly means the capitation tax levied on infidels. In this land of intense pride the Bedouin and even the town chiefs apply the appropriate term to blackmail extorted from travelers even of their own creed, and a Fitnu. And he warned me not to speak in any other language but Arabic, even to my slave, in the vicinity of a village. I bought for my own convenience a shukduf or a litter for which I paid two dollars. Fitnu, the shukduf of Al Hijaz differs greatly from that used in Syria and other countries. It is composed of two corded cots, five feet long, slung horizontally about half way down, and paralleled with the camel sides. These cots have short legs, and at the hull may be used as bedsteads. The two are connected together by loose ropes attached to the inner long sides of the framework, and these are thrown over the camel's pack saddle. Thick twigs inserted in the ends of the outer long sides of the framework are bent over the top by our fashion to support matting, carpets, and any other protection against the sun. There is an opening in this kind of wickerwork in the front towards the camel's head, through which you creep, and a similar one behind creates a draught of wind. Outside, towards the camel's tail are pockets containing gullets or earthen bottles of cooled water. Inside attached to the wickerwork are large provisioned pouches similar to those used in old-fashioned traveling chariots. At the bottom are spread two beds. The greatest disadvantage of the shuktuf is the difficulty of keeping balance. Two men ride in it, and their weights must be made to tally. Moreover, it is liable to be caught and torn by thorn trees to be blown off in a gale of wind, and its awkwardness causes the camel, repeated falls, which are most likely to smash it. Yet it is not necessarily an uncomfortable machine. Those for sale in the bazaar are, of course, worthless, being made of badly seasoned wood. But private litters are sometimes pleasant vehicles with turned and painted framework, silk cordage, and valuable carpets. They often describe Mahmal as nothing but a Syrian shuktuf, royally ornamented, in the footnote. It is a vehicle appropriated to women and children, fathers or families, married men, shalebis, and generally to those who are too effeminate to ride, footnote, shalebis, or exquisite, in the footnote. My reason for choosing a litter was that notes are more easily taken in it than on a dromedary's back. The excuse of lameness prevented it detracting from my manhood, and I was careful when entering any populous place to borrow or hire a saddled beast. Our party dined early that day, for the camels had been sitting at the gate since noon. We had the usual trouble in loading them. The owners of the animals were siphirating about the unconscionable weight, the owners of the goods swearing that a child should carry such weight. While the beasts, taking part with their proprietors, moaned piteously, roared, mate-vicious attempts to bite, and started up with an agility that, through the half-secured boxes or sacks, had longed to the ground. About three p.m. all was ready. The camels formed into Indian file, were a place standing in the street. But as usual, with Oriental travelers, all the men dispersed about the town. We did not mount before it was late in the afternoon. Now I must take the liberty of presenting to the reader an Arab sheikh fully equipped for travelling. Fidnout. It is the same rule with the Arab on the road as at home. The more he is dressed, the greater is his respectability. For this reason you see sheriffs and other men of high family riding or walking in their warm camels' hair-roaves on the hardest days. Another superstition of the Arab is this, that thick clothes avert the evil effects of the sun's beams by keeping out the heat. To the kindness of a friend, Thomas Seddon, I owe the admirable sketch of an Arab sheikh in his travelling dress and a Fidnout. Nothing can be more picturesque than the costume, and it is with regret that we see it exchanged in the towns and more civilized parts of any other. The long locks or the shaven's cobs are surmounted by a white-cutten skull-cap. Over-rich is a kafia, which is a large square kerchief of silk and cotton mixed, and generally of a dull red color with a bright yellow border, from which depend crimson silk twists ending in little tassels that reach the wearer's waist, doubled into a triangle and bound with an aigal or filet of rope, a skein of yarn or a twist of wool. The kerchief fits the head close behind. It projects over the forehead, shading the eyes and giving a fierce look to the countenance. Fidnout. Sharives and other great men sometimes bind a white turban or a cashmere shawl around a kerchief to keep it in its place. The aigal varies in every part of the country. Here it is a twist of dyed wool with a bit of common rope, three or four feet long. Some of the Arab tribes use a circlet of wood composed of little round pieces, the size of a shelling joined side by side, and inlaid with mother of pearl. The eastern Arabs wear a large circle of brown wool, almost urban in itself. In Barbary they twist bright-colored cloth round a rope, and adorn it with thick golden thread, and a footnote. On certain occasions one end is brought round the lower part of the face, and is fastened behind the head. This veiling the features is technically called litham, the chief generally fights so, and it is the usual disguise when a man fears the avenger of blood, or a woman starts to make her sar, footnote. Sar is generally written Thar, the blood-revenge rite acknowledged by law and custom. See Chapter 24, Post, and the Footnote. In hot weather it is supposed to keep us a moom, in the cold weather the Katara from the lungs. The body-dress is simply a kameez or cotton-shirt, tight-sleeved opening in front, and adorned around the waist and collar, and down the breast with embroidery like network. It extends from neck to foot, somewhere wide trousers by the Bedouin consider such things effeminate, and they have not yet fallen into the folly of socks and stockings. Over the kameez is thrown a long-skirted and short-sleeved cloak of camel's hair, called an abba. It is made in many patterns, and of all materials from pure silk to coarse sheep's wool. Some preferred brown, others white, others striped. In al-hijjahs, the favorite hue is white, embroidered with gold, tinsel or yellow thread, in two large triangles, capped with broad bands and other figures running down the shoulders and the sides of the back, footnote. Gold, however, as well as silk, may be excused for repeating, is a forbidden article of ornament to the Muslim, end of footnote. It is lined inside the shoulders and breast with handsome stuffs of silk and cotton mixed, and it is tied in front by elaborate strings and tassels or acorns of silk and gold. A sash confines the kameez at the waist and supports the silver-hilted jambia or crooked dagger, footnote. The silver-hilted jambia is a sign of dignity. I would silver my dagger. In idiomatic hijazi means I would rise myself in the world, end of footnote. The picturesque Arab sandal completes the costume, footnote. Nibur has accurately described this article. It is still worn in the Madras army, though long discarded from other presidencies. The main difference between the Indian and the Arab sandal is that the former has a ring into which the big toe is inserted, and the latter has a thong which is clasped between the big toe and its neighbor. Both of them are equally uncomfortable and equally injurious to the soldiers whose legs fight as much as they do their arms. They abrate the skin wherever the straps touch, expose the feet to the sun, wind and rain, and admit thorns and flints into the toes and toenails. In Arabia the traveler may wear it if he pleases slippers, but they are considered townsmen like an effeminate. They must be of the usual colors, red or yellow. Black shoes, although most universally worn by the Turks at Cairo and Constantinople, would almost probably excite suspicion in al-hijaz, end of footnote. Finally the sheikh's arms are soared in a matchlocked slung behind his back. In his right hand he carries a short javelin, footnote. The Mizraq, as it is called, is peculiar to certain tribes as the Qarashi and the Lahyami, and some like the Hudayli near Mecca make very pretty as well, has very useful darts. The head is fifteen or sixteen inches long, nowhere broader than an inch, and tapering gradually to a fine point. Its shape is two shallow prisms joined at their bases, and its socket, round like that of all lances, measures a little less than two inches. The lower third of the blade is only adorned with bars, lozange, and cones of brass led into the iron, in zigzag and other figures. The shaft is of hard, client wood, I do not know of what tree. Well-seasoned with grease and use, it is twenty-three inches long and strengthened and adorned at distances of half an inch apart by hands of fine brass wire about one inch and half long. The heel of the weapon is a blunt spike, fourteen inches long, used to stick it in the ground and this, as well as the lower third of the blade, is ornamented with brass work. Being well-balanced, the Mizraq is a highly efficient weapon for throwing and hunting, and by its handsome appearances adds not a little to the bearer's dignity. But the stranger must be careful how he so arms himself. Unless he be undistinguishable from a bedouin by carrying a weapon peculiar to certain clans, he will expose himself to suspicion or to laughter, and to offend an Arab of al-Hijjah's mortally, you only have to say bluntly, sell me thy spear, the proper style of address to the man whose necessities compel him to break through one of his points donuh, is to say, give me that javelin and I will satisfy thee. After which he will haggle for each copper piece as though you are cheapening a sheep, and a footnote, or a light crooked stick about two feet and half long called Musheb for guiding camels. Footnote. The Musheb is of almond, generally brought from Syria. At the thick end is a kind of crook, formed by cutting off a bit of the larger branch from which the stick grows. This crook is afterwards cut into the shape useful to seize a camel's noose ring, or a horse's bridle. Arabs of all degrees are fond of carrying these sticks. It is also called marin. End of footnote. The poorer clans of Arabs twist round their waist, next to the skin, a long plate of greasy leather to support the back. And they grit the shirt at the middle merely with a cord or a core sash. The dagger is stuck in the scarf and a bandolier slung over the shoulders, carries the cartridge case, powder flask, flint, and steel, priming horn and other necessaries. With the traveller the waist is an elaborate affair. Next to the skin is worn the money pouch concealed by the camis. The latter is girth with a waist shawl, over which is strapped a leather belt. Footnote. This article, the Zilahlik of the Turks, is composed of several oblong pieces of leather cut out to fit the front part of the body. Between each fold there is enough room to stick a weapon, a substantial strap fastens it. And it serves to defend the sash or the shirt from iron mould and the stains of gunpowder. It is made of all kinds of material, from plain Moroccan leather to the richest velvet embroidered with gold. End of footnote. The latter article should always be well garnished with a pair of long-barreled and silver-mounted flint pistols, a large and small dagger and iron ramrod with pincers inside. Footnote. It is, as well, to have a good pair of Turkish barrels and stocks fitted up with locks of European manufacture. Those made by natives of these countries can never be depended upon. The same will apply to the gun or rifle. Upon the hold it is more prudent to have flint locks. Copper caps are now sold in the bazaars of Makka and El Medina, where a cult sex shooter might excite attention for a day. But were the owner in a position to despise notoriety, he might display it everywhere without danger. One of our guards, who was killed on the road, had a double-barreled English fouling piece. Still, when doubt must not be aroused, the traveller will do well to avoid, even in the civilized hijaz, suspicious appearances in his weapons. I carried in a secret pocket a small pistol with a spring dagger upon which dependence could be placed, and I was careful never to show it, discharging it and loading it always in the dark. Some men wear a little dagger strapped around the leg below the knee. Its use is this. When the enemy gets you under, he can prevent you bringing your hand up to the weapon in your waist belt. But before he cuts your throat, you may slip your fingers down to the knee and persuade him to stop by a stab in the perineum. This knee dagger is required only in very dangerous places. The article, I chiefly accused myself of forgetting, was a stout English clasp knife, with a large handle, a blade like an Arkansas toothpick, and possessing the other useful appliances of picker, flame, tweezers, lancet, and punch, and a footnote. The latter article should always be well garnished with a pair of long-barreled and silver-mounted flint pistols, a large and a small dagger, and an iron ramrod with pincers inside. A little leather and pouch fastened to the waist strap on the right side contains cartridge, wadding, and flask of priming powder. The sword hangs over the shoulder by crimson silk cords and huge tassels, well-dressed men apply the same showy ornaments to their pistols. called habak. These cords are made in quantities at Cairo which possesses a special bazaar for them and are exported to all the neighboring countries where their price considerably increases. A handsome pistol cord with its tassels costs about twelve shillings in Egypt at Mecca or Almedina. The same would fetch upwards of a town sterling. End of footnote. In a handsome gold embroidered crimson velvet, or red Moroccan case, slung by red silk cords over the left shoulder, they must be hung down by the right side and should never depend below the waist belt, for this has substituted a most useful article. To all appearances a hamile it had inside three compartments, one for my watch and compass, the second for ready money, and the third contained a pen knife, pencil, slip-talk paper, which I could hold concealed in the hollow of my hand. These for writing and drawing. Opportunities of making fair copy into the diary book are never wanting to the acute traveller. Footnote. My diary book was made up for me by Karen. It was a long thin volume fitting into the breast pocket, where it could be carried without being seen. I began by writing notes in Arabic character, but as no risk appeared my journal was afterwards kept in English. More than once, by way of experimenting, I showed the writing on a loose slip of paper to my companions, and astonished them with a strange character derived from Solomon and Alexander, the lord of the two horns, which we, Afghans, still use. For a short trip, a pencil suffices. On a long journey ink is necessary. The latter article should be English, not Eastern, which is washed out clean. The first time your luggage is thoroughly soaked with rain. The traveller may use either the Persian or the brass ink stand. The latter, however, is preferable, being stronger and less likely to break. But unless he is capable of writing and reading a letter correctly, he would be unadvisable to stick such an article in the waist belt as this gives out publicly that he is a scribe. When sketching, a pencil is the best, because the simplest and shortest mode of operation is required. Important lines should afterwards be marked with ink as fixing is impossible on such journeys. For prudent sake, when my sketches are made, I cut up the paper into square pieces, numbered them for future references, and hid them in the tin canisters that contained my medicines. And a footnote. He must, however, beware of sketching before the Bedouin who would certainly proceed to extreme measures, suspecting him to be a spy or sorcerer. Footnote. An accident of this kind happened not long ago in Hadramout to a German traveller who shall remain nameless. He had the mortification to see his sketchbook The Labour of Months, summarally appropriated and destroyed by the Arabs. I was told by Hadramouti Man at Cairo and by several at Aden that the gentleman had, at the time, a narrow escape for his life. The Bedouin wished to put him to death as a spy sent by the Frank to ensource their country, but the sheikhs forbade bloodshed and merely deported the offender. Travellers caught sketching are not often treated with such forbearance. End of footnote. Nothing so effectually puzzles these people as the Frankish habit of putting everything on paper. Their imaginations are set at work, and then the worst may be expected from them. The only safe way of writing in presence of a Bedouin would be when drawing out a horoscope or preparing a charm. He also objects not, if you can warm his heart upon the subject, to seeing you take notes in a book of genealogies. He might begin with a new man of help. On what origin do you pride yourselves, and while the listeners became fluent upon the to them all interesting theme, he could put down whatever you please upon the margin. The townspeople are more liberal, and years ago the holy shrines had been drawn, surveyed and even lithographed by eastern artists. Still, if you wish to avoid all suspicion, you must rarely be seen with pen or with pencil in hand. At six p.m. descending the stairs of our Wakala, we found the camels standing loaded in the street and shifting their ground in token of impatience. Footnote. All Arabs assert that it paints the loaded camels feet to stand still, and certainly the fidgetiness of the animal to start looks as if he had some reason to prefer walking. End of footnote. My shukduf perched upon the back of a tall, strong animal, nodded and swayed about with his every motion, impressing me with the idea that the first step would throw it over the shoulders or the cropper. The camel-man told me I must climb up the camel's neck, and so creep into the vehicle. But my foot disabling me from such exertion, I insisted upon there bringing the beast to a squat, which they did grumblingly. Footnote. It often strains the camel to raise with a full shukduf on his back, besides which the motion is certainly to destroy the vehicle in a few days. Those who are unable to climb up the camel's neck usually carry with them a short ladder. End of footnote. We took leave of Umar Effendi's brothers and their dependents, who insisted upon paying us the compliment of accompanying us to the gate. Then we mounted and started, which was a signal for all our party to disperse once more. Some heard the report of a vessel having arrived in Suez with Mohammed Sheikh Libha and other friends on board. These hurried down to the harbor for a parting word. Others, declaring they had forgotten some necessaries for the way, ran off to spend one less hour in gossip at the coffee-house. Then the sun set, and prayers must be set. Their brief twilight had almost faded away before all had mounted, with loud cries of Wassak-e-hoh, go in the middle of the road, O he, and Jannib-e-al-Jamal. Keep to the side, O camel-man. Footnote. Wassak means go to the middle of the road, Jannib means keep clear of the sides. These words are fair specimens of how much may be said in two Arabic syllables. Yeho, or O he, is an address common in Arabia as in Egypt, and Yel-Jamal, or O camel, is perhaps a little more several. We threaded our way through long, dusty narrow streets, flanked with white-washed habitations at considerable intervals, and large heaps of rubbish sometimes higher than the houses. We stopped at the gate to ascertain if we were strangers in which case the guard would have done his best to extract a few piasters before allowing our luggage to pass. But he soon perceived by my companion's accents that they were sons of the holy city, consequently that the case was hopeless. While standing here, Sher-ham advantage the strong walls and turrets of Yambor, which he said were superior to those of Jiddah. Footnote. The rivalry between the sons of the two cities extend even to these parts, the Medanese contending for Yambor, the Meccans for Jiddah. End of footnote. They kept Sa'ud the Wahabi at bay in AD02, but would scarcely, I should say, resist the field battery in AD1853. The moon rose fair and clear, dazzling us with light as we emerged from the shadowy streets, and when we launched into the desert, the sweet air delightfully contrasted with the close, offensive atmosphere of the town. My companions, as Arabs will do on such occasions, began to sing. End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to El-Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. End of Chapter 13 of Personal Narrative of Pilgrimage to El-Medina and Mecca by Richard Francis Burton from Yambor to beat our bus. On the eleventh of July about 7 p.m. we passed through the gate of Yambor, and took a due easterly course. Our route lay over the plain between the mountains of Rodua on the left and the sea on the right. The land was desert, that is to say, a hard-level plain, strewed with rounded lumps of granite and greenstone schist, with here and there a dwarf acacia in a tuft of rank camel grass. By the light of a glorious moon nearly at full, I was able to see the country tolerably well. Our party consisted of twelve camels, and we travelled in Indian file, head tied to tail with but one outrider, Omar of Indy, whose rank required him to mount a dromedary with showy trappings. Immediately in front of me was Amjamal, whom I had to reproof for asking the boy Muhammad, where have you picked up that Hindi, or Indian? Are we the Afghans, the Indian slayers, footnote, alluding to the celebrated mountain, the Hind Kush, whence the Afghans solid forth to lay waste India, and a footnote. Are we the Afghans, the Indian slayers, become Indians? I have also ferrated with indignation, and brought the thing home to his feelings by asking him how he and Arab would like to be called an Egyptian, a Fella. The rest of the party was behind, sitting or dozing upon the rough platforms made by the lids of the two huge boxes, slung to the size of their camels. Only one old woman, a sitmariam, or the lady Mary, returning to El Medina, her adopted country, after a visit to a sister at Cairo, allowed herself the luxury of a half-dollar shibriya or cot, fastened crosswise over the animal's load. Moreover, all the party, except her metafendi in token of poverty, were dressed in the coarsest and dirtiest of clothes. The general suit consisting of a shirt torn in diverse places and a bit of rag wrapped round the head. They carried short chibooks without mouthpieces and tobacco pouches of greasy leather. Though the country hereabouts is perfectly safe, all had their arms in readiness and unusual silence that succeeded to the singing, even said the demon held his tongue, was sufficient to show how much they feared for their property. After a slow march of two hours facing the moon, we turned somewhat towards the northeast and began to pass over undulating ground, in which a steady rise was perceptible. We arrived at the halting place at three in the morning after a short march of about eight hours, during which we could not have passed over more than sixteen miles. Footnote. Throughout this work I have estimated the pace of a hijazi camel laden and walking in caravan line under ordinary circumstances at two geographical miles an hour. A sandy plain or rocky pass might make a difference of half a mile each, but no more. And a footnote. The camels were nacht. The boxes were taken off and piled together as a precaution against invisible robbers. Footnote. City Chapter 8, page 152, note 1, ante. And a footnote. My little tent, the only one in the party, was pitched. We then spread our rugs upon the ground and lay down to sleep. We arose at about nine a.m., July 19th, and after congratulating one another upon being once more in the dear desert, we proceeded in exhilarated mood to light the fire for pipes and breakfast. The meal, a biscuit, a little rice, and a cup of milkless tea was soon dispatched, after which I proceeded to inspect our position. About a mile to the westward lay a little village, al-Misahal, a group of miserable mud-hovels. Footnote. The reader must be warned that these little villages in Arabia as in Sindh and Balochistan are continually changing their names whilst the larger settlements always retain the same. The traveller too must beware of writing down the first answer he receives. In one of our maps a village on the Euphrates is gravely named Madri, or I don't know. End of footnote. On the south was a strip of bright blue sea, an all-around and iron plain producing knot but stones and grasshoppers, and bounded northward by a grisly wall of blackish rock. Here and there a shrub fit only for fuel or a tuft of coarse grass, crisp with heat met the eye. All was sun-parched. The furious heat from above was drying up the sap and juice of the land as the shimmering and quivering atmosphere showed. Moreover, the heavy dues of these regions forming in large drops upon the plants and stones concentrate the morning rays upon them like a system of burning glasses. After making these few observations I followed the example of my companions and returned to sleep. At 2 p.m. we were roused to a dinner as simple as the breakfast had been, boiled rice with an abundance of the clarified butter in which Easterns delight. Footnote. Here is called Simh, the Indian ghee, and a footnote. Some fragments of khak or soft biscuit. Footnote. The khak in this country is a light and pleasant bread made of ground wheat, kneaded with milk, leavened with sour bean flour, and finally baked in an oven, not as usual in the east upon an iron plate. The khak of Egypt is a kind of cake and a footnote. And stale bread. Footnote. Stale unleavened bread is much relished by Easterns who say that keeping it on journeys makes it sweet. To prevent its becoming moldy they cut it up into little bits, and at the risk of hardening it to the consistency of wood they dry it by exposure to the air. And a footnote. And a handful of stoned and pressed date paste called ajwa formed the menu. Our potations began before dinner with a vial tasted by wholesome drink called aqeed, dried sour milk dissolved in water. Footnote. This aqeed has different names in all parts of Arabia, even al-Hijaz it is known by the name of Mazir as well as iqt, the corruption of aqeed. When very sour it is called saribah, when dried without boiling it's called jamda. The Arabs make it by evaporating the sourest part of the milk. The remainder is then formed into cakes or lumps with the hand, and spread upon hair-cloth to dry. We eat it with clarified butter and drink it melted in water. It is considered a cooling and refreshing beverage, but boasts few attractions to the stranger. The Baluchis and wild tribes of Sindhians call this preparation of milk crud, and make it in the same way as the Badoen do, and a footnote. At the meal we drank the leather-flavored element and ended with a large cupful of scouting tea. The enormous quantities of liquid were consumed, for the thorns seemed to have got into our throats, and the perspiration trickled as after the shower of rain. Whilst we were eating, a Badoen woman passed close by the tent, leading a flock of sheep and goats, seeing which I expressed a desire to drink milk. My companion sent by one of the camel men a bit of bread, and asked in exchange for a cupful of leban. Leban, in Arabic and Hebrew, means milk. The Maltese give the word a very different signification, and the Egyptians, like the Syrians, confine their use of it to sour milk or curds, calling sweet milk leban-halib or simply halib, end of footnote. Thus I learned that the Arabs, even in this corrupt region, still adhered to the meaningless custom of their ancestors, who chose to make the term leban, or milk-seller, an opprobrium and a disgrace. Footnote. In my previous work, The History of Sinned, I have remarked that there exists some curious similarity in language and customs between the Arabs and the various races occupying the broad ranges of hills that separate India from Persia. Amongst these must be number the prejudice alluded to above. The lamented Dr. Stocks, of Bombay, who traveled amongst and observed the Brahui and the Baluchi nomads in the Patchen Valley, informed me that, though they will give milk in exchange for other commodities, yet they consider it a disgrace to make money by it. This, methinks, is too conventional a point of honor to have sprung up spontaneously in two countries so distant and apparently so unconnected, end of footnote. Possibly the origin of the prejudice might be the recognizing of a traveler's guest-right to call for milk gratis. However, this may be, no one will in the present day sell this article of consumption, even at civilized Mecca except Egyptians, a people supposed to be utterly without honor. As a general rule in the Hijaz, milk abounds in the spring, but at all other times of the year it is difficult to be procured. I had a wee woman managed, however, to send me back a cupful. At three p.m. we were ready to start, and all saw with unspeakable gratification a huge black nimbus rise from the shoulder of Mount Trotwa and range itself like a good genius between us and our terrible foe, the sun. I hoped that it contained rain, but presently a blast of hot wind, like the breath of a volcano, blew over the plain, and air was filled with particles of sand. This is the dry storm of Arabia. It appears to depend upon some electrical phenomena which it would be desirable to investigate. At Adin, as well as in Sindh, these dry storms abound, and there the work of meteorological investigation would be easier than in the Hijaz. In a few days of Badawi society my wonder diminished. The men were many head above the great Hijazi tribe, which has kept its blood pure for the last thirteen centuries. How much more we know not. But they had been corrupted by intercourse with pilgrims, retaining none of their ancestor qualities, but greed of gain, revengefulness, vignacity, and a frantic kind of bravery displayed on rare occasions. Their nobility, however, did not prevent my quoting the Prophet saying, of a truth. The worst names among the Arabs are the Bani Kalb and the Bani Harb. Fitnote. Bani Kalb, or Jaina, Chapter 10, would mean the dog's sons. Bani Harb means the sons of fight. End of Fitnote. Whilst I talented them severely with their resemblance to the fellas of Egypt, they would have resented this with asperity had it proceeded from their own people. But of Turkish pilgrim, the character in which they knew me, despite my Arab dress, is a privileged person. The outer man of these fight-sons was contemptible, small chocolate-colored beings, stunted and thin, with mobs, of course, bushy hair, burned down by the sun, straggling beards, vicious eyes, frowning brows, screaming voices, and well-made but attentuated limbs. On their heads were kafiyas, in the last stage of wear, a tattered shirt, indigo dyed and aghurt with a bit of common rope, composed their clothing. And their feet were protected from the stones by soles of thick leather, kept in place by narrow thongs tied to the ankle. Both were armed, one with a matchlock and a shintian in a leatherened scabbard, slung over the shoulder. Footnote. The shintian is the common sword blade of the Bedouin. In Western Arabia it is called Majer, or from the Magyars, and is said to be of German manufacture. Good old weapons of the proper curve marked like Andrew Ferrara's with a certain number of lines down their length will fetch even in Arabia from seven to eight veras. The modern and cheap ones cost about ten shillings. Excellent weapons abound in this country, the reason being that there is a perpetual demand for them, and once purchased they become heirlooms in the family. I have heard that when the Benubu Ali tribe near Ras al-Khama was defeated with slaughter by Sir Lionel Smith's expedition, the victors found many valuable old European blades in the hands of the slain. End of footnote. The other, within a boot, and both showed at the waist the Arabs' invariable companion, the Jambiyah dagger. These ragged fellows, however, had their pride. They would eat with me, and not disdain like certain stealth-style cabaleros, to ask for more. But of work they would do none, no promise of Bakshish potent as the spell of the word is, would induce them to assist in pitching my tent. They even expected Sheikh Nur to cook for them, and had almost to use violence for even the just excuse of a sore foot was insufficient to procure the privilege of mounting my shukduf while the camel was sitting. It was, they said, the custom of the country from time immemorial to use a ladder when legs would not act. I agreed with them, but objected that I had no ladder. At last, varied with their thick-headedness, I snatched the nose-string of the camel, and by main force made it kneel. Our party was now strong enough. We had about two hundred beasts carrying grain, attended by their proprietors, trocolent looking as the contrabandistas of the Parines. The escort was composed of seven irregular Turkish cavalry, tolerably mounted and supplied each with an armory in Epitom. They were privately derided by our party, who, being Arabs, had a sneaking fondness for the Bedouin, however loath they might be to see them amongst the boxes. For three hours we travelled in a south-easterly direction, upon a hard plain and a sandy flat, on which several waters from the highlands find a passage to the sea westward. Gradually we were sliding towards the mountains, and at sunset I observed that we had sensibly neared them. We dismounted for a short halt, and strangers, being present, my companions, before sitting down to smoke set their prayers, a pious exercise in which they did not engage again for three days afterwards, when they met certain acquaintances at Al-Himra. As evening came on we emerged from a scrub of acacia and tamarisks, and turned due east, traversing an open country with a perceptible rise. Scarcely was it dark before the cry of Harami, or thieves, rose aloud in the rear, causing such confusion as one may see in a boat in the bay of Naples when suddenly neared by a water-spout. All the camelmen brandished their huge staves, and rushed back was afferrating in the direction of the robbers. They were followed by the horsemen, and truly had the thieves possessed the usual acuteness of the profession. They might have driven off the camels in our van with safety and convenience. The way of carrying off a camel in this country is to loosen him, and then hang on heavily to his tail, which causes him to start at full gallop. But these contemptible beings were only half a dozen in number, and they had lighted their match-locks, which drew a bullet or two in their direction, whereupon they ran away. This incident aroused no inconsiderable excitement, for it seemed ominous of worse things about to happen to us when entangled in the hills and the faces of my companions, perfect barometers of fair and foul tidings, fell to zero. For nine hours we journeyed through a brilliant moonlight, and as the first gray streak appeared in the eastern sky, we entered a scanty messial or fumara. Strewed with pebbles and rounded stones about half a mile in breadth, and flanked by almost perpendicular hills of primitive formation. Phutnu, the Arabic messial, messial, messil, or messila, is the Indian Nulla and the Sicilian fumara, a hill water-course, which rolls a torrent during and after rain, and is either partially or wholly dry at other seasons. The stream flowing slowly underground. In England we want the feature, therefore there is no single word to express it. Our river is an imperfect way of conveying the idea. I began by asking the names of peaks and other remarkable spots, when I found that a fallu volume would not contain a three-month collection. Every hill and dale, flat valley and water-course here has its proper name or rather names. Generalization is not the forte of the Arabic language. Al-Kulzum, the Red Sea, for instance, will be unintelligible to the native of Jidda, who call it the Sea of Jidda, and you at once explain yourself. So the Bedouin will have names for each separate part, but no single one to express the whole. This might be explained by their ignorance of anything but details. The same thing is observable, however, in the writings of the Arabian geographer when they come to treat of the objects near home. The ingenuity shown by the Bedouin in distinguishing between localities the most similar is the result of a high organization of the perceptive faculties perfected by the practice of observing a recurrence of landscape features few in number and varying but little amongst themselves. After traveling two hours up this torrent bed, winding in an easterly direction and crossing some hara or ridges, riyah, steep descents, a footnote, about the classic hara I shall have more to say at a future time. The word riyah in literary and in vulgar Arabic is almost synonymous with aqaba, a steep descent, a path between hills or a mountain road, and a footnote. Qata'a, patch of stony flat and bits of sahel or dwarf plain. We found ourselves at eight a.m. after a march of about thirty-four miles at Bir Saeed, or Saeed's well, our destination. I had been led to expect that the well, a pastoral scene, wild flowers, flocks and flowing waters, so I looked with a jaundiced eye upon a deep hole, full of slightly brackish water, dug in a tamed hollow, a kind of punch-bowl with granite walls, upon whose grim face a few thorns of exceeding hardy would brave the sun for a season. Not a house at the inside. It was a barren and desolated spot, as the sun ever viewed in his wide career, but this is what the Arabian traveller must expect. He is to traverse, for instance, the wide ilwad or the valley of the flowers. He indulges in sweet recollections of Indian lakes beautiful with the lotus and Persian plains, upon which Narcissus is the meanest of grasses. He sees a plain like swishwork, where knobs of granite act daisies, and where at every fifty yards some hapless bud or blossom is dying of inination among the stones. The sun scorched our feet as we planted the tent, and, after drinking our breakfast, we passed the usual day of perspiration and semi-leathergy. In discomfort, man naturally hails a change, even though it be one from bad to worse. When our enemy began slanting towards the west, we felt ready enough to proceed on our journey. The camels were laden shortly after three p.m. July 20th, and we started with water jars in our hands through a storm of Samoom. We travelled five hours in the north-easterly coast, up a diagonal valley through a country fantastic in its desolation, a mass of huge hills, barren plains, and desert veils. Footnote. Valleys may be divided in three kinds. One, long to do no, i.e. parallel to the axis of their ridges, two, traversal or perpendicular to the same, and diagonal, which forms an acute or an obtuse angle with the main chain of mountains. Even the sturdy Acacias here failed, and in some places the camel grass could not find earth enough for its root. The road wound among mountains, rocks, and hills of granite and overbroken ground, flanked by huge blocks and boulders, piled up as if man's art had aided nature to disfigure herself. Fast clefts seemed like scars, the hideous face of earth, here they widened into dark caves, there they choked with glistening drift sand. Not a bird or a beast was to be seen or heard. Their presence would have argued the vicinity of water, and though my companions opined that Bedouin were lurking among the rocks, I decided that these Bedouin were the creatures of their fears. Above, a sky like polished blue steel with a tremendous blaze of yellow light, glared upon us without the thinnest veil of mist cloud. Below, the brass-colored circle, scorched the face and dazzled the eyes, mocking them the while with offers of water that was by air. The distant prospect was more attractive than the near view because it borrowed a bright azure tinge from the intervening atmosphere, but the jagged peaks and the perpendicular streaks of shadow down the flanks of the mountainous background showed that, yet in store for us, was no change for the better. Between ten and eleven p.m. we reached human habitation, a phenomenon unseen since we left Al-Musahl in the shape of a long, straggling village. It is called Al-Hamra, from the redness of the sands near which it is built, or Al-Wasta, or the half-way, because it is the middle station between Yemba and Al-Medina. It is, therefore, considerably out of place in Burkhart's map, and those who copy from him make it much nearer the seaport than it really is. We wandered nearly an hour in search of an encamping station, for the surly villagers ordered us off every flatter bit of ground, without, however, daining to show us where our jaded beast might rest. At last, after long wrangling, we found the usual spot. The camels were unloaded, the boxes and baggage were disposed in a circle for greater security against the patif pilferers, in which this part of the road abounds, and my companions spread their rugs so as to sleep upon their valuables. I was invited to follow the general example, but I absolutely declined the vicinity of so many steaming and snoring fellow-travelers. Some wonder was excited by the Afghan hedges of stenacy and recklessness, but resistance to these people is sometimes being placed, and a man from Kabul is allowed to say and to do strange things. In answer to their warnings of nightly peril, I placed a drawn sword by my side, and a cocked pistol under my pillow. This act, by the by, I afterwards learned to be a greater act of imprudence than sleeping alone. Nothing renders the Arab thief so active as the chance of stealing a good weapon. The saddle-bag, a carpet spread upon the cool loose sand formed by no means an uncomfortable couch, and upon it I enjoyed a sound sleep till daybreak. Rising at dawn, July 21st, I proceeded to visit the village. It is built upon a narrow shelf at the top of a precipitious hill to the north, and on the south runs a sandy fumara about half a mile broad. On all sides are rocks and mountains, rough and stony, so you find yourself in another of those punch-bowls which the Arabs seem to consider choice sites for settlements. Footnote. Probably because water is usually found in such places. In the wild parts of the country, wells are generally protected by some fortified building, for men consider themselves safe from an enemy until their supply of water is cut off. The fumara hereabouts very winding. Threads the high grounds all the way from the plateau Valmadina. During the rainy season it becomes a raging torrent, carrying westwards to the Red Sea the drainage of a hundred hills. Water of good quality is readily found in it by digging a few feet below the surface at the angles where the stream forms the deepest hollows, and in some places the stony sides give out bubbling springs. Footnote. Near Alhamra, the base of the southern hills, within fire of the forts, there is a fine spring of sweet water. All such fountains are much prized by the people who call them rock water and attribute to them tonic and digestive virtues. Footnote. Alhamra itself is a collection of stunted houses, or rather hovels, made of unbaked brick and mud, roofed over with palm leaves and pierced with air holes, which occasionally boast a bit of plank for a shutter. It appears thickly populated in the parts where the walls are standing, but like all settlements in the holy land Al-Hijaz it abounds in ruins. Footnote. As far as I could discover the reason of the ruinous state of the country at present is the effect of the old Wahabi and the Egyptian wars in the early part of the present century and the misrule of the Turks. In Arabia the depopulation of a village or a district is not to be remedied as in other countries by an influx of strangers. The land still belongs to the survivors of the tribe and trespass would be visited with a bloody revenge. End of Footnote. It is well supplied with provisions which are here cheaper than Al-Madinah, a circumstance that induced said the demon to overload his hapless camel with a sack of wheat. In the village are few shops where grain, huge plantains, ready-made bread-rice, clarified butter and other edibles are to be purchased, palm orchards of considerable extent supplied with dates. The bazaar is like the generality of such places in the villages of eastern Arabia, a long lane here covered with matting, there open to the sun, and the narrow streets, if they may be called so, are full of dust and glare. Near the encamping ground of caravans is a fort for the officer commanding, a troop of Albanian cavalry whose duty it is to defend the village, to hold the country and to escort merchant travelers. Footnote. Without these forts, the Turks, at least so my companions, could never hold the country against the Bedouin. There is a little amor propre in this assertion, but upon the whole it is true. There are no Mohammed Ali's or Jezar's and Ibrahim Pasha's in these days. End of Footnote. The building consists of an outer wall of hewn stone, loop-hulled for muscatry, and surmounted by charerif, rampart caquettes, about as useful against artillery as the sugar gallery round a tough cake. Nothing would be easier than to take the place. A false attack would draw off attention of the defenders who in these latitudes know nothing of central duty, while scaling ladders or a bag full of powder would command a ready entrance into the other side. Around Dalhambra Fort are clusters of palm leaf huts, where the soldier lounge and smoke, and near it is the usual coffee-house, a shed kept by an Albanian. These places are frequented probably on account of the intense heat inside the fort. We passed a comfortless day at the Red Village. Large flocks of sheep and goats were being driven in and out of the place, but their surly shepherds would give no milk, even in exchange for bread and meat. The morning was spent in watching certain Bedouin, who matchlock in hand had climbed the hills in pursuit of a troop of cranes. Not one bird was hit of the many fired at, a circumstance which did not say much for their wanted marksmanship. Before breakfast I bought a moderately sized sheep for a dollar. Sheikh Hamid Halal had or butchered it, according to rule, and my companion soon prepared a feast of boiled mutton. To Halal is to kill an animal according to Muslim rites. The word is wanted to express the act, and we cannot do better than to borrow it from the people to whom the practice belongs. But the sheep proved a bone of contention the boy Muhammad had in a fit of economy sold its head to a Bedouin for three piasters, and the others disappointed in their anticipations of Hadji's lost temper. With a demon's voluble tongue and impudent continence in the van they opened such a volley of railery and sarcasm upon the young tribe-seller that he in his turn became excited furious. I had some difficulty to keep the peace, for it did not suit my interests that they should quarrel. But to do the Arab's justice nothing is easier for a man who knows them than to work upon their good feelings. He is a stranger in your country, a guest, acted as a charm. They listened patiently to Muhammad's cross-abuse, only promising to answer him when in his land, that is to say near Mecca. But what especially soured our day was the report that said the great robber chief and his brother were in the field, consequently that our march would be delayed for some time. Every half hour some fresh tattle from the camp or the coffee house added fuel to the fire of our impatience. Few particulars about this Shinderhans of Al-Hijaz may not be unacceptable. Fitnu, he is now dead and has been succeeded by a son worse than himself. End of Fitnu. Shinderhans is dead. He is the chief of Sumeda and the Mohammed, two influential sub-families of the Hamida, the principal family of the Benu Harb tribe of Bedouin. He therefore aspired to rule all the Hamida and threw them the Benu Harb, in which case he would have been de facto monarch of the Holy Land. But the Sharifa of Mecca and Ahmed Pasha, the Turkish governor of the chief city, for some political reason degraded him and raised up a rival in the person of Sheikh Fahd, another ruffian of a similar stamp who calls himself chief of the Benu Amr, the third sub-family of the Hamida family. Of the Hamida family, the third sub-family of the Hamida family. Hence all kinds of confusion. Fahd's people, whose number is just said five thousand, resent with Arab asperity the insult offered to their chief and beat Fahd's who do not amount to five hundred. Fahd, supported by the government, cuts off side supplies. Both are equally wild and reckless, and nowhere doth the glorious goddess Liberty show more brazen face than in this eastern, invalid land of the brave and the free. Both sees the opportunity of shooting troopers, of plundering travelers, and closing the roads. This state of things continued till I left the Hijaz, when the Sharifa of Mecca proposed to take the field in person against the arch-robber. And as will afterwards be seen in these pages, Fahd had the audacity to turn back the sultan's mahmel or litter the inside of imperial power, and to shut the road against his cortege, because the pashas of Al Medina and of the Damascus caravan would not guarantee that. They would not guarantee his restitution to his former dignity. That such vermin is allowed to exist proves the imbecility of the Turkish government. The sultan pays pensions in corn and cloth to the very chiefs, to the very chiefs who arm their violets against him. And the pashas, after prolonging all they can, hand over to their enemies the means of resistance. It is more than probable that Abdul Majid had never heard a word of truth concerning Al Hijaz, and that fulsome courtiers persuaded him that men there tremble at his name. His government, however, is desirous if report speaks truth of trusting Al Hijaz upon the Egyptian, who on his side would willingly pay a large sum to avert such calamity. The holy land drains off Turkish gold and blood in abundance, and the lords of the country hold it in—and the lords of the country hold in it a contemptible position. If they catch a thief, they dare not hang him. They must pay blackmail and yet be shot at in every pass. They affect superiority over the Arabs, hate them, and are despised by them. In such, in Al Hijaz are the effects of the charter of Gulkhana, a panache like Holloway's pills, for all the evils to which Turkish, Arab, Syrian, Greek, Egyptian, Persian, Armenian, Kurd, and Albanian flesh is in air to. Such the result of a Tanzimat, the silliest copy of Europe's folly bureaucracy and centralization, that the pen of empirical statecraft ever traced. Footnote. The greatest of all its terrors was that the appointing of the provinces. The greatest of all its errors was that of appointing to the provinces instead of the single Pasha of the olden time. Three different governors, civil, military, and fiscal, all depending upon the Supreme Council at Constantinople. Thus each province has three plunderers instead of one, and its affairs are referred to a body that can make no interest in it. Footnote. Under a strong-handed and strong-hearted despotism like Muhammad Ali's, Al Hijaz in one generation might be purged of its pests, by a proper use of the blood feud, by vigorously supporting the weaker against the stronger classes, by regularly defeating everybody who earns a name for himself, and above all by the exercise of unsparing, unflinching justice, the few thousands of half-naked bandits who now make the land a fighting field would soon sink into other insignificance. Footnote. Ziyad bin Abihi was sent by al-Muawiyah the Caliph to reform al-Basra, the den of thieves. He made a speech, noticed that he meant to rule with the sword, and advised all offenders to leave the city. The inhabitants were forbidden under pain of death to appear in the streets after evening prayers, and dispositions were made to secure the execution of the penalty. Two hundred persons were put to death by the patrol during the first night, only five during the second, and not a drop of blood was shed afterwards. By similar severity the French put an end to assassination at Naples, and the Austrians at Lecombe, and the Austrians at Lecombe. We may deplore the necessity of having recourses to such means, but it is a silly practice to solve the wound which requires the knave, which requires the knife. But to affect such end the Turks require the old stratocracy, which, bloody as it was, worked with far less misery than the Charter and the New Code. What Milton calls the solid rule of civil government has done wonders for the race that nurtured and brought to perfection an idea spontaneous to their organization. The world has yet to learn, the admirable, that the admirable exotic will thrive amongst the country gentlemen of Monomotapa. The world has yet to learn that the admirable exotic will thrive amongst the country gentlemen of Monomotapa, or the reignability of Al-Hijaz. These remarks were written in 1853, I see no reason to change them in 1878. End of Footnote And it requires no prophetic eye to foresee the day when the Wahhabis or the Bedouin rising en masse will rid the land of its feeble conquerors. End of Footnote Footnote A weak monarch, a degenerate moot. A weak monarch, a degenerate government, a state whose corruption is evidenced by moral decay. A revenue bolstered up by a system of treasury paper, which even the public offices discount at from six to three percent an army accustomed to be beaten and disorganized provinces. And disorganized provinces, these together with the proceedings of a ruthless and advancing enemy, form the points of comparison between the Constantinople of the present day and the Byzantine and the Byzantine metropolis eight hundred years ago. Fate has marked upon the Ottoman Empire in Europe the lenda eth. We are now witnessing the efforts of human energy and ingenuity to avert or evade the fiat. End of Footnote Said the old man of the mountains who has described to me as a little brown bedouin, contemptible in appearance but remarkable for courage and ready wit. He has treachery. He has for treachery a keen scent, which he requires to keep in exercise. A blood feud with the Abdul-Muttalib, the present sheriff of Mecca, who slew his nephew and the hostility and the hostility of several sultans has rendered his life eventful. He lost all his teeth by poison, which would have killed him had he not after swallowing the potion correctly. Since that time he has lived entirely upon fruits, which he gathers for himself, and coffee, which he prepares with his own hands. In Sultan Mahmood's time he received the reward of his life. He has not been able to eat, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink. In Sultan Mahmood's time he received from Constantinople a gorgeous purse, which he was told to open as it contained something for his private inspection. Suspecting treachery he gave it for this purpose to a slave, bidding him to carry it to some distance. The bearer was shot by a pistol, cunningly fixed, like robberies in the foals of the bag. Whether this far-known story be true or only well-found, it is certain that Sheikh Said now fears the Turks even when they bring gifts. The Sultan sends, or is supposed to send him presents of fine horses, robes of honour, and a large quantity of grain, but the Sheikh, trusting to his heels, rather than to steeds, sells them. He gives away the dresses to his slaves, and he distributes the grain amongst his clansmen. Of his character men, as usual, tell two tales. Some praise his charity and call him the friend of the poor. And call him the friend of the poor, as certainly as he is the foe of the rich. Others, on the contrary, describe him as a cruel, cold-blooded, and notably even among Arabs, revengeful and avaricious. The truth probably lies between these two extremes, but I observe that those of my companions who spoke most highly of the robber chief when at a distance seemed to be in the Sudori Freddy whilst under the shadow of his heels. El-Hamra is the third station from Al-Madinah in the Derbys-Sultani, or the High Road, or the Sultan's High Road, the westerly line leading to Makkah along the east, along the sea coast. When the robbers permit, the pilgrims prefer this route on account of its superior climate. The facility of procuring water and supplies the vicinity of the sea and the circumstance of its passing through Badir, the scene of the Prophet's principal military exploits in AH-2. After midday, under 21st of July, when we had made up our minds that fate had determined we should halt at El-Hamra, a caravan arrived from Makkah, and the new travelers had interest to procure an escort and permission to proceed without delay towards El-Madinah. The good news filled us with joy. A little after 4pm, we urged our panting camels over the fiery sands to join the Makkahs, who were standing ready for the march on the other side of the torrent bed. An hour afterwards, we started in an easterly direction. My companions, having found friends and relations in the Makkah and caravan, the boy Muhammad's elder brother, about whom, more unknown, was of the number, were full of news and excitement at sunset that prayed with unction, even sad and ham it had not the face to sit their camels during the halt, when all around were washing, sanding themselves. Where water cannot be obtained for ablution before prayers, Muslims clapped the palms of their hands upon the sand, and draw them down the face and both forearms. This operation, which is performed once or twice, it varies in different schools, is called Te-Yemmum, and a footnote. And busy with their devotions, within eight hours suppers remounted and started once more. Shortly after night set in, we came to a sudden halt. A dozen different reports rose to account for this circumstance, which was occasioned by a band of Bedouin who had manned a gorge and sent forward a parliamentary ordering us forthwith to stop. They had first demanded money to let us pass, but at last hearing that we were sons of the holy city, they granted us transit on the whole condition that the military, whom they, like Irish pheasants, hate and fear, should return to whence they came. Upon this, our escorts, two hundred men, wheeled their horses around and galloped back to their barracks. We moved onwards without, however, seeing any robbers. We moved onwards without, however, seeing any robbers. My camel man pointed out their haunts and showed me a small bird hovering over a place where he supposed water trickled from the rock. The fellow had attempted a sneak attack The fellow had attempted a sneer at my expense when the fray was impeding. Why don't you load your pistols, Effendi, he cried, and get out of your litter and show a fight? Because, I replied as loudly, in my country when dogs run at us, we thrash them with sticks. This stopped my stools, and I had no idea what to do. This stopped my stools, this stopped my stools' mouth for a time, but he and I were never friends. Like the lowest orders of orientals, he required to be ill-treated, gentleness and condescension. He seemed to consider a proof of cowardice or imbecility. I began with kindness, but was soon compelled to use hard words at first and then threats, which, though he heard them with frowns and mutterings, produced manifest symptoms of improvement. Our night's journey had no other incident. We travelled over rising ground with a moon full in our faces, and about midnight, we passed through another long-straggling line of villages called Jedaida. I write this word as my companions pronounced it. Burkhardt similarly gives it Jedeida and Alibey Jedeida. Giovanni Finati wrongly calls this place Jedeid-Bras, which Mr. Banks, his editor, rightly translates the new opening or path. Or Al-Khaef. Al-Khaef is a common name for places in this part of Arabia. For this part of Arabia, the word literally means declivity or a place built upon a declivity. The principal part of it lies on the left of the road going to Al-Madinah. It has a fort like that of Al-Hamra, springs of tolerable drinking water, a nakheel or date-ground, and a celebrated dead saint, Abd-Rahim Al-Bura'i. A little beyond it lies the Bughaz or defile. Fitnut. Bughaz in Turkish means the fossils, the throat, and signifies also here a gorge or a mountain pass. It is the word now commonly used in Al-Hijaz for the classical nakab, nakab or mazik. Vincent in Periplu's errors in Vincent, Vincent, Periplus. Vincent in his book Periplus errors in deriving the word from the Italian Bukka. End of Fitnut. Where in AD 1811, Tussun Bey and his 8,000 Turks were totally defeated by 25,000 Harbi Bedouin and Wahhabis Fitnut. Giovanni Finati, who was present at this hard-fought field as a soldier in Tussun's army, gives a lively description of the disastrous day of Jadaida in volume 1 of his work. End of Fitnut. This famous attacking point of the Benu Harb. This is the famous attacking point of the Benu Harb. In former times both Jezzar Pasha, the celebrated butcher of Syria and Abdullah Pasha of Damascus were baffled at the gorge of Jadaida. Fitnut. This Abdullah Pasha of Damascus led the caravan in AD 1756. When the sheikhs of the Harb tribe came to receive their blackmail, he cut off their heads and sent the trophies to Istanbul. During the next season, the Harb were paralyzed by the blow. By the third year, there levied 80,000 men attack the caravan, pelaged it, and slew every turk that fell into their hands. End of Fitnut. And this year, the commander of the Syrian caravan afraid of risking an attack at the place so ilomant, avoided it by marching upon Mecca via the desert road of Nizd. At 4 a.m., having traveled about 24 miles, due east, we encamped at Bir Abbas. End of Chapter 13.