II 



A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 

 I. INTRODUCTORY 



JEDDAH, February n, 1880. 



FOR more than one reason, few Europeans see anything 

 of the interior of the Hejaz. With the exception of the 

 holy places and their precincts, the country is not closed 

 to travellers. It is true that in the Hejaz foreigners in 

 a sense exist on sufferance. Even in Jeddah no European 

 can hold property, and an unfriendly High Shereef and 

 Waly might entirely bar entrance to the upper country, 

 or even bring back the days when the Mecca gate of 

 Jeddah opened only to Moslems. But for years back 

 there has been no serious attempt at a policy of exclusion. 

 European residents in Jeddah walk or ride without 

 molestation in the neighbourhood of the city, and the 

 High Shereef, the Prince of Mecca, has been always ready 

 to grant a safeguard and escort to the few travellers who 

 have desired to visit Hadda or Taif. Still, the necessity 

 of travelling with an expensive escort, and the restrictions 

 on free motion which such an arrangement implies, have 

 made it a comparatively rare thing even for residents in 

 Jeddah to enter the hilly chain that forms the eastern 

 boundary of the maritime plain of the Tehama. In the 

 nearer part of the hills there is little of interest. To the 

 curious traveller the upper country will repay a visit ; 

 but the journey is toilsome and costly, and hardly to be 



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