5 i4 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



shows that the water is not very far from the surface. 

 The path is fringed with shrubs and herbaceous plants 

 the rn, with its kidney-shaped, downy leaves, and yellow 

 and orange blossoms ; and in greater abundance the 

 white flowered harmel, used by the Arabs for fumi 

 gating their houses. A little way off, to the right of 

 our path, was quite a coppice of the dark -leaved shrub 

 called khamt, which is plentiful in several parts of this 

 valley, and is burned by the natives to produce a coarse 

 salt, which they call black alum (shabb aswad), and in use 

 for washing. The chief seat of this manufacture is 

 Hodeida, in Yemen. 



As we passed Bahra the sun was already sinking, and 

 the caravans which had been resting through the heat of 

 the day at Bahra or Hadda, were again in motion. The 

 road, almost deserted between Jeddah and Bahra, was 

 crowded with long trains of baggage camels laden with 

 piece goods and grain for Mecca and the interior, and 

 the caravans of East Indian and Javanese pilgrims 

 descending to the coast. The pilgrims travel in covered 

 litters named snugduf[?], hung like a balance upon the 

 camel s back, so that a passenger can recline at full 

 length on either side, and a third, if desired, can sit 

 between them. Beside the camels walked the Bedouin 

 drivers, their heads swathed in a dirty brown cotton 

 wrapper, and the great dirk or janbeeya, in its brazen 

 sheath, projecting from the leathern belt which confines 

 a shirt or waist cloth of the same colour and material as 

 the head cloth. Travelling all night, the pilgrims would 

 reach Jeddah in the early morning. 



An hour after sunset we reached Hadda, where 

 the Mecca road breaks off from the main valley, and 

 the fertile region of water springs begins. Here there 

 is a fountain bursting forth under the hill-side, and 

 wells with gardens and a few palm trees. The village 

 has several hundred inhabitants, but the only tolerable 

 building is a large mosque, the dwellings being mainly 



