i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 561 



Hodheil, and I know not how many other tribes, each 

 distinguishable to the practised eye, not only by dress, 

 but by the &quot; blood &quot; which appears in their faces. They 

 bring their arms with them the inseparable janbeeya 

 and the lance seldom the long matchlock, which is 

 useless in a melee, and fatal only when deliberately fired 

 from an ambush. The bazaar is stocked with sample 

 wares, English and American cottons, the home-made 

 shamla and head shawls from Baghdad, breadstuffs and 

 rice, the dates and wild honey of Taif, the hard mineral 

 salt of Jebel Marran, the coarse hot tobacco called hummy 

 smoked in the water pipe, clarified butter, leather and 

 iron wares, and weapons. 



The stir is constant, for the simplest purchase may 

 occupy an hour, and a very small number of transactions 

 produces the appearance of immense activity. The other 

 streets are silent enough save for the boys and little girls 

 playing in them. And singularly enough it is a rule of 

 the town that no woman or girl above eight or ten must 

 ever be seen in the streets or precincts of the town. Tis 

 no great loss to the aspect of the streets, for the out 

 door dress of an Arabian woman of Jeddah or Mecca 

 the dingy blue wrapper, the narrow cotton trousers, 

 and the yellow Morocco stockings and slippers in which 

 she shuffles along with an ungainly swing, so unlike the 

 erect elastic gait of the Egyptian females is a hideous 

 contrast to the picturesque dress of the men, which is 

 generally bright in colour, and always shows off to ad 

 vantage the well-knit forms of the young and the grave 

 dignity of the seniors. 



VIII. THE MOHTESIB AND His FAMILY 



In my last letter I gave some description of the town 

 of Taif. I must now say something of its inhabitants. 

 The family which I can best describe is that of the Mohtesib 

 Hosein, to whom the Shereef entrusted the charge of 



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