i88i] A JOURNEY IN THE HEjAZ 587 



Among the more savage tribes, as we now see, the 

 reform on which Mohammed ultimately decided has 

 never been carried through. It is, indeed, impossible 

 to say how many relics of an earlier social system still 

 linger in remote parts of the country. I have even 

 been told by a Swiss resident in Baghdad, who has the 

 reputation of a singular knowledge of that district, that 

 marriages with a stepmother, according to the old Arabic 

 levirate system, abolished by the Koran, have not un- 

 frequently come under his notice. 



I take this opportunity to modify a statement in 

 my third letter. The annual deficit in the revenue of 

 the Hejaz was estimated to me in Jeddah by an Arab 

 official, in a position to have accurate information, at 

 200,000 per annum. But the Waly of Yemen, who 

 is more likely to give an unvarnished statement, puts 

 the sum at fifteen million piastres, or barely 100,000, 

 a year, two-thirds of which are defrayed from the surplus 

 revenue of Yemen. I may also add that Mustafa Pasha 

 gives a favourable account of the Yam, who received 

 such a character for ferocity from Mohsin. They lie 

 between Yemen and the Aseer, and though only four or 

 five thousand strong, are formidable from their organisa 

 tion and discipline, in which they much excel their 

 neighbours. They have also a very just government. 

 At present they are at peace with the Turks, having 

 sustained defeats, which were followed by a treaty 

 exempting them from Turkish taxes and interference. 

 The Bedouins, indeed, can never face the Turks in regular 

 war ; but the latter are in like manner unable to maintain 

 permanent control over the vanquished. 



XL SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE HEJAZ 



I shall occupy this letter with some remarks on slavery 

 in the Hejaz. There are two points to be distinguished 

 in speaking on this topic the question of the slave trade 



