GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 121 



ters, smiths, shoemakers, saddlers, tailors, stone- 

 cutters, goldsmiths, barbers, cooks, and writers or 

 scribes, have each their respective stand in the open 

 street, with their little portable shops. Jews are 

 not permitted to live in the city ; they reside, to the 

 number of about 2000, in a village in the suburbs. 

 They are treated with great contempt ; yet the best 

 artisans in Arabia are of this nation, especially pot- 

 ters and goldsmiths, who come within the walls by 

 day to work in their little shops, and in the evening 

 retire to their own habitations. Many of them 

 carry on a very considerable trade, and are occa- 

 sionally advanced to places of trust. Oraki was an 

 eminent merchant before he was made by the imam 

 comptroller of customs and surveyor of the royal 

 buildings and gardens. He had incurred the dis- 

 pleasure of his master shortly before the arrival of 

 the Danish traveller, and his disgrace involved his 

 countrymen in a severe persecution. Fourteen of 

 their synagogues were demolished by order of the 

 government ; all the stone pitchers in which they 

 kept their wine were broken ; all their houses above 

 14 cubits high (25i feet) were pulled down, and none 

 exceeding that height w^ere permitted to be raised 

 in future. 



Fruits are very abundant. It is said there are 

 more than twenty different species of grapes, one 

 of which is without stones ; and as they do not all 

 ripen at the same time, they continue to afford a de- 

 licious refreshment for several months. By pre- 

 serving and hanging them in their cellars the citi- 

 zens secure an agreeable food the greater part of 

 the year. Vast quantities of them are dried ; and 

 the exportation of raisins forms a considerable 

 branch of traffic. The adjacent plain of Rodda is 

 covered with gardens, and watered by small streams. 

 Timber for firewood is scarce and dear, the hills in 

 the vicinity being bleak and bare ; so that this article 

 is brought from the distance of three days' journey, 



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