GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 131 



over a wide district. Hodeida has a tolerable har- 

 bour, a small citadel, a patron saint, and a dowlah, 

 whose jurisdiction is confined to the town. Zebid, 

 once the capital of Tehama, the residence of a sove- 

 reign, and the most commercial city on the Arabian 

 Gulf, now retains little but the shadow of its former 

 splendour. It is furnished with a dowlah, a mufti, 

 three cadis, and an academy. 



After visiting the coffee-mountains in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and the towns of Kahme, Bulgosa, and 

 Kusma, which last stood on the loftiest peak of the 

 range, Niebuhr proceeded to Udden and Jobla. The 

 country was solitary ; and in the few villages which 

 they passed the houses were still more wretched 

 than in Tehama : they had no walls, and consisted 

 merely of poles laid together and covered with reeds, 

 some of which grew in the valley to the height of 

 twenty feet, forming an agreeable shade. 



Taas, a place of some celebrity, stands at the foot 

 of the fertile hill of Sabber, and is encompassed with 

 a wall varying from sixteen to thirty feet thick, and 

 flanked with several towers. Within this rampart 

 rises a steep rock about 400 feet high, on which the 

 citadel or fortress of Kahre is built, defended by an 

 exterior coating of brick. The present town is of 

 comparatively modern origin, and owed its founda- 

 tion to the attractive virtues of the tomb of Ismael 

 Malec, its patron saint, who according to tradition 

 was once king of that country. A mosque bearing 

 his name was reared on the spot where his remains 

 were buried ; but nobody has been permitted to ap- 

 proach his tomb since on one occasion he thought 

 proper to work a miracle which gave great dissatis- 

 faction to the authorities of the place. This mar- 

 vellous event was related to Niebuhr : — Two beggars 

 had asked charity from the dowlah, of whom one 

 only received alms ; the other repaired to the sepul- 

 chre of Ismael to implore his interposition. The 

 holy man, who when ahve had been liberal of his 



