GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 139 



ready for the traveller ; — besides there are the cara- 

 vansaries and coffee-houses, with groups of towns- 

 men and traders reclining on couches of the date- 

 leaf, smoking their small hookahs, sipping their 

 kischer, and perpetually stroking their long beards. 



The government of Mocha is one of the best in 

 the gift of the imam, owing to the large sums which 

 the dowlah is able to extort from the Banians and 

 foreign traders. Formerly an Arab of high rank 

 was appointed to the office ; but of late it has been , 

 deemed more prudent to give it to a slave, who can 

 easily be removed, and from whom it is more safe 

 to take the profits of his situation. From the 

 avaricious temper of the local authorities, Niebuhr 

 and his companions experienced the most vexatious 

 treatment in the seizure of their baggage, and the 

 destruction of some of their valuable instruments. 

 Lord Valentia makes the same remark as to the 

 covetous and tyramiical character of the ruler of 

 Mocha, and ascribes to him a new method of ex- 

 torting money from the Banians, by confining them 

 in a room, and fumigating them with sulphur till 

 they complied with his demands. The dowlah in 

 1823 is represented as a more amiable personage, 

 quiet and civil to Europeans, and not oppressive to 

 the people. He was an Abyssinian, not at all 

 sUiking either in his figure or appearance, who had 

 been a slave in the family of the imam, and pro- 

 moted for his good conduct. Without the walls of 

 the town are three extensive suburbs ; one occupied 

 by common labourers ; one by the Abyssinian mar- 

 iners, who detest the natives ; and the third by 

 the Jews, who are not allowed to wear a turban, 

 and held in such contempt that an Arab may spit 

 upon and strike them. These last carry on an ex- 

 tensive illicit trade in brandy distilled from dates. 

 These suburbs are not more cleanly than the town. 

 The bed of the river Moosa is filled with an accu- 



ulation of filth and rubbish ; its waters never 



