176 HEJAZ. 



awning usually made of mats fastened to high poles. 

 The pipe is the constant companion of the lower 

 classes, and of all the sailors on the Red Sea. The 

 head or bowl consists of an unpolished cocoanut 

 shell which contains water, and the smoke is inhaled 

 through a thick reed, or a long serpentine tube. The 

 coffee-houses are generally filthy, and never fre- 

 quented by the better class of merchants. The 

 dealers in other commodities are very numerous ; 

 sellers of butter, honey, oil, and sugar ; of vege- 

 tables, fruits, and confectionary of all descriptions. 

 There are pancake-makers and bean-sellers, who 

 furnish these articles for breakfast ; soup-sellers, 

 shops for roasted meat or fried fish, stands for bread 

 and lehen or sour-milk (which is sold by the pound, 

 and extremely dear), for Greek cheese, and salted 

 or smoked beef from Asia Minor, to accommodate 

 visiters at mid-day. Corn-dealers have their shops, 

 vv^here Egyptian wheat, barley, beans, lentils, dhourra, 

 rice, and biscuits may be purchased. The druggists, 

 who are mostly natives of India, have their labora- 

 tories ; where, ..besides medical compounds, they 

 retail wax, candles, pepper, perfumery, sugar, and 

 spices of all sorts. A considerable article of their 

 trade consists in rosebuds brought from the gardens 

 of Taif : these the inhabitants of Hejaz, especially 

 the ladies, infuse in water, which they afterward 

 use for their ablutions. Tailors, clothiers, and bar- 

 bers are not numerous ; the latter act here as sur- 

 geons and physicians, as they formerly did in Eng- 

 land. There are a good many shops where small 

 articles of Indian manufacture are sold. Very little 

 European hardware finds its way to these markets, 

 except needles, scissors, thimbles, and files ; copper- 

 vessels, water-skins, and other domestic utensils are 

 generally imported. In a street adjoining the great 

 market-place live a few artisans, blacksmiths, silver- 

 smiths, carpenters, and some butchers, chiefly na* 

 tives of Egypt. 



