178 HEJAZ. 



perform the journey in two nights ; the camels rest 

 ing at a station midway during the day. In addition 

 to these, a small caravan of asses lightly laden start? 

 also every evening, and arrives regularly next morn 

 ing. This conveyance is the usual mail for post- 

 letters. The inhabitants evince in their appearance 

 the extremes of wealth and indigence ; there is a 

 great deal of luxury in the costume and apartments 

 of the rich ; while among the lower orders many are 

 almost naked, and in the greatest misery. Ali Bey 

 remarked a prodigious number of dogs and cats in 

 the streets, howUng and roaming without owners, 

 but says there are few flies, and no gnats or other 

 insects. 



Yembo serves as the port to Medina. Though 

 the sheriffs of Mecca were in the habit of appoint- 

 ing their vizier as governor of the place, he had in 

 most cases httle authority beyond that of collecting 

 the customs; the government being exercised by 

 the great sheik of the Jeheine tribe, to which many 

 of the inhabitants belonged. The town is built on 

 the northern side of a deep spacious bay, which 

 affords good anchorage ; and is protected from the 

 violence of the wind by an island at its entrance. 

 A creek of the bay divides it into two parts, both of 

 which are enclosed by a wall of considerable strength. 

 The houses are low, built of a coarse white calca- 

 reous stone full of fossils, and have a mean and 

 wretched appearance. The inhabitants are prin- 

 cipally Arabs, no foreigners having settled here 

 except two or three Indian shopkeepers, or a few 

 Turks who occasionally take up a temporary resi- 

 dence. Yembo possesses about forty or fifty ships, 

 which engage in all the branches of the Red Sea 

 trade ; but they are daring smugglers,— often eluding 

 the heavy duties of the government by sending a 

 considerable part of their cargoes ashore by stealth. 

 The transport to Medina is chiefly in provisions, and 

 occupies a great number of carriers. Tlie YembJi- 



