GOVERNMENT OF ARABIA. 145 



tues were supposed to render him invincible. Va- 

 rious other banners were fortified with similar ta- 

 lismans. The same rich canopies, called medattas, 

 were extended over the heads of the king and some 

 other members of his family ; these being a distinc- 

 tion peculiar to the sovereign and princes of the 

 blood, and claimed by the sheiks, sheriffs, and no- 

 bility, in other parts of Yemen, who constantly dis- 

 play this mark of their independence. Altogether, 

 the cortege was magnificent but disorderly, the 

 multitude crossing and jostling each other. The 

 firing of the military was awkward, as were their 

 evolutions and exercises in front of the palace. 



After their audience with the imam, the strangers 

 paid their respects to Fakih Achmed. The vizier's 

 house was not large, and on one side entirely open 

 on account of the heat. The garden was stocked 

 with fruit-trees, and in the middle was 9, jet d'eau, 

 wrought by an odd sort of hydraulic machinery ; 

 the water being put in motion by means of an ass and 

 a man alternately mounting and descending an in- 

 clined plane. This apparatus was less for ornament 

 than use in cooling the air, and was common in the 

 gardens of all the principal inhabitants of Sanaa. 



The traveller and his companions, on the eve of 

 their departure, received from the imam each a com- 

 plete suit of clothes, with a letter to the Dowlah of 

 Mocha, desiring him to pay them 200 crowns as a 

 farewell present ; while the secretary had orders to 

 furnish camels and asses for the whole of their jour- 

 ney, besides a quantity of provisions. The dress Nie- 

 buhr describes as being exactly like that worn by the 

 Arabs of distinction throughout Yemen, consisting of 

 a shirt over wide drawers of cotton cloth, and a vest 



