148 CIVIL HISTORY AND 



The journey to Beit el Fakih is represented as 

 lying generally through a parched and barren tract 

 of country. The only accommodation are wretched 

 coffee-houses intended to serve the purposes of our 

 inns. These mokeias, as they are called, are paltry 

 huts, furnished merely with a sevir, or long bench 

 of straw ropes ; nor do they afford any refreshment 

 but kischer, a hot infusion of coffee-beans, or some- 

 times millet-cakes with camel's milk and butter. 

 The kischer is served out in coarse earthen cups ; 

 wheaten-bread was a rarity in the province, and 

 the water was scarce and bad. The owner or mas- 

 ter of the inn generally resides in some neighbour- 

 ing village, whence he comes daily to wait for pas- 

 sengers. Another description of coffee-houses is the 

 mansale, where travellers are received and enter- 

 tained gratuitously, if they will be content with the 

 usual fare of the country. The guests are all lodged 

 in one common apartment, which is served and fur- 

 nished in the same homely style as the mokeias. 



The city of Beit el Fakih (or House of the Sage) 

 derived its name and origin from a famous saint, 

 Achmed ibn Mousa, whose sepulchre is shown in 

 a handsome mosque near the town. His repu- 

 tation for miraculous cures was as celebrated as 

 that of any martyr or confessor in the Romish ca- 

 lendar. One of his most wonderful performances 

 was the liberation of a Turkish pasha who had been 

 for twenty years a captive in Spain, where he was 

 bound in a dungeon to two huge stones, with pon- 

 derous and massy chains. Long and in vain had he 

 invoked every canonized name in the annals of 

 Islam ; but when the aid of Achmed was solicited, 

 the compassionate saint stretched his hand from the 



