GOVERNMENT OP ARABIA. 149 



tomb, and at this signal the pasha instantly arrived 

 from Spain, carrying with him both fetters and stones, 

 to the great amazement of the inhabitants of Beit el 

 Fakih, who were then met to celebrate the anniver- 

 sary festival of their ghostly patron. The city con- 

 tains little of an interesting nature. The houses 

 stand separate from each other ; many of them are 

 built of stone, others of mud mixed with dung. 

 The surrounding plain, though not fertile, is well 

 cultivated ; and the authority of the resident dow- 

 lah extends over a wide district. Hodeida has a 

 tolerable harbour, a small citadel, a patron saint, 

 and. a dowlah, whose jurisdiction is confined to the 

 town. Zebid, once the capital of Tehama, the resi- 

 dence of a sovereign, and the most commercial city 

 on the Arabian Gulf, now retains little but the sha- 

 dow of its former splendour. It is furnished with 

 a dowlah, a mufti, three cadis, and an academy. 



After visiting the coffee-mountains in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and the towns of Kahhme, Bulgosa, 

 and Kusma, which last stood on the loftiest peak 

 of the range, Niebuhr proceeded to Udden and 

 Jobla. The country was solitary ; and in the few 

 villages which they passed the houses were still more 

 wretched than in Tehama : they had no walls, and 

 consisted merely of poles laid together and covered 

 with reeds, some of which grew in the valley to the 

 height of twenty feet, forming an agreeable shade. 



Taas, a place of some celebrity, stands at the foot 

 of the fertile hill of Sabber, and is encompassed with 

 a wall varying from sixteen to thirty feet thick, and 

 flanked with several towers. Within this rampart 

 rises a steep rock about 400 feet high, on which the 

 citadel or fortress of Kahhre is built, defended by an 



