228 HEJAZ. 



though the Pasha of Egypt has made these articles 

 a strict monopoly of his own, the grain-dealers, after 

 paying freight, have usually a profit of fifteen or 

 twenty per cent. The consumption of this species 

 of commodity., it may be observed, is much greater 

 in Arabia than in any of the surrounding countries ; 

 the great mass of the people living almost entirely on 

 wheat, barley, lentils, or rice ; using few vegetables, 

 but a great deal of butter and spicery. 



The natural disadvantages of the place are coun- 

 terbalanced by a source of opulence possessed by no 

 other city in the world. During the pilgrimage, and 

 for some months preceding it, the magazines of fo- 

 reign commerce are opened as it were by thou- 

 sands of wealthy hajjis, who bring the productions 

 of every Moslem country to Jidda, either by sea or 

 across the desert, exchanging them with one an- 

 other, or receiving from the native merchants the 

 goods of India and Arabia, which the latter have ac- 

 cumulated the whole year in their warehouses. At 

 this period Mecca becomes one of the largest fairs in 

 the East, and certainly the most interesting, from 

 the variety of nations that frequent it. The value 

 of the exports is, however, greatly superior to that of 

 the imports, and requires a considerable balance in 

 dollars and sequins, part of which find their way 

 to Yemen and India, and about one-fourth remains 

 in the hands of the Meccawees. So profitable is 

 this trade, that goods brought from Jidda yield a 

 clear gain varying from thirty to fifty per cent. 



Much profit is also fraudulently made ; great 

 numbers of pilgrims are ignorant of the Arabic lan- 

 guage, and are in consequence placed at the mercy 

 of brokers or interpreters, who are generally Indians, 



