MECCA. 229 



and never fail to make them pay dearly for their 

 services. It is a practice with dealers, when they 

 wish to conceal their business from others,, to join 

 their right hands under the corner of the gown or 

 wide sleeve; where, by touching the different 

 joints of the fingers, they note the numerals, and 

 thus silently conclude the bargain. The wealth that 

 annually flows into Mecca might render it one of 

 the richest cities in the East, were it not for the pro- 

 digal and dissipated habits of the people, especially 

 of the lower orders, who are loose and disorderly 

 spendthrifts, squandering away their gains in dress, 

 gluttony, and the grossest gratifications. Marriage 

 and circumcision feasts are celebrated in a very 

 splendid style ; so that a poor man will sometimes in 

 one day throw away the expenditure of half a year. 

 It is owing to their dependence on foreign com- 

 merce that the arts and sciences are so little culti- 

 vated at Mecca. Travellers have remarked how few 

 artisans inhabit its streets, such as masons, carpen- 

 ters, tailors, or shoemakers, and these are inferior 

 in skill to the same class in other parts of the coun- 

 try. With the exception of a few potteries and dye- 

 houses there is not a single manufactory. There 

 are braziers for working in copper, and tinsmiths, 

 who make small vessels for the hajjis to carry away 

 some of the Zemzem water ; but not a man is to be 

 found capable of engraving an inscription, or fabri- 

 cating a lock and key. All the doors are fastened 

 with large wooden bolts ; and the skill of the cutler 

 is only adequate to the manufacture of matchlocks, 

 lances, and halberds, which are forged in the rudest 

 manner ; a hole in the ground serving for a furnace, 

 and one or two goat-skins, waved before the fire. 



