MIN 7 EBALOGY. 403 



ten per cent, on all grain is levied in Nejed ; but where 

 the labour of irrigation is required this impost is reduced 

 one-half, in consideration of the additional expense. Of 

 all kinds of grain dhourra is the most productive. On the 

 hills of Yemen it gives a return of 140 ; and in Tehama, 

 where the inhabitants reap three successive crops from 

 the same field in the same year, this increase varies from 

 200 to 400 ; an exuberance that appears almost incredi- 

 ble, but which is chiefly owing to their mode of sowing 

 and their industrious irrigation. As this grain forms the 

 staple article of food, not only in Arabia but in other East- 

 ern countries, its extraordinary fertility must be regarded 

 as one of those benevolent arrangements of Providence, 

 whose economy is adapted with such exquisite wisdom to 

 the wants and circumstances of man in all climates and 

 in every region of the earth. 



SECTION II. MINERALOGY. 



We have noticed elsewhere, that the mineral treasures, 

 ascribed by the ancients to Arabia, have almost entirely 

 vanished ; although the positive and unanimous testi- 

 mony both of the Greek and Latin authors will not per- 

 mit us to doubt as to the fact of the wealth formerly 

 drawn from the veins of Yemen. We have the autho- 

 rity of Niebuhr, that the precious metals are not found or 

 known to exist in Arabia, which has no mines either of 

 gold or silver. The rivulets no longer wash down the 

 yellow grains from the hills ; nor do their sands exhibit 

 any trace of so rich an intermixture. All the gold circu- 

 lating in that country comes from Abyssinia or Europe, 

 and is generally received in payment for coffee or other 

 merchandise. When the Imam of Sanaa last century at- 

 tempted to introduce a gold currency, he was obliged to 

 melt down foreign money (Venetian sequins) for the pur- 

 pose. There are still enthusiasts in alchymy who pretend 

 to know the art of transmuting metals, and imagine them- 

 selves sure of success could they but discover a certain 

 herb, called haschiachet el dab, which gilds the teeth and 

 gives a yellow colour to the flesh of the sheep and goats 

 that eat it. At Beit el Fakih the Danish travellers found 

 two alchymists who had ruined themselves by their re- 

 searches into the mystery of gold-making ; and they men- 

 tion a philosopher of Loheia, who endeavoured to per- 



