1875.] Extracts from an Arabic work relating to Aden. 221 



drive the people to hell, and the proof of that is, that in the heart of the 

 rock is a well named Amber, and the sages of Hind call it Bir Yei'an, and 

 smoke issues from it perpetually. It is now called Bir Heramasat, and no one 

 is able to look at it on account of its terribleness and its gloom and vapour. 

 Round about the well are found broken stones and snakes sleeping and 

 animals standing, and the Indians say that Hunwit, the before mentioned 

 Efrit, dug this well, which indeed is not a well, but a subterranean passage 

 excavated under the sea to the city of Ujain Bikrami, which is the capital 

 of the King of Malwa in India. It was stated to me by Mubarak El 

 Sliaroni Maula, father of Muhammad bin Mesucl, saying the cause of the 

 excavation of the well Yeran was Hadather, and this Efrit stole the couch 

 of the wife of Ram Haidar from the province of Oudh and flew with her 

 until he rested on the summit of Jebel Sira. He then said to her : — I 

 desire to change your form from that of a human being to that of a Jinn, 

 and they began to wrangle, and Hunwit, who was an Efrit in the form 

 of an ape, hearing them quarrel dug this passage from the city of Ujain 

 Bikrami under the sea until it terminated in the centre of Jebel Sira, and 

 he completed it all in one night. Issuing from the passage he found her 

 (Haidar's wife) sleeping under a thorn tree on the top of the hill, so he took 

 her on his back and descended with her into the passage, and ceased not 

 to proceed with her until he arrived at Ujain Bikrami about daybreak, 

 when he delivered her to her husband, Ram Haidar, who became blessed 

 with two male children by her, one of whom was named Luth and the other 

 Kus, and her's is a long story and requires a lengthy narration, but the 

 passage exists to this day. To return to the former subject. When ships 

 are retarded by the monsoon in their endeavours to reach the mouth of Aden 

 harbour, they bring to Jebel Sira seven oxen about the time of sunset, and 

 leave them in some place until the middle of the night. Towards the end 

 of the night they send back six to Aden leaving but one ox there, which 

 they sacrifice in the morning, and they call that sacrifice " the sacrifice of 

 of the hill." When they have done this the ships are able to approach and 

 arrive one after the other. This custom was instituted in ancient times 

 during the sway of the Beni Zuri and other Arab dynasties, but the practice 

 has ceased in our time. 



Note. — When a ship on a voyage weathers Sokotera or Jebel Kudmul, 

 thc}^ call that weathering " El.Foulah," and they take a dish and put -in it 

 a sail and rudder and other appurtenances of a ship, and place therein some 

 morsels of cocoanut, salt, and pomegranate and float it on the sea in the 

 raging waves, and then say that it draws near and arrives in safety to the 

 foot of the hill. 



The Building of Aden. 

 With the fall of the Empire of the Pharaohs, Aden became ruined 



