OCCUPATION. 51 



happily enough whilst in Tajourah ; for too young 

 to comprehend the evils of their destiny, and their 

 bodily wants being carefully attended to, they soon 

 regain their lost condition and health, and are then 

 forwarded to the markets of Mocha and other parts 

 of the Red Sea. They are nearly all dressed in a 

 long dirty frock of very coarse calico, which consti- 

 tutes the whole of their apparel. The male inhabit- 

 ants of Tajourah have no other occupation than the 

 traffic in slaves, which they exchange for the mer- 

 chandise of India and Arabia, but principally the 

 former, whose traders they meet at the fair of Ber- 

 berah. 



The women occupy themselves with household 

 duties, and carrying water from a well about half a 

 mile from the town. The water is carried in large 

 entire skins of the goat, which, they tan with the 

 pounded bark of a mimosa, very common in the 

 jungle near the town, and which, moistened with a 

 little water, they rub well into the skin. If it be 

 designed to be divested of the hair, the skin, before 

 being tanned, is left for two or three days until 

 slight putrefaction has commenced, and the hair 

 is then easily detached. The most laborious occu- 

 pation of the women is grinding the jowaree, or 

 millet, which is imported into Tajourah from Aden 

 and the Persian Gulf. They use for this purpose a 

 large flat stone, concave from above downwards, 

 and placed upon the ground, behind this upon her 

 knees, the woman, half naked, with long depending 



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