Photograph from Charles K. Moser 



THE) AUCTION BLOCK, WHERE THE ARAB BUYS HIS DAY'S SUPPLY OP KHAT 



"How much ! How much! will you give for this flower of paradise? "Tis sweet as a maiden's 

 eyes; 'tis like bees' breath for fragrance; 'tis " 



Abyssinia, many centuries ago. There is 

 a tradition among the wise men of the 

 East that the sheikh Ibrahim Abou Zar- 

 bayn introduced it into Hodeidah from 

 Ethiopia about 1430. But ask any Yemen 

 Arab and he will tell you, "It has been 

 always. Allah gave it to us in the be- 

 ginning, to make us forget labor and 

 pain." And for the surcease of khat he 

 will spend more of his earnings than for 

 all the rest of his meager necessities of 

 life. A coolie who earns 30 cents per 

 day spends 10 cents of it for the support 

 of his family and the rest for khat. A 

 wealthy merchant will consume many 

 rupees' worth in the course of an after- 

 noon. 



There's a reason. "Cut oft my strong 

 hand," cries the sambuk coolie, his back 

 bent under a goatskin bale of three hun- 

 dredweight, "and I will become Hadji, 

 the sweeper ( a despised caste) ; but take 

 away my khat and let me die." In the 

 morning your Arab servant is surly and 

 taciturn, your friend the coffee merchant 

 sharp at a bargain and acrid of manner. 



In the afternoon your servant, with a wad 

 of the vivifying leaves in his cheek, does 

 your commands with smiles and a light 

 foot, and the punkah-wallah who slept 

 through the morning now keeps your 

 office fans moving briskly. Your friend 

 the merchant bestows compliments and 

 presents upon you ; by Allah, he will buy 

 your horse for the price of an elephant 

 and find no favor too great to give you. 

 The bale the coolie could not lift this 

 morning is now but a feather on his back. 

 Without khat your Arab, laborer or gen- 

 tleman, is evasive, apathetic, dull ; with 

 it he performs prodigies of strength and 

 energy. 



THE HOME OF THE KHAT BUSH 



Catha cduUs, our plant's botanical 

 name, grows to some extent in Abyssinia, 

 but it is cultivated chiefly in the moun- 

 tains of the Yemen interior behind Aden. 

 The word khat is said to be derived from 

 another Arabic word kiit, meaning sus- 

 tenance or reviving principle, and refers 

 to the most salient property of the plant, 



174 



