Update for 76757HEADmain

61 files changed, 23096 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/76757-0.txt b/76757-0.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f04ee22
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-0.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9743 @@
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76757 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN
+
+[Illustration: BAZAAR AT DHAMAR.]
+
+
+
+
+                                     A
+                         JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN
+                                    AND
+                         SOME GENERAL REMARKS UPON
+                               THAT COUNTRY
+
+                                    BY
+                        WALTER B. HARRIS, F.R.G.S.
+                                 AUTHOR OF
+            ‘THE LAND OF AN AFRICAN SULTAN; TRAVELS IN MOROCCO’
+
+                _ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS
+                           TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR_
+
+                        WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
+                           EDINBURGH AND LONDON
+                                MDCCCXCIII
+
+                           _All Rights reserved_
+
+
+
+
+                                    TO
+
+                           MY FATHER AND MOTHER
+
+                          _I DEDICATE THIS BOOK_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+But very few words are necessary as a preface to this book, as more than
+once in its pages its objects are stated.
+
+An account of my journey through the Yemen appeared last autumn in a
+series of articles in the ‘Illustrated London News,’ and it is with
+kind permission of the proprietors of that paper that some of the
+illustrations reappear here. Many of the illustrations, however, have not
+seen the light of day before.
+
+The chapter on the Yemen rebellion was published as an article in
+‘Blackwood’s Magazine’ for February last.
+
+The remainder of the book consists of entirely new matter.
+
+I cannot attempt to thank here the many persons who aided me and rendered
+me services during the time I was in the Yemen. Without their assistance
+my journey would probably have failed. To them I am most grateful.
+
+                                                                  W. B. H.
+
+_Sept. 1893._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAP.                                                              PAGE
+
+               PART I.—SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YEMEN.
+
+     I. THE YEMEN,                                                      3
+
+    II. THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA,                                   27
+
+   III. THE YEMEN SINCE THE HEJIRA,                                    47
+
+    IV. THE INFLUENCES OF ISLAM IN THE YEMEN,                          70
+
+     V. THE REBELLION IN THE YEMEN,                                    92
+
+                  PART II.—A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN.
+
+     I. ADEN,                                                         121
+
+    II. ADEN TO LAHEJ,                                                151
+
+   III. LAHEJ TO KHOREIBA,                                            174
+
+    IV. ACROSS THE TURKISH FRONTIER,                                  200
+
+     V. SOBEH TO YERIM,                                               223
+
+    VI. YERIM TO DHAMAR,                                              247
+
+   VII. DHAMAR TO SANAA,                                              263
+
+  VIII. SANAA, THE CAPITAL OF THE YEMEN,                              299
+
+    IX. SANAA TO MENAKHA,                                             323
+
+     X. MENAKHA To HODAIDAH,                                          341
+
+    XI. HODAIDAH,                                                     358
+
+                                APPENDIX.
+
+  GENEALOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TREE OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA,          374
+
+  A LIST OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA, GIVING THEIR FULL TITLES,             375
+
+  PEDIGREE OF THE REIGNING ABDALI SULTAN OF LAHEJ,                    376
+
+  INDEX,                                                              377
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                        FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+  BAZAAR AT DHAMAR,                                         _Frontispiece_
+
+  COFFEE PLANTATION ON TERRACES AT ATTARA, NEAR
+    MENAKHA,                                           _To face page_   8
+
+  VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS, ON THE
+    ROAD FROM SANAA TO HODAIDAH,                               ”       18
+
+  ANCIENT TANK AT MENURA, NEAR DHAMAR,                         ”       38
+
+  HOWTA, THE CAPITAL OF LAHEJ,                                 ”       60
+
+  MENAKHA,                                                     ”      110
+
+  TOMB AND MOSQUE OF SHEIKH OTHMAN NEAR ADEN,                  ”      122
+
+  PALACE OF THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ,                               ”      162
+
+  MY RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ,                         ”      170
+
+  KHOREIBA,                                                    ”      198
+
+  VIEW OF AZAB,                                                ”      218
+
+  MAN AND WOMAN OF THE HIGHLANDS OF THE YEMEN,                 ”      228
+
+  MOSQUE AT BEIT SAÏD,                                         ”      232
+
+  UPPER FLOOR OF A KHAN AT YERIM,                              ”      248
+
+  MY QUARTERS AT DHAMAR,                                       ”      260
+
+  KARIAT EN-NEGIL,                                             ”      262
+
+  JIBEL DORAN—EARLY MORNING,                                   ”      282
+
+  KHADAR,                                                      ”      286
+
+  VIEW FROM WAALAN,                                            ”      288
+
+  THE AUTHOR BEING EXAMINED AND HIS PASSPORT READ IN THE
+    PRESENCE OF AHMED FEIZI PASHA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF
+    THE YEMEN,                                                 ”      292
+
+  MENAKHA, FROM THE NORTH,                                     ”      322
+
+  THE VILLAGE OF EL-HAJRA,                                     ”      342
+
+  TURKISH CAMP OF HOJAILA,                                     ”      348
+
+  GATE OF A WALLED VILLAGE IN THE YEMEN,                       ”      354
+
+                       ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.
+
+  A NATIVE OF THE TEHÁMA,                                              68
+
+  A YEMENI,                                                            78
+
+  JEW OF THE YEMEN,                                                    82
+
+  TURKISH TROOPS ON THE MARCH,                                        103
+
+  MAIN PASS, ADEN,                                                    144
+
+  A VALLEY IN YEMEN,                                                  193
+
+  CASTLE OF AMIR OF DHALA,                                            195
+
+  A GIRL OF THE YEMEN,                                                204
+
+  VILLAGE OF AREDOAH,                                                 213
+
+  BEIT EN-NEDISH,                                                     226
+
+  INSCRIBED STONE AT MUNKAT, NEAR YERIM,                              243
+
+  MOSQUE AND MINARET AT DHAMAR,                                       259
+
+  HIRRAN,                                                             273
+
+  CAVE-TOMBS, HIRRAN,                                                 274
+
+  GROUND-PLAN OF TOMB III.,                                           275
+
+  INTERIOR OF TOMB III., HAIT HIRRAN,                                 276
+
+  ENTRANCE TO TOMB IV., HAIT HIRRAN,                                  277
+
+  THE AUTHOR IN PRISON AT SANAA,                                      295
+
+  TURKISH OFFICERS IN A _CAFÉ_ AT SANAA,                              308
+
+  TURKISH MOSQUE AT SANAA, AS SEEN FROM THE PRISON WINDOW,            316
+
+  TURKISH SOLDIER,                                                    317
+
+  GORGE NEAR MENAKHA,                                                 332
+
+  VIEW NEAR WISIL,                                                    344
+
+  A STREET IN HODAIDAH,                                               364
+
+                                  MAPS.
+
+  ADEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS,                           _To face page_ 122
+
+  DHAMAR TO SANAA,                                             ”      264
+
+  THE COUNTRY OF THE YEMEN,                                   _At the end_
+
+
+
+
+A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN.
+
+
+
+
+PART I.
+
+SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YEMEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE YEMEN.
+
+
+The Yemen may be described as forming the south-west corner of Arabia.
+So little is known of the geography of the interior, and to such a
+slight extent do even the natives define the boundaries between their
+own land and the surrounding provinces, that any exact description of
+the country is impossible. The same may be said of nearly all oriental
+frontiers, except where, taking an example from European customs, a clear
+line of demarcation has been agreed upon; for, as a rule, limits depend
+far more upon tribal position and inheritance than upon any natural
+features of the land in question; and in many cases in the settlement of
+frontier questions with oriental Powers, even European Governments have
+been obliged to follow upon these lines. This is especially clearly
+exemplified in the case of the Algerian and Moroccan frontier, in the
+southern parts of which no absolute boundary has been fixed, certain
+tribes, whether in French or Moorish territory, belonging to whichever of
+the two nationalities under which they are enrolled.
+
+How infinitely difficult it is, then, in the case of the Yemen, to state
+where that province begins and ends, will be appreciated.
+
+As to two of its limits, the task of definition is simple; for on the
+west the Red Sea, and on the south that portion of the Indian Ocean
+known as the Gulf of Aden, allow of no question. On the north and east
+far more serious difficulties arise. Without attempting to delineate any
+exact frontier, which, with our present geographical knowledge of the
+country, would fail at the best to be anything more than roughly correct,
+more general terms must be used than would be justifiable in a more
+pretentious work than the present.
+
+It may be stated, then, that the province of Arabia known as the Yemen
+is bounded on the east by the Hadramaut tribes, and on the north by the
+Asir, although some authorities include the latter, making the north
+frontier of the Yemen adjacent with the southern limit of the Hejaz,
+the province of Arabia in which are situated the holy cities of Mecca
+and Medina. As far as the writer was able to gather, however, from the
+natives themselves, the Asir is considered to be an entirely different
+district, although its inhabitants are nearly related to the Yemenis by
+blood. In fact, it may be said without much exaggeration that the present
+divisions of Arabia as marked upon the maps are but little in advance
+geographically of the ancient Greek and Roman arbitrary distinctions of
+Arabia Felix, Arabia Petræa, and Arabia Deserta. Even allowing for the
+widest limits claimed for the Yemen, the whole country lies between 42°
+and 46° east longitude and 12° and 20° north latitude.
+
+Although no natural formation of the Yemen can assist one in correctly
+determining its inland frontiers, the same cannot be said of the two
+great divisions into which the country is split up. These are so apparent
+that, from the earliest geographers to the present day, they have
+remained unchanged and fully recognised. But in order to appreciate this,
+a few words must be said as to the formation of the country. While the
+interior consists of vast mountain-ranges and elevated plateaux, some of
+which lie at an altitude of over eight thousand feet above the sea-level,
+the seaboard consists, both on the west and south, of low-lying sandy
+deserts and plains, varying in breadth from thirty to nearly a hundred
+miles. The only exception where a spur of the mountains approaches the
+sea is at the headland of Sidi Sheikh, the south-west corner of the Red
+Sea—a spur of land a few miles in width exactly opposite the island of
+Perim, from which it is divided by a narrow channel. It may be remembered
+that only a few years back there was a false report that France had
+purchased this advantageous spot from the Turkish Government.
+
+The formation of these maritime plains is such that it may be safely
+surmised that a very considerable portion, at least of what is now
+desert, was at one time covered by the sea. So fast, indeed, has been the
+silting action, that more than one former port now lies well inland. As
+an example of this, Sir R. L. Playfair, in his excellent ‘History of the
+Yemen,’ mentions the town of Muza, once a flourishing sea-port, now over
+twenty miles inland. In many places, too, shells and chips of coral are
+to be found at great distances from the coast. The same retrograde action
+of the sea can be traced, too, at Aden, which was, no doubt, at one time
+an island, and is now joined to the mainland by a low isthmus, formed by
+the silting of sea-sand upon a submarine basis of rock.
+
+The name Teháma is applied to these plains of the Yemen. It is a district
+exceedingly subject to drought, and with a very small rainfall. What
+water-supply it boasts, with the exception of oases, is principally due
+to the mountain torrents, which, originating in the highlands, rush
+impetuously down the steep slopes, usually to be entirely exhausted by
+the desert before reaching the sea. It is said, however, that even in
+the driest seasons water may be found by sinking wells in the river-beds.
+Although the supply thus obtained is sufficient to maintain the lives
+of Bedouins and their flocks and herds, it is far from proving of any
+great utility to cultivation, in such spots where, even in good years,
+cultivation is possible. However, fortunately for the inhabitants,
+there are scattered over these deserts many oases, where cereals can be
+reared with tolerable certainty of reaping the crops. The poor quality
+of the soil as a rule renders agriculture, except in the most favourable
+positions, an unprofitable pursuit. The plains serve, too, for the
+breeding of camels,—those of the Abdali and Foudtheli country, lying
+to the north and north-east of Aden, being especially famous for their
+swiftness and carrying capabilities.
+
+The Jibál, or highlands, display entirely opposite features. Enormous
+ranges of mountains rise abruptly from the Teháma to great altitudes, in
+places probably 14,000 and 15,000 feet. These ranges for the most part
+take a general south-easterly direction, and are split up into a series
+of wide, fertile, parallel valleys. It was doubtless the luxuriance and
+agricultural wealth, added to the attractiveness of the climate, of this
+portion of Arabia, that won for the Yemen in former days the title of
+Arabia Felix. In these great valleys the coffee is grown, sharing with
+the production of the indigo-plant and other dye-giving species the
+attention of the mountaineers. Added to this, the climate is such as to
+allow nearly all European vegetables to grow and flourish, and also many
+varieties of fruit-trees. The nature of the country renders necessary
+for cultivation the terracing of the steep mountain-sides, and over this
+laborious task an almost incredible amount of work and time is expended.
+But of this I shall have opportunity of speaking anon.
+
+There is, as might be expected, a vast difference in the temperature of
+the highlands and the plains. While at Aden and the surrounding country
+the thermometer averages all the year round some 85° Fahrenheit, it
+probably does not rise above a mean of 61° or 62° in the shade at Sanaa,
+the capital of the Yemen, where, as in all the elevated country, frosts
+are by no means uncommon in winter. Nor is it solely in temperature
+that great differences are apparent with regard to the low and high
+elevations; for whereas also in the former the rainfall is uncertain and
+sometimes almost nil,[1] the mountain country boasts two regular wet
+seasons—in spring and in autumn respectively. In this respect the seasons
+may be said to correspond with those of the plateaux of Harrar and the
+Galla country. In both cases the rain is said to be of almost daily
+occurrence, but lasting only a short time, the showers being broken by
+periods of bright sunshine.
+
+Nothing can be imagined more beautiful than the scenery of the mountains
+of the Yemen. Torn into all manner of fantastic peaks, the rocky crags
+add a wildness to a view that otherwise possesses the most peaceful
+charms. Rich green valleys, well timbered in places, and threaded
+by silvery streams of dancing water; sloping fields, gay with crops
+and wild-flowers; the terraced or jungle-covered slopes,—all are so
+luxuriant, so verdant, that one’s ideas as to the nature of Arabia are
+entirely upset. Well known as is, and always has been, the fertility
+of this region, its extent is almost startling, and it can little be
+wondered at that Alexander the Great intended, after his conquest of
+India, to take up his abode in the Yemen, had not death cut short his
+career.
+
+[Illustration: COFFEE PLANTATION ON TERRACES AT ATTARA, NEAR MENAKHA.]
+
+Thus briefly described, it will be seen that the Yemen consists of
+two entirely different systems of country, influenced by two entirely
+different climates: the one arid plains, without much appreciable
+rainfall; the other a mountainous district, producing cereals, dyes,
+aromatic gums, coffee, and other rich produce—a country of valleys and
+plateaux, well watered withal, and enjoying a climate that for salubrity
+may be said to equal any in the tropics. Having now pointed out in a
+general way the difference of the two districts, I purpose to enter a
+little more definitely into the description of each.
+
+To commence with the Teháma, as being the seaboard. It consists, as
+already stated, of plains varying from thirty to a hundred miles in
+breadth, and separating the highlands from the sea, both on the west
+and south. These, for the sake of distinction, I shall call respectively
+the western and southern Teháma. The former contains some five cities
+of importance, situated either on the coast of the Red Sea or in that
+district which divides it from the mountains. Almost in the Asir country
+lies Lohaya, a small town on the coast, to which I shall refer more
+particularly in a chapter on the Yemen rebellion. Proceeding south, the
+next coast town of importance is Hodaidah, to-day the capital of that
+portion of the Yemen, and still farther south Mokha. As it was my lot
+to spend a week in the fever-stricken town of Hodaidah, I shall reserve
+anything I have to say about it for another opportunity; but as it was
+my ill fortune to see Mokha only from the sea and not to land there,
+and as I shall therefore not have to narrate any personal experiences
+in reference to it, I shall add some description of the place and its
+history at this juncture.
+
+There is certainly no name of any city in the Yemen as familiar to
+Englishmen as that of Mokha, with the exception of Aden. This it owes
+to its having for a long time enjoyed almost the sole reputation of the
+export city of the coffee-berry. However, it is not generally known that
+no coffee grows at all in the immediate vicinity of Mokha, and that
+all that was shipped from there was previously carried to the city by
+caravans from the mountains, often over very great distances. Almost as
+suddenly as Mokha rose to fame has it fallen again. Before the arrival in
+the Red Sea of the English and Portuguese traders it scarcely existed at
+all, the outlets for the trade of this portion of the Yemen being Okelis
+and Muza. It was not, in fact, until the fifteenth century A.D. that
+Mokha became a place of resort for ships, and it owes its origin more
+to the discovery of coffee than to any advantages or attractions of its
+own. In the early part of the seventeenth century the English and Dutch
+founded trading “factories” there, and from that time for a period of
+some two hundred years its fame and wealth were renowned. Van den Broeck
+describes the place as it existed at the time of his visit in 1616, and
+notes that to such an extent has its trade recently augmented that goods
+from Hungary and Venice were found in the market, which had been carried
+by caravans the whole length of Arabia, to be exchanged for the produce
+of the far east.[2] He further describes the town as a most flourishing
+community, containing within its walls numbers of numerous nationalities
+who had flocked there on hearing of its fame and renown.
+
+A century after the Dutch and English had founded their factories the
+French followed their example, while in 1803 the Americans commenced
+to trade direct with the Red Sea ports. On the British occupation of
+Aden in 1839, the immense superiority of that place as a port, and the
+security and advantages assured by British rule, drew the commerce from
+Mokha thence, the former celebrated city fast falling to decay and
+ruin.[3] Before this period, however, serious outrages had been offered
+to British subjects, and during the first twenty years of this century
+there had been constant trouble brewing between the fanatical natives and
+the Christians, augmented no doubt by the jealousy felt by the former
+for the manner in which the Europeans had annexed their trade. More
+extraordinary still than these outrages was the manner in which their
+perpetration was looked upon by the British Government, and it was not
+until things became unbearable that forcible means were taken to punish
+the offenders, and in 1820 a force under Captain Bruce, who had been sent
+thither to enforce a treaty with the Imam’s Amir, and Captain Lumley of
+H.M.S. Topaz, bombarded Mokha, and succeeded in forcing an entry into the
+town. The result of this long-delayed act of reparation on the part of
+the Indian Government was the placing upon an honourable footing of the
+British “factory,” and the carrying through of a treaty of commerce with
+the Government of the Yemen.[4]
+
+Although the author did not land in Mokha, the captain of the steamer
+on which he proceeded from Hodaidah to Aden very kindly approached as
+near the shore as was compatible with the ship’s course, and with the aid
+of glasses a very good view of the place was obtained. From a distance
+it still has the appearance of being a flourishing town, but on nearer
+approach one can see that, although the walls of the houses are still
+standing, the roofs and floors have for the most part fallen in, and
+Mokha is to-day little more than a vast ruin, from which a few tall
+minarets still rise to tell of its former beauties. A handful of Turkish
+soldiers and a few Bedouins are all that remain of its once heterogeneous
+population; and where once the streets were filled with richly robed
+merchants, goats feed to-day on the coarse weeds.
+
+As Lohaya and Hodaidah are more particularly mentioned elsewhere in this
+book, little more remains to be said of the ports of the western Teháma.
+Some mention must be made, however, of the islands of Kamaran and Perim,
+the two most important of the many that lie on the eastern side of this
+part of the Red Sea. The former owes its importance to-day from the fact
+that it is a British possession, and serves as the quarantine station of
+the pilgrims going to and returning from Jeddah, _en route_ to and from
+Mecca. It is situated in latitude 15° 20′ N. and longitude 42° 30′ E.,
+and is about ten miles in length, varying from two to four wide. In some
+parts it is little more than a swamp, in others some low hills allow of
+the growth of palm-trees; but the inhabitants are nearly all engaged in
+the pearl and turtle fisheries.[5]
+
+The other island which may be included in a description of the Teháma
+is Perim. It is situated in the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, a mile and a
+half from the Arabian and about ten miles from the African shores. It is
+formed of dark volcanic igneous rock and plains of sand on which a few
+sand-loving flowers grow. The highest point of the island is between two
+and three hundred feet above the sea-level. What, however, compensates
+for its aridness and hideous character is the grand harbour it possesses.
+This bay is a mile long by half a mile wide, well sheltered, and
+averaging a depth of five fathoms in the good anchorages. In 1799, in
+consequence of the invasion of Egypt by the French, a British naval
+force, under Admiral Blanket, proceeded to the Red Sea, while the
+Bombay Government, acting in conjunction with the other force, seized
+Perim in the name of the East India Company. No fresh water, however,
+being procurable, it was during the next year abandoned as a station
+for troops. To-day, under the hands of the Perim Coal Company not only
+offices but a hotel has been erected there, and the place promises to
+become a flourishing coaling-station. All the water is, of course,
+produced by condensers. A few British troops are habitually quartered
+there, being sent from time to time for that purpose from Aden, and there
+is telegraphic communication both with that port and Hodaidah.
+
+Two cities of importance lie in the interior of the western
+Teháma—namely, Zebeed and Beit el-Fakih. The former has throughout all
+the medieval history of the Yemen played a part of great importance;
+for not only has Zebeed been a seat of learning and art, but also has
+been inseparably connected with all the great civil wars and religious
+differences that have from time to time shaken the Yemen to its very
+foundations. Before the invasion of the Turks it was the capital and
+seat of government of the Teháma, though to-day Hodaidah has usurped its
+position as such.
+
+The foundations of Zebeed were laid by Ibn Ziad after his conquest of
+the Teháma in 204 A.H.[6] The city is described not only by Omarah but
+also by many other native historians, who one and all make mention of
+its political importance as well as of its size. The account most to
+the point, perhaps, is that of El Khasraji, who states that the city is
+circular in form; that near it to the south flows the river of the same
+name, while to the north is the Wadi Rima, the two ensuring a fertile
+situation and a constant water-supply. He adds that it stood midway
+between the mountains and the sea, and almost equidistant from both, the
+time taken to reach either the one or the other being half a day.
+
+Of Beit el-Fakih little need be said here, as to-day it is a place of but
+slight importance. Like all these cities of the Teháma, it is irregularly
+built of sun-dried mud bricks. Its name, “The House of the Scholar,”
+is derived from its being the place of burial of a certain Seyed Ahmed
+ibn Musa, whose tomb is still much reverenced and visited as a place of
+veneration. The town possesses no claim to interest either politically or
+commercially.
+
+The next portion of the Yemen of which notice must here be taken are
+the plains commencing from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and extending
+to some sixty miles east of Aden. These plains are included in the
+Teháma, but in order to distinguish them from that part already noticed,
+I describe them as the southern Teháma. Like the western Teháma, they
+separate the mountains from the sea, and in many respects these two
+portions of desert bear great resemblance. The southern Teháma varies
+from fifty to a hundred miles in breadth, and is inhabited by wild
+tribes, the most important of which are the Subaiha, the Abdali, and
+the Foudtheli, the first being nomad in character. These plains boast
+no cities of any size except Howta, the capital of the Sultan of Lahej,
+chief of the Abdali tribe, which lies some twenty-seven miles north-west
+of Aden, and Taiz,—though the latter, from its situation on a spur of
+the mountains, may be said rather to dominate than to belong to these
+southern plains. Ibn Khaldun, in his geography of the Yemen, refers to
+Taiz as an important city overlooking the Teháma, and mentions that it
+had at all times been a royal residence. Without much further mention
+of this city, which the author did not visit, a few remarks may be made
+upon its later history. Owing to jealousies between members of its ruling
+family, a certain Seyed Kassim, uncle to the then ruling Imam, Ali
+Mansur, treacherously sold the place to the Egyptians in 1837, and it
+was taken without resistance by Ibrahim Pasha, a general in the service
+of the famous Mahammed Ali Pasha, who held it until in 1840 a fanatical
+Mahdi el-Fakih Saïd took the town, only to have it wrested from him in
+1841 by the Imam Seyed Mahammed el-Hadi. During the late Yemen rebellion
+it fell into the hands of the Arabs, for formerly it lay within the limit
+of Turkish influence, and has probably by this time been reoccupied by
+the Osmanli troops.
+
+With these few remarks upon the plain districts of the Yemen, scanty as
+they are, notice may now be taken of the mountainous districts. Such
+parts as the author travelled through will be more minutely treated
+of in the narration of his journey, together with the towns of Yerim,
+Dhamar, and Sanaa, the three principal cities of the Yemen plateaux.
+However, there are other places of importance to which reference must
+be made here, and which, although not situated upon the plateau, must
+by their position be included in this division of the Yemen. Of these
+the most important are Ibb and Jiblah. Both of these mountain-fortresses
+are of some antiquity, and have played no mean part in the history of
+the country. Ibb is mentioned by Omarah as being situated upon the great
+pilgrim-road built by Huseyn ibn Salaamah, a slave-vizier, which led
+from the Hadramaut, east of Aden, to Mecca itself, which was constructed
+about the year 400 A.H. After leaving Aden this great pilgrim-route was
+split up into two parts, one proceeding _viâ_ Ibb and the mountains,
+joining the author’s route at Kariat en-Nekil, north of Dhamar; the other
+following the Teháma. The road which leads _viâ_ Ibb proceeds through
+Sanaa, and thence _viâ_ Sadah and Taif to the Holy City.
+
+Jiblah, or Dhu Jiblah, as it was formerly called, owes its name to
+the fact that it was built upon the site of a pottery belonging to a
+Jew, Jiblah by name. It lies some ten miles to the south-west of Ibb.
+Ibn Khaldun gives a short description of the place. It is, he says, a
+fortress, and was founded by Abdullah, the Sulayhite, in the year 458
+A.H. Like Taiz, it was a royal residence.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS.
+
+_On the road from Sanaa to Hodaidah._]
+
+The other cities of the mountain district, lying principally north of
+Sanaa, the capital, and therefore not coming under that portion of the
+country which it was the author’s lot to travel over, will be noticed
+anon.
+
+Rough as these notes are, they will, I venture to think, help to
+illustrate the map. To attempt here the task of identifying the ancient
+sites with modern names would be not only a task of great difficulty,
+but also one unsuitable to the present book. Mr Kay, in his most able
+translation of Omarah’s History, has pointed out how extremely laborious
+and uncertain has been his attempt to do so, even with such maps as
+to-day exist of the country. The author, after consideration, thought it
+more advisable to avoid entering into discussions that bear but little
+relation to his work, and would, he fears, but prove uninteresting to
+the general reader. He has therefore confined his geographical notes to
+such portions of the country as he himself passed through, supplemented
+by a few remarks upon places that demand some notice, either from their
+importance to-day or from historical interest. In the chapter relating to
+the history of the country the same course has been pursued, a few pages
+of print being put aside for what would fill volumes were it taken in
+hand.
+
+Having now treated of the Yemen as it appears from a cursory glance
+at the map, it is intended to enter a little more fully into its
+description, unconnected with its natural formation of plains and
+highlands.
+
+Ibn Khaldun, in the preface to his Geography, states that the Yemen
+is divided into seven royal seats of Government;[7] but Niebuhr gives
+a larger list of provinces, which is again added to by Sir Lambert
+Playfair. These divisions of the country, it must be understood, are
+entirely Arab in origin, and to-day have been more or less altered to
+suit the Turks. However, on inquiry from the natives, the writer found
+that, although disregarded by the Osmanli conquerors, the names are still
+in common use amongst the indigenous peoples.
+
+The author gives the list of these provinces in the order in which they
+are printed in Playfair’s ‘Yemen’:—
+
+    Aden.
+    The Teháma.
+    Sanaa.
+    Lahej.
+    Kaukeban.
+    Beled el-Kabail (Hashid wa Bakil).
+    Abou Arish.
+    A district lying between Abou Arish and the Hejaz, inhabited by
+        Bedouins, &c.
+    Khaulán.
+    Sahán (including Sadah).
+    Nejrán.
+    Nehm.
+    East Khaulán (several small principalities).
+    Beled el-Jehaf (or Mareb),
+      and
+    Yaffa.
+
+“These are,” says Playfair, “as nearly as they can be classified, the
+great political divisions of the country; but numerous smaller states
+and tribes exist which cannot be classed with propriety in any of the
+above districts, yet which are too insignificant to require a separate
+notice.”[8]
+
+The first two of these provinces, the _Teháma_ and _Aden_, are described
+elsewhere. The third is _Sanaa_, taking its name from the city, the
+capital of the Yemen. On account of continued wars and struggles, its
+boundaries have for ever been shifting. Within the province are situated
+the cities of Dhamar, Yerim, Rodaa, Ibb, Jiblah, Kátaba, Taiz, and Hais.
+
+_Lahej_ is described more fully elsewhere, so there is little further
+need to make mention of it here, except to roughly indicate its limits;
+for under this title are contained not only the tribe-lands of the Abdali
+Sultan, but also the Subaiha, Akrabi, Foudtheli, and Houshabi tribes.
+The country inhabited by these Arabs of the Plains may be said to extend
+from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb to about eighty miles east of Aden. The
+country is poor, and boasts but one or two towns, but many large villages.
+
+The next province is _Kaukeban_, which, with _Beled el-Kabail_, _Abou
+Arish_, and _Beni Hallel_, may be taken altogether. The latter tribe
+inhabit a strip of plain country along the borders of the Red Sea,
+while the three former include that portion of the country lying to the
+north-east and east of Beni Hallel, and extending as far east as a line
+drawn from Sanaa due north.
+
+North again of Abou Arish, and between that country and the Hejaz, is the
+Asir, part of which is mountainous and part plains—the former inhabited
+by dwellers in fixed abodes, and the latter by wild Bedouins.
+
+North of Sanaa, and upon the road connecting that city with Mecca,
+the continuation of the pilgrim-road of Huseyn ibn Salaamah mentioned
+elsewhere, is the province of _Khaulán_, east of which again is _Sahán_,
+included in the province and former principality of Sadah. This forms
+one of the richest portions of the Yemen, being famous for fruits,
+honey, and cattle. It consists of large valleys well watered, and at
+such an elevation as to render them not only suitable for the growing of
+fruit-trees, but also exceedingly healthy. Niebuhr mentions these tribes
+as hospitable but inclined to robbery, and as speaking as pure Arabic as
+is anywhere in use.
+
+The next province is still more mountainous, and, on account of its
+inaccessibility, has remained almost unconquered. It is known as
+_Nejrán_, and consists of wide fertile valleys reaching nearly to the
+desert of Akhaf. Like Khaulán, it is renowned for its cattle and fruit,
+the breed of horses, too, being celebrated. They are said to be of the
+famous Nejed strain.
+
+The province of _Kahtan_, situated eleven days’ journey north of the
+valley of Nejrán, is another example of the difficulties of fixing any
+reliable frontier to the Yemen. Evidently it is inhabited by Yemeni
+people, as it takes its name from the founder of that stock, Kahtan, who
+is said to be no other than Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures.
+
+_Eastern Khaulán_ lies to the north-east of the capital Sanaa. It
+possessed formerly a celebrated city of the Jews, which is now said to be
+almost entirely deserted. Although generally known by the name of Eastern
+Khaulán, it in reality consists of a number of small principalities.
+
+_Beled el-Jehaf_ may be said to form the extreme eastern division of
+the northern portion of the Yemen, but whether it should be considered
+as part of that country is open to doubt. It extends from a few days’
+journey east of Sanaa as far as the desert that divides Oman from
+Western Arabia. It is in this district that is situated the city of
+Mareb, otherwise known as Saba or Sheba, whence the celebrated queen
+visited Solomon. The natives have traditions of a Queen Balkis, whom
+they affirm to have been the lady in question. However, this has been
+proved impossible, as the dates do not correspond. It was at Saba that
+the celebrated dam was built, the destruction of which, about one hundred
+years A.D., wrought such widespread destruction. A few words about this
+prodigious building will be found in reference to the tanks at Aden in
+the chapter upon that possession.
+
+The last of the list of provinces is _Yaffa_, which lies between the
+Hadramaut on the east and south, and the districts of Lahej and Sanaa on
+the north and west. It became independent some two centuries ago, up to
+that time having been under the rule of the Imams of Sanaa.[9] It is a
+rich fertile country, producing gums, cereals, and coffee. It possesses
+three towns—Yaffa, Medinet el-Asfal, and Gharrah. Living in close
+conjunction with the Yaffai tribe are the Oulaki, divided into the upper
+and lower, their capitals being respectively Nisáb inland, and Howr on
+the coast.[10]
+
+These, then, are the principal provinces into which the Yemen is
+considered by the natives to be divided, though to define exactly their
+boundaries, as in the case of the frontiers of the whole country, would
+be an impossible task.
+
+With regard to the geography of the Yemen but few more words are needed,
+in order to render clear the following pages of the narrative of the
+author’s journey. Although an account is given elsewhere of the Turkish
+dominion of the Yemen, it may be as well to delineate the present
+frontier since the Osmanli occupation of the country, although again it
+is almost an arbitrary one.
+
+To commence from the south. The division between the Arab tribes of the
+southern Teháma and Turkish Yemen commences some ten miles east of the
+Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and so includes the promontory of Sidi Sheikh,
+which projects toward Perim Island, from which it is divided by a narrow
+strait a mile and a half in width. From thence the frontier runs in a
+north-easterly direction, passing a little to the east of Taiz, from
+which it again turns more directly east, passing to the south of Mavia,
+and, skirting the territory of the Amir of Dhala, includes the town of
+Kátaba. From this spot it turns almost due north, keeping well to the
+east of Yerim and Dhamar, although these towns, as a matter of fact, form
+practically the eastern boundary of the Turkish Yemen. From Dhamar to
+Sanaa the frontier runs almost due north and south, and may be said to
+exist about forty to fifty miles east of a straight line drawn between
+these two cities.
+
+From Sanaa to the north the Turks claim authority as within their limits
+over all the country lying to the west of a line drawn from Sanaa to the
+south-eastern corner of the province of the Hejaz, although over the Asir
+and other inaccessible mountain tribes their authority is purely nominal,
+and has never been acknowledged to any extent.
+
+It must not be thought that all the country lying within the frontier
+thus described is securely under Turkish rule, for there are whole tribes
+which do not, nor ever have done so, acknowledge anything more than a
+nominal subjection to the Sublime Porte.
+
+That these notes upon the geography of the Yemen will prove of but little
+value to _savants_ the writer knows only too well; but if his journey was
+unproductive of any scientific or historical discoveries, it must be
+borne in mind the period at which it was undertaken: that not only was
+a rebellion still taking place, that a month or two before had shaken
+the whole country to its very foundations, but also that the author was
+by the Turks treated as a spy, and was more than once in great personal
+danger from the Arabs. Under these circumstances he feels that he cannot
+be blamed if his journey was devoid of any great results. All that he can
+boast to have brought back with him is a story of travel and adventure,
+and numerous photographs and notes, that will tend to throw light upon
+the present condition of the Yemen, especially on what has been taking
+place in that country since the Turkish occupation of the highlands in
+1872. His narrative of travel tells a story of long night marches, and
+of days spent in hiding; of a sojourn in a Turkish prison; and this
+story, he trusts, will prove sufficient evidence that he had little or no
+opportunity for research. It was owing to a mere chance that his notes
+and photographs were saved from destruction by the Turkish authorities at
+Sanaa.
+
+If these pages tend to throw some light upon this most interesting corner
+of Arabia, and help to show what the country and its inhabitants are
+like, the author will be well satisfied with the result.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA.
+
+
+Having in the last chapter briefly sketched the principal geographical
+features of the Yemen, it remains now to make mention of its history.
+The same remarks as were made as to the geography are applicable here,
+that with the exception of certain periods which have been made the study
+of archæologists and orientalists, there is but very little known of
+the history of the Yemen, and there are long periods existing between
+the times of which something has been written or translated that are
+almost blanks. Nor is it on this account alone that the task of compiling
+in two chapters so many centuries of historical matter is a difficult
+one, for many of the times and dynasties of which there exists some
+trustworthy account are all but unimportant in treating of the country
+in general, what knowledge we possess in very many cases being simply
+the genealogies of local princes and rulers. However, it is only by a
+study of these shreds of history that we are able to gain any facts
+concerning the condition of the country during the early centuries after
+the introduction of Islam, for instance; and if they in themselves appeal
+almost solely to the student of things oriental, they yet tend to throw
+more light upon the inner life of the people than it would be possible to
+gather elsewhere.
+
+But the history of the Yemen is by no means confined to such a brief
+period as that which has passed between the birth of Islam and to-day.
+There exists a far more ancient and more wonderful history, of which,
+unhappily, we know as yet but little, but which, should it even be
+possible to make thorough examination of its monuments and records, may
+prove that many of the existing civilisations sprang from the Yemen
+and Hadramaut, and that the ancient Egyptians themselves, owed the
+foundations of their arts and learning to the inhabitants of Southern
+Arabia. Some light has been thrown lately upon the old civilisation of
+Southern Arabia by the successful excavations carried on by Mr Theodore
+Bent in Mashonaland, which have proved most clearly that the Arabs of
+Southern Arabia were in touch with that distant quarter of Africa, and
+not only in touch, but even so firmly rooted there as to erect forts and
+temples, to build and to decorate, and to work the mines of that country.
+
+At present scientific exploration of the Yemen and the other divisions of
+Southern Arabia has been, for many reasons, so seldom undertaken that
+there remains to be discovered there more than is probably to be found in
+any part of the world. How rich the country is in archæological remains
+may be judged from the quantity of inscriptions, &c., brought back by the
+enterprising and scholarly Austrian Dr Glaser, to whom we owe nearly all
+that is known of the earlier periods of Yemenite history. It was through
+the extensive researches of this _savant_ that any conclusive data have
+been given not only to individual sovereigns but to whole dynasties, with
+the result that although far from perfect knowledge, very considerable
+light has been thrown upon the early days of the Yemen.
+
+Before, however, entering into any precise account of the historical
+records of the Yemen, it may be as well to briefly mention a few
+well-founded traditions generally accepted amongst the natives and
+believed by themselves to be undisputable. In this they are, no doubt,
+mainly right in the origin; but in attempting to trace their descent,
+through periods later than those of the earliest times, they have to some
+extent become confused. This is most apparent in the cases of the two
+great divisions, or nations, which inhabited the Yemen, the weaker of
+which, at times, finding similarity between names, claimed descent from a
+common ancestor with the stronger, until by force of time no clear line
+of division was possible in many cases.
+
+Although there can be little doubt of a prehistoric and almost
+pretraditional race inhabiting Southern Arabia, the only record worthy of
+acceptance from native sources of their existence is their mention in the
+Koran. No traditions exist as to them amongst the people to-day, or even
+amongst those Arab historians of the middle ages who made special studies
+of the subject.
+
+The inhabitants of Southern Arabia may be divided into two great stems,
+to which the names of Yemenite and Ishmaelite tribes have been very
+properly given.
+
+The Yemenite nation are the direct descendants of Kahtan, generally
+identified with Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures, of the line of Shem, the
+son of Noah, another of whose descendants, Hazarmaveth, gave his name to
+what is to-day known as Hadramaut.
+
+The second great division into which the inhabitants of the Yemen may be
+divided are the descendants of Adnan, who was of the family of Ishmael,
+son of Abraham: although unfortunately the connecting links are absent,
+yet in spite of this there can be no doubt as to the fact. This Adnan
+is said to have been the contemporary of Bukht Nasser, in other words
+Nebuchadnezzar;[11] and it was the fierce wars waged by this monarch,
+tradition relates, that drove the Ishmaelite tribes to seek refuge
+amongst the Yemenite peoples. If this be the case, it is a marvellous
+fact that two nations inhabiting the same country for such an enormous
+period of time, and for the last twelve or thirteen hundred years united
+in religious ideas, are able to-day to speak with any certainty as to
+which branch they belong. Yet such is the case, with the exception of
+certain Arab tribes who claim descent from Kahtan, the mistake arising
+through certain similarities of names to be found amongst his descendants
+and those of Adnan.
+
+Each of these two divisions of the population are again split up into
+sections, though in the case of the Yemenites such is not to be found
+until the days of Himyar, son of Abd esh-shems and great-grandson of
+Kahtan. It is unnecessary here to enumerate the tribes still existing
+which claim to have sprung from the family of Himyar, more than to
+mention the three principal ancestors on which their claims are based.
+These are respectively Himyar himself, and Malik and Arib, sons of Zayd,
+son of Kahtan, son of Abd esh-shems.
+
+The family of Ishmael are likewise split up into many tribes, claiming
+descent from three separate members of the posterity of Abraham—namely,
+El-Yas, Kays Aylan, and Rabiah.
+
+There yet remains another section which cannot be passed over without
+notice, as commentators differ as to from which stem they originated.
+These are the descendants of Kudaah. While some protest that their
+ancestor was Himyar, son of Abd esh-shems, others claim that they are of
+Ishmaelite descent, and ought to be enrolled under the heading of Arab
+tribes. It is more than possible that in their case an early amalgamation
+took place between the two stocks, and individuals adopted as their
+ancestor whichever of the founders of the parties it best suited their
+interests to put forward.
+
+Such, then, was the origin of the two nations which to-day, still to be
+distinguished from one another by their traditions of ancestry, form the
+population of the Yemen.
+
+Although there is no reason to doubt the genuineness of these traditions,
+and in fact everything points to their being authentic, the next period
+with which we come in contact is no longer a traditional one, but has
+been handed down to us in monuments and inscriptions still existing. The
+knowledge we have upon this period of the history of the Yemen is due to
+the aforementioned Dr Edouard Glaser, who has successfully translated
+over a thousand inscriptions, with the result of practically proving
+the existence of two separate great dynasties that in succession held
+sway over the country. In so doing, what was commonly believed to have
+been the fact until his discoveries were made has been disproved, and an
+entirely new epoch in the history of the world brought to light. I refer
+to the dominion of the Minæan and Sabæan kings. It is, too, from these
+records that there has been found to have existed, contemporarily with
+early Egyptian times, a remarkable state of civilisation and commerce
+in the Yemen, and what was wrongly believed to have been in early
+pre-Islamic days a country of savagery, has been proved to have contained
+a cultured population, skilled in art and excelling in commerce.
+This fact doubtless to no small degree influenced the history of the
+civilisation of the ancient world.
+
+The earlier of the two great dynasties which at different epochs held
+sway over the Yemen, if not also over the surrounding coasts of Africa,
+was that of the Minæans, who are known in tradition as the Maïn.
+Thirty-two names of kings of this dynasty have already been discovered;
+and as a proof of the immense power they must have held, tablets
+commemorative of their wars have been found as far removed from the
+seat of their government as Teima, on the road from Damascus to Sinai;
+while an inscription from Southern Arabia renders thanks to Astarte for
+their escape from the ruler of Egypt and their safe return to their
+own city of Quarnu. This votive tablet was erected by the governors of
+Tsar and Ashur, which again speaks for the immense tract of country
+owing allegiance to the Minæan king; for of these places one has been
+identified as being situated near where the Suez Canal now passes. This
+extension of frontier was doubtless owing to the great importance of the
+trade-routes from East to West, the possession of which in later times
+brought the otherwise unimportant Jewish kingdom so much to the fore.
+But more important, perhaps, than the discovery that these peoples were
+living in a state of considerable civilisation, and carrying on most
+profitable commerce, is the fact of their knowledge of writing; for many
+of the recently discovered inscriptions in the Yemen date from a period
+contemporary with Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chaldæan cuneiform, and
+earlier than any known inscription in the Phœnician characters.
+
+Following upon the Minæan dynasty, of which, as before stated, thirty-two
+kings are known by name, is that of the Sabæans: yet the nature of
+the inscriptions shows that a very considerable period of time must
+have elapsed between the two; for whereas, in the earlier specimens of
+writing, full grammatical forms are found, the latter is not nearly
+so complete. Yet the Sabæan dynasty can be traced back with certainty
+to the time of Solomon, one thousand years B.C., and there is every
+reason to believe that they had been in power at that time for a very
+considerable period. How very remote, then, must be the antiquity of the
+preceding dynasty, which we know to have been separated from the latter
+by a sufficient lapse of years to have allowed of radical changes in the
+formation and grammar of their written language! Besides which, although
+comparatively few inscriptions have been discovered of this period, we
+have a list of no less than thirty-two Minæan sovereigns. Professor
+Sayce, in an able article upon this subject, states that he believes
+that it is quite possible that inscriptions may be discovered which will
+prove Southern Arabia to have been in a state of civilisation in the
+days of Sargon I., or even of Menes, who is supposed to have lived some
+five thousand years B.C.: nay more, he expresses his opinion, which many
+traditions tend to prove, that all civilisation may have sprung from the
+Yemen and its adjacent provinces.[12]
+
+Apart from the great interest attending this alone, another point must at
+once attract our attention—namely, the existence of an alphabet earlier
+than that of the oldest discovered Phœnician inscriptions. Until these
+researches into the writings of the Yemen, it was believed that the
+Phœnician formation of letters was an abridgment of the hieroglyphics of
+Egypt; but there seems now to be reason to suppose that this still more
+ancient writing of Southern Arabia may prove to be not only the source
+from which the Phœnicians derived their alphabet, but also the origin of
+those of all modern nations, including Greece and Rome. What may be said
+almost to prove this theory, says Professor Sayce, is the fact that while
+the Phœnician letters, described by name as animals and things, have but
+little resemblance to the object from which the name is taken, this still
+older form of Semitic writing bears a decided resemblance to the objects
+described in the names of the Phœnician letters.
+
+Probable as all this is, it must remain for the time at least only a
+theory, until further discoveries are forthcoming; but apart from all
+suppositious matters, it may safely be stated that, be the Aryan origin
+what it may, it is to Southern Arabia that we must look for the home of
+the Semitic peoples. Referring back to the earlier paragraphs of this
+chapter, in which mention is made of the two great divisions of the
+inhabitants of the Yemen, it will be seen that the tradition existed
+in the time of Mahammed, and is mentioned in the Koran, of an older
+population, whom it may be inferred were the original Semitic stock,—for
+it must be remembered that the present geographical position of the
+Semitic races is almost entirely owing to the spread of Islam, and it is
+to Arabia, and Arabia alone, that we must look for their origin,—at a
+time preceding the first Minæan kings, and probably at a period when the
+stone age was passing into that of metal, and fishers and hunters were
+becoming traders and agriculturists.[13] But of all the incidents of the
+ancient history of the Yemen, there is one that will especially appeal
+to all. I refer to the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon about the
+year one thousand B.C. Sheba has always been identified with Saba, the
+capital of the Sabæan empire, a city lying some seven days’ journey to
+the north-east of Sanaa, the present capital of Turkish Yemen. The story
+is too well known to need any comment here; it need only be noticed that
+the point it is written from is that of a Jewish historian, who would
+naturally tend to magnify the glories of Solomon and the admiration of
+the queen at his wonderful city, palace, and temple. Yet, as a matter of
+fact, it is not at all improbable that Saba possessed buildings as fine
+as any of those of Solomon; and certainly, whereas no ruins remain of
+the latter, the great dam, built some seventeen hundred years B.C. at
+Saba, still stands, though of course in ruins, to tell the tale of the
+vast building powers of the Sabæan architects. Nor do we in the gorgeous
+description of Solomon’s works find reference to anything that could
+possibly have compared in size and structure with this extraordinary
+_barrage_, of which it is sufficient to say that it measured three
+hundred cubits thick, one hundred and twenty feet high, and two _miles_
+in length.[14] The presents which the Queen of Sheba brought to Solomon
+tend as much as anything to prove that she was a native of Southern
+Arabia, for her offerings will be found either to be produce of that
+country, or such articles as could, owing to the enormous commerce of
+Saba, find an outlet in that direction from farther south and east.
+
+Although the already discovered inscriptions point to Saba having been
+the capital of a great and civilised empire eight hundred years B.C.,
+the existence of the great dam, which may be attributed to Lokman, who
+lived 1750 years B.C., and the visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon,
+speak of greater antiquity.
+
+The religion of the Sabæans is too large a question to attempt here,
+more especially as there are evidences that during the long periods of
+the Minæan and Sabæan dynasties it underwent many changes, merging from
+a primitive idolatry into worship of the planets and stars, and even,
+in cases, to the recognition of a supreme deity. They believed in the
+immortality of the soul, a future state of reward or punishment, and
+many also in transmigration. The gradual change of doctrine appreciable
+in the religion, besides being due to the natural outcome of increased
+civilisation and culture, was no doubt largely influenced by the
+astronomers and astrologers of Chaldæa. Doubtless, too, there existed in
+their religious traditions a sort of hero-worship, for we read in various
+authorities of certain names as being those of deities and of men. Thus
+we find the city of Saba was called after a god of that name, while again
+the founder is mentioned as being Saba the son of Abd esh-shems, the
+father of the so-called Himyaric dynasty.
+
+[Illustration: ANCIENT TANK AT MENURA, NEAR DHAMAR.]
+
+Any attempt, with the space at disposal here, to draw conclusions from
+the traditions existing as to the earliest inhabitants of the Yemen, is
+out of the question; and rather than do so, it will better suit our
+purpose to keep to what have been proved to be facts—the existence of
+the Minæan and later the Sabæan dynasties; the high state of culture and
+commerce in Southern Arabia at a very remote period; and the existence
+of a written language that was possibly, if not probably, the origin of
+Phœnician, and so of all European forms of writing; and the still greater
+idea that Southern Arabia may be proved to be the land of “Punt,” and the
+birthplace of the Egyptian race, and their arts and culture.
+
+Shortly before the commencement of the Christian era Egypt became a Roman
+province, and a few years later an expedition under Ælius Gallus was
+sent to explore Arabia and Ethiopia. How difficult would be the task was
+evidently realised, for when the expedition started from Cleopatris, near
+the modern Suez, it consisted of no less than eighty vessels of war and a
+hundred and thirty transports, with ten thousand Roman troops and fifteen
+thousand mercenaries.[15] But the expedition was destined to disaster,
+for although it penetrated as far as Southern Arabia—probably Nejrán—the
+troops were decimated by famine and disease, and only a small handful
+ever returned.
+
+In looking through these early pages of the history of the Yemen, one
+cannot but be struck with the important part that women played in
+politics; and even after the introduction of Islam, and the women had
+been assigned a lower position, the old custom crops up again and again,
+and we find women seizing the reins of government.
+
+The first example that we find of the power exercised by women is without
+doubt the Queen of Sheba; while a second example follows within a few
+years after the failure of the expedition of Ælius Gallus, in the person
+of Queen Balkis, whose real name was Belkama or Yalkama, and who was
+sufficiently strong-minded to amalgamate two kingdoms by marrying her
+rival, whom she immediately removed by poison.
+
+About A.D. 120 the great dam of Saba or Mareb burst, spreading wholesale
+destruction throughout the wide fertile valley below it. About this
+period, too, an expedition was carried by the then King Tubba el-Akran as
+far as Samarcand, and thence into China; and in A.D. 206, Abou Kariba,
+one of the most illustrious of all the Himyaric kings, invaded Chaldæa
+and defeated the Tartars of Adirbijan. He started on a second expedition
+to conquer Syria, but returned after taking the Hejaz to the Yemen, where
+he is said to have renounced idolatry and embraced Judaism.
+
+A legend, quoted by Sir Lambert Playfair in his ‘History of the Yemen,’
+tells of the introduction of the Jewish faith into the Yemen during the
+reign of this Sultan. It savours of the priests of Baal; for, wishing to
+put to the test the merits of Judaism and idolatry, the priests of either
+creed proceeded to a certain spot whence fire emerged from the ground.
+Pushed on by the crowd, the test was tried, and while the Jewish priests
+passed through the flame unscathed, the idolaters perished. But the
+feeling between the two was by no means destined from this fact to become
+a cordial one, and constant fights occurred between the two parties.
+Although Christianity seems to have appeared in the Yemen previous to
+the year 297 A.D., it was not until that date that it became a religion
+of importance in the country. It was during the reign of the king Tubba
+ibn Hassan, who held the throne at this period, that Christianity was
+introduced into Abyssinia; and about the middle half of the fourth
+century the Emperor Constantius sent a certain bishop, Theophilus Indus,
+to convert the Yemenis, of whom the king was so far tolerant, even if he
+did not himself embrace Christianity, to allow the building of churches.
+One was erected at Zafar, near Yerim; another at Aden; and a third at a
+port in the Arabian Sea, supposed generally to be Hormuzd.
+
+So king succeeded king with the usual rapidity of oriental countries,
+until in 478 A.D. a certain Lakhnia (or Lakhtiaa) Tanú usurped the
+throne, whose cruelties to the surviving members of the royal family
+are recorded by more than one historian. However, it remained for one
+of these, a youth by name Asaad abou Karib, or Dhu Nowas, to revenge
+his relations by stabbing the usurper with a dagger, he himself being
+unanimously elected to the throne. He embraced Judaism, and adopted the
+name of Yusef (Joseph). However, like many converts, he became a fanatic,
+and his cruelties toward the Christians are perhaps unparalleled in
+history. Dhu Nowas attacked them in Nejrán, and having foully broken his
+promise that no harm should befall them, gave them the choice between
+death or Judaism. Twenty thousand, it is said, were burned alive in huge
+pits filled with blazing wood. The Koran commends these people who died
+for their religion, and calls a curse upon their persecutor.[16]
+
+But the cruelty of Dhu Nowas was to reap its reward. A few Christians
+who escaped fled to the Court of the Christian emperor of the East,
+who presented them with letters to the Christian king of Abyssinia,
+requesting him to punish the perpetrator of these cruel outrages.
+
+In A.D. 525, accordingly, the Abyssinians invaded the Yemen, and Dhu
+Nowas was defeated, being drowned, purposely, it is said, after the first
+battle. From that moment the Abyssinian general Aryat met with but futile
+resistance, and pushed into the heart of the country, destroying and
+razing the cities as he went along.
+
+Thus was overthrown, never to rise again, the Himyaric dynasty, which had
+held the throne of the Yemen for over two thousand years. Many of the
+kings had been celebrated both for war and culture, but their ancestors
+were now, on account of their fanatical persecution of the Christians,
+in return to suffer from cruelties and oppression as severe as any they
+themselves had ever practised.
+
+It is but one of the many examples of the terrible bloodshed consequent
+upon diversity of opinion on religious subjects,—for with bloodshed did
+Christianity force itself into the Yemen, and with bloodshed was it
+destined a few years later to disappear. Aryat, having conquered the
+Yemen, was appointed Viceroy of the King of Abyssinia in that country,
+and reigned until nearly the middle half of the sixth century, being
+succeeded by Abrahá, in fighting with whom Aryat was slain.
+
+Meanwhile, by every means of cruelty and oppression Christianity had been
+pushed forward; but at length a bishop was appointed at Zafar, whose
+name is to-day included in the calendar of saints as St Gregentius,
+who persuaded Abrahá to adopt more lenient measures than those of his
+predecessor; and even the Arab authors acknowledge him to have been
+a just and compassionate prince. That he was, however, a fanatic is
+certain; for the church at Sanaa having been defiled by an Arab from
+Mecca, where for centuries the Kaabah had been a place of pilgrimage, he
+vowed to destroy that place, and at the head of a great army marched into
+the Hejaz. Approaching Mecca, the inhabitants fled; but Abrahá, mounted
+upon his famous white elephant Mahmoud, failed,—for it is said not
+only did the huge pachyderm refuse to turn toward the city, but that a
+miraculous flight of birds dropped pebbles upon the heads of the invading
+army, killing both men and elephants. This miracle is generally explained
+as an epidemic of smallpox: however, be it what it may, it ended in the
+total rout and flight of the Abyssinian troops, who in a miserable plight
+resought the Yemen, where shortly afterwards Abrahá died.
+
+This “battle of the elephant,” as the Arab historians called it, is
+doubly famous, as it happened in the year of the birth of Mahammed.
+
+But the Abyssinian rule was soon to end. Acts of tyranny and cruelty
+hurried on its termination, and Jaskum, the last sovereign, died in 575
+A.D., when the ancestors of the Himyaric dynasty, certain of being unable
+to regain the throne for themselves, and having failed to persuade the
+Romans to take up their cause, implored the aid of the Persian monarch
+Kesra, who after many delays fitted out an expedition, formed for the
+most part of convicts from the prisons, which reached Aden, under the
+personal conduct of a descendant of Himyar, Maadi Karib, and a Persian
+general of the name of Wahraz. A battle ensued with the Abyssinians, in
+which their monarch—for the Viceroys had by this time taken imperial
+rights—was killed. Sanaa was reached, and the gates broken down to allow
+the Persian conqueror to enter with uplifted banners, and Maadi Karib
+was proclaimed viceroy, paying tribute and owning allegiance to the
+Persian sovereign.
+
+The event of the return of a descendant of Himyar to power is celebrated
+by many an Arab historian and poet.
+
+Amongst many other ambassadors and men of repute who flocked to the
+court at Sanaa, after the overthrow of Christianity, was the grandfather
+of Mahammed, Abd el-Mutalib, who was received with special honours, as
+belonging to the powerful tribe of the Koreish, lords of Mecca. But
+Maadi Karib was destined to fall a victim to Abyssinian treachery, being
+murdered by his body-guard, which consisted of javelin-throwers of
+Habesh. A state of anarchy ensued, in which the natives struggled with
+the Abyssinians for the supreme power; and finally the Persian monarch
+Kesra Paruiz was forced to send an expedition, which proved entirely
+successful. But bloodshed was the result, and the Abyssinians were put
+to the sword with great cruelty, even the half-breed children being
+slaughtered.
+
+Great as was the number of the slain, both the Abyssinian and Persian
+occupation has left its mark in the Yemen, and a particular and despised
+race exists there to-day known as the Akhdam.[17] Authorities differ
+as to whether they are the descendants of the Abyssinians or Persians;
+but so closely did one occupation follow upon the other that it may be
+reasonably supposed that, owing to the youth of the children at the time,
+and the rapidity with which both nationalities died out of the country,
+but little distinction would exist, in spite of diversity of colour,
+between the two.
+
+Meanwhile the Persian rule was for a time fairly established, though
+many tribes were almost entirely governed by their own local chiefs.
+All religions were tolerated, and Christianity maintained its ground,
+principally in Nejrán, and we find mention amongst early authorities of
+a Christian bishop of that province, Kos by name. It was probably in his
+time that a Christian Church was erected in Nejrán.
+
+At this period a great change was to take place in the religion and
+government of Arabia, for there had arisen at Mecca a prophet, Mahammed
+by name, of the tribe of the Koreish, who was destined to influence not
+only all Arabia but the whole history of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE YEMEN SINCE THE HEJIRA.
+
+
+Mahammed was destined to overthrow the whole social and religious status
+of Arabia. But the Yemen was by no means anxious at the first to accept
+the new doctrine, and for a time remained steadfast to the Persian cause
+and religion, under the viceroyalty of Budhan, who, though eventually he
+accepted the faith of Islam, hesitated until pressure was brought to bear
+upon him, and until he had obtained, to him, satisfactory evidence of the
+Prophet’s miracles.
+
+The dissensions at this period existing amongst the Christians of
+the Yemen added not a little to the success of the spread of the new
+religion. Yet in these first days of conversion every leniency was shown
+to the Christians, and a treaty was made between the princes of Nejrán,
+which, it may be remembered, was the stronghold of Christianity in the
+Yemen, and Mahammed himself, very advantageous to the former, one of the
+clauses stipulating that tolerance was to be allowed, and no Christians
+forcibly converted to Islam.
+
+But the Prophet had fixed his heart on the conversion of Arabia Felix,
+and for this purpose, in the tenth year of the Hejira, Ali ibn Abou
+Taleb, his son-in-law and nephew, was despatched thither. Failing by
+moderate means to bring over the people, the sword was resorted to; but
+in spite of this fact, authorities state that Islam was grafted in the
+country with the loss of only some twenty lives.
+
+But its course was to be by no means a smooth one, for amongst several
+other pretenders two arose at the same period, 632 A.D., who laid claim
+to the prophetic office. Both had been converts to Islam, and one at
+least had actually seen Mahammed, and it was no doubt the report of his
+enormous success that stirred these men to rival his claims.
+
+The first, Mosailma by name, was a chief of the tribe of Hanífa. Being of
+a diplomatic turn of mind, he thought to make an alliance with Mahammed,
+and a correspondence took place between the two, worthy of repetition
+here. The letters ran as follows:—
+
+“From Mosailma, the Prophet of God, to Mahammed, the Prophet of God! Let
+the earth be half mine and half thine.”
+
+Mahammed’s answer was short but to the point:—
+
+“From Mahammed, the Prophet of God, to Mosailma, the Liar. The earth
+belongs to God. He giveth it as an inheritance to such of his servants as
+pleaseth him, and the happy issue shall attend such as fear him.”
+
+But Mosailma was not to be discouraged by this reply, and continued his
+career until, shortly after the death of Mahammed, his successor the
+Caliph Abou Bekr sent an expedition under a certain general Khalid to
+attack him. In a battle near Akriba Mosailma was slain, and his followers
+disbanded; who, seeing their leader die, once more reverted to Islam.
+
+The second impostor was El-Aswad, chief of the tribe of Anis. He had
+previously been an idolater, but had become a convert to the Mahammedan
+faith. Meeting at first with every success, he installed himself at
+Sanaa, and nearly the whole of the Yemen acknowledged his authority. But
+at the instigation of Mahammed, who was at this time still alive, he was
+treacherously slain by his wife and accomplices.
+
+These two impostors, although their career did not to any extent
+permanently affect the history of the Yemen, are celebrated throughout
+Arab traditions, in which they are known as “The Liars.”
+
+But the troubles in the Yemen were by no means at an end. Every preceding
+dynasty had left dissension and rival blood in the country, and for a
+long period, during the reign of the early Caliphs, the country was
+constantly disturbed with war and bloodshed. Pretender to the throne
+followed pretender, and it was not for a period of some years that any
+tranquillity was restored to the Yemen.
+
+In A.D. 655 Ali succeeded to the Caliphate on the death of Othman, and
+having to quell many disturbances and dissensions at home, he did not
+for some time turn his attention to the Yemen, where, after a lapse in
+the war between Muavia, governor of Syria, and the Caliph, a large band
+of the troops of the former, under the leadership of Bashir ibn Ardeb,
+carried out the most horrible atrocities on the partisans of the cause
+of Ali. But revenge was near, and a short time later—39 A.H.—troops
+to the number of four thousand were despatched by Ali from Kufa, who
+equalled perhaps the cruelties of Muavia’s adherents; but they succeeded
+in stamping out the cause of Othman, the lately assassinated Caliph,
+and Ali’s son was proclaimed governor of the Yemen. Islam had by this
+period made such a firm footing in the country, that, in spite of the
+dissensions between Christians, idolaters, and Jews, we find the troubles
+confined almost entirely to the many sects of Islam itself. Some of the
+most important of these will be found mentioned elsewhere, so that no
+reference is necessary to them here, except as showing how firm a hold
+the acceptance of the new religion had gained amongst the inhabitants of
+the Yemen.
+
+The country after the death of Ali became subject to the Omeyyad dynasty
+of Caliphs, until in A.D. 749 the Abbasides exterminated them, with
+unparalleled bloodshed and cruelty, the conquest of the Yemen being
+carried out by Mahammed Abousi Mahammed. The typical cruelty of this
+man is well exemplified by a paragraph in Sir R. L. Playfair’s ‘History
+of the Yemen.’ Finding the inhabitants suffering from what is now known
+as “Yemen boils,” an exceedingly common complaint in that country, he
+ordered all those who showed any signs of the sickness to be buried alive
+as unclean. Happily his own death prevented this cruel order from being
+carried out. Sharing the ups and downs of the Abbaside dynasty, to whom
+the Yemen acknowledged a varying system of vassalage, in 811 A.D. the
+inhabitants declared for El-Mamun, son of Harun el-Rashid, the great
+Caliph of the East, who was sharing with his brother Amin the government.
+Under this Caliph the governor of the Yemen was Mahammed, son of Ziad.
+He conquered the Teháma, or western plains, and became sovereign of the
+whole country.
+
+There remained at this period a tribe of the name of Beni Yafur,
+descendants of the old Himyaric kings, who lived at Sanaa. Acknowledging
+the Abbaside Caliphs, they were by force obliged to fall under the
+jurisdiction of Ibn Ziad; but Asaad ibn Yafur, the last of the family,
+took advantage of the Karmathian rising throughout the Yemen to usurp
+the power, which he held until his death. He was the last prince of the
+Himyaric people; and although his family held the throne for a few years
+they never arrived at any great power, their position being materially
+weakened by insurrections and family strifes.
+
+Ibn Ziad having died, and been succeeded by several members of his
+family, Abou’l-Jaysh his grandson came to the throne. On the death of
+the Caliph El-Mutawakil and the abdication of El-Mustain, he disclaimed
+all allegiance to the Caliphate, and took to himself regal honours,
+though there seems to be some apparent discord as to dates, for the
+assassination and abdication of the Caliphs occurred before Abou’l-Jaysh
+came to the throne. Probably he was the first to assume regal power,
+although his immediate predecessors had ceased paying tribute to the
+Caliphs.[18]
+
+Apparently Abou’l-Jaysh was a man of great power, and by the time of his
+death he was master of the whole of the Yemen, while his revenues reached
+an enormous sum. It was during his reign that the Zaidite dynasty sprung
+up. The foundation of what afterwards was the principal line of the
+Imams, or Sultans of the Yemen, is not without interest. Although to-day
+ousted from power by the Turks, the leader of the late rebellion was no
+less a personage than a descendant of the great family who in A.H. 288
+(A.D. 901) founded at Sadah the Zaidite dynasty. As of the direct family
+of the prophet Mahammed, it may be interesting to trace the line from
+the founder of Islam to Yahya, who returned to the Yemen from India in
+288 A.H. to announce the supremacy of the Zaidis. This is best done by a
+short genealogical tree.
+
+    MAHAMMED.
+      |
+    Fatima and Ali.
+      |
+    Hasan.
+      |
+    Hasan.
+      |
+    Ibrahim.
+      |
+    Ismail.
+      |
+    Ibrahim.
+    Tabátabá.
+      |
+    Kasim er-Rassi.
+      |
+    Huseyn.
+      |
+    El-Hadi Yahya.
+    (D. 298 A.H.)
+
+Although Yahya succeeded in wresting Sanaa from Asaad ibn Yafur, he was
+unable to hold it, and eventually returned to Sadah, where descendants of
+his family are to-day living.
+
+From this period we find a constant rise and fall of dynasties. While
+Imams alternately held and lost authority, there were springing up,
+generally to disappear, princes in many parts of the country, so that at
+times the Yemen was divided into a number of principalities. Celebrated
+amongst these were the Sulayhites and the Zurayites, of whom the latter
+for centuries held possession of the southern province of Aden. But,
+meanwhile, in the north the Imams were succeeding one another with the
+usual rapidity of oriental sovereigns, and with very varied authority. In
+the fifth century A.H. we find the Abyssinian line again in possession of
+Zebeed, at this time the principal city of the Teháma.
+
+Meanwhile the Zaidi family of Rassites continued to govern at Sadah
+without serious interruption.
+
+In 1173 A.D. the then reigning Sultan of Sanaa surrendered his power to
+Turan Shah, brother of Salah ed-din (Saladdin), the Ayyubite Caliph of
+Egypt; and Ali, son of the Sultan El-Mansur Hatim, was nominated governor
+of that city.
+
+It would be out of place here to trace the long lines of governors and
+rulers who dominated the Yemen during the next two centuries. A few
+names, however, are remembered to-day, and mentioned by authorities as
+being men of great power or culture. The first is El-Muzaffer, who united
+for the time at least all the Yemen under his sway, and who died at the
+end of the thirteenth century; and again, Abdul-Wahab, who reigned early
+in the sixteenth century, and founded many colleges at Sanaa, Taiz, and
+Zebeed, and built a number of cisterns and aqueducts at places where
+water was scarce.
+
+During the next period of the history of the Yemen, we come in contact
+for the first time with European traders and the Turks, who were destined
+in no small degree to influence the future of the country.
+
+About the year 1445 A.D. the Christian king of Abyssinia sent a mission
+to Florence, and a famous missive to the priests of Jerusalem. This
+king is well known to history from these two acts alone, and to-day is
+celebrated as Prester John. Whether his embassy stirred the religious
+zeal or the cupidity of Europe it is difficult to say, but it resulted,
+whatever its cause may have been, in a Portuguese expedition to the far
+East, which eventually ended in the leader, De Covilham, marrying and
+settling in Shoa.
+
+I think there is but little need here to repeat the adventures of many
+European expeditions that were sent at various periods to visit this
+portion of the globe. Such as refer more immediately to Aden will be
+found mentioned in the chapter on that possession, while I have elsewhere
+referred to the “factories” at Mokha.
+
+Early in the sixteenth century the Mamlook power in Egypt was overthrown
+by the Sultan Selim I., upon which event the larger portion of the
+Arabian states went over to the new cause. This Selim was desirous
+of himself leading an expedition for the conquest of Arabia, but was
+obliged to abandon the idea on account of ill health; nor did he ever
+recover sufficiently to carry out his purpose. His son, Suleiman the
+Magnificent, was equally intent upon the conquest of India, and for
+this purpose fitted out a fleet in A.D. 1520. On the 27th June 1538 the
+fleet left Suez, and Aden was reached a few months later, and the town
+was taken. Proceeding to India, Suleiman Pasha was forced to retire on
+being attacked by the Viceroy of Goa, and returned to Aden, where he
+left sufficient troops to garrison the town, and proceeded to Mokha,
+whence messengers were sent to Zebeed with the demand that the governor
+of that city should at once proceed to the coast. The Arab’s refusal
+to comply with this order cost him his life, for a few months later
+Zebeed was taken, and a number of its inhabitants put to the sword. This
+completed the conquests of Suleiman the Magnificent, and all the coast of
+Arabia acknowledged the Turkish rule, Sanaa itself becoming the seat of
+the Pasha of the Yemen. But although firmly rooted in the country, the
+Turkish forces were unable to extract tribute from the numerous tribes,
+many of which remained practically independent. A revolt occurred at Aden
+in 1551, which was, however, put down by Peri Pasha, who wrested the
+town from the Portuguese, to whom it had been handed over by its Arab
+inhabitants.
+
+Eight years later a still greater rebellion broke out throughout the
+whole of the Yemen. However, the Turks, under Hasan Pasha, were able to
+quell it, and continue their rule in the country.
+
+At the beginning of the seventeenth century the English appear for the
+first time in this part of the world, the first ship to trade in the Red
+Sea being the East India Company’s vessel Ascension, Captain Sharpey,
+who, however, failed in his desire to establish commercial relations
+between the two countries. This voyage was followed by several others,
+but of these mention will be found in the chapter relating to Aden.
+
+In 1630 the Turks withdrew from the Yemen, and the government fell into
+the hands of a descendant of Ali ibn Abou Taleb, who married Fatima,
+the daughter of the Prophet Mahammed. This man was by name Kasim, whose
+full titles were Mansur el-Kasim el-Kebir. His ancestor, El-Hadi Yahia,
+had founded the Rassite dynasty in 284 A.H. The family of Kasim, which
+now commenced to hold the government of the Yemen, continued until the
+conquest of Sanaa by the Turks in 1872 to fill the posts of Imams.[19]
+A few words are necessary in explanation of this title, by which the
+rulers of the Yemen have been so long known. The word Imam literally
+means the leader of prayer in the mosque. Thus it will be seen that the
+office was not merely a temporal one, but was also imbued with religious
+rights, enjoyed on account of their descent from the Prophet. Not daring
+to assume the title of “Caliph,” they preferred the minor one “Imam,”
+though practically by carrying out the old-established customs, such as
+changing their names on succeeding to power, they took upon themselves
+the position enjoyed by the direct successors of Mahammed himself. The
+office was a hereditary one, and generally succeeded to by primogeniture,
+provided the eldest son was of an age and character suitable to his being
+able to carry out the necessary duties.
+
+Niebuhr gives an interesting account of the principal officers in the
+service of the Imams, a portion of which may be mentioned here.[20] The
+various provinces were, he says, under the governorship of a “Dowla,”
+or military governor, who was responsible for his district, collected
+the taxes, commanded the troops, and regulated all local affairs. It was
+customary for a man only to hold the office for a few years, in order
+to prevent his acquiring great wealth or influence. Their position was
+always an uncertain one, as they necessarily made many enemies, who
+were ready to do them some ill turn at headquarters. The Bas-Katéb was
+secretary, appointed by the Imam, under each, whose principal work was to
+spy upon and report to their lord and ruler the actions of the “Dowla.”
+As ordained by the tenets of Islam, all cases relating to laws laid down
+in the Koran were tried by the Cadi, or chief judge. The ports were
+under the rule of three officers,—an Amir el-Bahr, or captain of the
+port; an Amir es-Sôk, whose duty lay in regulating the markets; and a
+Sheikh el-Beled, who collected the taxes. El-Kasim was succeeded by his
+son El-Muayyad Mahammed, who in turn was succeeded by his brother Ismail,
+who lived a life of supreme simplicity, and died after a long reign,
+mourned by the whole country.
+
+So Imam succeeded Imam with all the changing fortunes of oriental rulers,
+and without apparently performing any deeds which redound to their own
+praise or raised the splendour of their country. In all probability their
+lives were simply spent in Eastern uxoriousness, and in keeping in order
+the turbulent tribes by which they were surrounded.
+
+In 1709 the French appeared for the first time in the Red Sea, and
+carried out a treaty with the governor of Mokha, on behalf of the then
+Imam El-Mehdi. The principal clauses referred to religious toleration,
+the duties on merchandise, and that redress should be given for any
+insults offered to French subjects.[21] In spite of this treaty in 1738
+Mokha was bombarded by the French, on account of debts owing to the
+traders by the governor of that city. The town was taken, but handed back
+to the Imam on the payment of the debt. This ended in the drawing up of a
+second treaty, somewhat reducing the duty chargeable on the imports and
+exports.
+
+For the next twenty years affairs in the Yemen remained in a state
+of tolerable peace. From time to time tribes raised the standard of
+independence; but there seems to have been no organised attack upon the
+Imams, although the family was continually engaged in intrigue as to
+the succession. However, in 1758 a serious rebellion broke out, under a
+certain Abd er-Rabi ibn Ahmed, who had been governor of a small province
+in the service of the Imam. Abd er-Rabi had made enemies in the household
+of the Imam, and at their instigation was recalled. He refused, however,
+to obey, whereupon the Imam sent a force of some three thousand men to
+bring him. Nevertheless, he was able to hold out within the walls of
+Kátaba for no less a period than nearly a year, and eventually made his
+escape by night to his followers in the tribe of Hajeriya. Finding it
+impossible to capture Abd er-Rabi, the Imam made overtures to the Sultan
+of Aden to assist him. Abd er-Rabi hearing of this, entered Lahej and
+blockaded Aden. He was destined, however, to fall a victim to an act
+of treachery. The Imam was at this period attacking the city of Taiz,
+which he was unable to capture, and, hoping to kill two birds with one
+stone, invited Abd er-Rabi to join him. This the latter did, and the city
+was taken. The Imam, delighted with his success, under the most solemn
+protestations of friendship invited him to Sanaa, where on his arrival
+he was, after every ignominy had been showered upon him, decapitated.[22]
+
+[Illustration: HOWTA, THE CAPITAL OF LAHEJ.]
+
+In 1762 King Frederick V. of Denmark organised an expedition for the
+exploration of Arabia under the leadership of Karsten Niebuhr. With
+him were associated three other Danes, who all died either during the
+expedition or immediately upon its termination. In spite of the fact that
+more than a century has elapsed since this expedition took place, we
+have never since been given a clearer or more interesting and valuable
+account of the Yemen. The social state of the country is particularly
+well described, and no one can overestimate the value of Niebuhr’s work.
+He twice interviewed the Imam during his stay at Sanaa, and the second
+time greatly interested his royal host by exhibiting and explaining
+his scientific instruments. Niebuhr’s account of the Imam and his
+surroundings is most interesting, but unfortunately space does not allow
+of my giving any extracts here.
+
+In 1770 an attack was made upon the British factory at Mokha. However,
+two British men-of-war were sent to the spot, and an indemnity was
+paid, which it was found out eventually had been extracted from Indian
+merchants, who were, of course, British subjects! The Yemen at this time
+had attracted a few European adventurers, who had become Moslems and
+entered the service of the Imam. Amongst these was a certain Scotchman
+of the name of Campbell, who was commanding the artillery of El-Mehdi
+Abbas, the then Imam. A rebellion had burst out in the country, and the
+rebels had seized upon a stronghold in the vicinity of Sanaa, in which
+was water, and where they had collected a quantity of provisions. Such,
+however, was the fear of the natives for the ingenuity of these European
+renegades, that they surrendered on hearing that Campbell and his
+companions were engaged upon the manufacture of shells—a task they had
+neither the means nor the knowledge of carrying to a successful end. The
+episode is merely interesting as showing the acknowledgment of the Arabs
+of the superiority of the European over themselves in such things—an
+allowance readily made to-day by nearly all classes of the Arab world.
+
+In 1799 a British force was sent to cruise in the Red Sea, on account
+of the French having taken possession of Egypt; and Perim, an island
+situated in the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, was occupied, though, on
+account of the scarcity of water, it was only held for a period of four
+months.
+
+The trade of the Red Sea with India had up to this period been a very
+considerable one, but owing to the misgovernment of the Imams, and
+their inability to offer security to traders, it had greatly diminished
+in the last few years. On this account Sir Home Popham was sent on a
+special mission to the Yemen in 1801, and was nominated Ambassador to
+the Southern Arabian states. He arrived at Mokha on his return from
+Calcutta in 1802, and set out for Sanaa. However, he reached only as far
+as Taiz, and there, as had been the case along the entire route, he was
+treated with every ignominy. The Imam protested that the treatment of
+the Ambassador had been carried on without his knowledge and contrary to
+his orders, and he promised to punish the offenders. In all probability
+Ali Mansur, who then held the throne at Sanaa, was entirely unable to
+cope with the turbulent tribes, and it is known for certain that from his
+extravagances he was always in arrears with the subsidised chiefs of the
+neighbouring districts.
+
+I have briefly mentioned elsewhere the Wahabi sect, which, under the
+leadership of Abd el-Wahab en-Nejdi, sprang up in the eighteenth century.
+It had not, however, seriously made itself felt in the Yemen until this
+period, its progress being no doubt largely influenced by the Wahabi
+conquest of Mecca and Medina. During the years 1804 and 1805 the Yemen
+suffered from continual raids of the Wahabi leaders, for the most part
+chiefs of the Beni Asir, the tribes lying between the Hejaz and the Yemen
+proper. But treachery was on foot, and certain Shereefs nominally owing
+allegiance to the Wahabi doctrine were really working in the interests
+of the Imam of Sanaa, and in this manner the marauders were held more or
+less in check. Meanwhile the Imam Ali Mansur had been deposed by his son
+Ahmed, who had seized the reins of government. But the city of Mokha
+refused to acknowledge Ahmed while the old Imam was still alive, and on
+that account Ahmed put an expedition into the field against the Dowla of
+that town. Happily for the country Ali Mansur died, and the people of
+Mokha were then able to acknowledge his son as Imam, and so a disastrous
+war was staved off.
+
+So great had become the power of the Wahabis that in 1813 Mahammed Ali
+Pasha invaded the Hejaz in the name of Turkey, and restored Mecca and
+Medina to the Osmanli Sultan. Thence an envoy was sent to the Imam at
+Sanaa, requesting his co-operation in the stamping out of the Wahabis.
+This was readily granted, for the Imam evidently saw that Mahammed Ali’s
+eyes were turned in the direction of the Yemen; and although he protested
+that he himself was devoid of means to carry on warfare, he gave the
+envoy letters to the Dowla of Mokha to supply him with vessels and
+material, knowing full well that he possessed neither.[23]
+
+In 1814 Mahammed Ali’s troops took the town of Konfoda, north of Lohaya;
+but the Asir tribes surprised it a few months later, drove the Turks out,
+and seized an enormous quantity of booty and supplies. So worn out were
+the Turkish troops with their long campaign that Mahammed Ali was obliged
+to abandon his scheme for the taking of the Yemen, and retired to Cairo,
+leaving Ibrahim Pasha to continue the campaign, which ended in the
+downfall of the Wahabis. The viceroyalty of Ibrahim was marked with every
+kind of cruelty and despicable corruption, and his departure from Jeddah
+in 1819 was the signal for great rejoicings. Mahammed Ali then carried
+out a treaty with the Imam, who, on the condition of paying one hundred
+thousand dollars a-year, was to be restored several provinces which he
+had lately lost, including Konfoda and Lohaya, which the Turks themselves
+had taken.
+
+On account of a brutal attack that was made upon Lieutenant Dommicetti,
+at the time confined to his bed with fever, and upon the employees of
+the British factory, a force was sent to that place in 1819 to demand
+reparation, and a treaty from the Imam, in which certain privileges were
+granted to British subjects. Difficulties arose, and in December 1820
+Mokha was bombarded by Captain Bruce, and full reparation made by the
+governor.
+
+The Porte meanwhile had become uneasy at the great success attending
+the campaigns of Mahammed Ali Pasha; and on a Mamlook, Mahammed Agha,
+generally known as Turkchee Bilmas, rebelling against Mahammed Ali, the
+Sultan of Turkey, hoping to profit through his agency, installed him
+governor of the Hejaz. Marching south, Turkchee Bilmas took Hodaidah in
+1832. Zebeed was the next city to fall, whence he marched upon Mokha,
+which also surrendered; but the tide changed, and a year later Mokha
+alone remained in Turkchee Bilmas’ hands, where he was attacked by a
+large force by sea, under Ahmed Pasha, and by some 20,000 of the Asir
+tribes by land. In the attack upon the city Turkchee Bilmas escaped to
+the East India Company’s vessel Tigris, and was conveyed in her to Bombay.
+
+In 1837 the Imam’s uncle, Seyed Kasim, treacherously sold Taiz to the
+Egyptians; but their power there was of short duration, for in 1840 the
+Egyptians evacuated the Yemen, which thereupon became distracted with
+strife. Although Ibrahim Pasha had previously agreed to hand over the
+Teháma to Mahammed ibn Oun, Shereef of Mecca, he was not successful, for
+a Shereef of the Abou Arish disputed its possession. The Shereef of Mecca
+therefore despatched troops to the coast, who occupied Hodaidah the very
+day the Pasha left it, but only to hold it for a very short time, for a
+month later the Asir tribe entered the town. Shereef Huseyn, brother of
+Mahammed el-Meccawi, assumed the governorship of Mokha, and commenced to
+ill-treat the British subjects there, at the same time demanding, in an
+insulting letter, the surrender of Aden.[24]
+
+The Imam was not at first able to attend to these matters, as a religious
+rebellion had broken out under the leadership of a fanatic, El-Faki Saïd,
+who called himself “Medhi el-Mantether.” But as soon as this impostor
+had been attacked and killed, the Imam turned his attention to the
+Teháma. Failing in obtaining the aid of the British, it appears that both
+he and her Majesty’s Government referred the matter to Constantinople,
+with the result that a commissioner was sent by the Porte to confer
+with the Shereef. However, he appears, says Playfair in his notes upon
+the subject, to have been bribed by Shereef Huseyn, and returned to
+Constantinople with but little accomplished. The result, however, of his
+mission became apparent a year later, when the Sultan appointed him Pasha
+of the Teháma, on the understanding that he paid a tribute of 70,000
+dollars per annum to the Porte.
+
+[Illustration: _A Native of the Teháma._]
+
+The Imam, El-Hadi Mahammed, died in 1844, and was succeeded by Ali
+Mansur, who had been formerly deposed, and whose great idea seemed to
+be to retrieve the losses his predecessors had suffered. Fighting at
+once commenced, but the Imam’s troops met with but little success, and
+smallpox carried off a very considerable number. A rebellion broke out a
+few months later, the Imam was deposed, and his cousin, Mahammed Yahya,
+placed on the throne in his stead. Desirous of carrying out the scheme
+of his predecessor for the recovery of the Teháma, he took the field and
+finally routed the Shereef Huseyn at Bajil, near Hodaidah, the Shereef
+himself being taken prisoner. Hodaidah, Zebeed, and Beit el-Fakih were
+handed over to the Imam, and shortly afterwards he captured Mokha,
+where he learned that another division of the Shereef Huseyn’s army had
+retaken Zebeed. The Imam fled to Sanaa, and a few weeks later Mokha fell
+once more into the hands of Huseyn. The Turks, seeing the opportunity
+a suitable one to push their interests in Southern Arabia, sent an
+expedition to Hodaidah, on the arrival of which the Shereef Huseyn handed
+over the place to the new-comers. The Imam was compelled to visit the
+Pasha at Hodaidah, and a treaty was signed, the principal clauses of
+which were as follows:—
+
+1. The country governed by the Imam was to continue under his
+jurisdiction, but he was himself to be considered as a vassal to the
+Porte.
+
+2. The revenues of the country were to be equally divided between the
+Porte and the Imam.
+
+3. Sanaa was to be garrisoned with a thousand regular Turkish troops.
+
+4. The Imam was to receive 37,000 dollars per month from the revenue
+previous to its division.[25]
+
+Both the Turks and the Imam suffered, however, from the results of this
+treaty—the former by being almost annihilated on their arrival at Sanaa,
+the latter by being deposed and murdered. The power of the Imams was
+gone; the Turks, although driven out of the highlands of the Yemen,
+retained their footing on the coast, and carried on desultory warfare in
+many directions. The country, after years of war and bloodshed, remained
+in a state of anarchy, and the descendants of the great Imams seemed to
+lose all spirit and authority. They sank into private life at Sanaa,
+giving themselves up to luxury and vice; and the greatness of the Yemen
+was finished.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE INFLUENCES OF ISLAM IN THE YEMEN.
+
+
+Before entering upon any account of the various religious influences
+that have since the time of Mahammed disturbed the Yemen, it may be
+as well to put aside a few pages for some general remarks upon the
+religion of Islam, the tenets of which are well known enough to those
+who have made any study of the subject, but are to the general world
+almost a closed book. It is this disregard of religions other than our
+own which so weakens the constant cry of their inferiority. Rather it
+should be the desire of such as wish to uphold Christianity to carefully
+study and compare its doctrines with those of the beliefs they are so
+ready to cry down. The world has arrived at a stage when people are not
+satisfied with a mere assertion, but demand to hear both sides of the
+question and to reason for themselves; and to those who have taken up or
+made even a small study of Islam it is a pain, or perhaps at times an
+amusement, to listen to the rabid cries as to its inferiority, issuing
+from the throats of men who base their action upon a few what they call
+“practical results.” It is not the author’s purpose here to enter into
+a long discussion upon the subject, or to point out at any length the
+many fallacies which are believed to be doctrines of Islam by a large
+proportion of the British public.
+
+But of all the arguments used to show the inferiority of the Mahammedan
+religion, there is none so loved and so often brought into use as the
+present condition of countries practising its belief. How little real
+value this argument possesses it will not take long to prove; and it may
+be generally stated that the backward condition of Mahammedan states
+is not owing to their form of religion to nearly so great an extent
+as it is owing to the nature of the people who profess it; in other
+words, the low standpoint of most Islamic countries can be traced to
+the origin of its inhabitants rather than to their beliefs. Strong as
+is this statement, there is at least one very good example to prove its
+truth—namely, that under similar circumstances of breed and climate we
+find Christian nations sunk deeper in degradation and vice than their
+Moslem neighbours. Take, for example, Abyssinia, into which Christianity
+was introduced between the years 300 and 320 A.D. Why then, since from
+that period they have been pursuing the Christian belief, do we not find
+them to-day in a state infinitely superior to the surrounding Moslem
+countries—in fact, living in a state of civilisation equalling that of
+the European nations, or even of the Yemenite Arabs or the Turks? Why do
+we find Abyssinia to-day a country given over to drink and debauchery,
+when they are regular attendants at church? Why do we find them living
+in the circular thatch-huts and wearing the same apparel that they did
+probably when Christianity first made its appearance amongst them?
+Because, I say, their nature is such that it is untouchable by any
+religion, no matter how lofty be its aims and aspirations. “Can the
+Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” Certainly not, no
+matter how much he may be painted over with gaudy colours. Again, why
+in Egypt do we not find the Kopts in a far higher state of civilisation
+and intellectual superiority than their neighbours? It may be argued
+that their Christianity is not an example of true Christianity, just as
+it may be argued that the Islam of to-day is not the true Islam. Yet it
+strikes one that Islam is very much nearer its original ideal than we
+are to ours, who have turned our religion round and round and inside
+out to make it fit the requirements of modern progress and personal
+comforts. Before, Christian reader, you turn to smite your neighbour the
+Moslem, look round you. Before you begin to pull the mote out of his
+eye, pay a little attention to the beam that is in your own. Look at
+the great armies of Europe ready to tear one another to pieces! Look at
+the streets of the great cities flocked with prostitutes! Look at the
+swarming drunken population of our towns! Look at the financial robberies
+and the uncharitableness of our own lands,—and when you have mended that,
+then you may turn to show your brotherly love, which is so engrafted in
+the Christian’s heart, and rend your neighbour.
+
+Justice, I say! If it be one’s desire to take up the cudgels against what
+millions hold most dear, then let it not be done until the cudgels can
+be taken up and victory assured by making a careful study of what one
+is going to fight against. Religious tolerance is one of the boasts of
+Englishmen; let it be their care that the boast is not a vain one.
+
+Again, it is often said that by its so carefully laying down the laws,
+Islam has prevented any material change from taking place in the
+condition of those that profess it. How about Judaism? The laws are as
+equally, if not more specifically, laid down in their books than even
+they are in the Koran, and yet we find to-day the Jews in all material
+matters almost the leaders of the world.
+
+There can be no doubt that Christianity is a far finer religion than
+Islam. Christianity is beautiful in its simplicity—beautiful in that
+it touches so little upon affairs of worldly importance; but it is
+doubtless a religion founded for Western and Northern people. There is no
+doubt that, coming from Palestine, it chose its natural course when it
+proceeded to Europe. Why was it not embraced by the Arabs and peoples
+of the south, who at that time, with the exception of such as were
+Jews, were professing the foul rites of idolatry? The southerner, wild
+turbulent son of the desert, is unsuited to Christianity; he must have
+some belief that touches him deeper, that inspires his ardour by teaching
+something he can understand,—some religion that regulates his course
+of life, as well as offers him hereafter a future existence. Mentally
+and bodily, he is different to us northern people. His mind runs in an
+entirely different channel. He exists, he thinks, in a different sphere,
+and it was this sphere that Islam touched.
+
+He was tempted by earthly spoil, by the love of persecution, and promised
+licentiousness hereafter, it is often said. Perhaps; but has not the same
+over and over again tempted Christian Powers?—has not love of persecution
+found sufficient examples in the history of Christianity to deter us
+from looking for it abroad? Is not our heaven, painted by St John in the
+Revelation, tended to increase our desire to share in it by picturing
+its beauties? The Revelation, it may be answered, is an allegory; yet he
+who argues thus would have been burned at the stake for his pernicious
+views not many centuries ago. To those who are capable, though generally
+unwilling, to understand Christianity, it is a religion at once perfect
+and superlative. It is an ideal seldom if ever reached. It is a goal to
+be striven after, with but little hopes of doing more than one’s feeble
+best to reach; and more, far more than all, it is the truth. But so is
+Islam to the Mahammedan. It is a goal which many reach, because its
+ideals are tangible and comprehensible. It is a religion founded by a man
+of vast intellect to enforce a belief in the existence of one God, which
+the intricacies of Christianity had failed to prove to the Arab races. To
+them, materialists to the very backbone, the Trinity is impossible. To us
+it is incomprehensible, but acknowledged. Christ was the Son of God! This
+alone is sufficient to drive to a distance the Arab, who acknowledges
+the Messiah’s origin as divine and supernatural, but to whom the idea of
+filial relationship with the Deity is revolting and incredible.
+
+An example of the power that Islam asserted over the minds of the
+inhabitants of the Yemen is near at hand. There were many Christians
+in that country at the moment when they received the tidings of the
+Prophet’s mission. Nejrán, a large province, was governed by a Christian
+family, and boasted a bishop, by name Kos, who died during the earlier
+half of the seventh century A.D., probably during the lifetime of
+Mahammed; yet but a comparatively few years later we find all traces of
+Christianity disappeared. Not so in Abyssinia, where it exists to-day
+amongst a people given up to one vice at least, drunkenness, from which
+were they Moslems they would be free. Were Europe a Mahammedan Power,
+there is no reason to doubt that we should not be in the same state of
+civilisation as we enjoy to-day. The Turks are an oriental race, and
+cannot be taken as a fair example; yet they have so far followed upon the
+lines of Christian Powers that we find them to-day squeezing their people
+to obtain the means wherewithal to purchase the destructive implements
+of war, and existing in a very tolerable state of civilisation and
+drunkenness.
+
+No! the Ethiopian cannot change his skin; and just as Christianity is
+the religion best suited, apart from its inestimable truth, to Northern
+people, so is Islam to the Arabs and the children of the south. Each has
+sorted itself and taken root where best it will flourish. Any attempt
+to influence one by the introduction of the other must, by the laws of
+nature which have thus sorted them, be prejudicial to the world at large.
+
+A few words as to the general tenets of the Mahammedan religion.
+
+It must not be forgotten that it was in A.H. 12, a year after the
+Prophet’s death, that the Koran was collected by Zaid, and that therefore
+there can be little doubt that in its arrangement and sequence it is far
+from the order in which the words were uttered. The fragments of which
+it is composed were collected from every source, but although it may be
+said in its present form to follow no particular chronological order, at
+the same time there can be little doubt that, apart from this weakness,
+it contains the words of the Prophet himself. However, in the building up
+of a new religion, it was impossible to ordain for every class of society
+likely to embrace it; and on this account the Moslems, especially the
+Sunnis, hold that, after the sacred book, the “traditions” are next in
+sanctity. These “traditions” are the teaching, verbal or in example, of
+the Prophet himself, not absolutely inculcated in the Koran, but handed
+down upon the authority of “his companions.” On these traditions many
+schools of theology and law have been built up, referring to them in
+cases in which the Koran does not sufficiently render clear, or perhaps
+omits altogether some point. Needless to say these “traditions,” being
+almost innumerable and often disputed, have caused more dissension
+amongst the world of Islam than any passages in the Koran itself.
+
+The central idea of Islam is the unity of God, and the association of any
+other with the Deity is the one mortal sin.[26] There is no priesthood;
+the religion is a religion of the people, explained to them by doctors,
+such as the Sheikh el-Islam, the Moulas, and the Cadis, whose authority
+is acknowledged, but solely as exponents of religion and law, which it
+is in no one’s power to revise or alter. Idolatry is to be rooted out
+and trampled under foot. “There is no God but God, and Mahammed is the
+prophet of God.” Soundless, rhythmless, as are the words to us, their
+very repetition stirs the Moslem heart; their very mention is sufficient
+for an infidel to become a Moslem. They are the only bond that binds
+Sunnis and Sheiyas together, the common birthright of all Islam.
+
+[Illustration: _A Yemeni._]
+
+The principal and best known of the Mahammedan tenets, as well as being
+those on which the religion is most founded, are the immortality of the
+soul; the resurrection of the body; the judgment of good and evil; heaven
+and hell; predestination, about which, however, contradictory remarks are
+found in the Koran; the ministry of good angels, and the evil influence
+of the bad. To none of these precepts can exception be found, for, after
+all, they resemble to a great extent our own. But at this point the Koran
+steps ahead of us by the prohibition of wine, games of chance, usurious
+dealings, the flesh of swine, or of things strangled or which have died a
+natural death, all of which are strictly forbidden. How beneficial this
+has proved and is proving to the Mahammedan races is very clear; and it
+may be said that it is only when Moslems have come into contact with Jews
+or Christians that they have broken through these ordinances.
+
+As to other restrictions laid by Mahammed upon his followers, and other
+privileges allowed to them, a few words must be said. Polygamy is legal,
+and it is this more than anything, perhaps, that raises indignation
+amongst Christians. Every Moslem is allowed four wives and as many slaves
+as he likes. Shocking! yet do we not decorate our church windows with
+pictures of David and Solomon? do we not read their words in our places
+of worship? and I doubt if either would have been satisfied with this
+small allowance. Were not the patriarchs, who after Christ we are taught
+most to reverence, polygamists? They at least, like the Arabs, have an
+excuse, which Solomon and David certainly had not—namely, the constant
+wars in which they were engaged killed off so large a population of the
+men that the women were greatly in excess. Yet to-day in many Moslem
+countries it is unusual to find amongst the respectable classes more
+than one wife. We are by law restricted to one, they are by law and by
+religion allowed four. After all, they have just as much right to swear
+that their custom is the best one as we have to put forward our own.
+
+That divorce is lax amongst the Arab races is true; so are the morals of
+both men and women. But let us look again at the Kopts in Egypt, or the
+Christian race of Abyssinians,—are they any better? Certainly not. Again,
+in Moslem countries, these laws of divorce are appealed to more by the
+poorest classes than by the rich. In England the fact that a wretched
+couple of paupers do not agree has no remedy, until one day the husband
+jumps on his wife and kills her. In Moslem countries he divorces her, and
+probably both are married again in the course of a month.
+
+The fact of the case is simply this. To attempt to judge Islam from a
+Christian standpoint is as ridiculous as to attempt to judge Christianity
+from a Moslem one. We shudder at the civil codes and conditions of the
+Mahammedans; they are horrified at our Trinity, at the decoration of our
+churches, at lax laws as to purification, at our drunken habits, at the
+Pope, at our paid clergy, and at a hundred other details. To criticise
+Islam one must have seen it in its own lands, and that with unprejudiced
+eyes.
+
+There is but one more question that must be touched upon here—namely,
+slavery. Never have there been more exaggerated reports as to slavery in
+oriental countries than are from time to time cropping up to-day. It must
+be understood what slavery really is in the East; it must be remembered
+that it is not agricultural slavery—that it is entirely domestic slavery.
+Stories are from time to time appearing of atrocious cruelties to slaves:
+they are true, no doubt, but they are exceptional—just as, happily, the
+cruel treatment of children is exceptional in England. It is not after
+the slaves have passed through the market that they suffer, it is on the
+long desert-marches in which they are brought from the interior. Another
+point is scarcely understood in England—namely, that probably ninety-nine
+hundredths of the slaves in servitude in oriental countries have been
+born in servitude, and never were brought from the Soudan at all. In this
+case they have been often reared in the houses of their masters, and as
+often as not treated as his children.
+
+That slavery is contrary to law and nature all will acknowledge; that it
+ought and must be put down is equally true; but as to the means of doing
+it? The slave-trade must be stopped from the interior of Africa, not by
+the freeing of the slaves already arrived at their journey’s end. For
+instance, the emancipation of slaves in Morocco would mean thousands of
+men thrown out of doors to gain a livelihood by murder and robbery, or
+starve; and thousands of women driven to be prostitutes. And this is
+what we are attempting to do in the name of progress and religion!
+
+[Illustration: _Jew of the Yemen._]
+
+How vastly Islam was in advance of the pagan religions, which for the
+most part it replaced in Arabia, need not be mentioned here. From
+practising horrible rites of “fetich,” from the offering even of human
+sacrifices, from dissensions and religious tribal wars, the mission of
+Mahammed called the Arabs to something far higher—far above anything
+they had known before. Christianity had failed, in spite of repeated
+efforts, to attract them to anything more than the smallest extent;
+Judaism was out of date, and unsuited to the epoch they had reached. They
+were ready, were yearning, for a new religion, and Mahammed took the
+opportunity to found one. In place of hideous pagan rites, in place of a
+few converts to an unappreciated Christianity, in place of Judaic laws of
+which the people were weary, he brought amongst them a new inspiriting
+religion, lofty in its recognition of monotheism, higher than anything
+they had as yet known in its moral code.
+
+But from this simple form of monotheism numerous branches were destined
+to sprout; and just as Christianity is split up into innumerable sects,
+so is Islam divided into many differences and brotherhoods. It is with
+comparatively few, however, of these that we have to deal in regard to
+the Yemen,—for although in early times changes had begun to be apparent
+in the course of the religion, it is only comparatively lately that the
+enormous quantity of sectarian differences now existing sprang into
+life; and these, with few exceptions, have but to a very slight extent
+influenced the political aspect of the country.
+
+The first important dissension in the course of Islam occurred about the
+year 37 A.H., when the theocratic party, recognising that the existence
+of the Caliphs was likely to become, and was even at that time becoming,
+an excuse for power and a cause of strife, and that the religious
+influence was lapsing into an autocratic supremacy, stood aside and
+cried for an oath of allegiance to God alone, and an elected Council of
+State to regulate affairs. Revolting first against Ali, the nephew and
+son-in-law of the Prophet, we find them again and again all through the
+history of Islam bursting forth, egged on by such wild fanaticism as
+only men of those countries can know. High though, perhaps, the original
+motives of the Kharejites were, they were too often in after-times fanned
+by the aspirations of pretenders to power, and it needed all the force
+of temporal and spiritual rulers to check these outbursts of fanaticism.
+The Kharejites were again split up into many divisions, all more or less
+founded upon the idea of treating sin as infidelity, which it would be
+straying from the objects of this book to specially mention here, except
+that of the Obadites, who from time to time recur in the history of the
+Yemen.
+
+Although the Kharejites formed the first absolute split in Islam, there
+had been gradually growing up what have always formed, and to-day form,
+the two great divisions of the Mahammedan belief—namely, the sects
+of the Sunnis and the Sheiyas. To mention some of the standpoints of
+both. The Sunni tenets are held by Turkey and the greater part of
+Mahammedan-professing India, while Southern Arabia and Persia and
+portions of North Africa profess Sheiyism. The differences of the two,
+briefly stated, are as follows. While the Sunnis acknowledge the election
+of the Caliphs from the general professors of Islam, the Sheiyas assert
+that Ali, the fourth Caliph, was the natural successor of the Prophet,
+ignoring Abou Bekr, Omar, and Othman. But here again the Sheiya sect
+becomes split up; for one division, which continued under the name of
+Sheiyas, contend that Ali held his right to succeed the Prophet in
+office in virtue of his personality; while the other side, the Zaidis,
+contend that Ali was the legitimate successor and heir of the Prophet,
+not by reason of his personality, but through his merits. Consequently
+they assert that the successors in the Caliphate, or Imams, as they
+were called in the Yemen, must necessarily be of the Prophet’s family,
+but were to be chosen to fill the holy office on account of merit and
+character, in place of succession by birthright alone, but that in
+the veins of those elected to the post must flow the Prophet’s blood.
+Amongst those of the former persuasion was the sect of Imamites, and its
+sub-sects, the Dodekites and Ismailites, the latter of which was founded
+and flourished in the third century A.H. It was from this branch that the
+Fatimide dynasty sprang, and their descendants are to be found in the
+mountains of Lebanon under the name of Druses, who are still awaiting the
+return of their prophet Hakim. The point on which the Zaidis separated
+from the sects of the Dodekites and Ismailites is as to the lawful
+holders of the Imamate or Caliphate after the death of the grandson of
+Ali.
+
+But the Zaidis were destined also to divide, and at a subsequent period
+we find the Arab and Persian Zaidis submitting to the allegiance of two
+separate Imams, one of whom reigned in Arabia and one in Persia.
+
+Even to-day intense hatred exists between the followers of Sunni and
+Sheiya doctrines. No better example of this is to be found than the
+fact that when Russia was engaged in a war with Turkey that threatened
+to be a death-blow to Islam in Europe, not one sword was raised by the
+Sheiya-professing Mahammedans for her assistance; and Persia and other
+parts who do not acknowledge the Sultan Abdul Hamid as the rightful
+Caliph—for the Prophet’s blood does not flow in his veins—sat impassively
+and watched, with but comparatively little interest, the struggle.
+
+The Sunnis derive their name from the Arabic word _sunnat_, a precedent;
+and their faith is built up, apart from the differences already
+specified, upon the example established by the Prophet himself, as handed
+down to them by history and tradition. Their belief can be justly called,
+perhaps, the orthodox one, for Mahammed himself chose as his successor in
+office Abou Bekr, who was not of his family. Therefore to them it is no
+prejudice that the present holder of the Caliphate, or successor in the
+religious supremacy of Islam, is the Sultan of Turkey, who, it will be
+seen, fails to be acknowledged by any of the branches of the Sheiya faith
+on account of his descent.
+
+These few words may prove sufficient to throw as much light as is
+necessary in the question of the Yemen upon the two great divisions of
+Islam. It need only be added to how great an extent the Turks, though
+co-religionists in as far as they profess Mahammedanism, would be
+separated from the Yemeni people in religious ideas; and it is this fact,
+more than even the extortion they practised, that gave rise to the Yemen
+rebellion.
+
+About 280 A.H. there appeared a new sect in the Yemen, that of the
+Karmathians, who sprang from the Dodekites and Ismailites, though far
+exceeding them in fanaticism and excesses. They arose in the Yemen under
+the leadership of two powerful men, Ali ibn Fadl and Mansur ibn Hasan, of
+whom the former appears to have been most implicated in promulgating the
+extraordinary and often revolting tenets of the new belief. Beginning as
+a hermit, he collected round him a little band of devoted followers, and
+setting forth, he commenced a series of victories. At length, overpowered
+with success, he acknowledged himself a prophet, and preached from the
+pulpit of Janad the rightful use of wine and permission of incest.
+Continuing his march, his cause grew, and both Dhamar and Sanaa fell
+before him. At the latter place his excesses were beyond recording.[27]
+Seventeen years after having gained his enormous power, Ibn Fadl died at
+the hands of an assassin, who, taking advantage of the common Eastern
+habit of the drawing of blood, secreted poison in his long hair, and
+after having sucked the lancet to prove it was clean, dried it in his
+poisoned locks. The historian, El-Janadi, states that there were great
+rejoicings at his death. The remnants of this sect, inoffensive now and
+law-abiding, still exist in Bombay.
+
+The next great secession from the direct Islam was that of the Nizarites
+or Assassins, a name derived from _Hashishiyin_—in other words, the
+eaters of _hashish_, a narcotic much resorted to in the East. This
+word was the origin of our present “assassin,” but in the East to-day
+has no deeper meaning than that given above. The brotherhood arose
+about 400 A.H., a few years after the death of Nizar, son of the
+Khalifa el-Mustansir, whom they asserted had been wrongfully withheld
+from succeeding his father. Thus they gained their first title, that
+of “Nizarites.” They swore an oath to devote their energies to the
+propagation of their faith, and many perils they undertook for this
+purpose, often sacrificing their lives in the fulfilment of their vows.
+The remains of this once dreaded sect are to-day to be found in Bombay,
+in Zanzibar, and in the Lebanon.
+
+The later sect of the Wahabis shows a tendency on the part of orthodox
+Arabs to the ancient tenets of Kharejite theocracy. With the Sheiyas
+the contrary is the case, and they incline rather toward transcendental
+doctrines, bursting out into such mystical rites as those of the sects of
+Mutazelites and Sufis, or, in the Yemen, in their devotion for a divine
+Imamate.
+
+How important have been these sects in forming the history, not only of
+the Yemen but of all Arabia, cannot be exaggerated. Whole dynasties have
+been built up or overthrown by their fanatical devotees. From the very
+earliest years of Islam we are constantly coming across the turbulent
+risings of one or the other; and while the Sunnis have more or less
+strictly upheld until to-day their original orthodoxy, with any variation
+of which they are intolerant, we see the other great division, the
+Sheiyas, split up again and again into sects and sub-sects, struggling
+for a theocracy that was impossible, or used by unscrupulous pretenders
+as a road to power.
+
+Looking at Islam to-day, we find the Sunnis in very much the same
+religious position as they have always held, even from the very first.
+Their key-note, so to speak, has been unswerving allegiance to the
+_sunnat_, or precedent of the Prophet. On the other hand, we find the
+Sheiyas split up into hundreds of sects and brotherhoods, each following
+some particular instruction or belief of their several founders, who for
+the most part have been descendants of the Prophet himself.
+
+One of these sects, now making itself felt in the Yemen, as it is doing
+all over the Moslem world, is a modern one. I refer to the followers of
+El-Mehdi Senussi, about which, as one of the coming powers of Islam,
+a few words may not be out of place. The idea of Sheikh Senussi was
+to bring Islam back to its original purity—to revive its great social
+laws, moral and religious, as instituted by the Prophet, and to defend
+and propagate the same.[28] In this it will be seen that the tenets of
+Senussism resemble both those of the Sheiyas and the Sunnis—the former
+in the desire for a theocracy, the latter in the punctilious observance
+of precedent. Its sole distinctive feature is in its transcendentalism
+and in the repetition of certain prayers. Like the Wahabis, too, music,
+dancing, singing, and coffee are forbidden. In fact, the Sheikh Senussi
+seems to have introduced into his new revival of Islam the doctrines of
+many of the former sects. The Sheikh himself is dead, being followed in
+office by his son, who is still living near Siwah, in the desert between
+Egypt and Tripoli. But what makes this sect so vastly important is its
+political power, and it may safely be prophesied that the next great
+revolt of Islam against the Christians in Africa, no matter what form
+it may take, will owe its origin to this movement. The author, within a
+few months, heard Senussism preached in Somali-land and in Morocco, in
+both of which countries, not to speak of the more central Tunis, Tripoli,
+and the state of Fezzan, it is deeply rooted. If, then, a new movement
+in Islam is able in the lifetime of two men to gain converts, and many
+converts, in countries so distantly removed from one another and from the
+headquarters of its founder, it can clearly be understood the immense
+power it must hold over the minds of the people; and one of the greatest
+drawbacks to European venture in Africa is the undoubted fact that this
+smouldering fanaticism will one day burst into flame.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE REBELLION IN THE YEMEN.
+
+
+It is seldom that the Sublime Porte is free from trouble regarding one
+at least of her possessions; and although the Turkish Government has
+taken, in the case of the rebellion in the Yemen, every means to throw
+dust in the eyes of Europe, yet sufficient has from time to time leaked
+out to show how seriously the affair was regarded by the Sultan and his
+Ministers. From such scraps of information it would be impossible to
+piece together a history of what has taken place; but the writer, by
+making a journey of over four hundred miles through the country at the
+very time of the rebellion, was, as the only European in the interior,
+with the exception of a few Greek shopkeepers, able to take advantage
+of his unique opportunity of seeing for himself, and gathering a
+considerable amount of information on the subject.
+
+But before any account is given of the rebellion, it must be explained of
+how great a value to the Sultan of Turkey are his possessions in Arabia.
+It is on them, and on them alone, that he bases his claim to the title
+of Caliph—a title on which his prestige in the eyes of the Moslem mainly
+rests. Amongst Mahammedan potentates he is the greatest; for although
+many sects of Islam do not hold that one in whose veins the blood of
+the Prophet does not flow is able by divine right to succeed to the
+Caliphate, the possession of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina cannot
+but add to his fame. From all parts of the world the pilgrims flock
+yearly to Mecca, there to come in contact with the Turks as a governing
+power, to hear the name of Abdul Hamid blessed daily in the mosque;
+and in their eyes, by force of circumstance, the Sultan is inseparably
+connected with the Holy Places.
+
+True it is that the Yemen is separated from the Hejaz, the province in
+which Mecca and Medina are situated, by a large tract of country, known
+as the Asir. But the tribes inhabiting this district are, and always have
+been, largely influenced by the Yemenite faction, and like them are in
+their belief of the Sheiya sect, holding that the claim of the Sultan
+of Turkey to the Caliphate is irregular and illegal. This alliance, not
+only by blood but by doctrine, which is perhaps the strongest tie of all
+amongst the Moslems, caused the rebellion in the Yemen to be a likely
+forerunner to a war in the Asir. The Turkish rule has never been more
+than nominal amongst the mountains of the latter, so that the repudiation
+by them of the Osmanli Government, which has taken place, is fraught
+with no great danger to Turkey, provided the discontent and consequent
+rebellion remains within bounds, and does not reach the Hejaz. Although
+largely subsidised by the Turkish Government, there can be little doubt
+that, did they clearly see their way to success, the members of the
+Shereefian family of Mecca, direct descendants of the Prophet Mahammed,
+would attempt to bring back the succession of the Caliphate into their
+own line, and thus into the strain of the descendants of the Prophet; and
+to a cause so nearly touching their doctrinal beliefs there is but little
+doubt the Bedouins of the Hejaz, as well as many of the inhabitants of
+the cities, would readily lend their aid and assistance.
+
+Therefore it will be seen that to the Turks a successful rebellion in
+the Yemen meant not only the loss of the southernmost of their Arabian
+States, but also the probable ensuing loss of the Hejaz, and the fall
+of the Sultan of Turkey in the eyes of the larger portion of the world
+of Islam. How many thousands of Mahammedans daily in the mosques call
+for blessings on the head of Abdul Hamid the Caliph, who would never
+pray for Abdul Hamid the Sultan! The difference is enormous, though to
+us somewhat incomprehensible; and it is said, and no doubt rightly so,
+that his Majesty of Stamboul values far more than his temporal powers the
+title of “Commander of the faithful.” In the one case, as Caliph, he is
+in the eyes of all Sunnis[29] Sultan of the Moslem world, and as such
+successor to the Prophet himself. In the other, as a Sultan, he is merely
+a stranger, an Osmanli, not even of the great Arab race, whose ancestors
+have by force of arms conquered and left him a kingdom.
+
+From these remarks it will be inferred how vastly important it is to the
+Sultan and the Porte to retain intact the Turkish possessions in Arabia.
+
+Although it was not until the summer of 1891 that the rebellion in the
+Yemen took any outward form, the Turks must have been aware, for a
+long period previous to that time, that their relations with the Arabs
+were becoming day by day more strained. Yet such is the character of
+Turkish provincial officials, especially of those so far removed from
+the seat of the Government as in the Yemen, that they still continued
+their policy of oppression, trusting to fate that there would be no
+open hostilities until the jobbery that had put them into power would
+follow its inevitable course by removing them and reinstating others in
+their places, on whom would fall the brunt of a rebellion, which they
+saw might for a time be postponed but impossible to avert. “Make your
+hay while the sun shines,” is the motto of the Turkish official; and
+for him, as a rule, the sun shines but for a very short period. It is
+this extraordinary want of forethought and co-operation, this shifting
+of responsibilities upon successors in office, amongst those who help
+to rule the destinies of the Turkish provinces, that is the chief root
+and origin of all their troubles. “Let me enrich myself,” thinks the
+official. “In a month or two I may no longer have the opportunities. I
+must make enough in this short period of office to retire upon. What may
+follow, what may be the result of my policy, I care not; it interests me
+not at all.”
+
+It was the perpetual practice of these theories that gradually drove the
+Arabs into resistance. The rebellion was no sudden affair; as long ago as
+several years back there had commenced on the part of the Arabs a series
+of outrages against Turkish officials that would have rendered apparent
+to any other nation but the Turks the danger that was threatening. Cruel
+and bloodthirsty as many of these outrages were, they were the only means
+in the power of the Arabs of protesting against the exorbitant taxation
+and the oppression that were ruining them. Their appeals to Sanaa,
+and even to Constantinople, had resulted in no amelioration of their
+condition.
+
+It is necessary, I think, to give but one example of these outrages. At
+Dhamar, one of the largest cities of the Yemen, there lived a certain
+general, by name Mahammed Rushti Pasha, between whom and a neighbouring
+tribe there had arisen misunderstanding as to the amount of taxation to
+be levied upon them. The pasha insisted on the full sum, and a quarrel
+ensued between the Arab sheikh and himself, the former fleeing from the
+city swearing revenge. Shortly afterwards Mahammed Rushti being called
+away to another part of the country, the tribe in question took advantage
+of his absence to blow up his house and family with gunpowder. His wives,
+children, and servants died that night, in all some eleven persons.
+Returning with all speed to Dhamar, the general, with such forces as were
+at the time in the city, almost exterminated the little tribe who had
+accomplished so horrible a vengeance. Over the grave of those that died
+that night Mahammed Rushti raised a mosque and a domed tomb, the interior
+of which he hung with rich silks. Thither he would repair and sit alone.
+On the taking of Dhamar by the Arabs in November last, this tomb was
+looted, and when visited by the writer at the end of January, the city
+by that time having been reconquered by the Turks, he found the tomb and
+mosque in ruins, robbed of all its treasures.
+
+That the feeling was so strong as to find vent in such outrages as
+these—and that mentioned is but one of many—would have made it apparent,
+one would have thought, that the existing state of affairs could not
+continue with impunity. But the lot of the Yemeni was to be squeezed
+to fill the coffers at Constantinople, and to pay for the harems and
+pleasures of unscrupulous officialdom. Such, then, apart from all
+religious differences, was the existing state of feeling in the Yemen
+when in the summer of the year before last the rebellion broke out.
+Before the conquest of the Yemen by the Turks in 1872—for although they
+possessed a firm footing on the coast previous to that period, their
+power had not made itself felt in the interior—the Yemen was governed by
+a ruler after their own hearts; for, being of the Sheiya sect—Zaidis they
+call themselves—it was necessary to the tenets of their belief that their
+Sultan should be of direct descent from the Prophet, through Ali ibn Abou
+Taleb, his nephew and son-in-law. This condition their Imam fulfilled;
+for although the Yemen had at different times fallen into foreign hands,
+still the direct family had never disappeared.
+
+Sanaa, now the capital of Turkish Yemen, was his residence. It is a
+large city, situated roughly two hundred and forty miles north of Aden,
+and a hundred and sixty east of Hodaidah. Here the Imam lived the usual
+secluded and sensual life of an oriental despot, looked upon by the Arabs
+as a spiritual Sultan, but powerless to hold in check the depredations
+and robberies of the many tribes under his nominal sway, who, with true
+oriental zeal, were continually doing their best to exterminate one
+another. As long as money was forthcoming, the Imam was content to dwell
+at Sanaa without troubling himself about more external affairs than the
+management of his own household, and the receiving of gifts from the
+Arabs who performed pilgrimages to his presence. Apparently wanting in
+education, except such religious knowledge as is considered necessary
+for the welfare of an Oriental of high degree, he possessed no ability
+to govern, nor does he appear to have been even renowned as a soldier or
+organiser of troops.
+
+Such became at length the state of the country, that trade almost
+ceased on account of the attacks upon the caravans; and the Sanaa
+merchants—quiet respectable Arabs—saw nothing but ruin before them, and
+considering solely the benefits that would accrue to themselves by such
+a step, and ignoring what the result would be upon the agricultural
+population, invited the Turks to take the place. This was accomplished
+in 1872 by a force from Hodaidah. The Imam was deposed; but on account
+of his spiritual influence over the Arab horde, was permitted to reside
+in Sanaa, receiving a pension on the condition that he would exert his
+powers in furthering the interests of the Osmanli Government. This until
+his death he fulfilled; on which event the _baraka_, or holy birthright,
+passed to his relative Ahmed ed-Din, who, like his predecessor, was by
+no means dissatisfied to receive the adoration of the Arabs and the
+regularly paid allowance of the Turks.
+
+Such, briefly, was the history of the Turkish occupation of the Yemen
+and the state of affairs until last year. The tribes, in the time of the
+Imam, left undisturbed both in their labours in the fields and in their
+welfare, boasting an independence of centuries, found themselves, on
+the Turkish occupation, little better than slaves—oppressed, taxed, and
+retaxed by a people whose extortions ruined them, whose personality they
+hated, and with whom, although co-religionists, there was no unison in
+religious views.
+
+But the smouldering discontent was destined to burst into flame, even
+though the flame might blaze forth but to flicker and die.
+
+On an appeal from the governor of Lohaya, a body of four hundred Turkish
+troops were despatched last summer to assist in collecting by force
+the taxes due from the Beni Meruan, a branch of the Asir people, and
+their southernmost tribe, who inhabit the country lying to the east of
+Lohaya, a port on the Red Sea coast north of Hodaidah. In command of this
+force was the very Mahammed Rushti Pasha whose house had been destroyed
+at Dhamar. The expedition was destined to complete failure, and being
+surprised by a large body of Arabs, was nearly annihilated before the
+security of a fort was reached, amongst those who fell being the pasha
+himself.
+
+In countries like the Yemen news travels with extraordinary rapidity,
+and the Arabs, hearing an exaggerated report of what had taken place,
+believed that at last their deliverance had come, for it was rumoured
+that the great district of the Asir, between the Yemen and the Hejaz, had
+risen, intent upon exterminating the Turks. Where the news travelled the
+people rose in arms. Tribal banners long hid away were unfurled, and the
+cry of “God give victory to the Imam” echoed and re-echoed throughout the
+mountains and valleys of the Yemen.
+
+Meanwhile the hero of the rebellion, Ahmed ed-Din, was living quietly at
+Sanaa on the subsidy of the Turkish Government, unconscious of what was
+taking place, although, doubtless, there was ever present in his mind the
+possibility of some day regaining for himself and his descendants the
+throne. He clearly saw that affairs were not ripe for a great rebellion,
+and almost against his will he was obliged to fly from the capital, and
+become the head of the rebel movement. Premature as things were, he must
+in the enthusiasm of his partisans have almost believed in their future
+success.
+
+It was a new _Jehad_, or holy war! The Turks were to be exterminated or
+driven away; the beloved Ahmed ed-Din—beloved on account of his birth
+and descent rather than from any knowledge of his personality—was to
+be reinstated on the throne. One by one the tribes rose, except only
+the Bedouin inhabitants of the Teháma and the southern deserts, who,
+possessing nothing but a few flocks and herds, and always wandering,
+were indifferent to Turkish or Arab rule, and awaited the result before
+promising allegiance to either side. The same plan was followed by
+many of the merchants and citizens, whose position and intimacy with
+the Turkish officials placed them outside the bounds of oppression and
+taxation, and who in many cases were only too ready to take advantage
+of their fellow-countrymen’s unenviable position, by buying from the
+Turks the right of collecting the taxes of certain districts; for the
+privilege of levying dues is a commercial article, sold from time to
+time by auction, a system that relieves the Government of much anxiety
+and trouble, but encourages to an almost incredible extent cruelty and
+oppression.
+
+In what state were the Turks to repress a general rising of this sort?
+The force in the country was estimated at some sixteen thousand men,
+although in reality probably far short of that number; for during the
+two previous years cholera had wrought great havoc amongst the troops.
+These troops consisted of Turkish regulars, Bashi-bazouks, and a large
+number of Arab auxiliaries, drawn principally from the Mshareg and
+Hadramaut, the country to the east of the Yemen, who did not care whom
+they fought against, or for what reason they were fighting, so long as
+they were paid, and whose one stimulant to feats of bravery was promised
+reward. The Turkish troops already in Yemen were in a miserable state.
+Ill fed, ill clothed, thinned by disease, badly housed, and seldom, if
+ever, paid, it is no wonder that their spirit was broken in a land where
+during summer they were liable to a temperature that seldom falls below
+a hundred in such shade as their badly built barracks afforded, and in
+winter to frosts, and at times snow—to all the vagaries, in fact, of a
+tropical climate on the tops of mountains of from seven thousand to
+nine thousand feet in altitude. A more pitiful picture than the Turkish
+soldiers presented when the writer was in Yemen he never saw, and yet
+they fight like devils rather than men.
+
+[Illustration: _Turkish troops on the march._]
+
+A few days after the flight of the Imam, Sanaa, the capital, was besieged
+by an enormous force of Arabs, as was Amran, another walled city; while
+those which were not so protected fell, many without even a struggle,
+into the hands of the Arabs. Menakha, on the road from Hodaidah to Sanaa,
+offered a little resistance, but in vain. Those of the garrison who were
+not killed or wounded in the first onslaught of the Arabs were spared
+on surrender, and taken away prisoners, amongst their number being the
+Kaimakam or military governor. The same happened at Dhamar and Yerim, on
+the road from Sanaa to Aden; while in quick succession Ibb, Jiblah, and
+Taiz, all three large towns situated farther south, proclaimed for Ahmed
+ed-Din. All Turkish prisoners were spared. Many voluntarily went over to
+the side of the Arabs; some retired into private life on surrendering
+their arms. Those of importance were sent to the Imam, where report
+said they were housed and fed at his expense, doubtless in the hope of
+persuading them to throw in their lot with his own, and so obtain use of
+their superior knowledge of warfare. In very exceptional cases do we hear
+of the cruel treatment of Turks by the Arabs in their days of victory;
+and even when the tide of affairs was changed, the writer met amongst
+the Arabs, in districts where no Turkish troops could enter, deserters
+from the Osmanli forces being fed and clothed by the kindly Arabs; and in
+many cases money was supplied them by their _quondam_ enemies to assist
+them in reaching Aden, or in escaping by other means from the hard life
+of soldiering.
+
+By this time telegrams were pouring into Constantinople from Hodaidah
+beseeching assistance; and the Porte, having at length realised how
+serious a turn affairs had taken, exerted all its activity in forwarding
+troops to the scene of war. By the time the new forces had embarked for
+Hodaidah, the whole country, with the exception of Sanaa and Amran and
+a small city in the Asir, by name Dhofir, had fallen into the hands
+of the rebels, the plains and seaboard towns holding aloof from any
+participation in the affair, though probably it was only the presence of
+better organised Turkish forces which kept in check the feeling which
+no doubt existed almost as strongly there as anywhere. The Beni Meruan,
+many of whose villages lie on the sea-coast, were pitilessly shelled by a
+couple of Turkish gunboats.
+
+Ahmed ed-Din remained at Sadah,[30] whither he had fled from Sanaa;
+nor at any part of the revolt did he take active part in the fighting,
+a fact that in no small degree accounts for the subsequent failure of
+the rebellion. In all probability he never left Sadah, though in his
+religious character his movements were always spoken about with much
+mystery.
+
+Sanaa at the end of October was still in a state of siege, the garrison
+and townspeople suffering greatly from hunger and disease, though in
+Amran the state of the inhabitants was still more pitiable.
+
+Badly fed as they were at all times, worse now than ever, one cannot but
+admire the immense pluck of the handful of Turkish troops who kept at bay
+for several months an immense horde of Arabs. Not only was their courage
+exhibited in the dogged resistance within the town, but in their constant
+and often successful sorties against the enemy.
+
+A short description of the city of Sanaa is necessary in order to explain
+the positions of besiegers and besieged during the whole of last autumn.
+
+The city, which contains some fifty thousand inhabitants, lies in a
+wide level valley. It takes the form of a triangle, the eastern point
+consisting of a large fortress, dominating the town, and built upon the
+lowest spur of Jibel Negoum, a mountain which rises immediately outside
+the city walls. The town is divided into three distinct quarters, each
+walled, and the whole surrounded by one continuous wall. They are
+respectively the city proper, in which are the Government buildings,
+the huge bazaars, and the residence of the Arabs and Turks; the Jews’
+quarter; and Bir el-Azab, where are gardens and villas belonging to the
+richer Turks and Arabs. The city was once of great wealth and prosperity,
+and to-day remains one of the most nourishing cities of Arabia. The
+shops are well supplied with European goods, and a large manufacture of
+silk, jewellery, and arms is carried on there. The quarter in which the
+Government buildings are situated presents almost a European appearance,
+with its large Turkish shops, its _cafés_, and its open places, on one of
+which, in front of the Governor-General’s official residence, a military
+band discourses anything but sweet music of an afternoon.
+
+But the city, as the writer saw it after its recapture by the Turks,
+presented a very different spectacle from what it must have done when,
+surrounded on all sides by a horde of Arabs, a continual shower of
+bullets was being poured into its streets from the Arab position on Jibel
+Negoum, which completely dominated the place. Fortunately for those
+besieged, the rebels possessed no artillery, otherwise their efforts
+would no doubt have proved successful in gaining an entrance into the
+town. However, the fire poured into the city was sufficiently harassing
+to render it expedient to drive the Arabs from their position above the
+town, and several unsuccessful sorties were made. At length, mustering
+all the troops at his command, the pasha made a final sortie about the
+middle of November. Maintaining a steady fire from the fort upon the
+Arab position, the troops issued from the southern gate, and wheeling
+to the left after a gallant attack—for the Arabs were in overwhelming
+numbers—drove the rebels back. They retreated on Dar es-salaam, a small
+village a few miles outside the walls of Sanaa, consisting of perhaps a
+dozen or so stone houses surrounded by a wall. Bringing up some small
+field-guns, the artillery opened fire upon the rebels, completely
+destroying the place and rendering a precipitate retreat of the Arabs
+necessary, which they are said to have accomplished in the wildest
+disorder, leaving, as I was informed, several thousand dead upon the
+field. But the victory was not altogether a blessing, for there being
+no one to bury the Arab dead, the inhabitants of the city suffered from
+violent disease, while the stench of the decaying bodies is said to have
+been terrible. Retiring once more within the precincts of the city, the
+Arabs again took up their old position; but their defeat seems to have
+to a great degree crushed their spirits, and the remainder of the siege,
+severe though the sufferings of the townspeople were, is said to have
+been less acute than previously. At any rate, the alarm of a successful
+attack on the part of the rebels seems to have abated.
+
+But relief was at hand. The Turkish reinforcements had landed in Hodaidah
+under the command of Ahmed Feizi Pasha, formerly Governor of Mecca, and
+commander of the Seventh Army Corps.
+
+Learning on his arrival at Hodaidah how serious was the state of
+affairs, he at once took active measures, and without even waiting for
+commissariat arrangements to be carried out, marched his troops _viâ_
+Bajil to Hojaila, a village at the foot of the mountains on which the
+town of Menakha is situated, and over which the road to Sanaa passes.
+Here three days later they were overtaken by the commissariat camels
+bringing flour and provisions for the soldiers. Having rested his men, he
+commenced the ascent of the steep road, and here met with the first show
+of resistance. But the Turkish soldiers were fresh and fought well, and
+the superiority of arms did its work. With but a short delay to force the
+road, Menakha was reached.
+
+There is perhaps in the world no city situated in the way that
+Menakha is. At an altitude of seven thousand six hundred feet above
+the sea-level, it is perched on a narrow ridge joining two distinct
+mountain-ranges. On either side of the city are precipices, each of
+considerably over two thousand feet in depth. So narrow is the town
+that there are places in it where one can stand and gaze down both
+these precipices at the same time. To reach it from the west there is
+only one path in the steep mountain-side; while from the east it can
+only be approached by a narrow track cut in the face of a precipice and
+winding up it for an ascent of two thousand five hundred feet. In the
+hands of well-regulated forces it would be impregnable; but the Arab
+defenders, learning how easily the new Governor-General and his troops
+had forced the road at Hojaila, made no plucky resistance: and armed as
+they were almost entirely with matchlock and fuse guns—and many only with
+spears—they could have made no permanent stand against the field-guns of
+the Turks, who are said in one day to have brought their light artillery
+from Hojaila to Menakha, an ascent of nearly six thousand feet, by a
+break-neck path. But few shots had been fired when the Arabs fled, and
+the Turks once more took possession of the place. Leaving a sufficient
+garrison to protect the town, and to keep open a line of communication
+with the coast, Ahmed Feizi marched on towards Sanaa. About thirty miles
+from Menakha, on the road to the capital, is a spot called Hajarat
+el-Mehedi, where the track is so narrow and so bad that even without
+resistance it would offer no slight obstacle to the passage of troops.
+Here the rebel army under Seyed esh-Sheraï, a cousin to Ahmed ed-Din,
+took up a position, and a twelve days’ delay and fighting took place
+before the Turks could force their way through. But on the twelfth day
+it was accomplished, and the rebels dispersed. Halting but now and again
+to shell some village, the troops by hurried marches reached Sanaa, and
+on their being sighted by the Arab besiegers on Jibel Negoum, the Imam’s
+force retired into the mountains to the east, where no Turkish troops
+could follow them.
+
+[Illustration: MENAKHA.]
+
+The capital relieved, Ahmed Feizi was not idle. He arrived in time to
+save the garrison of Amran, where, as at Sanaa, the Arabs retired on
+the approach of the Turkish forces. Returning to Sanaa, he set to work
+to reorganise affairs, despatching Ismail Pasha with a considerable
+number of troops to recapture Dhamar and Yerim. Proclaiming military law,
+which in this case meant almost no law, throughout the country, the new
+Governor-General offered a reward for the head of every rebel brought
+to him, and turned loose upon the Arabs his Turkish troops to loot and
+plunder their villages. Marching to the south, Ismail Pasha halted at
+Maaber to shell the villages of Jibel Anis, retook Dhamar without any
+opposition being offered, and, leaving a garrison there, proceeded to
+Yerim, and thence by Seddah and Sobeh to Kátaba, where the writer found
+him encamped with four hundred troops toward the middle of last January.
+Ibb, Jiblah, and Taiz returned under Turkish rule without a struggle.
+
+There is no nation in the world that can put down a rebellion as the
+Turks can, but they have a great objection to any one seeing the process;
+and the presence of the writer, turning up suddenly in Sanaa while Ahmed
+Feizi Pasha was engaged upon this task, caused such a shock, that he
+and his servants were securely confined in prison as spies in spite of
+passports, until, from the unsanitary conditions of the place and the
+bad water supplied, he was seized with a violent attack of fever; and
+no doubt thinking that it would be better to get rid of him alive than
+have an objectionable corpse on their hands, and probably a good many
+questions to answer, a guard of soldiers was prepared, and the writer
+was hurried away to Hodaidah with orders to quit. Yet, in spite of the
+fact that his relations with Ahmed Feizi Pasha were a little strained, he
+cannot but testify to his admirable activity and soldier-like bearing—an
+admiration dimmed only by the cruelty, perhaps almost necessary, of some
+of his commands. Thus it will be seen, from the day that Ahmed Feizi
+Pasha took over the governor-generalship of the Yemen, the tide of events
+had completely changed. A series of Arab victories had ended in a series
+of Arab defeats. Had Sanaa been taken, the result would doubtless have
+been different; but in their endeavours to take it they failed. Renowned
+in history, sacred to them as the former seat of government of their
+Imams, their want of success in capturing it, together with the action of
+Ahmed ed-Din, who held aloof from any active part in the warfare, broke
+their spirits. Had they succeeded in entering Sanaa, had they brought
+their Imam there in state, there is some possibility that the Turks might
+have lost the Yemen for ever. They themselves, and Ahmed Feizi Pasha the
+first of them, told the writer this.
+
+Thus by the end of January the Turks had reconquered all the cities of
+Yemen with the exception of one, Dhofir, at that time still besieged
+by the Arabs. Yet in spite of the fact that Turkish rule was again
+reinstated in the country, in spite of the fact that what with the
+reinforcements there were altogether some forty thousand troops in
+the Yemen, the rebellion was by no means stamped out. This is easily
+understood when the nature of the country is described. Central Yemen
+consists of a great plateau, upon which are situated the three principal
+cities, Sanaa, Dhamar, and Yerim. This plateau is surrounded by a
+system of mountains broken and torn into valleys and cañons, peaks and
+pinnacles, amongst which it would be impossible for any Turkish force
+to operate. Many of these mountains reach an altitude of over twelve
+thousand and thirteen thousand feet, the summits often connected with
+the valleys beneath by precipices of thousands of feet in depth. The
+only roads—mere tracks they are—are cut in the face of these walls
+of rock, and often are not a yard in breadth. Amongst these enormous
+mountain-ranges—and to the north of Sanaa one can travel for days and
+weeks amongst them—the spirit of rebellion burns as fiercely to-day
+as ever. Certainly the towns are now in the possession of the Turks,
+yet the main roads that connect the towns are unsafe for Turks to pass
+over, except in considerable numbers together. It was to a large extent
+from these mountain districts that the revenues of the Government were
+previously drawn; for the Arabs of the Yemen, unlike those of the Hejaz
+and most other Arabian States, are tillers of the soil, living in
+well-built and permanent villages, one and all roughly fortified, from
+which they would be able to withstand any band of armed tax-collectors,
+such as were wont formerly to be sent to levy the dues, as often on
+behalf of those who had purchased the rights of collecting from the
+district as on the part of the Government direct. In many of these
+villages the writer sat, sharing with the Arabs their humble repast,
+sipping their coffee and smoking their hubble-bubbles, and listening to
+their strange songs and prayers for the return of the Imam, Ahmed ed-Din,
+to power.
+
+The rebellion has been outwardly crushed, but the prestige of Turkey in
+the Yemen has received a severe blow. The exorbitant squeezing will have
+to be abandoned, with the results that the revenue will probably fall
+to a tenth of its former sum. Many tribes formerly taxed will maintain
+an armed independence. The garrisons in the towns must be doubled, and
+the Yemen as a means of filling the Turkish coffers will be finished.
+Over the rebellion the Porte has expended a vast sum of money, while any
+attempt to recoup itself from the scene of action will but bring on a
+second and probably more disastrous rising.
+
+Little more remains to be told except to consider briefly in what
+manner a permanent Arab success would have influenced ourselves. It was
+generally believed amongst the Turks in all quarters that it was British
+intrigue that stirred up the rebellion in the Yemen, although even the
+Turks themselves were at a loss to understand what advantages we should
+reap through such an action. They called attention to the independent
+States that lie between Aden and the Turkish frontier at Kátaba, the
+states of Lahej, Dhala, and the lands of the Houshabi, Aloui, and other
+tribes. Yet Ahmed Feizi Pasha himself informed the writer that, equally
+with the English, the Turkish Government subsidise their Sultans, Amirs,
+and Sheikhs; but the object of our subsidising them is misunderstood by
+the officials of Sanaa and Constantinople. To them it is impossible to
+consider in the same light as we do the vast importance of trade; and
+it is merely that the roads which pass through these various States may
+be kept open and safe for caravans trading with Aden, that we pay large
+monthly sums to the native rulers. At the same time, it is doubtless an
+advantage to possess a more or less independent strip of country between
+our frontier at Aden and that of the Turkish Yemen.
+
+What has been to England the result of the Turkish occupation of the
+Yemen? It has been a result enormously beneficial. Formerly, in the time
+of Arab rule, no caravans were able to pass and repass in safety from the
+interior to Aden. The inability of the Imam to hold the tribes in check
+rendered the looting of every caravan probable. But since the arrival
+of the Turks things have altered. By keeping the roads open the Turks
+have rendered a vast service to England, by, as far as their power went,
+ensuring safe-conduct to the passage of caravans, while unconsciously
+their greed in levying enormous export and import dues at Hodaidah and
+their ports has driven the greater part of the Yemen trade to Aden—a free
+port. Thus it will be seen how vastly beneficial to England has been the
+conquest of the Yemen by the Turks; and had the Osmanli Government lost
+possession of the country, the result could have brought about but one
+effect—a return to the state of affairs previous to Turkish annexation,
+and a consequent enormous diminution of the Aden trade both in coffee and
+exports, and in the European goods and tobaccos from the Persian Gulf,
+for which the returning caravans create a great demand. Yet the Turks
+assured the writer that the British Government was supplying arms and
+assistance to the rebels. In reality the rifles were being smuggled in by
+private traders from the French port at Obock.
+
+As to what will be the future policy of Turkey in the Yemen it is
+difficult to surmise. No doubt Abdul Hamid will be guided much by the
+report of his aide-de-camp Yakoub Bey, who was despatched to Sanaa for
+the purpose of bringing a full report to the Sultan. Rather than risk a
+second rebellion, there is little doubt that a conciliatory policy will
+be attempted; but the Yemen is too far removed from Constantinople to
+be governed from there, and as soon as affairs have quieted down, the
+officials will take advantage of their positions to commence once more
+the oppression of the people and the filling of their pockets. Could
+they be persuaded that extortion is not the road by which to arrive at
+a satisfactory system of government, they would find the country daily
+growing richer, and their relations with the Arabs more peaceable and
+less strained than at present. But the leopard cannot change his spots;
+and it is only probable that as long as Osmanli supremacy exists in the
+Yemen, officialdom will continue to enrich itself and impoverish the
+country.
+
+
+
+
+PART II.
+
+A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+ADEN.
+
+
+There is not a breath of wind to stir the placid surface of the
+sea—not a breath to cause a draught upon the ship and cool us for a
+second. It is one of those terrible still tropical days, motionless,
+silent, oppressive. Nothing to hear but the hissing of the sea as the
+vessel’s bows plough up the turquoise water, and the thud, thud of her
+never-ceasing screw. Even the Lascars in their white clothes and bare
+feet, children of the sun as they are, seem downcast.
+
+We are passing Perim. It lies on the port side, a dirty blot upon a scene
+of opalesque transparence, of shimmering water and palpitating sky.
+
+A youth travelling round the world stretches himself, jots a few lines in
+his diary, and commences to tell the old story of the taking of Perim.
+But he is soon cried down, and silence reigns again.
+
+On both sides we can see the land,—burning rock seen through a burning
+atmosphere. A number of flying-fish buzz over the surface of the water,
+and with a series of little splashes disappear once again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few hours later and Aden is in sight, with its broken and torn
+peaks and jagged outline. A little movement is noticeable amongst the
+passengers, but it is half-hearted at the best.
+
+Then we enter the grand bay, surrounded by desolate rock and still more
+desolate desert, and drop anchor a mile or so off Steamer Point, as the
+shipping quarter of Aden is called.
+
+The steamer is quickly surrounded. A few steam-launches, heavily
+awninged, screech their whistles; while a crowd of small boats
+manned by coal-black Somali boys, each striving to be the first upon
+the scene, crowd upon us. They are boatmen, divers, and sellers of
+curiosities—smart, bright little fellows, more than half nude, and as
+black as coal, many with their hair left long like the cords of a Russian
+poodle. Such a screaming and a yelling! Such a diving after small coins!
+Such a display of leopard-skins, antelope-horns, especially those of the
+lovely oryx, and ostrich-feathers, products of the opposite coast! A few
+dull austere Indians and Cingalese display embroideries and table-cloths,
+but the heat seems to depress them, just as it does the buyers.
+
+[Illustration: TOMB AND MOSQUE OF SHEIKH OTHMAN, NEAR ADEN.]
+
+It is a wonderful sight to watch the divers, balanced on the gunwales of
+the boats, their hands above their heads, watching eagerly for the tiny
+splash of a small coin, then breaking the water into a series of dancing
+circles as their dusky bodies disappear into the transparent blue. One
+can see them too under water, turning like fishes in search of the slowly
+sinking money. When the excitement had worn off, and those passengers who
+cared to brave the sun’s terrific rays by taking a short run ashore had
+left, I hailed a boy, who, with the aid of Abdurrahman, my ever-faithful
+Arab servant from Morocco, stowed my luggage into the boat. Then I said
+good-bye to the P. and O. steamer, and was rowed ashore.
+
+[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF ADEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS
+
+To Illustrate Mr. W. B. Harris’ “A Journey through the Yemen”
+
+W. & A. K. Johnston. Edinburgh & London.]
+
+At some steps leading to a galvanised-iron-roofed landing-place I stepped
+ashore. What a scene of desolation and dreariness Aden presents to the
+new-comer! and how soon one gets to like the place in spite of it all! A
+background of dreary blackish rock, a sandy road, half-a-dozen rickety
+_gharies_ under the shelter of a hideous iron-roofing, with sleepy
+little ponies and still more sleepy Somali drivers; a whitewashed domed
+saint’s tomb, with an apology for a garden on each side, in which a few
+weary-looking plants were trying to appear green under a thick coating of
+dust and a sweltering sun; a long crescent of badly built houses, with
+the exception of the handsome Aden Bank buildings, faced by an expanse of
+sand and black palings,—and that is Steamer Point, as one first sees it.
+But as the sun sinks low a figure or two appear, and toward sunset the
+place wears a gay and flourishing appearance.
+
+Getting my baggage into a hand-cart, I set off for the hotel, where at
+least was shade and tolerable coolness, say some 90° Fahrenheit. But
+in spite of its dreary aspect, in spite of the dull monotony of its
+colouring, one gets quite fond of Aden. The cheery hospitality of the
+garrison, the gorgeous early mornings and evenings, the delicious warm
+January nights, the club, the verandahs of which are laved by the sea,
+the white hulls of the men-of-war in the bay, and the pleasant evenings
+spent under their awnings, dispel all the unfavourable impressions which
+are at first so numerous and apparent. In a few days one has forgotten
+that the whole place, from the top of Sham-sham down to the sandy
+isthmus, is all a volcanic hideosity; one has forgotten that the whole
+is so impregnated with salt as to almost forbid any verdure to grow, and
+that, should it by chance take root, the sun is there to kill it. One
+sees after a time only the picturesqueness of the place,—the strange torn
+mountain-peaks; the gay thronging crowd of many nationalities all bent on
+their several businesses, except the Jews, who seem bent upon everybody
+else’s; and the Somalis, who are as indifferent to the general world as
+they are to the heat, excepting when a passing steamer lands for an hour
+or two a flock of extraordinarily habited travellers—and then the cabs
+fly backwards and forwards, the ponies kicking up the dust, their feet
+rattling along the hard roads and making almost as much noise as the
+cracking of the jehus’ whips; then the Jews, the money-changers, pass
+and repass, spilling their coins one by one from hand to hand, until the
+very jingling drives one frantic; and the black urchins, who have learnt
+English enough to lie with facility, and to beg, worry, and bother until
+they are paid to go away, appear. Then the curio-seller, be he Greek
+or Jew or swarthy Indian, creeps out from amongst his moth-eaten lion
+and leopard skins and his boxes of stale “Turkish delight,” and with
+outstretched hands bids the traveller enter. Then, too, there is the
+jingling of long tumblers on the wide verandah of the hotel, and a crowd
+of boats in readiness at the landing-place. Just like a flock of locusts
+they come and stay their hour or two, and just like a flock of locusts
+they go, some outward bound, some returning home; and Steamer Point is
+itself again.
+
+Often as Aden has been described, it is necessary here to make some
+mention of its various sights and the varied scenes it presents; for, as
+part and parcel of the Yemen, it cannot be passed over in a book that
+attempts to deal with that country. If, however, the reader has been
+there, or has read more pretentious accounts of it, let him skip it over.
+
+Hated, spoken of as typical of the infernal regions, ugly as it is, Aden
+perhaps can claim an antiquity and an importance throughout all history
+unparalleled, for its size and its situation, in the annals of the
+world. When countries, now the centres of vast civilisations, consisted
+of primeval forests, inhabited by almost primeval man, and filled with
+wild beasts, Aden was an emporium of trade. With every possible natural
+disadvantage, except its harbour and its situation, it was inhabited
+by merchants, who collected and reshipped by vessel and by caravan the
+wealth of many lands. Africa, India, the Persian Gulf, poured on to the
+arid volcanic rock their gold and their purples, their spices and their
+precious stones.
+
+“Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs,
+and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants. The merchants of
+Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs
+with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold. Haran,
+and Canneh, and _Eden_, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad,
+were thy merchants.”[31] There is no doubt in the minds of competent
+authorities that the place here referred to as Eden is none other than
+Aden, while many other of the names mentioned have been identified with
+ruins and towns of modern Arabia; but of this more anon.
+
+Ibn Khaldun, in his geographical notes on the Yemen, writing in the
+eighth century A.H., mentions the extreme antiquity of Aden, speaking of
+it as a place of importance in the time of the Tubbas, who were the kings
+descended from Himyar, son of Abd esh-Shems, great-grandson of Kahtan,
+said to be the Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures, the founder of the
+oldest authentic tribes in the Yemen; for although they migrated to that
+country, there are no remains to be traced of the inhabitants who were
+there before them.
+
+Returning to more historical times, we find that during the reigns of one
+of the Cæsars, probably Claudius, Aden was destroyed by the Romans,[32]
+probably in order to divert the trade of India to the ports which Ælius
+Gallus had founded on the shores of the Red Sea, to which Aden proved,
+no doubt, a formidable rival. Later we find it conquered by the army of
+Constantine, and re-named Emporium Romanum.
+
+Returning once more to oriental sources, we find the place split up by
+the wars and factions which were so constant throughout the Yemen, and
+Aden several times was besieged and conquered. Most important, perhaps,
+of these early monarchs was the line of Hamdani princes, who, descended
+from the Beni Zuray, held it from about 440 A.H. with many ups and downs
+of fortune, until in A.H. 569 it was conquered by the troops of Turan
+Shah of the Ayyubite dynasty of Egypt.
+
+In 1487, some three hundred years after the accession of the Ayyubite
+Sultans over Aden, a period of continued strife, we find the place
+visited by a Portuguese by name John Pedro de Covilham. This expedition
+was organised to explore that quarter of the globe after an ambassador
+had been sent to Florence by the Christian King of Abyssinia whom we
+have learned to know by the name of Prester John. Covilham eventually
+ended his days at Shoa, at the Court of Iskander, or Alexander, the then
+reigning prince.
+
+From the next European, however, who visited Aden we have a more
+succinct account, though unfortunately his work upon the subject of his
+travels[33] is so taken up with personal narrative, and his names are so
+unreliable, that it is with some difficulty that historical events are
+recognised. I refer to Ludovico de Barthema, known also as Vertomanus,
+who travelled in Arabia about the year 1504.
+
+Albuquerque’s attack upon Aden forms one of the most interesting items
+in its history, and short notice must be taken of it here. The sovereign
+of Abyssinia at this epoch was a Christian, Queen Helena by name, who,
+wishing to obtain assistance by which to keep off the Arab invasions into
+her own country, sent an Armenian envoy to the Court of Lisbon. After
+wandering about in a somewhat vague way for several years—he went _viâ_
+India, where he was detained twenty-three months—he at length, in 1513,
+arrived at Lisbon. He found on his arrival that an expedition was already
+organised to carry out the proposals he was bringing from his queen,
+and in command of which Alphonso de Albuquerque left India in February
+of the same year with two thousand five hundred men, two-thirds of them
+Portuguese, the rest Indians. On Easter eve they arrived at Aden, and
+at once attacked the place. After a siege of four days further efforts
+were found to be useless; and bombarding the town, and destroying the
+native shipping, the Portuguese flotilla sailed for the Red Sea. A second
+attempt on the part of Albuquerque to take Aden the following spring
+again failed, owing to the fact that it had meanwhile been refortified.
+
+A few years later, in 1516 A.D., Aden was again besieged, this time by
+an expedition sent from Egypt under Raïs Suleiman; but the city was
+again found to be impregnable, and the attacking force suffered very
+considerable loss. However, so weakened had the fortifications been by
+these repeated attacks, that when Soarez arrived shortly afterwards, the
+governor surrendered the place into his hands; but on the Portuguese
+attempting to follow and capture Suleiman’s fleet, the governor made
+haste to repair the fortifications, and on Soarez’s return he found
+himself baffled, and Aden more firmly in the hands of the Amir Morjaun
+than ever.
+
+Meanwhile Suleiman had organised an enormous fleet, with part of which he
+visited Aden. The city was taken by treachery; for the governor, having
+been enticed on board the ships, was hung, and soldiers landed on beds
+under the pretence that they were sick men. In 1551 the inhabitants,
+oppressed by the cruel representatives left by Suleiman, rebelled, and
+ceded Aden to the Portuguese.
+
+It is not for nearly fifty years later than this date that we find the
+English in these seas. On the 8th April 1609 a ship belonging to the East
+India Company, by name the Ascension, visited Aden. Received with every
+possible courtesy, the captain was, when once safely in the hands of the
+governor, entrapped and imprisoned, and only allowed to leave Aden after
+paying heavy fines in goods and money. A year later the Darling and the
+Peppercorn arrived, under the command of Admiral Sir Henry Middleton.
+On the Darling proceeding to Mokha, the crew of the Peppercorn were
+treacherously seized and detained in prison.
+
+The Dutch were the next to appear upon the scene, Van den Broeck
+arriving with a fleet in 1614, in order to found trading relations
+between the natives and the Dutch East India Company. Their overtures
+were exceedingly well received by the officials, but the jealousy of the
+more influential native merchants prevented their being able to come to
+any satisfactory arrangement. From this period until the beginning of
+the present century Aden shared the ups and downs of fate that are so
+frequent in all oriental places; but as any account of these would prove
+tedious, they can very well be omitted. In 1802 we find Aden visited
+by Sir Home Popham, who, having failed in concluding a treaty with the
+Imam of Sanaa, was able to enter upon and carry through a commercial
+and amicable treaty with the then Sultan of Aden. As late as 1833 we
+find another example of the treachery of the natives of Aden. Turkchee
+Bilmas, as Mahammed Agha was nicknamed, after his series of extraordinary
+victories, having demanded and received the surrender of the governor of
+Aden, sent thither a mission of forty persons. They were well received,
+but during the night more than half their number were foully murdered,
+the rest escaping in miserable plight.
+
+In 1835 steamers of the Indian Government having harboured in Aden, made
+use of it as a coaling-station; but it was, on account of the difficulty
+of obtaining labour, changed for Makulla, a port to the east on the
+Hadramaut coast. After, in 1837, being sacked by the Foudtheli tribe, the
+attention of the Indian Government was called to Aden by the fact that a
+ship flying British colours, the Deria Dowlat, being wrecked near that
+port, the vessel was looted, and the passengers, some of whom were native
+ladies of rank, insultingly treated. Captain Haines, in command of the
+war-sloop Coote, arrived in December, and laid a claim before the Sultan
+for twelve thousand dollars compensation. A plot being in the air to
+obtain possession of the person and papers of Captain Haines, he sailed
+for India, returning in October 1838 to enforce the carrying out of the
+cession of Aden in return for an annual payment to the Sultan of nearly
+nine thousand dollars a-year. Having been insultingly treated, Captain
+Haines commenced to blockade the port, until, in January 1839, H.M.S.
+Volage and H.M.S. Cruizer arrived upon the scene. A message to surrender
+being left unanswered, the town was bombarded and taken, the Sultan and
+his family escaping to Lahej, a city some thirty miles in the interior.
+The capture of Aden is curious as being the first addition to the Empire
+made during the reign of Queen Victoria.
+
+It is wonderful to notice how soon it became apparent to the natives that
+they had nothing to fear from the British occupation; but, in spite of
+this feeling of satisfaction in the eyes of the lower-class natives and
+the merchants, the chiefs of the Abdali tribe, in spite of solemn bonds
+to the contrary, attempted to retake the place. In this they failed, and,
+exasperated at their want of success, commenced a series of depredations
+upon the caravans and local property of Arabs residing in Aden. After a
+severe struggle in 1841, in which two Arab forts on the mainland were
+destroyed by the British troops, affairs remained in a more peaceful
+condition until, in 1846, Seyed Ismail, a fanatical Shereef, preached a
+holy war and the retaking of Aden from the infidels. Augmented by many
+local tribes, three separate attempts were made upon Aden, each of which
+was successfully repulsed. Like all such failures in the East, the Seyed
+was stamped as an impostor, and, his army having dissolved, he was killed
+by a Bedouin in 1848. In 1850 the crew of a man-of-war’s boat landing
+on the north side of the bay was attacked, and some of the number were
+wounded, one man being killed. A still more melancholy affair happened
+in February 1851, when a shooting-party was attacked at the village of
+Wáhat, of whom Captain Milne was killed and several others badly wounded.
+A series of like depredations and outrages continued to take place, until
+in 1858 an attack was made upon the Arabs and the battle of Sheikh Othman
+fought, which ended in the blowing up of the fort and the village, and
+the opening of negotiations for a friendly understanding between the
+British Government and the Abdali Sultan.
+
+From this time on affairs became more quiet; but on the Turks conquering
+the interior of the Yemen in 1872—they had held a firm footing on the
+Red Sea coast before this period—it was found necessary to demand the
+withdrawal of the Osmanli forces from the tribe lands surrounding
+Aden. At this epoch, too, Little Aden, a sister peninsula which forms
+the western shore of the Aden bay, was purchased, and in 1883 British
+territory was extended across the isthmus, by which arrangement the
+entire shores of the harbour fell under the jurisdiction of the British
+Government. Included in this deed of purchase is the village of Sheikh
+Othman, now a flourishing little township, with a police station and a
+clock tower dominating its principal square. Bungalows have been built
+there and gardens laid out, and Sheikh Othman to-day presents quite a
+prosperous appearance, though the less said about its inhabitants, for
+the most part Arab dancing-girls, the better.
+
+Thus, then, the extent of territory in the possession of the British
+Government in the vicinity of Aden may be described as follows: Aden on
+the east, Little Aden on the west, and an intermediate strip along the
+north shore of the bay; the total area forming some seventy square miles.
+Of these, Aden alone is fortified.
+
+The peninsula is situated one hundred and twenty miles from the Straits
+of Bab el-Mandeb, in latitude 12° 47′ N., and longitude 45° E. It is
+five miles in length and three in breadth, and consists of hills of
+bare grey-black rock, the highest of which, Jibel Sham-sham, reaches
+an altitude of nearly eighteen hundred feet above the sea-level. The
+volcanic origin of the place is clearly demonstrated by the fact that
+there exists a large crater, which, owing to the broken spurs of rock
+by which it is surrounded, renders a greater portion of the peninsula
+uninhabitable. However, in such parts as are suitable for building the
+most has been made, and an extraordinary number of people find room
+to exist upon the barren rock, which of itself produces none of the
+necessities of life. Including the population of Sheikh Othman, the
+census return in 1891 was over thirty-eight thousand, whereas at the time
+of the British conquest in 1839 the population numbered only some six
+thousand.
+
+The greater portion of the population consists of Arabs and Somalis. The
+Arabs are for the most part labourers, ship-coalers, and some shopkeepers
+and traders. The Somalis prefer the lighter trade of cab-driving, the
+rowing of small boats, and such work. They seem perfectly incapable of
+stationary labour, and unable to conquer their nomad traits. Almost
+every nationality is found in Aden: besides the Europeans there are
+Hindus, Parsees, Turks, Egyptian Arabs, Persians, Chinese, Seedy boys,
+Abyssinians, Jews, and many natives of India of different types and
+classes. Principal amongst the British Indian subjects are the Parsees,
+who act as agents and shopkeepers, in which professions they equal the
+meanness—or shall I call it business talent—of the Jews. One sees them
+everywhere with their long white flimsy garments and curious head-gear
+resembling a coal-scuttle. They have brought to Aden a spark of the
+ever-living fire of Bombay, and have established themselves there with
+their temples and womenfolk, and are annexing a very considerable
+proportion of the trade.
+
+The peninsula of Aden boasts two towns and an important village. The
+former are Aden proper, situated on the level bottom of the crater,
+and Tawahi, at Steamer Point, which contains some seven hundred houses,
+inhabited for the most part by those who gain a livelihood dependent
+upon the shipping. The large town of Aden proper contains some eighteen
+thousand inhabitants. The principal village is Maala, where the native
+craft, strange dhows and _bugalas_, anchor; and here nearly all the
+native trade is shipped or landed, as the case may be.
+
+Before entering upon any description of Aden as it appears to the
+traveller of to-day, it may be as well to finish such statistics as are
+necessary here. First, as to the anchorage that Aden affords to shipping.
+The bay, which attains its greatest length almost due east and west,
+consists of two distinct portions, the inner and the outer harbour. The
+former, almost landlocked, extends to a length of some five miles, while
+the latter is the large portion lying between Little Aden and Aden. The
+depth varies from three to five fathoms in the western bay and at the
+entrance, while a couple of miles outside ten and twelve fathoms can
+be found. A small island in the inner harbour, opposite Tawahi, serves
+the purpose of a quarantine station. Very considerable improvements
+have lately been carried out, and the depth of certain anchorage in the
+inner bay successfully increased by aid of a large dredger—a veritable
+eyesore amongst the strange and picturesque native craft with which at
+certain times the bay is crowded. The larger steamers, such as the P.
+and O. and the Messageries Maritimes, lie at some distance from the
+shore, toward the mouth of the harbour; but the British India, Austrian
+Lloyd’s, and several other important lines, bring their ships in close
+under Steamer Point. This, however, is due to the fact that they usually
+remain a longer time there, and that it affords them greater and cheaper
+facilities for coaling.
+
+It is, of course, as a coaling-station that Aden is most renowned. In
+1891 some 165,000 tons were imported, which, together with the other
+trade of the colony, brings the value of imports and exports up to a sum
+of over five millions sterling per annum. What result the opening of the
+coaling-station on the island of Perim may have on the coal trade of Aden
+remains yet to be seen, but it seems improbable that, as was said at the
+time, it will ever become a more important place than the other.
+
+Apart from the commerce in coal, there is by no means an unimportant
+trade carried on with the neighbouring coasts of Arabia, the Persian
+Gulf, the Red Sea, and the African coast. This is principally in the
+hands of native merchants, and a very considerable quantity of the
+cargo is transported in native sailing craft. The chief articles are
+hides, coffee, feathers, gums, dyes, spices and perfumes, silk, and
+mother-of-pearl shells and ivory.
+
+The coffee trade which now finds its outlet at Aden was formerly
+almost entirely in the hands of the Mokha and Hodaidah merchants; but
+the former town is now deserted, and the heavy dues of the Turkish
+authorities at the latter have diverted a large part of the coffee to
+Aden, a free port, although a considerable amount is still shipped from
+Hodaidah to Aden by sea. The coffee which reaches Aden direct is brought
+down by caravan from the highlands of the interior and sold to the Aden
+merchants. A very considerable quantity is also brought across from the
+African coast, shipped almost entirely from Zeilah, one of the Somali
+ports, to which spot it is brought on camels from the highlands of Harrar
+and the Galla country, all of which is practically suitable to the growth
+of the coffee tree, which necessitates a high altitude above the level of
+the sea. The ostrich-feathers are the produce of Somali and the Donakil
+country. Mother-of-pearl shells are brought from the Persian Gulf and the
+Red Sea fisheries, and ivory from Somali-land and Abyssinia. The food for
+the garrison is imported from the African coast and from Arabia. Sheep
+and goats are weekly shipped in large quantities from Berbera, Bulhar,
+and Zeilah; while oxen, vegetables, fodder, and fuel are brought in by
+camel-caravan from Lahej and the surrounding country.
+
+What, however, astonishes one about Aden is the fact that it has no local
+industries. All skilled labour has to be imported from China or India;
+while even such simple trades as mat-making, boat-building, and suchlike
+are almost neglected.
+
+The climate of Aden is by no means so bad as it is generally described
+to be, and I believe that statistical returns give a very fair average
+of health there. The temperature for the whole year averages about 85°
+Fahr. in the shade, the extremes being 72° and 102°. During my visit
+the thermometer only once rose above 90°, and then only for a short
+period, and once fell as low as 74°. The sky during the winter months is
+unclouded, and the climate may be said to be delightful, though great
+care must be taken not to get chilled at sundown. Early in June the
+south-west monsoon breaks. Damp and unpleasant as this ocean wind may
+seem, it is the sole cause that renders Aden inhabitable for Europeans
+during the summer. The changes of the monsoon, May and September, are
+the worst periods in the year, the thermometer often varying only
+between 100° in the day and 90° at night! The rainfall of Aden is very
+changeable, in some years rising to eight inches, in others being only
+one-fourth of an inch; but it is sufficient to keep alive a few plants,
+that do their little best to break the monotony of the dull rocks. After
+a shower the valleys sometimes wear quite a green appearance, but as
+a rule this does not last long, for the sun and dust soon dry them up
+again. However, it is said that there are no less than one hundred and
+thirty species, of over forty different orders, the most common being
+_Euphorbiaceæ_, the _Acacia eburnea_, _Caparidiciæ_, and the lovely
+_Adenum obesum_. A few wild dogs, jackals, and foxes can be found in
+the rocky valleys; and birds are common—kites, hawks, flycatchers, and
+wagtails being permanent residents, while many species pay the place an
+occasional visit.[34]
+
+Having thus briefly run through the statistics of Aden to such an extent
+as I deem necessary for a work of this kind, I will continue with the
+personal narrative of my journey, and, having exhausted my books of
+reference, describe Aden as it appeared to me.
+
+I have said elsewhere that the terrible feeling of oppression soon wears
+off, and that, after only a few days’ residence in the place, one has
+forgotten how truly desolate and dreary are the great brown peaks that
+rear their heads so far above one on all sides. I never was in a place
+that so shocks one at first, and yet which one so quickly comes to
+like. It took only a day or two to shake off the feeling of the hideous
+barrenness of the place; and having made a few friends, I soon began to
+perceive how charming life can be made with all the disadvantages of such
+surroundings and climate as Aden possesses.
+
+The club, the very verandahs of which are laved by the sea-waves, is
+one of the best of its kind in the East; and many a pleasant evening
+I spent there, listening now and again to a military band which once
+a-week discourses sweet music in its precincts. Pleasantest amongst many
+pleasant recollections of Aden is the kindness I was shown by all with
+whom I came in contact—kindness that extended not only to entertaining,
+but in rendering me great service in arranging my journey into the
+interior of the Yemen. I cannot here attempt to thank all those who took
+pity on a stranger, but I must not pass on without saying how grateful I
+am to General Jopp, H.M. Political Resident, and to Colonel Stace, C.B.,
+Assistant-Resident, for their many kindnesses.
+
+As soon as I had settled in at my hotel and rested a day to study my
+whereabouts, I set to work to see the sights of the place. Fortunately
+they are not very many, though some of them, such as the street scenes
+in the bazaars, one can never tire of looking at. Our hotel, too, was a
+“sight.” It was full of curiosities, from the exceedingly stout and none
+too clean Greek who kept the place, to the dirtiest of dirty kitchens
+I ever saw. The centre courtyard, surrounded by a rickety balcony, had
+once been used as a _café-chantant_, and the stage and framework still
+remained, festooned with cobwebs. Below, the Greek kept a curiosity-shop,
+which seemed principally to contain moth-eaten skins of what once may
+have been wild beasts, and rusty Somali spears. His “Turkish delight”
+was good. I found he sold it to my servant at exactly half the price he
+charged me, so I made Abdurrahman buy it in future, and between us and
+Saïd, my Yemen man, we did a large business with him. However, on the
+whole, the place was inhabitable, and in a climate like Aden one lives
+mostly out of doors on the verandahs.
+
+My first stroll to see the sights was confined to the little town of
+Tawahi, in which the hotel was situated, and which is generally known
+under the more general designation of Steamer Point. There is little to
+see in this quarter, though a crowd of natives lying out on their long
+wood-and-string beds in front of the tiny _cafés_, smoking the murmuring
+hubble-bubble, is always a picturesque sight. But it is only in the back
+streets that one finds this, the front of the town being faced with
+what is called Prince of Wales Crescent—in other words, a semicircle of
+ill-built stucco houses, with the exception of the handsome offices of
+Messrs Luke, Thomas, & Co., to whose representative, Mr Vidal, I am under
+many obligations for kindness. Facing these hideosities of houses is an
+open sandy space, in which a few young palm-trees, caged and coddled,
+were trying to grow. A row of black palings divides this sandy space from
+the beach. A hideous cab-stand of galvanised iron roofing does not add to
+the picturesqueness of the scene; nor, for the matter of that, does the
+thin filmy coal-dust that so often floats upon the breeze, to dirty one’s
+white clothes and render life gritty and unbearable. Yet in spite of this
+depressing view—in spite of the bare rocks that rise above the town—all
+my recollections of Tawahi are pleasant.
+
+Having explored this little township, which can be done comfortably in
+half an hour, I entered upon a longer undertaking,—I chartered a rickety
+conveyance and drove to Aden proper. The town lies in the centre of the
+crater of an extinct volcano, and one cannot help thinking how unpleasant
+it would be for the inhabitants did the eruption that must once have
+taken place recommence.
+
+[Illustration: _Main Pass, Aden._]
+
+Driving from Steamer Point to Aden, a distance of some four or five
+miles, is by no means an exciting process, although one’s nerves are kept
+in constant tension by the extraordinary evolutions of the cab, and the
+thought that at any moment it may fall to pieces—ditto the pony, which a
+Somali jehu on the box causes by aid of his whip to keep up to a gallop.
+Through the pass of Hedfaf, along the flat that leads to the village
+of Maala—its harbour crowded with native craft, while Arab sailors sit
+mending the sails on the beach—away up the winding road to the Main Pass,
+a zigzag cutting between high walls of rock, then down again, until,
+issuing from the tunnel-like pass, one sees the town of Aden before one’s
+eyes—a great white block, broken up by the streets that run at right
+angles to one another, and disfigured by hideous barracks and Government
+offices. The plain in which the town lies, being in reality the floor of
+the crater, is almost a circle, from which torn and ragged spurs of rock
+rise on all sides, except where through a gap one can catch a glimpse of
+the sea and Seerah island, until they join in the peaks of Sham-sham and
+its neighbours. There is but little to attract the eye about the desolate
+prospect, except the relief afforded by the clean white town. Away on one
+of the hill-tops stands a tower. Like the Towers of Silence at Bombay,
+it serves as the scene of the strange funeral rites of the Parsees; and
+here the birds of prey congregate to devour the corpse, too impure to
+defile fire or earth or water.
+
+But the sight of all Aden is the tanks. I remember long before I
+visited Aden listening one evening during a long sea-voyage to an old
+ship’s-carpenter discoursing on the Bible. “The Garden of Eden!” he said;
+“why, of course it’s true! It’s Aden to-day, and there’s the tanks to
+prove it. I seed ’em with my own eyes.” However, in spite of the dear
+old man’s religious beliefs being strengthened by having seen the famous
+Aden tanks, I fear they can claim no such antiquity as that with which
+he connected them. In all probability these great reservoirs were built
+at the time of the second Persian invasion, in the seventh century A.D.
+In this case the tanks at Aden are much later in date than many of those
+existing in Southern Arabia, of which the most important was, without
+doubt, the great dam of Mareb, or Sheba as we know it. Although I was not
+fortunate enough in my travels in the Yemen to be able to reach the ruins
+of this extraordinary work, I think that a few words upon the subject may
+not be out of place here.
+
+The dam of Mareb was built probably some 1700 years B.C. by Lokman
+the Adite, though some authorities attribute its construction to Abd
+esh-shems, father of Himyar, founder of the Himyaric dynasty, and
+great-grandson of Kahtan—Joktan of the Hebrew Scriptures. Monsieur
+d’Arnaud, who visited Saba in 1843, describes the ruins of the dam.
+He says that it consisted of an enormous wall, two miles long and one
+hundred and seventy-five paces wide, connecting two hills. Dikes allowed
+the water to escape for the irrigation of the plain below. These openings
+are at different levels, so as to render practicable a supply of water
+at whatever height the contents of the reservoir might stand. The
+destruction of this great work took place probably about a hundred years
+after the birth of Christ; but although the catastrophe is referred to
+in the Koran, no certain date can be affixed to its occurrence. The fact
+that it stood the enormous pressure of water which must have constantly
+been present for some seventeen hundred years, testifies to the immensity
+and solidity of its construction.
+
+The tanks at Aden cannot, of course, compare with the dam of Mareb, yet
+they are in their way colossal undertakings, and the labour and time
+expended in their construction must have been enormous. They number about
+fifty altogether, and if in working order, would be capable of holding
+upwards of thirty million gallons. We know that at the time of the
+invasion of Raïs Suleiman in 1538, the inhabitants of Aden were entirely
+dependent upon these great cisterns for their water-supply. On Captain
+Haines visiting Aden in 1835, he found several of the tanks in use, but
+many were filled up with the _debris_ that the torrents had washed from
+the mountains above.
+
+In 1856 the restoration of the tanks was commenced, and now thirteen are
+in working order, capable of holding nearly eight million gallons of
+water. Their site is well chosen. They lie above the town, immediately
+under the high rocks that form the foot of Jibel Sham-sham, and in such
+a position that all the drainage of the rain-water is accumulated into
+channels, and poured into the succession of cisterns that lie one above
+another.
+
+The tanks are formed in various ways: some are cut into the solid bed
+of the rock, which is covered with a hard polished cement; others are
+dams built across the ravine; while a third variety of shape is formed
+by angles in the precipices being made use of, two of the walls of
+the cistern perhaps being the natural stone, and the others formed of
+masonry. The upper tanks are the first filled, the lower for the most
+part being supplied from the overflow of those above. In spite of the
+enormous space to contain the water and the slight rainfall of Aden,
+a series of heavy showers will not only fill the tanks, but cause an
+overflow stream of such bulk that very considerable damage has at times
+been caused by it, as it poured along its channel through the town to the
+sea.
+
+It was upon these tanks and a few poor wells that Aden at one time
+depended entirely for water, until in fact, in the fifteenth century,
+when Abdul Wahab constructed the aqueduct that brought water from Bir
+Ahmed into the town.
+
+Beyond these tanks there is but little to see of the long-past glories of
+old Aden; nor have the Arabs displayed in their modern buildings, with
+the exception of one decorative mosque, any attempt at architectural
+beauty. Mons. de Merveille, who visited Aden in 1708, has left a
+description of the ruins of wonderful marble baths that he saw at that
+time; but no remains of these are known to exist to-day, nor is there
+any trace of the mosque built by Yasir or the pulpit of the Day Imran.
+In fact, beyond the tanks, its historical traditions, and the strange
+peoples who flock its streets, Aden can claim but little to interest the
+traveller.
+
+What a sight the bazaars of Aden present of an evening! Often and often
+I would drive out just to spend the last hour or two of daylight in idly
+sauntering through its streets. What strange peoples are to be seen
+there! Indians gorgeous in scarlet and gold and tinsel; Somalis in their
+plain white _tobes_, their hair left long and hanging like the cords of a
+Russian poodle on either side of their heads, and often their raven locks
+are dyed a strange brick-dust red colour by a clay they smear over them;
+Arabs, too, with long black silky curls bursting from under their small
+turbans, nude fellows, except for their loin-cloth of native-dyed indigo
+cotton, the colour of which clings to their copper skins with strange
+effect; creeping, crawling Jews; niggers from Zanzibar; Persians and
+Arabs from Bagdad; Parsees and Greeks.
+
+Then is the time, when the heat of the day is over, to seek some _café_
+at the corner of a street, and watch the people pass. Here at a table
+four Somali warriors, glorious in their very blackness, are playing
+dominoes with the manners of _bourgeois_ on the boulevards; there a group
+of Arabs are chatting over a hubble-bubble pipe, the mouthpiece of which
+they pass one to another, over cups of the husks of the coffee-berry,
+their favourite beverage.
+
+Great strings of camels pass and repass in the street. Rickety
+cabs rattle along, the drivers calling to the crowd to make way;
+and throughout the whole permeates Tommy Atkins, sublime in his
+self-consciousness, and a very good fellow withal. Ay, the bazaars of an
+evening are a sight to be seen,—a collection of strange peoples, only
+to be equalled perhaps on the bridge between Stamboul and Galata at
+Constantinople.
+
+There remains but one more sight to see in Aden, the tunnel that connects
+the town with the isthmus, and which passes under the Munsoorie hills.
+This excavation is three hundred and fifty yards in length, and is lit
+throughout with artificial lights. It is sufficiently high and wide to
+allow of carriage and caravan traffic. A second tunnel connects two
+separate portions of the isthmus lines.
+
+Immense improvements have lately been carried out in the fortifications
+of Aden, and during the time of the writer’s visit several new forts
+were being erected. There is no doubt that the strategic position of
+the peninsula justifies a large expenditure upon its defences. The
+immense value it would prove in time of war as a coaling-station cannot
+be overrated. At the present period its garrison consists of the Aden
+troop of cavalry, three batteries of the Royal Artillery, one regiment
+of British infantry, one regiment of native infantry, and one company
+of sappers; while in the bay lies a gunboat and a transport steamer
+of the Indian marine. The troops are spread over the peninsula, the
+cavalry having lines on the isthmus itself. Altogether, when the new
+fortifications are completed, Aden may be said to be, both as regards
+its defensive powers and in its commercial character, one of the most
+successful spots in the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+ADEN TO LAHEJ.
+
+
+With the kind aid of friends at Aden, my preparations were easily made
+for my journey into the Yemen—far more easily, in fact, than I had been
+led to suppose would have been the case. Everywhere in the bazaar were
+rumours of the rebellion still raging in the interior—vague rumours,
+the truth of which it was almost impossible to gather; while, more
+dispiriting still, there was the fact that for several months no caravans
+had arrived from any distance in the interior, while those which came
+from Lahej and the surrounding country brought tidings, by no means
+reassuring, of the impassable state of the roads in the interior, and the
+constant depredations of the turbulent tribes, who were taking advantage
+of the serious political troubles to enrich themselves by robbery and
+plunder. Added to this, I was warned by several European merchants and
+traders that even in times of peace it was an almost impossible task
+to enter the Yemen from Aden. One and all advised my proceeding to
+Hodaidah, and from there attempting the road to Sanaa. In spite of this,
+I decided otherwise. My reasons were these. Hodaidah being the nearest
+port to the capital, and the principal sea-port of the Yemen, it would
+be only natural to find there great activity on the part of the Turkish
+officials,—an activity that would not only prevent my being allowed to
+pass along the well-watched road, but would also probably put the Turks
+upon the look-out in other quarters. It may seem strange to the reader
+that any great difficulties should be put in my way; but so serious had
+been the rebellion, and to such an extent had false reports been spread
+from Constantinople concerning it, that the officials were determined if
+possible not to allow the truth of what really had been and was taking
+place to leak out. There were at this time, with the exception of a
+few traders at Hodaidah, absolutely no Europeans in the Yemen; for one
+scarcely counts the Greek shopkeepers to be found in all the large towns
+as any but natives, to so great an extent do they assimilate themselves
+to the customs and manners of the country. I knew, then, that did I
+attempt to reach Sanaa from Hodaidah, and should I fail, as most probably
+would be the case, my chance of proceeding into the country from any
+other quarter would be practically at an end. It was for this reason that
+I decided to make Aden my starting-point; and should I be unfortunate
+in my journey thence, to fall back as a last hope upon Hodaidah. This,
+happily, I was not obliged to do; for my plans, as will be seen, were
+successful.
+
+But there were several other matters to be thought over besides this.
+Granting that I could reach the capital of the Yemen from Aden, how could
+I best do so with tolerable safety? Here my experiences in Morocco stood
+me in good stead. My first idea had been to purchase my camels, but on
+second thoughts I decided not to do so. Not only would my camels tempt
+the tribes through whose lands I would have to pass to robbery, but even
+the native Arabs I might hire as guides to go with me might not prove
+indisposed to relieve me of two or three valuable beasts of burden. It
+would be safer far, I argued, to hire my beasts, as in that case it
+would be to the advantage of my men to see that not only I myself but
+also my baggage-animals would arrive at their destination in safety.
+How, then, to find the right men and animals without spreading the fact
+all over the bazaars that a mad Englishman wanted to go to Sanaa, in
+spite of dangers and the rebellion? I had recourse to Messrs Cowasjee,
+Dinshaw, & Co., a great house of Parsee merchants, and through them was
+put into communication with an Arab trader. This gentleman I called upon,
+and found exceedingly pleasant; and more than that, I found that he
+understood perfectly my North-African Arabic, and that his educated Yemen
+dialect was comprehensible to myself. I unfolded to him, over coffee, my
+plans, with which he seemed not a little amused. He told me in return to
+leave everything to him, and to appear again at his house the following
+afternoon. This I did, and after coffee and preliminary remarks he
+introduced to me a strange character, an Arab of the mountains of Yemen,
+a man of something under forty years of age, framed like an Apollo, lithe
+and beautiful. I must give a few words of description of this strange
+creature. Tall, lithe, and exquisitely built, his skin of dull copper
+hue showed off the perfect moulding of his limbs. Over his shoulders on
+either side hung loose black wavy curls, standing out like the wigs of
+the old Egyptians. Except for a loin-cloth of native indigo workmanship,
+and a small blue turban, almost lost in the spreading masses of raven
+hair that burst from beneath its folds, he was naked. Here and there his
+flesh had taken the dye from his blue raiment, giving it a strange blue
+tint. Tucked into his girdle was a dagger—_jambiya_—of exquisite Yemen
+silver-work; while round his left arm hung a long circular silver box
+containing some charm. In features he was extraordinarily handsome. The
+brow was high, the eyebrows arched, the eyes almond-shaped and brilliant,
+his nose aquiline and thin. Added to this a fine firm mouth, the upper
+lip closely shaven, while on the point of his chin he wore a small
+pointed beard about an inch in length. A strange contrast he was to my
+Arab host, an elderly highly respectable-looking merchant, with eyelids
+darkened with antimony—_kohl_ the Arabs call it—and his grey beard dyed a
+shade between saffron and salmon-pink. An enormous turban was balanced on
+his closely shaven head, and he was habited in robes of yellow and green.
+
+Coffee being brought for our half-nude guest, we began to talk matters
+over, with the result that for an absurdly small sum my new-found friend
+undertook to deliver me safely in Sanaa. At all my questions about the
+road he laughed. Somehow he had such an air of sincerity about him that
+I trusted him from the very first, nor was I wrong. “You have nothing
+to do or say,” he said, smiling; “only bring your baggage here the day
+you want to start, and I will see to the rest.” In half an hour it was
+all arranged. Three camels were to take me and my servants, and, after
+a certain distance, when, in fact, we entered the highlands, they would
+be changed for mules. As to guides and men, I had nothing to do with
+them. There would be always enough animals to carry my scanty baggage,
+my servants Abdurrahman and Saïd, and myself. “When will you be ready?”
+asked the Arab, rising to leave. “To-morrow,” I replied, expecting to be
+met with excuses for so hurried a departure. But no; and half an hour
+later I was rattling back to Steamer Point in the wheeziest old ghary
+that ever existed, with a fat pony galloping ahead and an excited Somali
+jehu on the box.
+
+It did not take long to make my preparations, and these over, I turned
+into bed in a fever of delight at the idea of getting away. At dawn I was
+up. I knew it was hopeless to attempt an early start, so, having seen all
+my baggage put in order—it consisted of only a sack of clothing and a
+mattress and blanket, a couple of saucepans, a kettle, and a few stores
+mixed up with the clothes—I turned in again.
+
+About nine I dressed; and as there were no signs of anything or anybody,
+I sat down impatiently to wait until something should happen. At length
+Abdurrahman, my faithful Moor, who had come with me from Morocco
+especially to make this journey, appeared. His only fault is that,
+when he is particularly wanted, he is sure to have found some place as
+difficult to discover as the North Pole in which to oversleep himself.
+He was followed an hour or so later by Saïd, clad in new raiment, gay as
+the sunshine, and not the least ashamed of himself for being so terribly
+unpunctual. However, one could not be angry with this butterfly, who,
+from his mass of wavy black hair to the soles of his leather sandals, was
+a picture of dandyism. Often and often in the marches before me Saïd’s
+bright cheery manner and ingenuous narration of his conquests amongst the
+female sex kept us, tired and weary as we were, in shouts of laughter. He
+was as good as mortal man could be when once we had torn him away from
+the fascinations of Aden, his earthly paradise.
+
+At length, collecting the men and the baggage into a couple of gharies,
+we set out for Aden proper, the old fat Greek who kept the hotel waving
+his hand to me, and wishing me all good-fortune as we drove away.
+
+At the other end, of course, all the worry commenced again. However,
+there was nothing to do but to bear it patiently. First, no signs of men
+or camels. At length, after much searching, we captured the beautiful
+Arab of the previous afternoon; and, never letting him out of our sight,
+we at length ran our camels to earth in a back-yard. Leaving Abdurrahman
+to watch the luggage and the camels, Saïd and I sauntered out to do our
+last shopping. The heat was terrific, but even my impatience did not
+ruffle Saïd’s equanimity. He seemed to have a smile and a few words to
+say to every one he met, and, added to this, he insisted on bargaining
+for a considerable period of time over every item of our purchasing; and
+if at length he could not beat the shopman sufficiently low down, he
+would saunter off to another shop, and commence the whole business over
+again. It was exasperating!
+
+At last everything was completed, said Saïd, and we turned back once more
+in the direction of our camel-yard. Abdurrahman, wearied with waiting,
+had gone off to a _café_ to have a cup of coffee with the camel-men!
+I sent Saïd to find them. In about an hour Abdurrahman and the men
+returned, not having seen Saïd, who presently came smiling in, gay as a
+singing-bird, with the excuse that he had forgotten to say good-bye to
+one of his lady-loves, whose beauty he began to sing in flowery praises
+until I peremptorily silenced him.
+
+Then they loaded the camels. I sat by and watched, wondering what we
+could have forgotten. Saïd presently was struck with a bright idea, and
+before I could seize him had fled to buy a jar of ghee, or rancid butter,
+for our cooking on the road. Pursuit was hopeless, but at last I could
+wait no longer. Fortune favoured me, and I found him. He had, so far,
+forgotten all about the ghee, and was testing the smoking capabilities of
+a quantity of hubble-bubble pipes, one of which I purchased, and which I
+found to be a veritable passport on my journey. Then off he went to buy
+the ghee, the pipe under his arm; but I accompanied him, and brought him
+safely back again.
+
+With a sigh of delight I watched the camels laden with my baggage saunter
+off with slouching gait out of the yard and along the yellow dusty road,
+followed by the men. Half an hour later we drove out through the Main
+Pass gate of Aden, down the steep winding hill, and along the isthmus, to
+join our baggage-animals at the village of Sheikh Othman, on the mainland.
+
+It was almost sunset, and grand and beautiful the jagged outline of Aden
+looked as we left it behind. The bay, placid as glass, reflected the
+great rock, and the ships that lay so peacefully upon its motionless
+waters. The sky, a mass of primrose yellow, still trembled with the heat
+of the afternoon sun. Far away beyond the crowded masts of the native
+craft, Little Aden, rival of its sister rock, rose a pale mauve against
+the sky. Then the sun set, and our cab came to a standstill with a jerk
+that threatened to break it to atoms; while our Somali driver, good
+Moslem that he was, alighted to pray. The air was fresh and cool, and
+we descended for a few seconds to stretch our limbs. One could not help
+thinking of the strange mixture of the past and the present. This grand
+lithe figure rising and falling in prayer, now upright with outstretched
+hands, now prostrate with his forehead on the ground, seemed like some
+memory of the long dead glories of Islam, whereas he was in reality only
+a cab-driver.
+
+On again, on over the level plain where many an army has met and fought
+over the possession of the barren rock we were leaving behind us, until
+in the fading of the after-glow we drew up in the quiet square of Sheikh
+Othman.
+
+I was intensely happy. A feeling of exhilaration at the journey before
+me ran through my being—and we were really started! I could not let the
+Somali driver go back, so I paid him for his stabling for the night,
+and dragged him off to the little _café_ where my camels and men were
+resting; and here we, Arabs and Moor, Somali and Englishman, calling
+“Bismillah”[35] together, sat down to our humble repast of fowl and
+coffee.
+
+But I could not sit still. I longed for the rising of the moon to start
+again, and under the guidance of my great Arab friend, set out to wander
+through the half-deserted streets. From time to time one could catch a
+glimpse into the _cafés_ of which Sheikh Othman principally consists,
+filled with dusky Arabs and laughing women, many dancing in the circles
+of their admirers, for the little town is given over to pleasure. And
+as an echo to the music, one heard the soft gurgle of the hubble-bubble
+pipes, the grey fumes of which filled the air of the houses with hazy
+indistinctness. On we walked between the high walls of gardens, out on to
+the desert, to where, in its little grove of palm-trees, stands the tomb
+of the patron saint, Sheikh Othman, with its domes and its mosque and
+strange tower of sun-dried bricks. This tomb it is that gives the name to
+the little town.
+
+The moon was rising, so we hurried back to the _café_, and after a final
+smoke and a cup of the steaming coffee, we loaded our camels, and bidding
+farewell to our Somali guest, prepared to start. Then I found that my
+Yemen Apollo was not coming with us. I was sorry at this, but it could
+not be helped: as long as the men who were to accompany me were _his_
+men, I had nought to fear. So I bade him adieu, and mounting my camel,
+was lifted into the air, and set out. Abdurrahman and Saïd followed my
+example, and, accompanied by three strange dusky men, we wended our way
+through the quiet squares and streets out into the desert beyond.
+
+Twice had the village and fort of Sheikh Othman been destroyed by British
+troops before, in order to extend our frontier in that direction. The
+place, and a little of the surrounding country, including Bir Ahmed,
+were purchased by the British Government from Sultan Ali of Lahej. So
+diplomatically are affairs to-day managed in Aden, that not only does
+Sheikh Othman enjoy immunity from plunder and robbery, but the whole
+caravan-roads passing over the wide strip of country in the Abdali,
+Aloui, and Dhala country are in a condition of complete tranquillity, and
+almost absolutely safe for native caravans.
+
+Out into the desert, with slow patient gait, passed our camels. What a
+wonderful night it was! I had seen the desert before in other lands, but
+never to compare to this. In Egypt the nights are cold; here a soft balmy
+breeze bore on its wings the scent of the mimosa bushes, which dotted the
+sandy surface. A heavy dew was falling, and seemed to awake every drop
+of fragrance of the little yellow fluffy buds. Above us a sapphire sky,
+brilliant with stars and moonlight. Around us miles upon miles of sandy
+plain, shimmering silver. Beyond the humming of the insects there was
+not a sound except the thud-thud of our camels’ soft feet upon the softer
+sand. So still, so tranquil it all seemed, that one scarcely dared to
+breathe. One felt that one was passing through some strange dreamland,
+whose earth was silver sprinkled with sapphires, whose heavens were
+sapphires dotted with diamonds.
+
+Those who have not known the nights of the desert can never realise them.
+It passes the pen of man to describe. It is like the periods in fever
+when the fever leaves one, for it is these nights that nature has given
+us in compensation for the burning, scorching days. It was but the first
+of my night-marches—there were many more to come; yet I never tired
+of them. The rhythmic gait of the camel, the gliding along under the
+myriads of stars, never wearied me. One could not weary of anything so
+surpassingly beautiful.
+
+At a spot, irrecognisable in the desert, our men shouted to the camels to
+lie down, and we dismounted. Saïd spread my carpet, while the Bedouins
+collected the dry mimosa twigs, and by the light of the little fire they
+lit I could see my camels regaling themselves with evident relish on
+the dry bushes, the thorns of which were an inch or two in length. Then
+commenced the drinking of coffee, and the gurgle of the hubble-bubble,
+until, calling to the grunting animals again, we loaded our camels and
+set out.
+
+[Illustration: PALACE OF THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ.]
+
+As early dawn began to tint the eastern sky we entered the oasis in
+which Howta, the capital of the Sultan of Lahej, is situated. The aspect
+of the country completely changed. In place of the pale yellow sand,
+dotted with stunted bushes, there were wide fields of durra, or millet,
+growing in all the luxury of a damp tropical soil. The fields are divided
+from one another by hedges of rank vegetation, and little channels, here
+above the level of the surrounding land, here running in and out amongst
+the durra stalks, supplied unlimited water to the crops. From amidst the
+tangled mass of dazzling green rise palm-trees, many of them hung with
+trailing creepers.
+
+Here and there grazed the pretty humped cattle of Southern Arabia, tended
+by nude boys and girls, who shyly watched the Christian passing by on the
+back of his camel. And then the town—the great mud-built city of Howta,
+full of wild-looking Arabs, and dogs, and fever, the palace of the Sultan
+dominating the whole, and having the appearance that at any moment it
+might slide down, and crush the houses and huts and hovels around it.
+
+Under the guidance of my Bedouins we put up at a small native _café_,
+preferring to be at our ease rather than to have to enjoy the hospitality
+of the Sultan, to whom, thanks to Colonel Stace, the Political Resident
+at Aden, I bore letters of recommendation. We easily made an arrangement
+to reserve the entire accommodation of the _café_ to our personal use,
+and spreading the carpet and mattress, I settled in for an hour’s rest.
+The place in which we had taken up our quarters consisted of a yard
+enclosed in a high hedge of impenetrable thorns, forming a zareba. At one
+end was a large mud-brick room, thatched with rough matting, as was also
+a verandah in front of it. Besides this, the guest-chamber, there were
+one or two poor huts of mats in which quite a number of families seemed
+to exist. What with goats, and dogs, and fowls, and children, and fleas,
+the place was lively. A funny group we must have made, my men and I; but
+I had discarded my hat for a _tarboosh_, or fez cap, as less likely to
+attract attention in travelling. It is curious the part the hat plays
+between Moslems and Christians. Apparently to them it is the outward and
+visible sign of the infidel, for as soon as one has changed it for their
+own more simple head-gear their fanaticism diminishes to an incredible
+extent. Of all European clothing, the hat forms the greatest barrier to
+confidential intercourse between Arab and Christian, and one of the names
+in common use in North Africa for Europeans is “the fathers of hats.”
+
+We had not been very long ensconced in our new quarters when a gaudy
+creature came to call. Apparently, from the number of weapons he bore, he
+was a sort of armorial clothes-peg. In fact, his whole costume consisted
+more of swords and daggers than it did of clothing, while a long spear
+added to the general effect. His wavy hair hung on either side of his
+face in flowing curls, and his arms were encircled above the elbow with
+silver chains, bearing charms and boxes containing mystic writings. He
+shook hands as though he had known me all his life, and sat down with a
+crash of his weapons that reminded one of the fall of a coal-scuttle.
+Coffee was soon prepared, and the hubble-bubble, murmuring away in a
+corner in the possession of Saïd, who had already changed his clothes
+and brushed out his curly locks, was handed from mouth to mouth. After a
+while my guest announced that he had been sent by his lord and master,
+the Sultan, to wish me welcome, and invited me to proceed at once to the
+palace.
+
+Before, however, I tell of my interview with Sultan Ali Mhasen, some
+little account of Lahej and its rulers is necessary.
+
+The tribe of Abdali, the inhabitants of Lahej, share with the Subaiha,
+Foudtheli, and Houshabi, the possession of the south-west coast of
+Arabia, from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, the gate of tears, to nearly
+one hundred miles east of Aden, and reaching inland an average distance
+of, roughly, some fifty miles. Of these, the Subaiha are the most
+warlike, being of a more distinctly wandering nature than the others;
+while, on the contrary, the Abdali tribe to whom Aden once belonged,
+whose capital is to-day Howta, are the richest and most peaceful, their
+habitations being fixed abodes, except in the case of such as are
+shepherds, and are thus necessitated to change their pasturage. As I
+have already said, the town of Howta lies in a great oasis, supplied
+with water from rivers flowing from the highlands farther inland. This
+oasis is richly cultivated, the principal products being durra—_jowaree_
+the natives call it—cotton, and sesamum, and more especially vegetables
+and fodder for the Aden market. Besides palms, there are several other
+varieties, one a luxuriant shade-giving tree, called by the natives
+_b’dam_, of which a fine specimen can be seen close to the precincts of
+the Sultan’s palace. The soil produces no less than three crops in the
+year, the climate being almost equable.
+
+The town of Howta is situated some twenty-seven miles north-west of Aden,
+and extends over a large area. There is no possibility of obtaining
+any certain estimate of the number of its population, which probably
+reaches as many as ten or fifteen thousand, what with Arabs, Jews, a few
+natives of India, and a considerable number of Somalis. The extreme heat
+and dampness of the climate render the place too feverish to allow of
+Europeans residing there with any safety, and even a sojourn of a few
+days is generally sufficient to bring on an attack of malaria. The water,
+too, is very bad, and officers going to shoot there from Aden are warned
+to carefully avoid it.
+
+Although the present state of the territory of the Sultan of Lahej is one
+of tolerable peace and security, throughout all the history of Southern
+Arabia one finds it appearing and reappearing as the scene of battles and
+plots and assassinations. After the terrible massacre of its inhabitants
+by Ali ibn Mehdi in the twelfth century, it was several times taken and
+retaken, and the atrocious acts of cruelty of one, at least, of its
+conquerors, are recorded by historians. Omitting the many consequent
+attacks and wars which took place within its territory, we find it for
+five months of the year 1753 held by the rebel Abd er-Rabi, during which
+period Aden existed in a state of blockade. However, it was before this
+period that the present reigning family had obtained possession of the
+throne, their founder and first Sultan, ruling over Aden as well as the
+surrounding country, being Foudthel ibn Ali ibn Foudthel ibn Sáleh ibn
+Salem el-Abdali, who in A.D. 1728 threw off his allegiance to the Imam of
+Sanaa, and declared himself an independent ruler. Again, in 1771 Lahej
+was besieged, this time by the Azaiba tribe, who succeeded, however, in
+holding it only for the period of two days. Notwithstanding, in a history
+otherwise consisting almost entirely of massacres, wars, and murders,
+we have here and there a glimpse of a happier state of affairs, such as
+the sumptuous entertaining by the then Sultan of Aden and Lahej of the
+British troops after the evacuation of Perim in 1799. Mr Salt, in his
+work entitled ‘A Voyage to Abyssinia,’ and published in London in 1814,
+gives a most charming account of the then Sultan Ahmed, and Abou Bekr,
+his representative in Aden. Wellsted also refers to this Sultan as a
+remarkable instance of an Arab chief whose great desire seemed to be to
+further trade and receive foreign Mahammedan merchants as residents into
+his country. His friendship toward the British is attested in many works
+and accounts of his estimable policy and sagacity. He died in 1827.
+
+I have already described elsewhere the shipwreck of the Deria Dowlat in
+1836, which ended in the taking of Aden in 1839 by the British troops.
+In 1849 a treaty was engaged upon between the Sultan of Lahej and the
+British Government (as to trade, &c.), and with several ratifications
+and alterations the treaty still exists. The Sultan receives a monthly
+stipend from the British, or rather the Indian, Government, for
+protecting the trade-routes which pass through his country, and also
+certain other payments in return for the ceding of Sheikh Othman and
+other spots nearer Aden. In all, the Sultan draws a very considerable sum
+from the Aden treasury _per mensem_.
+
+Having said all that is necessary, perhaps, in a work which has as little
+pretensions to being a history as this has, on the general history of
+Lahej, I will resume the narrative of my story at the spot where, under
+the guidance of the gorgeous and muchly-armed soldier, I was escorted to
+the palace.
+
+This building is a huge block of houses, built entirely of sun-dried
+mud-bricks, but plastered and decorated to such an extent as to give
+it the appearance of being of much greater solidity than a large hole
+here and there in the wall points out to be really the case. The
+principal building is covered with domes and cupolas, with the effect of
+a conglomeration of a cheap Italian villa and a stucco Constantinople
+mosque. However, from a distance the place has a very imposing look, and
+so large is it that on clear days it is visible from Aden. It is not
+until one approaches it closely that one discovers the incompetency with
+which it is built; for pretentious as it is, there are places where quite
+large portions of the mud-brick walls have come away, and at one spot one
+obtained an excellent view of the interior of a room on the first floor
+through one of these enormous gaps.
+
+Passing through a large courtyard, we entered by a small door, and after
+ascending a rough staircase, and wandering along intricate passages,
+found ourselves in the presence of Ali Mhasen el-Abdali, Sultan of Lahej.
+The room in which the Sultan was seated was a large square chamber.
+A heavy beam of carved teak-wood ran down the centre of the ceiling,
+supported on pillars of the same material. The floor was richly carpeted
+in oriental rugs, and silk divans were arranged along the walls. Light
+was admitted by large windows, over the lower portion of which was
+trellis-work. At one corner of the room sat a group of men, some five
+or six in all; while on a table close by were three handsome silver
+hubble-bubble pipes from Hyderabad, tended and kept alight by a half-nude
+Arab in a blue loin-cloth.
+
+As I entered and kicked off my slippers—for having so far resorted
+to oriental ways as to adopt the _tarboosh_, or fez, I held also to
+their custom of not walking on their carpets in boots—one of the group
+rose to meet me. He was a stout elderly man, with a kindly pleasing
+expression, dark in colour; and although not strictly handsome, he
+possessed a manner, common to most Orientals of position, that could not
+fail to charm. Grasping me by the hand, he led me to the divan, where I
+seated myself beside him, and, salutations over, proffered me the amber
+mouthpiece of his pipe and a bunch of _kat_, a shrub to which the Yemenis
+are much addicted. This plant is known to us as the _Catha edulis_. It
+resembles rather a young arbutus in the form and shape of its leaves.
+The leaves are eaten green, growing on the stalk, and are said to cause
+a delightful state of wakefulness. The taste is bitter and by no means
+pleasant, though one easily accustoms one’s self to eating it. An amusing
+remark was made by my Moorish servant in the presence of the Sultan which
+tickled the old gentleman exceedingly. He held out to Abdurrahman a bunch
+of _kat_, which he politely refused. When asked by the Sultan why, he
+naively replied, “That is what the goats eat in my country,” thinking
+it to be the common arbutus of Morocco. In Yemen it is considered a
+necessary luxury; and as it only grows in certain parts of the country,
+where it is carefully cultivated, and has to be transported often a long
+distance, it fetches a high price. That we ate with the Sultan of Lahej
+had been brought some forty miles or more that very morning, for it must
+be eaten fresh.
+
+[Illustration: MY RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ.]
+
+Sitting next to the Sultan was a Shereef, a descendant of the Prophet in
+other words, a tall handsome young man, clean shaven, and richly dressed.
+A gold dagger of great antiquity that he wore in his belt, and which he
+kindly showed to me, was as perfect a thing of its kind as it has ever
+been my lot to set eyes upon. The Sultan himself was robed in a long
+loose outer garment of dull olive-green, displaying a _kuftan_ beneath of
+yellow-and-white striped silk, fastened at the waist by a coloured sash.
+On his head he wore a large yellow silk turban, surrounded by a twisted
+cord of black camel’s hair and gold thread.
+
+The hubble-bubble was a sore trial. I was gradually, under the guidance
+of Saïd, learning to inhale it; but to have constantly to fill my lungs
+with the strong smoke was by no means a pleasant task to a novice like
+myself. The inhaling, even through water, of the tobacco used in these
+pipes is by no means a thing one can easily accustom one’s self to, and
+for a long time a whiff too many will bring on giddiness. However, so
+attentive was the Sultan in handing me the amber mouthpiece that I stuck
+bravely to the task, although by the time I left I felt a sensation of
+incipient _mal de mer_ in a rocking-chair or the car of a balloon. As
+much of the smoke seems to go to the brain as does into the lungs. What
+with the pipe and the _kat_, and the declining of Arabic irregular verbs
+in a dialect I scarcely knew, I was not sorry when, after an hour or so
+of conversation and agony, I was allowed to leave. Nevertheless, I had
+enjoyed my visit to the Sultan Ali, whom I found to be a pleasant-spoken
+kindly old gentleman, extremely fond of showing off various treasures he
+possesses, amongst which is a unique sword of Bagdad work, said to be
+eight hundred years old. Through the blade is bored a hole, which the
+Sultan explained to me was the mark that it had taken over a hundred
+lives. From the condition of the steel it might have been made yesterday,
+and would be quite capable of taking a hundred more. During my visit I
+had been watched with great interest by two of the Sultan’s children, a
+little boy and girl, who, contrary to Arab customs, were present all the
+time. They were pretty dark-skinned little things—the boy nude except
+for his loin-cloth of striped silk, the girl dressed in a mauve garment
+embroidered in gold.
+
+Leaving to go, the soldiers who had brought me into the Sultan’s
+presence again escorted me to my _café_, on the way to which we visited
+the palace stables. There were a great many horses in the ill-paved
+yards which serve as the royal stabling. Mats and thatch, and in places
+rough brick roofs, keep off the heat of the sun from the horses, some of
+which were very fine. One white mare from Nejed was especially lovely,
+though from the nature and heat of the country she looked terribly out of
+condition. The pedigrees of the Nejed horses are most carefully kept by
+their breeders, and all over Arabia they are estimated as the very finest
+to be procured.
+
+The Sultan of Lahej has his own coinage, a small copper piece of minute
+value, bearing the inscription “Ali Mhasen el Abdali,” and on the reverse
+“Struck in Howta,” which, by the way, is anything but true, as they are
+made in Bombay, by contract.
+
+Returning through the courtyards of the great mud palace, I left the
+royal precincts, and, seeking once more the quiet shade of the _café_,
+spent the heat of the day in sleep, waiting for the cool of the afternoon
+before sauntering forth to see the sights of the town of Howta.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+LAHEJ TO KHOREIBA.
+
+
+When I awoke the heat of the day was over, so, under the guidance of Saïd
+and one of my camel-men, I sauntered out to see the town of Howta. The
+place presents, on the whole, an appearance rather of dirt and squalor
+than of what one expects the capital of an Arab Sultan to be like. The
+streets are narrow, and built without any idea of regularity, turning
+and twisting as they do in every direction; nor are the houses even
+built in any attempt at being in line. Here one juts out into the narrow
+byway, there another stands back off the street behind a thick hedge of
+bristling thorns. Nearly all the houses are surrounded by these zarebas
+or yards, into which the cattle are driven of a night. Strange mangy dogs
+bark at one as one passes along, and their bark is echoed from within
+by the yelps of puppies. There is, in fact, but little to see in Howta.
+Perhaps the sights best worth noticing are in the market, where under
+the shade of an enormous _b’dam_ tree sit women selling bread, while
+the surrounding strip of sand is crowded by Arabs with long spears and
+their camels. Here also are exposed for sale vegetables, camel and horse
+fodder, and many other market products, which are sent on to Aden. Not
+far from this market are the bazaars, narrow covered-in streets with
+rough little mud-brick shops on either side, filled with cotton goods,
+for the most part of European manufacture; a few gaudy muslins from
+India, however, giving a brilliant hue to some of these dusky little
+box-like shops. A whole bazaar is put aside for the workers in metals.
+It forms a thatched square, divided up by low walls, some three feet in
+height, like sheep-pens, in which the various metal-workers sit, each
+with his forge. The scene is a most picturesque one. The sunlight falling
+in through holes in the ill-thatched roofing strikes upon the burnished
+metal until the daggers and spear-heads sparkle and glisten like
+diamonds. The air is hazy with the fumes of the forges, and rings with
+the never-ceasing fall of the hammer upon the metals. And what workers!
+Great lithe men, grand in the exposure of their bare limbs; their
+raven locks loosely falling upon their shoulders, and waving backwards
+and forwards with the motion of the workmen’s bodies. The workmanship
+of Howta is rough. In spear-heads they excel; but they fail in the
+silver-work of their dagger-sheaths to attain the results reached by the
+silversmiths of the larger towns inland.
+
+Returning to the _café_ where I had put up, I found the camels ready to
+start, so mounting once more, we set out. Leaving the town behind us,
+the way took us for the first few miles through rich cultivated land,
+watered by a careful system of irrigation, and gorgeous in its verdure.
+Emerging from the fields, we struck into wilder country, torn up into
+great ravines by the Wadi Lahej—a river that, in the dry season, is but a
+tiny stream, but after rains a series of vast torrents, its many channels
+becoming filled with the huge mass of water, often carrying away much of
+the cultivated land, and doing no little damage. Sometimes the trunks
+of big trees from the far interior are carried over the desert—where at
+ordinary times the sand absorbs the water to such an extent that it never
+reaches the sea—and cast into the bay at Aden. From this it can be judged
+how severe are the rainfalls when such comparatively rare occurrences do
+take place.
+
+The river which I mention here under the name of the Wadi Lahej is also
+known by the name of the Mobarat. It has two channels to the sea, but, as
+already stated, is at most seasons exhausted by the desert sands of the
+low-lying coast country. The principal channel is the Wadi el-Kebir, or
+great river, which flows out near Hashma, a small village in the Bay of
+Aden, the other being the Wadi es-Seghir, or small river, which empties
+itself into the Ghubbat Seilan, a bay to the north-east of Aden, and
+formed by the peninsula itself and by Ras Seilan, a point some thirty
+miles along the coast.
+
+Wild and depressing the scene was. Ahead of us, almost as far as the eye
+could reach, stretched the desert, unbroken by even a single bush, and
+gradually sloping up to broken rocky peaks, which glowed a dull leaden
+crimson under the rays of the setting sun. We were leaving the oasis
+behind now, and no longer the peasants returning from the fields stood
+to gaze on us as we passed by; no longer their wild songs rang in our
+ears—songs sung by the sons of the desert and echoed by its daughters,
+as, hoe in hand, or leading the flocks and herds, they wandered back to
+the town. Now it was only occasionally that a warrior with spear passed
+us, on foot or on camel-back. Then night fell,—night such as we had
+experienced on the previous march, and which I have so dismally failed to
+describe,—night which fails all description. But we went on, the camels
+patiently plodding their way. It was eleven o’clock before we halted and
+spread our carpet under a clump of thorny trees, close to the river-bed,
+which we had been following since our departure from Howta. Here we
+rested for a few hours, our fire twinkling and flickering and bursting
+into little flames as we threw the thorny twigs upon it, for the night
+was chilly and a heavy dew falling.
+
+There is no water, the Arabs say, more poisonous than this stream of
+Lahej, and we had been carefully warned against drinking it; but in
+spite of this my servants regaled themselves plenteously from its
+feverish stream. There is no fallacy greater than to suppose the average
+Arab can go long without water. In cases of hereditary necessity perhaps
+they do, but in all my experience of foreign lands I have seen no
+thirstier race than the Arabs. They are for ever drinking. All my journey
+through the Yemen, my men were constantly alighting from their animals to
+drink. In the mountains, where the water as a rule was good, this led to
+no bad results; but their constant habit of drinking from slimy pools and
+nasty streams brought on attacks of fever in the cases of both Saïd and
+Abdurrahman. No more unpleasant position can be imagined than that of a
+traveller with two fever-stricken servants, both shouting that they were
+going to die, and refusing to take quinine because it tasted so nasty.
+The drinking of this water of Lahej brought on fever in both these men. I
+provided them with unlimited coffee, which, with boiling the water, does
+away with a great part of the risk; but, rather than have the trouble of
+making it, they preferred to drink the poisonous liquid. However, they
+suffered for their perversity.
+
+It was dawn when we started again, pale-grey dawn, which struck cold and
+chilly. An hour or two of desert, unbroken in its monotony; but away
+ahead of us we could see the outpost fort of the Sultan of the Houshabi
+tribe, whose territory we were soon to enter, and a few miles nearer,
+half hidden in thick thorn-trees, the frontier castle of the Sultan of
+Lahej.
+
+We had hoped to make a good march, but fate was against us, for after a
+few hours on the road a gentle wind rose up. At first it was cool and
+refreshing, but as the heat of the day increased it became laden with
+fine grains of sand, and by no means so pleasant. At length it became
+unbearable, the stinging sensation as the sand struck one’s hands and
+face being most painful. Calling a halt, we crawled under some thick
+bushes, the men hurriedly arranging a strip of canvas so as to obtain
+the most protection from its scanty folds. We were only just in time,
+for a few seconds after, having crawled under its shade, the wind
+increased in strength and became a veritable gale. The sand, which up
+till now had been but thin, commenced whirling up in clouds until the
+air became darkened with it. Huddling together, we tied our turbans over
+our mouths and waited for a cessation. It required three of us to hold
+on to the slender covering of canvas—a mere strip that I used to put
+between the carpet and the ground—to prevent its being carried away. The
+desert wind was intense in its heat, and the burning, gritty grains of
+sand found their way under one’s clothing and into one’s ears and eyes
+until life became unendurable. I had seen a sandstorm or two before in
+my life, but none like this. The poor grumbling camels lay down and
+wagged their necks slowly from side to side, while the Arabs cursed. A
+sandstorm is lovely in a picture, and is exciting to read about, but
+personally to experience it is quite another thing, and for the three or
+four hours that we lay panting for breath under those thorny mimosa-trees
+we suffered exceedingly. So strong was the sand-laden wind that it was
+impossible for the men to go even as far as the river to get water, and
+our throats were parched with thirst. In spite of the suffering, however,
+one could not help noticing the extraordinary atmospheric effect. The sky
+took a brick-dust red hue, and seemed literally to glow, the fierce sun
+burning scarlet and fiery through it all, though at times even the sun
+was scarcely visible. Happily it was the only sandstorm we experienced on
+the whole journey, and I hope I may never see a second such as it was.
+
+Almost as suddenly as the gale had come on it died down again, and
+during the afternoon we were able once more to push on upon our journey.
+Reaching El-Amat, a fort of the Sultan of the Houshabi tribe, I delivered
+the letter of recommendation I bore from the Political Resident at
+Aden, and, refusing the Sheikh’s kind invitation to alight, pushed on.
+This fort, like that of the Sultan of Lahej which we had passed shortly
+before, is a large, square, mud building, two storeys in height. Useful
+as it may be in times of war as a defence against Arabs armed only with
+matchlock-guns and spears, it would not stand a couple of shot from any
+field-gun, unless the structure is so soft that the ball would go right
+through it, as is not improbable. Near this spot we came across a herd of
+gazelle, but they were gone and out of sight long before we came within
+range.
+
+The tribe in whose country we now were is the Houshabi. They have always
+been on the best of terms with the British, and on the murder of Captain
+Milne in 1851, elsewhere referred to, they refused to harbour the
+assassin, a fanatical Shereef. By their position they have an advantage
+over the Abdali tribe, of which Lahej is the capital, as the river of
+the latter is supplied with water from the ravines and mountains of the
+interior of the Houshabi territory, and they have on several occasions
+in times of war been known to divert its course. However, happily, the
+relations of the two tribes are for the most part friendly, so that it is
+not often that they have recourse to such extreme measures.
+
+On again over the desert, which, as we approached the rocky hills, showed
+more signs of vegetation and life. Here and there were Arabs tending
+flocks and herds and cattle, though what there was for them to graze upon
+beyond the thorny bushes it was difficult to say. At length we left the
+sandy plain and entered a deep narrow gorge at the foot of Jibel Menif,
+a high barren mountain. Here the scene entirely changed. Instead of over
+the open expanse of desert, our way now led us between walls of rock,
+the path often a mere track in the river-bed, in which at places water
+was running, and at others had sunk for a time below the surface.
+
+Afternoon was well on, and the change from the sunlight outside to
+the cool depths of the gorge was a pleasant one, but the scene looked
+sepulchral and gloomy. The rocks with which the river-bed was strewn and
+the cliffs on either hand were of a curious black colour; nor did the
+scanty vegetation, consisting principally of what the Arabs call _athl_,
+a thorny mimosa, do much by their verdure to enliven the scene, for in
+spite of their proximity to a stream which made some pretence at running
+water, they looked parched and withered and dry.
+
+The gloomy effect increased as the evening came on. Although the sky
+above us was still streaked with the radiance of the setting sun, we in
+the gorge caught only its barest reflection, and a deep purple gloom
+seemed to settle over everything. At one spot by a deep pool in the rock
+a caravan was settling in for the night. The wild cries and singing of
+the Arabs, and the groaning of the camels as they were being unladen,
+added much to the weird effect of their already lit camp-fires, by the
+light of which we could catch glimpses of the wild fellows as they
+hurried to and fro, spears in hand, preparing for the night. However, we
+did not stop, but with an exchange of “Salaam âlikoum,”[36] passed on
+into the night. The darkness was complete, but the uneven state of the
+ground and the constant ups-and-downs in the path clearly demonstrated
+that we had left the river-bed, and were crossing country at right angles
+apparently to the streams and nullahs, judging by the constant ascents
+and descents.
+
+A few hours later we caught glimpses of fires in the jungle, and one of
+the Bedouins creeping on ahead and exchanging a few remarks with the
+camel-men who were spending the night there, he called to me to proceed,
+and glad I was to cry to my camel to lie down, and a few minutes later
+to stretch myself on my carpet before a fire, in the camp of an Arab
+caravan, at a spot called Zaida. The villages in this part of the Yemen
+are few and far between, and what there are belong almost entirely to
+wandering tribes of Bedouins, who are here to-day and who knows where
+to-morrow; so that the caravans passing up and down the rough track that
+leads into the interior have to camp where best they can, regardless of
+the whereabouts of humankind, being dependent upon their own resources
+for food and fodder.
+
+We spent the whole of the next day at this spot, for the reason, our men
+said, of resting the camels; but I rather think they had fallen in with
+fellow-tribesmen and friends amongst the caravan-men with whom we were
+sharing camp. However, I was not sorry; for, anxious as I was to push
+on into the interior, the rest was by no means unpleasant, and I found
+plenty to amuse and interest in the people by whom I was surrounded.
+Fortunately, too, there were Bedouin shepherds in the neighbourhood,
+and fresh food was procurable, while a few thorn-trees gave a little
+shade from the sun’s fierce rays. Amongst the caravan-men was a Turkish
+soldier, fleeing from the starvation and cruelty and misery then existing
+amongst the Osmanli troops engaged in crushing the rebellion in the
+Yemen. His neck and wrists and ankles were deeply wounded by the fetters
+he had been made to wear, for once before he had deserted but been
+recaptured. A very considerable number of these deserters from time to
+time reach Aden, whence, after they have made a little money—for they are
+always ready to work—they embark once more for their native lands, often
+some hill-tribe of Asia Minor. In no way was the hospitable character
+of the Arabs better shown than by their kindness to these Turkish
+runaways. As long as they were soldiers in the service of the Osmanli
+Government they were looked upon as lawful game by the Arabs, and any
+who bore a weapon was liable to be shot at any time; but as soon as they
+threw down their arms and sought the protection of the Arabs and their
+aid in assisting them to escape, they became their brother-men, their
+co-religionists, and the poor half-starved fellows were fed by their
+_quondam_ enemies, and often given money to help them on their road to
+places where their recapture would be improbable. I saw many instances
+of this during the time I was in the country, and quite a number of the
+Turkish deserters spoke to me with tears of gratitude of the kindness
+they had received from the Arabs. Happily there were less melancholy
+sights to see and less doleful stories to listen to during the day we
+lay under the shade of the thorn-trees. A number of young Arabs, youths
+learning the art of becoming caravan-men, had brought with them their
+pets, for the most part apes and monkeys, with which the valleys of the
+Yemen abound, and great fun it was watching them playing and jumping on
+the backs of the camels. They were very tame, and confined by no chains,
+being quite loose to go and wander where they pleased, but never leaving
+their friends the camels, which munched their fodder regardless of the
+antics being carried on upon their backs. It was difficult to say which
+were the most active, the monkeys or their masters.
+
+But still more amusing were the strolling musicians, dancers, and players
+on pipes and drums, who, finding a little piece of level sand, exhibited
+their strange dances before me. There were three of these mummers amongst
+the Arabs. Standing in line, they struck up their music, one beating a
+rough drum, one playing on a double pipe, the other singing. As they
+sang they stepped slowly backwards and forwards, at periods turning and
+twisting round. Strange nude creatures they were, with long silky hair
+and silver daggers, and the eye never tired of watching their graceful
+movements.
+
+Saïd and Abdurrahman took advantage of our delay to cook bread. However,
+owing to the fact that we had no baking-powder nor anything to take its
+place, and that it had to be cooked in Arab fashion by rolling the dough
+round a heated stone, it was not altogether a great success. Hunger,
+nevertheless, rendered it palatable. As for butter, we had not yet
+broached the pot of ghee that Saïd had purchased before we left Aden.
+It was rancid then, and the few days of hot sun on the back of a camel
+had not added to its charm, though it had added very considerably to
+its flavour. When we opened the clay with which the jar was sealed the
+whole valley became full of its odours. One could have run a drag with
+only a crust and three drops of it. Once having opened the jar, the
+Arabs went for it wholesale. It served them for two purposes—for fodder,
+and as pomade for their raven locks. The manner in which they applied
+it did not make its consumption more appetising, for they dipped their
+long fingers into the jar and then ran them through their hair until the
+effect was gorgeously shiny—at a distance. At close quarters the odour
+rather negatived the picturesqueness. Of course I could have brought
+stores from Aden; but to have attempted to enter Yemen with anything like
+a caravan would have been impossible, as the suspicions of the Turks on
+the frontier would have been excited. I had decided to take as little as
+possible, so as to be able to pass as a poor Greek trader; nor had I laid
+my plans unsuccessfully, for the scarcity of stores was well compensated
+by the facilities I gained on account of having so small a quantity of
+baggage.
+
+Later in the afternoon we made a start. The road was dreary and desolate,
+continually ascending and descending, and strewn with black stones and
+rocks that rendered our progress very slow. Almost the only level piece
+we crossed was a great circle of rocky ground enclosed on all sides by
+hills, the whole bearing the appearance of having been the crater of a
+volcano; and as all the surrounding mountains show signs of volcanic
+action, this hypothesis is not at all improbable. Late at night we
+reached the village of El-Melh, where were a few miserable Bedouin huts;
+but on the inhabitants assuring us that they possessed neither water nor
+provisions to spare, and evidently looking upon us with some suspicion,
+we proceeded on our way. The track was rough, and one had to clutch on to
+the ropes that held our scanty baggage to the camel’s backs to prevent
+being hurled bodily off down the steep sides of some nullah. At long
+length, camp-fires ahead told of some caravan bivouacking there, a sure
+sign of water, and our camels hurried forward, and without even a call to
+make them lie down, wearily deposited us amongst a group of Arabs seated
+round a few blazing fires. Their spears, stuck in the ground before them,
+flashed and flashed again in the dancing firelight; but the appearance of
+fierceness was belied by their kindly welcome, and an invitation to dip
+my fingers with them in the steaming pots of food. Watering the camels
+and giving them fodder, we returned once more to the fires, and spent the
+night in songs and story-telling.
+
+Before daylight we were on our road again, following for a little way
+the course of the river Sailet el-Melh. The country here had become
+more mountainous, one flat-topped peak being particularly noticeable.
+The natives call it Dhu-biyat, but I can find no mention of this name
+elsewhere. On the summit is a tomb, that of a certain Seyed Hasan, about
+whom there seemed to be traditions of his having possessed remarkable
+powers, but as to whose history apparent ignorance prevailed, nor can I
+find any records of any powerful Imam having been buried on this spot. It
+is probable that he was merely some local Seyed or Shereef, and that his
+repute has not reached the centres of Arabian civilisation. The summit of
+this mountain is said to be quite flat and rich in pasture, and Bedouins
+of the Houshabi tribe have built a village there, and graze their flocks
+and herds. Near this spot the valley opens out, and one enters the Beled
+Alajioud, a level plain of green fields, with a river flowing through its
+centre. Here one leaves the wandering Bedouin tribes and enters a land
+of fixed abodes, for houses well built of rough stone stand about the
+valley; and at one spot is a village perched on a slight eminence, and
+crowned with a square tower. This turned out to be the border village
+of the Aloui tribe, to the representative of whom—a village Sheikh—I
+presented my credentials. There was the usual group of men and women and
+children and dogs, the usual exchange of compliments and banter; and
+although at first they had appeared a little high-handed, we parted the
+best of friends.
+
+The country hereabouts shows signs of cultivation, large fields being
+green with the durra. As the sun was very hot, we halted in the middle
+of the wide bed of the Khoreiba river, and settled ourselves down under
+a clump of oleander-bushes. The scenery was prettier here than any we
+had seen, as there were more trees to vary the dull monotony of the
+reddish-black rock and the yellow land. We had been seated about an hour
+when there came skimming along the river-bed, mounted on a beautiful
+camel, a veritable Apollo of an Arab, a specimen of the finest type of
+the Yemen race, whom perhaps it is scarcely justifiable to call Arabs at
+all, so much has their blood become mixed since the days of Kahtan, the
+founder of the Yemenite tribes, and Adnan, that of the Arab. However, the
+term Arab can be generally used, as there are scarcely any discernible
+differences, except in traditions, between the Arab and the Yemen blood.
+Noticing us, the man alighted from his camel and crawled into the shade
+in which we were sitting. After coffee, wishing to give the new-comer
+an example of the powers of the Christian tribes—as he called them—I
+unpacked an electric machine I had with me in my sack of bedding, and
+administered a gentle shock to the beautiful Arab. He never lost his
+presence of mind,—he merely smiled, rose and girded up his loins, mounted
+his camel, and sped as fast as the slight little desert dromedary could
+carry him down the river-bed.
+
+The camels of the southern district of the Yemen are famous for their
+breed and fleetness. They are slightly built, with fine legs, the very
+opposite to the heavy slow-paced camels of North Africa. Many are
+especially kept and trained for riding purposes, and their fleetness
+is extraordinary. However, this breed seems not to exist any farther
+in the interior than about eighty miles, as where the country becomes
+mountainous we find a heavy, shaggy, black camel, the very opposite to
+his brother of the Teháma, as the plains which divide the highlands of
+the Yemen from the sea are called.
+
+While we were still laughing over the flight of the Arab on coming in
+contact with civilisation in the guise of a small electric machine,
+two Englishmen appeared in view, riding horses, and guarded by a
+considerable number of Indian troopers and a few of the Aden corps, and
+followed by a large train of baggage-animals. I had been told before
+leaving Aden that I might meet a surveying-party under Captains Domville
+and Wahab, who had been told off by the Indian Government to organise a
+survey of the tribe-lands lying between the Turkish frontier and Aden.
+Although they had been successful up to this point, they began here to
+meet with difficulties on the part of the natives, which at length, after
+I had passed on into Turkish Yemen, became so demonstrative that guns
+were once or twice resorted to by the natives, and the scheme had to be
+abandoned before it was completely carried out. I spent the afternoon
+with them, and very pleasant it was. I was able also to obtain from them
+the correction of my aneroid barometer, for so far I had not resorted to
+boiling-point tubes, keeping what few instruments I had with me as much
+as possible in the dark, so as to excite as little suspicion as possible.
+
+After dinner in the luxurious camp of Captains Wahab and Domville, I
+sauntered back to find my men already preparing to load the camels, and
+soon after midnight we made a start. It was a bright, clear, moonlight
+night, but chill and cold, a sure sign that we were ascending to the
+highlands, which an altitude of nearly two thousand feet on my barometer
+showed to be the case. The Arabs shivered and chattered as we pushed
+along through the valley. Presently the road ascended on the left side
+of the stream, and we crossed a plateau at an elevation of a few hundred
+feet above the river. The cold as dawn appeared became almost intense,
+and I was glad to alight from my camel and run races with my men, getting
+often a long way ahead of the caravan. Then we would sit down and light a
+little fire of mimosa-twigs, over which we would huddle together to keep
+warm until the camels caught us up again.
+
+[Illustration: _A Valley in Yemen_.]
+
+Dawn changed to sunset, and the world became alive again. The scenery
+had altered. We had once more entered the valley of the Khoreiba river,
+and still the great, bare, rocky mountains rose on either side; but
+the valley itself was green and fresh, and the banks of the stream,
+which appeared in places tumbling and dancing over the rocks, again to
+disappear below the surface, were covered with thick jungle of dense
+tropical vegetation, the trees hung with garlands of creepers. Birds
+chirruped and hopped from bough to bough; great painted butterflies
+sailed by, rivalling the sunrise sky in gorgeousness; and monkeys and
+apes chattered and grunted on the steep mountain-sides. After the journey
+of desert and rock, the change was a delightful one. Spying a few female
+camels grazing in the jungle, we surmised that there must be a Bedouin
+encampment near, so, alighting from my lofty perch, I set out with a
+couple of the men to find them—no difficult task, as we came across them
+within the first half-hour. They had pitched their little mat huts in a
+natural clearing in the thick vegetation, where they sat idly about, the
+women carrying firewood and milking the cows, the men, each armed with
+his dagger and spear, smoking long wooden-stemmed pipes with clay bowls.
+
+They received us kindly, and we had soon joined their little circle,
+and were chatting away as if we had known each other for years. Great
+laughter was caused by a very elderly female, with buttered hair—rancid
+butter, if you please—and greasy saffron-dyed cheeks, kissing me. The
+joke I could not for a time understand; but it finally turned out that
+the fact that I was clean shaven and in breeches led her to suppose that
+I was of the female gender, as in the Yemen the men wear loin-cloths and
+allow their beards to grow on the points of the chin, while the women
+decorate their lower limbs in tight-fitting trousers. The old hag, on
+being pointed out her mistake, laughed as much as any; and while I was
+engaged in scraping the saffron and butter off my blushing cheeks, went
+off to fetch us a big bowl of fresh goat’s milk.
+
+Shouts from our camel-men in the river warned us that we must not remain
+any longer, so pushing our way through the thick brushwood, we resought
+the river-bed and mounted once again.
+
+[Illustration: _Castle of Amir of Dhala._]
+
+At nine o’clock, the sun being very hot, we unloaded under the shade of
+some big umbrageous trees, and settled in for the heat of the day. At our
+feet ran the river, dancing and rippling over its pebbly bed, for all the
+world like some Highland trout-stream, except for the fact that above
+and around it twined masses of flowering creepers and strange aloes,
+while a palm-tree here and there raised its feathery head above the dense
+undergrowth. Away on the opposite side of the river, about half a mile
+distant, and perched on the summit of a high rock, loomed the frontier
+fort of the Amir of Dhala, a square tower surrounded by some lower
+buildings. The place looked a regular acropolis, and seemed impregnable.
+On a gorgeous Sheikh arriving, I presented the last of the letters
+which I had brought from Aden, for the Dhala territory was the farthest
+in touch with the British authorities, and beyond lay Turkish Yemen.
+Evidently he considered the epistle satisfactory, although he was unable
+to read it, and he spent the day with us there. A right good fellow he
+was; but his reports of the turbulent state of the tribes beyond, and of
+the murder and plunder with which the mountaineers were daily amusing
+themselves, were anything but reassuring. He informed me that the name of
+our halting-place was Mjisbeyeh, of which I found the altitude to be two
+thousand five hundred feet above the sea-level.
+
+Off again in the afternoon, passing the picturesque village of Thoba,
+above which to the left we caught another glimpse of Jibel Dhu-biyat,
+with its white-domed tomb. The fact that we had now entered the land
+of fixed abodes became every hour more apparent. At places were signs
+of skilful irrigation, while ever and anon villages of stone houses
+piled on to the summits of rocks peeped from amongst the green fields
+and the mimosa-trees. One of these, by name Aredoah, was particularly
+picturesque, although the surrounding country was more barren than it
+had been. The scenery, too, became very fine. The black volcanic rocky
+hills had given place to mountains of limestone, which towered above the
+surrounding country. Principal amongst these were Jibál Ahurram and
+Ashari.
+
+At one spot a charming scene met our eyes. Under the shade of a great
+creeper-clad rock sat an old schoolmaster, book and rod in hand, while
+at his feet squatted a number of small boys, into whose heads he was
+apparently beating verses from the Koran. A regular stampede occurred at
+our approach, and the young _tholba_[37] rushed alongside our animals
+clamouring for alms. I got one or two to show me the books from which
+they were studying, and found them to be excellently printed copies of
+the Koran from Beyrout.
+
+As evening came on we kept passing the flocks and herds, lowing as they
+came in from pasture, driven by, or more often following, some child,
+who, with wide-open eyes, would stand still and cease the music of its
+cane pipe to watch our little cavalcade go by. Not a breath of wind was
+stirring, and the smoke from the evening fires of the little stone houses
+curled up and up, all mauve and purple, into the cloudless sky. In groups
+the men sat about, under the shade of the trees, idly listening to the
+hum of the insects and the song of many a tiny stream. The whole scene
+was one of perfect peace.
+
+The track then entered a narrow gorge between high precipices of rock,
+from which echoed and re-echoed the cries of the apes and monkeys. We
+were entering the country known as Beled Ashari, under the rule of the
+Amir of Dhala,—quiet, peaceable folk, shepherds and tenders of flocks.
+
+As we proceeded, the gorge narrowed until the scenery in the dusky
+evening light became almost oppressive. Just before darkness set in we
+arrived at our halting-place, at Khoreiba, below the village of the Amir
+of Bishi, where, under the shelter of a great _b’dam_ tree, we settled
+in for the night. The village is built of stone, and situated on the
+left bank of the river, the collection of stone houses being overlooked
+by a strange pile of natural rock crowned with a still stranger tower,
+a position that completely commands the valley. The altitude of this
+spot I made to be four thousand feet above the sea-level. The spot was a
+charming one, with the green valley below us, and above the perpendicular
+precipices, too steep almost for any scrub to hang to. Here and there
+along the river-bed were shade-giving trees, which stood out black
+against the fields of young corn, as yet only a few inches in height.
+
+[Illustration: KHOREIBA.]
+
+The success of my journey depended on the next day or two. We were fast
+nearing the Turkish frontier. Should I be allowed to pass? To have to
+turn back would mean the most bitter disappointment. Each day’s march was
+interesting me more and more in the country I was passing through, and
+very keen I was to carry my journey to a successful issue, and to reach
+Sanaa, the capital; especially keen, perhaps, as, with but one exception,
+every one at Aden had prophesied failure, and told me I was insane to
+venture into the Yemen at the time of the rebellion, when even in days of
+peace it was rash and unsafe.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+ACROSS THE TURKISH FRONTIER.
+
+
+We had left the Amir of Bishi’s village some way behind when the sun rose
+the following morning. The track continues along the river-bed until
+the valley terminates in a steep ascent. However, the old-world Arabs
+have built a paved way up the slope, which renders its surmounting much
+easier than it otherwise would be,—not that it is by any means a simple
+process as it is. Scrambling up on foot, we reached the summit some time
+before the camels, and were able to rest for a time and watch the poor
+grunting brutes toiling in and out the intricate turns in the path; for
+it is a mere track winding through great piles of overturned rock, and
+along the edges of steep inclines. I found the ascent from the valley of
+Khoreiba to the summit to be over six hundred and fifty feet, giving us
+an altitude of nearly five thousand feet above the sea-level. The view
+looking back was a very lovely one. Below us lay the valley of Khoreiba,
+shut in with its precipitous walls of rock, under which, amongst green
+fields and shady trees, flowed the river, a streak of silver thread. Away
+beyond at the farther end of the valley one caught glimpses of the peaks
+of other mountains, rearing their fantastic heads into the clear morning
+sky.
+
+When the camels caught us up we filled up our water-bottles at a spring
+of clear water and set off again. These water-bottles—_zemzemiya_ they
+call them in the Yemen, and in Morocco _guerba_ (plural _guerab_)—are a
+regular institution of Arab travel, nor would it be possible to proceed
+without them. They are made of leather, those in Arabia being cut into
+shape, while those of Morocco are the whole skins.
+
+Now and then we would catch a glimpse of a herd of apes scampering away
+up the steep rocks with resounding grunts; but more often we could only
+hear their cries, for their colour does much to conceal them from view
+amongst the limestone rocks.
+
+So cool and pleasant was the air at the elevation we had reached, that
+instead of remounting our camels, who, poor beasts, were tired with
+the rocky ascent, we strode out on foot. Leaving the village of Dar
+en-Nekil on our right, we passed through a gorge of low walls of rock,
+and then descended to the level of the plateau, which here extends for a
+considerable distance, broken now and again by rocky peaks and hills.
+This plateau, one with that on which Dhala is situated, may be said to
+circle round Jibel Jahaf, a limestone mountain situated just above the
+large village of Jelileh, where, although not within their frontier as
+delimitated, there is a small Turkish fort. The plain is well cultivated,
+and ploughing was in active progress at the time of my visit, besides
+being dotted with trees; but from the fact that the young corn had not
+yet commenced to push, the country looked somewhat barren and dreary.
+
+Across the plateau all passage seems to be blocked by an immense range of
+mountains, one continued precipice without any apparent break. The range
+bears two names,—the eastern part Jibel Mrais, and the western Jibel
+Haddha. A few miles over the plain brought us to a steep ascent leading
+to the village of Jelileh. Although the absolute frontier of the Turks
+is at Kátaba, a town a few hours’ distance to the north-west, they have
+erected here a fort, and over a round tower perched on a hillock floated
+the red flag with its star and crescent.
+
+[Illustration: _A Girl of the Yemen._]
+
+One of my camel-men was a native of this village, and it was to please
+the good fellow that I decided to spend a night there, as otherwise
+I should have been tempted to push on and try to cross the frontier
+that day. Wishing to avoid as much attention as possible on the part
+of the inhabitants, I did not spend any time in the village street,
+but alighted from my camel at the door of the yard of my man’s house,
+and at once entered his abode. As a typical Yemen house of the poorer
+class, some description may not be out of place. Like all the dwellings
+in the highlands of the Yemen, it was built of solid squared stone, and
+consisted of two large towers, some thirty feet square at the base and
+twenty at the summit. The lower floor contained an arched stable, the
+roofing supported on pillars of stone. To the next storey an outside
+stairway led one. This floor contained a passage and two decent-sized
+rooms, the walls plastered on the inside and the ceiling made of wood.
+The floors, like the walls, were coated in cement. The staircase
+continuing led one on to the flat terraced roof, round which ran a stone
+wall some three feet high. The whole showed a great amount of labour and
+no little skill in its construction. The second tower was larger, but
+being put aside for the women, I did not of course see the interior of
+it. It contained, however, four storeys. Into one of these rooms in the
+men’s tower I was shown by my host, who, no sooner was this accomplished,
+was flying all over the place stirring up his womenfolk with entreaties
+and curses to prepare a meal befitting such a guest. Meanwhile from my
+window I could obtain a very good view of the surrounding country, ay,
+and more, of my host’s wives and daughters. How ugly they were! What
+little attraction nature might have given them was completely concealed
+under their artificial adornments. Their hair, plastered with butter over
+their foreheads in straight fringes, literally dripped with grease, while
+their copper skins were thick with paint the colour of red-lead, arranged
+in a triangle on either cheek, as well defined as is that of the clown in
+our Christmas pantomimes. Their loose upper garment was more attractive,
+being of dark-blue linen embroidered round the neck, sleeves, and edge
+in coloured silks; but to do away with any grace which this simple and
+classical garment might give them, they encased their legs in ill-fitting
+indigo trousers, with embroidery round the ankles. However, my host was
+evidently very proud of his ladies; for no sooner did he catch a glimpse
+of them peeping over the parapet of their apartments, or straining their
+heads out of the little windows, than he would shout vociferously to them
+to retreat, which they would do, again to reappear and continue their
+criticisms of the newly arrived stranger. Meanwhile the male relations
+of my camel-man had appeared, to join me in the feast which was being
+prepared,—men and youths and boys, nearly a score in all, who quite
+filled up the two rooms and passage of our apartments, while nearly every
+one brought his long straight pipe or his hubble-bubble, and there was
+a murmur and gurgling of water as we inhaled the cool smoke. Besides
+the guests who arrived to call we had other visitors, those tamest of
+wild beasts—the fleas. It is strange that while many an author has told
+of the friendly fellowship of the dog and the horse toward mankind, the
+intense love of companionship of the flea toward the human being has
+been neglected. There is no need to tame him artificially: the moment he
+is old enough to swallow food he becomes the friend of man—nay, more,
+he will never willingly part company with him, especially in Arabia.
+His only equal is the mosquito, and for affection he almost beats the
+flea. As I write these lines one has been settling on my hand, and on my
+refusing to notice him he called attention to his presence by a gentle
+nip—result, a large white lump; and when I tried playfully to catch him,
+he flew away: they always do.
+
+On my next day’s march depended the success of my journey. Once across
+the Turkish frontier, I felt that unless any unforeseen event occurred I
+should reach my goal. But I knew how strict the orders were to allow no
+stranger to enter Turkish Yemen, lest news of the rebellion, which had
+for some months been disturbing the country, should leak out. However, I
+felt that I was attacking the least probable frontier of the country,
+and one where they would scarcely be expecting a stranger to attempt to
+enter.
+
+A ride of only a few hours brought us the following day from Jelileh to
+the _jimerouk_ or custom-house of Kátaba, situated on the south side of
+the Wadi Esh-Shari, and about three miles distant from the town, which
+lies to the north, off the caravan-road. The ride was a short but a hot
+one, and except that all the plain was under plough, the country seemed
+dry and desolate. Away to the right could be seen the large village
+of Thoba, a collection of towers on a rocky hill, from which stand
+up prominently the white domes of a mosque and tomb, forming quite a
+landmark on a scene otherwise a monotone in yellow.
+
+The buildings of the frontier custom-house consist of a low block,
+forming a fort and a large enclosure for the camels and mules of the
+caravan-owners, the whole covering a large extent of ground. The lower
+rooms of the main building are used as stores for the goods in transit,
+while the portion of the upper storey not inhabited by the officials is
+divided up into small rooms for the use of people passing and repassing,
+being let out on hire at so much per night. The whole place wore a
+depressing and a depressed look. For three months no caravans had passed
+over the roads, and trade was dull. The goods on their way up from Aden
+to Sanaa lay strewn about the place, as there were no means for their
+further transit. Three months before, the last caravan to go through had
+been looted, and a ransom of three hundred and sixty dollars had to be
+paid before the merchants had been released by the mountaineers.
+
+It seemed strange to think that on that yellow building depended the
+success of my journey, and it was with anxious thoughts that I passed
+through its open gateway, by the side of which, in the depth of a
+cave-like chamber, an old Arab was brewing coffee. Dismounting in the
+yard, I sought a shady corner to sit down in while my men went and routed
+out the authorities. A few minutes later they appeared, and such a group
+they formed! First came an exceedingly dirty Turk in a filthy shirt and
+a well-worn pair of military trousers; following him appeared a gorgeous
+creature arrayed in purple and fine raiment, no less a person than the
+Sheikh Besaisi, well known for his influence amongst the Arab tribes,
+and by happy fortune a kinsman of the most disreputable and savage of
+my camel-men. His clothes, too, need description. On his bullet-shaped
+head he wore an immense yellow-and-crimson turban, wound round with a
+camel-hair and gold cord; flowing robes of dark-blue silk were fastened
+at the waist with a yellow sash, in which was stuck one of the most
+beautiful daggers I have ever seen. This _jambiya_ was of exquisite
+silver-work inlaid with gold Byzantine coins of the reign of Constantine.
+A few rough turquoises in the sheath gave a tint of colour to one of the
+most beautiful weapons I ever saw. I longed to make a bid for it; but I
+knew that should I ever mention so large a sum as its value, my chance of
+getting on would be so much the more diminished, for it was certain that
+I should be gently squeezed before being allowed to proceed, and that
+did I let out that I had any considerable sum of money with me, it would
+make the squeezing a more serious process, and perhaps prevent my getting
+on at all, and certainly announce to the world in general that I was
+worth robbing. Following the Besaisi crept a wizened man of perhaps some
+thirty-five years of age, dressed in the costume of the people of Mecca.
+These three were the officials of the _jimerouk_, though they resembled
+rather three characters of opera-bouffe.
+
+Salutations over, I was asked to ascend, and a few minutes later found
+myself seated with my hosts in a small, stuffy, and very dirty room. They
+were too polite to ask straight out who I was, so I began to open the
+attack myself. I had been to Turkey; the man who had not seen Stamboul
+had never lived! Glorious Stamboul! All the world over it was a pleasure
+to meet the Turk; he was always a gentleman, always kind and polite; and
+how inexpressibly glad I was to meet the Turk before me he might imagine,
+after I had been travelling all the way from Aden with only camel-men and
+a couple of uneducated servants; and would he accept a box of cigarettes
+and an amber cigarette-holder, which I had brought from my little
+shop in Port Said with me,—where, by the by, my wife and children were
+starving—(signs of tears)—owing to this accursed rebellion; three months
+the coffee I had bought in Sanaa had been lying there, and for the dear
+wife and little ones’ sakes—(tears)—I was imperilling my life in these
+strange lands to get my coffee down: meanwhile my brother, a Greek like
+myself, was looking after the shop; and how delightful the Turks always
+were, &c., &c. So much for number one, my friend in the dirty shirt; now
+for number two.
+
+Was this, then, the Sheikh Besaisi? No; it could not be that my infidel
+eyes were blessed with the sight of his honourable corpulency. His fame
+was all over the world. Port Said rang with his name. His honour, his
+boundless wealth—(exorbitant old tax-gatherer!)—his immense charities,
+were famous throughout all countries: indeed this was a blessed day for
+me. (Box of cigarettes and amber mouthpiece)—number two dead.
+
+Whence came he, number three? No; it could not be that his family was
+from Fez. Mulai Idris, their patron saint, might he protect me! Had I
+known that I was destined to meet a Fez Moor here, I should have hurried
+up from Aden. Fez, every street of it, I knew, from the tomb of Sidi Ali
+bou Rhaleb to the Dar al Makhzen: and here was Abdurrahman, a Tangier
+Moor. How good the Deity had been in joining us together in the bonds
+of friendship!—cigarettes and amber mouthpiece; general embracings and
+_tableau_! _Exeunt_ officials. Screams of laughter from Saïd, which I had
+to choke by sitting on him on the top of my mattress, lest he should be
+heard—and then coffee.
+
+No Englishman crossed the frontier into Turkish Yemen in January of 1892.
+No; the only stranger was a penurious Greek shopkeeper of Port Said, who
+rode his baggage-camel. He was attempting to reach Sanaa to obtain some
+loads of coffee he had bought; and so great was his love for his wife and
+children that he was running the risk of being murdered and plundered in
+order to obtain money to buy them food, and to save them from an untimely
+death from starvation. I think they believed my story: if they didn’t at
+first, a few dollars wisely expended proved to them that it was true, and
+after two days of artificial tears and real dollars permission was given
+me to proceed. But the squeezing was not quite at an end, and my rifle
+was taken from me, on account of no arms being allowed to enter the Yemen
+during the rebellion. For this I demanded and obtained a receipt, and
+eventually, after eight months’ delay, the rifle.[38] However, I would
+willingly have sacrificed anything I had at the time, so long as I was
+allowed to proceed. It was an anxious two days, for until within an hour
+or two before my leaving the _jimerouk_ I had not received any answer to
+my petition to be allowed to proceed.
+
+At length they told me I might go on. Meanwhile Saïd had been at work.
+Our camels were tired, and he had arranged that only one should proceed,
+a couple of mules being supplied in the place of the other two. This
+my men agreed to, as they preferred to hire mules on, rather than have
+their camels attempt the next few days’ journey, one of the greatest
+difficulty, and which necessitated as silent and as quick marches as
+possible, as the country was in a most disturbed condition. Happily the
+contract which I had made at Aden stipulated that in country in which
+camels travelled with difficulty mules were to be supplied, and I had no
+trouble in having this carried out, although, unfortunately, only two
+mules were forthcoming. The simplicity with which my animals were changed
+for me seemed extraordinary; but the fact is that these caravan-roads
+are worked by “companies,” relays of animals being kept at various spots
+along the road for transporting goods from district to district or town
+to town.
+
+No doubt the manner in which the country is split up into tribal
+districts makes this necessary, while again the natural features of the
+Yemen are such as to render it almost impossible to take the same animals
+for any great distance. For instance, the fleet camels of the Abdali of
+Foudtheli districts would be useless in the precipices and ascents of
+the country between Kátaba and Yerim; while the mountain-mules suffer
+exceedingly in desert-travelling, their feet sinking deep into the soft
+hot sand.
+
+As soon as permission was granted me to proceed I was off. I did not wish
+to give the people in charge of the frontier any chance of changing their
+minds, so at mid-day, when they had all retired for their siesta, we
+sallied forth from the gate and entered Turkish Yemen.
+
+[Illustration: _Village of Aredoah._]
+
+I had told more untruths in the last forty-eight hours than I liked to
+think about; but, curious to say, my delight at having crept through was
+far more keen than any remorse I felt for my wickedness. The road does
+not enter the town of Kátaba, for which I was by no means sorry; for
+under the walls of the little place we could see a large Turkish camp
+pitched, that of the division of the army under Ismail Pasha, which had
+come on here after the retaking of Dhamar and Yerim, two of the larger
+cities of the central Yemen. Giving them a wide range, we soon were out
+of sight of the camp, and after crossing the Wadi Esh-Shari, we entered
+wild broken country, the foot-hills of the great range of mountains that
+appeared to block our way ahead. A sad incident happened before leaving
+the _jimerouk_. A poor Turk, whom I had noticed slouching about the
+place in rags, came to me just as I was leaving. Kissing my hand, he
+besought my protection in Turkish, which an Arab in the Osmanli service
+translated to me. His story was a pitiable one. He had been enrolled
+in the conscription from some village near Smyrna, and sent with his
+brother to fight in the Yemen. At length, after much fighting and many
+privations, he reached Kátaba, where the roll of the surviving troops
+was called. His name was not on the list, and it was found to have been
+a mistake that he ever left his native country. Ismail Pasha, then at
+Kátaba, commanded him to be stripped of his uniform and turned loose, on
+the ground that he was not a soldier of the Sultan’s at all. This was
+done, and the poor fellow wandered away, a stranger in a strange land,
+until the Sheikh Besaisi took pity on him, and fed him and clothed him
+(!) at the custom-house. He spoke no Arabic, and the Arab interpreting
+for him was the only one who spoke a word of his native tongue. He
+prayed me to take him on with me. This unfortunately was impossible. The
+presence of a Turk with me would render me very liable to danger from the
+Arabs; but I advised him to try and reach Aden, where, being as strong
+and good-looking a young fellow as ever lived, I felt sure he would get
+work, and in time find his way back. Beyond giving him the wherewithal to
+find his way to Aden, I was unable in any way to assist him.
+
+Rough as the country we were passing through was, it presented here and
+there little patches and valleys rich in cultivation. In many places the
+scenery resembled a lovely garden. The lawns were barley, scarcely three
+inches high, while trees stood here and there about the fields. Little
+streams and pools of water added an effect of coolness, while the rocky
+hills were clothed in plants and flowers, noticeable amongst them being a
+scarlet-flowering aloe and a variety of the euphorbia. Great ant-heaps,
+some six and eight feet in height, stood like sugar-loaves amongst the
+rich vegetation. After a glorious sunset, night came quickly upon us, and
+the scenery was lost in the darkness.
+
+On we plodded in the dark, our little mules carefully picking their way
+over the rough boulders and stones with which our path, now a river-bed,
+was strewn. The people of the surrounding tribes had taken advantage of
+the rebellion to throw off any form of government, and it was therefore
+necessary to proceed at night. Once or twice we could catch glimpses of
+their village-fires glowing far up on the steep mountain-sides, and now
+and again even catch the yelping of their dogs, whose quick ears had
+heard the footfall of our animals on the hard stones; but the villagers
+took no notice more than to shout to one another, their voices sounding
+far away and sepulchral in the thick darkness. The river-bed over which
+we were travelling commenced shortly to ascend, and the path was by no
+means an easy one to get along in safety.
+
+“We must wait here for the men,” said an old Arab, an acquisition from
+the Besaisi. What men he meant I did not know, but as he seemed to be the
+recognised head of our caravan I refrained from asking. We dismounted
+and lit a fire in a hole in the rock, round which we clustered to warm
+ourselves at its welcome heat: not that it was allowed to blaze, for the
+Arab, fearful lest its glare should attract notice, kept damping the wood
+sufficiently to keep the blaze low without putting it out altogether.
+
+For a time we waited, but there being no traces of “the men,” we left the
+burning embers as a sign that we had passed on, and continued our journey.
+
+It was a picturesque scene this little halt of ours, with the dark
+figures of the half-nude Arabs, each one armed with a spear, bending
+over the glowing fire, and one that will not easily be forgotten. It was
+difficult to say which sparkled the most, their polished spear-heads or
+their glossy locks. Every now and again a bright flame would leap into
+the air in spite of our precautions, showing us that the cliff above was
+hung in clusters of feathery creepers, while strange aloes and cacti
+appeared in the crevices.
+
+Rougher and steeper grew the road as we proceeded. At length in the
+middle of a rocky ascent a shout from behind, answered by one of the
+men, announced the arrival of the long-expected party, who had seen our
+signal and were following us; and a few minutes later, in the starlight,
+for the moon had not yet risen, we could discern dark shadows hurrying
+along after us on the track. A wild crew they were too, six or seven of
+them armed with matchlock-guns and spears. Of all the antiquated weapons
+I have come across upon my travels, these guns of the Yemen are the most
+curious. The stocks are straight, and end in a lump like a croquet-ball,
+which forms the shoulder-piece; the barrels are long, and nearly always
+rusty. A hole in the barrel communicates with a pan on the outside, into
+which a little loose powder is dropped. The trigger possesses no spring
+except a weak rebounding arrangement. The nipple is formed like a fork,
+into which slides the fuse, made of aloe-fibre and slow burning. When the
+trigger is pulled the “match” descends into the loose powder, and the gun
+may go off or no. The chances are about equal, I should think.
+
+For an hour more we crept along the dark road. Thorny mimosas tore our
+clothes and baggage and the poor mules’ legs, and at places threatened
+to bar our passage altogether. Then we left the path, and descending by
+a steep rocky slope, we entered a deep nullah, half a mile or so along
+which a halt was called, and my guides informed me that this was to be
+our night’s resting-place. Fastening the strip of canvas sheeting, or
+rather such as remained of it after the sandstorm, over the boughs of a
+thorn-tree, as protection from the heavy dew, we lit a fire and set to
+work to cook our supper of tough old goat and rancid butter.
+
+This bivouac in the ravine below the large village of Azab was the last
+night spent out in the open; for although we continued for the next
+few days to take advantage of the darkness to push through the most
+difficult country, we were able to rest in the _cafés_ of villages, and
+after Yerim, in the regular caravanserais, some of which had pretensions
+even to being clean and comfortable.
+
+Next morning I was able to see more of my surroundings. We had spent the
+night in the rocky course of a stream, in some of the pools of which
+was water. Opposite us the hills rose almost precipitously, strewn with
+boulders, and here and there tangled in clumps of mimosa-trees and other
+thorny brushwood. Away up the nullah stood Azab, a village perched on the
+very summit of a high hill, a confusion of walls and towers.
+
+We spent the day quietly under the little shade the scanty trees gave.
+A couple of the men went to the village to buy provisions, and returned
+with a bowl of rancid butter, bread of a thin consistency that would have
+served any purpose other than edible, from boot-soles to wrapping up
+parcels in, and a goat whose age was unfathomable. However, one cannot be
+too particular when travelling in such countries as the Yemen.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW OF AZAB.]
+
+At sunset our mules were packed, and we set off once more, creeping
+out of the nullah so as not to be seen from the village above, the
+inhabitants of which would be only too likely to take advantage of our
+position to go shares in my belongings—probably forgetting to give me my
+portion, unless they did so with one of their curved daggers. The last
+glow of daylight still hovered in the sky; the last rays of the setting
+sun still tinged with pink and purple and gold the huge jagged peaks
+of the mountains before us. Very grand it is, this range of limestone,
+torn into all manner of fantastic shapes, the peaks here resembling some
+bewitched feudal castle, there the tapering spire of a cathedral.
+
+The track was as rough as usual, and constant short ascents and descents
+rendered our progress very slow. When darkness was complete, except for
+the glimmer of the stars, our men called a halt, and ranging themselves
+in line upon the soft white sand of a stream-bed, cried “Allah Akbar,”
+and rose and fell with monotonous motion in prayer. Wild shadows they
+appeared in their nudeness and shaggy locks,—wild shadows that some
+fevered brain might imagine; but the odour of the rancid butter and oil
+on their hair proved their reality. No decent ghost would smell as they
+did.
+
+Enjoining silence on every one, the men lit the fuses of their guns, and
+a couple going ahead to keep a sharp look-out, we pushed on. Like the
+glow of cigarette-ends, I could follow the spark of their guns as they
+crept along.
+
+The valley becomes more distinct as one proceeds, the mountains closing
+in on either side, leaving but little level ground beyond the absolute
+course of the stream, and that was uneven enough. Hanging over the
+river-banks were trees and thick undergrowth, but the darkness prevented
+one seeing anything but their outline. At length our path seemed
+abruptly to end. Here a halt was called and we dismounted. From this
+point commenced an ascent I shall never forget. A winding path, a mere
+track in the face of the precipices, climbs the mountain-side until an
+elevation of over eight thousand feet above the sea-level is reached.
+The night was as yet moonless, and one could scarcely see a step in
+front of one, and it was bitterly cold. Lightening the animals as much
+as possible by dividing the baggage amongst the men, every one taking
+his share, except Abdurrahman, who carried my shot-gun, we commenced the
+ascent. Any moment man or beast might have made a false step and alighted
+somewhere in the valley beneath. Not only was the ascent trying, but it
+must be also remembered that we were now in rebel country, and that our
+discovery would mean certain death, to myself if not to all of us. The
+very tribe whose lands we were entering, the Kabyla el-Owd,[39] had only
+a few months before thrown off the Turkish yoke, and celebrated their
+day of independence by cutting up their Sheikh into small pieces and
+distributing him over the country, as a warning to others. Our party,
+including our new retinue supplied by El-Besaisi, numbered in all some
+ten persons; but with the exception of my shot-gun and revolver we had
+no weapons worth considering as such, unless it came to hand-to-hand
+fighting, when ten-foot-spears may be useful. However, our numbers made
+any attack from a small party improbable. Up and up we toiled, often on
+all-fours. We had not ascended many hundreds of feet before we found
+that our remaining camel was perfectly incapable of surmounting the
+difficulties of the road, while his constant mumblings and gruntings
+threatened every moment to bring the natives upon us, and already we
+could hear their dogs barking in the villages below. Once or twice, too,
+men called to one another, and lights could be seen moving about. Then we
+would lie still and hold our animals so as to ensure silence. At length
+it was decided to send the camel back, and two of the men undertook the
+job, trusting to be out of danger’s way before daylight. This made extra
+weights for the men and mules, but they cheerily lifted their burdens and
+our scramble recommenced.
+
+I began to think the ascent would never end. Steeper and steeper it
+became, until, two hours after commencing, and having climbed over two
+thousand feet in that time, we reached the summit, where on a ledge of
+rock some humane person has built a well to rejoice the heart of man
+and beast with its cool waters. Here we rested for ten minutes, but
+more time we could not spare, tired as we were, for a long march had
+yet to be covered before dawn. Passing through a gorge at the height
+of eight thousand one hundred feet above the sea-level, we began once
+more to descend; and scrambling down through thick undergrowth and over
+loose rolling stones, we reached the level of a valley, along which our
+road now lay, and through which flows the Wadi el-Banna, a large stream
+which reaches the sea, when flooded, at Ras Seilan, some thirty miles
+north-east of Aden. How the apes chattered and roared as we disturbed
+their night’s rest; and every now and then we could hear the stones
+rattling under their feet as they scampered away. Collecting our little
+band together, and examining our weapons, we continued our march in
+silence through the strongholds of the Kabyla el-Owd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+SOBEH TO YERIM.
+
+
+With this descent to the level of the valley commenced the most dangerous
+and difficult part of the whole journey. The surrounding country was
+thickly inhabited, and dotted with villages, capture by any one of which
+meant the destruction of our caravan, if not of ourselves. A long march
+yet lay before us until a place of tolerable safety could be reached,
+and there remained only a few hours more of night. It would mean a fast
+and difficult walk at any time, but now especially so in the midst of so
+many dangers. The road had not been traversed even by Arab traders or
+members of strange tribes for more than three months. For this period the
+district had remained closed, and I could not help feeling, as once more
+our head-man enjoined the strictest silence, that I was rather foolhardy
+in attempting to be the first to open it again.
+
+Leaving the track, we struck into the thick brushwood in order to avoid
+as much as possible approaching the villages. One, however, we were
+obliged, by nature of the country, to pass much nearer than was pleasant.
+This was Sobeh, the principal stronghold of the Owd tribe. How silently
+we crept on! But sure-footed as were our little mules, they could not
+help now and again making a false step, and rattling the stones with
+which our path was strewn. When this happened we would all stand still
+for a second, holding our breath to listen. Once a dog barked, others
+took it up, and presently it seemed as though a hundred yelping curs,
+intent on our discovery, were doing their utmost to give warning of
+our proximity. Happily they did not leave the village, but, after the
+custom of Arab dogs, barked from the shelter of their masters’ homes.
+Nevertheless, the noise was loud enough to wake a man, who shouted to
+another, and a conversation took place. Seizing me by the wrist, my men
+dragged me into a thick cluster of bamboos, whence we could see a light,
+evidently a lantern, flickering in the village only a few hundred yards
+away. It was an anxious moment; but at length the dogs ceased their
+barking, and the light disappeared. Waiting to make sure that all was
+quiet, we stole on again, thankful at our narrow escape.
+
+Then the moon rose, but the cold was too intense, and I was too tired
+to admire the lovely mist-swathed valley and the broken mountain-peaks.
+Once or twice more we awoke the dogs, and once again, too, a man shouted
+to know who was passing; but we did not hide this time, as dawn was
+approaching, and my men whispered to me that even as it was it would be
+a mere chance if the sun did not rise to find us still in the enemy’s
+country.
+
+At length it came, cold steely-grey dawn; then the sky flushed crimson
+and pink, and we put on our final spurt, driving the mules before us with
+sharp cuts from bits of rope, and hurrying as fast as our feet would
+carry us. The sun was nearly up when one of the men pointed out to me,
+a long way ahead, a solitary tower standing on the edge of a precipice
+overlooking the river. “Once there,” he whispered, “we are safe; they
+are friends of ours.” At length we almost ran. The sun would be up in a
+quarter of an hour, and the cold grey mist which at present helped to
+conceal us would rise.
+
+A little before the great gold orb appeared over the mountains to the
+east, we forded the icy-cold river and scrambled up to our looked-for
+goal, Beit en-Nedish.
+
+This village, standing on the very edge of high precipices, presents
+a most picturesque appearance. In the centre rises a high tower, the
+largest of these solidly built Arab _burj_ we had as yet come across, it
+being six storeys in height, as far as one could judge from the windows.
+The summit seemed to be unfinished, and only half roofed in. Around it
+stood a few low stone houses with flat roofs, while a little farther
+from the precipice was a mosque, and a larger part of the village. A
+graveyard surrounded the whole on the mountain-side. Near the tower were
+a few shady trees, adding not a little to the picturesqueness of this
+strange spot.
+
+[Illustration: _Beit en-Nedish._]
+
+A yelping and barking of dogs welcomed us, but we paid no heed to them,
+but straightway lit a fire by which to thaw our chilled limbs; and
+setting some coffee in a rough earthen pot to brew, I rolled myself
+up in my carpet, and was soon fast asleep. When I awoke a warm sun
+was streaming down upon us. A crowd of laughing, chattering Arabs had
+gathered round us, and were seated in a semicircle anxiously waiting
+for me to awake. When I did so I was stiff and sore, and without more
+ado, pulling out some clean clothes from my sack of baggage, ran down to
+the river and bathed in the cool fresh stream, after which I joined the
+circle, whose centre of interest was myself—a thing the like of which
+they had never seen before. Meanwhile breakfast was ready, and inviting
+a few of the throng to join us, we said “Bismillah”—“In the name of
+God”—and dipped our fingers into the rough earthen pan.
+
+What a glorious morning it was, and how fresh and lovely everything
+looked! The dew still sparkled on the green trees and grass, the mist
+still hovered in the valley beneath, and the hot sun was tempered with a
+gentle breeze. It was like a spring day in England. How cheery we were,
+too, after our night’s dangers and fatigues, all laughing and joking in
+the exhilaration of high spirits! But our hopes for a day’s rest were
+soon dashed to the ground, for my men received timely warning that it
+would be safer for us to proceed, and a few hours later saw us on the
+way again.
+
+We had entered Arabia Felix! On all sides of us were tiny streams,
+splashing and tumbling through fern-covered banks over pebbles and
+stones. One does not realise what music there is in the sound of running
+water until one has travelled, as the writer has once or twice in his
+life, over deserts where the muddy pools are two and three days apart.
+But the deserts and rocky valleys were all forgotten now—they seemed
+merely the imaginings of the past. Everywhere were green fields in which
+the young barley showed promise of rich crops, everywhere great shady
+trees and jungle covered the slopes. The sun was hot, but at that great
+altitude the freshness of the air compensated for it. My men went merrily
+on, singing and laughing, and now and again running races and brandishing
+their spears—and yet we had rested only two or three hours after our
+march of nearly twelve hours, during which we had covered some thirty
+miles of road, and what a road!
+
+[Illustration: MAN AND WOMAN OF THE HIGHLANDS OF THE YEMEN.]
+
+Here we came in contact for the first time with the mountaineers, a
+much finer people than those of the plains. They are, as a rule, taller
+and better built, their limbs being freer in action and their legs more
+gracefully formed, no doubt owing much to the fact that they are great
+walkers. Like the people of the plains, the men wear their hair long,
+shaving their upper lip but allowing a small beard to grow on the
+points of their chins. As well as the dark-blue loin-cloth, stuck full
+of daggers, they wear a thick sheepskin coat, the wool on the inside,
+the rough skin being coarsely embroidered in black thread. This forms a
+very necessary precaution against the cold, to which these high altitudes
+expose them. The women, like their sisters of the plains, wear dark-blue
+skirts, embroidered round the neck and sleeves and on the breasts in
+coloured silks, and now and again in gold or silver thread. Their heads
+they cover with dark-blue hoods, often richly but coarsely embroidered.
+While the men are often almost divinely handsome, the women are just
+the contrary, being generally thickly built. No doubt the hideous tight
+blue trousers and the oil and paint on their faces tends not a little to
+disfigure them. In the cold early mornings the oil on their hair hangs
+in little solid drops on the points of their fringes; but as the heat
+of the day increases it trickles down their faces, washing away the
+red-lead-coloured powder, with which they so thickly smear their faces,
+in long streaks.
+
+From Beit en-Nedish we proceeded on a three hours’ ride, and crossing the
+river at a ford that might have been in the upper waters of the Tay, we
+ascended the opposite bank to Beit Saïd, a large and prosperous-looking
+village, situated on the west bank of the river amidst groves of shady
+trees.
+
+Before reaching this spot two large villages have to be passed, one on
+each side of the river. They are respectively on the left bank Nadir,
+above which the Turks had built a fort, and on the right bank Ghadan—both
+large and flourishing villages, well and handsomely built of stone. The
+fort was now in possession of the Arabs, as, in spite of its commanding
+position, the Turks had found it untenable, and deserted it on the
+breaking out of the rebellion. With the exception of Ismail Pasha’s camp
+and the custom-house at Kátaba, this was the first sign we had as yet
+seen of the occupation of the Yemen by the Turks.
+
+The land, carefully terraced to allow of more cultivation, presented
+from a distance an appearance of a great flight of steps, so evenly was
+this immense work carried out. Although at this spot the terracing was
+comparatively simple compared with many other places, owing to the slope
+being gentler, it showed signs of an enormously laborious task. But,
+compared to places that we afterwards saw in the Yemen it was _nil_. At
+one spot I counted one hundred and thirty-seven of these terraces on the
+side of a mountain, one above another, and each and every one, as far
+as one could judge, higher than it was wide; that is to say, the stone
+wall supporting the small strip of cultivated land was perhaps nine feet
+in height, while the supported strip was only six! This is particularly
+noticeable in the coffee-growing districts. However, as it was in this
+valley of the Wadi el-Banna that we first came across this process of
+cultivating the soil, although it was well known to me in the Atlas
+Mountains, Madeira, and many parts of Europe, it struck one as showing
+not only a propensity for hard work not usually found amongst Arab
+peoples, but also no little amount of skill and engineering.
+
+In other parts of the Mahammedan world the Arabs are exceedingly fond of
+making and planting gardens, and even trying experiments in cultivation;
+but whether failure or success awaits their efforts, they allow the whole
+concern to fall into disrepair, and the fields and gardens to become
+thick with weeds. It is not usually so much a want of experimenting as a
+want of continuing that is the ruin of so many Arab peoples. I have known
+Moors plant gardens which gave promise not only of beautiful surroundings
+but of considerable profit; I have known them plant them with all manner
+of fruit-trees, and build aqueducts to bring the water from some distant
+spring, a work of by no means little expenditure, and a few months later
+I have seen the place deserted, goats feeding on the young orange and
+almond trees, and the place run to wreck and ruin. But not so in these
+valleys of the Yemen. Here the supporting wall of every terrace was in
+excellent repair, here every little artificial channel and aqueduct
+brimmed over with water, and the whole surroundings wore not only the
+appearance of great laborious skill, but of the idea being present that
+the people were aware of the necessity of maintaining the results of
+their labours in a state of repair.
+
+It was a trait of character I had never before met with in the Arab
+people, and I was immensely struck with it. In the Atlas Mountains, five
+hundred miles in the interior of Morocco, I have seen on a small scale
+the same industrious attention; but in that case the people are Berbers,
+untainted with Arab blood. In the country of the Gallas surrounding the
+city of Harrar one finds much the same; but again, however nearly the
+Somalis may be related to the people of the Yemen, the Gallas are no
+doubt a perfectly distinct race. It may be argued that the necessities
+of life and the nature of the country would render existence impossible
+were the people not obliged to terrace and cultivate their lands in this
+manner; but I have passed in many parts of the world where the same
+argument would apply, and found an entirely different state of things
+existing. I rather believe this attention to cultivation, and especially
+the growing of coffee, &c., to be due to the existence of true Yemeni
+blood in the veins of the people, apart from their mixed Arab pedigrees.
+There is little doubt that this system of fixed abodes and attention to
+agriculture could not have been introduced in the Arab invasions of the
+Yemen, but was existent there long before the time of the introduction
+of Islam. All the historical records point to this effect, and it was
+probably owing as much to this as to the natural wealth and beauty of the
+country that the province obtained the name of Arabia Felix.
+
+[Illustration: MOSQUE AT BEIT SAÏD.]
+
+We found the village of Beit Saïd to be by far the most flourishing we
+had as yet entered. A large open space divided a pretty little white
+mosque, half covered by trees, from the rest of the village. The houses
+were well built of stone, one especially fine, being of two storeys in
+height, with arched doorways and heavy wooden doors. This we found to be
+the caravanserai and house of a cousin of the Sheikh Besaisi of Kátaba,
+to whom my men were well known, and who quickly made us welcome in an
+upper chamber of the house, to which an outside stone stairway led. The
+room was small but cool, and we quickly unpacked our baggage and stored
+it away, settling in for a much-needed rest.
+
+A crowd watched our operations,—a gathering of men, women, children,
+and dogs, who, open-mouthed and open-eyed, watched the strange little
+caravan arrive, whispering their criticisms to one another. However, they
+were quite polite, the presence of El-Besaisi no doubt keeping them at a
+distance; for, like his cousin at Kátaba, he was no small personage here.
+
+We found the people of Beit Saïd extremely pleasant; in fact, the callers
+almost crowded us out of our room, they were so many, a constant crowd
+watching with the greatest interest the strange visitor. The rest was
+a welcome one, and we hoped not only to spend the day here, but to
+obtain, for the first time for many days, a night’s repose; but fate was
+against us. Having turned in about eight P.M. in a portion of the big
+store, where, except for the rats, I felt I should be quieter than in
+the guest-room, I was soon asleep, weary with all the anxiety and travel
+which we had accomplished.
+
+I had been asleep only an hour or two when I felt myself quietly shaken.
+I asked who was there. A voice whispered in my ear, “Hush! do not speak.”
+I struck a light, and as a wild long-haired creature leant over me to
+blow it out, I had just time to see that the man was a stranger. “Get
+up,” said the voice again; “you are in danger. Not a word, mind. Give me
+your bedding and carpet.” In the dark I hurried into my clothes, while
+the unknown seized my carpet and such baggage as I possessed, and left. I
+waited for a few moments, when he returned. “Your mules are already being
+laden,” he continued; then seizing me by the hand, added, “Follow me.” I
+followed him out into the quiet moonlit streets, and keeping under the
+shadows of the houses, left the village. Here I was surprised to find my
+mules already laden. No one was stirring, and in the bright moonlight we
+passed silently away from the place without disturbing a soul. Our road
+was a difficult and a steep one: at many places the track, under two
+feet wide, was cut into the side of a precipice, far down which we could
+see the white mists hovering over the damp valley.
+
+The reason of our flight I was at a loss to understand, yet never for a
+moment did I doubt that there was a reason. I somehow, without knowing
+why, trusted the man who had warned me. He was a stranger, and as far as
+I could remember, as I watched him leading our little caravan over the
+awful road, I had never seen him before. Once in my life already I had
+been saved by a stranger, who had risked his own to save mine—an Arab
+too, but in a land far away from the Yemen. I need not tell the story
+here: sufficient that I arrived at his house weary, by night, my bare
+feet bleeding with the stones and thorns, pursued by men who had vowed to
+take my life; and that he, good noble fellow, found me and took me in,
+bathed my blood-stained ankles, and tore up his own clothes to bind them
+in, and, after keeping me in hiding for two days, escorted me in safety
+out of the country. He died a few months later, foully murdered in a
+blood-feud. Perhaps it was the recollection of this that imbued me with
+so much confidence and trust in my new-found friend. That I was not wrong
+the sequel will show.
+
+Sometimes a stone loosened by our animals’ hoofs would fall, and,
+bounding from rock to rock, disappear into the darkness. At each of these
+occurrences our guide would utter a guttural sound of disapproval. Once
+or twice I ventured to ask him the reason of our sudden flight, but
+was always met with a sharp “Silence!” in reply. On and on, until some
+three hours after leaving Beit Saïd our path commenced to descend, and,
+slipping and sliding down slopes of sand and stones, we entered the large
+village of Seddah, now wrapt in sleep; then on through the village of
+Mundah, and out into the open country again. The dogs barked a little,
+and one or two men, armed with spears, accosted us, but, after a few
+words whispered with our men, we passed on again. It is at Seddah that
+the valley turns to the west, and here the Wadi Thuba flows into the Wadi
+Banna. This latter river has a direction almost north and south, and
+although the Banna is the main stream, the other continues the general
+direction of the valley.
+
+An hour later, leaving the valley and mounting a steep ascent, we crossed
+an elevated plateau, finally arriving at the village of Sôk el-Thuluth.
+I had been given no idea of whither we were going or where our new guide
+considered it safe for us to rest; and when, on nearing the village,
+he told me that I might stay there as long as I liked, it was a most
+pleasant surprise. The streets of the little place were deserted except
+by the dogs; but after knocking long and loudly at a door, we succeeded
+in awakening a woman, who turned out to be the proprietress of the small
+_café_ and caravanserai of the place. She was a good kindly soul,
+and did not grumble at being turned up at one A.M. on a cold morning.
+Admitting us into a cave-like room with a stone arched ceiling, reeking
+with the pungent odours of strong tobacco and coffee—not to mention the
+odours of its Arab occupants, who lay sleeping about the door rolled up
+in their dirty sheepskin coats—she lit a fire, put water on to boil, and
+then commenced by violently kicking the Arabs in order to awake them,
+calling to them to turn out and make room for a more honoured guest.
+I persuaded her to leave them in peace,—more out of regard, it must
+be said, for my own slumbers than for theirs; and calling to Saïd and
+Abdurrahman to make up my bed on the roof, was soon asleep.
+
+When I awoke it was dawn. What a sight met my eyes! Never had I
+before, and I think never since, seen such a view as lay before me.
+Sôk el-Thuluth, or “Tuesday market,” as its name implies, is situated
+above the junctions of the Wadi Banna and Wadi Thuba, on a spur of the
+mountains of the main valley. Below me lay the great valley up the
+straight course of which we had been travelling for the last two nights.
+Over its green fields floated a transparent hazy mist, through which
+I would watch the river sparkling and flashing like a silver serpent,
+as it passed on its way to the desert and the sea. Along its banks the
+dark-foliaged trees stood out clear and defined. On either side of this
+silver streak lay terraced fields, rising step by step from the water’s
+edge to where the mountain-slopes became too steep for cultivation.
+Here they were covered with thick jungle undergrowth, while above rose
+precipice upon precipice, crowned, thousands of feet in the pink morning
+sky, by broken crags and pinnacles of rock, touched with snow. At my
+very feet, for I was on the house-top, the villagers, rejoicing in the
+glorious morning, were passing out to their labours, and the flocks and
+herds bleated as they sought their pasturage. Women carrying beakers
+wended their way to the spring; while the men, spears in hand, their
+long glossy locks tumbling in unrestrained glory over the shoulders,
+added a fierce element to a scene of the most perfect peace and beauty.
+It was worth all the desert travel and all the dangers of our night
+marches to see what I saw then. This was Arabia Felix! As I gazed the
+mists rose, every detail in the valley became distinct: little villages
+far below, crowning the rocky mounds on which the Arabs of the Yemen
+so love to build, stood out from the green fields all grey and severe,
+each a fortress in itself, with its battlements and towers. Around the
+pink-and-gold crags hovered little fleecy clouds, attracted by the small
+patches of snow—now hiding, now disclosing the grandeur of the mountain
+pinnacles.
+
+All our dangers were over; from here our road was safe. We were soon to
+enter the great plateau of the central Yemen, now safely once more in
+the hands of the Turks, though woe betide the Osmanli soldier who found
+himself alone and without protection. As I looked upon that glorious
+valley, more glorious than ever now that the sun had risen, I could not
+realise how exciting a time we had experienced in passing through it, so
+lovely, so quiet, so peaceful it seemed.
+
+Calling to Saïd, I told him to send me the man who had led us to Sôk
+el-Thuluth the night before.
+
+He had gone!
+
+Never a word of thanks, never a reward! He had left me sleeping, and gone
+back to his own affairs and to his own life. Like the character in some
+play that appears but once, so had this Arab come and gone. My men had
+tried to stop him, had tried to keep him until I awoke, promising him
+a reward, but he had laughed and shaken his raven curls, and, spear in
+hand, girded up his loins and vanished. Strange good fellow! he saved my
+life, and never even gave me the opportunity of thanking him!
+
+We had left one of our men the night before behind us at Beit Saïd. He
+had gone off in the evening to supper in the house of a friend, where he
+had slept, unaware of our flight. In the early morning he had found us
+gone, and followed us, not by the roundabout mountain-track we had come
+by, but by the main road.
+
+He solved the mystery of our flight, for but a few miles from Beit Saïd
+he found the road held by some forty men, armed to the teeth, whose
+object was my plunder. How little the poor fellows would have got! A few
+dollars and a little shabby clothing, an old carpet and a mattress, and
+that was about all. But they had imagined that I was a trader taking up
+great sums of money, and had resolved my death—for life is cheap out
+there—and the plundering of my goods. I asked our man what they had said
+to him. He replied that they had asked after me, and that finding I
+had been warned and escaped them, they went off laughing and swearing,
+apparently rather amused at the whole episode.
+
+Our rest had done us all good, and we set out with light hearts, knowing
+that no probable dangers lay ahead.
+
+The path leads one along the east side of the valley, at a great height
+above the river, often, like that we had traversed the night before, only
+a footway cut in the edge of the precipices. Here for the first time
+we came across the coffee-plant, growing amidst tumbling waterfalls on
+terraces built up against the steep mountain-side. Everywhere was water,
+here in artificial channels, there in tiny streamlets. Wild flowers
+abounded, and in places the walls of rock were green and white with
+jasmine. A thousand feet below us were the villages, on to the roofs of
+the houses of which we looked from above. It seemed but a step from us to
+them. At one spot my men pointed out where a short time before a camel
+and its load had fallen from an overhanging rock. It never touched the
+precipice, they said, until it fell upon a ledge they pointed out to me
+hundreds of feet below, and thence it bounded into the valley.
+
+Rich in the extreme is this part of the country, owing to its everlasting
+supply of water, and many are the tales the Arabs of the plains tell of
+it. Beled el-Hawad they call it, of which Howra is the chief village,—a
+place like a feudal castle built on a pile of rocks.
+
+After a time the road turns to the right, and, following the course of
+a small stream, ascends a valley. To the left of this valley, on the
+very summit of a high mountain, is the village of Ofar, to reach which
+necessitates a climb of a thousand feet or more from the road. At several
+places one passes drinking-fountains, erected, like the great tanks we
+were afterwards to meet with in the plateau, for the refreshment of man
+and beast. They are simple affairs, but excellently built. In form they
+are usually square, and domed, some six feet each way perhaps. A trough
+on the outside supplies the water for the animals, while a hole in the
+wall, large enough for one to insert one’s head through, is for human
+beings. Within the water rises to the level of this hole, being carried
+off by an overflow pipe into the trough below, so that the clear liquid
+just reaches the level of one’s lips, while the roof above keeps it fresh
+and cool. These fountains, common all over the Yemen, have been usually
+erected by private philanthropists for the benefit of their fellow-men.
+Unlike the custom in England, no flowery inscription tells the world the
+name or the generosity of the builder—they are the memorials of anonymous
+benefactors. Here, too, we came into contact for the first time with the
+mountain camel—a very different beast from that of the Teháma and desert,
+being a rough-haired, heavily-boned creature, usually black in colour
+and the picture of ugliness. Those of Lahej and the surrounding country,
+renowned throughout Arabia, are light in colour and remarkably finely
+built, and often exceedingly pretty. To those who think that the camel is
+essentially a creature of the desert, and incapable of traversing with
+ease stony or rocky country, the fact that we were passing caravans of
+camels nearly eight thousand feet above the sea-level, and on the worst
+possible roads, must seem strange. It is well known, of course, that the
+camel of Central Asia traverses mountainous country, but I doubt if many
+are aware that it forms also the beast of burden in the extreme highlands
+of the Yemen, travelling over roads which one would have thought
+impassable almost for a mule. Yet so it is.
+
+At length the end of the little valley was reached at an altitude of
+only a little under nine thousand feet above the sea-level. A slippery
+rocky path winds up the last few hundred yards of the ascent, which
+is extremely difficult to surmount, both for man and beast, for the
+constant traffic of centuries has polished the surface until it shines
+like glass.
+
+Here the beauty ends, for one has reached the plateau of central Yemen—a
+vast plain lying at an average altitude of about eight thousand feet
+above the sea, broken only by hideous ledges of black volcanic rock,
+which crop up here and there from its level surface. It was too early yet
+in the year for the young grain to show; and the scene that met our eyes,
+as we rested ourselves and our mules after the steep climb, was a dreary
+one—miles of yellow level plain, and black jagged rocks. A short but
+steep descent brings one to the level of the plateau, over which, with
+but little exception, the road passes from this spot as far as Sanaa, the
+capital.
+
+[Illustration: _Inscribed stone at Munkat, near Yerim._]
+
+The natives have made use of the ledges of rock, which appear in every
+direction, as sites for their villages, many of which are perched on the
+extreme summits, while others lie on the slopes. At one of these—by name
+Munkat—we stopped for a little while, to see the place and some curious
+Himyaric remains still existing therein.
+
+This is, I think, the first mention I have made of the strange people,
+descendants of Himyar, who formerly inhabited the Yemen; but rather than
+enter into any account of them and of other historical matters at this
+point, I have reserved these questions for separate chapters, as I have
+also done in the case of the geography, trade, and general description
+of the Yemen. It has been my wish, as far as possible, to separate the
+account of my journey from other and more important matter, so that each
+may be taken separately. In all matters historical and geographical, I
+have consulted, as far as has been in my power, the best authorities
+upon the subject; but in the account of my own travels I have thought it
+expedient, instead of breaking the narrative with incursions into more
+serious subjects, to omit, except in cases in which it may illustrate and
+explain more fully than would otherwise be the case, nearly all reference
+to historical or political affairs.
+
+Munkat is a walled village containing a considerable number of houses,
+one of which, a kind of fort, is curiously perched on an enormous
+boulder, and a pretty white mosque, surrounded by tanks of good water.
+Built into the wall of the mosque are stones inscribed in Himyaric
+characters, and some also in Kufic. Copies of the former were, I believe,
+taken some years ago by Dr Glaser. In another part of the village is
+a white marble column, some eight or ten feet in height, of Himyaric
+origin, which is said by the villagers to have appeared suddenly at
+this spot. The ignorance of the natives in this part of the country
+is astonishing; for out of many stones they showed me, some were in
+Arabic and some in the Himyaric character, but the inhabitants were
+uncertain as to which was which. They seemed, however, to reverence
+these remains to some extent, as they had carefully built them into the
+walls. At one spot, over a doorway and in a prominent position, they
+had carefully placed a marble stone containing the first chapter of the
+Koran—“Bismillah Alrahman Alrahim,” &c.—upside down. When I told them of
+their mistake, it was quite sad to hear their excuses. “We are only poor
+people,” they said, “and we are terribly taxed. We have to till the soil
+to feed ourselves and the Osmanli Pashas, and there is no time to learn
+to read or write.” In many parts of the country to such an extent do they
+have “to feed the Osmanli Pashas,” that they scarcely get ought to eat
+themselves. It is the old tale of cruelty and oppression, of extortion
+and corruption.
+
+The regard shown by the poor villagers of Munkat for these inscribed
+stones is not by any means uncommon, a great reverence for writing being
+innate in all Arab peoples. I once had an Arab servant, himself perfectly
+illiterate, who treasured a torn manuscript copy of the ‘Arabian Nights.’
+Its contents he did not know, nor had he ever taken the trouble to find
+out: that it was a _book_ was sufficient for him, and he carried it about
+as a sort of talisman. In spite of its good luck, it did not keep him out
+of prison, when one day he helped himself to things that weren’t his.
+
+One of the most beautiful sights to be seen upon the plateau of the Yemen
+are the lizards—little creatures of gorgeous metallic blue, now pale
+turquoise, now transparent sapphire, as the sunlight dances on their
+backs. In no other part of the world have I come across such gorgeously
+coloured reptiles, although I have seen the same lizard, but less
+brilliant in hue, in the mountains of the Zarahoun, to the north of the
+road between Fez and Mequinez, in Morocco.
+
+An hour or two more of winding path and we were in sight of Yerim, one of
+the principal towns of the Yemen, which but a short time before had been
+taken by the Arabs in the rebellion, and retaken by the very Ismail Pasha
+whose camp we had seen at Kátaba.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+YERIM TO DHAMAR.
+
+
+The immediate approach to Yerim is over a level plain a mile or two in
+width, across which, immediately in front of one, lies the town—a poor
+enough looking place, lying half on the level ground and half on the
+steep slope of a mountain, Jibel Samára. This flat ground is dotted
+in places with tanks, and here the townspeople congregate to do their
+washing, and many a pretty group we passed of men, women, and children
+engaged in that wholesome pursuit. Eastern washing processes are too
+well known to need any description here: suffice it to say that it is
+generally performed by men, whose one desire seems to be, by stamping on
+the clothes and beating them with large stones, to see how many fragments
+they can tear them into. They are generally successful in sending the
+things back in shreds. It must be an invigorating profession; for the
+fact that one places the clothes upon a rock, and then proceeds to dance
+first on one leg and then on the other with all the energy and strength
+one possesses, at the same time issuing a series of low cries, must tend
+to strengthen not only the limbs but the lungs also!
+
+We did not stay, however, to watch the washers, but hurried on into
+the town; for although I had some days before successfully crossed the
+frontier of Turkish Yemen at the _jimerouk_ near Kátaba, this was the
+first time I was to find myself in a Turkish garrisoned town.
+
+[Illustration: UPPER FLOOR OF A KHAN AT YERIM.]
+
+As soon as we had approached the place Turkish soldiers became apparent,
+and a miserable crew they were. A few were sauntering about near the
+gate, laughing and talking to others who leaned over the parapet of the
+old tower that forms one corner of the fortified entrance to the place.
+Passing through the gateway without any particular notice being taken
+of us, we proceeded by narrow streets to an open square, which serves
+as a market, and entered the huge doorway of a large caravanserai or
+khan. This place, typical of the country, calls for some description.
+The building was evidently an old one, the material used being stone on
+the lower storeys, and above sun-dried bricks. An archway led one into
+a large covered space, some ten or fifteen yards in width, and perhaps
+thirty in length. There was no light admitted except from the great
+doorway and a curious barred window above it. This portion of the khan
+was of great height, the roof of the building forming the only obstacle
+between it and the sky. This roof was supported by large arches on
+buttresses running out from the wall on either side. A series of brick
+fire-places for charcoal ran along one side of the building, divided from
+one another by low brick seats, where the Arabs could sit and brew their
+own _keshour_, or drink of coffee-husks. Farther in the space served as
+a stable, and there were quite a number of camels, mules, and donkeys
+within its precincts. The opposite side to that on which the stoves were
+was taken up by a staircase leading to a long gallery. Here the better
+class of people, such as merchants and native sheikhs, congregated. The
+buttresses supporting the roof divided the gallery into compartments,
+and it seemed to be the custom for a party to engage one for themselves,
+where they would spread their carpets and smoke their hubble-bubbles,
+calling to the khan servants below for their coffee and food, and
+charcoal for their pipes. One end of this gallery, on the left of the
+staircase, formed a little room, which I was able to procure for my use.
+The fact that it was built immediately above the kitchen, and that the
+thickest of wood fumes crept up between the ill-laid boards, did not add
+to my comfort. The ceiling and walls of the whole building were black
+with the smoke of ages, but the scene was a most picturesque one, and I
+sat at the doorway of my little chamber and sketched the place.
+
+However, I was not to be left very long in peace, for an impudent young
+Turk came and began to search my luggage, and to speak in such an
+impertinent manner that he had to be ejected. I knew that, whatever
+orders he might have had, he would have received none that would allow
+of his conducting himself in this way—for the Turk, be he what he may,
+seldom if ever fails to be polite. There is an innate manner in him that
+is always charming, in spite of the many other drawbacks to his character.
+
+I called on the Kaimakam a little later and told him what had happened,
+saying that I was quite prepared to have my luggage searched, but asking
+that I might be treated with a certain amount of decent respect. The Turk
+of whom I complained was sent for, and such wrath did the Kaimakam show
+with him that the young man, a junior clerk in one of the Government
+offices, had to ask me to beg the Governor to forgive him, which I
+readily did. I found my host as pleasant and gentlemanly as any Turk I
+met in the country, and he insisted on my spending an hour with him and
+his brother officers. I showed him my passport, for here there was no
+longer any need to pretend that I was a Greek trader, and he seemed much
+impressed with the number of seals and stamps with which it was covered.
+Of what value the wording and decoration of this British passport was at
+Sanaa will be told anon. But more astonished still was his Excellency
+at the fact that I had pushed through the Owd tribe and arrived from
+Kátaba—for, as he said, the road had been impassable for many months,
+and he laughed heartily at an Englishman having been the first to open it
+again. Yerim, he said, was the dullest of dull places, and he longed for
+the society and gaieties of his native town—some out-of-the-way spot in
+Asia Minor, the name of which I had never even heard.
+
+Returning from his residence to the khan, he followed me half an hour
+later and returned my call, accompanied by a couple of his officers.
+However, the fact that one could scarcely see across the room for smoke
+did not tend to detain him long, and I was soon left to my own devices.
+
+As soon as it was cool enough, under the guidance of Saïd, who knew
+the place well, I sauntered out and strolled through the bazaars; but
+although I wore on my head a Turkish fez, all sorts of rumours had been
+spread about concerning me, and I was the whole time the centre of a
+large crowd, who, though they pressed me rather hard, were polite but
+dirty, so that I found it advisable after a short time to beat a retreat.
+
+Yerim apparently has no great pretensions to antiquity, although
+there formerly stood on the same spot, or somewhere in the immediate
+neighbourhood, a city of the name of Dhu-Ruayn. The ancient capital of
+this district is Zafar, the ruins of which, lying some miles to the
+south-east, are still visible on the summit of a circular hill.
+
+There is but little to see in Yerim. The town is essentially a poor
+one, and although built partly on the slope of a mountain where stone is
+procurable, the houses are almost entirely composed of sun-dried bricks.
+Dirt and squalor abound on every side, and the streets of narrow bazaars
+show no signs of any great commerce or trade. What little importance the
+place can lay claim to is owing to the fact that it lies on the main
+road from Sanaa to Aden, and is a garrisoned city. Like Dhamar, it fell
+into the hands of the Arabs during the rebellion at the end of 1891, but
+was retaken by Ismail Pasha, whom we had seen a month or two after its
+recapture, encamped at Kátaba. The Arabs, however, seem to have gone to
+no excesses; and beyond taking prisoner the Kaimakam, who was still at
+this time in the hands of the Imam at Sadah, and his officers, behaved
+with great leniency toward the Turks, many of whom threw in their lot
+with the Arab cause.
+
+During the evening I received many callers, who came probably from
+curiosity rather than from any other reason. Amongst them were several of
+the “Ashraf,” of the family of Ahmed ed-Din, the leader of the rebellion,
+who had seen all through that their cousins’ cause was a hopeless one,
+and had remained neutral during the war. I found them exceedingly
+pleasant, and they conversed for a long time about their country. One was
+especially a fine man, young and exceedingly handsome. As is the custom
+amongst the nobility, these guests all had closely-shaven heads. One
+or two of them were richly dressed in silk robes, and wore daggers of
+exquisite silver and gold work. It was late before I got rid of the last
+of them, and was able to seek a few hours’ rest before starting again.
+
+At dawn we were off, our caravan augmented by a couple of Arab soldiers
+in the service of the Turks, who, by the by, would have proved of little
+advantage in an attack, as they were armed solely with spears; but in all
+probability they were sent to watch my movements. The Turks employ a very
+considerable number of these soldiers in their service, many being of the
+class of “Akhdam,” probably descendants of the Abyssinians who invaded
+the Yemen in A.D. 525; while others come from Yaffa and Hadramaut, and
+are ready to fight against any one so long as pay and booty are to be
+obtained.
+
+We left Yerim by a gate to the north of the city, near which is a
+picturesque stone mosque, with a white dome, which I had failed to notice
+the previous day.
+
+Emerging through the gateway, the track proceeds for a time along a
+straight level road, lying below the slopes of Jibel Samára, on which a
+few Arabs, mounted on ponies, were galloping to and fro, with the evident
+purpose of thrilling me with their equestrian powers. They were good
+riders certainly, and very picturesque they looked with their long black
+hair waving behind them, and the rising sun sparkling on their polished
+spear-heads.
+
+The level surface of the plateau over which we were passing made one
+forget the great altitude we had reached; and such is the appearance of
+the surrounding country, that one could scarcely realise that one was not
+on some low level plain, but at an elevation of over eight thousand feet
+above the sea-level.
+
+At one spot, however, this is forcibly brought to one’s mind, for the
+road passes close to the edge of a deep narrow gorge through which flows
+the river Kha. This valley presents a most extraordinary appearance
+as seen from above, for it is nothing more or less than a huge slice
+cut out of the plateau. We passed it at its apex, and could see down
+nearly its whole course. The distance from side to side at the upper
+part is extraordinarily small, the sides of the valley being formed of
+perpendicular precipices. Far, far down below us, some thousands of feet
+at the nearest part, were the coffee-groves and villages, dotted here and
+there along the broken rocks that fringed the edge of the river, which
+we could follow with our eyes, a thread of silver, till it was lost in
+the hazy mists that lay across the valley many miles away. Beyond this
+again rose the torn fantastic peaks to which we were now becoming so
+accustomed. It was a wonderful sight, and we reined in our mules and
+stood, Arabs and European alike, gazing at it with wondering eyes. The
+Wadi Kha, unlike so many of these Yemen rivers, eventually reaches the
+sea. It flows into the Wadi Zebeed, and continuing its course through
+the city of that name, and across the Teháma, reaches the Red Sea at Ras
+Zebeed, opposite the island of Jibel Zukur. Just as suddenly as we had
+come in sight of this strange gorge, just so suddenly did we lose it
+again, and only a few minutes after having left its brink the surrounding
+scenery assumed its former appearance, that of a dusty rocky plain.
+
+Close to this spot is a mark in a rock which is supposed to be the
+footprint of Ali, the son-in-law and one of the successors in the
+Caliphate of the Prophet Mahammed, or of his horse, there seems to be no
+certainty which. The imprint itself is vague enough to be anything, but
+too large to be either of those mentioned.
+
+Below the village of Digishúb we stopped to refresh ourselves and take
+breakfast. A few rough stone huts have been erected by the roadside,
+near which some kind philanthropist has built a series of small tanks,
+supplied with delicious cold water by a spring. In one of these tanks
+live an enormous quantity of fish. The water is very shallow, and the
+pond small, and were it not that the passers-by feed them on crumbs,
+there would be but little chance of their being able to exist in such a
+small space. Unlike fish in the springs of Morocco, they are not held in
+any way sacred, and the Jews often catch and cook them, though the Arabs
+say that they themselves never touch them.
+
+The funniest old specimen of age, rags, and dirt made our coffee for
+us—as dishevelled an old witch as ever man set eyes upon. She is
+reported, in spite of her filthy condition, to be of great wealth—for
+the country, of course—and is apparently a well-known character upon the
+road. Quite a number of caravan-men, who happened to be resting there,
+kept up a continual volley of chaff, which reached its climax when, on
+hearing of her reported riches, I offered to become a Moslem, and lead
+her a blushing bride to the altar. She took it all in very good part, and
+laughed as much as her begrimed parchment-like skin would allow, but I
+feared now and again it would crack.
+
+On the road between Digishúb and the city of Dhamar are three sets of old
+Himyaric tanks, cut in the solid rock, as are, with the exception of a
+few where the nature of the country allows of some small gully being made
+use of, all the tanks of this period. Although resembling somewhat the
+tanks of Aden, there are here none of the natural advantages to be found
+at that place; for there the crater pours its water by aqueducts and
+natural channels into the tanks, which are built tier above tier in the
+wall of rock and between precipices. These between Digishúb and Dhamar,
+however, lie in the level plain, and are excavated. They are dependent
+entirely upon the rainfall for supply, and, as far as has been found
+possible, the water has been drained toward them; but this, owing to the
+dead level of the country, is to a very slight extent practicable. These
+tanks are circular in form, and of considerable size and depth. At one
+spot a flight of steps descends to the water’s edge, while a smaller
+tank above the steps can be filled from buckets, &c., for the animals to
+drink from. The entire tanks are lined with intensely hard cement, which
+takes a peculiar polish, and on one were visible rough designs of men on
+horseback, and gazelle, scratched into the plaster evidently at the time
+it was originally applied. The extraordinarily perfect condition in which
+these tanks are to-day, steps and all, speaks to the excellence of the
+workmanship of those who excavated and built them; and the caravans are
+still mainly dependent upon these extremely antique reservoirs for water
+for the men and their beasts of burden.
+
+Again, the plateau is broken by valleys to the west, but in no way to
+compare with that through which the Wadi Kha flows. There a slight
+descent takes one from the boulder-strewn undulating hills to the flat
+ground again, broken here and there by rocky barren crags which stand out
+against the dull yellow earth. On one of these is situated Dhamar el-Gar,
+a village of some size; and on approaching this spot we caught sight
+of, far ahead of us, all shimmering in the fierce sunlight, the city of
+Dhamar itself. For the last hour and a half of the road we proceeded
+over perfectly level ground, strewn with sandy dust, and, though showing
+signs of cultivation, boasting scarcely a blade of anything green. As we
+neared the city we obtained a better view of the place, so twisted and
+turned had it at first been by the steaming vapour rising from the heated
+ground.
+
+Dhamar lies in the flat plain, the nearest hill of any size being Hait
+Hirran, a mountain rising some hundreds of feet above the surrounding
+country a couple of miles or so to the north of the city. Many high
+mountains, however, are visible, especially the range of Jibel Issi to
+the east, though it is a long way distant. This and its neighbouring
+mountains must be of great height, for Dhamar itself is situated almost
+exactly eight thousand feet above the sea-level. It is not a walled city,
+but is more or less defended by a series of small, and, for the most
+part, mud-built forts. Three minarets dominate the town, one of them
+sadly out of the perpendicular, as it was struck by a cannon-shot during
+one of the many wars it has been its lot to witness.
+
+A narrow street, twisting and turning amongst open drains, ruined tombs,
+and apparently objectless walls, leads one into the city. Here there are
+signs of more wealth, many of the houses being well built of stone, while
+a wide open square gives quite a handsome appearance to the place.
+
+It is on to this square that the Government offices look, and before
+we had half crossed it our mules were stopped by a number of Turkish
+soldiers, under whose guidance we proceeded to visit the Kaimakam of the
+town.
+
+[Illustration: _Mosque and minaret at Dhamar._]
+
+Alighting at a large gate leading into a yard and garden, we entered a
+house, built in European style and with glass windows, and, ascending
+a staircase, found ourselves in a large room. Divans surrounded the
+walls, and a few shabby chairs and a table or two stood about the place.
+Seated at one end of the room, drinking coffee and smoking, were four
+or five Turkish officers in clean bright uniforms. As I entered one of
+these rose, and, walking to meet me, shook hands with me, and led me
+to the divan, at the same time calling to a servant for cigarettes and
+coffee. My guard, who had come with me from Yerim, presented a letter
+that had been intrusted to him by the Kaimakam of that place, which was
+immediately opened and read. The officer then told me I was welcome,
+and we conversed for about half an hour on general subjects. He could
+not understand how I had ever attempted or succeeded in getting through
+the country between Kátaba and Yerim, and laughed considerably when I
+told him of my adventures. He was, in fact, as were those with him, most
+polite and kind, and the one or two calls I paid to him, and he to me,
+during my stay, will always be remembered by myself as most pleasant.
+
+Before leaving the Kaimakam I obtained his permission to take up my
+residence in the house of Saïd during my stay in that town; for the
+latter had insisted on my not going to a khan, but spending the few
+days we had determined to stay here in his father’s house. This favour
+was readily granted me, and mounting my mules once more, Saïd, full of
+impatience, leading the way, we crossed the big square, and winding
+in and out amongst the narrow streets, finally drew up at a large
+three-storeyed detached mud-brick house, which Saïd, almost dancing with
+delight, pointed out to me as “_el-beit betaana_”—“our house.”
+
+[Illustration: MY QUARTERS AT DHAMAR.]
+
+Saïd received quite an ovation on his arrival, being kissed and hugged
+in turns by all manner of strange people: an old grey-bearded father
+followed his grey-haired mother; brothers, sisters, cousins, children,
+aunts, swarmed out of that house like ants, until one believed that
+every available inch of the place must be taken up by living people,
+and I began to feel quite nervous as to where room would be found to
+put myself away. At length the greetings were got through, and the male
+portion of the relations turned their attention to my mules, which were
+quickly unpacked and the baggage carried indoors. Then Saïd approached
+me, and having run his hand through his wavy black curls, as was a habit
+of his, bade me enter. As I stepped into the doorway with him he greeted
+me in true Yemen fashion, and with all the demonstration an Arab loves so
+much—and I believe in his case it was genuine.
+
+Climbing to the top storey of the house, we entered a large airy room,
+the proportions and decoration of which fairly astonished me, for
+from the outside, although the house was large, it had a poor enough
+appearance, being built entirely of sun-dried mud-bricks.
+
+The guest-room, for such the chamber evidently was, measured some
+thirty-five feet in length by fifteen wide. One end showed a bare floor
+of cement, but the other was richly carpeted with rugs and striped
+cloths, while divans, thick woollen mattresses, ran round the walls. The
+room was evidently not in use, which was reassuring, as I feared vermin.
+A number of handsome bronze brasiers, and strange bowls and coffee-pots,
+were piled up in one corner, while another was occupied by a pile of
+cushions, principally covered in European cottons, and happily tolerably
+clean. Sunk into the walls were alcoves, in which scent-bottles and
+sprinklers, cups and saucers, and many other things in which the heart
+of the Oriental delights, were standing. But of all the pretty things
+with which the room was filled, the windows were certainly the most
+lovely. Except for two or three that closed with wooden shutters from the
+inside, they did not open, the place of glass being taken by alabaster.
+The effect of the light falling through the semi-opaque stone was soft
+and luxurious, a rosy yellow in colour. The slabs used for these windows
+vary in thickness, so that the light is regulated, and though in this
+particular instance they were of uniform depth, in other places I saw
+them richly carved in relief, so that the background was a monotone of
+yellow; but where the carving, principally geometric designs, was, a
+much deeper tone of colour was reflected, owing to the thickness of the
+material being greater. Such, then, were the quarters we took up in the
+house of Saïd el-Dhamari.
+
+[Illustration: KARIAT EN-NEGIL.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+DHAMAR TO SANAA.
+
+
+Although the city of Dhamar boasts of a considerable antiquity, it
+displays none of the more remarkable points of the interest of age, and
+except that a large portion of the place is in bad repair, it might have
+been built but a few years ago. There are no walls to the city, and
+necessarily no gates. The absence of this has led the inhabitants to
+extend the town in many directions, with the result that it occupies a
+much larger space than would be necessary for the population it contains.
+This, however, has not prevented the streets from occupying the narrow
+limits the Oriental loves to give to the passer-by, and in the bazaars
+especially only two or three people could possibly walk abreast.
+
+Ibn Khaldun, in his geography of the Yemen, makes no mention of Dhamar,
+but this can scarcely be looked upon as meaning that the town did not
+exist in his day—in fact, it is more probable that his failing to notice
+the place was due to an omission, as the neighbouring fortress of Hirran
+is also left without mention, though from the remains existing there it
+is very probable that it was a site and fortress of no little importance
+in far earlier times than that of the native geographer; and El-Janadi,
+in his account of “The Karmathians,” speaks of the capture of Hirran
+by Ibn Fadl about the year 293 A.H., and as the fall of the fortress
+was only one item of the leaders successful march to Sanaa, it is very
+probable that the event was considered one of no little importance.
+Several of the other early Arab historians make direct mention of Dhamar
+itself.
+
+[Illustration: ROUTE MAP—DHAMAR TO SANAA
+
+BY W. B. HARRIS
+
+W. & A. K. Johnston. Edinburgh & London.]
+
+A few hours after my arrival in the city I sauntered out with Saïd to the
+bazaars, to purchase a few little luxuries in the way of food and fruit,
+for so far we had lived during our journey upon the bare necessities of
+life. Although at times a considerable crowd thronged us, we found the
+people extremely polite, and what little inconvenience we were put to was
+owing entirely to the curiosity of the inhabitants. The bazaars boast
+but little beyond their natural picturesqueness, which in many places is
+most noticeable. The shops are the usual little one-storeyed box-like
+dens of the Eastern world, and the trades are divided up into separate
+streets and quarters. Here, as elsewhere, the Jews have an entirely
+separate town, situated to the east of the city, from which it is divided
+by a large open space. Near this great square is the principal mosque
+of the town, a walled enclosure, with three large gates facing the city,
+and a handsome, though damaged, minaret. In one respect, however, it
+is in better order than that of another of the mosques, for it still
+maintains its upright position, whereas the other is sadly out of the
+perpendicular, owing to its having been struck by a cannon-ball. A third
+mosque of considerable size is within the bazaars, but none of them
+possess much claim to architectural beauty, being built in the simple and
+undecorative Arab style, native cement and mud-bricks being the principal
+materials used in their construction. Prettier, certainly, are one or two
+of the Shereefian tombs, with their white domes and arcades of arches.
+One of these, lying on the extreme south of the city, near where we had
+entered the town, is realty charming, with a small garden in front of it
+and a huge shady tree for the pilgrims to the sanctuary to rest under.
+Near here, but standing separate from the town, we saw the ruins of the
+Turkish barracks, which had been destroyed by the Arabs on their capture
+of Dhamar from the Turks a few months before.
+
+At sunset we returned to Saïd’s house to spend the evening in a family
+party, the members of which varied between the ages of seventy or eighty
+and grimy babies of a few months old. However, it was an insight into
+Arab life, and was rendered by no means unamusing by Saïd’s wonderful
+lies about Aden, his earthly paradise. He fairly took the breath away
+from his relations with the startling untruths he told, but I scarcely
+believe that they gave him credence; and probably had he kept to
+the strict truth, and only told about the forts and troops and good
+government there, they would equally have taken it for exaggeration.
+Perhaps after all he pursued the best course, and possibly by knocking
+off some ninety-nine per cent for the native love of story-telling, they
+arrived at about the right result.
+
+We were up with the sunrise, and enjoyed the luxuries of a Turkish bath.
+Fortunately the windows to admit the light were very small, otherwise
+we should, I think, have seen much that was not tempting; but one
+forgot any possible disadvantages in the luxury of soap and hot water.
+From the “hummum” we proceeded to a _café_ in the principal square,
+and perching ourselves cross-legged under an awning in front of the
+coffee-shop, joined in the swim of conversation over “hubble-bubble”
+pipes. A handful of troops were drilling before us in the square, poor
+dishevelled creatures, many without even a boot on their feet. There
+were perhaps a hundred and fifty in all, and I was told that of the four
+hundred who had been sent to garrison the place after Ahmed Feizi Pasha’s
+successful relief of Sanaa two or three months before, these were all
+that remained, sickness having carried off the rest—starvation probably.
+The officers seemed as disheartened as the men, and appeared to lack all
+interest in the drill. Many of the soldiers were smoking cigarettes,
+but no one seemed to take any notice of it; and after an hour or so the
+soldiers wandered off in different directions, without apparently being
+dismissed. It was sad to see their poor wan faces, thinned and paled with
+sickness and hunger.
+
+Although crowds now and again collected round me, it was surprising how
+polite every class of native was to me, and I do not once remember,
+during all the time I was in the Yemen, except on one or two occasions
+from the guards of my prison at Sanaa, a word of abuse. The Yemenis are
+the aristocracy of Islam. Wild in appearance, their manners are perfect,
+and though their nature now and again leads them to violence, they are as
+a rule gentle and hospitable, and as my travels proceeded, the more I saw
+of them, especially the inhabitants of the mountains and the plateau, the
+more I liked them. Nor did I find any difference with the townspeople,
+and many a kind word of welcome was said to me now and again.
+
+Much as I wanted to push on to Sanaa, I had promised Saïd to stay three
+days at his house at Dhamar, and to tell the truth, I was by no means
+sorry of a pretext to rest in such comfortable quarters. Many a visit I
+received there. I think that there could not have been a single Turkish
+official in the town who did not at some time or another come and see
+me, and although they seemed always to be suspicious as to the objects
+of my travels, they were charmingly polite. Nor were the Turks my only
+visitors, for many an Arab merchant in long robes of silk came and spent
+an hour or so over coffee and tobacco, and on one occasion I was honoured
+by the visit of a local Shereef, first cousin to Ahmed ed-Din, leader of
+the late rebellion, but who, wisely, had not taken part on either side,
+preferring before entering into the affair to see who was going to win.
+Saïd’s people thought a great deal of the visit of this Shereef, and
+personally I found him charming. He was a man of perhaps some thirty
+years of age, extremely handsome and beautifully dressed. He seemed well
+educated, and had travelled a little, and the hour he spent with me I
+shall always remember with pleasure.
+
+But of all the insights that I obtained into Arab life during my time
+in the Yemen, the most interesting was the dinner-party given by Saïd
+in my honour. About seven o’clock our guests commenced to arrive—and
+what guests! The first to come were half-a-dozen Arab tribesmen, with
+long wavy black hair and a scarcity of clothing—in fact, their entire
+costume consisted of a turban and a dark loin-cloth, from the latter
+of which appeared the handles of their silver daggers. Strange lithe
+beautiful creatures they were, with limbs that would have been worth a
+mint of money to an artist to paint from. A couple of merchants followed
+a few minutes later, their servants carrying their silver hookahs.
+Natives of the same country, it is extraordinary what a difference is
+apparent between the townspeople and the tribesmen; and our merchant
+friends were fat and heavy, boasting little of the grace of their wilder
+countrymen, and in place of the scanty clothing, wrapped in long silk
+garments of gaudy hues, and wearing white turbans on their heads. More
+of the tribesmen followed, each as he entered placing his long spear
+against the walls in the corners of the room, till the place wore quite
+the appearance of an armoury. Then came the musicians, natives of the
+Hadramaut, wilder and longer-haired than the Yemenis present, and
+bearing, in place of spears, strange richly painted instruments. More and
+more guests, until our room, big as it was, was filled.
+
+What a night it was! One of those nights in a lifetime which can never
+be forgotten. The cool dim light of the swinging alabaster lamps, the
+flashing spears heaped together in the corners, the wonderful dark crowd
+of swarthy men, the steam of the brewing coffee issuing from strange
+jars, the rich dark carpets and gaudy cushions, the murmur and the
+blue curling smoke of the pipes—ay, a dinner-party in Dhamar is worth
+seeing! And then the soft music and singing of the musicians, whose tall
+beautiful figures moved slowly here and there as they played strange
+melodies! It seemed like some dream:—no wild African feast, merely the
+echo of the long-past glories of Arabia!
+
+Then they brought us great dishes heaped with food, for the most part our
+old friend the antiquated goat, and we dipped our fingers into copper
+bowls of rose-water and ate together. Then coffee and pipes, and the
+bitter herb _kat_, and music and dancing. And the cool night air blew in
+through the windows and sent the filmy smoke circling here and there, and
+now and again ruffled the raven locks of one or other of our guests, who
+lay recumbent and silent, expressionless and beautiful, listening to the
+tales of love that our musicians, with strange monotonous dancing, sang
+to the strains of their painted guitars. We were back again in the days
+of Haroun el-Rashid, and all the hurry and scurry of modern life seemed
+lost and gone.
+
+At length I brought out my electric machine, and, the guests joining
+hands, felt, for the first time in their lives, a shock. They smiled,
+and asked for more. Then one was brave enough to hold the handles by
+himself. I turned it on full, and fairly whizzed the wheels round. With
+a scream the man jumped into the air, and then apologised. Silently, one
+by one, our guests arose, and shaking me by the hand with the compliments
+the Arab knows so well how to bestow, bade me good-night. Then, taking
+their spears in their hands, they walked slowly to the door, until
+fairly outside, when they flew down the stairs at a pace that was
+positively dangerous, and from the window I could see them tearing down
+the street at a break-neck run. Such was the effect of a small electric
+machine at a Dhamar dinner-party. The following morning we paid a visit
+to the tombs of the family of a Turkish general, Ahmed Rushti Pasha, who
+had himself fallen near Lohaya in the beginning of the rebellion. The
+enclosed garden, with its mosque and tombs, tells of a sad story, for
+the family of Ahmed Rushti were assassinated by their house being blown
+up with gunpowder some few years since. However, as the story is to be
+found in the chapter on the Yemen rebellion, I shall not refer to it
+more particularly here. The tombs are situated without the city, on the
+west side. An acre or two of land are enclosed with high walls, in which
+stands a summer-house, where the bereaved Pasha was wont to come and sit;
+but this, like the tombs themselves, was sacked by the Arabs during the
+rebellion, and little but the outside walls and the graves remain to-day.
+Passing back through the town we visited the Jews’ quarter, which, unlike
+the Moslem city, is walled, the gates being locked every night from the
+outside. Miserable squalor and dirt existed on all sides, although the
+Jews themselves seemed well to do, and their houses airy and large. They
+are built almost entirely of mud-bricks, plastered inside and out. This
+material forms a hard surface, and seems to be very durable.
+
+[Illustration: _Hirran._]
+
+Our last day was spent in visiting the old fortress of Hirran, lying a
+mile or two to the north of Dhamar; and well worth the trouble and heat I
+found the expedition, for Hirran boasts many antiquities. Passing through
+the north quarter of Dhamar, one emerges into the dusty plateau, across
+which the road continues for a couple of miles or so. Hirran is clearly
+visible from Dhamar itself, the dark rocky hill standing out black
+against the light soil. One reaches the place near the south-west point
+of the jagged rock, where are some old tanks sunk in the solid stone, and
+of very considerable size. Keeping still to the west side of the hill,
+we shortly reached the scene of an old cemetery, the flat rock being
+honeycombed with graves. These were often sunk to the depth of twenty
+feet and more, and generally measured some seven feet in length, and two
+to three in breadth, but one or two were circular. They did not point in
+any direction, but lay scattered about the little elevated rocky flat in
+which they were sunk, some east and west, some north and south. Besides
+the empty ones, there were a great many visible which had apparently
+escaped the hands of man, nor could I find out why or when those that had
+been dug out had been spoiled. An old goatherd, the sole inhabitant of
+Hirran, told me that he had always remembered them thus, and during his
+lifetime had never seen any one digging in the graves, though lately
+some of the larger cave-tombs further up the rock had been searched for
+treasure, but only a few coins and beads, he said, had been found with
+the bones.
+
+[Illustration: _Cave-Tombs, Hirran._]
+
+The hill of Hirran is double-peaked, each point rising to some hundreds
+of feet above the level of the surrounding plain. These peaks lie almost
+due north and south, the rock taking a curving form between them, so that
+the whole forms a sort of crescent, which was formerly defended by a huge
+wall, still remaining, joining the lower slopes of the two extremities on
+the eastern side.
+
+Like the graveyard, the cave-tombs are situated on the west side of the
+hill, at a spot where the steep precipice, which rises to the summit, is
+joined by the lower boulder-strewn slopes. Although we entered all of the
+caves that are to-day open, there were signs of numerous others which the
+collection of falling material from the precipice had so blocked that
+considerable digging would be necessary to procure an entrance.
+
+The first cave-tomb which I visited consisted of a circular chamber with
+a domed roof; the room measured some twelve feet in diameter, and the
+highest point of the roof was five feet eight inches from the floor.
+To the left of the entrance was an alcove three feet deep, three high,
+and four in length. The door was three feet wide and over five feet in
+height, but the walls were lower in the chamber.
+
+[Illustration: _Ground plan of Tomb III._]
+
+A little higher up the side of the precipice we were able to gain
+entrance to a second cave, which I call Cave II. This excavation formed
+two oval chambers, partly divided from one another by a buttress running
+out from the solid rock. On both sides of this partition, and on the main
+walls facing it, were ledges cut in the rock three feet above the ground;
+in the dust of one of which I found a few bones and an engraved bead.
+
+[Illustration: _Interior of Tomb III., Hait Hirran._]
+
+Cave No. III. was perhaps the most important I visited, and showed signs
+of more careful excavation than any of the others. A doorway led one
+into a circular chamber, off which to right and left two small rooms
+opened out. This circular entrance-hall led, opposite the door, into a
+still larger chamber, into which in turn opened two alcoves and a room,
+all of them four-sided. On the left and immediately in front the doors
+were raised above the ground and nearly square, the floor of the alcoves
+being level with the lower part of the openings. On the right, however,
+was a chamber level with the floor, entered through an archway. The two
+alcoves showed evident signs of having at one time been closed up, for in
+the lintels of rock were visible holes which may either have held a door
+or been used for joists to strengthen any masonry which may have been
+arranged to fill up the opening.
+
+[Illustration: _Entrance to Tomb IV., Hait Hirran._]
+
+Cave IV., again, to the south of the others, presented quite a new
+feature, the face of the precipice being cut to form a large square
+chamber, in the back wall of which a doorway opened into the tomb. Below
+this window, a foot or two above the ground, ran a series of five holes
+drilled a short way into the rock, and which seems at some time to have
+held the supports of a platform or seat. Apparently the whole outer
+chamber was lined with plaster, and may have been once separated from the
+face of the precipice by masonry. The window or aperture opening into the
+tomb was situated three feet from the ground, and was two and a half feet
+in height and two feet three inches in breadth. The interior consisted of
+an alcove six feet in length, two feet wide, and three in height. Here,
+as in Cave No. III., I found bones amongst the accumulation of dust, but
+nothing else.
+
+The fifth cave consisted of one large room, some sixteen feet by eight,
+at each end of which were ledges in the rock eight feet long by eighteen
+inches wide. The door leading into this cave-tomb was three feet six
+inches wide, and the roof inside five feet in height. The rock here was
+strewn with small chips of rock, and I found no signs of bones.
+
+All these caves showed signs of having been opened, and my old guide the
+goatherd said that such was the case. Asking him how Moslems reconciled
+themselves to breaking open tombs, he replied that they were the tombs of
+“unbelievers,” and that had they been Mahammedan graves no one would have
+dared to have touched them. This he exemplified to me by pointing out
+some tombs on the summit of the rock, in which Moslems are supposed to be
+buried, and it was quite apparent they had been left untouched.
+
+Following the hill to its southernmost extremity, I climbed by a
+difficult ascent to a tank cut in the rock where water was formerly
+collected. To reach this spot, so difficult and slippery was the path, I
+had to go barefooted, a by no means pleasant task, as the stones were so
+hot as to blister my feet. Descending again, we proceeded to the site of
+the former “fortress,” formed by the two eastern points of the hill being
+joined by a great wall. This, however, showed signs of early Arab work,
+being built of the peculiar cement which is typical of Arab construction.
+This wall is of enormous height and width, being some hundred and fifty
+yards long and twenty feet high, and one could drive a carriage and pair
+anywhere on its summit. The only one dating from Arab times that I have
+seen to equal it in size is the great wall attributed to Mulai Ismail at
+Mequinez in Morocco. Within the wall is a deep well, the upper portion
+of which is built, the lower part sunk into the solid rock. Above the
+northern end of the great wall are a series of three tanks, reached by a
+roughly cut stairway. Still ascending, one arrives at the summit, where
+are the five Moslem tombs I alluded to, enclosed in low stone walls, and
+the remains of much old building, of which it is difficult to gather any
+distinct idea, to such a state of ruin has it fallen. At all events,
+the enormous amount of broken pottery, some of gorgeous colour and fine
+design, speaks to the size of the place.
+
+From the summit one gains a fine view of the surrounding country,—a great
+flat plain broken by ridges of dark volcanic rock, like that on which we
+were standing, until in the far east a tall range of mountains appeared
+on the horizon. Below us to the south lay Dhamar, almost as yellow as
+the plain itself, for there is but little green in its neighbourhood,
+although it is said that in the rainy season the whole country entirely
+changes its aspect. To the east of Hirran, and immediately below it,
+lie the remains of an old city, the loose stone walls of the houses
+still standing to the height of a few feet above the ground. Altogether
+the place must have been one of great importance in early times, and
+I regretted much that I was unable in my hasty visit to find any
+inscriptions. However, I was able to take the notes given above before a
+mounted Turkish soldier appeared on the scene, sent by the Kaimakam to
+watch my movements, and who begged me politely to return. Fearing that
+any suspicion on the part of the Governor toward myself might prevent my
+continuing my journey to Sanaa, I stated my readiness to comply with his
+request, and bidding adieu to the old goatherd, once more mounted my mule
+and returned to the town.
+
+I was able to learn but little about Hirran in Dhamar, or in fact
+anywhere, except that it was once the centre of a great trade, a sort of
+caravanserai for the goods of Sanaa and the north, the kingdom of Saba
+or Sheba, and Aden. This is the only early tradition the natives seem to
+have concerning its former wealth and its being a centre of trade in very
+early times, and this tradition has led me to a conjecture—it is nothing
+more—that Hirran may be the site of the Haran of the Old Testament.
+The places mentioned in the same verse are, I believe, all in Southern
+Arabia, and have all been recognised, Haran alone remaining undiscovered.
+It is more than possible, judging from the similarity of names and the
+report of its former importance in trade, that they may be one and the
+same place.[40]
+
+During the afternoon I paid a farewell visit to the Kaimakam, which was
+returned an hour later, when he promised me a couple of soldiers to see
+me safely to Sanaa.
+
+The following morning we left Dhamar. There was, of course, a great
+leave-taking of Saïd, and just as they had done on our arrival, a long
+string of relations, illustrating all the seven ages of man, with many
+of the intermediary gaps filled in, streamed out of the house to bid him
+farewell. Good simple people they were, though the younger members of the
+family, when away from their parents’ eyes, were importunate in their
+demands for _bakshish_. The road led us to the west of Hirran, close to
+the large tanks I mentioned as having seen on my ride to that place, and
+then on over the dreary plain. Leaving the large-walled village of Jaffa
+to our left for a time, we saw but little signs of life.
+
+The early morning effect upon the flat plateau was one of great beauty,
+in spite of its dry arid appearance. A dull warm haze hung over the
+more distant desert, for such it really was at this period of the
+year, through which the far-away mountains shimmered in the heat,
+turquoise-blue in colour. As we proceeded the cultivated land became very
+sparse, the soil for the most part consisting of sand and stones, until,
+passing through a narrow gorge of rock, we entered a great circular plain
+enclosed by low rocky hills on all sides, no doubt the crater of some
+long-extinct volcano. From this point one catches a glimpse of Jibel
+Doran, a range of mountains of great elevation, which terminate in a
+strange sugar-loaf peak, unequalled in curious form by any I have seen
+elsewhere in the world, with the exception perhaps of “The Needle of
+Heaven” in the I-chang gorge of the Yangtze-Kiang, some eleven hundred
+miles up that river.
+
+[Illustration: JIBEL DORAN—EARLY MORNING.]
+
+At a small _café_—half a cave, and half built of rough stones—we spent an
+hour or two during the hottest part of the day. Quite a number of men and
+camels had arrived before us, and in spite of the fact that scarcely a
+blade of anything green was to be seen, the surroundings were by no means
+unpicturesque. Joining in with the caravan-men, a cool corner was found
+for me in the cave, and our mid-day rest passed quickly and pleasantly
+enough. Far above us, perched on the summit of a hill, was the large
+village of Athaik, its tall towers dominating the surrounding plain and
+giving the place the appearance of some old feudal castle. A descent led
+us to a slightly lower portion of the plain. The soil here was richer,
+but I noticed that there was no cultivation, a fact that was explained
+to me to be owing to the rebellion, which had deterred any investment in
+crops that were bound to fall a prey either to the Turks or independent
+robbers. To our left we could see the walled town of Resaaba, but wishing
+to push on to Sanaa, and as it did not lie in our road, I did not visit
+it. There is but little of interest, I was told, to be seen within its
+walls. It is, in fact, rather a very large village than a town, and
+bears all the characteristics of the villages of the Yemen plateau.
+Again, another reason deterred me from penetrating there; that I felt it
+advisable to give as wide a berth as possible to any places where I might
+be likely to run up against Turks and Turkish authorities. To have so
+nearly reached Sanaa, and then be turned back, would indeed have been a
+disappointment.
+
+Several times along the road we passed the deep rock-cut tanks that even
+to-day form the water-supply of the passing caravans. One that we stopped
+to drink at as evening was approaching bore rough designs of men on
+horseback, and inscriptions in the Himyaric language cut in the plaster
+that lined the rock walls. Like so many of these tanks, a flight of steps
+led to the water’s edge, at the summit of which was a smaller pool, to be
+filled by hand for the beasts of burden to drink from, and, like the main
+reservoir, circular in form. The mountains we had seen all the afternoon
+far ahead of us were now growing nearer, and as evening drew on we found
+ourselves in a large open valley, semicircular in form, and closed at the
+far end by steep broken crags. The soil here was well cultivated, though,
+as we were still nearly nine thousand feet above the sea-level, the
+young crops had not yet begun to show, and the place looked dreary and
+burnt up. That the soil must repay cultivation is evident from the great
+number of wells distributed over the country. At many of these, men,
+women, and camels were engaged in drawing water. A couple of tree-trunks
+form uprights to a beam laid across their tops, over which the rope
+that supports the skins in which the water is raised passes. At the
+other end of the rope, men, women, or some beast of burden is harnessed.
+Owing to the great depth of these wells, and the size of the skins used
+as buckets, the weight to be raised is very great, and the labour of
+raising it proportionately so. But the natives have discovered a means by
+which the work is lessened, while at the same time their irrigation is
+rendered more practicable—namely, by building the wells upon the summits
+of mounds. A long sloping path leads from the high mouth of the well to
+the level of the surrounding fields, so that the drawer, harnessed to
+the end of the rope, is assisted by the centre of gravity, instead of
+being dependent upon his, her, or its personal strength. This raising of
+the wells above the fields also renders easy the carrying of the water
+in little dikes to whatever spot it is needed. The skin, on reaching the
+well’s mouth, empties itself into a trough from which the water pours
+into the irrigating channels. The fact that these channels consist of
+only small ditches adds much to the toil and labour, as the thirsty soil
+sucks up a large quantity of the fluid before it reaches its destination.
+However, labour is cheap, and a man, so long as he possesses a donkey, a
+camel, or a wife to work his well, can sit and smoke and look on himself.
+
+At length we drew up at the village khan of Maaber, our resting-place,
+and climbing a rough outside staircase, found ourselves in a clean
+whitewashed room, cool and airy, where our carpets were quickly spread
+and coffee on the boil. The people were very inquisitive, and at last I
+was obliged to give peremptory orders that no one was to be allowed to
+enter my room. But this did not seem to be of much avail, and eventually
+I posted a guard outside the door, armed with a long stick. The village
+is a poor enough place, built of mud-bricks, with a little stone masonry
+showing here and there. The people seemed poor and dirty, and there
+was little or nothing of interest to be seen. Very different are these
+villages of the plateau to the well-built and fortified towers of the
+country we had passed through to the south of Yerim, nor were the people
+of this part half so clean or genial or handsome as the wild mountaineers.
+
+Early the next morning we were on our way again, the road continuing over
+the dusty plain. A mile or two from Maaber we witnessed some skirmishing
+between the Turkish troops and the hillmen of Jibel Anis, one of the
+last tribes to hold out, and one that probably will never surrender to
+the Turkish Government. The country inhabited by this tribe consists of
+wild inaccessible country, into which the Osmanli troops are powerless
+to penetrate. The battle we witnessed was not apparently a very bloody
+affair, for it consisted principally in a small field-battery of the
+Turks firing into a few hill villages, from which a desultory and
+ill-aimed fire was kept up by the Arabs. This was the first active sign
+we had as yet seen of the rebellion; for although Turkish garrisons were
+to be found in Dhamar and Yerim, their reconquest of these cities from
+the Arabs had been accomplished almost without bloodshed. For a time we
+stayed and watched the little battle, listening to the sharp cracking
+of the rifles and the louder tones of the field-guns, until, as it was
+apparent that the Turks had no idea of trying to climb to the villages
+or the Arabs of descending to the level, we continued our journey. The
+plain ends in an abrupt line of high rocky mountains, over which we
+could see our path twisting and turning in serpentine coils. Entering
+a narrow gorge, we passed close under the grandly situated village of
+Kariat en-Negil, its every rock crowned by stone towers—a striking and
+wild-looking place. Here it is that the old pilgrim-road from Aden and
+the Hadramaut probably joins the track I had travelled on. We had left
+the old road at Lahej, whence it continues _viâ_ Ibb, our route lying
+more to the east. I have mentioned elsewhere this great pilgrim-track,
+founded by Huseyn ibn Salaamah in the fifth century A.H., and there is no
+further need of description here. Suffice it to say that at every night’s
+_nzala_, or resting-place, was built a mosque, while tanks refreshed the
+weary with water by the way.
+
+[Illustration: KHADAR.]
+
+A tremendous climb takes one to the summit of the pass, where there is
+an old round tower, now used as a watch-house by the Turks. The path is
+extremely steep, and, though roughly paved, so slippery that all riding
+up was impossible, while the rarefied air made the climb by no means an
+easy or a pleasant one. The summit I found by observation to lie nine
+thousand one hundred feet above the sea-level, about eleven hundred feet
+above the city of Dhamar.
+
+A steep descent and an hour’s ride along a broken valley brought us to
+the large village of Khadar, where we rested for an hour over pipes
+and coffee. The place is a picturesque one, though greatly lacking in
+vegetation. The upper portion of the village is situated on the summit of
+a precipitous hill, and is walled, while every available peak holds the
+usual tower-house. The few buildings that stand near the road are for the
+most part caravanserais and _cafés_. The inhabitants are almost entirely
+Jews, who, like certain tribes of their co-religionists that I have seen
+in the Atlas Mountains, are cultivators of the soil and agriculturists. A
+small mosque, the only whitewashed building in the place, shows, however,
+that there must be some Moslem inhabitants in Khadar.
+
+A wild group were seated at the door of one of the _cafés_, Arabs and
+camels from Mareb, whence they were bringing salt. Our mutual curiosity
+in each other led to conversation, and I found them good fellows on the
+whole, though rougher in manners than the Yemenis I had as yet come in
+contact with.
+
+Two hours after leaving Khadar we reached our night’s resting-place,
+Waalan, the best-built village we had as yet come across. The size and
+solidity of the houses was astonishing; and when, on being led up a
+staircase and along a wide passage into a beautifully clean room in
+a handsome khan, the change from the quarters we had as yet found on
+our journey in the other villages, almost took one’s breath away. Our
+chamber, which commanded a fine view of several surrounding villages
+through large windows opening down to the ground, was well whitewashed,
+the doors and window-shutters being handsomely carved of polished dark
+wood, and with a ceiling of the same material overhead. The change from
+what we had been accustomed to was a most pleasant one, and we soon made
+ourselves comfortable. A dear old lady, and a very tolerably clean one,
+waited upon us, and insisted on cooking our dinner, a task usually shared
+by Abdurrahman and Saïd—and very well she did it too.
+
+[Illustration: VIEW FROM WAALAN.]
+
+This appearance of cleanliness and civilisation was a sure sign that
+we were nearing the capital, and I turned in to rest that night with a
+feeling of satisfaction, for only a few hours’ ride lay between us and
+Sanaa.
+
+Four hours of heat along the valley of the Beni Matar, and we reached the
+large village of Estaz, where we rested for an hour or two in a large but
+dirty _café_. There is certainly but little to see in the place, though
+Turkish soldiers were more common here than elsewhere, and the curiosity
+of their officers would not allow of my being left undisturbed even for
+the brief space of the hour or so we stayed there. They must needs come
+and call and ask all sorts of absurd questions. Estaz, however, boasts
+one superiority over much of the Yemen plateau, a river of running water
+that flows by many channels through gardens, the greenness of which was
+most pleasant after days of travelling over yellow plains.
+
+Before mid-day we were off again, and turning a corner could see far away
+across the level ground, shimmering white and yellow in the steaming
+heat, the city of Sanaa.
+
+With a thrill of satisfaction I urged my mule on to its quickest
+paces, and a couple of hours later found us entering the city by an
+old broken-down gateway, near which a company or two of troops were
+drilling. Signs of the fighting were common enough. Some of the little
+towers erected as forts by the Turks outside the walls were in ruins,
+and half an hour earlier we had passed all that remained of the village
+of Dar es-Salaam, the “house of peace”—ill-fitting name!—where the Arabs
+had made their last strong stand against their Turkish enemy, and which
+they only left when driven forth by the Turkish artillery playing upon
+the houses of the village. Little remains to-day but broken walls and
+tumble-down towers. In many places one could see exactly where the shot
+had hit, and one tower was drilled through, the torn-up flooring and
+rafters showing what havoc the ball had accomplished.
+
+At length we were in Sanaa. The road had been a difficult and a
+dangerous one, but this was all forgotten now. In spite of warnings and
+repeated efforts to dissuade us from so rash an undertaking, we had been
+successful, and it was with the keenest satisfaction, though not without
+some doubts as to how I should be received, that I watched my little
+caravan enter the city.
+
+Passing through a narrow street with high houses on either hand, we drew
+up at the door of a great caravanserai, a four-storeyed building of which
+the rooms all looked out on to balconies overhanging a large _patio_. The
+place was in wretched condition, and the ground-floor, which served as a
+stable for camels, horses, mules, and donkeys, looked as though it had
+never been cleaned out. Here I paid off my men, with the exception, of
+course, of Abdurrahman and Saïd. I had made a bargain with a caravan-man
+in Aden to send me through to Sanaa, and this bargain he had carried out
+in every particular, in spite of all manner of dangers and difficulties;
+and it was with much satisfaction that I paid the worthy fellows the
+remaining half of the sum agreed upon at Aden, and sent them on their
+way with more _bakshish_ than had probably ever been in their possession
+before. Our parting was almost a sad one: from the day they had joined me
+we had shared the same food and the same room at the khans, and though it
+was under three weeks that they had been with me, I felt as though I had
+known them ages, and shall always remember with pleasure the trustworthy
+way in which they saw me through the country, and how, weary as they must
+at times have been with the long marches, they maintained their tempers
+throughout, and were always ready to do me some little service, however
+far removed it might chance to be from the routine of their work.
+
+A saunter through the bazaars brought us to the quarter in which
+the Government buildings are situated, and in a few minutes more I
+found myself in the residence of his Excellency Ahmed Feizi Pasha,
+Governor-General of the Yemen and Commander of the Seventh Army Corps. I
+was almost immediately ushered into the generals presence. He was seated
+on a divan at the end of a handsome room, surrounded by quite a number
+of his staff. His Excellency received me pleasantly, and after exchange
+of salaams, a chair being fetched for me, he began to ask me what had
+brought me there. I thereupon presented him with my passport, vizéd by
+the Turkish Consul-General in London, and made out for the “Ottoman
+Empire,” which had been issued to me by H.M. Foreign Office the day
+before I left London to visit the Yemen. Being unable to read English,
+Ahmed Feizi Pasha sent for an Armenian who spoke and read French, and the
+wording of my passport was explained to him. Suddenly his Excellency’s
+manner quite changed, and he became very red and irascible, asking all
+sorts of absurd questions, which he did not give me time to answer.
+First, I was not an Englishman at all; then I was an officer sent from
+Aden to map out the country, and assist the Arabs in the rebellion;
+until at last I almost became bewildered as to what I was, or rather
+what the Pasha imagined me to be. Abdurrahman, good Moslem that he is,
+was an Englishman in disguise. No Arab, the Pasha said, ever spoke Arabic
+with such a foreign accent; and as to Morocco there was no such country,
+and no such person as Mulai el-Hassan, its Sultan, for he knew well
+enough that all North Africa was under the French. At length he insisted
+on his saying the Mahammedan belief, to assure himself that he was in
+truth a co-religionist. Abdurrahman’s indignation was intense, especially
+as Saïd happened to be present; for with a true oriental love of
+exaggeration the Moor had been telling the Yemeni wonderful tales of the
+greatness and power of his country and its Sultan, and it pained him to
+find that the Turkish Pasha had never heard of either, and Saïd’s smile
+and look were anything but reassuring to his pride in his fatherland.
+
+[Illustration: THE AUTHOR BEING EXAMINED AND HIS PASSPORT READ IN THE
+PRESENCE OF AHMED FEIZI PASHA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE YEMEN.]
+
+At length, in a burst of anger, Ahmed Feizi called to a couple of
+officers, and his remarks being translated to me by the Armenian, I
+learned that I was to be kept in security for the present. A hand was
+laid on my shoulder, and I was gently led away, leaving the handsome old
+Pasha as scarlet as a tomato. In the large anteroom I was handed over
+to a guard of four soldiers, who conducted me through the streets to a
+guard-room, situated above the prison yard, where I was soon ensconced,
+the door banged and locked, and a sentry posted on the outside. My
+baggage, which I had left at the khan, was sent to me a little later.
+Meanwhile, Abdurrahman and Saïd were strictly cross-examined by the
+Governor-General, and as the account the first had to give of himself did
+not seem satisfactory, he quickly followed me to jail. That Saïd was a
+Yemeni there could be no doubt, but he suffered a like fate—I suppose for
+keeping such bad company.
+
+I spent five days in prison at Sanaa. The room was clean, and I was
+decently treated, being only once roughly handled. Wishing to speak to an
+officer in the courtyard, I proceeded to leave my room, the door of which
+was kept open by day, when I was rudely pushed back by the sentry.
+
+The first night I was allowed to sleep alone and in peace; but on the
+succeeding three, two non-commissioned officers shared the chamber, dirty
+things in uniforms, which wore the look of never having been taken off.
+However, they were good-hearted fellows, and both spoke Arabic well.
+
+[Illustration: _The Author in prison at Sanaa._]
+
+My meals I was sent out to get for the first day; but after that, all
+leaving the place was forbidden to me, except to take exercise in charge
+of a guard of soldiers. On the whole I had little to complain of, except
+that the water and sanitary arrangements were both very bad—so bad, in
+fact, that on the last night I was taken with violent fever, as also
+were Saïd and Abdurrahman, who by no means shared such good quarters
+as I did, being housed in a large dirty room, where chained prisoners
+were their companions. This, however, was changed on my representing
+that both were suffering from fever to the Governor-General on my second
+interview. On this occasion I found his Excellency more reasonable, and
+once or twice he even laughed, being apparently much amused when I told
+him how I had got over the frontier in the disguise of a Greek. But
+the Pasha’s merriment did not bring about any change in my condition,
+and I was taken back from his presence to the same prison as before.
+I told him at this interview that one of my reasons for visiting the
+country was to correspond for the ‘Times,’ and he thereupon entered into
+a long political statement as to the rebellion and its reasons. His
+Excellency asked me what we should do in India in a like circumstance,
+and I replied that I thought the matter could be best solved by a total
+disarmament of the Arabs. While agreeing with me, he acknowledged such a
+task an impossibility with the troops under his command, and said he was
+earnestly hoping for further reinforcements from Constantinople. From his
+manner, and what I could gather about Ahmed Feizi Pasha, he seems to be
+a man of great personal courage and perseverance, besides possessing an
+extraordinary amount of diplomacy and skill in dealing with the Arabs,
+learned, no doubt, during the time that he was Governor of Mecca; and
+in spite of the fact that he saw right to put me in prison, I cannot
+but admire the thorough character which the general seems to possess.
+His surroundings showed that here, at least, some regard was shown for
+the common soldiers, and all wore boots, not to say fezzes. Here, too,
+their uniforms were not in rags, nor did they seem to be on the eve of
+starvation. There seemed, too, in Sanaa, more organisation than I had
+seen elsewhere. I asked the Pasha why I was kept in prison, and he
+replied that my presence was not entirely satisfactory, and that he had
+ordered me to be lodged in the guard-room lest the Arab population might
+do me harm.
+
+I can quite imagine that to the jealous Turk the unexpected arrival of
+an Englishman was by no means a pleasant surprise. Up to this time all
+truth concerning the rebellion had been withheld, and the sole matter
+that the press had been able to obtain was from official sources at
+Constantinople. Therefore any chance of the truth leaking out, and the
+general public being made aware how very nearly the Osmanli Government
+had lost the southernmost of its Arabian possessions, would prove far
+from acceptable to the authorities. On this account Ahmed Feizi’s bearing
+toward myself is explicable, nor do I complain very much of it. Not so,
+however, with the action of H.M. late Secretary of Foreign Affairs, who
+laid all the blame of my imprisonment upon myself, and entirely ignored
+the fact that my passport,—demanding that I should be allowed to pass
+without let or hindrance, and that I should be afforded every assistance
+and protection of which I might stand in need in the Ottoman Empire,
+and which had been vizéd by the Turkish Consul-General in London,—bore
+his own signature, which, if it were not lithographed, might have been
+worth the sum paid for the document that bore it, as an autograph, but
+was certainly entirely useless for the purpose for which it was supposed
+to be affixed. Although I made my journey through the Yemen with the
+knowledge and consent of the late Sir William White, then H.M. Ambassador
+at Constantinople, I was informed, in one of those elegant despatches
+of the Foreign Office, that I had entered the Yemen on entirely my own
+responsibility, and must bear the results of my actions myself! and
+that if the Turkish Government saw right to put me in prison and give
+me such bad water to drink that fever was the result, they really could
+not hold any one responsible for it beyond my own person. My question
+as to whether the wording of my passport was of any value, or merely a
+form that meant nothing, they entirely ignored, and to this day I have
+been unable to obtain a reply. Suffice it to say that with all its seals
+and titles and stamps, a British passport does not seem to be of much
+value in the Ottoman Empire; nor when it is absolutely disregarded is any
+one blamed by the Foreign Office except the unoffending bearer, who may
+have been so dazzled by its splendour as to believe that it might be of
+service to him. However, what with making treaties and doing their duty
+in society, it can be easily understood that the time of the officials
+is too much occupied to attend to such an unimportant question as the
+imprisonment of an Englishman, even though by such an occurrence every
+word and sentence of a paper to which H.M. Secretary of State appends his
+signature is disregarded and abused.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SANAA, THE CAPITAL OF THE YEMEN.
+
+
+The city of Sanaa is situated in a wide valley, at an elevation of seven
+thousand two hundred and fifty feet above the sea-level. Although the
+town lies almost altogether on the flat bottom of the valley, a mountain,
+Jibel Negoum, rises abruptly on the east—so abruptly, in fact, that the
+old fortress and castle which form the citadel of Sanaa are perched on
+one of its spurs, from which the main peak rises in rocky bareness to a
+very considerable height.
+
+The town is in form a triangle, the apex being formed by the _kasr_
+above-mentioned, and the base by the wall of the garden suburb Bir
+el-Azab. There are three distinct quarters within the outer walls: the
+first or east quarter that of the Turks and Arabs, where are situated
+the bazaars, the Government buildings, and the principal native houses;
+the second the Jews’ quarter, separated from the last by a wide strip of
+barren ground, part of which shows signs of once having been a cemetery;
+and thirdly, this suburb of Bir el-Azab, where many a villa stands
+within luxurious gardens of fruit and other trees, enclosed with high
+walls. In spite of the fact that Sanaa is situated only between the
+15th and 16th degree of north latitude, and so well within the tropics,
+there are very few signs to be seen of anything approaching tropical
+vegetation, and one is surprised at first, until the great altitude
+of the place is taken into consideration, to find that nearly all our
+English fruits flourish there. Although, of course, by day the sun is
+intensely hot, it is quite a common occurrence to experience frosts on
+winter nights. Yet in spite of lying at so great an elevation above the
+sea, Sanaa is subject at times to serious droughts; and although in the
+rainy season a torrent of water pours down the river-bed which runs
+through the centre of the town, in the dry periods of the year water is
+procurable only from wells sunk to a great depth in the solid rock. The
+water drawn from these wells is said to be very fresh and good. As is the
+custom in so many parts of the East, it is a marketable produce, and is
+carried about in skins by water-bearers, and sold at so much per skin,
+or even per cup. Yet in spite of water being a thing of money value, it
+is extraordinary how clean the general population of Sanaa seem to be,
+with the exception of the lower-class Turks, who, to judge from their
+appearance, one could believe never to have even heard of its existence.
+However, happily they are in the minority.
+
+The whole town of Sanaa is surrounded by a wall built for the most part
+of mud-bricks dried in the sun, though in many cases the towers, which at
+regular intervals protect the walls, and on most of which the Turks have
+mounted small guns, are of stone. The city is entered by four principal
+gates, one lying to each point of the compass. Although extremely badly
+built, and capable apparently of withstanding no armed force, the walls
+of Sanaa formed a sufficient protection to the city against the wild Arab
+hordes by whom the place was infested in the autumn and winter of 1891.
+Had the Arabs been possessed of any artillery, instead of being armed
+with only a few matchlock-guns and rifles and their spears, no doubt
+the city would have fallen. Yet it has been found by proof, especially
+in the several bombardments of Mokha, that walls and fortifications of
+sun-dried bricks are by no means as easy to form a breach in as it might
+be supposed. However, in these days of shells they would offer but poor
+resistance, although when fired at with shot the missile merely buries
+itself in the clay, without doing any appreciable damage. To further
+fortify the place, the Turks have at regular intervals built, some
+few hundred yards outside the walls, towers, somewhat resembling our
+martello towers of the south coast. Here, as they have done upon the
+main wall, they have erected small guns which proved of great use in the
+Arab attacks upon Sanaa. These towers, by being built within easy range
+of one another, and being exposed to no more serious fire than that
+of matchlock-guns, are said to have played terrible havoc amongst the
+natives, as a handful of Turks in each, with one piece of artillery and a
+dozen or so rifles, were able to pour a telling fire into the flanks of
+the Arabs as they approached the city walls.
+
+But the strongest point in the fortifications of Sanaa is the old fort on
+the spur of Jibel Negoum, the walls of which are solidly built of stone.
+Where necessary, the Turks have repaired and strengthened it. It was
+opposite to the gate of this fort, which serves as the Turkish arsenal,
+that I was lodged during my stay in Sanaa; and I was not a little amused
+to notice that the guns by which the walls are protected point ominously
+into the city. It is no doubt by the constant view of these cannon,
+whose gaping mouths point direct at the Arab quarter, that revolt and
+revolution against the Osmanli forces was held in check within the city,
+when all the rest of the Arab population, with but few exceptions, had
+risen up in arms.
+
+A fort, but not nearly so large or strong, protects the city to the west,
+lying close to the gate by which the highroad to Hodaidah and the coast
+leaves the town. Both this edifice and that at the east end of Sanaa
+contain the remains of old palaces, but to-day they have fallen into
+disrepair. No longer the fountains splash their crystal waters into the
+clear air; no longer the pavements re-echo with the bells and anklets of
+dancers: now nothing is heard but the rough voice and rougher tread of
+the Turkish troops upon the marble floors. There is, in fact, but little
+to tell of the former grandeur of Sanaa. No doubt, within many of the
+houses there must be beautiful courts and gardens; but of these I saw
+little or nothing, for although I visited the Turkish Governor-General,
+Ahmed Feizi Pasha, in one of the old palaces of the Imams, the place has
+been so changed and decorated and spoiled that it resembles to-day a
+huge barrack rather than a palace. The walls have been whitewashed, the
+great staircases are dirty, and the steps worn away by the nails of the
+soldiers’ boots; and even in the great rooms in which Ahmed Feizi Pasha
+resides, or does his business, the simple old Arab taste has been changed
+for decoration of _Louis Quatorze_, by no means bad of its kind, some of
+the wall-painting being far above the average, but still sadly out of
+place.
+
+Of the remains of the old palace and temple of Ghumdan, reached by some
+sixteen hundred steps, nothing but a heap of ruins remains to-day. Yet
+what a strange great place it must have been, with its four walls painted
+different colours, and its centre tower seven storeys in height, each
+diminishing in size, until the highest of all was floored with a single
+piece of marble. At each corner of this little summer-house was a marble
+lion, the open mouth of which exposed to the wind seemed to emit roaring.
+Strange fancies they had, these old-world Yemen people; and it must
+be regretted that the old palace and the adjacent temple dedicated to
+Zuhrah, supposed to be the Venus of Arabia, should have incurred the
+fanatical wrath of Othman, the third Caliph, and by his orders have been
+destroyed; for had it been left to die a natural death, there is little
+doubt that, in the situation and climate it enjoyed, there would have
+been at least some of it left to-day to tell of its former splendour.
+
+Although one cannot see the interior of the Arab houses of Sanaa, a fair
+estimate of their size can be gained from the outside; and even to us
+English, who are used to great houses, many of those of Sanaa appear
+immense. It is impossible to describe the style of architecture in which
+they are built, for it is a style that exists nowhere else. It is purely
+and essentially Yemenite, though in some cases gateways and windows are
+found of Byzantine and Gothic form. There is one house at Dhamar, built
+of red brick and faced with white stone, with a stone porch, that, were
+it set down in an English country district, would pass for Elizabethan.
+The house, too, forms an E, and although I could find out nothing about
+its history, it seems impossible that the strange building could be an
+accident; and I am inclined to believe that it must have been erected by
+one of the many renegades who, in the middle ages, sought their fortunes
+in the wealthy cities of Arabia.
+
+At Sanaa I saw no houses of this kind, the style of architecture, with
+the exception of the decoration of doors and windows, being more or less
+uniform. Many of the larger houses are built of stone and brick and
+cement, the lower two storeys perhaps being of well-squared stone of
+various colours, arranged so as to form designs, the upper portion being
+of brick covered with a hard cement that takes a fine polished surface,
+not unlike the material used in Cairo, and corresponding to the _tabbia_
+of Fez. Many of the upper storeys are built overhanging the streets, but
+this is not carried out to nearly such a large extent as in many of the
+oriental cities; while the _musher-ibeyeh_ work of Cairo is rare here,
+its place being taken by long narrow windows filled in with stained
+glass in designs. From the outside the pattern is often inappreciable,
+as the chips of glass are simply stuck into the plaster framework. From
+within, however, only such of the glass is exposed as fits in between
+the solid pattern, and the designs are often exceedingly fine. The same
+can be seen in the tomb and mosque of Kaït Bey, one of the tombs of the
+Caliphs at Cairo, and again some specimens of the work exist in the
+museum of Arab antiquities in the same city. What carved wood there is
+used for window-screens does not in the least resemble that of Egypt, but
+is arranged in geometric designs, much more in the style of Chinese and
+Japanese workmanship, with which some of the designs are identical.
+
+A word must be said here on the extraordinary quantity of Chinese and
+Japanese pottery to be found in the Yemen. There is scarcely a _café_ by
+the roadside where one will not find that the cups have come from the far
+East, and yet I found that but very little enters the country to-day.
+I believe the origin of the presence of this extraordinary amount of
+oriental pottery is to be traced to the last few centuries, when Aden
+was the great mart of exchange between the East and Europe. With great
+wealth in the cities of the Yemen, a very appreciable quantity of the
+goods brought to Aden would be taken into the interior, and the care with
+which pottery and antiquities are treasured by the natives of the country
+would explain their existing until to-day. There is little doubt that
+should the Yemen ever be opened up, and Europeans be able to travel with
+safety and comfort, that it will become a field for the curio-hunter such
+as has not been known since the days when the Egyptian antiquities began
+to be unearthed. Coins, gems, inscriptions, sculptures, old Persian and
+Arab antiquities, embroideries, arms, brass and copper work, manuscripts,
+carpets, oriental pottery and glass—the Yemen is full of them, and as yet
+her treasures are almost untouched.
+
+Although many of the streets of the town consist of narrow byways,
+turning and twisting in every direction between the high walls of the
+houses, there are parts that are by no means badly laid out, and one
+or two of the main streets are quite wide thoroughfares, in which the
+few carriages which Sanaa boasts are able to pass each other. The
+most important of these streets leads from the square into which the
+Government buildings look to the bazaars. It is only a few hundred yards
+in length, it is true, but still it is sufficiently wide, and the shops
+on either side sufficiently good, to compare favourably with many in
+European towns. The “square” itself is a large oblong open space, faced
+on the east by the old castle and the large much-bedomed Turkish mosque,
+and on the west by what were once the palaces of the Arab rulers, and
+to-day form barracks and Government offices. At one end of the square
+an enterprising Turk has built a large _café_, where the officers and
+the few Greek shopkeepers love to congregate, and from the large doors
+and windows of which float clouds of pale-blue tobacco-smoke, issuing in
+curling clouds from the _shishas_ of the smokers. It is from this point
+that the main street leads off to the bazaars, and in the few hundred
+yards of thoroughfare are to be seen the best shops, kept either by Turks
+or by Greeks, in which every imaginable article can be procured, from
+tins of sardines and inferior Turkish cigarettes to photograph-frames
+and musty chocolate creams. One or two have large glass windows in which
+the goods are exposed to view, but they have a dingy dusty appearance,
+and seem to tell that trade is not bright. There, too, is a small
+restaurant, where all the favourite Turkish dishes can be obtained, some
+of which are by no means to be despised; while bottles of Greek and
+native wines standing on shelves tell that the Turks of Sanaa do not keep
+too strictly to the tenets of Islam with regard to drinking.
+
+[Illustration: _Turkish officers in a café at Sanaa._]
+
+Issuing from this street, one emerges into the bazaars, and here one sees
+Sanaa proper, not as it has been altered and changed to suit Turkish
+tastes.
+
+Of the many scenes that the city presents to the traveller, the bazaars
+are perhaps the most interesting; for here one loses all idea of more
+modern times, and is thrown back, as it were, into the past. The bazaars
+have never changed. From time immemorial there have existed the strange
+box-like little shops, filled with much the same objects, and tended by
+people who, from the distance that they are separated from the outer
+world, have changed but little. Just as they dress to-day, so have they
+dressed since the word of Islam was first heard in the land. The only
+change, perhaps, noticeable to the casual observer, is the scattering
+of Turks and Turkish soldiers, whom now and again one passes in the
+narrow streets. The shops are all of one storey, the floor being raised
+about two feet above the ground, but not projecting on to the street
+in the little platforms one is so used to in Egypt and elsewhere. Here
+the seller sits cross-legged amongst his goods in the shadow of his
+mud-brick shop, gazing in front of him into the sunlit yellow street and
+beyond into the shop opposite. A little awning or covering of wood often
+projects above the opening, sufficient to give a patch of shade large
+enough to shield the purchaser from the sun’s hot rays.
+
+As is the custom throughout the East, each trade has a number of shops,
+or often a whole street, put aside to its special business. The workers
+of arms, the jewellers, the second-hand shops, the sellers of silks
+and cottons, the crockery and china vendors, each has his own special
+quarter; while the vegetable and fruit bazaar is an open space, where,
+under rough little awnings, supported on poles and canes, the market
+produce is exposed for sale.
+
+Particularly interesting amongst the shops are those of the jewellers and
+makers of arms. The walls of the former are hung with silver necklaces
+and bangles and anklets, many of which are of very beautiful design.
+Some of the necklets particularly are extremely lovely, resembling in
+workmanship the finest and best Greek and Etruscan work, with none of
+the roughness apparent in the jewellery of so many oriental countries.
+The favourite design seems to be single chains supporting pendants of
+various shapes and forms, from discs of fine filigree-work to solid
+pear-shaped globules of metal. The bracelets are generally bands of
+worked silver, though some, like the necklaces, are decorated with small
+chains and hanging pendants. But the greatest skill of the jewellers of
+Sanaa, who are rightly renowned for their workmanship, is exhibited in
+the dagger-sheaths, many of which are of rich silver-gilt, and even, at
+times, of gold. Perhaps the most lovely, however, are of plain polished
+silver inlaid with gold coins, principally of the Christian Byzantine
+emperors; others again, of delicate filigree, which the natives line
+with coloured leathers or silks. But more than even the sheaths of these
+_jambiyas_, as they call their daggers, the natives value the blades.
+Antique ones are generally considered the best, and the people declare
+that the old art of hardening the steel has been lost. Be this as it may,
+there is no doubt that the modern blades are of no mean workmanship, and
+great prices, for the Yemen, are paid for good specimens. The two parts
+of the dagger are nearly always sold separately, and a Yemeni, having
+found a blade to suit him, has a sheath made according to his taste and
+wealth. The early European visitors to Sanaa speak of the jewelled arms
+worn by the Imams and their companions; but I saw only one specimen of
+these in the bazaars, a silver-gilt sheath studded with rough pearls
+and turquoises, for which the shopkeeper was asking some forty pounds
+sterling, without the blade. Another art long lost, but of which examples
+are still to be procured, is the application of silver to copper and
+brass. This kind of work usually takes the form of boxes of one of
+the latter metals, covered with inscriptions in Kufic or other Arabic
+characters in silver. The later forms of this work are very inferior to
+the earlier, and the silver is apt to peel off.
+
+One of the great institutions of Sanaa are the khans, or caravanserais,
+of which there are a considerable number, the greater part being situated
+near the gates of the city. These buildings vary in size, but some are
+very large, though nearly all in bad repair. They usually consist of
+large houses three and four storeys in height, open to the sky in the
+centre. The lower floor forms stabling for the animals, while a number
+of rooms of various sizes open out on to the balconies which surround
+the court on the upper storeys. The hire of these rooms is very small,
+something like twopence a night, and as many as like to crowd into it do
+so. There is nearly always a _café_ attached, where cooking can be done,
+either by the visitors themselves, or, if more extravagantly inclined, by
+the servants of the khan. Assembled round the gates of these khans are
+to be seen the tribes-people from every part of the interior—bringers of
+salt from Mareb, the modern Saba or Sheba; of coffee from the northern
+districts; of indigo and grain and spices from wherever the soil is
+suitable to their growth. Caravans from the Hadramaut and Yaffa discharge
+their goods here too, to reload their camels with the produce of the
+largest city of Southern Arabia.
+
+The population of Sanaa, although there is no official census to base
+one’s calculation upon, probably numbers some forty to fifty thousand
+people, of whom twenty thousand are said to be Jews. These, as has
+already been stated, have a quarter entirely to themselves; and although
+many hire shops in the bazaars, and are daily engaged in the town in
+attending to them, or in carrying on their respective trades, at night
+retire to the _ghetto_, with the exception of a few who are servants, and
+who sleep in their masters’ houses. There seems to be no more oppression
+of the Jews in the Yemen than there is of the Arabs. They are free to
+carry on whatever trade they will; to attend their synagogues and
+schools, and, in fact, seem very little interfered with by the Turks.
+They, of course, pay their regular share in the taxation, as is only
+right they should; and if it be exceptionally heavy in their case, it is
+so also in the case of the Arab inhabitants—though naturally the Jews, as
+to nature born, cry out a great deal more than the natives.
+
+The _ghetto_ is quite separate from the Arab city. The houses are built
+almost entirely of mud-bricks, but look clean and comfortable, though
+the habit of throwing all their refuse into the streets is by no means
+a pleasant one for the passer-by. However, in this they are little
+worse, if at all, than the Arabs, whose drain-pipes project well over
+the middle of the narrow streets, through which generally flows an open
+drain. The passer-by has to be careful to keep near the house-wall, or
+he will run the risk of coming terribly to grief. There are said to be
+more than twenty synagogues in the Jews’ quarter, and over seven hundred
+boys attending the schools. The whole male population is supposed to be
+able to read; but the females attend entirely to their house-work, or the
+sewing of garments, and all education is neglected in their case.[41]
+
+The Jews of the Yemen are believed to have come from India, and, as
+far as is known, there are none remaining of the old Jewish stock of
+pre-Islamic times. Although much despised by the proud Arabs, they
+are seldom treated with violence or even roughness, and what little
+persecution there can be said to exist consists almost entirely of the
+jeers of small boys, and even this is rare.
+
+One cannot help noticing and admiring the extremely pleasant manners
+shown by the people of the Yemen toward Europeans. With the exception of
+the lower classes there is no crowding; and even when curiosity leads
+the people to congregate round a stranger, there are no rude remarks,
+much less any of the ribald cursing which distinguishes the attitude of
+the Moors of Morocco toward Europeans. This trait in the character of
+the people of the Yemen adds very largely to the pleasure of travelling,
+and many a kind word was said to me on my journey by “warriors” of the
+fiercest aspect, and many a pleasant smile and “God-speed” followed me
+as I rode away from the villages and towns. In fact, with a very few
+exceptions, I never heard a word of unpleasantness spoken either to or of
+myself. There is apparently less religious fanaticism towards Christians
+than exists between the two sects of Islam represented in the country—the
+Zaidis[42] by the Arabs, and the Sunnis by the Turks.
+
+Through the centre of Sanaa flows at times the river Kharid. However,
+the river-bed is dry except in the rainy season, when a huge torrent
+pours down its course, often doing considerable damage to the adjacent
+houses. A bridge spans the river at one spot, and from here a good view
+is obtained both up and down the stream, the high yellow banks of which
+are crowned with tall houses, built in the peculiar style of architecture
+common to the place.
+
+Beyond the Jews’ quarter, and to the extreme west of the town, is the
+suburb of Bir el-Azab, of which mention has already been made. Here the
+roads are wider, and pass between the high walls of the gardens, over
+the top of which can be seen the leaves and blossoms of the fruit-trees.
+Two villages also form country residences for the inhabitants of the
+city—Jeraaf, about two miles to the north, and Raudha, the same distance
+farther on. Shortly before my arrival at Sanaa the rebels had succeeded
+in blowing up with gunpowder the Turkish barracks at the latter place,
+together with some five-and-twenty soldiers.
+
+[Illustration: _Turkish mosque at Sanaa, as seen from the prison window._]
+
+With the exception of the Turkish mosque, all the others seem to be in
+bad repair, owing, it is said, to the Osmanli Government having seized
+most of the mosque property, the sole means of adding to and keeping in
+order the building themselves. The great mosque is a huge square building
+surrounded by a high wall, and boasting two tall minarets of curious
+construction. It was here that Ibn Fadl, the leader of the Karmathians,
+in the year 911 A.D., carried out one of those acts of licentious
+cruelty with which the history of the East teems. Having in that year
+successfully installed himself at Sanaa, from which on two previous
+occasions he had been ousted, he caused the great courtyard of the
+mosque to be filled some three or four feet deep with water, into which
+were driven naked all the young girls of the city. From his seat on the
+minaret he gazed upon them, and such as pleased him he dishonoured. The
+height of the water, however, discoloured the walls, and for centuries
+told the tale of the brief power wielded by this licentious usurper.
+
+[Illustration: _Turkish soldier._]
+
+But of all the sights offered by the city of Sanaa, the population
+presents the most interesting. Everywhere some strange figure meets the
+eye: here it is some wild tribesman with bronzed skin and raven-black
+locks, girded with his loin-cloth of dark blue cotton; there some
+merchant from the Hejaz, slow and stately, with strange glassy eyes that
+speak of _hashish_, robed in striped silks, and whose turban, so white
+it is, literally seems to sparkle in the sunlight. Again it is some
+ill-fed, ill-clothed Turkish soldier, with only one boot perhaps, and
+that scarcely more than a shadow of its former self, with face unshaven
+and sunk with illness; and as one is still watching him, there rattles
+past a shabby victoria, in which is seated some fat Pasha or Bey, with
+hideous black-cloth clothes richly sewn in gold lace; and one knows that
+as often as not his clothes, his carriage, and his horses are bought with
+the money that ought to feed the soldiers, for but a small proportion of
+the pay of the troops ever reaches them. Then, again, a woman passes,
+wrapt head to foot in coloured garments, the veil of coloured stuff
+just transparent enough to allow her to grope her way, for so do the
+women of Sanaa hide their charms; and here, there, and everywhere are
+the “gamins,” the same all over the world, though their blood and their
+language be different,—little monkeys all, and in Sanaa rebels to the
+very heart.
+
+Of all the cities of the Yemen, there is none that can boast the
+antiquity of Sanaa. Tradition says that it was founded by Ad, the
+ancestor of the tribe of Adites, who were destroyed by a miraculous hot
+blast of wind for refusing to listen to the voice of the Prophet Hud.
+A second tribe, that of Thamud, met with a like fate for disregarding
+the Prophet Salih; only in their case it was a terrible voice that
+called to them from the skies that caused their deaths.[43] There is
+only one drawback to this tale—namely, that long after the destruction
+of the Adites we find them attacked and conquered by a descendant of
+Yarub, brother of Hadramaut, and son of Kahtan. He was apparently more
+successful than the miraculous hot wind, for they were evidently entirely
+wiped out on this occasion, and we find no more mention of them in
+history. But there is another interest belonging to the Adites—namely,
+that they were of the autochthonous stock of the Yemen, and therefore
+probably one of the original Semitic people who afterwards spread over
+Arabia and founded the Arab races, and who have, with the propagation
+of Islam, wandered far into Asia and Africa. The original name of Sanaa
+was Azal, Uzul, or Uwal, the latter of which means “primacy” in the Arab
+tongue. The authorities appear to differ as to which was really the first
+name, and it seems not improbable that Azal or Uzul was the original
+title, which, being incomprehensible to the later races, they changed
+to the Arabic Uwal—a word that described not only the antiquity of the
+place, but also bears a strong resemblance to its original name. This is,
+however, merely a conjecture.
+
+Although Saba seems in the days of the Sabæans to have been a more
+important place than Sanaa, there is little reason to doubt that the
+latter was in existence; and amongst other authorities Ibn Khaldun states
+that Sanaa was the seat of the Tubbas or Himyaric kings for centuries
+before the time of Islam. This alone, apart from the traditions of far
+greater antiquity, of which we have no reason to doubt the truth, shows
+that probably two thousand years ago the city of Sanaa was a flourishing
+community, the seat of the government of powerful kings, who were living
+in a state of civilisation and culture. But the question of the antiquity
+of Sanaa is not one that can be entered into at any length here, and
+interesting as is the subject, space does not allow of carrying it
+further.
+
+There are one or two episodes in the history of Sanaa that cannot be
+passed over without some slight mention. The first is the erecting there
+of a Christian church by Abrahá el-Ashram, Viceroy of the Yemen, under
+the Abyssinian King Aryat, for the building of which the Emperor of Rome
+is said to have supplied marble and workmen. Abrahá, who was a fanatical
+Christian, hoped by the erection of this wonderful structure, of which
+unfortunately we have but few details—and such as do exist are absurd—to
+change the goal of pilgrimage from the Kaabah at Mecca, which, it must be
+remembered, was an object of veneration long before the time of Mahammed,
+to Sanaa. Failing to entice the Arabs, he attempted by force to bring
+them to his church, which eventually led to his famous attack upon Mecca
+in 570 A.D., and in the total destruction of his army by pebbles dropped
+from the claws and beaks of birds.[44]
+
+At the time of the introduction of Islam into the Yemen, we find the
+government in the hands of Budhan, or Budzan, the Persian Viceroy, who,
+however, embraced the new religion, and was confirmed by Mahammed as
+Governor of the Yemen—a post he held until he died. Within a year or
+two of the death of Mahammed himself, Islam was firmly grafted in the
+country, owing, it must be added, to the indomitable courage and energy
+of Mohajir, who, on his triumphal march to the Hadramaut, secured the
+leaders of the party dissentient to the rule of the then Caliph Abou
+Bekr, and, sending them prisoners to Mecca, planted the Caliph’s rule
+firmly in Sanaa.
+
+Although the Christians of Nejrán continued such for a period, the
+enthusiasm of the people for Islam swept them along in its tide, and
+idolatry and Christianity soon became extinct in the Yemen—the third
+Caliph, Othman, destroying almost the last vestige of the former by
+razing the temple of Zuhrah at Ghumdan, the remains of which and of the
+Christian church of Abrahá are visible to-day in a heap of ruins at and
+near Sanaa respectively.
+
+From this period the history of Sanaa has been a troubled one. Constant
+warfare with foreign princes, and assassinations and rivalry fraught
+with bloodshed between the local rulers, help to make up as dark a page
+of history as can be imagined. Yet in spite of this, the city has been
+always an important and flourishing one, renowned for its manufactures,
+its trade, and its wealth. With every disadvantage accruing from a
+constant change of government, it managed to survive; and not only to
+survive but to increase, until toward the middle of the seventeenth
+century it reached unparalleled prosperity under the then powerful Imams.
+But as they sank in power, so did Sanaa lose its prosperity. Its fate
+seemed drawn along with that of its Imams; and as ruler after ruler lost
+more and more of his territory, so the glories of the capital diminished.
+Yet there was now and again a flicker in its death-throes; but never
+did it last above a few years, when once more the steady decline would
+commence.
+
+How it ended is well known; for, broken in spirit and harassed by the
+surrounding tribes, Sanaa offered no resistance when the Turks, in 1872,
+entered the place; and the city, which had nobly held her own in so
+many encounters, almost welcomed the stranger into her midst. Had the
+inhabitants been aware at that time how their action would lead to their
+oppression, there is but little doubt that they would have hesitated in
+their invitation to the Turkish forces, already firmly established on the
+coast, to come and take over the reins of government.
+
+[Illustration: MENAKHA, FROM THE NORTH.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+SANAA TO MENAKHA.
+
+
+As long as I live I shall never forget my departure from Sanaa. In the
+cold grey dawn, the temperature little if anything above freezing, worn
+out with a night of raging fever that still throbbed in my veins, I was
+lifted on to my mule at the door of the _conàk_, and, with a couple of
+soldiers to accompany me, sent upon my way. Weird and wretched everything
+looked. The houses, that only the day before had struck me as beautiful
+in their strange oriental architecture, now looked like pallid ruins,
+depressing in the extreme; while the few hurrying persons we passed
+seemed but shadows in the grey light of dawn.
+
+On through the bazaars with their closed shops; on by narrow streets
+and byways, over which the tall houses seemed verily to hang suspended;
+across the bridge that spans what is at times a roaring torrent but was
+now but a dry bed; across a wide open space and through the dirty Jews’
+quarter, and the garden suburb of Bir el-Azab; then out under the great
+town gateway with its strange towers, on which a shivering sentry or two
+kept guard, into the open country. A long level road leads one from the
+city across the surrounding plain, a road as good as one could expect to
+find in England. Then a range of bare hills seems to block the way, and
+one begins to climb up and up by the winding twisting track, until the
+summit is reached. Looking back, a fine view of Sanaa was obtained, lying
+on the spur of Jibel Negoum, backed by still higher mountains. To right
+and left extended the valley, until some way off to the north one could
+see the town of Raudha, where not a month before the rebels had blown
+up the Turkish barracks and some twenty-five soldiers with gunpowder.
+From this spot one could obtain a better idea than we had as yet been
+able to do of the size of Sanaa, as it lay mapped out below us, a great
+flat-roofed city, dull yellow and white, upon still yellower and whiter
+plains, the only break in which were the gardens at Bir el-Azab.
+
+At the summit of the ascent a plateau is reached scattered with villages,
+now all more or less knocked down by the Turkish artillery, after the
+road from Hodaidah had been forced, and the Arab Shereef, Sid esh-Sheraï,
+dislodged from Hajarat el-Mehedi, a spot a few miles farther on. Over the
+plateau the road proceeded tolerably straight, though the going was by no
+means good, in spite of the fact that the track was a wide one. But its
+repair had evidently been neglected for a time, and it was strewn with
+stones.
+
+After the sun had risen it became very warm, but it was a change for the
+better from the miserable cold of the early morning, and, weak as I was
+from fever, I was glad to get off my mule for a time and stretch my limbs
+by walking.
+
+At the _café_ of Metneh we stopped for our mid-day meal. A large, low,
+stone building forms the caravanserai, both for man and beast. The place
+is roughly built, one storey in height, the roof being supported on
+arches and stone columns, round the bases of which are little raised
+platforms, on one of which we spread our carpet and rested for a time.
+The _café_ was nearly full of Turkish troops, poor, ill-fed, and
+ill-clothed fellows, but the very acme of good-humour. It was amusing to
+hear them discussing my presence with some Arab merchants who happened
+to be there at the same time. The conclusion they arrived at was that
+the presence of a Christian in the country foretold the downfall of the
+Yemen, and the sooner they, the Moslems, cleared out of it the better.
+It was flattering certainty to hear one’s self considered of such vital
+importance to a country the size of the Yemen; nor did the fact that
+I was a prisoner in the hands of a Turkish guard seem to lessen their
+opinion of me. On discovering at length that I spoke Arabic, we joined
+parties and lunched together, and very polite they all were. The group
+was a strange one, representing in the Arabs the rebel party, in the
+Turks the conquerors and oppressors, and last, but not least, in my
+humble self the future of the Yemen (for so they deemed my presence to
+foretell). Yet we were a merry band, and shared the same hubble-bubble of
+peace, and parted with protestations of profound respect and friendship
+for one another.
+
+One of the pleasantest recollections of the Yemen that I bore away with
+me is, and always will be, the hours spent in these wayside _cafés_. Then
+more than at any other time one saw the people as they really are. Then
+all restraint was thrown aside; there was exhibited none of the suspicion
+we habitually show to fellow-travellers; and often we unburdened our aims
+and ideas to one another, the Arabs and I. As I write of it I long once
+more to go back, to sit cross-legged on the floor and sip the beverage
+of coffee-husks from the tiny Japanese and Chinese cups the Yemenis love
+so much, and listen to the patient murmur of the hubble-bubble amongst a
+group of half-naked Arabs.
+
+Leaving Metneh in the afternoon, we pushed on through Bauan, with
+its strange market, toward our night’s resting-place. The road still
+continues to ascend, and is in most parts very rough and bad, rendering
+travelling by no means pleasant. However, any unpleasantness from this
+was amply repaid by the magnificent view that from time to time met our
+gaze. The track was leading us along the summit of a mountain-top,
+which to the north looked straight down into a great valley thousands
+of feet below. What a wonderful valley it was, full of coffee-groves,
+and luxuriating in all the glories of gorgeous vegetation, amongst
+which banana-leaves could be plainly distinguished, waving their great
+green heads! Amongst all this verdure, clinging as it seemed to the
+mountain-sides, were villages, each crowned by its _burj_ or fort, the
+whole perched on some overhanging rock. On to their very roofs we seemed
+to look. Often on the road I would rest for a few minutes to gaze in
+wonderment on this entrancing scene, until, as evening came on, filmy
+mists rose from the valley, and concealed from view all but the opposite
+mountain-peaks, torn and rugged, which rose above the sea of iridescent
+cloud like great cathedral steeples. What a land it is, the Yemen! What
+a world of romance and history lies hid in those great mountain valleys!
+What tales the little, sparkling, dancing rivulets could tell, for often,
+I wot, their limpid waters have run red with blood! Night fell, and the
+scene became one of still grey silence, weird and strange.
+
+After reaching an altitude of ten thousand feet above the sea-level the
+road began to descend, and we passed once or twice through villages,
+crowned by their strange towers, until at length Sôk el-Khamis, our
+night’s resting-place, was reached. There are several of these villages
+in its vicinity, and one we passed was occupied by Turkish troops, whose
+riotous laughter and singing jarred on the peaceful sounds of night, the
+humming of the insects and the soft hoot-hoot of the rock owls.
+
+We stopped at one of these strange tower-like buildings, and my guard
+informed me that this was our halting-place. After repeated knockings
+at a heavy wooden door we were admitted into a yard, and from thence
+entered the house—the way led by a dirty mountaineer in little else but
+a sheepskin coat, who, with a small oil-lamp, lighted us up a flight of
+stone stairs into the guest-chamber. A poor enough place it was, and none
+too clean, its ceiling blackened by the fumes of charcoal-fires, its
+floor of rough stones and mortar, the ups and downs of which a carpet
+ill disguised. This was, however, the sole accommodation, and our host
+plaintively asked us to make ourselves as comfortable as we could, while
+he went off to search for provisions, adding that the Turkish garrison at
+the neighbouring village had exhausted the supply.
+
+So we spread our carpet, and Abdurrahman and Saïd, and the Turkish and
+Arab soldiers who formed my guard, sat down together over a charcoal
+brasier, in which bubbled one of the common narrow-necked earthenware
+pots in which they brew their drink of coffee-husks, and smoked our
+hookah in peace, sharing alike in its cracked amber mouthpiece. We were
+all tired, and talked but little; but Saïd now and again would burst into
+song, and very well he sang, too, the plaintive melodies of the country.
+
+Presently our host returned with a scarecrow of a fowl and some
+leathery bread, which was all the good fellow was able to raise, and
+it was not long before a rather too savoury dish of rancid butter and
+chicken-bones—for there was little else—had usurped the place of our
+coffee-pot on the brasier. What jokes we made about that poor chicken!
+After all, we agreed, it could not be anything but thin after having
+lived through the late rebellion. However, we ate it all right.
+
+The view as we left Sôk el-Khamis the next morning was almost as lovely
+as that of the day before. As the night-mists rose at sunrise, range
+after range of mountains loomed up before us, peak above peak, until in
+the far west one great mass overtopped all the rest.
+
+The road descends steeply, winding the while, in parts showing signs of
+the repairs of the Turkish engineers, in others merely a foothold on the
+mountain-side. Numbers of blue rock-pigeons fluttered hither and thither
+in the morning sunlight; but lovely as they were, I was enticed to shoot
+a few, for, after all, one fowl is not sufficient food for eight persons,
+and there seemed every likelihood of our faring as ill at our next
+halting-place as we had done the night before.
+
+At one spot we passed one of the most lovely scenes I had as yet seen in
+the Yemen. Half-way down a steep slope, wooded with forest-trees, was a
+tomb and fountain, the clear cold water tumbling into a deep tank. Away
+behind a peak of the mountain rose bare and rocky into the blue sky, its
+lower slopes covered with trees, its summit crowned with the ruins of
+a village which the Turkish artillerymen had destroyed, leaving little
+but the walls to tell of its existence. The domed mosque, a tiny place,
+glistening white against the foliage, and the sound of the running water,
+added a charm to a scene of perfect peace and loveliness.
+
+At length the descent was accomplished, and we entered a desolate valley,
+keeping to the rock-strewn river-bed, now almost dry, as being better
+than the road, which here is almost indistinguishable, winding and
+turning amongst great boulders, which appear to have fallen from the
+steeps above. An hour or so later we passed under the strange fortress
+of Mefhak, grandly situated on a pinnacle of rock some five hundred feet
+above the valley; and, leaving a large encampment of Turkish troops on
+our left, once more began to ascend. For a while our way led through the
+loveliest of little valleys, which seemed like the greater one we had
+been passing through in miniature. On either side walls of rock some
+fifty to a hundred feet in height rose precipitously, but, sheltered
+from the sun, a number of varieties of wild-flowers had taken root, and
+the place was a fairyland of colour. Great clusters of jasmine hung
+over the precipices, while on every side bloomed acacias and aloes. A
+gorgeous flowering-tree, bearing pale-pink blossoms, edged the narrow
+water-course, just as if it had been planted there by the hand of man.
+
+An hour more and we drew up at the caravanserai of Ijz for our mid-day
+rest. Very hot it was; but the proprietor of the _café_, a wounded
+Turkish soldier, full of grievances and very dirty, amused us much,
+mumbling and grumbling as he leaned over the fire to cook my coffee and
+the men’s drink of coffee-husks. Although coffee in very large quantities
+is exported from the Yemen, it is drunk only by the Turks and the richer
+classes, the poorer contenting themselves with, and preferring, they say,
+the boiled husks.
+
+We spent only an hour or two at Ijz, as I was anxious to push on to
+Menakha before dark; and accordingly in the heat of the early afternoon
+we said good-bye to our old host and the handful of Turkish troops who
+had joined us in our meal, and mounted our mules once more.
+
+[Illustration: _Gorge near Menakha._]
+
+As our road proceeded it increased in magnificence, entering the heart
+of the mountains, on the summit of one of which the town of Menakha is
+perched. This river lies at an elevation of somewhat over five thousand
+feet above the sea. Quite suddenly the valley comes to an end, and we
+commenced one of those steep ascents to which we were almost becoming
+accustomed now. The path is little but a boulder-strewn track in the
+mountain-side, and one could not help wondering how our little mules
+would ever accomplish the climb. Dismounting at the foot, Abdurrahman,
+Saïd, and I raced ahead, scrambling and tumbling over the rocks, and
+nearly frightening the wits out of a descending caravan, who probably
+had never seen the like of us before; for although Saïd was in the Yemen
+costume, Abdurrahman wore the there unknown dress of the mountaineers of
+Morocco, while I was in riding-breeches, and flannel shirt, and a red fez
+cap. Great proud-looking fellows the caravan-men were, and they watched
+us with a startled stare, evidently putting us down as lunatics. However,
+our laughter at their surprise so amused them that they became quite
+friendly, and would not let me go on till I had shaken each singly by the
+hand, which I was only too pleased to do. Up and up we toiled, leaving
+the mules to follow with the muleteers. Every here and there are springs
+which the natives have aided by building tanks, and now and again we
+would stop to drink and bathe our faces and hands.
+
+Almost suddenly we reached the summit, after a climb of over two thousand
+five hundred feet up the execrable zigzag path, and the little town of
+Menakha lay before me.
+
+I determined to wait here for my soldier-guards, whom we had left a long
+way behind us; so we threw ourselves down, panting and hot, upon a ledge
+of rock, and gazed at the scene before us. Wonderful, stupendous it
+was! Around us on all sides the bare fantastic peaks and perpendicular
+precipices, on the edge of one of which we were perched, and up the
+face of which we could see the path we had climbed winding in and out.
+Below us, far, far below, like little ants, we could see our mules and
+men toiling up. A thread of river, the Wadi Zaum, was distinguishable
+down the valley, the few green thorny trees which grew along its banks
+being, with the exception of some stunted brushwood and a few aloes and
+creepers, the sole vegetation in view. A very entrance to the “Inferno,”
+gloomy and dark. The rays of the setting sun lit up in contrast to all
+this the roseate peaks of the mountains, many of which, thousands of
+feet above us, were crowned with strange villages and towers. At length
+our mules caught us up, and mounting again for the few yards that yet
+remained between us and Menakha, we made our entry into the town, drawing
+up at the principal Government building, where the Kaimakam resided.
+
+My guard of Turkish soldiers had been intrusted with letters to the
+governors respectively of Menakha and Hodaidah, and no sooner was our
+missive presented than I was shown into the presence of the Kaimakam. I
+found him pleasant, as nearly all Turks can be when they like, and an
+hour or so passed very cheerily. Meanwhile he had given orders for a room
+to be prepared for me within the precincts of the Government offices, and
+on leaving him I was shown to a large, comfortable, airy chamber on the
+ground-floor, with a window looking over a sort of drill-yard, beyond
+which was a fine view of the mountains, the opposite spur of which, at
+an altitude of some hundreds of feet above the town, was crowned with a
+Turkish fort, near which some artillerymen were drilling.
+
+It should have been mentioned already that the road we had been following
+from Sanaa was almost identically the line taken by the Sanaa and
+Hodaidah telegraph-wire, which, like all provincial Turkish telegraphs,
+is, I believe, worked by the Government, from a representative of whom
+one is obliged to obtain permission before making use of it. This
+permission had been refused me at Sanaa. At Menakha there is quite a
+pretentious office.
+
+After leaving the Kaimakam I went for a stroll in the town, followed of
+course by a guard, who, however, did not in the least interfere with
+my actions, and in whose presence I was venturesome enough to sketch,
+without calling forth any sterner reproof than that if they were caught
+allowing me to draw they might get into trouble, so that I had better
+creep behind a rock and make any sketches I wanted from a spot where I
+would not be seen.
+
+Of all the places it has ever been my lot to see, Menakha is the most
+wonderfully situated. The town is perched on a narrow strip of mountain
+that joins two distinct ranges, and it forms the watershed of two great
+valleys—that up which we had proceeded on our arrival, and the second to
+the west. So narrow is the ridge on which the town stands, that the walls
+of the houses on both sides seem almost to hang over the precipices; and
+there are spots—for instance, near the military hospital—where one can
+sit and look down absolutely into the two great valleys at the same time.
+Curious and wonderful as this is, the grand effect of the scene is doubly
+increased by the extraordinary peaks which rise above the place—enormous
+pinnacles, for no other word can express their fantastic shapes and
+forms. Great, bare, rocky crags they are, perpendicular, and ending,
+like sugar-loafs, in points, on which, in several places, the natives
+have built their strange towers. How they ever ascend or descend seems
+incredible, or from whence they obtain their water-supply.
+
+The town of Menakha is quite a small one. It contains, perhaps, some
+five thousand inhabitants, without counting the very considerable number
+of Turkish troops stationed there at the time of my visit. The houses
+are well built of stone, some of them four storeys, and many three, in
+height. The Government offices and the military hospital and barracks
+give the place quite a European appearance, for they are all built in
+modern Turkish style, with glass windows and flat roofs.
+
+The bazaar is tolerably well supplied with the necessaries of life,
+though at the time of my visit meat and vegetables were scarce, on
+account of the influx of troops. There are, too, several large shops,
+one or two kept by Greeks. I was surprised, in passing through the town,
+to be accosted in excellent English by one of these shopkeepers, who, he
+told me, had been a servant to an Englishman in Suakin for some years.
+I went with him to his store, where everything was purchasable, from
+sardines to port wine, and spent half an hour or so talking with him. He
+was evidently an intellectual man, and seemed well up in the affairs of
+the Yemen. He had been present at the taking of Menakha by the Arabs, and
+its recapture by the Turks; but his property had been respected in both
+cases, and he had suffered little if any loss.
+
+The great altitude at which Menakha is situated—some seven thousand six
+hundred feet above the sea-level—renders it liable to sudden changes of
+temperature; and two hours after we had arrived in blazing sunshine,
+clouds gathered over the town, obscuring the view, and the temperature
+fell to below 50°. We managed to procure a charcoal brasier, over which
+my men and I huddled, our circle being joined by a couple of charming
+Turkish officers, both of whom spoke Arabic well.
+
+About eight o’clock I was taken suddenly ill with fever, which did not
+leave me until ten the next morning, by which time I was so weak that
+I could only stand with assistance, and accordingly travelling was out
+of the question. The Kaimakam made no difficulties about my remaining
+another day, and did all in his power to make me comfortable. During the
+afternoon I had sufficiently recovered my strength to crawl out and seek
+the shade of a hollow in the rocks, where my men lit a little fire and
+brewed coffee. The spot we had chosen looked directly into the great
+valley that runs west from Menakha, far down which we could see. Away
+below us, tier above tier, were the terraced coffee and banana groves;
+while the rocky precipices, here bare and frowning, were in other parts
+hung with creepers, while in every crevice some strange flowering aloes
+had found room to grow.
+
+Amongst this mass of verdure, for, far away below us, lay villages,
+their flat roofs upturned, as it were, to us, who were so high above
+them, looking like the squares on some fairy chess-board. Away down the
+valley a silvery thread of light told the presence of a river, fed by a
+hundred little streams, which, issuing from the rocky slopes, leaped and
+danced to join the larger stream below. Beyond, again, all was haze and
+mountain-peaks, faint as a cloud and inexpressibly lovely.
+
+Wild-flowers and ferns, especially maidenhair, grew in abundance round
+our little nook in the rocks, in which we were shaded from the sun’s
+rays by an overhanging crag. The whole scene was so framed by shrubs and
+creepers and flowers, a mass of blossom and green, that one lost the
+effect of distance; and, in the clear air, it seemed but a step from
+our resting-place to the bottom of the valley, and a step more to the
+far-away peaks.
+
+But it is not on account of its gorgeous scenery that Menakha has become
+an important place. Rather it is owing to its great strategical position;
+for it dominates the two parts of the highroad from Hodaidah to Sanaa,
+from each of which it is roughly equidistant. It is, no doubt, on this
+account, and to the practical advantages it offers, owing to its fine
+position for keeping up a line of communication between the capital and
+the coast, that a considerable number of troops are stationed and some
+forts erected there.
+
+It played by no means an unimportant part during the rebellion; and
+although this has been referred to elsewhere in a chapter dealing with
+that subject, it may be as well to mention the facts here. Menakha was
+one of the first Turkish strongholds to fall into the hands of the Arabs.
+The governor was taken prisoner; numbers of the troops were killed in the
+rebel rush; and what remained of its military population were sent to the
+leader of the rebellion at Sadah. It was not, in fact, until after the
+battle fought near Hojaila, on the road from Hodaidah, at a spot where
+the Teháma ends and the mountains commence, that Menakha was retaken. To
+Ahmed Feizi Pasha belongs the credit of the wonderful march from Hodaidah
+to Sanaa, in which the Turks dragged their guns by execrable roads over
+passes ten thousand feet in altitude; and it was upon this triumphal
+entry of the new Governor-General of the Yemen that the town once more
+came into the possession of the Turks, being deserted by the Arabs
+before the arrival of the Osmanli troops. Had the native horde only been
+better officered and possessed better arms; had they destroyed the road
+more successfully than they did, and stood firmly to their impregnable
+position at Menakha,—there is little doubt that the capital could not
+have held out, and that the Yemen to-day would have been in the hands of
+the Imam Ahmed ed-Din. At sunset, as had happened the evening before, the
+place became wrapt in cloud, and the temperature fell to such an extent
+that even in our room, with a fire, we suffered considerably. However,
+one can bear the cold, provided one is free from fever; and, tired and
+weary after a sleepless night, I lay like a log, and, in spite of the
+cries of sentries and the occasional blowing of a bugle, did not awake
+until grey dawn was creeping up, and my men were loading the mules.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+MENAKHA TO HODAIDAH.
+
+
+The road from Menakha to the coast leads one for the first few miles
+along the mountains on the southern side of the valley, gradually
+ascending the while, until, an hour or so after leaving the town, an
+altitude of eight thousand feet above the sea-level is reached. At this
+spot a spur in the mountain is crossed, near to which is the remarkable
+village of Kariat el-Hajra, a rock crowned with tall stone houses,
+many of which are built in the strange fashion of towers. A precipice
+surrounds the village on every side, the lower slopes of which are
+cultivated in terraces. The place has the appearance of being a large
+and important one, and from its position must be exceedingly strong. The
+country immediately surrounding this spot is very beautiful, there being
+an abundance of water and no lack of trees, while the terraces and fields
+were, at the time of my visit, green with young grass and crops, and
+gorgeous with wild-flowers. Leaving Hajra on the right, the road begins
+to descend, and soon another village, more extraordinary than that we
+had already passed, came into sight. This is Attara. From an expanse of
+terraced slope rises a single pinnacle of rock some hundreds of feet in
+height, split perpendicularly into two divisions. On the very summit,
+on which there is only just room for it to stand, is a large building,
+apparently a house and tower. Although unable to see the track by which
+this, to the eye, apparently unscalable position is reached, my men
+informed me that there is a stairway cut in the solid rock, by means
+of which the inhabitants ascend and descend. Close nestling under the
+pinnacle is the rest of the village, built tier above tier on the steep
+mountain-side. The path by which we were descending zigzags down until
+one arrives in a sort of amphitheatre, of which the village forms an
+apex. The ground here is richly cultivated with coffee-trees and bananas,
+growing upon terraces. In one place the jungle seems to have gained
+possession of what was originally cultivated land, and appears in a mass
+of euphorbiæ and other strange trees and plants. Here, too, jasmine
+grows in wonderful abundance, the whole air being filled with its sweet
+fragrance.
+
+Zigzagging down the mountain-side, we arrived before mid-day at the
+_café_ of Wisil, wonderfully perched on the very edge of the precipice.
+The place is poor enough, but a few shady huts of grass and mats have
+been erected round a little terraced garden, over the wall of which one
+gazes far down into the valley beneath. Here under a shady tree we spread
+our carpet and refreshed ourselves, revelling in the magnificence of our
+surroundings. This resting-place was situated at an elevation of a little
+over four thousand five hundred feet above the sea-level, so that since
+the morning we had descended some three thousand feet.
+
+[Illustration: THE VILLAGE OF EL-HAJRA.]
+
+From this spot is obtained perhaps the most extraordinary view of the
+terraced mountains we had as yet obtained. These surrounding ranges are
+celebrated for their coffee, principally Jibel Masar and Safan, both of
+which lie to the north of the road. Away above the terraces the mountains
+rise in perpendicular precipices, and nearly every peak is crowned with
+one of the curious towers already described.
+
+The view from Wisil was the last we were to see of its kind, for we
+were fast leaving the mountains behind and descending to the plains, or
+Teháma, and even from here the change to the country was appreciable, for
+far away to the west the great mountains became lower, and the horizon
+was bounded with rough barren hills, very like those we had seen around
+Jibel Menif, when we left the desert beyond Lahej. A weird old lady
+served us with coffee and food at our resting-place—a parchment-skinned
+grinning old hag, half clothed in torn dark-blue rags, with a lot of what
+looked like dirty bandages wound round her head; but she was a cheery old
+gossip, and Saïd took advantage of her to exhibit his wit and sarcasm,
+much to her amusement as well as our own.
+
+[Illustration: _View near Wisil._]
+
+Poor Saïd! The wear and tear of the last month had worn him a bit.
+Fever had paled his skin, and left him thinner than he was when he had
+started from Aden; but no weariness, no fever, had caused him to pay
+less attention to his personal charms than before, and his curly locks
+were as soft and silky and glossy as ever, although his loin-cloth and
+sash told tales of travel. Still, in all our hardships he had been ever
+bright and gay, and as we neared civilisation once more, and there seemed
+some chance of his seeing his paradise—Aden—again, his eyes regained
+their former twinkle, and his laugh grew more cheery than ever. With
+Abdurrahman it was different, and the strain and exertion he had been
+through had told on his more delicate constitution. Brought up in the
+bracing mountains of Morocco, where frosts are common, and even in the
+daytime the heat is never oppressive, he had felt severely the sudden
+changes of the tropics. All his gaiety had left him, and he scarcely
+spoke. It was with difficulty that we could rouse his spirits, try
+hard as we did, Saïd and I. Almost every evening, in spite of arsenic
+and quinine, fever would seize him, and he would lie awake of a night,
+tossing and moaning in a way that was pitiful to see and hear.
+
+Leaving Wisil, the road descends, by a zigzag track, the steep
+mountain-side. Here were apparent one at least of the advantages of
+the Turkish occupation of the Yemen, for the road was wide and in good
+repair, supported by a stone embankment, and planted on either side with
+mimosa-trees, which no doubt help in some degree to prevent the floods
+which the heavy rainfalls occasion from washing the stones away, and
+which will eventually prove no small advantage to the traveller by their
+shade. At length the bed of the water-course was reached, down which the
+road proceeds, roughly and unpleasantly, over great boulders and stones
+that tired our poor little mules, and necessitated our proceeding on
+foot. Thick vegetation, principally trees of the mimosa type, fringe the
+edge of the river-bed, which, except for an occasional pool or spring,
+contained no water.
+
+On and on, until the gorge narrows and enters a defile, merely the
+water-course and walls of rock on either hand, some eighty feet perhaps
+in height. Here was a sight that caused us an hour or so of amusement
+and laughter, for the precipices were the haunt of hundreds of apes and
+monkeys, which scampered away at our approach, and sat chattering and
+grinning at us from their perches. So tame many of them were, that we
+were able to approach within fifteen or twenty yards of them before they
+would seek refuge in the nooks and crannies of the rocks. My men were
+eager to shoot one or two, but I would not allow it, as it was a real
+pleasure to watch the funny creatures in their antics, and to listen
+to their squeaking and chattering. In some cases the larger apes were
+carrying their young in their arms, and handling them as carefully as a
+woman does her child. Even Abdurrahman awoke from his melancholy, and
+laughed heartily at the strange creatures, which bounded from rock to
+rock, or showed their rows of chattering white teeth from some hole in
+the cliff.
+
+Continuing along the bottom of the valley for some little way farther, we
+turned eventually from the water-course, and climbed a bare rocky hill to
+the north of the river, and, crossing a small plateau, descended to the
+village of Hojaila, which we reached an hour or two before sunset.
+
+At this point we had said farewell to the mountains, for although the
+foot-hills extend farther into the Teháma, beyond Bajil in fact, we
+were to see no more of the greater ranges. But not only is Hojaila the
+finishing spot of the mountains, but the people entirely change, becoming
+from that point Arabs of the plains, dwelling in mud and thatch houses,
+and different in appearance and habits.
+
+We had passed during the day’s march through a part of the country
+the inhabitants of which need investigation, and about which I,
+unfortunately, can say but little here. These are people of a religious
+sect who called themselves Makarama, but of the origin of which, except
+that their belief is said to be of Indian extraction, I have found it
+impossible to discover anything. These Yemenis are in language and
+appearance like their Moslem neighbours, although several names in the
+vicinity tell of India. Principal amongst them is the “Dar el Hinoud,” or
+Indians’ monastery or house, farther on in the Teháma. Of their belief
+but little was to be ascertained. It is summed up, however, in two lines
+of poetry, of which I was able to obtain the translation:—
+
+    “God is indiscoverable, by day or by night.
+    Do not worry about anything, there is neither heaven nor hell.”
+
+Professing these strange tenets, there is this sect on the highroad from
+Hodaidah to Sanaa. As to their observances, the only man of their belief
+I met with would say but little, while the Moslems, although uninfluenced
+by the fanaticism one would expect to find, are careless. They have, I
+was told, the old Judaic observance of the scapegoat, and a particular
+night in the year in which they shut themselves into their houses, and
+are said to practise incest. This, however, may be possibly the Moslem
+idea of what really takes place. Were this to be absolutely depended
+upon, the fact might point to a Karmathian origin, for Ibn Fadl allowed
+the drinking of wine and this practice; but then it is scarcely likely
+that a Karmathian superstition should survive in a belief which is in
+direct contravention to Islam. It is known that in certain Phœnician
+rites incest was allowed, and the practice of a certain nightly annual
+feast in which the houses are illuminated might point to the worship
+of Adonis, certain remains of which, I am informed, are found amongst
+the mountaineers of the Himalayas. My information on this sect of the
+Makarama continues that they are at times visited by natives of India,
+who prize the charms that they are in the habit of writing; and most
+probably their origin may be found in that country, for Hodaidah has
+always been largely frequented by Indian traders.
+
+[Illustration: TURKISH CAMP OF HOJAILA.]
+
+Hojaila is but a small place, more a collection of huts than a town,
+as it is elsewhere described, though at the time I passed through it
+was augmented by a large Turkish camp, pitched near the _jimerouk_, or
+custom-house. There seems, with the exception of this building, a large,
+low, square place, to be no other of importance, though the Sheikh
+resides in a house two storeys in height, painted red and white in bands,
+which stands a curious landmark on the edge of a steep incline leading
+down to the river-bed. A few trees are scattered about the place, and
+under these were lolling Turkish soldiers, while the tents, and sentries
+passing and repassing, gave quite a martial appearance to the otherwise
+dreary scene; for, with the exception of these trees and the oleanders in
+the river-bed, the country was dull and sun-dried.
+
+Only a short rest was allowed me here, although we had been travelling,
+almost without interruption, since the early morning. However, as I was
+entirely in the hands of the Turkish guards who had been sent to see
+me to Hodaidah, any attempt at expostulation was out of the question.
+Another advantage, too, was to be gained by pushing on—namely, the
+moonlight night.
+
+We had left behind us now the high elevations and watered valleys, and
+nothing but plain and desert lay between us and Hodaidah, some eighty
+miles distant, over which, although the month was February, travelling by
+day is torment. So an hour or two was all the time we spent in the _café_
+at Hojaila, and as soon as the sunset glow was dying away we loaded our
+little mules again and set off.
+
+From sunset until near dawn we plodded on over the plain, the broken
+rocky hills showing up on either side in the clear moonlight, which was
+sufficiently bright to allow us to see that a considerable portion of the
+country we were passing through was under cultivation.
+
+How balmy and warm the night was! and had it not been that one was tired
+and weary with the long ride from Menakha, it would have proved most
+enjoyable. As it was, one could not help admiring the loveliness of the
+still moonlight, and the silence, broken only by the thud of our mules’
+feet upon the sand and the humming of the insects in the air. Every now
+and then we would pass a caravan of camels, slow-gaited and patient,
+which seemed to grow out of the moonlight like spectres, only to vanish
+again into the darkness.
+
+As dawn grew near we reached Bohay, situated to the north of Jibel Damir.
+It is a poor little place; but the rest in a mat _café_ was inexpressibly
+refreshing, for out of the last twenty-four hours we had been nearly
+twenty on the road.
+
+Stretching ourselves upon the string couches, which do not seem to be
+in use anywhere out of the Teháma and the southern plains, we were soon
+wrapped in sleep. But at sunrise my guards woke me, and we made a start
+again. But our march was happily to prove only a short one, and three
+hours later we drew in sight of Bajil, where at length I was promised a
+well-earned rest.
+
+Bajil is quite a little town, its population numbering probably some
+3000 souls. Except for a large Turkish fort, built for the most part of
+squared stones, and a few houses of the same material, it consists of
+mud-and-thatch and mat houses, enclosed by high hedges of dry mimosa and
+acacia thorns in the form of zarebas. The place is prettily situated,
+lying at the foot of Jibel Obaki, the surrounding plain being cultivated
+with millet of two varieties, the _dokhn_ and the _durra_; while a good
+water-supply allows of the growth of a considerable number of trees,
+principally acacias, which render the place a veritable oasis.
+
+The _café_ here, except for those of the towns and that at Waalan, was
+the best we had come across; for although it only consisted of a series
+of mat-huts built round a large yard, everything was so clean and so tidy
+that it was a real pleasure to rest in the shade, all the more so as by
+this time the rays of the sun had become fierce in their heat.
+
+We engaged one of these mat-houses for our private use, and unloading
+our mules, settled in for the day. What rendered our stay at Bajil more
+refreshing than it otherwise would have proved was the presence of an
+excellent _masseur_, under whose skilful hands one’s limbs lost all their
+weariness.
+
+As soon as the cool of the afternoon allowed, I sauntered out for a
+stroll through the little town. There was but little to see, it is true;
+but a Yemen village always presents sights which, if not exactly pretty,
+are generally of interest. A wedding-party was in full swing, guns were
+being fired off, tomtoms rendered the air hideous with their sound, and
+shrill pipes added to the confusion. The crowd of women who filled the
+open spaces between the zarebas, that answered for streets, were attired
+in holiday garments, and a gay throng they were; for, in spite of their
+dull-blue clothing, they had succeeded in tying themselves up with
+handkerchiefs and scarves of all colours, until they resembled rainbows.
+Here, as elsewhere, it seems to be the lot of womankind to do the hard
+work, and I stood for a time to watch them filling their pitchers from
+the wells. The manner in which the water is drawn is the following. A
+framework of wood is built over the mouth of the well, a solid beam
+passing from side to side; over this cross-beam runs the rope, to the
+end of which is fastened a bucket. Owing to the great depth to which the
+wells have to be sunk, these ropes are necessarily of enormous length,
+and the only means by which the weight can be supported is by a couple
+of the women harnessing themselves to the end and running at a gentle
+trot until the bucket has reached the surface, where it is emptied by a
+third. One well, the length of the track passed over to draw the bucket
+to the surface I measured, was only a few feet under two hundred in
+depth. The labour is a severe one, but the women seem to take it as a
+matter of course. In southern Morocco, where much the same system is in
+use, camels or donkeys are harnessed in their place.
+
+The only building of any size or importance in Bajil is the Turkish
+fort. It is a great square place, with circular towers jutting out here
+and there, and is built almost entirely of cut stone and bricks. Though
+useless against artillery, it would prove impregnable to Arab hordes,
+armed only with spears and matchlock-guns. A few ill-dressed Turks were
+lying about under the shade of some acacia-trees, and half-a-dozen
+field-guns, none too well kept, stood near the door; but the place
+offered no other signs of things military, and wore the weary appearance
+of orientalism.
+
+This was all that there was to be seen in Bajil, so I retraced my steps
+to the _café_, where I found our mules being loaded preparatory to
+a start. A number of Turkish officers from Sanaa had arrived during
+my absence, and we instantly struck up an acquaintance, as we were
+proceeding over the same road to Hodaidah. They had been invalided from
+the steamy Teháma, and had been in hospital at Sanaa. Their recovery told
+a tale of the magnificent climate of that place, for they assured me that
+they had left Hodaidah a couple of months before almost dead of fever.
+
+At four o’clock we made a start, our two little caravans uniting. The
+road continues over the desert, which is here dotted with mimosa-bushes
+and tufts of long grass. It was the delight of the Turkish officers to
+throw matches into the latter, and as night came on we left a track
+behind us of fiery stars and heaps of black ashes. There was no danger
+of the fire taking too large dimensions, as the tufts of grass were
+sufficiently far removed from one another to prevent the flames spreading.
+
+It was the last of our desert marches. A glorious night, the sky a blaze
+of myriads of stars, the desert like a silver sea. Quietly and quickly
+our little mules glided on. Every now and again a caravan of slouching
+camels would pass by us with a dozen or so wild Bedouins in charge, on
+the heads of whose spears the moonlight played and flashed, but they
+soon vanished into the night. One could scarcely believe that this cool
+plain, fragrant with the sweet scent of mimosa, its fragrance increased
+by the heavy dew, was in the daytime a howling desert, where the sun
+scorched everything to death save the thorny bushes and the coarse grass
+tufts, and the camels and their Bedouin drivers; but even they scarcely
+ever travel by day. Wonderful as were the sights and the grandeur of the
+mountains of the Yemen, I think these night-rides over the desert have
+fixed themselves more upon my memory. Tired as we often were, one could
+not but wonder at the glories of the starlit heavens, and revel in the
+fragrance of falling dew and mimosa.
+
+[Illustration: GATE OF A WALLED VILLAGE IN THE YEMEN.]
+
+Before midnight we reached a _café_, merely a few little huts in the
+desert, but welcome nevertheless, and with shouts and cries we woke the
+owner, who lit a lamp and showed us into his best accommodation, a roof
+of grass supported on long canes. However, one could need no more; for it
+kept off the chill of the dew, and allowed the breeze, which every now
+and again stirred, to cool the hot night air.
+
+I shall never forget that last night in the desert,—Turks, Arabs, Moors,
+and Englishman squatting on carpets, sharing a common pipe in a dimly lit
+_café_ in the desert. Coffee and supper were cooking, and one could hear
+the bubbling of the coffee-husks in the earthen pot that was preparing
+for our men. And then they brought our supper, a couple of desert fowls
+that tasted as though they had tramped a century over the sand, so tough
+they were. A rest of an hour or two was all we were allowed, and long
+before daylight we were off again. The desert here takes the form of
+sand-dunes, in parts covered with scanty scrub, in parts bare yellow
+sand, broken only by the hideous lines of crooked telegraph-posts. There
+were no signs of a road, not even a track in the sand, for the slightest
+breeze destroys the marks left by those who have gone before. But our
+men knew the way well, and just a little after seven o’clock, when we
+were beginning to suffer severely from the intense rays of the sun, a cry
+proceeded from our foremost man, who stood spear in hand, a silhouette
+against the burning sky.
+
+Hodaidah! There it was at last, dancing in the shimmering heated air
+of the desert,—turned, and twisted, and indistinct, but Hodaidah
+nevertheless! As we neared the town the scene became quite picturesque.
+Here an old Turkish fort, half in ruins, stood out yellow from the white
+sand; there the remains of some aqueduct in which no water flowed. Then
+we entered palm-groves, whose greenness after the desert was refreshing,
+under the shade of which nestled the clean grass-and-mat huts and zarebas
+of the Arab and Indian inhabitants.
+
+Still on; past many a pretty country-house of the Arab merchants,
+surrounded by gardens, until at length we emerged into the great
+market-place that lies without the walls of the town proper, above which
+rise the houses snowy white, tier upon tier in strange disorder.
+
+Passing under a great gateway, the upper part of which served as
+barracks, we proceeded by narrow streets to our destination, a large
+_café_ kept by a Greek. Here I engaged a room, and sending my Arabs and
+Turkish guards to forage for themselves until I had rested, we carried
+our scanty baggage to an upper chamber, the windows of which looked
+out on one side to the sea, and on the other to the principal street I
+settled myself in.
+
+But the fatigue of my march from Sanaa had been too much for me, and
+in an hour my fever had returned, and I was lying, almost unconscious,
+tossing from side to side. Saïd and Abdurrahman likewise were attacked,
+and suffered as much perhaps as I did. But our journey was over, we had
+finished with the mountains and plains of the Yemen, and our goal was
+reached.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+HODAIDAH.
+
+
+The earliest mention that one finds of Hodaidah in Mahammedan history is
+its capture by El-Ghuri, Sultan of Egypt, in A.D. 1515. In the native
+historian’s account of the invasion of this wild horde of Circassians,
+Kurds, and other strange peoples, the town is mentioned by the name of
+Jadidah,[45] the new (town), although this by no means can be taken as a
+proof that the city had only been founded shortly before that period—for
+Jadidah, as the name of a city, is common all over the East, and every
+place was probably at one time “new,” though the title may long ago have
+become inappropriate. This tends to prove that it was probably not until
+the Red Sea trade had reached a flourishing condition, although at that
+time entirely in the hands of the natives, that Hodaidah sprang into
+existence.
+
+Being situated on the sea-coast, and only a little to the south of
+the country of the Asir tribes, it has not escaped from attack from
+both quarters. Principal amongst these, perhaps, was its capture by
+the Asir chief, Abd el-Hakal, in 1804. In the interests of the Wahabi
+belief, which he, like so many of his tribe, had embraced, he made an
+organised attack upon the northern Teháma. His people, buoyed up with the
+fanaticism of their new tenets, devastated whole districts, and held the
+entire Yemen in terror. Four years later, however, Hodaidah was once more
+restored to the then reigning Imam of Sanaa, Seyed Ahmed ibn Ali Mansur.
+
+From this time, for a space of some four-and-twenty years, we find
+Hodaidah thriving under the impetus given to trade by the European
+merchant-ships, which were at this period crowding to the Red Sea; and
+its lot seems to have been a peaceful one, until the arrival there in
+1832 of the dreaded Turkchee Bilmas, by which nickname Mahammed Agha was
+generally known. Marching overland from the Hedjaz, he encamped close to
+the city, while his vessels, which had proceeded by sea from Jeddah and
+Yembo, blockaded the port. On being refused provisions by the governor,
+he commenced to open fire upon the town walls, whereupon the place
+capitulated. However, the energetic Mahammed Agha did not remain there,
+but, leaving four hundred men under the command of Agha Murshid, he
+marched on Zebeed.[46]
+
+The Egyptian Government abandoned the Yemen in 1840, eight years after
+the taking of Hodaidah by Turkchee Bilmas, and it was arranged that
+this portion of the country at least should fall into the possession
+of the Grand Shereef of Mecca. But another claimant stepped forward in
+the person of Huseyn ibn Ali, Shereef of Abou Areesh, who with the Asir
+tribe, whose assistance he had been able to obtain, took the field with
+twenty thousand men;[47] and the very day that Hodaidah was abandoned by
+Ibrahim Pasha, the Shereefs troops, under the leadership of his brother,
+Abou Taleb, took possession of the place. Notwithstanding the recognition
+of the Shereef Huseyn’s power did not last long; for the Asiri, ever
+ready for plunder, occupied the town, and only released the merchants,
+whom they had imprisoned, on their paying large ransoms.
+
+In 1849 a great change was destined to take place in the government of
+the Yemen, and the Turks, proceeding from Jeddah, occupied Hodaidah, the
+Shereef of that town obtaining a subsidy from the Ottoman Government in
+return for his handing over the place. This pension, however, he never
+received; and accordingly, in 1851 he started to report his case to the
+Sultan at Constantinople. But sudden death cut short his career on the
+road, and there is little doubt but that he was murdered.[48] The leader
+of this Turkish expedition, Tufieh Pasha, became governor of Hodaidah and
+the surrounding country.
+
+It was shortly after this that a treaty was drawn up between the Imam of
+Sanaa and the Sublime Porte, in which the principal clauses were that the
+Imam was still to continue to reign, but that he should be considered as
+a vassal of Abdul-Mejid, the then reigning Sultan of Turkey; that the
+revenues were to be equally divided between the Sultan and the Imam; and
+that Sanaa should be garrisoned by Turkish forces. Although the sequel
+of this story belongs rather to the history of Sanaa than to that of
+Hodaidah, it may be given briefly at this point, as it follows as a
+sequence upon this treaty of Hodaidah. Returning with the Imam, Tufieh
+Pasha arrived at Sanaa, and the change in government was made known to
+the inhabitants. What, however, seems particularly to have fired them
+to opposition was the substitution of the name of Abdul-Mejid for that
+of their Imam Mahammed Yahia in the prayers. Being of the Zaidi sect,
+one of the many divisions of the Sheiyas,[49] this naturally affected
+them more than any temporal changes could have done, and before midnight
+they had cut to pieces a large proportion of the Turkish troops, who,
+although they had taken possession of one of the city forts, were unable
+to make any resistance. At length, wounded, and with only a handful of
+men, Tufieh Pasha bought a permit to return to Hodaidah, for which he
+paid twenty thousand dollars, and retired to that spot, where he died of
+his wounds and exhaustion. Mahammed Yahia, the unfortunate Imam who had
+entered into this treaty with the Turks, was secretly assassinated,—Ali
+Mansur, already twice deposed, being installed in his place.
+
+But a still more horrible tale is yet to be told regarding Hodaidah. In
+1855 some sixty thousand men of the Asir tribe marched against the place
+with the idea of sacking it. They deferred the attack, however, owing to
+the presence of British ships of war; but the inhabitants, owing to all
+communication with the interior being cut off, had reached a condition
+of great misery, when cholera broke out amongst the Asiri, no less than
+fifteen thousand dying before they reached their homes.
+
+But to return to Hodaidah as I saw it in February and March of last
+year—1892.
+
+Hodaidah lies on the north-east side of a large bay, and somewhat
+sheltered by a promontory on the north-west. The town is a large one, and
+contains probably between thirty and thirty-five thousand inhabitants,
+though at the time the author was there the number was swelled by a large
+addition of Turkish troops. The place is a nourishing one: the bazaars,
+of which more anon, are well supplied; the houses solidly built, and
+high. Its one great drawback is its feverish climate, the few Europeans
+and the natives alike suffering at certain periods of the year. After a
+rainfall, for instance, or in the winter when the westerly winds are
+blowing, fever attacks the place like an epidemic.
+
+With this short description I may revert to my personal experiences of
+Hodaidah.
+
+As soon as my attack of fever had worn off sufficiently to allow of
+my going out, accompanied by my guards, I proceeded to the Governors
+residence. He received me most politely, a chair was at once got for
+me, cigarettes and coffee brought in, while his Excellency perused the
+letters which my soldiers had brought from the Governor-General at Sanaa.
+This over, he bade me welcome, and we had a pleasant chat, conversing in
+Arabic, of which his Excellency knew less than myself, so that at last we
+found that things went more easily when a Greek entered who spoke French.
+
+[Illustration: _A Street in Hodaidah._]
+
+The Governor’s first question to me was worth recording. He was a little
+nervous at first, and for a minute there was an awkward silence, which
+his Excellency broke by asking, “Did you fight in the Crimea?” I replied
+that I was not born until some ten years after that war was over.
+However, I found the question had a purpose, for on the Governor’s breast
+hung the English Crimean medal, which he handed me to examine with great
+pride. After this episode conversation was carried on more easily, and
+finally I obtained his Excellency’s permission to continue residing in
+the upper chamber of the _café_ until I should depart. Very different
+were the Government offices here from the gorgeous apartments of the
+Governor-General at Sanaa. Here there was only a small bare room with a
+few chairs, none of which were in very good repair. An outside staircase
+of rickety steps leads to the first storey of the building, where the
+principal offices appear to be situated, the lower portion serving as
+a store. A constant flow of gaudy officers and ill-clothed soldiers
+passed and repassed. I had several interviews with the Governor during my
+stay of a week in Hodaidah, and on every occasion found him polite and
+amiable, although he refused to allow me to continue my journey by land,
+as I had hoped to have done, _viâ_ Beit el-Fakih, Zebeed, and Hais.
+
+On my return to my quarters I found a couple of Turkish soldiers calmly
+seated in my room, one of them on my bed, and smoking my cigarettes.
+Although I was prepared to be watched, I was not at all inclined to put
+up with this intrusion, and with the aid of Abdurrahman, Saïd, and a
+boot, soon put them to flight. I at once returned to the Governor to
+explain the matter to him, and on my way to his apartment was accosted
+in the most polite manner by an officer, who begged me not to report the
+matter, saying that if I liked to pay him a couple of dollars he would
+see that the guard was removed. But what with annoyance and fever, I was
+not in a mood to pay anybody anything, so went straight to his Excellency
+and told my story. The old man and his officers burst into fits of
+laughter, explaining to me that the guard had only been put there for
+me to pay something for their removal, and that the whole thing was a
+“plant.” I begged him to send for the officer who wanted _bakshish_, and
+speak to him, so that I should not be put to the same annoyance again,
+and this he willingly did. Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that I
+was left in tolerable peace, I soon found that my every movement was
+watched, but never interfered with. This last was no doubt owing partly
+to the good offices of one who showed me great kindness and hospitality
+in Hodaidah, Dr Ahmed, a native of India, who ably represents H.B.M.
+Government as Vice-Consul there. I cannot speak highly enough of my
+appreciation of his and his English wife’s many acts of kindness toward
+me; and although, owing to ill health, my recollections of Hodaidah are
+none too cheery, I shall always remember how anxious Dr and Mrs Ahmed
+were to render pleasant my stay. A doctor of Glasgow University, Dr Ahmed
+made his name in Assam in the Indian medical service, and was only a
+short time ago appointed Vice-Consul at Hodaidah; and it is to be hoped
+that the skilful way in which he carries out his by no means easy duties
+there, and keeps firmly rooted in that town a feeling of respect between
+the British and Turkish Governments, will shortly obtain for him a post
+in some more healthy and important place.
+
+The _café_ in which I had taken up my quarters faced the sea on one
+side, and the only wide street in the town on the other, that which lies
+along the seaboard, from which it is only divided by the Government
+offices and huts of _areesh_ or reeds. From my window on the second
+storey I was able to watch the people passing and repassing, and many
+an hour was spent thus in idleness. But if this street offered scenes
+of character, how much more so did the bazaars! and there, when I was
+well enough, I used to sit talking to the Arab shopkeepers and sipping
+coffee. Good intelligent fellows many of them were, and always ready
+to waste half an hour in listening to tales of Egypt and Morocco, and
+even of my journey in the Yemen. What sights the bazaars offer! All the
+nationalities of the world seem to crowd there—strange weird people in
+every stage of clothing, from almost nakedness to rich robes of striped
+silks. Unlike the bazaars at Aden, those of Hodaidah are roofed in from
+the sun, the fierce rays of which yet find cracks and crannies in the
+wood and mats to creep through. But their brilliant light falling upon
+some stall of fruit perhaps only tends to throw into deeper shadow the
+rest of the crowded street. In the cool of the afternoon I would saunter
+round and take up my station on the little shop-platform of a seller of
+books, and spend an hour or two with him. A wizened little old man he
+was, a native of Zebeed; but he was good company, and would put aside all
+ideas of business when he saw me coming, and would point out the strange
+figures amongst the passers-by, and tell me whence they came and who they
+were. Jews, Indians of all kinds, Persians, Arabs, Egyptians, Bedouins,
+Abyssinians, Turks, Greeks, negroes, and a few Europeans, would jostle
+each other in the narrow ways.
+
+From the bazaars to the town walls is but a step. Passing out of the
+fortified gates, of which there are several, one issued on to the large
+open space, the _sôk_ or market, which we had crossed when we entered
+the town. Here garden produce was offered for sale, generally exposed on
+the ground, though a number of little mat-and-reed huts contained small
+shops. The larger of these flimsy structures serve as _cafés_, and one
+or two as Parsee theatres. The largest of the _cafés_ was a constant
+resort of mine, and of an evening I would sit, accompanied by Saïd,
+who, in spite of his fever, had polished up his dress—what there was of
+it—and his raven locks. So beautiful had he become that little groups
+of the female sex would come and joke with him; and though he treated
+them with a certain amount of haughty indifference, he was by no means
+unappreciative of their attentions, and had a knack of being out after
+dark. There one would see the Turkish officers in gold-lace, with their
+glass hookahs in front of them, lounging away the afternoon hours. There,
+too, were the merchants, gorgeous in silk raiment and turbans, talking
+business over coffee and tobacco.
+
+The remaining streets and places of Hodaidah offer but little
+attractiveness. The streets are narrow and the houses high, and except
+now and again for a richly carved doorway, there is but little of
+interest to be seen.
+
+The greatest disadvantage to Hodaidah, after its feverish climate, is
+the exceedingly poor water-supply; for although there are some brackish
+wells in the neighbourhood, all pure water has to be brought from a
+distance of some miles. It is carried in skins and barrels on the backs
+of camels and donkeys.
+
+Near these wells, under the guidance of Dr Ahmed, I spent a pleasant
+afternoon in a beautiful garden belonging to a certain wealthy Arab,
+whose fortune was made, it is said, by purchasing the right of collecting
+taxes from the Ottoman Government. This, in the hands of an unscrupulous
+and hard man, means a very considerable income, and the garden in
+question was a proof that the old Arab evidently throve. The road from
+the town passes along sandy lanes and amongst palm-groves until the open
+desert is reached. Continuing over this for a mile or so, one reaches the
+wells, while green trees peeping over the high garden walls break the
+monotony of sand and scrub.
+
+Immediately on our arrival the gate was thrown open, and we entered a
+veritable paradise—a walled garden many acres in extent, and filled with
+gorgeous trees and shrubs, which the owner is said to have collected from
+all quarters of the tropics. Irrigation was carried on by water-wheels
+and wells, and streamlets flowed in every direction. Under the shade of
+the large trees summer-houses had been erected of trellis-work, over
+which jasmine and roses and many a creeper, the name of which I did
+not know, climbed in luxuriance. In these divans were arranged, and
+one could enjoy the sight of the flowers in cool shade. Wonderful they
+were, those shrubs and trees and plants, hung with great masses of bloom
+of every colour, while here and there tall lilies raised their stately
+heads. The trees were full of birds, and the garden was sweet with the
+scent of the flowers and the hum of the insects’ wings.
+
+Long into the moonlit night we sat there, until the chill dew told us it
+was time to seek more secure shelter. Yet in all their loveliness there
+lurks poison in this paradise, and nearly all our party suffered from
+fever in consequence of our visit.
+
+But few Europeans live in Hodaidah, with the exception of the Greeks. The
+wife of the British Vice-Consul was the one English lady in the place,
+the only other British subject, excepting natives of India, &c., being a
+Maltese gentleman, agent for a British firm. A few Americans, however,
+are to be found, the trade in skins to America being an important
+one. Of the other nationalities there are perhaps in all half-a-dozen
+representatives.
+
+During my stay the port was visited by a small Turkish gunboat, the
+captain of which, whose name I never discovered, paid me a call. He had
+been educated at the Naval College at Constantinople, and spoke English
+remarkably well. He was tired of his berth, he said, his weariness being
+materially added to by the irregularity of his pay. In this respect, he
+added, he was better off than most of the Turkish soldiers in the Yemen,
+for they received none at all. Although at Hodaidah the condition of the
+troops seemed fairly good as regards food and clothing, we had found at
+more than one place in the interior the soldiers bootless and payless,
+and receiving as rations only two loaves of bread a-day, one of which
+they usually ate, the other being exchanged for tobacco. A piastre or two
+to a soldier won as genuine thanks as ever one heard. It meant little
+luxuries which his heart longed for, cigarettes and coffee, and which for
+weeks very likely he had been unable to attain to.
+
+At length, after seven days of fever, a steamer arrived in the port,
+and I saw means of getting to Aden. Saying good-bye to Dr Ahmed on the
+rickety little pier, down one of the supports of which I was obliged to
+clamber in order to reach the rowing-boat, as the steps had been washed
+away, or never built, I forget which, I shook off the dust of Hodaidah
+from my feet, and in an hour or so was aboard an English steamer, having
+a yarn with an English captain and mate.
+
+In a few days we were back once more in Aden, arriving on the very day on
+which quarantine from the Red Sea ports was removed, so that I was only
+detained half an hour on the hulk Hyderabad, in place of the seven days I
+had feared I would have to undergo.
+
+The welcome I received from all friends here was very kind, and many a
+laugh we enjoyed together over my adventures in the Yemen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Just as my journey was then concluded, so is my account of it finished
+now. A year has passed since I left the country, and yet its every detail
+is as clear to me as if it had all happened yesterday. As I lay down my
+pen I conjure up in my mind the desert-rides under a myriad of brilliant
+stars; I feel upon my cheek the soft balmy southern breeze; I see again
+our little party hiding in the gullies, and creeping on by night over the
+terrible rough roads of the mountains. Once more, warned by an unknown
+friend, I escape by night from Beit Saïd; once more, but this time with a
+smile, I spend five days a prisoner in the _conàk_ of Sanaa. Once more I
+pass through the great valleys and descend to the desert, and I shudder
+over the remembrance of nights and days of fever—a fever that clung to
+me for months. Yet my recollections of the country are ones that I shall
+always treasure; and in spite of dangers and sickness, in spite of long
+marches and days in prison, the Yemen will always be for me, at least,
+Arabia Felix.
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+[1] In 1871 the rainfall at Aden was only one-fourth of an inch.
+
+[2] Hist. gen. des Voyages, vol. xxxi. p. 438.
+
+[3] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 22.
+
+[4] Ibid., pp. 135-139.
+
+[5] Sailing Directions for the Red Sea.
+
+[6] Kay’s translation of Omarah’s Yemen, 1892.
+
+[7] Ibn Khaldun, Kay’s translation, 1892.
+
+[8] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 4.
+
+[9] Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 68.
+
+[10] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 43, 44.
+
+[11] Kay’s Omarah. London, 1892.
+
+[12] Professor Sayce’s “Ancient Arabia” and “Results of Oriental
+Archæology,” in the Contemporary Review.
+
+[13] Human Origins. S. Laing, 1892. P. 94.
+
+[14] These measurements were made by Mons. D’Arnaud in 1843.
+
+[15] Vincent’s Periplus, vol. i. p. 53.
+
+[16] Koran, chap. lxxxv.
+
+[17] Akhdam, plural of Khedim, a word usually employed for a slave to-day.
+
+[18] Ibn Khaldun, Kay’s translation, 1892.
+
+[19] A list of the Imams of Sanaa will be found at the end of the book.
+
+[20] Niebuhr’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 85.
+
+[21] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 113, 114.
+
+[22] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 118, 119.
+
+[23] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 131.
+
+[24] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 147.
+
+[25] Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 153, 154.
+
+[26] Mahomet and Islam. Sir William Muir. 1887.
+
+[27] Al-Baha-’l Janadi, ‘Karmathians in Yaman.’ Kay’s translation, 1892.
+
+[28] Les Confréries Musulmanes du Hedjaz. A le Chatelier. Paris 1887.
+
+[29] The Sunnis hold that the Caliphate need not necessarily descend in
+the family of the Prophet.
+
+[30] Sadah is situated about eight days’ journey north of Sanaa, on the
+borders of the desert.
+
+[31] Ezek. xxvii. 21-23.
+
+[32] “Arriani periplus maris Erythræi.”
+
+[33] Itinerario de Ludovico de Barthema, 1535. Translated by Richard
+Eden, 1576.
+
+[34] Three Hours in Aden. Bombay, 1891.
+
+[35] “In the name of God”—the Arab grace before eating.
+
+[36] The salutation of Moslems all the world over.
+
+[37] _Tholba_, the plural of _thaleb_, a name generally applied to those
+who have studied the Koran—members of the priesthood.
+
+[38] This rifle was returned to me on the eve of my departure from
+Tangier for the Atlas Mountains in October 1892.
+
+[39] _Kabyla_ = a tribe.
+
+[40] “Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and
+Chilmad, were thy merchants.”—Ezekiel xxvii. 23.
+
+[41] General Haig, in the Royal Geographical Proceedings, August 1887.
+
+[42] The Zaidis are a division of the Sheiya sect.
+
+[43] The Koran, _sura_ vii.
+
+[44] The Koran, _sura_ xv.
+
+[45] Kay’s Omarah, p. 237.
+
+[46] Records of the Bombay Government.
+
+[47] Playfair’s Yemen, p. 146.
+
+[48] Ibid.
+
+[49] See chapter on “The Influences of Islam in the Yemen.”
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+GENEALOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TREE OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA, SHOWING THEIR
+DESCENT FROM MAHAMMED.
+
+                                  MAHAMMED, died A.D. 632(= A.H. 11).
+                                      |
+                               FATIMA AND ALI.
+                                      |
+                                    HASAN.
+                                      |
+                                    HASAN.
+                                      |
+                                   IBRAHIM.
+                                      |
+                                   ISMAIL.
+                                      |
+                                   IBRAHIM.
+                                      |
+                             ALI KASIM ER-RASSI.
+                                      |
+                                   HOSEYN.
+                                      |
+                               EL HADI YAHIA.
+                                      |
+                               EN NASIR AHMED.
+                                      |
+                                    YAHIA.
+                                      |
+                                YUSUF ED DAY.
+                                      |
+                                     ---
+                             SEVERAL GENERATIONS.
+                                     ---
+                                      |
+                                ALI EL AMLAHI.
+                                      |
+                                   MAHAMMED.
+                                      |
+        +------------------+----------+-----------------+
+        |                  |                            |
+        |                 (1)                           |
+        |       _MANSUR EL KASIM_, 1620; died 1620.   HOSEYN.
+        |                  |                            |
+        |             +----+------+          +----------+-----------+
+        |             |           |          |          |           |
+       (4)           (2)         (3)       (10)        (5)         (8)
+    _AHMED_,   _EL MUAYYAD     _ISMAIL_,  _ABBAS_,  _MAHAMMED_,  _KASIM_,
+     1677.       MAHAMMED_,      1676.     1774.       1678.      1719.
+        |          1645.                     |                      |
+        |                       +-------------+---------+           |
+        |                       |                       |           |
+       (6)                    (11)                      |          (9)
+   _MAHAMMED_,                _ALI_,                  KASIM.    _HOSEYN_,
+      1707.                   1809.                     |         1740.
+                                |                       |
+                              (12)                      |
+                             _AHMED_,                MAHAMMED.
+                              1817.                     |
+                                |                       |
+         +-------------+--------+------+                |
+         |             |               |                |
+         |           (16)            (13)             (15)
+       YAHIA.      _MAHAMMED_,    _ABDULLAH_,      _ABDULLAH_,
+         |           1844.           1834.            1840.
+         |                             |
+         |                             |
+       (18)                     (14)}  |
+    _MAHAMMED_,                 (17)} =ALI= (three times Imam).
+       1849.                    (19)} 186-.
+         |
+       (20)
+     _GHALIB_
+  (Living in 1859).
+
+_Note._—The parentage of the seventh Imam Mahammed ibn Hasan is not known
+for certain. He died in 1708.
+
+The names in italics are those of the Imams of Sanaa. The numbers within
+parentheses refer to the order in which they reigned. The numbers after
+the names are the probable dates of their deaths.
+
+
+A LIST OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA, GIVING THEIR FULL TITLES.
+
+_Note._—This list is compiled from Niebuhr’s table, as given in Sir R. L.
+Playfair’s ‘History of Yemen,’ with one or two corrections from native
+authorities.
+
+   1. Mansur El-Kasim El-Kebir.
+   2. El-Muayyad Mahammed.
+   3. Ismail El-Metawakil Al’ Allah.
+   4. Ahmed El-Mejd Billah.
+   5. Mahammed El-Mehdi Hadi.
+   6. Mahammed El-Mehdi.
+   7. Mahammed En-Nasir.
+   8. Kasim El-Metawakil.
+   9. Hoseyn El-Mansur.
+  10. Abbas El-Mehdi.
+  11. Ali El-Mansur.
+  12. Ahmed El-Metawakil.
+  13. Abdullah El-Mehdi.
+  14. Ali El-Mansur.
+  15. Abdullah En-Nasir.
+  16. Mahammed El-Hadi.
+  17. Ali El-Mansur.
+  18. Mahammed El-Metawakil.
+  19. Ali El-Mansur.
+  20. Ghalib El-Hadi.
+
+
+PEDIGREE OF THE REIGNING ABDALI SULTAN OF LAHEJ.
+
+                                        SALEM.
+                                          |
+                                        SÁLEH.
+                                          |
+                                       FOUDTHEL.
+                                          |
+                                         ALI.
+                                          |
+                               [1728] 1. FOUDTHEL,
+                               First Independent Sultan.
+                                          |
+                           [1742] 2. ABD-EL-KARIM.
+                                          |
+                 +------------------------+-----------------------+
+                 |                        |                       |
+  [1753] 3. ABD EL HADY.     [1777] 4. FOUDTHEL.      [1792] 5. AHMED.
+                                          |
+                             [1827] 6. MHASSEN.
+                                          |
+                                          +-----------+
+                                          |           |
+                             [1847] 7. AHMED.  [1849] 8. ALI.
+
+_Note._—The dates are those of their succession according to Playfair’s
+‘Yemen.’
+
+
+
+
+INDEX TO PROPER NAMES.
+
+
+  Abbaside dynasty, 50, 51.
+
+  Abd el-Hakal, 359.
+
+  Abd er-Rabi, 60, 167.
+
+  Abd esh-Shems, 31, 38, 126, 145.
+
+  Abdali tribe, 7, 16, 132, 165, 181, 211.
+    Sultan, 21, 133, 167.
+
+  Abdul Hamid, 86, 92-94, 116.
+    Mejid, 361.
+    Wahab, 54, 63, 147.
+
+  Abdullah the Sulayhite, 18.
+
+  Abou Arish, 20, 21, 22, 66.
+    Bekr, 49, 85, 86, 321.
+    ’l Jaysh, 52.
+    Mahammed, 51.
+
+  Abrahá, 43, 44.
+
+  Abraham, 30, 31.
+
+  Abyssinia, 75, 138.
+
+  Abyssinians, 41-45, 53, 71, 80, 135, 253.
+
+  Acacia eburnea, 139.
+
+  Ad, 318.
+
+  Adites, 318, 319.
+
+  Aden, 4, 6-8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 41, 44, 53, 55, 56,
+        60, 66, 104, 105, 115, 116, 121-129, 130-133, 139, 148-150,
+        151, 158, 163, 165-167, 175, 185, 208, 209, 211, 214, 222, 306,
+        345.
+    Gulf of, 4.
+    Little, 133, 136, 159.
+
+  Adenum obesum, 140.
+
+  Adirbijan, 40.
+
+  Adnan, 30, 31, 189.
+
+  Adonis, 348.
+
+  Ælius Gallus, 30, 40, 127.
+
+  Africa, 14, 28, 33, 81, 84, 90, 91, 126, 137, 138, 164, 192, 293, 319.
+
+  Agha, Mahammed, or Turkchee Bilmas, 65, 131, 359, 360.
+
+  Agha Murshid, 359.
+
+  Ahmed ed-Din, 99, 101, 104, 105, 110, 252, 266, 339.
+    Doctor, 365, 369, 370.
+    Feizi Pasha, 107, 109, 111, 112, 115, 202, 297, 303, 339.
+    ibn Ali Mansur, 63, 64, 359.
+    ibn Musa, 16.
+    Pasha, 66.
+    Sultan, 168.
+
+  Ahurram, Jibel, 197.
+
+  Akhaf, desert of, 22.
+
+  Akhdam, the, 45, 253.
+
+  Akrabi tribe, 21.
+
+  Akran, el-, 40.
+
+  Akriba, 49.
+
+  Alajioud, 189.
+
+  Albuquerque, Alphonso de, 129.
+
+  Alexander the Great, 9.
+    or Iskander, 128.
+
+  Algeria, 4.
+
+  Ali abou Mehdi, 167.
+    bou Rhaleb, 209.
+    el-Mansur, 17, 63, 67, 362.
+    ibn Abou Taleb, 48, 50, 52, 57, 84, 85, 98, 255.
+    ibn Fadl, 87, 88, 264.
+    ibn Mansur, 54.
+    Sultan of Lahej, 161, 165, 169.
+
+  Aloui tribe, 115, 189.
+
+  Amat, El-, 180.
+
+  American traders, 11.
+
+  Amin, 51.
+
+  Amin el-Bahr, 59.
+    es-Sôk, 59.
+
+  Amir Morjaun, 129.
+
+  Amir of Bishi, 198, 200.
+    of Dhala, 25, 195, 198.
+
+  Amran, 104-106, 110.
+
+  Anis, Jibel, and tribe of, 49, 111, 286.
+
+  Arab tribes, 24, 32, 189.
+    Zaidis, 86.
+
+  Arabia Deserta, 5.
+    Felix, 5, 7, 48, 225, 232, 238, 272.
+    Petræa, 5.
+    South, 28.
+
+  Aredoah, 197.
+
+  Arib, 31.
+
+  Arnaud, Mons d’, 37, 146.
+
+  Aryans, 36.
+
+  Aryat, 42, 43, 320.
+
+  Asaad abou Karib, or Dhu Nowas, 41, 42.
+    ibn Yafur, 52, 53.
+
+  “Ascension,” the ship, 57, 130.
+
+  Ashari, Beled, 197.
+    Jibel, 197.
+
+  Ashram, 43, 44, 320.
+
+  Ashur, 33.
+
+  Asia, 319.
+    Central, 242.
+    Minor, 183, 250.
+
+  Asir, tribe of, 4, 5, 10, 22, 25, 63, 64, 66, 93, 100, 105, 358, 359,
+        360, 362.
+
+  Assam, 365.
+
+  Assassins, the, 88.
+
+  Asshur, 126.
+
+  Astarte, 33.
+
+  Aswad, El-, 49.
+
+  Athaik, 283.
+
+  Athl trees, 182.
+
+  Atlas Mts., 231.
+
+  Attara, 342.
+
+  Aylan, Kays, 31.
+
+  Ayyubite Caliphs, 54, 127.
+
+  Azab, 215, 218.
+
+
+  Baal, 40.
+
+  Bab el-Mandeb, 14, 16, 21, 24, 62, 134, 165.
+
+  Bagdad, 48, 172.
+
+  Bajil, 67, 347, 351-353.
+
+  Balkis, Queen, 23, 40.
+
+  Banna, el-, Wadi, 222, 231, 236.
+
+  Barthema, L. de, or Vertomanus, 128.
+
+  Bashi-bazouks, 102.
+
+  Bashir ibn Ardeb, 50.
+
+  Bas-Katéb, 58.
+
+  Bauan, 326.
+
+  Bedouins, 7, 13, 20, 22, 94, 101, 162, 163, 183, 187, 189, 192, 194,
+        355.
+
+  Beit el-Fakih, 15, 16, 68, 365.
+    en-Nedish, 225, 229.
+    Saïd, 229, 233, 234, 236, 239, 372.
+
+  Beled Alajioud, 198.
+    Ashari, 197.
+    el-Hawad, 239.
+    el-Jehaf, 20, 23.
+    el-Kabail, 20, 21.
+
+  Belkama, or Yalkama, 40.
+
+  Beni Hallel, 21.
+    Matar, 289.
+    Meruan, 100, 105.
+    Yafur, 51.
+    Zuray, 127.
+
+  Berbera, 138.
+
+  Besaisi, Sheikh, 206, 208, 209, 215, 220, 223.
+
+  Beyrout, 197.
+
+  B’dam trees, 166, 198.
+
+  Bir Ahmed, 147, 161.
+    el-Azab, 106, 299, 323, 324.
+
+  Bishi, Amir of, 198, 200.
+
+  Blanket, Admiral, 14.
+
+  Bohay, 350.
+
+  Bombay, 60, 88, 135, 174.
+
+  British traders, 37, 130.
+
+  Broeck, Van den, 11, 130.
+
+  Bruce, Captain, 12, 65.
+
+  Budhan or Budzan, 47, 320.
+
+  Bukht Nasser, or Nebuchadnezzar, 30.
+
+  Bulhar, 138.
+
+
+  Cadi, 58, 77.
+
+  Cæsars, the, 127.
+
+  Cairo, 65, 305.
+
+  Caliph of the East (Harun el-Rashid), 51.
+
+  Caliphs, the, 53, 58, 83, 85, 86, 93, 305.
+
+  Campbell, Mr, 62.
+
+  Canneh, 126.
+
+  Caparidiciæ, 139.
+
+  Catha edulis (“Kat”), 170.
+
+  Chaldæa, 34, 38, 40.
+
+  Chevalier, Mons. A. le, 90.
+
+  Chilmad, 126.
+
+  China, 40, 138.
+
+  Chinese, the, 135, 305.
+
+  Christianity, 70-74, 79, 83, 90.
+
+  Christians, 41, 42, 46-48, 50.
+
+  Circassians, 358.
+
+  Claudius, 127.
+
+  Cleopatris, 39.
+
+  Constantine, 127, 207.
+
+  Constantinople, 67, 96, 97, 105, 115, 116, 149, 151, 169, 297, 298,
+        370.
+
+  Constantius, 41.
+
+  “Coote,” H.M.S., 131.
+
+  Covilham, Pedro de, 55, 127, 128.
+
+  Crimea, 363.
+
+  “Cruizer,” H.M.S., 132.
+
+
+  Damascus, 33.
+
+  Damir, Jibel, 350.
+
+  Danish expedition, 61.
+
+  Dar el-Hinoud, 347.
+    en-Nekil, 201.
+    es-Salaam, 107-288.
+
+  “Darling,” H.M.S., 130.
+
+  David, 79.
+
+  Day Imran, 148.
+
+  Denmark, 61.
+
+  “Deria dowlat,” 131, 168.
+
+  Dhala, 115, 176, 202.
+
+  Dhamar, 17, 18, 21, 25, 87, 96, 97, 100, 104, 111, 113, 212, 251,
+        256-259, 263-265, 267, 269, 271, 272, 279, 280, 281, 286, 287,
+        304.
+    el-Gar, 257.
+
+  Dhofir, 105, 112.
+
+  Dhu-biyat, 188, 196.
+
+  Dhu Jiblah (or Jiblah), 18, 21, 104, 111.
+
+  Dhu-Nowas. _See_ Asaad abou Karib.
+
+  Dhu Ruayn, 251.
+
+  Digishúb, 255, 256.
+
+  Dodekites, 85, 87.
+
+  “Dokhn,” 351.
+
+  Dommicetti, Lieutenant, 65.
+
+  Domville, Captain, 191.
+
+  Doran, Jibel, 282.
+
+  Dowla, 58.
+
+  Druses, 85.
+
+  “Durra,” 351.
+
+  Dutch traders, 11, 130.
+
+
+  East India Coy., 14, 57, 130.
+
+  Eden, 126.
+
+  Egypt, 14, 17, 34, 35, 39, 55, 66, 72, 90, 129, 135, 367.
+
+  Egyptians, 129, 367.
+
+  El-Asfal, Medinet, 24.
+
+  El-Faki, Saïd, 67.
+
+  El-Ghuri, 358.
+
+  El-Hadi Mahammed, 67.
+
+  El-Hadi Yahia, 53, 57.
+
+  El-Hajra, 341.
+
+  El-Hasan, Mulai, 293.
+
+  El-Hinoud, Dar, 347.
+
+  El-Islam, Sheikh, 77.
+
+  El-Kasim, 59.
+
+  El-Kebir, Wadi, 176.
+
+  El-Khamis, Sôk, 327, 329.
+
+  El-Mamun, 51.
+
+  El-Mehdi Abbas, 62.
+
+  El-Mehdi Najoul, 324.
+
+  El-Mehdi Senussi, 90.
+
+  El-Muayyad Mahammed, 58.
+
+  El-Mustansir, 58.
+
+  El-Mutawakil, 52.
+
+  El-Muzaffer, 54.
+
+  Emporium Romanum, 127.
+
+  En-Nekil, 287.
+
+  Es-Salaam, Dar, 107, 288.
+
+  Es-Seghir, Wadi, 176.
+
+  Esh-Shari, 206, 212.
+
+  Ethiopia, 39.
+
+  Euphorbiaceæ, 139.
+
+
+  Fatimide dynasty, 85.
+
+  Fez, 209, 245, 305.
+
+  Fezzan, 91.
+
+  Florence, 55, 128.
+
+  Foudthel ibn Ali, 167.
+
+  Foudtheli tribe, 7, 16, 21, 131, 165, 211.
+
+  France, 6, 14, 62.
+
+  Frederick V. of Denmark, 61.
+
+  French, the, 62.
+    traders, 11.
+
+
+  Galata, 149.
+
+  Galla-land, 8, 232.
+
+  Ghadan, 230.
+
+  Gharrah, 24.
+
+  “Ghee,” 186.
+
+  Ghubbat Seilan, 176.
+
+  Ghumdan, 303.
+
+  Glaser, Dr Edward, 29, 32, 244.
+
+  Goa, 56.
+
+  Greece, 35.
+
+  Greeks, 125.
+
+  Gregentius, St, 43.
+
+
+  Habesh. _See_ Abyssinia.
+
+  Haddha, Jibel, 202.
+
+  Hadramaut, 4, 18, 23, 28, 102, 131, 253, 269, 287, 312, 319, 321.
+
+  Haig, General, 313.
+
+  Haines, Captain, 131, 132, 146.
+
+  Hais, 21, 365.
+
+  Hait Hirran, 258, 264, 272, 274, 280, 281.
+
+  Hajarat el-Mehdi, 110, 324.
+
+  Hajeriya, 60.
+
+  Hakim, 85.
+
+  Hamdani princes, 127.
+
+  Hanífa, 48.
+
+  Haran, 126, 281.
+
+  Harrar, 8, 138.
+
+  Harun el-Rashid, 51.
+
+  Hasan Pasha, 57.
+
+  Hashishiyin (or Assassins), 88.
+
+  Hashid wa Bakil, 20.
+
+  Hashma, 176.
+
+  Hazarmaveth, 30.
+
+  Hedfaf Pass, 143.
+
+  Hejaz, the, 4, 22, 25, 40, 43, 64, 65, 93, 94, 100, 113, 317, 359.
+
+  Hejira, the, 27, 48.
+
+  Helena, Queen of Abyssinia, 127.
+
+  Himalayas, 348.
+
+  Himyar, 31, 44, 45, 126, 145, 244.
+
+  Himyaric kings, 38, 40, 42, 51, 145, 319.
+
+  Hindus, 135.
+
+  Hodaidah, 10, 13, 15, 65-67, 69, 98, 99, 100, 104, 105, 107, 113,
+        151, 153, 302, 334, 335, 339, 348, 349, 350, 354, 356, 358,
+        359, 360, 363, 367, 368, 370, 371.
+
+  Hojaila, 109, 339, 350.
+
+  Hormuzd, 41, 44.
+
+  “House of the scholar,” or Beit el-Fakih, 15, 16, 68, 365.
+
+  Houshabi tribe, 115, 165, 180, 181.
+
+  Howr, 24.
+
+  Howra, 241.
+
+  Howta, 16, 163, 165, 166, 172, 174, 175, 177.
+
+  Hud, 318.
+
+  Hungary, 11.
+
+  Huseyn, 53.
+    ibn Ali, 360.
+    ibn Salaamah, 18, 22, 287.
+    Shereef, 67, 68.
+
+  Hyderabad, 169, 371.
+
+
+  Ibb, 18, 21, 104, 111, 287.
+
+  Ibn Abou Taleb. _See_ Ali.
+    Ali Foudthel, 167.
+    Ardeb, Bashir, 50.
+    Hasan, Mansur, 87.
+    Hasan, Tubba, 41.
+    Huseyn, 360.
+    Khaldun, 17, 18, 19, 126, 263, 319.
+    Khalifa, Nizar, 88.
+    Mehdi Ali, 167.
+    Salaamah, 18, 22, 287.
+    Yafur. _See_ Asaad.
+
+  Ibrahim, 53.
+
+  Ibrahim Pasha, 17, 65, 360.
+    Tabátabá, 53.
+
+  Idris, Mulai, 209.
+
+  Imamites, 77.
+
+  Imams, the, 17, 52, 53, 57-59, 60-62, 65, 85, 98, 104, 115, 131, 167,
+        252, 322.
+
+  Imran, Day, 148.
+
+  India, 9, 53, 56, 62, 84, 125, 129, 131, 135, 138, 148, 347, 349, 356.
+
+  Indian merchants, 61.
+    Ocean, 4.
+
+  Ishmael, 31.
+
+  Ishmaelites, 30, 32.
+
+  Iskander. _See_ Alexander.
+
+  Islam, 28, 36, 39, 48, 49, 53, 58, 70-73, 82-87, 90, 91, 94, 308,
+        321, 360, 362.
+    Sheikh el-, 77.
+
+  Ismail, 53, 59.
+    Pasha, 111, 214, 230, 246.
+    Seyed, 132, 133.
+
+  Ismailites, 85, 87.
+
+  Issi, Jibel, 258.
+
+
+  Jadidah, 358.
+
+  Janad, 87.
+
+  Janadi, el-, 85, 264.
+
+  Jaskum, 44.
+
+  Jeddah, 13, 65, 359, 360.
+
+  Jehaf, Jibel, 202.
+
+  Jelileh, 202, 206.
+
+  Jeraaf, 315.
+
+  Jerusalem, 55.
+
+  Jews, 23, 34, 50, 73, 74, 106, 124, 125, 148, 177, 255, 264, 272,
+        312, 313, 323.
+
+  Jibál, the, 7.
+
+  Jibel Ahurram, 197.
+    Anis, 49, 111, 286.
+    Ashari, 197.
+    Doran, 282.
+    Issi, 258.
+    Jahaf, 202.
+    Menif, 181, 343.
+    Mrais, 202.
+    Negoum, 106, 107, 110, 224, 298, 299, 301.
+    Obaki, 351.
+    Safan, 343.
+    Samára, 247, 253.
+    Zukur, 255.
+
+  Jiblah, 18, 21, 104, 111.
+
+  John, Prester, 55, 128.
+
+  Joktan, or Kahtan, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 127, 140, 189, 319.
+
+  Jopp, General, 140.
+
+  Joseph, or Yusef, 42.
+
+  Judaism, 40, 42, 73, 83.
+
+
+  Kaabah, the, 43, 320.
+
+  Kabail, Beled el-, 21.
+
+  Kabyla el-Owd, 220, 224, 250.
+
+  Kahtan, or Joktan, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 127, 146, 189, 319.
+
+  Kaimakams, 104, 247, 251, 259, 334, 335, 337.
+
+  Kaït Bey, 305.
+
+  Kamaran, 13.
+
+  Kariat en-Negil, 18, 287.
+
+  Karmathians, 87, 264, 348.
+
+  Kasim el-Kebir, 57.
+    er-Rassi, 53.
+
+  “Kat” (Catha edulis), 170.
+
+  Kátaba, 21, 22, 25, 60, 111, 115, 202, 206, 212, 214, 230, 233, 246,
+        247, 250, 260.
+
+  Kaukeban, 20, 21.
+
+  Kay, Mr, 19, 30, 88.
+
+  Kebir, Wadi el-, 126.
+
+  Kedar, 126.
+
+  Kesra, 44.
+
+  Kha, Wadi, 254, 257.
+
+  Khadar, 287.
+
+  Khaldun, ibn, 17, 18, 19, 120, 263, 319.
+
+  Khalid, 49.
+
+  Khalifa, Nizar ibn, 88.
+
+  Khamis, Sôk el-, 327, 329.
+
+  Kharejites, 84, 88.
+
+  Kharid, Wadi, 314.
+
+  Khasraji, el-, 15.
+
+  Khaulán, 20, 22, 23.
+
+  Khoreiba, 192, 198, 200.
+
+  Konfoda, 64, 65.
+
+  Kopts, 72, 80.
+
+  Koran, the, 30, 36, 42, 58, 73, 76-78, 146, 197, 245.
+
+  Koreish, 45, 46.
+
+  Kos, Bishop, 46, 75.
+
+  Kudaah, 31.
+
+  Kufa, 50.
+
+  Kurds, 358.
+
+
+  Lahej, 16, 20, 21, 24, 60, 65, 115, 132, 151, 161, 167-169, 171, 172,
+        177, 179, 180, 181, 242, 243, 287.
+    Wadi, 176.
+
+  Laing, Prof., 36.
+
+  Lakhnia, or Lakhtiaa, 41.
+
+  Lebanon, Mt., 85, 88.
+
+  “Liars,” the, 49.
+
+  Lisbon, 128.
+
+  Lohaya, 10, 13, 64, 100.
+
+  Lokman, 38, 145.
+
+  Ludovico de Barthema, 128.
+
+  Lumley, Captain, 12.
+
+
+  Maaber, 111, 285.
+
+  Maadi Karib, 44, 45.
+
+  Maala, 136, 143.
+
+  Madeira, 231.
+
+  Mahammed, 36, 44-49, 52, 53, 57, 77, 82, 83, 94, 255, 320, 321.
+    Agha, 65, 131, 359, 360.
+    Ali Pasha, 17, 64, 65.
+    el-Meccawi, 66.
+    ibn Ziad, 51.
+    Rushti Pasha, 96.
+    Yahya, 67, 361, 362.
+
+  Mahdi el-Fakih Saïd, 17.
+
+  Mahmoud, 43.
+
+  Main Pass, 143, 158.
+
+  Makarama, 347.
+
+  Makulla, 131.
+
+  Malik, 31.
+
+  Mamlooks, 55, 65.
+
+  Mamun, el-, 51.
+
+  Mansur, el-, 54.
+
+  Mansur el-Kasim, 57.
+    ibn Hasan, 87.
+
+  Mareb, Saba, or Sheba, 23, 36, 37, 38, 40, 126, 143, 280, 288, 312,
+        319.
+
+  Masar, Jibel, 343.
+
+  Mashonaland, 28.
+
+  Mavia, 25.
+
+  Mecca, 4, 13, 18, 22, 43, 45, 46, 63, 64, 66, 93, 205, 296, 320, 360.
+
+  Medina, 4, 63, 64, 93.
+
+  Medinet el-Asfal, 24.
+
+  Mefhak, 330.
+
+  Mehdi el-Mantether, 67.
+
+  Mehdi, Senussi el-, 90.
+
+  Melh, el-, 187.
+    Sailet, 188.
+
+  Menakha, 78, 104, 109, 331, 333, 336, 337, 339, 340, 341, 350.
+
+  Menes, 35.
+
+  Menif, Jibel, 181, 343.
+
+  Mequinez, 246, 297.
+
+  Meruan, Beni, 100, 105.
+
+  Merveille, Mons. de, 148.
+
+  Metneh, 325.
+
+  Middleton, Admiral, 130.
+
+  Milne, Captain, 133, 181.
+
+  Minæans, or Maïn, 32-36, 38, 39.
+
+  Mjisbeyeh, 196.
+
+  Mohajir, 321.
+
+  Mokha, 10-13, 55, 56, 59, 61, 63-66, 68, 130, 138, 301.
+
+  Morocco, 4, 81, 91, 123, 153, 156, 171, 201, 246, 255, 293, 314, 345,
+        353, 367.
+
+  Mosailma, 48, 49.
+
+  Moulas, the, 77.
+
+  Mrais, Jibel, 202.
+
+  Mshareg, 102.
+
+  Muavia, 50.
+
+  Muayyad, Mahammed el-, 59.
+
+  Muir, Sir William, 77.
+
+  Mundah, 236.
+
+  Munkat, 243-245.
+
+  Munsoorie Hills, 149.
+
+  Mustain, el-, 52.
+
+  Mustansir, el-, 88.
+
+  Mutawakil, el-, 52.
+
+  Mutazelites, the, 89.
+
+  Muza, 6, 11.
+
+  Muzaffer, el-, 54.
+
+
+  Nadir, 230.
+
+  Nebuchadnezzar, 30.
+
+  Negoum, Jibel, 106, 107, 110, 224, 298, 299, 301.
+
+  Nehm, 20.
+
+  Negil, Kariat en-, 18, 287.
+
+  Nejed, 22, 173.
+
+  Nejrán, 20, 22.
+
+  Niebuhr, Karsten, 19, 22, 24, 58, 61.
+
+  Nisáb, 24.
+
+  Nizar ibn Mustansir, 88.
+
+  Noah, 30.
+
+
+  Obadites, the, 84.
+
+  Obaki, Jibel, 351.
+
+  Ofar, 241.
+
+  Okelis, 11.
+
+  Oman, 23.
+
+  Omar, 85.
+
+  Omarah, 15, 18, 358.
+
+  Omeyyad dynasty, 50.
+
+  Osmanli Government, 17, 20, 24, 64, 94, 95, 99, 101, 105, 115, 116,
+        315.
+
+  Othman, the Caliph, 50, 85.
+
+  Othman, Sheikh, 133-135, 158, 160, 161, 168.
+
+  Ottoman Empire, 297, 369.
+
+  Oulaki tribe, 24.
+
+  Oun, Mahammed ibn, 66.
+
+  Owd, Kabyla el-, 222, 224, 250.
+
+
+  Palestine, 73.
+
+  Parsees, 135, 145, 149, 368.
+
+  Paruiz, Kesra, 45.
+
+  “Peppercorn,” the ship, 130.
+
+  Peri Pasha, 56.
+
+  Perim, 6, 13, 14, 24, 62, 121, 137, 168.
+
+  “Periplus,” Vincent’s, 39.
+
+  Persia, 84, 86.
+
+  Persian Gulf, 116, 126, 137.
+
+  Persians, the, 44, 135, 149.
+
+  Phœnician characters, 34, 35, 39.
+
+  Playfair, Sir R. L., 6, 20, 24, 40, 51, 59, 61, 66.
+
+  Popham, Sir Horne, 62, 131.
+
+  Port Said, 209, 210.
+
+  Porte, the Sublime, 25, 65, 67, 69, 72, 92, 114, 360, 361.
+
+  Portuguese, the, 11, 55, 129, 130.
+    traders, 11.
+
+  Prester John, 55, 128.
+
+  Prophet, the. _See_ Mahammed.
+
+  Punt, 39.
+
+
+  Quarnu, 33.
+
+
+  Raamah, 126.
+
+  Rabiah, 31.
+
+  Raïs Suleiman, 129, 145.
+
+  Ras Seilan, 177, 220.
+    Zebeed, 255.
+
+  Rashid, Harun el-, 51.
+
+  Rassites, 54, 57.
+
+  Raudha, 315.
+
+  Red Sea, 4, 6, 10-14, 21, 57, 59, 62, 100, 127, 133, 137, 358.
+
+  Resaaba, 283.
+
+  Rima, Wadi, 15.
+
+  Rodaa, 21.
+
+  Romans, 39, 44, 127.
+
+  Rome, 35.
+
+  Russia, 86.
+
+
+  Saba, Sheba, or Mareb, 23, 36, 37, 38, 40, 126, 143, 145, 280, 288,
+        312, 319.
+
+  Sabæans, 32, 34, 36, 39, 319.
+
+  Sadah, 18, 20, 22, 52-54, 105, 106, 252, 339.
+
+  Safan, Jibel, 343.
+
+  Sahán, 20, 22.
+
+  Saïd, Beit, 229, 233, 234, 236, 239, 372.
+    el-Faki, 66.
+
+  Sailet el-Melh, 188.
+
+  Salah ed-Din or Saladdin, 54.
+
+  Salih, 318.
+
+  Salt, Mr, 168.
+
+  Samára, Jibel, 247, 253.
+
+  Samarcand, 40.
+
+  Sanaa, 8, 17, 18, 20-26, 37, 43, 44, 49, 51, 53, 54, 57, 61-64, 68,
+        69, 87, 98, 99, 101, 104-107, 110, 115, 151, 199, 210, 243,
+        250, 252, 264, 267, 289, 290, 294, 295, 299, 322-324, 335, 340,
+        353, 354, 361, 365, 372.
+
+  Sargon I., 35.
+
+  Sayce, Prof., 35.
+
+  Seddah, 111, 236.
+
+  Seghir, Wadi el-, 176.
+
+  Seilan, Ghubbat, 176.
+    Ras, 177, 222.
+
+  Selim I., 55.
+
+  Semitic races, 36.
+
+  Senussi, Sheikh, 90, 91.
+
+  Seyed Hasan, 188.
+    Ismail, 132, 133.
+    Kasim, 17, 66.
+    Mahammed el-Hadi, 17.
+    esh-Sheraï, 110, 324.
+
+  Sham-sham, Jibel, 143, 147.
+
+  Shari, Beled esh-, 206, 212.
+    Wadi, 206, 212.
+
+  Sheba. _See_ Saba.
+
+  Sheikh el-Beled, 59.
+    Besaisi, 206, 208, 209, 215, 220, 223.
+    el-Islam, 77.
+    Othman, 133-135, 160, 168.
+
+  Sheiyas, 78, 84-87, 89, 90, 93, 98, 361.
+
+  Shem, 30.
+
+  Shereef, Huseyn, 66-69.
+
+  Shoa, 128.
+
+  Sidi Sheikh, 5, 24.
+
+  Sinai, 33.
+
+  Smyrna, 213.
+
+  Soarez, 129.
+
+  Sobeh, 111, 224.
+
+  Sôk el-Khamis, 327, 329.
+    el-Thuluth, 236, 237.
+
+  Solomon, 23, 24, 36-38, 79.
+
+  Somali-land, 91, 138.
+
+  Somalis, 135, 148, 159, 232.
+
+  Soudan, 81.
+
+  Stace, Col., 140, 163.
+
+  Stamboul, 94, 149, 208.
+
+  Suakin, 337.
+
+  Sublime Porte, 25, 65, 67, 69, 72, 92, 114, 360, 361.
+
+  Suez, 39, 56.
+    Canal, 33.
+
+  Suleiman the Magnificent, 56.
+    Raïs, 120, 130, 146.
+
+  Sufis, 89.
+
+  Sunnis, 77, 78, 84-86, 89, 90, 95, 314.
+
+  Syria, 40, 50.
+
+
+  Tabátabá, Ibrahim, 53.
+
+  Taif, 18.
+
+  Taiz, 16, 17, 18, 21, 25, 54, 60, 66, 104, 111.
+
+  Tartars, 40.
+
+  Tawahi, 136, 141.
+
+  Teháma, 6, 7, 9, 10, 13-18, 20, 21, 24, 51, 53, 67, 101, 190, 242,
+        339, 343, 347, 351, 354.
+
+  Teima, 33.
+
+  Thamud, 318.
+
+  Theophilus Indus, 41.
+
+  Thoba, 196, 206.
+
+  Thuba, Wadi, 236.
+
+  Thuluth, Sôk el-, 236, 237.
+
+  Tigris, 66.
+
+  “Topaz,” H.M.S., 12.
+
+  “Towers of Silence,” 145.
+
+  Tripoli, 90, 91.
+
+  Tsar, 33.
+
+  Tubba el-Akran, 40.
+    ibn Hasan, 41.
+
+  Tubbas, the, 126.
+
+  Tufieh Pasha, 360.
+
+  Tunis, 91.
+
+  Turan Shah, 54, 127.
+
+  Turkchee Bilmas, 66, 131, 359, 360.
+
+  Turkey, Sultans of, 65, 87, 92.
+
+  Turkish dominions in the Yemen, 24-26, 37, 56, 64, 203, 286.
+    troops, 13, 102, 105, 106, 109, 111, 133, 198, 212, 239, 286, 302,
+        309, 324, 327, 330, 331, 336, 340, 349, 361.
+
+  Turks, the, 6, 17, 52, 55, 57, 65, 68, 76, 84, 86, 94, 96, 98, 104,
+        133, 135, 151, 286, 322, 324, 353, 356.
+
+
+  Uzul. _See_ Sanaa.
+
+
+  Venice, 11.
+
+  Vertomanus. _See_ Barthema.
+
+  Vincent’s “Periplus,” 39.
+
+
+  Waalan, 288, 351.
+
+  Wadi el-Kebir, 176.
+
+  Wahab, 191.
+
+  Wahabis, 63, 64, 65, 89.
+
+  Wáhat, 133.
+
+  Wahraz, 44.
+
+  White, Sir William, 298.
+
+  Wisil, 342, 344, 345.
+
+
+  Yaffa, 20, 23, 24, 253, 281, 312.
+
+  Yahya, 52, 67, 69.
+
+  Yakoub Bey, 116.
+
+  Yalkama. _See_ Belkama.
+
+  Yarub, 318.
+
+  Yasir, 148.
+
+  Yemenite tribes, 23, 30, 189.
+
+  Yerim, 17, 21, 25, 41, 104, 111, 113, 212, 218, 246, 247, 250, 251,
+        253, 260, 286.
+
+  Yusef, 42.
+
+
+  Zafar, 41, 43, 251.
+
+  Zaida, 183.
+
+  Zaidis, the, 52, 53, 85, 314, 361.
+
+  Zanzibar, 88.
+
+  Zarahoun, 246.
+
+  Zaum, Wadi, 334.
+
+  Zayd, 31.
+
+  Zebeed, 15, 53, 54, 56, 65, 67, 359, 365, 367.
+    Ras, 255.
+    Wadi, 255.
+
+  Ziad, ibn, 15, 52.
+
+  Zurayites, 53.
+
+                   PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
+
+[Illustration: Sketch Map of THE YEMEN illustrating THE ROUTE OF W. B.
+HARRIS.
+
+Stanford’s Geogˡ. Estabᵗ., London]
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76757 ***
diff --git a/76757-h/76757-h.htm b/76757-h/76757-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb96f41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/76757-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,13337 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html>
+<html lang="en">
+<head>
+    <meta charset="UTF-8">
+    <title>
+      A journey through the Yemen | Project Gutenberg
+    </title>
+    <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover">
+    <style>
+
+a {
+    text-decoration: none;
+}
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+h1,h2,h3 {
+    text-align: center;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+h2.nobreak {
+    page-break-before: avoid;
+}
+
+hr {
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+hr.tb {
+    width: 45%;
+    margin-left: 27.5%;
+    margin-right: 27.5%;
+}
+
+hr.chap {
+    width: 65%;
+    margin-left: 17.5%;
+    margin-right: 17.5%;
+}
+
+img.w100 {
+    width: 100%;
+}
+
+div.chapter {
+    page-break-before: always;
+}
+
+ul {
+    list-style-type: none;
+}
+
+li, li.indx {
+    margin-top: .5em;
+    padding-left: 2em;
+    text-indent: -2em;
+}
+
+li.ifrst {
+    margin-top: 2em;
+    padding-left: 2em;
+    text-indent: -2em;
+}
+
+li.isub1 {
+    padding-left: 4em;
+    text-indent: -2em;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: 0.5em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: 0.5em;
+    text-indent: 1em;
+}
+
+table {
+    margin: 1em auto 1em auto;
+    max-width: 40em;
+    border-collapse: collapse;
+}
+
+td {
+    padding-left: 2.25em;
+    padding-right: 0.25em;
+    vertical-align: top;
+    text-indent: -2em;
+    text-align: justify;
+}
+
+.tdc {
+    text-align: center;
+    padding: 0.75em 0.25em 0.5em 0.25em;
+    text-indent: 0;
+}
+
+.tdc2 {
+    text-align: center;
+    padding: 0 0.25em;
+    text-indent: 0;
+    vertical-align: bottom;
+}
+
+.tdr {
+    text-align: right;
+    font-variant: small-caps;
+    font-style: normal;
+    text-transform: lowercase;
+}
+
+.tdpg {
+    vertical-align: bottom;
+    text-align: right;
+}
+
+.center {
+    text-align: center;
+    text-indent: 0;
+}
+
+.dedication {
+    text-align: center;
+    text-indent: 0;
+    line-height: 1.8em;
+}
+
+figcaption p {
+    text-align: center;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    font-size: 90%;
+    text-indent: 0;
+}
+
+.figcenter {
+    margin: auto;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figleft {
+    float: left;
+    clear: left;
+    margin-left: 0;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 1em;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.figright {
+    float: right;
+    clear: right;
+    margin-left: 1em;
+    margin-bottom: 1em;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    margin-right: 0;
+    padding: 0;
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.footnotes {
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    border: dashed 1px;
+}
+
+.footnote {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+    font-size: 0.9em;
+}
+
+.footnote .label {
+    position: absolute;
+    right: 84%;
+    text-align: right;
+}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration: none;
+}
+
+.larger {
+    font-size: 150%;
+}
+
+.nw {
+    white-space: nowrap;
+}
+
+.pagenum {
+    position: absolute;
+    right: 4%;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    text-align: right;
+    font-style: normal;
+}
+
+.poetry-container {
+    text-align: center;
+}
+
+.poetry {
+    display: inline-block;
+    text-align: left;
+}
+
+.poetry .stanza {
+    margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;
+}
+
+.poetry .verse {
+    padding-left: 3em;
+}
+
+.poetry .indent0 {
+    text-indent: -3em;
+}
+
+.right {
+    text-align: right;
+}
+
+.smaller {
+    font-size: 80%;
+}
+
+.smcap {
+    font-variant: small-caps;
+    font-style: normal;
+}
+
+.allsmcap {
+    font-variant: small-caps;
+    font-style: normal;
+    text-transform: lowercase;
+}
+
+.titlepage {
+    text-align: center;
+    margin-top: 3em;
+    text-indent: 0;
+}
+
+.x-ebookmaker img {
+    max-width: 100%;
+    width: auto;
+    height: auto;
+}
+
+.x-ebookmaker .poetry {
+    display: block;
+    margin-left: 1.5em;
+}
+
+/* Illustration classes */
+.illowp100 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp50 {width: 50%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp50 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp96 {width: 96%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp96 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp42 {width: 42%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp42 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp91 {width: 91%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp91 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp95 {width: 95%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp95 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp41 {width: 41%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp41 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp65 {width: 65%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp65 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp55 {width: 55%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp55 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp48 {width: 48%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp48 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp56 {width: 56%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp56 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp93 {width: 93%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp93 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp60 {width: 60%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp60 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp62 {width: 62%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp62 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp70 {width: 70%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp70 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp75 {width: 75%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp75 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp31 {width: 31%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp31 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp25 {width: 25%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp25 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp64 {width: 64%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp64 {width: 100%;}
+.illowp54 {width: 54%;}
+.x-ebookmaker .illowp54 {width: 100%;}
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76757 ***</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[i]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center larger">A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ii">[ii]</span></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp01" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp01.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>BAZAAR AT DHAMAR.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[iii]</span></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">A</span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="larger">JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN</span><br>
+<br>
+<span class="smaller">AND</span><br>
+<br>
+SOME GENERAL REMARKS UPON<br>
+THAT COUNTRY</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage"><span class="smaller">BY</span><br>
+WALTER B. HARRIS, F.R.G.S.<br>
+<span class="smaller">AUTHOR OF<br>
+‘THE LAND OF AN AFRICAN SULTAN; TRAVELS IN MOROCCO’</span></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage"><i>ILLUSTRATED FROM SKETCHES AND PHOTOGRAPHS<br>
+TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR</i></p>
+
+<p class="titlepage">WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS<br>
+EDINBURGH AND LONDON<br>
+MDCCCXCIII</p>
+
+<p class="titlepage smaller"><i>All Rights reserved</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p>
+
+<p class="dedication"><span class="smaller">TO</span><br>
+MY FATHER AND MOTHER<br>
+<span class="smaller"><i>I DEDICATE THIS BOOK</i>.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE">PREFACE.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>But very few words are necessary as a preface to this
+book, as more than once in its pages its objects are
+stated.</p>
+
+<p>An account of my journey through the Yemen
+appeared last autumn in a series of articles in the
+‘Illustrated London News,’ and it is with kind
+permission of the proprietors of that paper that
+some of the illustrations reappear here. Many of
+the illustrations, however, have not seen the light of
+day before.</p>
+
+<p>The chapter on the Yemen rebellion was published
+as an article in ‘Blackwood’s Magazine’ for February
+last.</p>
+
+<p>The remainder of the book consists of entirely new
+matter.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot attempt to thank here the many persons
+who aided me and rendered me services during the
+time I was in the Yemen. Without their assistance
+my journey would probably have failed. To them I
+am most grateful.</p>
+
+<p class="right">W. B. H.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sept. 1893.</i></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_viii"></a><a id="Page_ix"></a>[ix]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">CHAP.</td>
+    <td></td>
+    <td class="tdpg allsmcap">PAGE</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdc" colspan="3">PART I.—SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YEMEN.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_I">3</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_II">27</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE YEMEN SINCE THE HEJIRA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_III">47</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE INFLUENCES OF ISLAM IN THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_IV">70</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE REBELLION IN THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_I_CHAPTER_V">92</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdc" colspan="3">PART II.—A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">I.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">ADEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_I">121</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">II.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">ADEN TO LAHEJ,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_II">151</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">III.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">LAHEJ TO KHOREIBA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_III">174</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">ACROSS THE TURKISH FRONTIER,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IV">200</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">V.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">SOBEH TO YERIM,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_V">223</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">YERIM TO DHAMAR,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VI">247</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">DHAMAR TO SANAA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VII">263</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">SANAA, THE CAPITAL OF THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII">299</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">SANAA TO MENAKHA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_IX">323</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">X.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MENAKHA To HODAIDAH,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_X">341</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdr">XI.</td>
+    <td class="allsmcap">HODAIDAH,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PART_II_CHAPTER_XI">358</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdc" colspan="3">APPENDIX.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">GENEALOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL
+    TREE OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#GENEALOGICAL">374</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">A LIST OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA,
+    GIVING THEIR FULL TITLES,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#IMAMS">375</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">PEDIGREE OF THE REIGNING
+    ABDALI SULTAN OF LAHEJ,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#PEDIGREE">376</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">INDEX,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#INDEX">377</a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="ILLUSTRATIONS">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<table>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdc" colspan="3">FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">BAZAAR AT DHAMAR,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg" colspan="2"><a href="#fp01"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">COFFEE PLANTATION ON TERRACES AT ATTARA, NEAR MENAKHA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg nw"><i>To face page</i></td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp02">8</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS,
+    ON THE ROAD FROM SANAA TO HODAIDAH,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp03">18</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">ANCIENT TANK AT MENURA, NEAR DHAMAR,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp04">38</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">HOWTA, THE CAPITAL OF LAHEJ,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp05">60</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MENAKHA,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp06">110</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">TOMB AND MOSQUE OF SHEIKH OTHMAN NEAR ADEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp07">122</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">PALACE OF THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp08">162</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MY RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp09">170</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">KHOREIBA,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp10">198</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">VIEW OF AZAB,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp11">218</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MAN AND WOMAN OF THE HIGHLANDS OF THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp12">228</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MOSQUE AT BEIT SAÏD,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp13">232</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">UPPER FLOOR OF A KHAN AT YERIM,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp14">248</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MY QUARTERS AT DHAMAR,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp15">260</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">KARIAT EN-NEGIL,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp16">262</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">JIBEL DORAN—EARLY MORNING,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp17">282</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">KHADAR,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp18">286</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">VIEW FROM WAALAN,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp19">288</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE AUTHOR BEING EXAMINED AND HIS PASSPORT READ IN THE PRESENCE
+    OF AHMED FEIZI PASHA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp20">292</a><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">MENAKHA, FROM THE NORTH,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp21">322</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE VILLAGE OF EL-HAJRA,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp22">342</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">TURKISH CAMP OF HOJAILA,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp23">348</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">GATE OF A WALLED VILLAGE IN THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#fp24">354</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdc" colspan="3">ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">A NATIVE OF THE TEHÁMA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus01">68</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">A YEMENI,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus02">78</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">JEW OF THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus03">82</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">TURKISH TROOPS ON THE MARCH,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus04">103</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">MAIN PASS, ADEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus05">144</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">A VALLEY IN YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus06">193</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">CASTLE OF AMIR OF DHALA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus07">195</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">A GIRL OF THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus08">204</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">VILLAGE OF AREDOAH,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus09">213</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">BEIT EN-NEDISH,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus10">226</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">INSCRIBED STONE AT MUNKAT, NEAR YERIM,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus11">243</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">MOSQUE AND MINARET AT DHAMAR,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus12">259</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">HIRRAN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus13">273</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">CAVE-TOMBS, HIRRAN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus14">274</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">GROUND-PLAN OF TOMB III.,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus15">275</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">INTERIOR OF TOMB III., HAIT HIRRAN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus16">276</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">ENTRANCE TO TOMB IV., HAIT HIRRAN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus17">277</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">THE AUTHOR IN PRISON AT SANAA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus18">295</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">TURKISH OFFICERS IN A <i>CAFÉ</i> AT SANAA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus19">308</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">TURKISH MOSQUE AT SANAA, AS SEEN FROM THE PRISON WINDOW,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus20">316</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">TURKISH SOLDIER,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus21">317</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">GORGE NEAR MENAKHA,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus22">332</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">VIEW NEAR WISIL,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus23">344</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td colspan="2" class="allsmcap">A STREET IN HODAIDAH,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#illus24">364</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="tdc" colspan="3">MAPS.</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">ADEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg nw"><i>To face page</i></td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#map1">122</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">DHAMAR TO SANAA,</td>
+    <td class="tdc2">”</td>
+    <td class="tdpg"><a href="#map2">264</a></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td class="allsmcap">THE COUNTRY OF THE YEMEN,</td>
+    <td class="tdpg" colspan="2"><a href="#map3"><i>At the end</i></a></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p>
+
+<h1>A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN.</h1>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 14.0625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/line.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_I">PART I.<br>
+<span class="smaller">SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON THE YEMEN</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE YEMEN.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The Yemen may be described as forming the south-west
+corner of Arabia. So little is known of the
+geography of the interior, and to such a slight extent
+do even the natives define the boundaries between
+their own land and the surrounding provinces, that
+any exact description of the country is impossible.
+The same may be said of nearly all oriental frontiers,
+except where, taking an example from European
+customs, a clear line of demarcation has been agreed
+upon; for, as a rule, limits depend far more upon
+tribal position and inheritance than upon any natural
+features of the land in question; and in many cases
+in the settlement of frontier questions with oriental
+Powers, even European Governments have been
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span>obliged to follow upon these lines. This is especially
+clearly exemplified in the case of the Algerian and
+Moroccan frontier, in the southern parts of which no
+absolute boundary has been fixed, certain tribes,
+whether in French or Moorish territory, belonging
+to whichever of the two nationalities under which
+they are enrolled.</p>
+
+<p>How infinitely difficult it is, then, in the case of
+the Yemen, to state where that province begins and
+ends, will be appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>As to two of its limits, the task of definition is
+simple; for on the west the Red Sea, and on the
+south that portion of the Indian Ocean known as
+the Gulf of Aden, allow of no question. On the
+north and east far more serious difficulties arise.
+Without attempting to delineate any exact frontier,
+which, with our present geographical knowledge of
+the country, would fail at the best to be anything
+more than roughly correct, more general terms must
+be used than would be justifiable in a more pretentious
+work than the present.</p>
+
+<p>It may be stated, then, that the province of Arabia
+known as the Yemen is bounded on the east by the
+Hadramaut tribes, and on the north by the Asir,
+although some authorities include the latter, making
+the north frontier of the Yemen adjacent with the
+southern limit of the Hejaz, the province of Arabia
+in which are situated the holy cities of Mecca and
+Medina. As far as the writer was able to gather,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>however, from the natives themselves, the Asir is considered
+to be an entirely different district, although
+its inhabitants are nearly related to the Yemenis by
+blood. In fact, it may be said without much exaggeration
+that the present divisions of Arabia as
+marked upon the maps are but little in advance
+geographically of the ancient Greek and Roman
+arbitrary distinctions of Arabia Felix, Arabia Petræa,
+and Arabia Deserta. Even allowing for the widest
+limits claimed for the Yemen, the whole country lies
+between 42° and 46° east longitude and 12° and 20°
+north latitude.</p>
+
+<p>Although no natural formation of the Yemen
+can assist one in correctly determining its inland
+frontiers, the same cannot be said of the two great
+divisions into which the country is split up. These
+are so apparent that, from the earliest geographers
+to the present day, they have remained unchanged
+and fully recognised. But in order to appreciate
+this, a few words must be said as to the formation
+of the country. While the interior consists of vast
+mountain-ranges and elevated plateaux, some of
+which lie at an altitude of over eight thousand
+feet above the sea-level, the seaboard consists, both
+on the west and south, of low-lying sandy deserts
+and plains, varying in breadth from thirty to nearly
+a hundred miles. The only exception where a spur
+of the mountains approaches the sea is at the headland
+of Sidi Sheikh, the south-west corner of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>Red Sea—a spur of land a few miles in width exactly
+opposite the island of Perim, from which it is divided
+by a narrow channel. It may be remembered that
+only a few years back there was a false report that
+France had purchased this advantageous spot from
+the Turkish Government.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of these maritime plains is such that
+it may be safely surmised that a very considerable
+portion, at least of what is now desert, was at one
+time covered by the sea. So fast, indeed, has been
+the silting action, that more than one former port
+now lies well inland. As an example of this, Sir R.
+L. Playfair, in his excellent ‘History of the Yemen,’
+mentions the town of Muza, once a flourishing sea-port,
+now over twenty miles inland. In many places,
+too, shells and chips of coral are to be found at great
+distances from the coast. The same retrograde action
+of the sea can be traced, too, at Aden, which was, no
+doubt, at one time an island, and is now joined to
+the mainland by a low isthmus, formed by the silting
+of sea-sand upon a submarine basis of rock.</p>
+
+<p>The name Teháma is applied to these plains of the
+Yemen. It is a district exceedingly subject to
+drought, and with a very small rainfall. What
+water-supply it boasts, with the exception of oases,
+is principally due to the mountain torrents, which,
+originating in the highlands, rush impetuously down
+the steep slopes, usually to be entirely exhausted by
+the desert before reaching the sea. It is said, however,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>that even in the driest seasons water may be
+found by sinking wells in the river-beds. Although
+the supply thus obtained is sufficient to maintain the
+lives of Bedouins and their flocks and herds, it is far
+from proving of any great utility to cultivation, in
+such spots where, even in good years, cultivation is
+possible. However, fortunately for the inhabitants,
+there are scattered over these deserts many oases,
+where cereals can be reared with tolerable certainty
+of reaping the crops. The poor quality of the soil
+as a rule renders agriculture, except in the most
+favourable positions, an unprofitable pursuit. The
+plains serve, too, for the breeding of camels,—those of
+the Abdali and Foudtheli country, lying to the north
+and north-east of Aden, being especially famous for
+their swiftness and carrying capabilities.</p>
+
+<p>The Jibál, or highlands, display entirely opposite
+features. Enormous ranges of mountains rise abruptly
+from the Teháma to great altitudes, in places probably
+14,000 and 15,000 feet. These ranges for the
+most part take a general south-easterly direction, and
+are split up into a series of wide, fertile, parallel valleys.
+It was doubtless the luxuriance and agricultural
+wealth, added to the attractiveness of the climate,
+of this portion of Arabia, that won for the Yemen
+in former days the title of Arabia Felix. In these
+great valleys the coffee is grown, sharing with the
+production of the indigo-plant and other dye-giving
+species the attention of the mountaineers. Added
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>to this, the climate is such as to allow nearly all
+European vegetables to grow and flourish, and also
+many varieties of fruit-trees. The nature of the
+country renders necessary for cultivation the terracing
+of the steep mountain-sides, and over this
+laborious task an almost incredible amount of work
+and time is expended. But of this I shall have
+opportunity of speaking anon.</p>
+
+<p>There is, as might be expected, a vast difference in
+the temperature of the highlands and the plains.
+While at Aden and the surrounding country the
+thermometer averages all the year round some 85°
+Fahrenheit, it probably does not rise above a mean
+of 61° or 62° in the shade at Sanaa, the capital of
+the Yemen, where, as in all the elevated country,
+frosts are by no means uncommon in winter. Nor
+is it solely in temperature that great differences are
+apparent with regard to the low and high elevations;
+for whereas also in the former the rainfall is uncertain
+and sometimes almost nil,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the mountain country
+boasts two regular wet seasons—in spring and in
+autumn respectively. In this respect the seasons
+may be said to correspond with those of the plateaux
+of Harrar and the Galla country. In both cases the
+rain is said to be of almost daily occurrence, but
+lasting only a short time, the showers being broken
+by periods of bright sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing can be imagined more beautiful than the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span>scenery of the mountains of the Yemen. Torn into all
+manner of fantastic peaks, the rocky crags add a
+wildness to a view that otherwise possesses the most
+peaceful charms. Rich green valleys, well timbered
+in places, and threaded by silvery streams of dancing
+water; sloping fields, gay with crops and wild-flowers;
+the terraced or jungle-covered slopes,—all
+are so luxuriant, so verdant, that one’s ideas as to
+the nature of Arabia are entirely upset. Well known
+as is, and always has been, the fertility of this region,
+its extent is almost startling, and it can little be
+wondered at that Alexander the Great intended,
+after his conquest of India, to take up his abode
+in the Yemen, had not death cut short his career.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp02" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp02.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>COFFEE PLANTATION ON TERRACES AT ATTARA, NEAR MENAKHA.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Thus briefly described, it will be seen that the
+Yemen consists of two entirely different systems of
+country, influenced by two entirely different climates:
+the one arid plains, without much appreciable rainfall;
+the other a mountainous district, producing
+cereals, dyes, aromatic gums, coffee, and other rich
+produce—a country of valleys and plateaux, well
+watered withal, and enjoying a climate that for
+salubrity may be said to equal any in the tropics.
+Having now pointed out in a general way the difference
+of the two districts, I purpose to enter a little
+more definitely into the description of each.</p>
+
+<p>To commence with the Teháma, as being the seaboard.
+It consists, as already stated, of plains
+varying from thirty to a hundred miles in breadth,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>and separating the highlands from the sea, both on
+the west and south. These, for the sake of distinction,
+I shall call respectively the western and
+southern Teháma. The former contains some five
+cities of importance, situated either on the coast
+of the Red Sea or in that district which divides
+it from the mountains. Almost in the Asir country
+lies Lohaya, a small town on the coast, to which
+I shall refer more particularly in a chapter on the
+Yemen rebellion. Proceeding south, the next coast
+town of importance is Hodaidah, to-day the capital
+of that portion of the Yemen, and still farther
+south Mokha. As it was my lot to spend a week
+in the fever-stricken town of Hodaidah, I shall
+reserve anything I have to say about it for another
+opportunity; but as it was my ill fortune to see
+Mokha only from the sea and not to land there,
+and as I shall therefore not have to narrate any
+personal experiences in reference to it, I shall add
+some description of the place and its history at
+this juncture.</p>
+
+<p>There is certainly no name of any city in the
+Yemen as familiar to Englishmen as that of Mokha,
+with the exception of Aden. This it owes to its
+having for a long time enjoyed almost the sole
+reputation of the export city of the coffee-berry.
+However, it is not generally known that no coffee
+grows at all in the immediate vicinity of Mokha,
+and that all that was shipped from there was previously
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>carried to the city by caravans from the
+mountains, often over very great distances. Almost
+as suddenly as Mokha rose to fame has it fallen
+again. Before the arrival in the Red Sea of the
+English and Portuguese traders it scarcely existed
+at all, the outlets for the trade of this portion of
+the Yemen being Okelis and Muza. It was not,
+in fact, until the fifteenth century <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> that Mokha
+became a place of resort for ships, and it owes its
+origin more to the discovery of coffee than to any
+advantages or attractions of its own. In the
+early part of the seventeenth century the English
+and Dutch founded trading “factories” there, and
+from that time for a period of some two hundred
+years its fame and wealth were renowned. Van den
+Broeck describes the place as it existed at the time
+of his visit in 1616, and notes that to such an
+extent has its trade recently augmented that goods
+from Hungary and Venice were found in the market,
+which had been carried by caravans the whole length
+of Arabia, to be exchanged for the produce of the
+far east.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> He further describes the town as a most
+flourishing community, containing within its walls
+numbers of numerous nationalities who had flocked
+there on hearing of its fame and renown.</p>
+
+<p>A century after the Dutch and English had
+founded their factories the French followed their
+example, while in 1803 the Americans commenced
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span>to trade direct with the Red Sea ports. On the
+British occupation of Aden in 1839, the immense
+superiority of that place as a port, and the security
+and advantages assured by British rule, drew the
+commerce from Mokha thence, the former celebrated
+city fast falling to decay and ruin.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Before this
+period, however, serious outrages had been offered
+to British subjects, and during the first twenty years
+of this century there had been constant trouble
+brewing between the fanatical natives and the
+Christians, augmented no doubt by the jealousy felt
+by the former for the manner in which the Europeans
+had annexed their trade. More extraordinary still
+than these outrages was the manner in which their
+perpetration was looked upon by the British Government,
+and it was not until things became unbearable
+that forcible means were taken to punish the
+offenders, and in 1820 a force under Captain Bruce,
+who had been sent thither to enforce a treaty with
+the Imam’s Amir, and Captain Lumley of H.M.S.
+Topaz, bombarded Mokha, and succeeded in forcing
+an entry into the town. The result of this long-delayed
+act of reparation on the part of the Indian
+Government was the placing upon an honourable
+footing of the British “factory,” and the carrying
+through of a treaty of commerce with the Government
+of the Yemen.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Although the author did not land in Mokha, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>captain of the steamer on which he proceeded from
+Hodaidah to Aden very kindly approached as near
+the shore as was compatible with the ship’s course,
+and with the aid of glasses a very good view of the
+place was obtained. From a distance it still has the
+appearance of being a flourishing town, but on nearer
+approach one can see that, although the walls of the
+houses are still standing, the roofs and floors have for
+the most part fallen in, and Mokha is to-day little
+more than a vast ruin, from which a few tall minarets
+still rise to tell of its former beauties. A handful
+of Turkish soldiers and a few Bedouins are all that
+remain of its once heterogeneous population; and
+where once the streets were filled with richly robed
+merchants, goats feed to-day on the coarse weeds.</p>
+
+<p>As Lohaya and Hodaidah are more particularly
+mentioned elsewhere in this book, little more remains
+to be said of the ports of the western Teháma.
+Some mention must be made, however, of the islands
+of Kamaran and Perim, the two most important of
+the many that lie on the eastern side of this part
+of the Red Sea. The former owes its importance
+to-day from the fact that it is a British possession,
+and serves as the quarantine station of the pilgrims
+going to and returning from Jeddah, <i>en route</i> to and
+from Mecca. It is situated in latitude 15° 20′ N. and
+longitude 42° 30′ E., and is about ten miles in
+length, varying from two to four wide. In some
+parts it is little more than a swamp, in others some
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>low hills allow of the growth of palm-trees; but the
+inhabitants are nearly all engaged in the pearl and
+turtle fisheries.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The other island which may be included in a
+description of the Teháma is Perim. It is situated
+in the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, a mile and a
+half from the Arabian and about ten miles from the
+African shores. It is formed of dark volcanic igneous
+rock and plains of sand on which a few sand-loving
+flowers grow. The highest point of the island is
+between two and three hundred feet above the sea-level.
+What, however, compensates for its aridness
+and hideous character is the grand harbour it possesses.
+This bay is a mile long by half a mile wide,
+well sheltered, and averaging a depth of five fathoms
+in the good anchorages. In 1799, in consequence
+of the invasion of Egypt by the French, a British
+naval force, under Admiral Blanket, proceeded to
+the Red Sea, while the Bombay Government, acting
+in conjunction with the other force, seized Perim
+in the name of the East India Company. No fresh
+water, however, being procurable, it was during the
+next year abandoned as a station for troops. To-day,
+under the hands of the Perim Coal Company not
+only offices but a hotel has been erected there, and
+the place promises to become a flourishing coaling-station.
+All the water is, of course, produced by
+condensers. A few British troops are habitually
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>quartered there, being sent from time to time for
+that purpose from Aden, and there is telegraphic
+communication both with that port and Hodaidah.</p>
+
+<p>Two cities of importance lie in the interior of the
+western Teháma—namely, Zebeed and Beit el-Fakih.
+The former has throughout all the medieval history
+of the Yemen played a part of great importance; for
+not only has Zebeed been a seat of learning and art,
+but also has been inseparably connected with all
+the great civil wars and religious differences that
+have from time to time shaken the Yemen to its
+very foundations. Before the invasion of the Turks
+it was the capital and seat of government of the
+Teháma, though to-day Hodaidah has usurped its
+position as such.</p>
+
+<p>The foundations of Zebeed were laid by Ibn Ziad
+after his conquest of the Teháma in 204 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The
+city is described not only by Omarah but also by
+many other native historians, who one and all make
+mention of its political importance as well as of
+its size. The account most to the point, perhaps,
+is that of El Khasraji, who states that the city is
+circular in form; that near it to the south flows the
+river of the same name, while to the north is the
+Wadi Rima, the two ensuring a fertile situation
+and a constant water-supply. He adds that it
+stood midway between the mountains and the sea,
+and almost equidistant from both, the time taken
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span>to reach either the one or the other being half a
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Of Beit el-Fakih little need be said here, as to-day
+it is a place of but slight importance. Like all these
+cities of the Teháma, it is irregularly built of sun-dried
+mud bricks. Its name, “The House of the
+Scholar,” is derived from its being the place of burial
+of a certain Seyed Ahmed ibn Musa, whose tomb
+is still much reverenced and visited as a place of
+veneration. The town possesses no claim to interest
+either politically or commercially.</p>
+
+<p>The next portion of the Yemen of which notice
+must here be taken are the plains commencing from
+the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and extending to some
+sixty miles east of Aden. These plains are included
+in the Teháma, but in order to distinguish them from
+that part already noticed, I describe them as the
+southern Teháma. Like the western Teháma, they
+separate the mountains from the sea, and in many
+respects these two portions of desert bear great resemblance.
+The southern Teháma varies from fifty
+to a hundred miles in breadth, and is inhabited by
+wild tribes, the most important of which are the
+Subaiha, the Abdali, and the Foudtheli, the first
+being nomad in character. These plains boast no
+cities of any size except Howta, the capital of the
+Sultan of Lahej, chief of the Abdali tribe, which lies
+some twenty-seven miles north-west of Aden, and
+Taiz,—though the latter, from its situation on a spur
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span>of the mountains, may be said rather to dominate
+than to belong to these southern plains. Ibn Khaldun,
+in his geography of the Yemen, refers to Taiz as an
+important city overlooking the Teháma, and mentions
+that it had at all times been a royal residence.
+Without much further mention of this city, which
+the author did not visit, a few remarks may be made
+upon its later history. Owing to jealousies between
+members of its ruling family, a certain Seyed Kassim,
+uncle to the then ruling Imam, Ali Mansur,
+treacherously sold the place to the Egyptians in 1837,
+and it was taken without resistance by Ibrahim
+Pasha, a general in the service of the famous Mahammed
+Ali Pasha, who held it until in 1840 a fanatical
+Mahdi el-Fakih Saïd took the town, only to
+have it wrested from him in 1841 by the Imam Seyed
+Mahammed el-Hadi. During the late Yemen rebellion
+it fell into the hands of the Arabs, for formerly
+it lay within the limit of Turkish influence,
+and has probably by this time been reoccupied by
+the Osmanli troops.</p>
+
+<p>With these few remarks upon the plain districts of
+the Yemen, scanty as they are, notice may now be
+taken of the mountainous districts. Such parts as
+the author travelled through will be more minutely
+treated of in the narration of his journey, together
+with the towns of Yerim, Dhamar, and Sanaa, the
+three principal cities of the Yemen plateaux. However,
+there are other places of importance to which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>reference must be made here, and which, although
+not situated upon the plateau, must by their position
+be included in this division of the Yemen. Of these
+the most important are Ibb and Jiblah. Both of
+these mountain-fortresses are of some antiquity,
+and have played no mean part in the history of the
+country. Ibb is mentioned by Omarah as being
+situated upon the great pilgrim-road built by Huseyn
+ibn Salaamah, a slave-vizier, which led from the
+Hadramaut, east of Aden, to Mecca itself, which was
+constructed about the year 400 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> After leaving
+Aden this great pilgrim-route was split up into
+two parts, one proceeding <i>viâ</i> Ibb and the mountains,
+joining the author’s route at Kariat en-Nekil,
+north of Dhamar; the other following the Teháma.
+The road which leads <i>viâ</i> Ibb proceeds through
+Sanaa, and thence <i>viâ</i> Sadah and Taif to the Holy
+City.</p>
+
+<p>Jiblah, or Dhu Jiblah, as it was formerly called,
+owes its name to the fact that it was built upon the
+site of a pottery belonging to a Jew, Jiblah by name.
+It lies some ten miles to the south-west of Ibb. Ibn
+Khaldun gives a short description of the place. It
+is, he says, a fortress, and was founded by Abdullah,
+the Sulayhite, in the year 458 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> Like Taiz, it
+was a royal residence.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp03" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp03.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS.</p>
+      <p><i>On the road from Sanaa to Hodaidah.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The other cities of the mountain district, lying
+principally north of Sanaa, the capital, and therefore
+not coming under that portion of the country which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>it was the author’s lot to travel over, will be noticed
+anon.</p>
+
+<p>Rough as these notes are, they will, I venture to
+think, help to illustrate the map. To attempt here
+the task of identifying the ancient sites with modern
+names would be not only a task of great difficulty,
+but also one unsuitable to the present book. Mr
+Kay, in his most able translation of Omarah’s History,
+has pointed out how extremely laborious and uncertain
+has been his attempt to do so, even with
+such maps as to-day exist of the country. The
+author, after consideration, thought it more advisable
+to avoid entering into discussions that bear but little
+relation to his work, and would, he fears, but prove
+uninteresting to the general reader. He has therefore
+confined his geographical notes to such portions
+of the country as he himself passed through, supplemented
+by a few remarks upon places that demand
+some notice, either from their importance to-day or
+from historical interest. In the chapter relating to
+the history of the country the same course has been
+pursued, a few pages of print being put aside for
+what would fill volumes were it taken in hand.</p>
+
+<p>Having now treated of the Yemen as it appears
+from a cursory glance at the map, it is intended to
+enter a little more fully into its description, unconnected
+with its natural formation of plains and
+highlands.</p>
+
+<p>Ibn Khaldun, in the preface to his Geography,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>states that the Yemen is divided into seven royal
+seats of Government;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> but Niebuhr gives a larger
+list of provinces, which is again added to by Sir
+Lambert Playfair. These divisions of the country,
+it must be understood, are entirely Arab in origin,
+and to-day have been more or less altered to suit the
+Turks. However, on inquiry from the natives, the
+writer found that, although disregarded by the
+Osmanli conquerors, the names are still in common
+use amongst the indigenous peoples.</p>
+
+<p>The author gives the list of these provinces in
+the order in which they are printed in Playfair’s
+‘Yemen’:—</p>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>Aden.</li>
+  <li>The Teháma.</li>
+  <li>Sanaa.</li>
+  <li>Lahej.</li>
+  <li>Kaukeban.</li>
+  <li>Beled el-Kabail (Hashid wa Bakil).</li>
+  <li>Abou Arish.</li>
+  <li>A district lying between Abou Arish and the Hejaz, inhabited by Bedouins, &amp;c.</li>
+  <li>Khaulán.</li>
+  <li>Sahán (including Sadah).</li>
+  <li>Nejrán.</li>
+  <li>Nehm.</li>
+  <li>East Khaulán (several small principalities).</li>
+  <li>Beled el-Jehaf (or Mareb),</li>
+  <li class="isub1">and</li>
+  <li>Yaffa.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>“These are,” says Playfair, “as nearly as they can
+be classified, the great political divisions of the
+country; but numerous smaller states and tribes
+exist which cannot be classed with propriety in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>any of the above districts, yet which are too insignificant
+to require a separate notice.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>The first two of these provinces, the <i>Teháma</i> and
+<i>Aden</i>, are described elsewhere. The third is <i>Sanaa</i>,
+taking its name from the city, the capital of the
+Yemen. On account of continued wars and struggles,
+its boundaries have for ever been shifting. Within
+the province are situated the cities of Dhamar,
+Yerim, Rodaa, Ibb, Jiblah, Kátaba, Taiz, and
+Hais.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lahej</i> is described more fully elsewhere, so there
+is little further need to make mention of it here,
+except to roughly indicate its limits; for under this
+title are contained not only the tribe-lands of the
+Abdali Sultan, but also the Subaiha, Akrabi, Foudtheli,
+and Houshabi tribes. The country inhabited
+by these Arabs of the Plains may be said to extend
+from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb to about eighty
+miles east of Aden. The country is poor, and boasts
+but one or two towns, but many large villages.</p>
+
+<p>The next province is <i>Kaukeban</i>, which, with
+<i>Beled el-Kabail</i>, <i>Abou Arish</i>, and <i>Beni Hallel</i>,
+may be taken altogether. The latter tribe inhabit
+a strip of plain country along the borders of the Red
+Sea, while the three former include that portion
+of the country lying to the north-east and east of
+Beni Hallel, and extending as far east as a line
+drawn from Sanaa due north.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span></p>
+
+<p>North again of Abou Arish, and between that
+country and the Hejaz, is the Asir, part of which is
+mountainous and part plains—the former inhabited
+by dwellers in fixed abodes, and the latter by wild
+Bedouins.</p>
+
+<p>North of Sanaa, and upon the road connecting
+that city with Mecca, the continuation of the pilgrim-road
+of Huseyn ibn Salaamah mentioned elsewhere,
+is the province of <i>Khaulán</i>, east of which again is
+<i>Sahán</i>, included in the province and former principality
+of Sadah. This forms one of the richest
+portions of the Yemen, being famous for fruits,
+honey, and cattle. It consists of large valleys well
+watered, and at such an elevation as to render them
+not only suitable for the growing of fruit-trees, but
+also exceedingly healthy. Niebuhr mentions these
+tribes as hospitable but inclined to robbery, and as
+speaking as pure Arabic as is anywhere in use.</p>
+
+<p>The next province is still more mountainous, and,
+on account of its inaccessibility, has remained almost
+unconquered. It is known as <i>Nejrán</i>, and consists
+of wide fertile valleys reaching nearly to the desert
+of Akhaf. Like Khaulán, it is renowned for its
+cattle and fruit, the breed of horses, too, being celebrated.
+They are said to be of the famous Nejed
+strain.</p>
+
+<p>The province of <i>Kahtan</i>, situated eleven days’
+journey north of the valley of Nejrán, is another
+example of the difficulties of fixing any reliable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>frontier to the Yemen. Evidently it is inhabited
+by Yemeni people, as it takes its name from the
+founder of that stock, Kahtan, who is said to be no
+other than Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures.</p>
+
+<p><i>Eastern Khaulán</i> lies to the north-east of the
+capital Sanaa. It possessed formerly a celebrated
+city of the Jews, which is now said to be almost entirely
+deserted. Although generally known by the
+name of Eastern Khaulán, it in reality consists of a
+number of small principalities.</p>
+
+<p><i>Beled el-Jehaf</i> may be said to form the extreme
+eastern division of the northern portion of the Yemen,
+but whether it should be considered as part of that
+country is open to doubt. It extends from a few
+days’ journey east of Sanaa as far as the desert that
+divides Oman from Western Arabia. It is in this
+district that is situated the city of Mareb, otherwise
+known as Saba or Sheba, whence the celebrated queen
+visited Solomon. The natives have traditions of a
+Queen Balkis, whom they affirm to have been the lady
+in question. However, this has been proved impossible,
+as the dates do not correspond. It was at Saba
+that the celebrated dam was built, the destruction of
+which, about one hundred years <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, wrought such
+widespread destruction. A few words about this prodigious
+building will be found in reference to the
+tanks at Aden in the chapter upon that possession.</p>
+
+<p>The last of the list of provinces is <i>Yaffa</i>, which
+lies between the Hadramaut on the east and south,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>and the districts of Lahej and Sanaa on the north and
+west. It became independent some two centuries
+ago, up to that time having been under the rule of
+the Imams of Sanaa.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> It is a rich fertile country,
+producing gums, cereals, and coffee. It possesses
+three towns—Yaffa, Medinet el-Asfal, and Gharrah.
+Living in close conjunction with the Yaffai tribe are
+the Oulaki, divided into the upper and lower, their
+capitals being respectively Nisáb inland, and Howr
+on the coast.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>These, then, are the principal provinces into which
+the Yemen is considered by the natives to be divided,
+though to define exactly their boundaries, as in the
+case of the frontiers of the whole country, would be
+an impossible task.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the geography of the Yemen but
+few more words are needed, in order to render clear
+the following pages of the narrative of the author’s
+journey. Although an account is given elsewhere of
+the Turkish dominion of the Yemen, it may be as well
+to delineate the present frontier since the Osmanli
+occupation of the country, although again it is almost
+an arbitrary one.</p>
+
+<p>To commence from the south. The division between
+the Arab tribes of the southern Teháma and
+Turkish Yemen commences some ten miles east of the
+Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, and so includes the promontory
+of Sidi Sheikh, which projects toward Perim
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>Island, from which it is divided by a narrow strait a
+mile and a half in width. From thence the frontier
+runs in a north-easterly direction, passing a little to
+the east of Taiz, from which it again turns more
+directly east, passing to the south of Mavia, and,
+skirting the territory of the Amir of Dhala, includes
+the town of Kátaba. From this spot it turns almost
+due north, keeping well to the east of Yerim and
+Dhamar, although these towns, as a matter of fact,
+form practically the eastern boundary of the Turkish
+Yemen. From Dhamar to Sanaa the frontier runs
+almost due north and south, and may be said to exist
+about forty to fifty miles east of a straight line drawn
+between these two cities.</p>
+
+<p>From Sanaa to the north the Turks claim authority
+as within their limits over all the country lying to the
+west of a line drawn from Sanaa to the south-eastern
+corner of the province of the Hejaz, although over the
+Asir and other inaccessible mountain tribes their authority
+is purely nominal, and has never been acknowledged
+to any extent.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be thought that all the country lying
+within the frontier thus described is securely under
+Turkish rule, for there are whole tribes which do not,
+nor ever have done so, acknowledge anything more
+than a nominal subjection to the Sublime Porte.</p>
+
+<p>That these notes upon the geography of the Yemen
+will prove of but little value to <i>savants</i> the writer
+knows only too well; but if his journey was unproductive
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span>of any scientific or historical discoveries, it
+must be borne in mind the period at which it was
+undertaken: that not only was a rebellion still taking
+place, that a month or two before had shaken the
+whole country to its very foundations, but also that
+the author was by the Turks treated as a spy, and
+was more than once in great personal danger from the
+Arabs. Under these circumstances he feels that he
+cannot be blamed if his journey was devoid of any
+great results. All that he can boast to have brought
+back with him is a story of travel and adventure, and
+numerous photographs and notes, that will tend to
+throw light upon the present condition of the Yemen,
+especially on what has been taking place in that
+country since the Turkish occupation of the highlands
+in 1872. His narrative of travel tells a story of long
+night marches, and of days spent in hiding; of a sojourn
+in a Turkish prison; and this story, he trusts,
+will prove sufficient evidence that he had little or no
+opportunity for research. It was owing to a mere
+chance that his notes and photographs were saved
+from destruction by the Turkish authorities at Sanaa.</p>
+
+<p>If these pages tend to throw some light upon this
+most interesting corner of Arabia, and help to show
+what the country and its inhabitants are like, the
+author will be well satisfied with the result.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE YEMEN BEFORE THE HEJIRA.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Having in the last chapter briefly sketched the principal
+geographical features of the Yemen, it remains
+now to make mention of its history. The same remarks
+as were made as to the geography are applicable
+here, that with the exception of certain periods
+which have been made the study of archæologists
+and orientalists, there is but very little known of the
+history of the Yemen, and there are long periods
+existing between the times of which something has
+been written or translated that are almost blanks.
+Nor is it on this account alone that the task of compiling
+in two chapters so many centuries of historical
+matter is a difficult one, for many of the times and
+dynasties of which there exists some trustworthy
+account are all but unimportant in treating of the
+country in general, what knowledge we possess in
+very many cases being simply the genealogies of local
+princes and rulers. However, it is only by a study
+of these shreds of history that we are able to gain
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>any facts concerning the condition of the country
+during the early centuries after the introduction of
+Islam, for instance; and if they in themselves appeal
+almost solely to the student of things oriental, they
+yet tend to throw more light upon the inner life of
+the people than it would be possible to gather elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>But the history of the Yemen is by no means confined
+to such a brief period as that which has passed
+between the birth of Islam and to-day. There exists
+a far more ancient and more wonderful history, of
+which, unhappily, we know as yet but little, but
+which, should it even be possible to make thorough
+examination of its monuments and records, may
+prove that many of the existing civilisations sprang
+from the Yemen and Hadramaut, and that the ancient
+Egyptians themselves, owed the foundations of their
+arts and learning to the inhabitants of Southern
+Arabia. Some light has been thrown lately upon
+the old civilisation of Southern Arabia by the successful
+excavations carried on by Mr Theodore Bent in
+Mashonaland, which have proved most clearly that
+the Arabs of Southern Arabia were in touch with
+that distant quarter of Africa, and not only in touch,
+but even so firmly rooted there as to erect forts and
+temples, to build and to decorate, and to work the
+mines of that country.</p>
+
+<p>At present scientific exploration of the Yemen and
+the other divisions of Southern Arabia has been,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>for many reasons, so seldom undertaken that there
+remains to be discovered there more than is probably
+to be found in any part of the world. How rich the
+country is in archæological remains may be judged
+from the quantity of inscriptions, &amp;c., brought back
+by the enterprising and scholarly Austrian Dr Glaser,
+to whom we owe nearly all that is known of the
+earlier periods of Yemenite history. It was through
+the extensive researches of this <i>savant</i> that any conclusive
+data have been given not only to individual
+sovereigns but to whole dynasties, with the result
+that although far from perfect knowledge, very considerable
+light has been thrown upon the early days
+of the Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, entering into any precise account
+of the historical records of the Yemen, it may be as
+well to briefly mention a few well-founded traditions
+generally accepted amongst the natives and believed
+by themselves to be undisputable. In this they are,
+no doubt, mainly right in the origin; but in attempting
+to trace their descent, through periods later than
+those of the earliest times, they have to some extent
+become confused. This is most apparent in the cases
+of the two great divisions, or nations, which inhabited
+the Yemen, the weaker of which, at times, finding
+similarity between names, claimed descent from a
+common ancestor with the stronger, until by force of
+time no clear line of division was possible in many
+cases.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span></p>
+
+<p>Although there can be little doubt of a prehistoric
+and almost pretraditional race inhabiting Southern
+Arabia, the only record worthy of acceptance from
+native sources of their existence is their mention in
+the Koran. No traditions exist as to them amongst
+the people to-day, or even amongst those Arab historians
+of the middle ages who made special studies
+of the subject.</p>
+
+<p>The inhabitants of Southern Arabia may be divided
+into two great stems, to which the names of Yemenite
+and Ishmaelite tribes have been very properly given.</p>
+
+<p>The Yemenite nation are the direct descendants of
+Kahtan, generally identified with Joktan of the
+Jewish Scriptures, of the line of Shem, the son of
+Noah, another of whose descendants, Hazarmaveth,
+gave his name to what is to-day known as Hadramaut.</p>
+
+<p>The second great division into which the inhabitants
+of the Yemen may be divided are the descendants of
+Adnan, who was of the family of Ishmael, son of
+Abraham: although unfortunately the connecting
+links are absent, yet in spite of this there can be no
+doubt as to the fact. This Adnan is said to have
+been the contemporary of Bukht Nasser, in other
+words Nebuchadnezzar;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and it was the fierce wars
+waged by this monarch, tradition relates, that drove
+the Ishmaelite tribes to seek refuge amongst the
+Yemenite peoples. If this be the case, it is a marvellous
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span>fact that two nations inhabiting the same country
+for such an enormous period of time, and for the last
+twelve or thirteen hundred years united in religious
+ideas, are able to-day to speak with any certainty as
+to which branch they belong. Yet such is the case,
+with the exception of certain Arab tribes who claim
+descent from Kahtan, the mistake arising through
+certain similarities of names to be found amongst his
+descendants and those of Adnan.</p>
+
+<p>Each of these two divisions of the population are
+again split up into sections, though in the case of the
+Yemenites such is not to be found until the days of
+Himyar, son of Abd esh-shems and great-grandson of
+Kahtan. It is unnecessary here to enumerate the
+tribes still existing which claim to have sprung from
+the family of Himyar, more than to mention the
+three principal ancestors on which their claims are
+based. These are respectively Himyar himself, and
+Malik and Arib, sons of Zayd, son of Kahtan, son of
+Abd esh-shems.</p>
+
+<p>The family of Ishmael are likewise split up into
+many tribes, claiming descent from three separate
+members of the posterity of Abraham—namely, El-Yas,
+Kays Aylan, and Rabiah.</p>
+
+<p>There yet remains another section which cannot be
+passed over without notice, as commentators differ as
+to from which stem they originated. These are the
+descendants of Kudaah. While some protest that
+their ancestor was Himyar, son of Abd esh-shems,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>others claim that they are of Ishmaelite descent, and
+ought to be enrolled under the heading of Arab
+tribes. It is more than possible that in their case an
+early amalgamation took place between the two stocks,
+and individuals adopted as their ancestor whichever
+of the founders of the parties it best suited their
+interests to put forward.</p>
+
+<p>Such, then, was the origin of the two nations which
+to-day, still to be distinguished from one another by
+their traditions of ancestry, form the population of
+the Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>Although there is no reason to doubt the genuineness
+of these traditions, and in fact everything points
+to their being authentic, the next period with which
+we come in contact is no longer a traditional one, but
+has been handed down to us in monuments and inscriptions
+still existing. The knowledge we have
+upon this period of the history of the Yemen is due
+to the aforementioned Dr Edouard Glaser, who has
+successfully translated over a thousand inscriptions,
+with the result of practically proving the existence of
+two separate great dynasties that in succession held
+sway over the country. In so doing, what was
+commonly believed to have been the fact until his
+discoveries were made has been disproved, and an
+entirely new epoch in the history of the world brought
+to light. I refer to the dominion of the Minæan and
+Sabæan kings. It is, too, from these records that
+there has been found to have existed, contemporarily
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>with early Egyptian times, a remarkable state of
+civilisation and commerce in the Yemen, and what
+was wrongly believed to have been in early pre-Islamic
+days a country of savagery, has been proved
+to have contained a cultured population, skilled in
+art and excelling in commerce. This fact doubtless
+to no small degree influenced the history of the
+civilisation of the ancient world.</p>
+
+<p>The earlier of the two great dynasties which at
+different epochs held sway over the Yemen, if not
+also over the surrounding coasts of Africa, was that
+of the Minæans, who are known in tradition as the
+Maïn. Thirty-two names of kings of this dynasty
+have already been discovered; and as a proof of the
+immense power they must have held, tablets commemorative
+of their wars have been found as far removed
+from the seat of their government as Teima, on the
+road from Damascus to Sinai; while an inscription from
+Southern Arabia renders thanks to Astarte for their
+escape from the ruler of Egypt and their safe return
+to their own city of Quarnu. This votive tablet was
+erected by the governors of Tsar and Ashur, which
+again speaks for the immense tract of country owing
+allegiance to the Minæan king; for of these places
+one has been identified as being situated near where
+the Suez Canal now passes. This extension of frontier
+was doubtless owing to the great importance of
+the trade-routes from East to West, the possession
+of which in later times brought the otherwise unimportant
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>Jewish kingdom so much to the fore.
+But more important, perhaps, than the discovery
+that these peoples were living in a state of considerable
+civilisation, and carrying on most profitable commerce,
+is the fact of their knowledge of writing; for
+many of the recently discovered inscriptions in
+the Yemen date from a period contemporary with
+Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chaldæan cuneiform, and
+earlier than any known inscription in the Phœnician
+characters.</p>
+
+<p>Following upon the Minæan dynasty, of which,
+as before stated, thirty-two kings are known by
+name, is that of the Sabæans: yet the nature of the
+inscriptions shows that a very considerable period of
+time must have elapsed between the two; for whereas,
+in the earlier specimens of writing, full grammatical
+forms are found, the latter is not nearly so
+complete. Yet the Sabæan dynasty can be traced
+back with certainty to the time of Solomon, one
+thousand years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and there is every reason to believe
+that they had been in power at that time for a
+very considerable period. How very remote, then,
+must be the antiquity of the preceding dynasty, which
+we know to have been separated from the latter by a
+sufficient lapse of years to have allowed of radical
+changes in the formation and grammar of their
+written language! Besides which, although comparatively
+few inscriptions have been discovered of
+this period, we have a list of no less than thirty-two
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span>Minæan sovereigns. Professor Sayce, in an able
+article upon this subject, states that he believes that
+it is quite possible that inscriptions may be discovered
+which will prove Southern Arabia to have been in a
+state of civilisation in the days of Sargon I., or even
+of Menes, who is supposed to have lived some five
+thousand years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>: nay more, he expresses his
+opinion, which many traditions tend to prove, that
+all civilisation may have sprung from the Yemen and
+its adjacent provinces.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>Apart from the great interest attending this alone,
+another point must at once attract our attention—namely,
+the existence of an alphabet earlier than
+that of the oldest discovered Phœnician inscriptions.
+Until these researches into the writings of the Yemen,
+it was believed that the Phœnician formation of
+letters was an abridgment of the hieroglyphics of
+Egypt; but there seems now to be reason to suppose
+that this still more ancient writing of Southern Arabia
+may prove to be not only the source from which the
+Phœnicians derived their alphabet, but also the origin
+of those of all modern nations, including Greece and
+Rome. What may be said almost to prove this
+theory, says Professor Sayce, is the fact that while
+the Phœnician letters, described by name as animals
+and things, have but little resemblance to the object
+from which the name is taken, this still older form of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>Semitic writing bears a decided resemblance to the
+objects described in the names of the Phœnician
+letters.</p>
+
+<p>Probable as all this is, it must remain for the time
+at least only a theory, until further discoveries are
+forthcoming; but apart from all suppositious matters,
+it may safely be stated that, be the Aryan origin
+what it may, it is to Southern Arabia that we must
+look for the home of the Semitic peoples. Referring
+back to the earlier paragraphs of this chapter, in
+which mention is made of the two great divisions of
+the inhabitants of the Yemen, it will be seen that the
+tradition existed in the time of Mahammed, and is
+mentioned in the Koran, of an older population, whom
+it may be inferred were the original Semitic stock,—for
+it must be remembered that the present geographical
+position of the Semitic races is almost entirely
+owing to the spread of Islam, and it is to Arabia, and
+Arabia alone, that we must look for their origin,—at a
+time preceding the first Minæan kings, and probably
+at a period when the stone age was passing into that
+of metal, and fishers and hunters were becoming
+traders and agriculturists.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> But of all the incidents
+of the ancient history of the Yemen, there is one that
+will especially appeal to all. I refer to the visit of
+the Queen of Sheba to Solomon about the year one
+thousand <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> Sheba has always been identified with
+Saba, the capital of the Sabæan empire, a city lying
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span>some seven days’ journey to the north-east of Sanaa,
+the present capital of Turkish Yemen. The story is
+too well known to need any comment here; it need
+only be noticed that the point it is written from is
+that of a Jewish historian, who would naturally tend
+to magnify the glories of Solomon and the admiration
+of the queen at his wonderful city, palace, and temple.
+Yet, as a matter of fact, it is not at all improbable that
+Saba possessed buildings as fine as any of those of
+Solomon; and certainly, whereas no ruins remain of
+the latter, the great dam, built some seventeen hundred
+years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> at Saba, still stands, though of course
+in ruins, to tell the tale of the vast building powers
+of the Sabæan architects. Nor do we in the gorgeous
+description of Solomon’s works find reference to anything
+that could possibly have compared in size and
+structure with this extraordinary <i>barrage</i>, of which
+it is sufficient to say that it measured three hundred
+cubits thick, one hundred and twenty feet high, and
+two <i>miles</i> in length.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The presents which the Queen
+of Sheba brought to Solomon tend as much as anything
+to prove that she was a native of Southern
+Arabia, for her offerings will be found either to be produce
+of that country, or such articles as could, owing
+to the enormous commerce of Saba, find an outlet in
+that direction from farther south and east.</p>
+
+<p>Although the already discovered inscriptions point
+to Saba having been the capital of a great and civilised
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>empire eight hundred years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, the existence of
+the great dam, which may be attributed to Lokman,
+who lived 1750 years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span>, and the visit of the Queen
+of Sheba to Solomon, speak of greater antiquity.</p>
+
+<p>The religion of the Sabæans is too large a question
+to attempt here, more especially as there are evidences
+that during the long periods of the Minæan and
+Sabæan dynasties it underwent many changes, merging
+from a primitive idolatry into worship of the
+planets and stars, and even, in cases, to the recognition
+of a supreme deity. They believed in the immortality
+of the soul, a future state of reward or
+punishment, and many also in transmigration. The
+gradual change of doctrine appreciable in the religion,
+besides being due to the natural outcome of increased
+civilisation and culture, was no doubt largely influenced
+by the astronomers and astrologers of Chaldæa.
+Doubtless, too, there existed in their religious traditions
+a sort of hero-worship, for we read in various
+authorities of certain names as being those of deities
+and of men. Thus we find the city of Saba was
+called after a god of that name, while again the
+founder is mentioned as being Saba the son of Abd
+esh-shems, the father of the so-called Himyaric
+dynasty.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp04" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp04.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>ANCIENT TANK AT MENURA, NEAR DHAMAR.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Any attempt, with the space at disposal here, to
+draw conclusions from the traditions existing as to
+the earliest inhabitants of the Yemen, is out of the
+question; and rather than do so, it will better suit
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>our purpose to keep to what have been proved to be
+facts—the existence of the Minæan and later the
+Sabæan dynasties; the high state of culture and commerce
+in Southern Arabia at a very remote period;
+and the existence of a written language that was
+possibly, if not probably, the origin of Phœnician,
+and so of all European forms of writing; and the still
+greater idea that Southern Arabia may be proved to
+be the land of “Punt,” and the birthplace of the
+Egyptian race, and their arts and culture.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly before the commencement of the Christian
+era Egypt became a Roman province, and a few years
+later an expedition under Ælius Gallus was sent to
+explore Arabia and Ethiopia. How difficult would
+be the task was evidently realised, for when the
+expedition started from Cleopatris, near the modern
+Suez, it consisted of no less than eighty vessels of
+war and a hundred and thirty transports, with ten
+thousand Roman troops and fifteen thousand mercenaries.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>
+But the expedition was destined to disaster,
+for although it penetrated as far as Southern Arabia—probably
+Nejrán—the troops were decimated by
+famine and disease, and only a small handful ever
+returned.</p>
+
+<p>In looking through these early pages of the history
+of the Yemen, one cannot but be struck with the
+important part that women played in politics; and
+even after the introduction of Islam, and the women
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>had been assigned a lower position, the old custom
+crops up again and again, and we find women seizing
+the reins of government.</p>
+
+<p>The first example that we find of the power exercised
+by women is without doubt the Queen of
+Sheba; while a second example follows within a few
+years after the failure of the expedition of Ælius
+Gallus, in the person of Queen Balkis, whose real
+name was Belkama or Yalkama, and who was sufficiently
+strong-minded to amalgamate two kingdoms by
+marrying her rival, whom she immediately removed
+by poison.</p>
+
+<p>About <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 120 the great dam of Saba or Mareb
+burst, spreading wholesale destruction throughout the
+wide fertile valley below it. About this period, too,
+an expedition was carried by the then King Tubba
+el-Akran as far as Samarcand, and thence into China;
+and in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 206, Abou Kariba, one of the most illustrious
+of all the Himyaric kings, invaded Chaldæa and
+defeated the Tartars of Adirbijan. He started on a
+second expedition to conquer Syria, but returned
+after taking the Hejaz to the Yemen, where he is said
+to have renounced idolatry and embraced Judaism.</p>
+
+<p>A legend, quoted by Sir Lambert Playfair in his
+‘History of the Yemen,’ tells of the introduction of the
+Jewish faith into the Yemen during the reign of this
+Sultan. It savours of the priests of Baal; for, wishing
+to put to the test the merits of Judaism and idolatry,
+the priests of either creed proceeded to a certain spot
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>whence fire emerged from the ground. Pushed on by
+the crowd, the test was tried, and while the Jewish
+priests passed through the flame unscathed, the idolaters
+perished. But the feeling between the two was
+by no means destined from this fact to become a
+cordial one, and constant fights occurred between the
+two parties. Although Christianity seems to have
+appeared in the Yemen previous to the year 297 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>,
+it was not until that date that it became a religion of
+importance in the country. It was during the reign
+of the king Tubba ibn Hassan, who held the throne
+at this period, that Christianity was introduced into
+Abyssinia; and about the middle half of the fourth
+century the Emperor Constantius sent a certain
+bishop, Theophilus Indus, to convert the Yemenis, of
+whom the king was so far tolerant, even if he did not
+himself embrace Christianity, to allow the building of
+churches. One was erected at Zafar, near Yerim;
+another at Aden; and a third at a port in the Arabian
+Sea, supposed generally to be Hormuzd.</p>
+
+<p>So king succeeded king with the usual rapidity of
+oriental countries, until in 478 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> a certain Lakhnia
+(or Lakhtiaa) Tanú usurped the throne, whose
+cruelties to the surviving members of the royal
+family are recorded by more than one historian.
+However, it remained for one of these, a youth by
+name Asaad abou Karib, or Dhu Nowas, to revenge
+his relations by stabbing the usurper with a dagger,
+he himself being unanimously elected to the throne.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>He embraced Judaism, and adopted the name of
+Yusef (Joseph). However, like many converts, he
+became a fanatic, and his cruelties toward the
+Christians are perhaps unparalleled in history. Dhu
+Nowas attacked them in Nejrán, and having foully
+broken his promise that no harm should befall them,
+gave them the choice between death or Judaism.
+Twenty thousand, it is said, were burned alive in
+huge pits filled with blazing wood. The Koran commends
+these people who died for their religion, and
+calls a curse upon their persecutor.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>But the cruelty of Dhu Nowas was to reap its
+reward. A few Christians who escaped fled to the
+Court of the Christian emperor of the East, who
+presented them with letters to the Christian king of
+Abyssinia, requesting him to punish the perpetrator
+of these cruel outrages.</p>
+
+<p>In <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 525, accordingly, the Abyssinians invaded
+the Yemen, and Dhu Nowas was defeated, being
+drowned, purposely, it is said, after the first battle.
+From that moment the Abyssinian general Aryat met
+with but futile resistance, and pushed into the heart
+of the country, destroying and razing the cities as he
+went along.</p>
+
+<p>Thus was overthrown, never to rise again, the
+Himyaric dynasty, which had held the throne of the
+Yemen for over two thousand years. Many of the
+kings had been celebrated both for war and culture,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>but their ancestors were now, on account of their
+fanatical persecution of the Christians, in return to
+suffer from cruelties and oppression as severe as any
+they themselves had ever practised.</p>
+
+<p>It is but one of the many examples of the terrible
+bloodshed consequent upon diversity of opinion on
+religious subjects,—for with bloodshed did Christianity
+force itself into the Yemen, and with bloodshed
+was it destined a few years later to disappear. Aryat,
+having conquered the Yemen, was appointed Viceroy
+of the King of Abyssinia in that country, and reigned
+until nearly the middle half of the sixth century,
+being succeeded by Abrahá, in fighting with whom
+Aryat was slain.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, by every means of cruelty and oppression
+Christianity had been pushed forward; but at
+length a bishop was appointed at Zafar, whose name
+is to-day included in the calendar of saints as St
+Gregentius, who persuaded Abrahá to adopt more
+lenient measures than those of his predecessor; and
+even the Arab authors acknowledge him to have been
+a just and compassionate prince. That he was, however,
+a fanatic is certain; for the church at Sanaa
+having been defiled by an Arab from Mecca, where
+for centuries the Kaabah had been a place of pilgrimage,
+he vowed to destroy that place, and at the head
+of a great army marched into the Hejaz. Approaching
+Mecca, the inhabitants fled; but Abrahá, mounted
+upon his famous white elephant Mahmoud, failed,—for
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>it is said not only did the huge pachyderm refuse to
+turn toward the city, but that a miraculous flight of
+birds dropped pebbles upon the heads of the invading
+army, killing both men and elephants. This miracle
+is generally explained as an epidemic of smallpox:
+however, be it what it may, it ended in the total
+rout and flight of the Abyssinian troops, who in a
+miserable plight resought the Yemen, where shortly
+afterwards Abrahá died.</p>
+
+<p>This “battle of the elephant,” as the Arab historians
+called it, is doubly famous, as it happened in
+the year of the birth of Mahammed.</p>
+
+<p>But the Abyssinian rule was soon to end. Acts of
+tyranny and cruelty hurried on its termination, and
+Jaskum, the last sovereign, died in 575 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, when
+the ancestors of the Himyaric dynasty, certain of
+being unable to regain the throne for themselves, and
+having failed to persuade the Romans to take up
+their cause, implored the aid of the Persian monarch
+Kesra, who after many delays fitted out an expedition,
+formed for the most part of convicts from the
+prisons, which reached Aden, under the personal
+conduct of a descendant of Himyar, Maadi Karib,
+and a Persian general of the name of Wahraz. A
+battle ensued with the Abyssinians, in which their
+monarch—for the Viceroys had by this time taken
+imperial rights—was killed. Sanaa was reached, and
+the gates broken down to allow the Persian conqueror
+to enter with uplifted banners, and Maadi
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>Karib was proclaimed viceroy, paying tribute and
+owning allegiance to the Persian sovereign.</p>
+
+<p>The event of the return of a descendant of Himyar
+to power is celebrated by many an Arab historian
+and poet.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst many other ambassadors and men of
+repute who flocked to the court at Sanaa, after the
+overthrow of Christianity, was the grandfather of
+Mahammed, Abd el-Mutalib, who was received with
+special honours, as belonging to the powerful tribe
+of the Koreish, lords of Mecca. But Maadi Karib
+was destined to fall a victim to Abyssinian treachery,
+being murdered by his body-guard, which consisted
+of javelin-throwers of Habesh. A state of anarchy
+ensued, in which the natives struggled with the
+Abyssinians for the supreme power; and finally the
+Persian monarch Kesra Paruiz was forced to send an
+expedition, which proved entirely successful. But
+bloodshed was the result, and the Abyssinians were
+put to the sword with great cruelty, even the half-breed
+children being slaughtered.</p>
+
+<p>Great as was the number of the slain, both the
+Abyssinian and Persian occupation has left its mark
+in the Yemen, and a particular and despised race
+exists there to-day known as the Akhdam.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Authorities
+differ as to whether they are the descendants
+of the Abyssinians or Persians; but so closely did
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span>one occupation follow upon the other that it may be
+reasonably supposed that, owing to the youth of the
+children at the time, and the rapidity with which
+both nationalities died out of the country, but little
+distinction would exist, in spite of diversity of colour,
+between the two.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Persian rule was for a time fairly
+established, though many tribes were almost entirely
+governed by their own local chiefs. All religions
+were tolerated, and Christianity maintained its
+ground, principally in Nejrán, and we find mention
+amongst early authorities of a Christian bishop of
+that province, Kos by name. It was probably in his
+time that a Christian Church was erected in Nejrán.</p>
+
+<p>At this period a great change was to take place in
+the religion and government of Arabia, for there had
+arisen at Mecca a prophet, Mahammed by name, of
+the tribe of the Koreish, who was destined to influence
+not only all Arabia but the whole history of the
+world.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE YEMEN SINCE THE HEJIRA.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Mahammed was destined to overthrow the whole
+social and religious status of Arabia. But the
+Yemen was by no means anxious at the first to
+accept the new doctrine, and for a time remained
+steadfast to the Persian cause and religion, under
+the viceroyalty of Budhan, who, though eventually
+he accepted the faith of Islam, hesitated until pressure
+was brought to bear upon him, and until he
+had obtained, to him, satisfactory evidence of the
+Prophet’s miracles.</p>
+
+<p>The dissensions at this period existing amongst
+the Christians of the Yemen added not a little to the
+success of the spread of the new religion. Yet in
+these first days of conversion every leniency was
+shown to the Christians, and a treaty was made between
+the princes of Nejrán, which, it may be remembered,
+was the stronghold of Christianity in the
+Yemen, and Mahammed himself, very advantageous
+to the former, one of the clauses stipulating that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>tolerance was to be allowed, and no Christians forcibly
+converted to Islam.</p>
+
+<p>But the Prophet had fixed his heart on the conversion
+of Arabia Felix, and for this purpose, in the
+tenth year of the Hejira, Ali ibn Abou Taleb, his
+son-in-law and nephew, was despatched thither.
+Failing by moderate means to bring over the people,
+the sword was resorted to; but in spite of this fact,
+authorities state that Islam was grafted in the country
+with the loss of only some twenty lives.</p>
+
+<p>But its course was to be by no means a smooth
+one, for amongst several other pretenders two arose
+at the same period, 632 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, who laid claim to the
+prophetic office. Both had been converts to Islam,
+and one at least had actually seen Mahammed, and
+it was no doubt the report of his enormous success
+that stirred these men to rival his claims.</p>
+
+<p>The first, Mosailma by name, was a chief of the
+tribe of Hanífa. Being of a diplomatic turn of mind,
+he thought to make an alliance with Mahammed, and
+a correspondence took place between the two, worthy
+of repetition here. The letters ran as follows:—</p>
+
+<p>“From Mosailma, the Prophet of God, to Mahammed,
+the Prophet of God! Let the earth be half
+mine and half thine.”</p>
+
+<p>Mahammed’s answer was short but to the point:—</p>
+
+<p>“From Mahammed, the Prophet of God, to Mosailma,
+the Liar. The earth belongs to God. He
+giveth it as an inheritance to such of his servants as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span>pleaseth him, and the happy issue shall attend such
+as fear him.”</p>
+
+<p>But Mosailma was not to be discouraged by this
+reply, and continued his career until, shortly after
+the death of Mahammed, his successor the Caliph
+Abou Bekr sent an expedition under a certain general
+Khalid to attack him. In a battle near Akriba
+Mosailma was slain, and his followers disbanded; who,
+seeing their leader die, once more reverted to Islam.</p>
+
+<p>The second impostor was El-Aswad, chief of the
+tribe of Anis. He had previously been an idolater,
+but had become a convert to the Mahammedan faith.
+Meeting at first with every success, he installed himself
+at Sanaa, and nearly the whole of the Yemen
+acknowledged his authority. But at the instigation
+of Mahammed, who was at this time still alive, he
+was treacherously slain by his wife and accomplices.</p>
+
+<p>These two impostors, although their career did not
+to any extent permanently affect the history of the
+Yemen, are celebrated throughout Arab traditions,
+in which they are known as “The Liars.”</p>
+
+<p>But the troubles in the Yemen were by no means
+at an end. Every preceding dynasty had left dissension
+and rival blood in the country, and for a
+long period, during the reign of the early Caliphs,
+the country was constantly disturbed with war and
+bloodshed. Pretender to the throne followed pretender,
+and it was not for a period of some years
+that any tranquillity was restored to the Yemen.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span></p>
+
+<p>In <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 655 Ali succeeded to the Caliphate on the
+death of Othman, and having to quell many disturbances
+and dissensions at home, he did not for
+some time turn his attention to the Yemen, where,
+after a lapse in the war between Muavia, governor
+of Syria, and the Caliph, a large band of the troops
+of the former, under the leadership of Bashir ibn
+Ardeb, carried out the most horrible atrocities on
+the partisans of the cause of Ali. But revenge was
+near, and a short time later—39 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>—troops to the
+number of four thousand were despatched by Ali
+from Kufa, who equalled perhaps the cruelties of
+Muavia’s adherents; but they succeeded in stamping
+out the cause of Othman, the lately assassinated
+Caliph, and Ali’s son was proclaimed
+governor of the Yemen. Islam had by this period
+made such a firm footing in the country, that, in
+spite of the dissensions between Christians, idolaters,
+and Jews, we find the troubles confined almost
+entirely to the many sects of Islam itself. Some
+of the most important of these will be found mentioned
+elsewhere, so that no reference is necessary to
+them here, except as showing how firm a hold the
+acceptance of the new religion had gained amongst
+the inhabitants of the Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>The country after the death of Ali became subject
+to the Omeyyad dynasty of Caliphs, until in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>
+749 the Abbasides exterminated them, with unparalleled
+bloodshed and cruelty, the conquest of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span>the Yemen being carried out by Mahammed Abousi
+Mahammed. The typical cruelty of this man is well
+exemplified by a paragraph in Sir R. L. Playfair’s
+‘History of the Yemen.’ Finding the inhabitants
+suffering from what is now known as “Yemen boils,”
+an exceedingly common complaint in that country,
+he ordered all those who showed any signs of the
+sickness to be buried alive as unclean. Happily his
+own death prevented this cruel order from being
+carried out. Sharing the ups and downs of the
+Abbaside dynasty, to whom the Yemen acknowledged
+a varying system of vassalage, in 811 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> the inhabitants
+declared for El-Mamun, son of Harun el-Rashid,
+the great Caliph of the East, who was sharing
+with his brother Amin the government. Under
+this Caliph the governor of the Yemen was Mahammed,
+son of Ziad. He conquered the Teháma, or
+western plains, and became sovereign of the whole
+country.</p>
+
+<p>There remained at this period a tribe of the name
+of Beni Yafur, descendants of the old Himyaric
+kings, who lived at Sanaa. Acknowledging the
+Abbaside Caliphs, they were by force obliged to fall
+under the jurisdiction of Ibn Ziad; but Asaad ibn
+Yafur, the last of the family, took advantage of the
+Karmathian rising throughout the Yemen to usurp
+the power, which he held until his death. He was
+the last prince of the Himyaric people; and although
+his family held the throne for a few years they never
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>arrived at any great power, their position being
+materially weakened by insurrections and family
+strifes.</p>
+
+<p>Ibn Ziad having died, and been succeeded by
+several members of his family, Abou’l-Jaysh his
+grandson came to the throne. On the death of the
+Caliph El-Mutawakil and the abdication of El-Mustain,
+he disclaimed all allegiance to the Caliphate,
+and took to himself regal honours, though
+there seems to be some apparent discord as to dates,
+for the assassination and abdication of the Caliphs
+occurred before Abou’l-Jaysh came to the throne.
+Probably he was the first to assume regal power,
+although his immediate predecessors had ceased paying
+tribute to the Caliphs.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>Apparently Abou’l-Jaysh was a man of great power,
+and by the time of his death he was master of the
+whole of the Yemen, while his revenues reached an
+enormous sum. It was during his reign that the
+Zaidite dynasty sprung up. The foundation of
+what afterwards was the principal line of the Imams,
+or Sultans of the Yemen, is not without interest.
+Although to-day ousted from power by the Turks,
+the leader of the late rebellion was no less a personage
+than a descendant of the great family who in
+<span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> 288 (<span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 901) founded at Sadah the Zaidite
+dynasty. As of the direct family of the prophet
+Mahammed, it may be interesting to trace the line
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>from the founder of Islam to Yahya, who returned
+to the Yemen from India in 288 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> to announce
+the supremacy of the Zaidis. This is best done by
+a short genealogical tree.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp25" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/genealogy1.jpg" alt="Genealogical descent:
+  MAHAMMED. -> Fatima and Ali. -> Hasan. -> Hasan. -> Ibrahim. -> Ismail.
+  -> Ibrahim. Tabátabá. -> Kasim er-Rassi. -> Huseyn. -> El-Hadi Yahya.
+  (D. 298 A.H.)">
+</figure>
+
+<p>Although Yahya succeeded in wresting Sanaa from
+Asaad ibn Yafur, he was unable to hold it, and eventually
+returned to Sadah, where descendants of his family
+are to-day living.</p>
+
+<p>From this period we find a constant rise and fall
+of dynasties. While Imams alternately held and
+lost authority, there were springing up, generally
+to disappear, princes in many parts of the country,
+so that at times the Yemen was divided into a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>number of principalities. Celebrated amongst these
+were the Sulayhites and the Zurayites, of whom the
+latter for centuries held possession of the southern
+province of Aden. But, meanwhile, in the north the
+Imams were succeeding one another with the usual
+rapidity of oriental sovereigns, and with very varied
+authority. In the fifth century <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> we find the
+Abyssinian line again in possession of Zebeed, at
+this time the principal city of the Teháma.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the Zaidi family of Rassites continued
+to govern at Sadah without serious interruption.</p>
+
+<p>In 1173 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> the then reigning Sultan of Sanaa
+surrendered his power to Turan Shah, brother of
+Salah ed-din (Saladdin), the Ayyubite Caliph of
+Egypt; and Ali, son of the Sultan El-Mansur Hatim,
+was nominated governor of that city.</p>
+
+<p>It would be out of place here to trace the long
+lines of governors and rulers who dominated the
+Yemen during the next two centuries. A few
+names, however, are remembered to-day, and mentioned
+by authorities as being men of great power
+or culture. The first is El-Muzaffer, who united
+for the time at least all the Yemen under his
+sway, and who died at the end of the thirteenth
+century; and again, Abdul-Wahab, who reigned
+early in the sixteenth century, and founded many
+colleges at Sanaa, Taiz, and Zebeed, and built a
+number of cisterns and aqueducts at places where
+water was scarce.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span></p>
+
+<p>During the next period of the history of the
+Yemen, we come in contact for the first time with
+European traders and the Turks, who were destined
+in no small degree to influence the future of the
+country.</p>
+
+<p>About the year 1445 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> the Christian king of
+Abyssinia sent a mission to Florence, and a famous
+missive to the priests of Jerusalem. This king is
+well known to history from these two acts alone,
+and to-day is celebrated as Prester John. Whether
+his embassy stirred the religious zeal or the cupidity
+of Europe it is difficult to say, but it resulted, whatever
+its cause may have been, in a Portuguese expedition
+to the far East, which eventually ended in
+the leader, De Covilham, marrying and settling in
+Shoa.</p>
+
+<p>I think there is but little need here to repeat the
+adventures of many European expeditions that were
+sent at various periods to visit this portion of the
+globe. Such as refer more immediately to Aden will
+be found mentioned in the chapter on that possession,
+while I have elsewhere referred to the “factories” at
+Mokha.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the sixteenth century the Mamlook power
+in Egypt was overthrown by the Sultan Selim I.,
+upon which event the larger portion of the Arabian
+states went over to the new cause. This Selim was
+desirous of himself leading an expedition for the conquest
+of Arabia, but was obliged to abandon the idea
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>on account of ill health; nor did he ever recover
+sufficiently to carry out his purpose. His son, Suleiman
+the Magnificent, was equally intent upon the
+conquest of India, and for this purpose fitted out a
+fleet in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1520. On the 27th June 1538 the
+fleet left Suez, and Aden was reached a few months
+later, and the town was taken. Proceeding to India,
+Suleiman Pasha was forced to retire on being attacked
+by the Viceroy of Goa, and returned to Aden, where
+he left sufficient troops to garrison the town, and
+proceeded to Mokha, whence messengers were sent
+to Zebeed with the demand that the governor of
+that city should at once proceed to the coast. The
+Arab’s refusal to comply with this order cost him his
+life, for a few months later Zebeed was taken, and a
+number of its inhabitants put to the sword. This
+completed the conquests of Suleiman the Magnificent,
+and all the coast of Arabia acknowledged the Turkish
+rule, Sanaa itself becoming the seat of the Pasha of
+the Yemen. But although firmly rooted in the
+country, the Turkish forces were unable to extract
+tribute from the numerous tribes, many of which
+remained practically independent. A revolt occurred
+at Aden in 1551, which was, however, put down by
+Peri Pasha, who wrested the town from the Portuguese,
+to whom it had been handed over by its Arab
+inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Eight years later a still greater rebellion broke
+out throughout the whole of the Yemen. However,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>the Turks, under Hasan Pasha, were able to quell
+it, and continue their rule in the country.</p>
+
+<p>At the beginning of the seventeenth century the
+English appear for the first time in this part of
+the world, the first ship to trade in the Red Sea
+being the East India Company’s vessel Ascension,
+Captain Sharpey, who, however, failed in his desire
+to establish commercial relations between the two
+countries. This voyage was followed by several
+others, but of these mention will be found in the
+chapter relating to Aden.</p>
+
+<p>In 1630 the Turks withdrew from the Yemen,
+and the government fell into the hands of a descendant
+of Ali ibn Abou Taleb, who married Fatima,
+the daughter of the Prophet Mahammed. This man
+was by name Kasim, whose full titles were Mansur
+el-Kasim el-Kebir. His ancestor, El-Hadi Yahia,
+had founded the Rassite dynasty in 284 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> The
+family of Kasim, which now commenced to hold
+the government of the Yemen, continued until the
+conquest of Sanaa by the Turks in 1872 to fill the
+posts of Imams.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> A few words are necessary in
+explanation of this title, by which the rulers of the
+Yemen have been so long known. The word Imam
+literally means the leader of prayer in the mosque.
+Thus it will be seen that the office was not merely
+a temporal one, but was also imbued with religious
+rights, enjoyed on account of their descent
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>from the Prophet. Not daring to assume the title
+of “Caliph,” they preferred the minor one “Imam,”
+though practically by carrying out the old-established
+customs, such as changing their names on succeeding
+to power, they took upon themselves the position
+enjoyed by the direct successors of Mahammed himself.
+The office was a hereditary one, and generally
+succeeded to by primogeniture, provided the eldest
+son was of an age and character suitable to his
+being able to carry out the necessary duties.</p>
+
+<p>Niebuhr gives an interesting account of the principal
+officers in the service of the Imams, a portion
+of which may be mentioned here.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> The various
+provinces were, he says, under the governorship of
+a “Dowla,” or military governor, who was responsible
+for his district, collected the taxes, commanded the
+troops, and regulated all local affairs. It was customary
+for a man only to hold the office for a few years,
+in order to prevent his acquiring great wealth
+or influence. Their position was always an uncertain
+one, as they necessarily made many enemies,
+who were ready to do them some ill turn at headquarters.
+The Bas-Katéb was secretary, appointed
+by the Imam, under each, whose principal work
+was to spy upon and report to their lord and
+ruler the actions of the “Dowla.” As ordained by
+the tenets of Islam, all cases relating to laws laid
+down in the Koran were tried by the Cadi, or
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span>chief judge. The ports were under the rule of three
+officers,—an Amir el-Bahr, or captain of the port;
+an Amir es-Sôk, whose duty lay in regulating the
+markets; and a Sheikh el-Beled, who collected the
+taxes. El-Kasim was succeeded by his son El-Muayyad
+Mahammed, who in turn was succeeded
+by his brother Ismail, who lived a life of supreme
+simplicity, and died after a long reign, mourned by
+the whole country.</p>
+
+<p>So Imam succeeded Imam with all the changing
+fortunes of oriental rulers, and without apparently
+performing any deeds which redound to their own
+praise or raised the splendour of their country. In
+all probability their lives were simply spent in
+Eastern uxoriousness, and in keeping in order the
+turbulent tribes by which they were surrounded.</p>
+
+<p>In 1709 the French appeared for the first time
+in the Red Sea, and carried out a treaty with the
+governor of Mokha, on behalf of the then Imam
+El-Mehdi. The principal clauses referred to religious
+toleration, the duties on merchandise, and that redress
+should be given for any insults offered to
+French subjects.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> In spite of this treaty in 1738
+Mokha was bombarded by the French, on account
+of debts owing to the traders by the governor of
+that city. The town was taken, but handed back
+to the Imam on the payment of the debt. This
+ended in the drawing up of a second treaty, somewhat
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>reducing the duty chargeable on the imports
+and exports.</p>
+
+<p>For the next twenty years affairs in the Yemen
+remained in a state of tolerable peace. From time
+to time tribes raised the standard of independence;
+but there seems to have been no organised attack
+upon the Imams, although the family was continually
+engaged in intrigue as to the succession. However,
+in 1758 a serious rebellion broke out, under a certain
+Abd er-Rabi ibn Ahmed, who had been governor of
+a small province in the service of the Imam. Abd er-Rabi
+had made enemies in the household of the Imam,
+and at their instigation was recalled. He refused,
+however, to obey, whereupon the Imam sent a force of
+some three thousand men to bring him. Nevertheless,
+he was able to hold out within the walls of Kátaba
+for no less a period than nearly a year, and eventually
+made his escape by night to his followers in the tribe
+of Hajeriya. Finding it impossible to capture Abd
+er-Rabi, the Imam made overtures to the Sultan of
+Aden to assist him. Abd er-Rabi hearing of this,
+entered Lahej and blockaded Aden. He was destined,
+however, to fall a victim to an act of treachery. The
+Imam was at this period attacking the city of Taiz,
+which he was unable to capture, and, hoping to kill two
+birds with one stone, invited Abd er-Rabi to join him.
+This the latter did, and the city was taken. The
+Imam, delighted with his success, under the most
+solemn protestations of friendship invited him to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>Sanaa, where on his arrival he was, after every ignominy
+had been showered upon him, decapitated.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp05" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp05.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>HOWTA, THE CAPITAL OF LAHEJ.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>In 1762 King Frederick V. of Denmark organised
+an expedition for the exploration of Arabia under the
+leadership of Karsten Niebuhr. With him were associated
+three other Danes, who all died either during
+the expedition or immediately upon its termination.
+In spite of the fact that more than a century has
+elapsed since this expedition took place, we have
+never since been given a clearer or more interesting
+and valuable account of the Yemen. The social
+state of the country is particularly well described,
+and no one can overestimate the value of Niebuhr’s
+work. He twice interviewed the Imam during his
+stay at Sanaa, and the second time greatly interested
+his royal host by exhibiting and explaining his scientific
+instruments. Niebuhr’s account of the Imam
+and his surroundings is most interesting, but unfortunately
+space does not allow of my giving any
+extracts here.</p>
+
+<p>In 1770 an attack was made upon the British factory
+at Mokha. However, two British men-of-war
+were sent to the spot, and an indemnity was paid,
+which it was found out eventually had been extracted
+from Indian merchants, who were, of course, British
+subjects! The Yemen at this time had attracted a few
+European adventurers, who had become Moslems and
+entered the service of the Imam. Amongst these was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>a certain Scotchman of the name of Campbell, who
+was commanding the artillery of El-Mehdi Abbas, the
+then Imam. A rebellion had burst out in the country,
+and the rebels had seized upon a stronghold in the
+vicinity of Sanaa, in which was water, and where
+they had collected a quantity of provisions. Such,
+however, was the fear of the natives for the ingenuity
+of these European renegades, that they surrendered
+on hearing that Campbell and his companions were
+engaged upon the manufacture of shells—a task they
+had neither the means nor the knowledge of carrying
+to a successful end. The episode is merely interesting
+as showing the acknowledgment of the Arabs of
+the superiority of the European over themselves in
+such things—an allowance readily made to-day by
+nearly all classes of the Arab world.</p>
+
+<p>In 1799 a British force was sent to cruise in the
+Red Sea, on account of the French having taken
+possession of Egypt; and Perim, an island situated
+in the straits of Bab el-Mandeb, was occupied, though,
+on account of the scarcity of water, it was only held
+for a period of four months.</p>
+
+<p>The trade of the Red Sea with India had up to
+this period been a very considerable one, but owing
+to the misgovernment of the Imams, and their inability
+to offer security to traders, it had greatly diminished
+in the last few years. On this account Sir Home
+Popham was sent on a special mission to the Yemen in
+1801, and was nominated Ambassador to the Southern
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span>Arabian states. He arrived at Mokha on his return
+from Calcutta in 1802, and set out for Sanaa. However,
+he reached only as far as Taiz, and there, as had
+been the case along the entire route, he was treated
+with every ignominy. The Imam protested that the
+treatment of the Ambassador had been carried on
+without his knowledge and contrary to his orders,
+and he promised to punish the offenders. In all probability
+Ali Mansur, who then held the throne at
+Sanaa, was entirely unable to cope with the turbulent
+tribes, and it is known for certain that from his
+extravagances he was always in arrears with the subsidised
+chiefs of the neighbouring districts.</p>
+
+<p>I have briefly mentioned elsewhere the Wahabi sect,
+which, under the leadership of Abd el-Wahab en-Nejdi,
+sprang up in the eighteenth century. It had
+not, however, seriously made itself felt in the Yemen
+until this period, its progress being no doubt largely
+influenced by the Wahabi conquest of Mecca and
+Medina. During the years 1804 and 1805 the Yemen
+suffered from continual raids of the Wahabi leaders,
+for the most part chiefs of the Beni Asir, the tribes
+lying between the Hejaz and the Yemen proper.
+But treachery was on foot, and certain Shereefs
+nominally owing allegiance to the Wahabi doctrine
+were really working in the interests of the Imam of
+Sanaa, and in this manner the marauders were held
+more or less in check. Meanwhile the Imam Ali
+Mansur had been deposed by his son Ahmed, who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>had seized the reins of government. But the city of
+Mokha refused to acknowledge Ahmed while the old
+Imam was still alive, and on that account Ahmed
+put an expedition into the field against the Dowla
+of that town. Happily for the country Ali Mansur
+died, and the people of Mokha were then able to acknowledge
+his son as Imam, and so a disastrous war
+was staved off.</p>
+
+<p>So great had become the power of the Wahabis that
+in 1813 Mahammed Ali Pasha invaded the Hejaz in
+the name of Turkey, and restored Mecca and Medina
+to the Osmanli Sultan. Thence an envoy was sent to
+the Imam at Sanaa, requesting his co-operation in
+the stamping out of the Wahabis. This was readily
+granted, for the Imam evidently saw that Mahammed
+Ali’s eyes were turned in the direction of the Yemen;
+and although he protested that he himself was devoid
+of means to carry on warfare, he gave the envoy
+letters to the Dowla of Mokha to supply him with
+vessels and material, knowing full well that he
+possessed neither.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<p>In 1814 Mahammed Ali’s troops took the town of
+Konfoda, north of Lohaya; but the Asir tribes surprised
+it a few months later, drove the Turks out, and
+seized an enormous quantity of booty and supplies.
+So worn out were the Turkish troops with their long
+campaign that Mahammed Ali was obliged to abandon
+his scheme for the taking of the Yemen, and retired to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>Cairo, leaving Ibrahim Pasha to continue the campaign,
+which ended in the downfall of the Wahabis. The
+viceroyalty of Ibrahim was marked with every kind
+of cruelty and despicable corruption, and his departure
+from Jeddah in 1819 was the signal for great rejoicings.
+Mahammed Ali then carried out a treaty with the
+Imam, who, on the condition of paying one hundred
+thousand dollars a-year, was to be restored several
+provinces which he had lately lost, including Konfoda
+and Lohaya, which the Turks themselves had taken.</p>
+
+<p>On account of a brutal attack that was made
+upon Lieutenant Dommicetti, at the time confined
+to his bed with fever, and upon the employees of the
+British factory, a force was sent to that place in
+1819 to demand reparation, and a treaty from the
+Imam, in which certain privileges were granted to
+British subjects. Difficulties arose, and in December
+1820 Mokha was bombarded by Captain Bruce, and
+full reparation made by the governor.</p>
+
+<p>The Porte meanwhile had become uneasy at the
+great success attending the campaigns of Mahammed
+Ali Pasha; and on a Mamlook, Mahammed Agha,
+generally known as Turkchee Bilmas, rebelling
+against Mahammed Ali, the Sultan of Turkey,
+hoping to profit through his agency, installed him
+governor of the Hejaz. Marching south, Turkchee
+Bilmas took Hodaidah in 1832. Zebeed was the
+next city to fall, whence he marched upon Mokha,
+which also surrendered; but the tide changed, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>a year later Mokha alone remained in Turkchee
+Bilmas’ hands, where he was attacked by a large
+force by sea, under Ahmed Pasha, and by some
+20,000 of the Asir tribes by land. In the attack
+upon the city Turkchee Bilmas escaped to the East
+India Company’s vessel Tigris, and was conveyed
+in her to Bombay.</p>
+
+<p>In 1837 the Imam’s uncle, Seyed Kasim, treacherously
+sold Taiz to the Egyptians; but their power
+there was of short duration, for in 1840 the
+Egyptians evacuated the Yemen, which thereupon
+became distracted with strife. Although Ibrahim
+Pasha had previously agreed to hand over the
+Teháma to Mahammed ibn Oun, Shereef of Mecca,
+he was not successful, for a Shereef of the Abou
+Arish disputed its possession. The Shereef of Mecca
+therefore despatched troops to the coast, who occupied
+Hodaidah the very day the Pasha left it, but
+only to hold it for a very short time, for a month
+later the Asir tribe entered the town. Shereef
+Huseyn, brother of Mahammed el-Meccawi, assumed
+the governorship of Mokha, and commenced to ill-treat
+the British subjects there, at the same time
+demanding, in an insulting letter, the surrender of
+Aden.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Imam was not at first able to attend to these
+matters, as a religious rebellion had broken out
+under the leadership of a fanatic, El-Faki Saïd, who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>called himself “Medhi el-Mantether.” But as soon
+as this impostor had been attacked and killed, the
+Imam turned his attention to the Teháma. Failing
+in obtaining the aid of the British, it appears that
+both he and her Majesty’s Government referred the
+matter to Constantinople, with the result that a
+commissioner was sent by the Porte to confer with
+the Shereef. However, he appears, says Playfair in
+his notes upon the subject, to have been bribed by
+Shereef Huseyn, and returned to Constantinople with
+but little accomplished. The result, however, of his
+mission became apparent a year later, when the
+Sultan appointed him Pasha of the Teháma, on the
+understanding that he paid a tribute of 70,000
+dollars per annum to the Porte.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp41" id="illus01" style="max-width: 17.1875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus01.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>A Native of the Teháma.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The Imam, El-Hadi Mahammed, died in 1844, and
+was succeeded by Ali Mansur, who had been formerly
+deposed, and whose great idea seemed to be to
+retrieve the losses his predecessors had suffered.
+Fighting at once commenced, but the Imam’s troops
+met with but little success, and smallpox carried
+off a very considerable number. A rebellion broke
+out a few months later, the Imam was deposed, and
+his cousin, Mahammed Yahya, placed on the throne
+in his stead. Desirous of carrying out the scheme
+of his predecessor for the recovery of the Teháma,
+he took the field and finally routed the Shereef
+Huseyn at Bajil, near Hodaidah, the Shereef himself
+being taken prisoner. Hodaidah, Zebeed, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>Beit el-Fakih were handed over to the Imam, and
+shortly afterwards he captured Mokha, where he
+learned that another division of the Shereef Huseyn’s
+army had retaken Zebeed. The Imam fled to Sanaa,
+and a few weeks later Mokha fell once more into the
+hands of Huseyn. The Turks, seeing the opportunity
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>a suitable one to push their interests in
+Southern Arabia, sent an expedition to Hodaidah,
+on the arrival of which the Shereef Huseyn handed
+over the place to the new-comers. The Imam was
+compelled to visit the Pasha at Hodaidah, and a
+treaty was signed, the principal clauses of which
+were as follows:—</p>
+
+<p>1. The country governed by the Imam was to
+continue under his jurisdiction, but he was himself
+to be considered as a vassal to the Porte.</p>
+
+<p>2. The revenues of the country were to be equally
+divided between the Porte and the Imam.</p>
+
+<p>3. Sanaa was to be garrisoned with a thousand
+regular Turkish troops.</p>
+
+<p>4. The Imam was to receive 37,000 dollars per
+month from the revenue previous to its division.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>Both the Turks and the Imam suffered, however,
+from the results of this treaty—the former by being
+almost annihilated on their arrival at Sanaa, the latter
+by being deposed and murdered. The power of the
+Imams was gone; the Turks, although driven out of
+the highlands of the Yemen, retained their footing on
+the coast, and carried on desultory warfare in many
+directions. The country, after years of war and bloodshed,
+remained in a state of anarchy, and the descendants
+of the great Imams seemed to lose all spirit
+and authority. They sank into private life at Sanaa,
+giving themselves up to luxury and vice; and the
+greatness of the Yemen was finished.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE INFLUENCES OF ISLAM IN THE YEMEN.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Before entering upon any account of the various
+religious influences that have since the time of
+Mahammed disturbed the Yemen, it may be as well
+to put aside a few pages for some general remarks
+upon the religion of Islam, the tenets of which are
+well known enough to those who have made any
+study of the subject, but are to the general world
+almost a closed book. It is this disregard of religions
+other than our own which so weakens the constant
+cry of their inferiority. Rather it should be the
+desire of such as wish to uphold Christianity to carefully
+study and compare its doctrines with those
+of the beliefs they are so ready to cry down. The
+world has arrived at a stage when people are not
+satisfied with a mere assertion, but demand to hear
+both sides of the question and to reason for themselves;
+and to those who have taken up or made even
+a small study of Islam it is a pain, or perhaps at
+times an amusement, to listen to the rabid cries as to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>its inferiority, issuing from the throats of men who
+base their action upon a few what they call “practical
+results.” It is not the author’s purpose here to enter
+into a long discussion upon the subject, or to point
+out at any length the many fallacies which are
+believed to be doctrines of Islam by a large proportion
+of the British public.</p>
+
+<p>But of all the arguments used to show the inferiority
+of the Mahammedan religion, there is none so
+loved and so often brought into use as the present
+condition of countries practising its belief. How little
+real value this argument possesses it will not take
+long to prove; and it may be generally stated that
+the backward condition of Mahammedan states is not
+owing to their form of religion to nearly so great an
+extent as it is owing to the nature of the people who
+profess it; in other words, the low standpoint of most
+Islamic countries can be traced to the origin of its inhabitants
+rather than to their beliefs. Strong as is
+this statement, there is at least one very good example
+to prove its truth—namely, that under similar circumstances
+of breed and climate we find Christian
+nations sunk deeper in degradation and vice than
+their Moslem neighbours. Take, for example, Abyssinia,
+into which Christianity was introduced between
+the years 300 and 320 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> Why then, since from
+that period they have been pursuing the Christian
+belief, do we not find them to-day in a state infinitely
+superior to the surrounding Moslem countries—in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>fact, living in a state of civilisation equalling that of
+the European nations, or even of the Yemenite Arabs
+or the Turks? Why do we find Abyssinia to-day a
+country given over to drink and debauchery, when
+they are regular attendants at church? Why do we
+find them living in the circular thatch-huts and
+wearing the same apparel that they did probably
+when Christianity first made its appearance amongst
+them? Because, I say, their nature is such that
+it is untouchable by any religion, no matter how
+lofty be its aims and aspirations. “Can the Ethiopian
+change his skin, or the leopard his spots?”
+Certainly not, no matter how much he may be
+painted over with gaudy colours. Again, why in
+Egypt do we not find the Kopts in a far higher state
+of civilisation and intellectual superiority than their
+neighbours? It may be argued that their Christianity
+is not an example of true Christianity, just as it may
+be argued that the Islam of to-day is not the true
+Islam. Yet it strikes one that Islam is very much
+nearer its original ideal than we are to ours, who
+have turned our religion round and round and inside
+out to make it fit the requirements of modern progress
+and personal comforts. Before, Christian reader,
+you turn to smite your neighbour the Moslem, look
+round you. Before you begin to pull the mote out
+of his eye, pay a little attention to the beam that is
+in your own. Look at the great armies of Europe
+ready to tear one another to pieces! Look at the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>streets of the great cities flocked with prostitutes!
+Look at the swarming drunken population of our
+towns! Look at the financial robberies and the uncharitableness
+of our own lands,—and when you have
+mended that, then you may turn to show your
+brotherly love, which is so engrafted in the Christian’s
+heart, and rend your neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>Justice, I say! If it be one’s desire to take up
+the cudgels against what millions hold most dear,
+then let it not be done until the cudgels can be taken
+up and victory assured by making a careful study of
+what one is going to fight against. Religious tolerance
+is one of the boasts of Englishmen; let it be
+their care that the boast is not a vain one.</p>
+
+<p>Again, it is often said that by its so carefully laying
+down the laws, Islam has prevented any material
+change from taking place in the condition of those
+that profess it. How about Judaism? The laws are
+as equally, if not more specifically, laid down in their
+books than even they are in the Koran, and yet we
+find to-day the Jews in all material matters almost
+the leaders of the world.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that Christianity is a far
+finer religion than Islam. Christianity is beautiful
+in its simplicity—beautiful in that it touches so little
+upon affairs of worldly importance; but it is doubtless
+a religion founded for Western and Northern
+people. There is no doubt that, coming from Palestine,
+it chose its natural course when it proceeded to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>Europe. Why was it not embraced by the Arabs
+and peoples of the south, who at that time, with the
+exception of such as were Jews, were professing the
+foul rites of idolatry? The southerner, wild turbulent
+son of the desert, is unsuited to Christianity;
+he must have some belief that touches him deeper,
+that inspires his ardour by teaching something he
+can understand,—some religion that regulates his
+course of life, as well as offers him hereafter a future
+existence. Mentally and bodily, he is different to us
+northern people. His mind runs in an entirely
+different channel. He exists, he thinks, in a different
+sphere, and it was this sphere that Islam touched.</p>
+
+<p>He was tempted by earthly spoil, by the love of
+persecution, and promised licentiousness hereafter,
+it is often said. Perhaps; but has not the same
+over and over again tempted Christian Powers?—has
+not love of persecution found sufficient examples in
+the history of Christianity to deter us from looking
+for it abroad? Is not our heaven, painted by St
+John in the Revelation, tended to increase our desire
+to share in it by picturing its beauties? The Revelation,
+it may be answered, is an allegory; yet he who
+argues thus would have been burned at the stake for
+his pernicious views not many centuries ago. To
+those who are capable, though generally unwilling,
+to understand Christianity, it is a religion at once
+perfect and superlative. It is an ideal seldom if
+ever reached. It is a goal to be striven after, with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>but little hopes of doing more than one’s feeble best
+to reach; and more, far more than all, it is the truth.
+But so is Islam to the Mahammedan. It is a goal
+which many reach, because its ideals are tangible and
+comprehensible. It is a religion founded by a man
+of vast intellect to enforce a belief in the existence of
+one God, which the intricacies of Christianity had
+failed to prove to the Arab races. To them, materialists
+to the very backbone, the Trinity is impossible.
+To us it is incomprehensible, but acknowledged.
+Christ was the Son of God! This alone is sufficient
+to drive to a distance the Arab, who acknowledges
+the Messiah’s origin as divine and supernatural, but
+to whom the idea of filial relationship with the Deity
+is revolting and incredible.</p>
+
+<p>An example of the power that Islam asserted over
+the minds of the inhabitants of the Yemen is near at
+hand. There were many Christians in that country
+at the moment when they received the tidings of the
+Prophet’s mission. Nejrán, a large province, was
+governed by a Christian family, and boasted a bishop,
+by name Kos, who died during the earlier half of
+the seventh century <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, probably during the lifetime
+of Mahammed; yet but a comparatively few
+years later we find all traces of Christianity disappeared.
+Not so in Abyssinia, where it exists
+to-day amongst a people given up to one vice at
+least, drunkenness, from which were they Moslems
+they would be free. Were Europe a Mahammedan
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>Power, there is no reason to doubt that we should
+not be in the same state of civilisation as we enjoy
+to-day. The Turks are an oriental race, and cannot
+be taken as a fair example; yet they have so far
+followed upon the lines of Christian Powers that we
+find them to-day squeezing their people to obtain
+the means wherewithal to purchase the destructive
+implements of war, and existing in a very tolerable
+state of civilisation and drunkenness.</p>
+
+<p>No! the Ethiopian cannot change his skin; and
+just as Christianity is the religion best suited, apart
+from its inestimable truth, to Northern people, so is
+Islam to the Arabs and the children of the south.
+Each has sorted itself and taken root where best it
+will flourish. Any attempt to influence one by the
+introduction of the other must, by the laws of nature
+which have thus sorted them, be prejudicial to the
+world at large.</p>
+
+<p>A few words as to the general tenets of the
+Mahammedan religion.</p>
+
+<p>It must not be forgotten that it was in <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> 12, a
+year after the Prophet’s death, that the Koran was
+collected by Zaid, and that therefore there can be
+little doubt that in its arrangement and sequence
+it is far from the order in which the words were
+uttered. The fragments of which it is composed
+were collected from every source, but although it
+may be said in its present form to follow no particular
+chronological order, at the same time there
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span>can be little doubt that, apart from this weakness,
+it contains the words of the Prophet himself. However,
+in the building up of a new religion, it was
+impossible to ordain for every class of society likely
+to embrace it; and on this account the Moslems,
+especially the Sunnis, hold that, after the sacred
+book, the “traditions” are next in sanctity. These
+“traditions” are the teaching, verbal or in example,
+of the Prophet himself, not absolutely inculcated in
+the Koran, but handed down upon the authority of
+“his companions.” On these traditions many schools
+of theology and law have been built up, referring
+to them in cases in which the Koran does not sufficiently
+render clear, or perhaps omits altogether some
+point. Needless to say these “traditions,” being
+almost innumerable and often disputed, have caused
+more dissension amongst the world of Islam than
+any passages in the Koran itself.</p>
+
+<p>The central idea of Islam is the unity of God, and
+the association of any other with the Deity is the
+one mortal sin.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> There is no priesthood; the religion
+is a religion of the people, explained to them by
+doctors, such as the Sheikh el-Islam, the Moulas,
+and the Cadis, whose authority is acknowledged, but
+solely as exponents of religion and law, which it is
+in no one’s power to revise or alter. Idolatry is
+to be rooted out and trampled under foot. “There
+is no God but God, and Mahammed is the prophet
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>of God.” Soundless, rhythmless, as are the words
+to us, their very repetition stirs the Moslem heart;
+their very mention is sufficient for an infidel to become
+a Moslem. They are the only bond that binds
+Sunnis and Sheiyas together, the common birthright
+of all Islam.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp65" id="illus02" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus02.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>A Yemeni.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The principal and best known of the Mahammedan
+tenets, as well as being those on which the religion is
+most founded, are the immortality of the soul; the
+resurrection of the body; the judgment of good and
+evil; heaven and hell; predestination, about which,
+however, contradictory remarks are found in the
+Koran; the ministry of good angels, and the evil
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>influence of the bad. To none of these precepts
+can exception be found, for, after all, they resemble
+to a great extent our own. But at this point the
+Koran steps ahead of us by the prohibition of wine,
+games of chance, usurious dealings, the flesh of
+swine, or of things strangled or which have died a
+natural death, all of which are strictly forbidden.
+How beneficial this has proved and is proving to
+the Mahammedan races is very clear; and it may be
+said that it is only when Moslems have come into
+contact with Jews or Christians that they have broken
+through these ordinances.</p>
+
+<p>As to other restrictions laid by Mahammed upon
+his followers, and other privileges allowed to them,
+a few words must be said. Polygamy is legal, and
+it is this more than anything, perhaps, that raises
+indignation amongst Christians. Every Moslem is
+allowed four wives and as many slaves as he likes.
+Shocking! yet do we not decorate our church windows
+with pictures of David and Solomon? do we
+not read their words in our places of worship? and
+I doubt if either would have been satisfied with this
+small allowance. Were not the patriarchs, who after
+Christ we are taught most to reverence, polygamists?
+They at least, like the Arabs, have an excuse, which
+Solomon and David certainly had not—namely, the
+constant wars in which they were engaged killed off
+so large a population of the men that the women
+were greatly in excess. Yet to-day in many Moslem
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>countries it is unusual to find amongst the respectable
+classes more than one wife. We are by law
+restricted to one, they are by law and by religion
+allowed four. After all, they have just as much
+right to swear that their custom is the best one as
+we have to put forward our own.</p>
+
+<p>That divorce is lax amongst the Arab races is true;
+so are the morals of both men and women. But let
+us look again at the Kopts in Egypt, or the Christian
+race of Abyssinians,—are they any better? Certainly
+not. Again, in Moslem countries, these laws of
+divorce are appealed to more by the poorest classes
+than by the rich. In England the fact that a
+wretched couple of paupers do not agree has no
+remedy, until one day the husband jumps on his
+wife and kills her. In Moslem countries he divorces
+her, and probably both are married again in the
+course of a month.</p>
+
+<p>The fact of the case is simply this. To attempt
+to judge Islam from a Christian standpoint is as
+ridiculous as to attempt to judge Christianity from
+a Moslem one. We shudder at the civil codes and
+conditions of the Mahammedans; they are horrified
+at our Trinity, at the decoration of our churches, at
+lax laws as to purification, at our drunken habits, at
+the Pope, at our paid clergy, and at a hundred other
+details. To criticise Islam one must have seen it in
+its own lands, and that with unprejudiced eyes.</p>
+
+<p>There is but one more question that must be
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span>touched upon here—namely, slavery. Never have
+there been more exaggerated reports as to slavery in
+oriental countries than are from time to time cropping
+up to-day. It must be understood what slavery
+really is in the East; it must be remembered that it
+is not agricultural slavery—that it is entirely domestic
+slavery. Stories are from time to time appearing of
+atrocious cruelties to slaves: they are true, no doubt,
+but they are exceptional—just as, happily, the cruel
+treatment of children is exceptional in England. It
+is not after the slaves have passed through the market
+that they suffer, it is on the long desert-marches
+in which they are brought from the interior. Another
+point is scarcely understood in England—namely,
+that probably ninety-nine hundredths of the slaves in
+servitude in oriental countries have been born in servitude,
+and never were brought from the Soudan at
+all. In this case they have been often reared in the
+houses of their masters, and as often as not treated as
+his children.</p>
+
+<p>That slavery is contrary to law and nature all will
+acknowledge; that it ought and must be put down is
+equally true; but as to the means of doing it? The
+slave-trade must be stopped from the interior of
+Africa, not by the freeing of the slaves already arrived
+at their journey’s end. For instance, the emancipation
+of slaves in Morocco would mean thousands
+of men thrown out of doors to gain a livelihood by
+murder and robbery, or starve; and thousands of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>women driven to be prostitutes. And this is what
+we are attempting to do in the name of progress and
+religion!</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp55" id="illus03" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus03.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Jew of the Yemen.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>How vastly Islam was in advance of the pagan religions,
+which for the most part it replaced in Arabia,
+need not be mentioned here. From practising horrible
+rites of “fetich,” from the offering even of human
+sacrifices, from dissensions and religious tribal wars,
+the mission of Mahammed called the Arabs to something
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>far higher—far above anything they had known
+before. Christianity had failed, in spite of repeated
+efforts, to attract them to anything more than the
+smallest extent; Judaism was out of date, and unsuited
+to the epoch they had reached. They were
+ready, were yearning, for a new religion, and Mahammed
+took the opportunity to found one. In place of
+hideous pagan rites, in place of a few converts to an
+unappreciated Christianity, in place of Judaic laws of
+which the people were weary, he brought amongst
+them a new inspiriting religion, lofty in its recognition
+of monotheism, higher than anything they had
+as yet known in its moral code.</p>
+
+<p>But from this simple form of monotheism numerous
+branches were destined to sprout; and just as Christianity
+is split up into innumerable sects, so is Islam
+divided into many differences and brotherhoods. It
+is with comparatively few, however, of these that we
+have to deal in regard to the Yemen,—for although in
+early times changes had begun to be apparent in the
+course of the religion, it is only comparatively lately
+that the enormous quantity of sectarian differences
+now existing sprang into life; and these, with few
+exceptions, have but to a very slight extent influenced
+the political aspect of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The first important dissension in the course of
+Islam occurred about the year 37 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>, when the
+theocratic party, recognising that the existence of the
+Caliphs was likely to become, and was even at that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span>time becoming, an excuse for power and a cause of
+strife, and that the religious influence was lapsing
+into an autocratic supremacy, stood aside and cried
+for an oath of allegiance to God alone, and an elected
+Council of State to regulate affairs. Revolting first
+against Ali, the nephew and son-in-law of the Prophet,
+we find them again and again all through the
+history of Islam bursting forth, egged on by such
+wild fanaticism as only men of those countries can
+know. High though, perhaps, the original motives of
+the Kharejites were, they were too often in after-times
+fanned by the aspirations of pretenders to power, and
+it needed all the force of temporal and spiritual rulers
+to check these outbursts of fanaticism. The Kharejites
+were again split up into many divisions, all more
+or less founded upon the idea of treating sin as infidelity,
+which it would be straying from the objects of
+this book to specially mention here, except that of
+the Obadites, who from time to time recur in the history
+of the Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Kharejites formed the first absolute
+split in Islam, there had been gradually growing up
+what have always formed, and to-day form, the two
+great divisions of the Mahammedan belief—namely,
+the sects of the Sunnis and the Sheiyas. To mention
+some of the standpoints of both. The Sunni tenets
+are held by Turkey and the greater part of Mahammedan-professing
+India, while Southern Arabia and
+Persia and portions of North Africa profess Sheiyism.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>The differences of the two, briefly stated, are as follows.
+While the Sunnis acknowledge the election of
+the Caliphs from the general professors of Islam, the
+Sheiyas assert that Ali, the fourth Caliph, was the
+natural successor of the Prophet, ignoring Abou Bekr,
+Omar, and Othman. But here again the Sheiya sect
+becomes split up; for one division, which continued
+under the name of Sheiyas, contend that Ali held his
+right to succeed the Prophet in office in virtue of his
+personality; while the other side, the Zaidis, contend
+that Ali was the legitimate successor and heir of the
+Prophet, not by reason of his personality, but through
+his merits. Consequently they assert that the successors
+in the Caliphate, or Imams, as they were
+called in the Yemen, must necessarily be of the
+Prophet’s family, but were to be chosen to fill the
+holy office on account of merit and character, in place
+of succession by birthright alone, but that in the
+veins of those elected to the post must flow the
+Prophet’s blood. Amongst those of the former persuasion
+was the sect of Imamites, and its sub-sects,
+the Dodekites and Ismailites, the latter of which
+was founded and flourished in the third century <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>
+It was from this branch that the Fatimide dynasty
+sprang, and their descendants are to be found in the
+mountains of Lebanon under the name of Druses,
+who are still awaiting the return of their prophet
+Hakim. The point on which the Zaidis separated
+from the sects of the Dodekites and Ismailites is as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>to the lawful holders of the Imamate or Caliphate
+after the death of the grandson of Ali.</p>
+
+<p>But the Zaidis were destined also to divide, and at
+a subsequent period we find the Arab and Persian
+Zaidis submitting to the allegiance of two separate
+Imams, one of whom reigned in Arabia and one in
+Persia.</p>
+
+<p>Even to-day intense hatred exists between the
+followers of Sunni and Sheiya doctrines. No better
+example of this is to be found than the fact that
+when Russia was engaged in a war with Turkey that
+threatened to be a death-blow to Islam in Europe,
+not one sword was raised by the Sheiya-professing
+Mahammedans for her assistance; and Persia and
+other parts who do not acknowledge the Sultan
+Abdul Hamid as the rightful Caliph—for the Prophet’s
+blood does not flow in his veins—sat impassively
+and watched, with but comparatively little
+interest, the struggle.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunnis derive their name from the Arabic
+word <i>sunnat</i>, a precedent; and their faith is built
+up, apart from the differences already specified, upon
+the example established by the Prophet himself, as
+handed down to them by history and tradition.
+Their belief can be justly called, perhaps, the orthodox
+one, for Mahammed himself chose as his successor
+in office Abou Bekr, who was not of his family.
+Therefore to them it is no prejudice that the present
+holder of the Caliphate, or successor in the religious
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>supremacy of Islam, is the Sultan of Turkey, who,
+it will be seen, fails to be acknowledged by any of
+the branches of the Sheiya faith on account of his
+descent.</p>
+
+<p>These few words may prove sufficient to throw as
+much light as is necessary in the question of the Yemen
+upon the two great divisions of Islam. It need only
+be added to how great an extent the Turks, though
+co-religionists in as far as they profess Mahammedanism,
+would be separated from the Yemeni people in
+religious ideas; and it is this fact, more than even
+the extortion they practised, that gave rise to the
+Yemen rebellion.</p>
+
+<p>About 280 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> there appeared a new sect in the
+Yemen, that of the Karmathians, who sprang from
+the Dodekites and Ismailites, though far exceeding
+them in fanaticism and excesses. They arose in the
+Yemen under the leadership of two powerful men,
+Ali ibn Fadl and Mansur ibn Hasan, of whom the
+former appears to have been most implicated in
+promulgating the extraordinary and often revolting
+tenets of the new belief. Beginning as a hermit, he
+collected round him a little band of devoted followers,
+and setting forth, he commenced a series of
+victories. At length, overpowered with success, he
+acknowledged himself a prophet, and preached from
+the pulpit of Janad the rightful use of wine and permission
+of incest. Continuing his march, his cause
+grew, and both Dhamar and Sanaa fell before him.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>At the latter place his excesses were beyond recording.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>
+Seventeen years after having gained his enormous power,
+Ibn Fadl died at the hands of an assassin,
+who, taking advantage of the common Eastern habit
+of the drawing of blood, secreted poison in his long
+hair, and after having sucked the lancet to prove it
+was clean, dried it in his poisoned locks. The historian,
+El-Janadi, states that there were great rejoicings at
+his death. The remnants of this sect, inoffensive now
+and law-abiding, still exist in Bombay.</p>
+
+<p>The next great secession from the direct Islam was
+that of the Nizarites or Assassins, a name derived from
+<i>Hashishiyin</i>—in other words, the eaters of <i>hashish</i>, a
+narcotic much resorted to in the East. This word was
+the origin of our present “assassin,” but in the East
+to-day has no deeper meaning than that given above.
+The brotherhood arose about 400 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>, a few years
+after the death of Nizar, son of the Khalifa el-Mustansir,
+whom they asserted had been wrongfully withheld
+from succeeding his father. Thus they gained
+their first title, that of “Nizarites.” They swore an
+oath to devote their energies to the propagation of
+their faith, and many perils they undertook for this
+purpose, often sacrificing their lives in the fulfilment
+of their vows. The remains of this once dreaded sect
+are to-day to be found in Bombay, in Zanzibar, and
+in the Lebanon.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span></p>
+
+<p>The later sect of the Wahabis shows a tendency on
+the part of orthodox Arabs to the ancient tenets
+of Kharejite theocracy. With the Sheiyas the contrary
+is the case, and they incline rather toward transcendental
+doctrines, bursting out into such mystical
+rites as those of the sects of Mutazelites and Sufis,
+or, in the Yemen, in their devotion for a divine
+Imamate.</p>
+
+<p>How important have been these sects in forming
+the history, not only of the Yemen but of all Arabia,
+cannot be exaggerated. Whole dynasties have been
+built up or overthrown by their fanatical devotees.
+From the very earliest years of Islam we are constantly
+coming across the turbulent risings of one or the other;
+and while the Sunnis have more or less strictly upheld
+until to-day their original orthodoxy, with any variation
+of which they are intolerant, we see the other
+great division, the Sheiyas, split up again and again
+into sects and sub-sects, struggling for a theocracy that
+was impossible, or used by unscrupulous pretenders as
+a road to power.</p>
+
+<p>Looking at Islam to-day, we find the Sunnis in very
+much the same religious position as they have always
+held, even from the very first. Their key-note, so to
+speak, has been unswerving allegiance to the <i>sunnat</i>,
+or precedent of the Prophet. On the other hand, we
+find the Sheiyas split up into hundreds of sects and
+brotherhoods, each following some particular instruction
+or belief of their several founders, who for the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>most part have been descendants of the Prophet himself.</p>
+
+<p>One of these sects, now making itself felt in the
+Yemen, as it is doing all over the Moslem world, is a
+modern one. I refer to the followers of El-Mehdi
+Senussi, about which, as one of the coming powers of
+Islam, a few words may not be out of place. The
+idea of Sheikh Senussi was to bring Islam back to its
+original purity—to revive its great social laws, moral
+and religious, as instituted by the Prophet, and to
+defend and propagate the same.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> In this it will
+be seen that the tenets of Senussism resemble both
+those of the Sheiyas and the Sunnis—the former in
+the desire for a theocracy, the latter in the punctilious
+observance of precedent. Its sole distinctive
+feature is in its transcendentalism and in the repetition
+of certain prayers. Like the Wahabis, too, music,
+dancing, singing, and coffee are forbidden. In fact,
+the Sheikh Senussi seems to have introduced into his
+new revival of Islam the doctrines of many of the
+former sects. The Sheikh himself is dead, being
+followed in office by his son, who is still living near
+Siwah, in the desert between Egypt and Tripoli.
+But what makes this sect so vastly important is its
+political power, and it may safely be prophesied that
+the next great revolt of Islam against the Christians
+in Africa, no matter what form it may take, will owe
+its origin to this movement. The author, within a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>few months, heard Senussism preached in Somali-land
+and in Morocco, in both of which countries, not to
+speak of the more central Tunis, Tripoli, and the
+state of Fezzan, it is deeply rooted. If, then, a new
+movement in Islam is able in the lifetime of two men
+to gain converts, and many converts, in countries so
+distantly removed from one another and from the
+headquarters of its founder, it can clearly be understood
+the immense power it must hold over the minds
+of the people; and one of the greatest drawbacks to
+European venture in Africa is the undoubted fact that
+this smouldering fanaticism will one day burst into
+flame.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_I_CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br>
+<span class="smaller">THE REBELLION IN THE YEMEN.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>It is seldom that the Sublime Porte is free from
+trouble regarding one at least of her possessions; and
+although the Turkish Government has taken, in the
+case of the rebellion in the Yemen, every means to
+throw dust in the eyes of Europe, yet sufficient has
+from time to time leaked out to show how seriously
+the affair was regarded by the Sultan and his Ministers.
+From such scraps of information it would be
+impossible to piece together a history of what has
+taken place; but the writer, by making a journey of
+over four hundred miles through the country at the
+very time of the rebellion, was, as the only European
+in the interior, with the exception of a few Greek
+shopkeepers, able to take advantage of his unique
+opportunity of seeing for himself, and gathering a
+considerable amount of information on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>But before any account is given of the rebellion, it
+must be explained of how great a value to the Sultan
+of Turkey are his possessions in Arabia. It is on
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>them, and on them alone, that he bases his claim to
+the title of Caliph—a title on which his prestige in
+the eyes of the Moslem mainly rests. Amongst Mahammedan
+potentates he is the greatest; for although
+many sects of Islam do not hold that one in whose
+veins the blood of the Prophet does not flow is able
+by divine right to succeed to the Caliphate, the possession
+of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina cannot
+but add to his fame. From all parts of the world
+the pilgrims flock yearly to Mecca, there to come
+in contact with the Turks as a governing power,
+to hear the name of Abdul Hamid blessed daily in
+the mosque; and in their eyes, by force of circumstance,
+the Sultan is inseparably connected with the
+Holy Places.</p>
+
+<p>True it is that the Yemen is separated from the
+Hejaz, the province in which Mecca and Medina are
+situated, by a large tract of country, known as the
+Asir. But the tribes inhabiting this district are, and
+always have been, largely influenced by the Yemenite
+faction, and like them are in their belief of the Sheiya
+sect, holding that the claim of the Sultan of Turkey
+to the Caliphate is irregular and illegal. This alliance,
+not only by blood but by doctrine, which is perhaps
+the strongest tie of all amongst the Moslems, caused
+the rebellion in the Yemen to be a likely forerunner
+to a war in the Asir. The Turkish rule has never
+been more than nominal amongst the mountains of
+the latter, so that the repudiation by them of the Osmanli
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>Government, which has taken place, is fraught
+with no great danger to Turkey, provided the discontent
+and consequent rebellion remains within bounds,
+and does not reach the Hejaz. Although largely
+subsidised by the Turkish Government, there can be
+little doubt that, did they clearly see their way to
+success, the members of the Shereefian family of
+Mecca, direct descendants of the Prophet Mahammed,
+would attempt to bring back the succession of the
+Caliphate into their own line, and thus into the strain
+of the descendants of the Prophet; and to a cause so
+nearly touching their doctrinal beliefs there is but
+little doubt the Bedouins of the Hejaz, as well as
+many of the inhabitants of the cities, would readily
+lend their aid and assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore it will be seen that to the Turks a successful
+rebellion in the Yemen meant not only the
+loss of the southernmost of their Arabian States, but
+also the probable ensuing loss of the Hejaz, and the
+fall of the Sultan of Turkey in the eyes of the larger
+portion of the world of Islam. How many thousands
+of Mahammedans daily in the mosques call for blessings
+on the head of Abdul Hamid the Caliph, who
+would never pray for Abdul Hamid the Sultan!
+The difference is enormous, though to us somewhat
+incomprehensible; and it is said, and no doubt
+rightly so, that his Majesty of Stamboul values far
+more than his temporal powers the title of “Commander
+of the faithful.” In the one case, as Caliph,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>he is in the eyes of all Sunnis&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Sultan of the Moslem
+world, and as such successor to the Prophet himself.
+In the other, as a Sultan, he is merely a stranger, an
+Osmanli, not even of the great Arab race, whose
+ancestors have by force of arms conquered and left
+him a kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>From these remarks it will be inferred how vastly
+important it is to the Sultan and the Porte to retain
+intact the Turkish possessions in Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>Although it was not until the summer of 1891 that
+the rebellion in the Yemen took any outward form,
+the Turks must have been aware, for a long period
+previous to that time, that their relations with the
+Arabs were becoming day by day more strained. Yet
+such is the character of Turkish provincial officials,
+especially of those so far removed from the seat of
+the Government as in the Yemen, that they still continued
+their policy of oppression, trusting to fate that
+there would be no open hostilities until the jobbery
+that had put them into power would follow its inevitable
+course by removing them and reinstating others
+in their places, on whom would fall the brunt of a
+rebellion, which they saw might for a time be postponed
+but impossible to avert. “Make your hay
+while the sun shines,” is the motto of the Turkish
+official; and for him, as a rule, the sun shines but for
+a very short period. It is this extraordinary want of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span>forethought and co-operation, this shifting of responsibilities
+upon successors in office, amongst those who
+help to rule the destinies of the Turkish provinces,
+that is the chief root and origin of all their troubles.
+“Let me enrich myself,” thinks the official. “In a
+month or two I may no longer have the opportunities.
+I must make enough in this short period of office to
+retire upon. What may follow, what may be the
+result of my policy, I care not; it interests me not
+at all.”</p>
+
+<p>It was the perpetual practice of these theories that
+gradually drove the Arabs into resistance. The rebellion
+was no sudden affair; as long ago as several
+years back there had commenced on the part of the
+Arabs a series of outrages against Turkish officials
+that would have rendered apparent to any other nation
+but the Turks the danger that was threatening. Cruel
+and bloodthirsty as many of these outrages were,
+they were the only means in the power of the Arabs
+of protesting against the exorbitant taxation and the
+oppression that were ruining them. Their appeals to
+Sanaa, and even to Constantinople, had resulted in no
+amelioration of their condition.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary, I think, to give but one example
+of these outrages. At Dhamar, one of the largest
+cities of the Yemen, there lived a certain general, by
+name Mahammed Rushti Pasha, between whom and
+a neighbouring tribe there had arisen misunderstanding
+as to the amount of taxation to be levied upon
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>them. The pasha insisted on the full sum, and a
+quarrel ensued between the Arab sheikh and himself,
+the former fleeing from the city swearing revenge.
+Shortly afterwards Mahammed Rushti being called
+away to another part of the country, the tribe in
+question took advantage of his absence to blow up
+his house and family with gunpowder. His wives,
+children, and servants died that night, in all some
+eleven persons. Returning with all speed to Dhamar,
+the general, with such forces as were at the time in
+the city, almost exterminated the little tribe who had
+accomplished so horrible a vengeance. Over the grave
+of those that died that night Mahammed Rushti raised
+a mosque and a domed tomb, the interior of which he
+hung with rich silks. Thither he would repair and
+sit alone. On the taking of Dhamar by the Arabs in
+November last, this tomb was looted, and when visited
+by the writer at the end of January, the city
+by that time having been reconquered by the Turks,
+he found the tomb and mosque in ruins, robbed of
+all its treasures.</p>
+
+<p>That the feeling was so strong as to find vent in
+such outrages as these—and that mentioned is but one
+of many—would have made it apparent, one would
+have thought, that the existing state of affairs could
+not continue with impunity. But the lot of the
+Yemeni was to be squeezed to fill the coffers at Constantinople,
+and to pay for the harems and pleasures
+of unscrupulous officialdom. Such, then, apart from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span>all religious differences, was the existing state of feeling
+in the Yemen when in the summer of the year
+before last the rebellion broke out. Before the conquest
+of the Yemen by the Turks in 1872—for
+although they possessed a firm footing on the coast
+previous to that period, their power had not made itself
+felt in the interior—the Yemen was governed by
+a ruler after their own hearts; for, being of the Sheiya
+sect—Zaidis they call themselves—it was necessary
+to the tenets of their belief that their Sultan should
+be of direct descent from the Prophet, through Ali
+ibn Abou Taleb, his nephew and son-in-law. This
+condition their Imam fulfilled; for although the
+Yemen had at different times fallen into foreign
+hands, still the direct family had never disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Sanaa, now the capital of Turkish Yemen, was his
+residence. It is a large city, situated roughly two
+hundred and forty miles north of Aden, and a
+hundred and sixty east of Hodaidah. Here the
+Imam lived the usual secluded and sensual life of an
+oriental despot, looked upon by the Arabs as a
+spiritual Sultan, but powerless to hold in check the
+depredations and robberies of the many tribes under
+his nominal sway, who, with true oriental zeal, were
+continually doing their best to exterminate one
+another. As long as money was forthcoming, the
+Imam was content to dwell at Sanaa without
+troubling himself about more external affairs than the
+management of his own household, and the receiving
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>of gifts from the Arabs who performed pilgrimages
+to his presence. Apparently wanting in education,
+except such religious knowledge as is considered
+necessary for the welfare of an Oriental of high degree,
+he possessed no ability to govern, nor does he
+appear to have been even renowned as a soldier or
+organiser of troops.</p>
+
+<p>Such became at length the state of the country,
+that trade almost ceased on account of the attacks
+upon the caravans; and the Sanaa merchants—quiet
+respectable Arabs—saw nothing but ruin before them,
+and considering solely the benefits that would accrue
+to themselves by such a step, and ignoring what the
+result would be upon the agricultural population,
+invited the Turks to take the place. This was accomplished
+in 1872 by a force from Hodaidah. The
+Imam was deposed; but on account of his spiritual
+influence over the Arab horde, was permitted to reside
+in Sanaa, receiving a pension on the condition that
+he would exert his powers in furthering the interests
+of the Osmanli Government. This until his death he
+fulfilled; on which event the <i>baraka</i>, or holy birthright,
+passed to his relative Ahmed ed-Din, who, like
+his predecessor, was by no means dissatisfied to receive
+the adoration of the Arabs and the regularly paid
+allowance of the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>Such, briefly, was the history of the Turkish occupation
+of the Yemen and the state of affairs until last
+year. The tribes, in the time of the Imam, left undisturbed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>both in their labours in the fields and in their
+welfare, boasting an independence of centuries, found
+themselves, on the Turkish occupation, little better
+than slaves—oppressed, taxed, and retaxed by a people
+whose extortions ruined them, whose personality they
+hated, and with whom, although co-religionists, there
+was no unison in religious views.</p>
+
+<p>But the smouldering discontent was destined to
+burst into flame, even though the flame might blaze
+forth but to flicker and die.</p>
+
+<p>On an appeal from the governor of Lohaya, a body
+of four hundred Turkish troops were despatched last
+summer to assist in collecting by force the taxes due
+from the Beni Meruan, a branch of the Asir people,
+and their southernmost tribe, who inhabit the country
+lying to the east of Lohaya, a port on the Red Sea
+coast north of Hodaidah. In command of this force
+was the very Mahammed Rushti Pasha whose house
+had been destroyed at Dhamar. The expedition was
+destined to complete failure, and being surprised by a
+large body of Arabs, was nearly annihilated before
+the security of a fort was reached, amongst those who
+fell being the pasha himself.</p>
+
+<p>In countries like the Yemen news travels with
+extraordinary rapidity, and the Arabs, hearing an
+exaggerated report of what had taken place, believed
+that at last their deliverance had come, for it was
+rumoured that the great district of the Asir, between
+the Yemen and the Hejaz, had risen, intent upon
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>exterminating the Turks. Where the news travelled
+the people rose in arms. Tribal banners long hid
+away were unfurled, and the cry of “God give victory
+to the Imam” echoed and re-echoed throughout the
+mountains and valleys of the Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the hero of the rebellion, Ahmed ed-Din,
+was living quietly at Sanaa on the subsidy of the
+Turkish Government, unconscious of what was taking
+place, although, doubtless, there was ever present in
+his mind the possibility of some day regaining for
+himself and his descendants the throne. He clearly
+saw that affairs were not ripe for a great rebellion,
+and almost against his will he was obliged to fly
+from the capital, and become the head of the rebel
+movement. Premature as things were, he must in
+the enthusiasm of his partisans have almost believed
+in their future success.</p>
+
+<p>It was a new <i>Jehad</i>, or holy war! The Turks
+were to be exterminated or driven away; the beloved
+Ahmed ed-Din—beloved on account of his birth and
+descent rather than from any knowledge of his personality—was
+to be reinstated on the throne. One
+by one the tribes rose, except only the Bedouin
+inhabitants of the Teháma and the southern deserts,
+who, possessing nothing but a few flocks and herds,
+and always wandering, were indifferent to Turkish or
+Arab rule, and awaited the result before promising
+allegiance to either side. The same plan was followed
+by many of the merchants and citizens, whose position
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>and intimacy with the Turkish officials placed
+them outside the bounds of oppression and taxation,
+and who in many cases were only too ready to take
+advantage of their fellow-countrymen’s unenviable
+position, by buying from the Turks the right of
+collecting the taxes of certain districts; for the privilege
+of levying dues is a commercial article, sold
+from time to time by auction, a system that relieves
+the Government of much anxiety and trouble, but
+encourages to an almost incredible extent cruelty
+and oppression.</p>
+
+<p>In what state were the Turks to repress a general
+rising of this sort? The force in the country was
+estimated at some sixteen thousand men, although
+in reality probably far short of that number; for
+during the two previous years cholera had wrought
+great havoc amongst the troops. These troops consisted
+of Turkish regulars, Bashi-bazouks, and a large
+number of Arab auxiliaries, drawn principally from
+the Mshareg and Hadramaut, the country to the east
+of the Yemen, who did not care whom they fought
+against, or for what reason they were fighting, so
+long as they were paid, and whose one stimulant to
+feats of bravery was promised reward. The Turkish
+troops already in Yemen were in a miserable state.
+Ill fed, ill clothed, thinned by disease, badly housed,
+and seldom, if ever, paid, it is no wonder that their
+spirit was broken in a land where during summer
+they were liable to a temperature that seldom falls
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>below a hundred in such shade as their badly built
+barracks afforded, and in winter to frosts, and at
+times snow—to all the vagaries, in fact, of a tropical
+climate on the tops of mountains of from seven
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>thousand to nine thousand feet in altitude. A more
+pitiful picture than the Turkish soldiers presented
+when the writer was in Yemen he never saw, and
+yet they fight like devils rather than men.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp48" id="illus04" style="max-width: 20.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus04.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Turkish troops on the march.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>A few days after the flight of the Imam, Sanaa,
+the capital, was besieged by an enormous force of
+Arabs, as was Amran, another walled city; while
+those which were not so protected fell, many without
+even a struggle, into the hands of the Arabs. Menakha,
+on the road from Hodaidah to Sanaa, offered a
+little resistance, but in vain. Those of the garrison
+who were not killed or wounded in the first onslaught
+of the Arabs were spared on surrender, and taken
+away prisoners, amongst their number being the
+Kaimakam or military governor. The same happened
+at Dhamar and Yerim, on the road from
+Sanaa to Aden; while in quick succession Ibb, Jiblah,
+and Taiz, all three large towns situated farther south,
+proclaimed for Ahmed ed-Din. All Turkish prisoners
+were spared. Many voluntarily went over to the
+side of the Arabs; some retired into private life on
+surrendering their arms. Those of importance were
+sent to the Imam, where report said they were housed
+and fed at his expense, doubtless in the hope of persuading
+them to throw in their lot with his own, and
+so obtain use of their superior knowledge of warfare.
+In very exceptional cases do we hear of the cruel
+treatment of Turks by the Arabs in their days of
+victory; and even when the tide of affairs was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>changed, the writer met amongst the Arabs, in districts
+where no Turkish troops could enter, deserters
+from the Osmanli forces being fed and clothed by the
+kindly Arabs; and in many cases money was supplied
+them by their <i>quondam</i> enemies to assist them in
+reaching Aden, or in escaping by other means from
+the hard life of soldiering.</p>
+
+<p>By this time telegrams were pouring into Constantinople
+from Hodaidah beseeching assistance;
+and the Porte, having at length realised how serious
+a turn affairs had taken, exerted all its activity in
+forwarding troops to the scene of war. By the time
+the new forces had embarked for Hodaidah, the whole
+country, with the exception of Sanaa and Amran and
+a small city in the Asir, by name Dhofir, had fallen
+into the hands of the rebels, the plains and seaboard
+towns holding aloof from any participation in the
+affair, though probably it was only the presence of
+better organised Turkish forces which kept in check
+the feeling which no doubt existed almost as strongly
+there as anywhere. The Beni Meruan, many of
+whose villages lie on the sea-coast, were pitilessly
+shelled by a couple of Turkish gunboats.</p>
+
+<p>Ahmed ed-Din remained at Sadah,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> whither he had
+fled from Sanaa; nor at any part of the revolt did
+he take active part in the fighting, a fact that in no
+small degree accounts for the subsequent failure of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>the rebellion. In all probability he never left Sadah,
+though in his religious character his movements were
+always spoken about with much mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Sanaa at the end of October was still in a state of
+siege, the garrison and townspeople suffering greatly
+from hunger and disease, though in Amran the state
+of the inhabitants was still more pitiable.</p>
+
+<p>Badly fed as they were at all times, worse now than
+ever, one cannot but admire the immense pluck of
+the handful of Turkish troops who kept at bay for
+several months an immense horde of Arabs. Not
+only was their courage exhibited in the dogged resistance
+within the town, but in their constant and often
+successful sorties against the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>A short description of the city of Sanaa is necessary
+in order to explain the positions of besiegers and
+besieged during the whole of last autumn.</p>
+
+<p>The city, which contains some fifty thousand inhabitants,
+lies in a wide level valley. It takes the
+form of a triangle, the eastern point consisting of a
+large fortress, dominating the town, and built upon
+the lowest spur of Jibel Negoum, a mountain which
+rises immediately outside the city walls. The town
+is divided into three distinct quarters, each walled,
+and the whole surrounded by one continuous wall.
+They are respectively the city proper, in which are
+the Government buildings, the huge bazaars, and the
+residence of the Arabs and Turks; the Jews’ quarter;
+and Bir el-Azab, where are gardens and villas belonging
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>to the richer Turks and Arabs. The city was
+once of great wealth and prosperity, and to-day
+remains one of the most nourishing cities of Arabia.
+The shops are well supplied with European goods,
+and a large manufacture of silk, jewellery, and arms
+is carried on there. The quarter in which the Government
+buildings are situated presents almost a European
+appearance, with its large Turkish shops, its <i>cafés</i>, and
+its open places, on one of which, in front of the Governor-General’s
+official residence, a military band discourses
+anything but sweet music of an afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>But the city, as the writer saw it after its recapture
+by the Turks, presented a very different spectacle
+from what it must have done when, surrounded on
+all sides by a horde of Arabs, a continual shower of
+bullets was being poured into its streets from the
+Arab position on Jibel Negoum, which completely
+dominated the place. Fortunately for those besieged,
+the rebels possessed no artillery, otherwise their efforts
+would no doubt have proved successful in gaining an
+entrance into the town. However, the fire poured
+into the city was sufficiently harassing to render it
+expedient to drive the Arabs from their position above
+the town, and several unsuccessful sorties were made.
+At length, mustering all the troops at his command,
+the pasha made a final sortie about the middle of
+November. Maintaining a steady fire from the fort
+upon the Arab position, the troops issued from the
+southern gate, and wheeling to the left after a gallant
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>attack—for the Arabs were in overwhelming numbers—drove
+the rebels back. They retreated on Dar es-salaam,
+a small village a few miles outside the walls
+of Sanaa, consisting of perhaps a dozen or so stone
+houses surrounded by a wall. Bringing up some
+small field-guns, the artillery opened fire upon the
+rebels, completely destroying the place and rendering
+a precipitate retreat of the Arabs necessary, which
+they are said to have accomplished in the wildest
+disorder, leaving, as I was informed, several thousand
+dead upon the field. But the victory was not altogether
+a blessing, for there being no one to bury the
+Arab dead, the inhabitants of the city suffered from
+violent disease, while the stench of the decaying
+bodies is said to have been terrible. Retiring once
+more within the precincts of the city, the Arabs again
+took up their old position; but their defeat seems to
+have to a great degree crushed their spirits, and the
+remainder of the siege, severe though the sufferings
+of the townspeople were, is said to have been less
+acute than previously. At any rate, the alarm of a
+successful attack on the part of the rebels seems to
+have abated.</p>
+
+<p>But relief was at hand. The Turkish reinforcements
+had landed in Hodaidah under the command
+of Ahmed Feizi Pasha, formerly Governor of Mecca,
+and commander of the Seventh Army Corps.</p>
+
+<p>Learning on his arrival at Hodaidah how serious
+was the state of affairs, he at once took active
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span>measures, and without even waiting for commissariat
+arrangements to be carried out, marched his
+troops <i>viâ</i> Bajil to Hojaila, a village at the foot of
+the mountains on which the town of Menakha is
+situated, and over which the road to Sanaa passes.
+Here three days later they were overtaken by the
+commissariat camels bringing flour and provisions for
+the soldiers. Having rested his men, he commenced
+the ascent of the steep road, and here met with the
+first show of resistance. But the Turkish soldiers
+were fresh and fought well, and the superiority of
+arms did its work. With but a short delay to force
+the road, Menakha was reached.</p>
+
+<p>There is perhaps in the world no city situated in
+the way that Menakha is. At an altitude of seven
+thousand six hundred feet above the sea-level, it is
+perched on a narrow ridge joining two distinct
+mountain-ranges. On either side of the city are
+precipices, each of considerably over two thousand
+feet in depth. So narrow is the town that there are
+places in it where one can stand and gaze down both
+these precipices at the same time. To reach it from
+the west there is only one path in the steep mountain-side;
+while from the east it can only be approached
+by a narrow track cut in the face of a precipice and
+winding up it for an ascent of two thousand five
+hundred feet. In the hands of well-regulated forces
+it would be impregnable; but the Arab defenders,
+learning how easily the new Governor-General and his
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>troops had forced the road at Hojaila, made no plucky
+resistance: and armed as they were almost entirely
+with matchlock and fuse guns—and many only with
+spears—they could have made no permanent stand
+against the field-guns of the Turks, who are said in
+one day to have brought their light artillery from
+Hojaila to Menakha, an ascent of nearly six thousand
+feet, by a break-neck path. But few shots had been
+fired when the Arabs fled, and the Turks once more
+took possession of the place. Leaving a sufficient
+garrison to protect the town, and to keep open a
+line of communication with the coast, Ahmed Feizi
+marched on towards Sanaa. About thirty miles from
+Menakha, on the road to the capital, is a spot called
+Hajarat el-Mehedi, where the track is so narrow and
+so bad that even without resistance it would offer no
+slight obstacle to the passage of troops. Here the
+rebel army under Seyed esh-Sheraï, a cousin to Ahmed
+ed-Din, took up a position, and a twelve days’ delay
+and fighting took place before the Turks could force
+their way through. But on the twelfth day it was
+accomplished, and the rebels dispersed. Halting but
+now and again to shell some village, the troops by
+hurried marches reached Sanaa, and on their being
+sighted by the Arab besiegers on Jibel Negoum, the
+Imam’s force retired into the mountains to the east,
+where no Turkish troops could follow them.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp06" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp06.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>MENAKHA.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The capital relieved, Ahmed Feizi was not idle.
+He arrived in time to save the garrison of Amran,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>where, as at Sanaa, the Arabs retired on the approach
+of the Turkish forces. Returning to Sanaa, he set to
+work to reorganise affairs, despatching Ismail Pasha
+with a considerable number of troops to recapture
+Dhamar and Yerim. Proclaiming military law, which
+in this case meant almost no law, throughout the
+country, the new Governor-General offered a reward
+for the head of every rebel brought to him, and turned
+loose upon the Arabs his Turkish troops to loot and
+plunder their villages. Marching to the south, Ismail
+Pasha halted at Maaber to shell the villages of Jibel
+Anis, retook Dhamar without any opposition being
+offered, and, leaving a garrison there, proceeded to
+Yerim, and thence by Seddah and Sobeh to Kátaba,
+where the writer found him encamped with four hundred
+troops toward the middle of last January. Ibb,
+Jiblah, and Taiz returned under Turkish rule without
+a struggle.</p>
+
+<p>There is no nation in the world that can put down
+a rebellion as the Turks can, but they have a great
+objection to any one seeing the process; and the presence
+of the writer, turning up suddenly in Sanaa
+while Ahmed Feizi Pasha was engaged upon this
+task, caused such a shock, that he and his servants
+were securely confined in prison as spies in spite of
+passports, until, from the unsanitary conditions of
+the place and the bad water supplied, he was seized
+with a violent attack of fever; and no doubt thinking
+that it would be better to get rid of him alive
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>than have an objectionable corpse on their hands, and
+probably a good many questions to answer, a guard
+of soldiers was prepared, and the writer was hurried
+away to Hodaidah with orders to quit. Yet, in spite
+of the fact that his relations with Ahmed Feizi Pasha
+were a little strained, he cannot but testify to his
+admirable activity and soldier-like bearing—an admiration
+dimmed only by the cruelty, perhaps almost
+necessary, of some of his commands. Thus it will be
+seen, from the day that Ahmed Feizi Pasha took over the
+governor-generalship of the Yemen, the tide of events
+had completely changed. A series of Arab victories
+had ended in a series of Arab defeats. Had Sanaa
+been taken, the result would doubtless have been
+different; but in their endeavours to take it they
+failed. Renowned in history, sacred to them as the
+former seat of government of their Imams, their want
+of success in capturing it, together with the action of
+Ahmed ed-Din, who held aloof from any active part
+in the warfare, broke their spirits. Had they succeeded
+in entering Sanaa, had they brought their
+Imam there in state, there is some possibility that
+the Turks might have lost the Yemen for ever. They
+themselves, and Ahmed Feizi Pasha the first of them,
+told the writer this.</p>
+
+<p>Thus by the end of January the Turks had reconquered
+all the cities of Yemen with the exception of
+one, Dhofir, at that time still besieged by the Arabs.
+Yet in spite of the fact that Turkish rule was again
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>reinstated in the country, in spite of the fact that
+what with the reinforcements there were altogether
+some forty thousand troops in the Yemen, the rebellion
+was by no means stamped out. This is easily understood
+when the nature of the country is described.
+Central Yemen consists of a great plateau, upon which
+are situated the three principal cities, Sanaa, Dhamar,
+and Yerim. This plateau is surrounded by a system of
+mountains broken and torn into valleys and cañons,
+peaks and pinnacles, amongst which it would be impossible
+for any Turkish force to operate. Many of
+these mountains reach an altitude of over twelve
+thousand and thirteen thousand feet, the summits
+often connected with the valleys beneath by precipices
+of thousands of feet in depth. The only roads—mere
+tracks they are—are cut in the face of these
+walls of rock, and often are not a yard in breadth.
+Amongst these enormous mountain-ranges—and to
+the north of Sanaa one can travel for days and weeks
+amongst them—the spirit of rebellion burns as fiercely
+to-day as ever. Certainly the towns are now in the
+possession of the Turks, yet the main roads that connect
+the towns are unsafe for Turks to pass over,
+except in considerable numbers together. It was to
+a large extent from these mountain districts that the
+revenues of the Government were previously drawn;
+for the Arabs of the Yemen, unlike those of the Hejaz
+and most other Arabian States, are tillers of the soil,
+living in well-built and permanent villages, one and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>all roughly fortified, from which they would be able
+to withstand any band of armed tax-collectors, such
+as were wont formerly to be sent to levy the dues, as
+often on behalf of those who had purchased the rights
+of collecting from the district as on the part of the
+Government direct. In many of these villages the
+writer sat, sharing with the Arabs their humble repast,
+sipping their coffee and smoking their hubble-bubbles,
+and listening to their strange songs and
+prayers for the return of the Imam, Ahmed ed-Din,
+to power.</p>
+
+<p>The rebellion has been outwardly crushed, but the
+prestige of Turkey in the Yemen has received a severe
+blow. The exorbitant squeezing will have to be
+abandoned, with the results that the revenue will
+probably fall to a tenth of its former sum. Many
+tribes formerly taxed will maintain an armed independence.
+The garrisons in the towns must be doubled,
+and the Yemen as a means of filling the Turkish coffers
+will be finished. Over the rebellion the Porte
+has expended a vast sum of money, while any attempt
+to recoup itself from the scene of action will but bring
+on a second and probably more disastrous rising.</p>
+
+<p>Little more remains to be told except to consider
+briefly in what manner a permanent Arab success
+would have influenced ourselves. It was generally
+believed amongst the Turks in all quarters that it was
+British intrigue that stirred up the rebellion in the
+Yemen, although even the Turks themselves were at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>a loss to understand what advantages we should reap
+through such an action. They called attention to
+the independent States that lie between Aden and
+the Turkish frontier at Kátaba, the states of Lahej,
+Dhala, and the lands of the Houshabi, Aloui, and
+other tribes. Yet Ahmed Feizi Pasha himself informed
+the writer that, equally with the English, the
+Turkish Government subsidise their Sultans, Amirs,
+and Sheikhs; but the object of our subsidising them
+is misunderstood by the officials of Sanaa and Constantinople.
+To them it is impossible to consider in
+the same light as we do the vast importance of trade;
+and it is merely that the roads which pass through
+these various States may be kept open and safe for
+caravans trading with Aden, that we pay large monthly
+sums to the native rulers. At the same time, it is
+doubtless an advantage to possess a more or less independent
+strip of country between our frontier at
+Aden and that of the Turkish Yemen.</p>
+
+<p>What has been to England the result of the Turkish
+occupation of the Yemen? It has been a result
+enormously beneficial. Formerly, in the time of
+Arab rule, no caravans were able to pass and repass
+in safety from the interior to Aden. The inability
+of the Imam to hold the tribes in check rendered the
+looting of every caravan probable. But since the
+arrival of the Turks things have altered. By keeping
+the roads open the Turks have rendered a vast
+service to England, by, as far as their power went,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span>ensuring safe-conduct to the passage of caravans,
+while unconsciously their greed in levying enormous
+export and import dues at Hodaidah and their ports
+has driven the greater part of the Yemen trade to
+Aden—a free port. Thus it will be seen how vastly
+beneficial to England has been the conquest of the
+Yemen by the Turks; and had the Osmanli Government
+lost possession of the country, the result could
+have brought about but one effect—a return to the
+state of affairs previous to Turkish annexation, and
+a consequent enormous diminution of the Aden trade
+both in coffee and exports, and in the European
+goods and tobaccos from the Persian Gulf, for which
+the returning caravans create a great demand. Yet
+the Turks assured the writer that the British Government
+was supplying arms and assistance to the rebels.
+In reality the rifles were being smuggled in by
+private traders from the French port at Obock.</p>
+
+<p>As to what will be the future policy of Turkey in
+the Yemen it is difficult to surmise. No doubt
+Abdul Hamid will be guided much by the report of
+his aide-de-camp Yakoub Bey, who was despatched to
+Sanaa for the purpose of bringing a full report to the
+Sultan. Rather than risk a second rebellion, there
+is little doubt that a conciliatory policy will be
+attempted; but the Yemen is too far removed from
+Constantinople to be governed from there, and as
+soon as affairs have quieted down, the officials will
+take advantage of their positions to commence once
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span>more the oppression of the people and the filling of
+their pockets. Could they be persuaded that extortion
+is not the road by which to arrive at a
+satisfactory system of government, they would find
+the country daily growing richer, and their relations
+with the Arabs more peaceable and less strained
+than at present. But the leopard cannot change his
+spots; and it is only probable that as long as
+Osmanli supremacy exists in the Yemen, officialdom
+will continue to enrich itself and impoverish the
+country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="PART_II">PART II.<br>
+<span class="smaller">A JOURNEY THROUGH THE YEMEN</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.<br>
+<span class="smaller">ADEN.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span></p>
+
+<p>There is not a breath of wind to stir the placid surface
+of the sea—not a breath to cause a draught upon the
+ship and cool us for a second. It is one of those
+terrible still tropical days, motionless, silent, oppressive.
+Nothing to hear but the hissing of the sea as
+the vessel’s bows plough up the turquoise water, and
+the thud, thud of her never-ceasing screw. Even the
+Lascars in their white clothes and bare feet, children
+of the sun as they are, seem downcast.</p>
+
+<p>We are passing Perim. It lies on the port side, a
+dirty blot upon a scene of opalesque transparence, of
+shimmering water and palpitating sky.</p>
+
+<p>A youth travelling round the world stretches himself,
+jots a few lines in his diary, and commences to
+tell the old story of the taking of Perim. But he is
+soon cried down, and silence reigns again.</p>
+
+<p>On both sides we can see the land,—burning rock
+seen through a burning atmosphere. A number
+of flying-fish buzz over the surface of the water,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>and with a series of little splashes disappear once
+again.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>A few hours later and Aden is in sight, with its
+broken and torn peaks and jagged outline. A little
+movement is noticeable amongst the passengers, but
+it is half-hearted at the best.</p>
+
+<p>Then we enter the grand bay, surrounded by desolate
+rock and still more desolate desert, and drop
+anchor a mile or so off Steamer Point, as the shipping
+quarter of Aden is called.</p>
+
+<p>The steamer is quickly surrounded. A few steam-launches,
+heavily awninged, screech their whistles;
+while a crowd of small boats manned by coal-black
+Somali boys, each striving to be the first upon the
+scene, crowd upon us. They are boatmen, divers,
+and sellers of curiosities—smart, bright little fellows,
+more than half nude, and as black as coal, many with
+their hair left long like the cords of a Russian poodle.
+Such a screaming and a yelling! Such a diving after
+small coins! Such a display of leopard-skins, antelope-horns,
+especially those of the lovely oryx, and ostrich-feathers,
+products of the opposite coast! A few dull
+austere Indians and Cingalese display embroideries
+and table-cloths, but the heat seems to depress them,
+just as it does the buyers.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp07" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp07.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>TOMB AND MOSQUE OF SHEIKH OTHMAN, NEAR ADEN.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>It is a wonderful sight to watch the divers, balanced
+on the gunwales of the boats, their hands above their
+heads, watching eagerly for the tiny splash of a small
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>coin, then breaking the water into a series of dancing
+circles as their dusky bodies disappear into the transparent
+blue. One can see them too under water, turning
+like fishes in search of the slowly sinking
+money. When the excitement had worn off, and
+those passengers who cared to brave the sun’s terrific
+rays by taking a short run ashore had left, I hailed
+a boy, who, with the aid of Abdurrahman, my ever-faithful
+Arab servant from Morocco, stowed my luggage
+into the boat. Then I said good-bye to the
+P. and O. steamer, and was rowed ashore.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp96" id="map1" style="max-width: 50.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/map1.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>SKETCH MAP OF ADEN AND ITS SURROUNDINGS<br>
+      To Illustrate Mr. W. B. Harris’ “A Journey through the Yemen”</p>
+      <p>W. &amp; A. K. Johnston. Edinburgh &amp; London.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At some steps leading to a galvanised-iron-roofed
+landing-place I stepped ashore. What a scene of
+desolation and dreariness Aden presents to the new-comer!
+and how soon one gets to like the place in
+spite of it all! A background of dreary blackish rock,
+a sandy road, half-a-dozen rickety <i>gharies</i> under the
+shelter of a hideous iron-roofing, with sleepy little
+ponies and still more sleepy Somali drivers; a whitewashed
+domed saint’s tomb, with an apology for a
+garden on each side, in which a few weary-looking
+plants were trying to appear green under a thick
+coating of dust and a sweltering sun; a long crescent
+of badly built houses, with the exception of the handsome
+Aden Bank buildings, faced by an expanse of
+sand and black palings,—and that is Steamer Point,
+as one first sees it. But as the sun sinks low a figure
+or two appear, and toward sunset the place wears a
+gay and flourishing appearance.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span></p>
+
+<p>Getting my baggage into a hand-cart, I set off for
+the hotel, where at least was shade and tolerable coolness,
+say some 90° Fahrenheit. But in spite of its
+dreary aspect, in spite of the dull monotony of its
+colouring, one gets quite fond of Aden. The cheery
+hospitality of the garrison, the gorgeous early mornings
+and evenings, the delicious warm January nights,
+the club, the verandahs of which are laved by the sea,
+the white hulls of the men-of-war in the bay, and the
+pleasant evenings spent under their awnings, dispel
+all the unfavourable impressions which are at first
+so numerous and apparent. In a few days one has
+forgotten that the whole place, from the top of Sham-sham
+down to the sandy isthmus, is all a volcanic
+hideosity; one has forgotten that the whole is so
+impregnated with salt as to almost forbid any verdure
+to grow, and that, should it by chance take root,
+the sun is there to kill it. One sees after a time only
+the picturesqueness of the place,—the strange torn
+mountain-peaks; the gay thronging crowd of many
+nationalities all bent on their several businesses,
+except the Jews, who seem bent upon everybody
+else’s; and the Somalis, who are as indifferent to the
+general world as they are to the heat, excepting when
+a passing steamer lands for an hour or two a flock of
+extraordinarily habited travellers—and then the cabs
+fly backwards and forwards, the ponies kicking up the
+dust, their feet rattling along the hard roads and
+making almost as much noise as the cracking of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>jehus’ whips; then the Jews, the money-changers,
+pass and repass, spilling their coins one by one from
+hand to hand, until the very jingling drives one
+frantic; and the black urchins, who have learnt English
+enough to lie with facility, and to beg, worry, and
+bother until they are paid to go away, appear. Then
+the curio-seller, be he Greek or Jew or swarthy Indian,
+creeps out from amongst his moth-eaten lion and leopard
+skins and his boxes of stale “Turkish delight,”
+and with outstretched hands bids the traveller enter.
+Then, too, there is the jingling of long tumblers on
+the wide verandah of the hotel, and a crowd of boats
+in readiness at the landing-place. Just like a flock of
+locusts they come and stay their hour or two, and just
+like a flock of locusts they go, some outward bound,
+some returning home; and Steamer Point is itself
+again.</p>
+
+<p>Often as Aden has been described, it is necessary
+here to make some mention of its various sights and
+the varied scenes it presents; for, as part and parcel
+of the Yemen, it cannot be passed over in a book that
+attempts to deal with that country. If, however, the
+reader has been there, or has read more pretentious
+accounts of it, let him skip it over.</p>
+
+<p>Hated, spoken of as typical of the infernal regions,
+ugly as it is, Aden perhaps can claim an antiquity and
+an importance throughout all history unparalleled, for
+its size and its situation, in the annals of the world.
+When countries, now the centres of vast civilisations,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>consisted of primeval forests, inhabited by almost
+primeval man, and filled with wild beasts, Aden was
+an emporium of trade. With every possible natural
+disadvantage, except its harbour and its situation, it
+was inhabited by merchants, who collected and reshipped
+by vessel and by caravan the wealth of many
+lands. Africa, India, the Persian Gulf, poured on
+to the arid volcanic rock their gold and their purples,
+their spices and their precious stones.</p>
+
+<p>“Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied
+with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in
+these were they thy merchants. The merchants of
+Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they
+occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with
+all precious stones, and gold. Haran, and Canneh,
+and <i>Eden</i>, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad,
+were thy merchants.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> There is no doubt in
+the minds of competent authorities that the place
+here referred to as Eden is none other than Aden,
+while many other of the names mentioned have been
+identified with ruins and towns of modern Arabia;
+but of this more anon.</p>
+
+<p>Ibn Khaldun, in his geographical notes on the
+Yemen, writing in the eighth century <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>, mentions
+the extreme antiquity of Aden, speaking of it as a
+place of importance in the time of the Tubbas, who
+were the kings descended from Himyar, son of Abd
+esh-Shems, great-grandson of Kahtan, said to be the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span>Joktan of the Jewish Scriptures, the founder of the
+oldest authentic tribes in the Yemen; for although
+they migrated to that country, there are no remains
+to be traced of the inhabitants who were there before
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to more historical times, we find that
+during the reigns of one of the Cæsars, probably
+Claudius, Aden was destroyed by the Romans,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a>
+probably in order to divert the trade of India to the
+ports which Ælius Gallus had founded on the shores
+of the Red Sea, to which Aden proved, no doubt,
+a formidable rival. Later we find it conquered by
+the army of Constantine, and re-named Emporium
+Romanum.</p>
+
+<p>Returning once more to oriental sources, we find
+the place split up by the wars and factions which were
+so constant throughout the Yemen, and Aden several
+times was besieged and conquered. Most important,
+perhaps, of these early monarchs was the line of
+Hamdani princes, who, descended from the Beni
+Zuray, held it from about 440 <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> with many ups
+and downs of fortune, until in <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span> 569 it was
+conquered by the troops of Turan Shah of the Ayyubite
+dynasty of Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>In 1487, some three hundred years after the
+accession of the Ayyubite Sultans over Aden, a period
+of continued strife, we find the place visited by a
+Portuguese by name John Pedro de Covilham. This
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>expedition was organised to explore that quarter of
+the globe after an ambassador had been sent to
+Florence by the Christian King of Abyssinia whom
+we have learned to know by the name of Prester
+John. Covilham eventually ended his days at Shoa,
+at the Court of Iskander, or Alexander, the then
+reigning prince.</p>
+
+<p>From the next European, however, who visited
+Aden we have a more succinct account, though unfortunately
+his work upon the subject of his travels&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a>
+is so taken up with personal narrative, and his names
+are so unreliable, that it is with some difficulty that
+historical events are recognised. I refer to Ludovico
+de Barthema, known also as Vertomanus, who travelled
+in Arabia about the year 1504.</p>
+
+<p>Albuquerque’s attack upon Aden forms one of the
+most interesting items in its history, and short notice
+must be taken of it here. The sovereign of Abyssinia
+at this epoch was a Christian, Queen Helena by name,
+who, wishing to obtain assistance by which to keep
+off the Arab invasions into her own country, sent an
+Armenian envoy to the Court of Lisbon. After
+wandering about in a somewhat vague way for several
+years—he went <i>viâ</i> India, where he was detained
+twenty-three months—he at length, in 1513, arrived
+at Lisbon. He found on his arrival that an expedition
+was already organised to carry out the proposals
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>he was bringing from his queen, and in command of
+which Alphonso de Albuquerque left India in February
+of the same year with two thousand five hundred men,
+two-thirds of them Portuguese, the rest Indians. On
+Easter eve they arrived at Aden, and at once attacked
+the place. After a siege of four days further efforts
+were found to be useless; and bombarding the town,
+and destroying the native shipping, the Portuguese
+flotilla sailed for the Red Sea. A second attempt on
+the part of Albuquerque to take Aden the following
+spring again failed, owing to the fact that it had
+meanwhile been refortified.</p>
+
+<p>A few years later, in 1516 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, Aden was again
+besieged, this time by an expedition sent from Egypt
+under Raïs Suleiman; but the city was again found to
+be impregnable, and the attacking force suffered very
+considerable loss. However, so weakened had the
+fortifications been by these repeated attacks, that
+when Soarez arrived shortly afterwards, the governor
+surrendered the place into his hands; but on the
+Portuguese attempting to follow and capture Suleiman’s
+fleet, the governor made haste to repair the
+fortifications, and on Soarez’s return he found himself
+baffled, and Aden more firmly in the hands of the
+Amir Morjaun than ever.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Suleiman had organised an enormous
+fleet, with part of which he visited Aden. The city
+was taken by treachery; for the governor, having
+been enticed on board the ships, was hung, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>soldiers landed on beds under the pretence that they
+were sick men. In 1551 the inhabitants, oppressed
+by the cruel representatives left by Suleiman, rebelled,
+and ceded Aden to the Portuguese.</p>
+
+<p>It is not for nearly fifty years later than this date
+that we find the English in these seas. On the 8th
+April 1609 a ship belonging to the East India Company,
+by name the Ascension, visited Aden. Received
+with every possible courtesy, the captain
+was, when once safely in the hands of the governor,
+entrapped and imprisoned, and only allowed to leave
+Aden after paying heavy fines in goods and money.
+A year later the Darling and the Peppercorn arrived,
+under the command of Admiral Sir Henry Middleton.
+On the Darling proceeding to Mokha, the crew of the
+Peppercorn were treacherously seized and detained in
+prison.</p>
+
+<p>The Dutch were the next to appear upon the scene,
+Van den Broeck arriving with a fleet in 1614, in order
+to found trading relations between the natives and
+the Dutch East India Company. Their overtures
+were exceedingly well received by the officials, but
+the jealousy of the more influential native merchants
+prevented their being able to come to any satisfactory
+arrangement. From this period until the beginning
+of the present century Aden shared the ups and
+downs of fate that are so frequent in all oriental
+places; but as any account of these would prove
+tedious, they can very well be omitted. In 1802
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>we find Aden visited by Sir Home Popham, who,
+having failed in concluding a treaty with the Imam
+of Sanaa, was able to enter upon and carry through
+a commercial and amicable treaty with the then
+Sultan of Aden. As late as 1833 we find another
+example of the treachery of the natives of Aden.
+Turkchee Bilmas, as Mahammed Agha was nicknamed,
+after his series of extraordinary victories, having demanded
+and received the surrender of the governor
+of Aden, sent thither a mission of forty persons.
+They were well received, but during the night more
+than half their number were foully murdered, the
+rest escaping in miserable plight.</p>
+
+<p>In 1835 steamers of the Indian Government having
+harboured in Aden, made use of it as a coaling-station;
+but it was, on account of the difficulty of
+obtaining labour, changed for Makulla, a port to the
+east on the Hadramaut coast. After, in 1837, being
+sacked by the Foudtheli tribe, the attention of the
+Indian Government was called to Aden by the fact
+that a ship flying British colours, the Deria Dowlat,
+being wrecked near that port, the vessel was looted,
+and the passengers, some of whom were native
+ladies of rank, insultingly treated. Captain Haines,
+in command of the war-sloop Coote, arrived in
+December, and laid a claim before the Sultan
+for twelve thousand dollars compensation. A plot
+being in the air to obtain possession of the person
+and papers of Captain Haines, he sailed for India,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>returning in October 1838 to enforce the carrying out
+of the cession of Aden in return for an annual payment
+to the Sultan of nearly nine thousand dollars
+a-year. Having been insultingly treated, Captain
+Haines commenced to blockade the port, until, in
+January 1839, H.M.S. Volage and H.M.S. Cruizer
+arrived upon the scene. A message to surrender
+being left unanswered, the town was bombarded and
+taken, the Sultan and his family escaping to Lahej,
+a city some thirty miles in the interior. The capture
+of Aden is curious as being the first addition to the
+Empire made during the reign of Queen Victoria.</p>
+
+<p>It is wonderful to notice how soon it became
+apparent to the natives that they had nothing to
+fear from the British occupation; but, in spite of
+this feeling of satisfaction in the eyes of the lower-class
+natives and the merchants, the chiefs of the
+Abdali tribe, in spite of solemn bonds to the contrary,
+attempted to retake the place. In this they
+failed, and, exasperated at their want of success, commenced
+a series of depredations upon the caravans
+and local property of Arabs residing in Aden. After
+a severe struggle in 1841, in which two Arab forts on
+the mainland were destroyed by the British troops,
+affairs remained in a more peaceful condition until,
+in 1846, Seyed Ismail, a fanatical Shereef, preached a
+holy war and the retaking of Aden from the infidels.
+Augmented by many local tribes, three separate attempts
+were made upon Aden, each of which was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>successfully repulsed. Like all such failures in the
+East, the Seyed was stamped as an impostor, and,
+his army having dissolved, he was killed by a Bedouin
+in 1848. In 1850 the crew of a man-of-war’s boat
+landing on the north side of the bay was attacked,
+and some of the number were wounded, one man
+being killed. A still more melancholy affair happened
+in February 1851, when a shooting-party was
+attacked at the village of Wáhat, of whom Captain
+Milne was killed and several others badly wounded.
+A series of like depredations and outrages continued
+to take place, until in 1858 an attack was made upon
+the Arabs and the battle of Sheikh Othman fought,
+which ended in the blowing up of the fort and the
+village, and the opening of negotiations for a friendly
+understanding between the British Government and
+the Abdali Sultan.</p>
+
+<p>From this time on affairs became more quiet; but
+on the Turks conquering the interior of the Yemen in
+1872—they had held a firm footing on the Red Sea
+coast before this period—it was found necessary to
+demand the withdrawal of the Osmanli forces from
+the tribe lands surrounding Aden. At this epoch,
+too, Little Aden, a sister peninsula which forms the
+western shore of the Aden bay, was purchased, and
+in 1883 British territory was extended across the
+isthmus, by which arrangement the entire shores
+of the harbour fell under the jurisdiction of the
+British Government. Included in this deed of purchase
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span>is the village of Sheikh Othman, now a flourishing
+little township, with a police station and a clock
+tower dominating its principal square. Bungalows
+have been built there and gardens laid out, and
+Sheikh Othman to-day presents quite a prosperous
+appearance, though the less said about its inhabitants,
+for the most part Arab dancing-girls, the better.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, then, the extent of territory in the possession
+of the British Government in the vicinity of Aden
+may be described as follows: Aden on the east,
+Little Aden on the west, and an intermediate strip
+along the north shore of the bay; the total area
+forming some seventy square miles. Of these, Aden
+alone is fortified.</p>
+
+<p>The peninsula is situated one hundred and twenty
+miles from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, in latitude
+12° 47′ N., and longitude 45° E. It is five miles in
+length and three in breadth, and consists of hills of
+bare grey-black rock, the highest of which, Jibel Sham-sham,
+reaches an altitude of nearly eighteen hundred
+feet above the sea-level. The volcanic origin of the
+place is clearly demonstrated by the fact that there
+exists a large crater, which, owing to the broken
+spurs of rock by which it is surrounded, renders
+a greater portion of the peninsula uninhabitable.
+However, in such parts as are suitable for building
+the most has been made, and an extraordinary
+number of people find room to exist upon the barren
+rock, which of itself produces none of the necessities
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>of life. Including the population of Sheikh Othman,
+the census return in 1891 was over thirty-eight
+thousand, whereas at the time of the British conquest
+in 1839 the population numbered only some six
+thousand.</p>
+
+<p>The greater portion of the population consists of
+Arabs and Somalis. The Arabs are for the most
+part labourers, ship-coalers, and some shopkeepers
+and traders. The Somalis prefer the lighter trade
+of cab-driving, the rowing of small boats, and such
+work. They seem perfectly incapable of stationary
+labour, and unable to conquer their nomad traits.
+Almost every nationality is found in Aden: besides
+the Europeans there are Hindus, Parsees, Turks,
+Egyptian Arabs, Persians, Chinese, Seedy boys,
+Abyssinians, Jews, and many natives of India of
+different types and classes. Principal amongst the
+British Indian subjects are the Parsees, who act as
+agents and shopkeepers, in which professions they
+equal the meanness—or shall I call it business talent—of
+the Jews. One sees them everywhere with their
+long white flimsy garments and curious head-gear
+resembling a coal-scuttle. They have brought to
+Aden a spark of the ever-living fire of Bombay, and
+have established themselves there with their temples
+and womenfolk, and are annexing a very considerable
+proportion of the trade.</p>
+
+<p>The peninsula of Aden boasts two towns and an
+important village. The former are Aden proper,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>situated on the level bottom of the crater, and
+Tawahi, at Steamer Point, which contains some
+seven hundred houses, inhabited for the most part
+by those who gain a livelihood dependent upon the
+shipping. The large town of Aden proper contains
+some eighteen thousand inhabitants. The principal
+village is Maala, where the native craft, strange
+dhows and <i>bugalas</i>, anchor; and here nearly all the
+native trade is shipped or landed, as the case may be.</p>
+
+<p>Before entering upon any description of Aden as it
+appears to the traveller of to-day, it may be as well to
+finish such statistics as are necessary here. First, as
+to the anchorage that Aden affords to shipping. The
+bay, which attains its greatest length almost due
+east and west, consists of two distinct portions, the
+inner and the outer harbour. The former, almost
+landlocked, extends to a length of some five miles,
+while the latter is the large portion lying between
+Little Aden and Aden. The depth varies from three
+to five fathoms in the western bay and at the
+entrance, while a couple of miles outside ten and
+twelve fathoms can be found. A small island in the
+inner harbour, opposite Tawahi, serves the purpose of
+a quarantine station. Very considerable improvements
+have lately been carried out, and the depth of
+certain anchorage in the inner bay successfully increased
+by aid of a large dredger—a veritable eyesore
+amongst the strange and picturesque native craft
+with which at certain times the bay is crowded. The
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>larger steamers, such as the P. and O. and the Messageries
+Maritimes, lie at some distance from the shore,
+toward the mouth of the harbour; but the British
+India, Austrian Lloyd’s, and several other important
+lines, bring their ships in close under Steamer Point.
+This, however, is due to the fact that they usually
+remain a longer time there, and that it affords them
+greater and cheaper facilities for coaling.</p>
+
+<p>It is, of course, as a coaling-station that Aden is
+most renowned. In 1891 some 165,000 tons were
+imported, which, together with the other trade of the
+colony, brings the value of imports and exports up
+to a sum of over five millions sterling per annum.
+What result the opening of the coaling-station on the
+island of Perim may have on the coal trade of Aden
+remains yet to be seen, but it seems improbable that,
+as was said at the time, it will ever become a more
+important place than the other.</p>
+
+<p>Apart from the commerce in coal, there is by no
+means an unimportant trade carried on with the neighbouring
+coasts of Arabia, the Persian Gulf, the Red
+Sea, and the African coast. This is principally in the
+hands of native merchants, and a very considerable
+quantity of the cargo is transported in native sailing
+craft. The chief articles are hides, coffee, feathers,
+gums, dyes, spices and perfumes, silk, and mother-of-pearl
+shells and ivory.</p>
+
+<p>The coffee trade which now finds its outlet at Aden
+was formerly almost entirely in the hands of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>Mokha and Hodaidah merchants; but the former
+town is now deserted, and the heavy dues of the
+Turkish authorities at the latter have diverted a large
+part of the coffee to Aden, a free port, although a
+considerable amount is still shipped from Hodaidah
+to Aden by sea. The coffee which reaches Aden
+direct is brought down by caravan from the highlands
+of the interior and sold to the Aden merchants.
+A very considerable quantity is also brought across
+from the African coast, shipped almost entirely from
+Zeilah, one of the Somali ports, to which spot it is
+brought on camels from the highlands of Harrar and
+the Galla country, all of which is practically suitable
+to the growth of the coffee tree, which necessitates a
+high altitude above the level of the sea. The ostrich-feathers
+are the produce of Somali and the Donakil
+country. Mother-of-pearl shells are brought from the
+Persian Gulf and the Red Sea fisheries, and ivory
+from Somali-land and Abyssinia. The food for the
+garrison is imported from the African coast and from
+Arabia. Sheep and goats are weekly shipped in large
+quantities from Berbera, Bulhar, and Zeilah; while
+oxen, vegetables, fodder, and fuel are brought in by
+camel-caravan from Lahej and the surrounding country.</p>
+
+<p>What, however, astonishes one about Aden is the
+fact that it has no local industries. All skilled labour
+has to be imported from China or India; while even
+such simple trades as mat-making, boat-building, and
+suchlike are almost neglected.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span></p>
+
+<p>The climate of Aden is by no means so bad as it is
+generally described to be, and I believe that statistical
+returns give a very fair average of health
+there. The temperature for the whole year averages
+about 85° Fahr. in the shade, the extremes being
+72° and 102°. During my visit the thermometer
+only once rose above 90°, and then only for a short
+period, and once fell as low as 74°. The sky during
+the winter months is unclouded, and the climate may
+be said to be delightful, though great care must be
+taken not to get chilled at sundown. Early in June
+the south-west monsoon breaks. Damp and unpleasant
+as this ocean wind may seem, it is the sole
+cause that renders Aden inhabitable for Europeans
+during the summer. The changes of the monsoon,
+May and September, are the worst periods in the
+year, the thermometer often varying only between
+100° in the day and 90° at night! The rainfall of
+Aden is very changeable, in some years rising to
+eight inches, in others being only one-fourth of an
+inch; but it is sufficient to keep alive a few plants,
+that do their little best to break the monotony of
+the dull rocks. After a shower the valleys sometimes
+wear quite a green appearance, but as a rule
+this does not last long, for the sun and dust soon
+dry them up again. However, it is said that there
+are no less than one hundred and thirty species, of
+over forty different orders, the most common being
+<i>Euphorbiaceæ</i>, the <i>Acacia eburnea</i>, <i>Caparidiciæ</i>,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>and the lovely <i>Adenum obesum</i>. A few wild dogs,
+jackals, and foxes can be found in the rocky valleys;
+and birds are common—kites, hawks, flycatchers,
+and wagtails being permanent residents, while many
+species pay the place an occasional visit.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
+
+<p>Having thus briefly run through the statistics of
+Aden to such an extent as I deem necessary for a
+work of this kind, I will continue with the personal
+narrative of my journey, and, having exhausted my
+books of reference, describe Aden as it appeared
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>I have said elsewhere that the terrible feeling of
+oppression soon wears off, and that, after only a few
+days’ residence in the place, one has forgotten how
+truly desolate and dreary are the great brown peaks
+that rear their heads so far above one on all sides. I
+never was in a place that so shocks one at first, and
+yet which one so quickly comes to like. It took only
+a day or two to shake off the feeling of the hideous
+barrenness of the place; and having made a few
+friends, I soon began to perceive how charming life
+can be made with all the disadvantages of such surroundings
+and climate as Aden possesses.</p>
+
+<p>The club, the very verandahs of which are laved
+by the sea-waves, is one of the best of its kind in the
+East; and many a pleasant evening I spent there,
+listening now and again to a military band which
+once a-week discourses sweet music in its precincts.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>Pleasantest amongst many pleasant recollections of
+Aden is the kindness I was shown by all with whom
+I came in contact—kindness that extended not only
+to entertaining, but in rendering me great service in
+arranging my journey into the interior of the Yemen.
+I cannot here attempt to thank all those who took
+pity on a stranger, but I must not pass on without
+saying how grateful I am to General Jopp, H.M.
+Political Resident, and to Colonel Stace, C.B., Assistant-Resident,
+for their many kindnesses.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as I had settled in at my hotel and rested
+a day to study my whereabouts, I set to work to see
+the sights of the place. Fortunately they are not
+very many, though some of them, such as the street
+scenes in the bazaars, one can never tire of looking at.
+Our hotel, too, was a “sight.” It was full of curiosities,
+from the exceedingly stout and none too clean
+Greek who kept the place, to the dirtiest of dirty
+kitchens I ever saw. The centre courtyard, surrounded
+by a rickety balcony, had once been used as
+a <i>café-chantant</i>, and the stage and framework still
+remained, festooned with cobwebs. Below, the Greek
+kept a curiosity-shop, which seemed principally to
+contain moth-eaten skins of what once may have been
+wild beasts, and rusty Somali spears. His “Turkish
+delight” was good. I found he sold it to my servant
+at exactly half the price he charged me, so I made
+Abdurrahman buy it in future, and between us and
+Saïd, my Yemen man, we did a large business with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>him. However, on the whole, the place was inhabitable,
+and in a climate like Aden one lives mostly out
+of doors on the verandahs.</p>
+
+<p>My first stroll to see the sights was confined to the
+little town of Tawahi, in which the hotel was situated,
+and which is generally known under the more general
+designation of Steamer Point. There is little to see
+in this quarter, though a crowd of natives lying out
+on their long wood-and-string beds in front of the
+tiny <i>cafés</i>, smoking the murmuring hubble-bubble,
+is always a picturesque sight. But it is only in
+the back streets that one finds this, the front of the
+town being faced with what is called Prince of Wales
+Crescent—in other words, a semicircle of ill-built
+stucco houses, with the exception of the handsome
+offices of Messrs Luke, Thomas, &amp; Co., to whose
+representative, Mr Vidal, I am under many obligations
+for kindness. Facing these hideosities of houses
+is an open sandy space, in which a few young palm-trees,
+caged and coddled, were trying to grow. A
+row of black palings divides this sandy space from
+the beach. A hideous cab-stand of galvanised iron
+roofing does not add to the picturesqueness of the
+scene; nor, for the matter of that, does the thin filmy
+coal-dust that so often floats upon the breeze, to dirty
+one’s white clothes and render life gritty and unbearable.
+Yet in spite of this depressing view—in spite
+of the bare rocks that rise above the town—all my
+recollections of Tawahi are pleasant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span></p>
+
+<p>Having explored this little township, which can be
+done comfortably in half an hour, I entered upon a
+longer undertaking,—I chartered a rickety conveyance
+and drove to Aden proper. The town lies in the
+centre of the crater of an extinct volcano, and one
+cannot help thinking how unpleasant it would be for
+the inhabitants did the eruption that must once have
+taken place recommence.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp56" id="illus05" style="max-width: 23.4375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus05.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Main Pass, Aden.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Driving from Steamer Point to Aden, a distance of
+some four or five miles, is by no means an exciting
+process, although one’s nerves are kept in constant
+tension by the extraordinary evolutions of the cab,
+and the thought that at any moment it may fall to
+pieces—ditto the pony, which a Somali jehu on the
+box causes by aid of his whip to keep up to a gallop.
+Through the pass of Hedfaf, along the flat that leads
+to the village of Maala—its harbour crowded with
+native craft, while Arab sailors sit mending the sails
+on the beach—away up the winding road to the Main
+Pass, a zigzag cutting between high walls of rock, then
+down again, until, issuing from the tunnel-like pass,
+one sees the town of Aden before one’s eyes—a great
+white block, broken up by the streets that run at
+right angles to one another, and disfigured by hideous
+barracks and Government offices. The plain in which
+the town lies, being in reality the floor of the crater,
+is almost a circle, from which torn and ragged spurs
+of rock rise on all sides, except where through a gap
+one can catch a glimpse of the sea and Seerah island,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>until they join in the peaks of Sham-sham and its
+neighbours. There is but little to attract the eye
+about the desolate prospect, except the relief afforded
+by the clean white town. Away on one of the hill-tops
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>stands a tower. Like the Towers of Silence at Bombay,
+it serves as the scene of the strange funeral rites
+of the Parsees; and here the birds of prey congregate
+to devour the corpse, too impure to defile fire or earth
+or water.</p>
+
+<p>But the sight of all Aden is the tanks. I remember
+long before I visited Aden listening one evening
+during a long sea-voyage to an old ship’s-carpenter
+discoursing on the Bible. “The Garden of Eden!”
+he said; “why, of course it’s true! It’s Aden to-day,
+and there’s the tanks to prove it. I seed ’em with
+my own eyes.” However, in spite of the dear old
+man’s religious beliefs being strengthened by having
+seen the famous Aden tanks, I fear they can claim no
+such antiquity as that with which he connected them.
+In all probability these great reservoirs were built at
+the time of the second Persian invasion, in the seventh
+century <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> In this case the tanks at Aden are
+much later in date than many of those existing in
+Southern Arabia, of which the most important was,
+without doubt, the great dam of Mareb, or Sheba as
+we know it. Although I was not fortunate enough
+in my travels in the Yemen to be able to reach the
+ruins of this extraordinary work, I think that a few
+words upon the subject may not be out of place here.</p>
+
+<p>The dam of Mareb was built probably some 1700
+years <span class="allsmcap">B.C.</span> by Lokman the Adite, though some authorities
+attribute its construction to Abd esh-shems, father
+of Himyar, founder of the Himyaric dynasty, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>great-grandson of Kahtan—Joktan of the Hebrew
+Scriptures. Monsieur d’Arnaud, who visited Saba in
+1843, describes the ruins of the dam. He says that
+it consisted of an enormous wall, two miles long and
+one hundred and seventy-five paces wide, connecting
+two hills. Dikes allowed the water to escape for
+the irrigation of the plain below. These openings
+are at different levels, so as to render practicable
+a supply of water at whatever height the contents
+of the reservoir might stand. The destruction of
+this great work took place probably about a hundred
+years after the birth of Christ; but although
+the catastrophe is referred to in the Koran, no certain
+date can be affixed to its occurrence. The fact that it
+stood the enormous pressure of water which must
+have constantly been present for some seventeen
+hundred years, testifies to the immensity and solidity
+of its construction.</p>
+
+<p>The tanks at Aden cannot, of course, compare with
+the dam of Mareb, yet they are in their way colossal
+undertakings, and the labour and time expended in
+their construction must have been enormous. They
+number about fifty altogether, and if in working
+order, would be capable of holding upwards of thirty
+million gallons. We know that at the time of the
+invasion of Raïs Suleiman in 1538, the inhabitants
+of Aden were entirely dependent upon these great
+cisterns for their water-supply. On Captain Haines
+visiting Aden in 1835, he found several of the tanks
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>in use, but many were filled up with the <i>debris</i> that
+the torrents had washed from the mountains above.</p>
+
+<p>In 1856 the restoration of the tanks was commenced,
+and now thirteen are in working order, capable of
+holding nearly eight million gallons of water. Their
+site is well chosen. They lie above the town, immediately
+under the high rocks that form the foot
+of Jibel Sham-sham, and in such a position that all
+the drainage of the rain-water is accumulated into
+channels, and poured into the succession of cisterns
+that lie one above another.</p>
+
+<p>The tanks are formed in various ways: some are cut
+into the solid bed of the rock, which is covered with a
+hard polished cement; others are dams built across the
+ravine; while a third variety of shape is formed by
+angles in the precipices being made use of, two of the
+walls of the cistern perhaps being the natural stone,
+and the others formed of masonry. The upper tanks
+are the first filled, the lower for the most part being
+supplied from the overflow of those above. In spite
+of the enormous space to contain the water and the
+slight rainfall of Aden, a series of heavy showers will
+not only fill the tanks, but cause an overflow stream
+of such bulk that very considerable damage has at
+times been caused by it, as it poured along its channel
+through the town to the sea.</p>
+
+<p>It was upon these tanks and a few poor wells that
+Aden at one time depended entirely for water, until
+in fact, in the fifteenth century, when Abdul Wahab
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span>constructed the aqueduct that brought water from Bir
+Ahmed into the town.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond these tanks there is but little to see of the
+long-past glories of old Aden; nor have the Arabs displayed
+in their modern buildings, with the exception
+of one decorative mosque, any attempt at architectural
+beauty. Mons. de Merveille, who visited Aden in
+1708, has left a description of the ruins of wonderful
+marble baths that he saw at that time; but no remains
+of these are known to exist to-day, nor is there any
+trace of the mosque built by Yasir or the pulpit of
+the Day Imran. In fact, beyond the tanks, its historical
+traditions, and the strange peoples who flock
+its streets, Aden can claim but little to interest the
+traveller.</p>
+
+<p>What a sight the bazaars of Aden present of an
+evening! Often and often I would drive out just to
+spend the last hour or two of daylight in idly sauntering
+through its streets. What strange peoples are to
+be seen there! Indians gorgeous in scarlet and gold
+and tinsel; Somalis in their plain white <i>tobes</i>, their
+hair left long and hanging like the cords of a Russian
+poodle on either side of their heads, and often their
+raven locks are dyed a strange brick-dust red colour
+by a clay they smear over them; Arabs, too, with long
+black silky curls bursting from under their small turbans,
+nude fellows, except for their loin-cloth of native-dyed
+indigo cotton, the colour of which clings to their
+copper skins with strange effect; creeping, crawling
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>Jews; niggers from Zanzibar; Persians and Arabs
+from Bagdad; Parsees and Greeks.</p>
+
+<p>Then is the time, when the heat of the day is over,
+to seek some <i>café</i> at the corner of a street, and watch
+the people pass. Here at a table four Somali warriors,
+glorious in their very blackness, are playing dominoes
+with the manners of <i>bourgeois</i> on the boulevards;
+there a group of Arabs are chatting over a hubble-bubble
+pipe, the mouthpiece of which they pass one
+to another, over cups of the husks of the coffee-berry,
+their favourite beverage.</p>
+
+<p>Great strings of camels pass and repass in the
+street. Rickety cabs rattle along, the drivers calling
+to the crowd to make way; and throughout the whole
+permeates Tommy Atkins, sublime in his self-consciousness,
+and a very good fellow withal. Ay, the
+bazaars of an evening are a sight to be seen,—a collection
+of strange peoples, only to be equalled perhaps
+on the bridge between Stamboul and Galata at
+Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>There remains but one more sight to see in Aden,
+the tunnel that connects the town with the isthmus,
+and which passes under the Munsoorie hills. This
+excavation is three hundred and fifty yards in length,
+and is lit throughout with artificial lights. It is sufficiently
+high and wide to allow of carriage and caravan
+traffic. A second tunnel connects two separate portions
+of the isthmus lines.</p>
+
+<p>Immense improvements have lately been carried
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>out in the fortifications of Aden, and during the time
+of the writer’s visit several new forts were being
+erected. There is no doubt that the strategic position
+of the peninsula justifies a large expenditure upon its
+defences. The immense value it would prove in time
+of war as a coaling-station cannot be overrated. At
+the present period its garrison consists of the Aden
+troop of cavalry, three batteries of the Royal Artillery,
+one regiment of British infantry, one regiment of
+native infantry, and one company of sappers; while
+in the bay lies a gunboat and a transport steamer of
+the Indian marine. The troops are spread over the
+peninsula, the cavalry having lines on the isthmus
+itself. Altogether, when the new fortifications are
+completed, Aden may be said to be, both as regards
+its defensive powers and in its commercial character,
+one of the most successful spots in the world.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.<br>
+<span class="smaller">ADEN TO LAHEJ.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>With the kind aid of friends at Aden, my preparations
+were easily made for my journey into the
+Yemen—far more easily, in fact, than I had been led
+to suppose would have been the case. Everywhere
+in the bazaar were rumours of the rebellion still
+raging in the interior—vague rumours, the truth of
+which it was almost impossible to gather; while, more
+dispiriting still, there was the fact that for several
+months no caravans had arrived from any distance
+in the interior, while those which came from Lahej
+and the surrounding country brought tidings, by no
+means reassuring, of the impassable state of the
+roads in the interior, and the constant depredations
+of the turbulent tribes, who were taking advantage of
+the serious political troubles to enrich themselves by
+robbery and plunder. Added to this, I was warned
+by several European merchants and traders that even
+in times of peace it was an almost impossible task to
+enter the Yemen from Aden. One and all advised
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span>my proceeding to Hodaidah, and from there attempting
+the road to Sanaa. In spite of this, I decided
+otherwise. My reasons were these. Hodaidah being
+the nearest port to the capital, and the principal sea-port
+of the Yemen, it would be only natural to find
+there great activity on the part of the Turkish officials,—an
+activity that would not only prevent my being
+allowed to pass along the well-watched road, but
+would also probably put the Turks upon the look-out
+in other quarters. It may seem strange to the
+reader that any great difficulties should be put in my
+way; but so serious had been the rebellion, and to
+such an extent had false reports been spread from
+Constantinople concerning it, that the officials were
+determined if possible not to allow the truth of what
+really had been and was taking place to leak out.
+There were at this time, with the exception of a few
+traders at Hodaidah, absolutely no Europeans in the
+Yemen; for one scarcely counts the Greek shopkeepers
+to be found in all the large towns as any
+but natives, to so great an extent do they assimilate
+themselves to the customs and manners of the
+country. I knew, then, that did I attempt to reach
+Sanaa from Hodaidah, and should I fail, as most
+probably would be the case, my chance of proceeding
+into the country from any other quarter would be
+practically at an end. It was for this reason that I
+decided to make Aden my starting-point; and should
+I be unfortunate in my journey thence, to fall back
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span>as a last hope upon Hodaidah. This, happily, I was
+not obliged to do; for my plans, as will be seen,
+were successful.</p>
+
+<p>But there were several other matters to be thought
+over besides this. Granting that I could reach the
+capital of the Yemen from Aden, how could I best do
+so with tolerable safety? Here my experiences in
+Morocco stood me in good stead. My first idea had
+been to purchase my camels, but on second thoughts
+I decided not to do so. Not only would my camels
+tempt the tribes through whose lands I would have
+to pass to robbery, but even the native Arabs I
+might hire as guides to go with me might not prove
+indisposed to relieve me of two or three valuable
+beasts of burden. It would be safer far, I argued,
+to hire my beasts, as in that case it would be to the
+advantage of my men to see that not only I myself
+but also my baggage-animals would arrive at their
+destination in safety. How, then, to find the right
+men and animals without spreading the fact all over
+the bazaars that a mad Englishman wanted to go to
+Sanaa, in spite of dangers and the rebellion? I had
+recourse to Messrs Cowasjee, Dinshaw, &amp; Co., a great
+house of Parsee merchants, and through them was
+put into communication with an Arab trader. This
+gentleman I called upon, and found exceedingly
+pleasant; and more than that, I found that he understood
+perfectly my North-African Arabic, and that
+his educated Yemen dialect was comprehensible to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>myself. I unfolded to him, over coffee, my plans,
+with which he seemed not a little amused. He told
+me in return to leave everything to him, and to appear
+again at his house the following afternoon. This I
+did, and after coffee and preliminary remarks he
+introduced to me a strange character, an Arab of
+the mountains of Yemen, a man of something under
+forty years of age, framed like an Apollo, lithe and
+beautiful. I must give a few words of description of
+this strange creature. Tall, lithe, and exquisitely
+built, his skin of dull copper hue showed off the
+perfect moulding of his limbs. Over his shoulders
+on either side hung loose black wavy curls, standing
+out like the wigs of the old Egyptians. Except for a
+loin-cloth of native indigo workmanship, and a small
+blue turban, almost lost in the spreading masses of
+raven hair that burst from beneath its folds, he was
+naked. Here and there his flesh had taken the dye
+from his blue raiment, giving it a strange blue tint.
+Tucked into his girdle was a dagger—<i>jambiya</i>—of
+exquisite Yemen silver-work; while round his left
+arm hung a long circular silver box containing some
+charm. In features he was extraordinarily handsome.
+The brow was high, the eyebrows arched, the
+eyes almond-shaped and brilliant, his nose aquiline
+and thin. Added to this a fine firm mouth, the
+upper lip closely shaven, while on the point of his
+chin he wore a small pointed beard about an inch in
+length. A strange contrast he was to my Arab host,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>an elderly highly respectable-looking merchant, with
+eyelids darkened with antimony—<i>kohl</i> the Arabs
+call it—and his grey beard dyed a shade between
+saffron and salmon-pink. An enormous turban was
+balanced on his closely shaven head, and he was
+habited in robes of yellow and green.</p>
+
+<p>Coffee being brought for our half-nude guest, we
+began to talk matters over, with the result that for
+an absurdly small sum my new-found friend undertook
+to deliver me safely in Sanaa. At all my questions
+about the road he laughed. Somehow he had
+such an air of sincerity about him that I trusted him
+from the very first, nor was I wrong. “You have
+nothing to do or say,” he said, smiling; “only bring
+your baggage here the day you want to start, and I will
+see to the rest.” In half an hour it was all arranged.
+Three camels were to take me and my servants, and,
+after a certain distance, when, in fact, we entered the
+highlands, they would be changed for mules. As to
+guides and men, I had nothing to do with them.
+There would be always enough animals to carry my
+scanty baggage, my servants Abdurrahman and Saïd,
+and myself. “When will you be ready?” asked the
+Arab, rising to leave. “To-morrow,” I replied, expecting
+to be met with excuses for so hurried a
+departure. But no; and half an hour later I was
+rattling back to Steamer Point in the wheeziest old
+ghary that ever existed, with a fat pony galloping
+ahead and an excited Somali jehu on the box.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span></p>
+
+<p>It did not take long to make my preparations, and
+these over, I turned into bed in a fever of delight
+at the idea of getting away. At dawn I was up.
+I knew it was hopeless to attempt an early start,
+so, having seen all my baggage put in order—it consisted
+of only a sack of clothing and a mattress and
+blanket, a couple of saucepans, a kettle, and a few
+stores mixed up with the clothes—I turned in again.</p>
+
+<p>About nine I dressed; and as there were no signs
+of anything or anybody, I sat down impatiently to
+wait until something should happen. At length Abdurrahman,
+my faithful Moor, who had come with
+me from Morocco especially to make this journey,
+appeared. His only fault is that, when he is particularly
+wanted, he is sure to have found some place as
+difficult to discover as the North Pole in which to
+oversleep himself. He was followed an hour or so
+later by Saïd, clad in new raiment, gay as the sunshine,
+and not the least ashamed of himself for being
+so terribly unpunctual. However, one could not be
+angry with this butterfly, who, from his mass of wavy
+black hair to the soles of his leather sandals, was a
+picture of dandyism. Often and often in the marches
+before me Saïd’s bright cheery manner and ingenuous
+narration of his conquests amongst the female sex
+kept us, tired and weary as we were, in shouts of
+laughter. He was as good as mortal man could be
+when once we had torn him away from the fascinations
+of Aden, his earthly paradise.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span></p>
+
+<p>At length, collecting the men and the baggage into
+a couple of gharies, we set out for Aden proper, the
+old fat Greek who kept the hotel waving his hand to
+me, and wishing me all good-fortune as we drove away.</p>
+
+<p>At the other end, of course, all the worry commenced
+again. However, there was nothing to do but
+to bear it patiently. First, no signs of men or camels.
+At length, after much searching, we captured the
+beautiful Arab of the previous afternoon; and, never
+letting him out of our sight, we at length ran our
+camels to earth in a back-yard. Leaving Abdurrahman
+to watch the luggage and the camels, Saïd and I
+sauntered out to do our last shopping. The heat was
+terrific, but even my impatience did not ruffle Saïd’s
+equanimity. He seemed to have a smile and a few
+words to say to every one he met, and, added to this,
+he insisted on bargaining for a considerable period of
+time over every item of our purchasing; and if at
+length he could not beat the shopman sufficiently low
+down, he would saunter off to another shop, and commence
+the whole business over again. It was exasperating!</p>
+
+<p>At last everything was completed, said Saïd, and
+we turned back once more in the direction of our
+camel-yard. Abdurrahman, wearied with waiting, had
+gone off to a <i>café</i> to have a cup of coffee with the
+camel-men! I sent Saïd to find them. In about an
+hour Abdurrahman and the men returned, not having
+seen Saïd, who presently came smiling in, gay as a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>singing-bird, with the excuse that he had forgotten
+to say good-bye to one of his lady-loves, whose beauty
+he began to sing in flowery praises until I peremptorily
+silenced him.</p>
+
+<p>Then they loaded the camels. I sat by and
+watched, wondering what we could have forgotten.
+Saïd presently was struck with a bright idea, and
+before I could seize him had fled to buy a jar of ghee,
+or rancid butter, for our cooking on the road. Pursuit
+was hopeless, but at last I could wait no longer.
+Fortune favoured me, and I found him. He had, so
+far, forgotten all about the ghee, and was testing the
+smoking capabilities of a quantity of hubble-bubble
+pipes, one of which I purchased, and which I found
+to be a veritable passport on my journey. Then off
+he went to buy the ghee, the pipe under his arm; but
+I accompanied him, and brought him safely back
+again.</p>
+
+<p>With a sigh of delight I watched the camels laden
+with my baggage saunter off with slouching gait out
+of the yard and along the yellow dusty road, followed
+by the men. Half an hour later we drove out
+through the Main Pass gate of Aden, down the
+steep winding hill, and along the isthmus, to join
+our baggage-animals at the village of Sheikh Othman,
+on the mainland.</p>
+
+<p>It was almost sunset, and grand and beautiful the
+jagged outline of Aden looked as we left it behind.
+The bay, placid as glass, reflected the great rock, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>the ships that lay so peacefully upon its motionless
+waters. The sky, a mass of primrose yellow, still
+trembled with the heat of the afternoon sun. Far
+away beyond the crowded masts of the native craft,
+Little Aden, rival of its sister rock, rose a pale
+mauve against the sky. Then the sun set, and our
+cab came to a standstill with a jerk that threatened
+to break it to atoms; while our Somali driver, good
+Moslem that he was, alighted to pray. The air was
+fresh and cool, and we descended for a few seconds
+to stretch our limbs. One could not help thinking
+of the strange mixture of the past and the present.
+This grand lithe figure rising and falling in prayer,
+now upright with outstretched hands, now prostrate
+with his forehead on the ground, seemed like some
+memory of the long dead glories of Islam, whereas
+he was in reality only a cab-driver.</p>
+
+<p>On again, on over the level plain where many
+an army has met and fought over the possession
+of the barren rock we were leaving behind us, until
+in the fading of the after-glow we drew up in the
+quiet square of Sheikh Othman.</p>
+
+<p>I was intensely happy. A feeling of exhilaration
+at the journey before me ran through my being—and
+we were really started! I could not let the
+Somali driver go back, so I paid him for his stabling
+for the night, and dragged him off to the little <i>café</i>
+where my camels and men were resting; and here
+we, Arabs and Moor, Somali and Englishman, calling
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>“Bismillah”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> together, sat down to our humble repast
+of fowl and coffee.</p>
+
+<p>But I could not sit still. I longed for the rising
+of the moon to start again, and under the guidance
+of my great Arab friend, set out to wander through
+the half-deserted streets. From time to time one
+could catch a glimpse into the <i>cafés</i> of which Sheikh
+Othman principally consists, filled with dusky Arabs
+and laughing women, many dancing in the circles of
+their admirers, for the little town is given over to
+pleasure. And as an echo to the music, one heard
+the soft gurgle of the hubble-bubble pipes, the grey
+fumes of which filled the air of the houses with hazy
+indistinctness. On we walked between the high
+walls of gardens, out on to the desert, to where,
+in its little grove of palm-trees, stands the tomb
+of the patron saint, Sheikh Othman, with its domes
+and its mosque and strange tower of sun-dried bricks.
+This tomb it is that gives the name to the little
+town.</p>
+
+<p>The moon was rising, so we hurried back to the
+<i>café</i>, and after a final smoke and a cup of the
+steaming coffee, we loaded our camels, and bidding
+farewell to our Somali guest, prepared to start.
+Then I found that my Yemen Apollo was not
+coming with us. I was sorry at this, but it could
+not be helped: as long as the men who were to
+accompany me were <i>his</i> men, I had nought to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span>fear. So I bade him adieu, and mounting my camel,
+was lifted into the air, and set out. Abdurrahman
+and Saïd followed my example, and, accompanied
+by three strange dusky men, we wended our way
+through the quiet squares and streets out into the
+desert beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Twice had the village and fort of Sheikh Othman
+been destroyed by British troops before, in order to
+extend our frontier in that direction. The place,
+and a little of the surrounding country, including Bir
+Ahmed, were purchased by the British Government
+from Sultan Ali of Lahej. So diplomatically are
+affairs to-day managed in Aden, that not only does
+Sheikh Othman enjoy immunity from plunder and
+robbery, but the whole caravan-roads passing over
+the wide strip of country in the Abdali, Aloui, and
+Dhala country are in a condition of complete tranquillity,
+and almost absolutely safe for native caravans.</p>
+
+<p>Out into the desert, with slow patient gait, passed
+our camels. What a wonderful night it was! I had
+seen the desert before in other lands, but never to
+compare to this. In Egypt the nights are cold; here
+a soft balmy breeze bore on its wings the scent
+of the mimosa bushes, which dotted the sandy surface.
+A heavy dew was falling, and seemed to
+awake every drop of fragrance of the little yellow
+fluffy buds. Above us a sapphire sky, brilliant with
+stars and moonlight. Around us miles upon miles
+of sandy plain, shimmering silver. Beyond the humming
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>of the insects there was not a sound except the
+thud-thud of our camels’ soft feet upon the softer
+sand. So still, so tranquil it all seemed, that one
+scarcely dared to breathe. One felt that one was
+passing through some strange dreamland, whose
+earth was silver sprinkled with sapphires, whose
+heavens were sapphires dotted with diamonds.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have not known the nights of the
+desert can never realise them. It passes the pen
+of man to describe. It is like the periods in fever
+when the fever leaves one, for it is these nights that
+nature has given us in compensation for the burning,
+scorching days. It was but the first of my night-marches—there
+were many more to come; yet I
+never tired of them. The rhythmic gait of the
+camel, the gliding along under the myriads of stars,
+never wearied me. One could not weary of anything
+so surpassingly beautiful.</p>
+
+<p>At a spot, irrecognisable in the desert, our men
+shouted to the camels to lie down, and we dismounted.
+Saïd spread my carpet, while the Bedouins collected
+the dry mimosa twigs, and by the light of the little
+fire they lit I could see my camels regaling themselves
+with evident relish on the dry bushes, the
+thorns of which were an inch or two in length. Then
+commenced the drinking of coffee, and the gurgle
+of the hubble-bubble, until, calling to the grunting
+animals again, we loaded our camels and set out.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp08" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp08.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>PALACE OF THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As early dawn began to tint the eastern sky we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>entered the oasis in which Howta, the capital of the
+Sultan of Lahej, is situated. The aspect of the
+country completely changed. In place of the pale
+yellow sand, dotted with stunted bushes, there were
+wide fields of durra, or millet, growing in all the
+luxury of a damp tropical soil. The fields are divided
+from one another by hedges of rank vegetation, and
+little channels, here above the level of the surrounding
+land, here running in and out amongst the durra
+stalks, supplied unlimited water to the crops. From
+amidst the tangled mass of dazzling green rise palm-trees,
+many of them hung with trailing creepers.</p>
+
+<p>Here and there grazed the pretty humped cattle of
+Southern Arabia, tended by nude boys and girls,
+who shyly watched the Christian passing by on the
+back of his camel. And then the town—the great
+mud-built city of Howta, full of wild-looking Arabs,
+and dogs, and fever, the palace of the Sultan dominating
+the whole, and having the appearance that
+at any moment it might slide down, and crush the
+houses and huts and hovels around it.</p>
+
+<p>Under the guidance of my Bedouins we put up at
+a small native <i>café</i>, preferring to be at our ease rather
+than to have to enjoy the hospitality of the Sultan,
+to whom, thanks to Colonel Stace, the Political Resident
+at Aden, I bore letters of recommendation. We
+easily made an arrangement to reserve the entire
+accommodation of the <i>café</i> to our personal use, and
+spreading the carpet and mattress, I settled in for an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span>hour’s rest. The place in which we had taken up
+our quarters consisted of a yard enclosed in a high
+hedge of impenetrable thorns, forming a zareba. At
+one end was a large mud-brick room, thatched with
+rough matting, as was also a verandah in front of it.
+Besides this, the guest-chamber, there were one or
+two poor huts of mats in which quite a number of
+families seemed to exist. What with goats, and dogs,
+and fowls, and children, and fleas, the place was
+lively. A funny group we must have made, my
+men and I; but I had discarded my hat for a <i>tarboosh</i>,
+or fez cap, as less likely to attract attention in
+travelling. It is curious the part the hat plays between
+Moslems and Christians. Apparently to them
+it is the outward and visible sign of the infidel, for
+as soon as one has changed it for their own more
+simple head-gear their fanaticism diminishes to an
+incredible extent. Of all European clothing, the hat
+forms the greatest barrier to confidential intercourse
+between Arab and Christian, and one of the names
+in common use in North Africa for Europeans is “the
+fathers of hats.”</p>
+
+<p>We had not been very long ensconced in our new
+quarters when a gaudy creature came to call. Apparently,
+from the number of weapons he bore, he
+was a sort of armorial clothes-peg. In fact, his
+whole costume consisted more of swords and daggers
+than it did of clothing, while a long spear added
+to the general effect. His wavy hair hung on either
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>side of his face in flowing curls, and his arms were
+encircled above the elbow with silver chains, bearing
+charms and boxes containing mystic writings. He
+shook hands as though he had known me all his
+life, and sat down with a crash of his weapons
+that reminded one of the fall of a coal-scuttle.
+Coffee was soon prepared, and the hubble-bubble,
+murmuring away in a corner in the possession of
+Saïd, who had already changed his clothes and
+brushed out his curly locks, was handed from mouth
+to mouth. After a while my guest announced that
+he had been sent by his lord and master, the Sultan,
+to wish me welcome, and invited me to proceed at
+once to the palace.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, I tell of my interview with
+Sultan Ali Mhasen, some little account of Lahej and
+its rulers is necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The tribe of Abdali, the inhabitants of Lahej,
+share with the Subaiha, Foudtheli, and Houshabi,
+the possession of the south-west coast of Arabia,
+from the Straits of Bab el-Mandeb, the gate of tears,
+to nearly one hundred miles east of Aden, and
+reaching inland an average distance of, roughly,
+some fifty miles. Of these, the Subaiha are the
+most warlike, being of a more distinctly wandering
+nature than the others; while, on the contrary, the
+Abdali tribe to whom Aden once belonged, whose
+capital is to-day Howta, are the richest and
+most peaceful, their habitations being fixed abodes,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>except in the case of such as are shepherds, and are
+thus necessitated to change their pasturage. As I
+have already said, the town of Howta lies in a
+great oasis, supplied with water from rivers flowing
+from the highlands farther inland. This oasis is
+richly cultivated, the principal products being durra—<i>jowaree</i>
+the natives call it—cotton, and sesamum,
+and more especially vegetables and fodder for the
+Aden market. Besides palms, there are several
+other varieties, one a luxuriant shade-giving tree,
+called by the natives <i>b’dam</i>, of which a fine specimen
+can be seen close to the precincts of the
+Sultan’s palace. The soil produces no less than
+three crops in the year, the climate being almost
+equable.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Howta is situated some twenty-seven
+miles north-west of Aden, and extends over a large
+area. There is no possibility of obtaining any
+certain estimate of the number of its population,
+which probably reaches as many as ten or fifteen
+thousand, what with Arabs, Jews, a few natives of
+India, and a considerable number of Somalis. The
+extreme heat and dampness of the climate render
+the place too feverish to allow of Europeans residing
+there with any safety, and even a sojourn of
+a few days is generally sufficient to bring on an
+attack of malaria. The water, too, is very bad, and
+officers going to shoot there from Aden are warned
+to carefully avoid it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span></p>
+
+<p>Although the present state of the territory of
+the Sultan of Lahej is one of tolerable peace and
+security, throughout all the history of Southern
+Arabia one finds it appearing and reappearing as
+the scene of battles and plots and assassinations.
+After the terrible massacre of its inhabitants by
+Ali ibn Mehdi in the twelfth century, it was several
+times taken and retaken, and the atrocious acts of
+cruelty of one, at least, of its conquerors, are recorded
+by historians. Omitting the many consequent
+attacks and wars which took place within
+its territory, we find it for five months of the year
+1753 held by the rebel Abd er-Rabi, during which
+period Aden existed in a state of blockade. However,
+it was before this period that the present
+reigning family had obtained possession of the
+throne, their founder and first Sultan, ruling over
+Aden as well as the surrounding country, being
+Foudthel ibn Ali ibn Foudthel ibn Sáleh ibn Salem
+el-Abdali, who in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1728 threw off his allegiance
+to the Imam of Sanaa, and declared himself an independent
+ruler. Again, in 1771 Lahej was besieged,
+this time by the Azaiba tribe, who succeeded, however,
+in holding it only for the period of two days.
+Notwithstanding, in a history otherwise consisting
+almost entirely of massacres, wars, and murders, we
+have here and there a glimpse of a happier state of
+affairs, such as the sumptuous entertaining by the
+then Sultan of Aden and Lahej of the British troops
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>after the evacuation of Perim in 1799. Mr Salt,
+in his work entitled ‘A Voyage to Abyssinia,’ and
+published in London in 1814, gives a most charming
+account of the then Sultan Ahmed, and Abou Bekr,
+his representative in Aden. Wellsted also refers to
+this Sultan as a remarkable instance of an Arab
+chief whose great desire seemed to be to further
+trade and receive foreign Mahammedan merchants
+as residents into his country. His friendship toward
+the British is attested in many works and accounts
+of his estimable policy and sagacity. He died in
+1827.</p>
+
+<p>I have already described elsewhere the shipwreck
+of the Deria Dowlat in 1836, which ended in the
+taking of Aden in 1839 by the British troops. In
+1849 a treaty was engaged upon between the Sultan
+of Lahej and the British Government (as to trade,
+&amp;c.), and with several ratifications and alterations the
+treaty still exists. The Sultan receives a monthly
+stipend from the British, or rather the Indian, Government,
+for protecting the trade-routes which pass
+through his country, and also certain other payments
+in return for the ceding of Sheikh Othman and other
+spots nearer Aden. In all, the Sultan draws a very
+considerable sum from the Aden treasury <i>per mensem</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Having said all that is necessary, perhaps, in a work
+which has as little pretensions to being a history as
+this has, on the general history of Lahej, I will resume
+the narrative of my story at the spot where, under the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span>guidance of the gorgeous and muchly-armed soldier, I
+was escorted to the palace.</p>
+
+<p>This building is a huge block of houses, built
+entirely of sun-dried mud-bricks, but plastered and
+decorated to such an extent as to give it the appearance
+of being of much greater solidity than a large
+hole here and there in the wall points out to be really
+the case. The principal building is covered with
+domes and cupolas, with the effect of a conglomeration
+of a cheap Italian villa and a stucco Constantinople
+mosque. However, from a distance the place
+has a very imposing look, and so large is it that on
+clear days it is visible from Aden. It is not until one
+approaches it closely that one discovers the incompetency
+with which it is built; for pretentious as it
+is, there are places where quite large portions of the
+mud-brick walls have come away, and at one spot one
+obtained an excellent view of the interior of a room
+on the first floor through one of these enormous gaps.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through a large courtyard, we entered by a
+small door, and after ascending a rough staircase, and
+wandering along intricate passages, found ourselves
+in the presence of Ali Mhasen el-Abdali, Sultan of
+Lahej. The room in which the Sultan was seated was
+a large square chamber. A heavy beam of carved
+teak-wood ran down the centre of the ceiling, supported
+on pillars of the same material. The floor was
+richly carpeted in oriental rugs, and silk divans were
+arranged along the walls. Light was admitted by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>large windows, over the lower portion of which was
+trellis-work. At one corner of the room sat a group
+of men, some five or six in all; while on a table close
+by were three handsome silver hubble-bubble pipes
+from Hyderabad, tended and kept alight by a half-nude
+Arab in a blue loin-cloth.</p>
+
+<p>As I entered and kicked off my slippers—for having
+so far resorted to oriental ways as to adopt the
+<i>tarboosh</i>, or fez, I held also to their custom of not
+walking on their carpets in boots—one of the group
+rose to meet me. He was a stout elderly man, with
+a kindly pleasing expression, dark in colour; and
+although not strictly handsome, he possessed a
+manner, common to most Orientals of position, that
+could not fail to charm. Grasping me by the hand,
+he led me to the divan, where I seated myself beside
+him, and, salutations over, proffered me the amber
+mouthpiece of his pipe and a bunch of <i>kat</i>, a shrub to
+which the Yemenis are much addicted. This plant is
+known to us as the <i>Catha edulis</i>. It resembles
+rather a young arbutus in the form and shape of its
+leaves. The leaves are eaten green, growing on the
+stalk, and are said to cause a delightful state of wakefulness.
+The taste is bitter and by no means pleasant,
+though one easily accustoms one’s self to eating it.
+An amusing remark was made by my Moorish servant
+in the presence of the Sultan which tickled the old
+gentleman exceedingly. He held out to Abdurrahman
+a bunch of <i>kat</i>, which he politely refused. When
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span>asked by the Sultan why, he naively replied, “That
+is what the goats eat in my country,” thinking it to
+be the common arbutus of Morocco. In Yemen it is
+considered a necessary luxury; and as it only grows
+in certain parts of the country, where it is carefully
+cultivated, and has to be transported often a long
+distance, it fetches a high price. That we ate with
+the Sultan of Lahej had been brought some forty
+miles or more that very morning, for it must be eaten
+fresh.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp96" id="fp09" style="max-width: 156.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp09.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>MY RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN OF LAHEJ.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Sitting next to the Sultan was a Shereef, a
+descendant of the Prophet in other words, a tall
+handsome young man, clean shaven, and richly
+dressed. A gold dagger of great antiquity that he
+wore in his belt, and which he kindly showed to me,
+was as perfect a thing of its kind as it has ever been
+my lot to set eyes upon. The Sultan himself was
+robed in a long loose outer garment of dull olive-green,
+displaying a <i>kuftan</i> beneath of yellow-and-white
+striped silk, fastened at the waist by a coloured
+sash. On his head he wore a large yellow silk turban,
+surrounded by a twisted cord of black camel’s hair
+and gold thread.</p>
+
+<p>The hubble-bubble was a sore trial. I was gradually,
+under the guidance of Saïd, learning to inhale it;
+but to have constantly to fill my lungs with the strong
+smoke was by no means a pleasant task to a novice
+like myself. The inhaling, even through water, of the
+tobacco used in these pipes is by no means a thing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span>one can easily accustom one’s self to, and for a long
+time a whiff too many will bring on giddiness. However,
+so attentive was the Sultan in handing me the
+amber mouthpiece that I stuck bravely to the task,
+although by the time I left I felt a sensation of incipient
+<i>mal de mer</i> in a rocking-chair or the car of a
+balloon. As much of the smoke seems to go to the
+brain as does into the lungs. What with the pipe
+and the <i>kat</i>, and the declining of Arabic irregular
+verbs in a dialect I scarcely knew, I was not sorry
+when, after an hour or so of conversation and agony,
+I was allowed to leave. Nevertheless, I had enjoyed
+my visit to the Sultan Ali, whom I found to be
+a pleasant-spoken kindly old gentleman, extremely
+fond of showing off various treasures he possesses,
+amongst which is a unique sword of Bagdad work, said
+to be eight hundred years old. Through the blade
+is bored a hole, which the Sultan explained to me
+was the mark that it had taken over a hundred lives.
+From the condition of the steel it might have been
+made yesterday, and would be quite capable of taking
+a hundred more. During my visit I had been watched
+with great interest by two of the Sultan’s children, a
+little boy and girl, who, contrary to Arab customs,
+were present all the time. They were pretty dark-skinned
+little things—the boy nude except for his
+loin-cloth of striped silk, the girl dressed in a mauve
+garment embroidered in gold.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving to go, the soldiers who had brought me
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>into the Sultan’s presence again escorted me to my
+<i>café</i>, on the way to which we visited the palace stables.
+There were a great many horses in the ill-paved yards
+which serve as the royal stabling. Mats and thatch,
+and in places rough brick roofs, keep off the heat of
+the sun from the horses, some of which were very fine.
+One white mare from Nejed was especially lovely,
+though from the nature and heat of the country she
+looked terribly out of condition. The pedigrees of the
+Nejed horses are most carefully kept by their breeders,
+and all over Arabia they are estimated as the very
+finest to be procured.</p>
+
+<p>The Sultan of Lahej has his own coinage, a small
+copper piece of minute value, bearing the inscription
+“Ali Mhasen el Abdali,” and on the reverse “Struck
+in Howta,” which, by the way, is anything but true,
+as they are made in Bombay, by contract.</p>
+
+<p>Returning through the courtyards of the great mud
+palace, I left the royal precincts, and, seeking once
+more the quiet shade of the <i>café</i>, spent the heat of
+the day in sleep, waiting for the cool of the afternoon
+before sauntering forth to see the sights of the town
+of Howta.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.<br>
+<span class="smaller">LAHEJ TO KHOREIBA.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>When I awoke the heat of the day was over, so, under
+the guidance of Saïd and one of my camel-men, I
+sauntered out to see the town of Howta. The place
+presents, on the whole, an appearance rather of dirt
+and squalor than of what one expects the capital of
+an Arab Sultan to be like. The streets are narrow,
+and built without any idea of regularity, turning and
+twisting as they do in every direction; nor are the
+houses even built in any attempt at being in line.
+Here one juts out into the narrow byway, there
+another stands back off the street behind a thick
+hedge of bristling thorns. Nearly all the houses
+are surrounded by these zarebas or yards, into which
+the cattle are driven of a night. Strange mangy
+dogs bark at one as one passes along, and their bark
+is echoed from within by the yelps of puppies. There
+is, in fact, but little to see in Howta. Perhaps the
+sights best worth noticing are in the market, where
+under the shade of an enormous <i>b’dam</i> tree sit women
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>selling bread, while the surrounding strip of sand is
+crowded by Arabs with long spears and their camels.
+Here also are exposed for sale vegetables, camel and
+horse fodder, and many other market products, which
+are sent on to Aden. Not far from this market are
+the bazaars, narrow covered-in streets with rough little
+mud-brick shops on either side, filled with cotton
+goods, for the most part of European manufacture;
+a few gaudy muslins from India, however, giving a
+brilliant hue to some of these dusky little box-like
+shops. A whole bazaar is put aside for the workers
+in metals. It forms a thatched square, divided up
+by low walls, some three feet in height, like sheep-pens,
+in which the various metal-workers sit, each
+with his forge. The scene is a most picturesque
+one. The sunlight falling in through holes in the
+ill-thatched roofing strikes upon the burnished metal
+until the daggers and spear-heads sparkle and glisten
+like diamonds. The air is hazy with the fumes of the
+forges, and rings with the never-ceasing fall of the
+hammer upon the metals. And what workers! Great
+lithe men, grand in the exposure of their bare limbs;
+their raven locks loosely falling upon their shoulders,
+and waving backwards and forwards with the motion
+of the workmen’s bodies. The workmanship of Howta
+is rough. In spear-heads they excel; but they fail in
+the silver-work of their dagger-sheaths to attain the
+results reached by the silversmiths of the larger towns
+inland.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p>
+
+<p>Returning to the <i>café</i> where I had put up, I found
+the camels ready to start, so mounting once more, we
+set out. Leaving the town behind us, the way took
+us for the first few miles through rich cultivated land,
+watered by a careful system of irrigation, and gorgeous
+in its verdure. Emerging from the fields, we
+struck into wilder country, torn up into great ravines
+by the Wadi Lahej—a river that, in the dry season,
+is but a tiny stream, but after rains a series of vast
+torrents, its many channels becoming filled with the
+huge mass of water, often carrying away much of the
+cultivated land, and doing no little damage. Sometimes
+the trunks of big trees from the far interior
+are carried over the desert—where at ordinary times
+the sand absorbs the water to such an extent that it
+never reaches the sea—and cast into the bay at Aden.
+From this it can be judged how severe are the rainfalls
+when such comparatively rare occurrences do
+take place.</p>
+
+<p>The river which I mention here under the name of
+the Wadi Lahej is also known by the name of the
+Mobarat. It has two channels to the sea, but, as
+already stated, is at most seasons exhausted by the
+desert sands of the low-lying coast country. The
+principal channel is the Wadi el-Kebir, or great river,
+which flows out near Hashma, a small village in the
+Bay of Aden, the other being the Wadi es-Seghir, or
+small river, which empties itself into the Ghubbat
+Seilan, a bay to the north-east of Aden, and formed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>by the peninsula itself and by Ras Seilan, a point
+some thirty miles along the coast.</p>
+
+<p>Wild and depressing the scene was. Ahead of us,
+almost as far as the eye could reach, stretched the
+desert, unbroken by even a single bush, and gradually
+sloping up to broken rocky peaks, which glowed
+a dull leaden crimson under the rays of the setting
+sun. We were leaving the oasis behind now, and no
+longer the peasants returning from the fields stood
+to gaze on us as we passed by; no longer their wild
+songs rang in our ears—songs sung by the sons of the
+desert and echoed by its daughters, as, hoe in hand,
+or leading the flocks and herds, they wandered back
+to the town. Now it was only occasionally that a
+warrior with spear passed us, on foot or on camel-back.
+Then night fell,—night such as we had experienced
+on the previous march, and which I have
+so dismally failed to describe,—night which fails all
+description. But we went on, the camels patiently
+plodding their way. It was eleven o’clock before
+we halted and spread our carpet under a clump of
+thorny trees, close to the river-bed, which we had
+been following since our departure from Howta.
+Here we rested for a few hours, our fire twinkling
+and flickering and bursting into little flames as we
+threw the thorny twigs upon it, for the night was
+chilly and a heavy dew falling.</p>
+
+<p>There is no water, the Arabs say, more poisonous
+than this stream of Lahej, and we had been carefully
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>warned against drinking it; but in spite of this my
+servants regaled themselves plenteously from its
+feverish stream. There is no fallacy greater than to
+suppose the average Arab can go long without water.
+In cases of hereditary necessity perhaps they do, but
+in all my experience of foreign lands I have seen
+no thirstier race than the Arabs. They are for ever
+drinking. All my journey through the Yemen, my
+men were constantly alighting from their animals to
+drink. In the mountains, where the water as a rule
+was good, this led to no bad results; but their constant
+habit of drinking from slimy pools and nasty
+streams brought on attacks of fever in the cases of
+both Saïd and Abdurrahman. No more unpleasant
+position can be imagined than that of a traveller with
+two fever-stricken servants, both shouting that they
+were going to die, and refusing to take quinine because
+it tasted so nasty. The drinking of this water
+of Lahej brought on fever in both these men. I provided
+them with unlimited coffee, which, with boiling
+the water, does away with a great part of the risk;
+but, rather than have the trouble of making it, they
+preferred to drink the poisonous liquid. However,
+they suffered for their perversity.</p>
+
+<p>It was dawn when we started again, pale-grey
+dawn, which struck cold and chilly. An hour or
+two of desert, unbroken in its monotony; but away
+ahead of us we could see the outpost fort of the
+Sultan of the Houshabi tribe, whose territory we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>were soon to enter, and a few miles nearer, half
+hidden in thick thorn-trees, the frontier castle of the
+Sultan of Lahej.</p>
+
+<p>We had hoped to make a good march, but fate
+was against us, for after a few hours on the road a
+gentle wind rose up. At first it was cool and refreshing,
+but as the heat of the day increased it became
+laden with fine grains of sand, and by no means
+so pleasant. At length it became unbearable, the
+stinging sensation as the sand struck one’s hands
+and face being most painful. Calling a halt, we
+crawled under some thick bushes, the men hurriedly
+arranging a strip of canvas so as to obtain the most
+protection from its scanty folds. We were only just
+in time, for a few seconds after, having crawled
+under its shade, the wind increased in strength and
+became a veritable gale. The sand, which up till
+now had been but thin, commenced whirling up in
+clouds until the air became darkened with it. Huddling
+together, we tied our turbans over our mouths
+and waited for a cessation. It required three of us
+to hold on to the slender covering of canvas—a mere
+strip that I used to put between the carpet and the
+ground—to prevent its being carried away. The
+desert wind was intense in its heat, and the burning,
+gritty grains of sand found their way under one’s
+clothing and into one’s ears and eyes until life became
+unendurable. I had seen a sandstorm or two
+before in my life, but none like this. The poor
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>grumbling camels lay down and wagged their necks
+slowly from side to side, while the Arabs cursed.
+A sandstorm is lovely in a picture, and is exciting
+to read about, but personally to experience it is
+quite another thing, and for the three or four hours
+that we lay panting for breath under those thorny
+mimosa-trees we suffered exceedingly. So strong
+was the sand-laden wind that it was impossible for
+the men to go even as far as the river to get water,
+and our throats were parched with thirst. In spite of
+the suffering, however, one could not help noticing
+the extraordinary atmospheric effect. The sky took
+a brick-dust red hue, and seemed literally to glow,
+the fierce sun burning scarlet and fiery through it
+all, though at times even the sun was scarcely visible.
+Happily it was the only sandstorm we experienced
+on the whole journey, and I hope I may never see a
+second such as it was.</p>
+
+<p>Almost as suddenly as the gale had come on it
+died down again, and during the afternoon we were
+able once more to push on upon our journey. Reaching
+El-Amat, a fort of the Sultan of the Houshabi
+tribe, I delivered the letter of recommendation I bore
+from the Political Resident at Aden, and, refusing the
+Sheikh’s kind invitation to alight, pushed on. This
+fort, like that of the Sultan of Lahej which we had
+passed shortly before, is a large, square, mud building,
+two storeys in height. Useful as it may be in times
+of war as a defence against Arabs armed only with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>matchlock-guns and spears, it would not stand a
+couple of shot from any field-gun, unless the structure
+is so soft that the ball would go right through it, as
+is not improbable. Near this spot we came across a
+herd of gazelle, but they were gone and out of sight
+long before we came within range.</p>
+
+<p>The tribe in whose country we now were is the
+Houshabi. They have always been on the best of
+terms with the British, and on the murder of Captain
+Milne in 1851, elsewhere referred to, they refused to
+harbour the assassin, a fanatical Shereef. By their
+position they have an advantage over the Abdali
+tribe, of which Lahej is the capital, as the river of
+the latter is supplied with water from the ravines and
+mountains of the interior of the Houshabi territory,
+and they have on several occasions in times of war
+been known to divert its course. However, happily,
+the relations of the two tribes are for the most part
+friendly, so that it is not often that they have
+recourse to such extreme measures.</p>
+
+<p>On again over the desert, which, as we approached
+the rocky hills, showed more signs of vegetation and
+life. Here and there were Arabs tending flocks and
+herds and cattle, though what there was for them to
+graze upon beyond the thorny bushes it was difficult
+to say. At length we left the sandy plain and entered
+a deep narrow gorge at the foot of Jibel Menif,
+a high barren mountain. Here the scene entirely
+changed. Instead of over the open expanse of desert,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>our way now led us between walls of rock, the path
+often a mere track in the river-bed, in which at
+places water was running, and at others had sunk for
+a time below the surface.</p>
+
+<p>Afternoon was well on, and the change from the
+sunlight outside to the cool depths of the gorge was
+a pleasant one, but the scene looked sepulchral and
+gloomy. The rocks with which the river-bed was
+strewn and the cliffs on either hand were of a curious
+black colour; nor did the scanty vegetation, consisting
+principally of what the Arabs call <i>athl</i>, a thorny
+mimosa, do much by their verdure to enliven the
+scene, for in spite of their proximity to a stream
+which made some pretence at running water, they
+looked parched and withered and dry.</p>
+
+<p>The gloomy effect increased as the evening came
+on. Although the sky above us was still streaked
+with the radiance of the setting sun, we in the gorge
+caught only its barest reflection, and a deep purple
+gloom seemed to settle over everything. At one spot
+by a deep pool in the rock a caravan was settling in
+for the night. The wild cries and singing of the Arabs,
+and the groaning of the camels as they were being
+unladen, added much to the weird effect of their
+already lit camp-fires, by the light of which we could
+catch glimpses of the wild fellows as they hurried to
+and fro, spears in hand, preparing for the night.
+However, we did not stop, but with an exchange of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span>“Salaam âlikoum,”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> passed on into the night. The
+darkness was complete, but the uneven state of the
+ground and the constant ups-and-downs in the path
+clearly demonstrated that we had left the river-bed,
+and were crossing country at right angles apparently
+to the streams and nullahs, judging by the constant
+ascents and descents.</p>
+
+<p>A few hours later we caught glimpses of fires in the
+jungle, and one of the Bedouins creeping on ahead
+and exchanging a few remarks with the camel-men
+who were spending the night there, he called to me
+to proceed, and glad I was to cry to my camel to lie
+down, and a few minutes later to stretch myself on
+my carpet before a fire, in the camp of an Arab caravan,
+at a spot called Zaida. The villages in this part
+of the Yemen are few and far between, and what there
+are belong almost entirely to wandering tribes of
+Bedouins, who are here to-day and who knows where
+to-morrow; so that the caravans passing up and down
+the rough track that leads into the interior have to
+camp where best they can, regardless of the whereabouts
+of humankind, being dependent upon their
+own resources for food and fodder.</p>
+
+<p>We spent the whole of the next day at this spot,
+for the reason, our men said, of resting the camels;
+but I rather think they had fallen in with fellow-tribesmen
+and friends amongst the caravan-men with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>whom we were sharing camp. However, I was not
+sorry; for, anxious as I was to push on into the
+interior, the rest was by no means unpleasant, and I
+found plenty to amuse and interest in the people by
+whom I was surrounded. Fortunately, too, there
+were Bedouin shepherds in the neighbourhood, and
+fresh food was procurable, while a few thorn-trees
+gave a little shade from the sun’s fierce rays.
+Amongst the caravan-men was a Turkish soldier,
+fleeing from the starvation and cruelty and misery
+then existing amongst the Osmanli troops engaged in
+crushing the rebellion in the Yemen. His neck and
+wrists and ankles were deeply wounded by the fetters
+he had been made to wear, for once before he had
+deserted but been recaptured. A very considerable
+number of these deserters from time to time reach
+Aden, whence, after they have made a little money—for
+they are always ready to work—they embark once
+more for their native lands, often some hill-tribe of
+Asia Minor. In no way was the hospitable character
+of the Arabs better shown than by their kindness
+to these Turkish runaways. As long as they were
+soldiers in the service of the Osmanli Government
+they were looked upon as lawful game by the Arabs,
+and any who bore a weapon was liable to be shot at
+any time; but as soon as they threw down their arms
+and sought the protection of the Arabs and their
+aid in assisting them to escape, they became their
+brother-men, their co-religionists, and the poor half-starved
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>fellows were fed by their <i>quondam</i> enemies,
+and often given money to help them on their road
+to places where their recapture would be improbable.
+I saw many instances of this during the time I was
+in the country, and quite a number of the Turkish
+deserters spoke to me with tears of gratitude of the
+kindness they had received from the Arabs. Happily
+there were less melancholy sights to see and less
+doleful stories to listen to during the day we lay
+under the shade of the thorn-trees. A number of
+young Arabs, youths learning the art of becoming
+caravan-men, had brought with them their pets, for
+the most part apes and monkeys, with which the
+valleys of the Yemen abound, and great fun it was
+watching them playing and jumping on the backs
+of the camels. They were very tame, and confined
+by no chains, being quite loose to go and wander
+where they pleased, but never leaving their friends
+the camels, which munched their fodder regardless
+of the antics being carried on upon their backs. It
+was difficult to say which were the most active, the
+monkeys or their masters.</p>
+
+<p>But still more amusing were the strolling musicians,
+dancers, and players on pipes and drums, who,
+finding a little piece of level sand, exhibited their
+strange dances before me. There were three of these
+mummers amongst the Arabs. Standing in line,
+they struck up their music, one beating a rough
+drum, one playing on a double pipe, the other singing.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>As they sang they stepped slowly backwards
+and forwards, at periods turning and twisting round.
+Strange nude creatures they were, with long silky
+hair and silver daggers, and the eye never tired of
+watching their graceful movements.</p>
+
+<p>Saïd and Abdurrahman took advantage of our
+delay to cook bread. However, owing to the fact
+that we had no baking-powder nor anything to take
+its place, and that it had to be cooked in Arab
+fashion by rolling the dough round a heated stone,
+it was not altogether a great success. Hunger,
+nevertheless, rendered it palatable. As for butter,
+we had not yet broached the pot of ghee that
+Saïd had purchased before we left Aden. It was
+rancid then, and the few days of hot sun on the
+back of a camel had not added to its charm,
+though it had added very considerably to its flavour.
+When we opened the clay with which the jar was
+sealed the whole valley became full of its odours.
+One could have run a drag with only a crust and
+three drops of it. Once having opened the jar, the
+Arabs went for it wholesale. It served them for
+two purposes—for fodder, and as pomade for their
+raven locks. The manner in which they applied it
+did not make its consumption more appetising, for
+they dipped their long fingers into the jar and then
+ran them through their hair until the effect was
+gorgeously shiny—at a distance. At close quarters
+the odour rather negatived the picturesqueness. Of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>course I could have brought stores from Aden; but
+to have attempted to enter Yemen with anything
+like a caravan would have been impossible, as the
+suspicions of the Turks on the frontier would have
+been excited. I had decided to take as little as
+possible, so as to be able to pass as a poor Greek
+trader; nor had I laid my plans unsuccessfully, for
+the scarcity of stores was well compensated by the
+facilities I gained on account of having so small a
+quantity of baggage.</p>
+
+<p>Later in the afternoon we made a start. The road
+was dreary and desolate, continually ascending and
+descending, and strewn with black stones and rocks
+that rendered our progress very slow. Almost the
+only level piece we crossed was a great circle of rocky
+ground enclosed on all sides by hills, the whole bearing
+the appearance of having been the crater of a
+volcano; and as all the surrounding mountains show
+signs of volcanic action, this hypothesis is not at all
+improbable. Late at night we reached the village of
+El-Melh, where were a few miserable Bedouin huts;
+but on the inhabitants assuring us that they possessed
+neither water nor provisions to spare, and evidently
+looking upon us with some suspicion, we proceeded on
+our way. The track was rough, and one had to
+clutch on to the ropes that held our scanty baggage
+to the camel’s backs to prevent being hurled bodily
+off down the steep sides of some nullah. At long
+length, camp-fires ahead told of some caravan bivouacking
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>there, a sure sign of water, and our camels
+hurried forward, and without even a call to make
+them lie down, wearily deposited us amongst a group
+of Arabs seated round a few blazing fires. Their
+spears, stuck in the ground before them, flashed and
+flashed again in the dancing firelight; but the appearance
+of fierceness was belied by their kindly welcome,
+and an invitation to dip my fingers with them in the
+steaming pots of food. Watering the camels and
+giving them fodder, we returned once more to the
+fires, and spent the night in songs and story-telling.</p>
+
+<p>Before daylight we were on our road again, following
+for a little way the course of the river Sailet el-Melh.
+The country here had become more mountainous, one
+flat-topped peak being particularly noticeable. The
+natives call it Dhu-biyat, but I can find no mention
+of this name elsewhere. On the summit is a tomb,
+that of a certain Seyed Hasan, about whom there
+seemed to be traditions of his having possessed remarkable
+powers, but as to whose history apparent
+ignorance prevailed, nor can I find any records of
+any powerful Imam having been buried on this
+spot. It is probable that he was merely some local
+Seyed or Shereef, and that his repute has not reached
+the centres of Arabian civilisation. The summit of
+this mountain is said to be quite flat and rich in
+pasture, and Bedouins of the Houshabi tribe have
+built a village there, and graze their flocks and herds.
+Near this spot the valley opens out, and one enters
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span>the Beled Alajioud, a level plain of green fields, with
+a river flowing through its centre. Here one leaves
+the wandering Bedouin tribes and enters a land of
+fixed abodes, for houses well built of rough stone
+stand about the valley; and at one spot is a village
+perched on a slight eminence, and crowned with a
+square tower. This turned out to be the border
+village of the Aloui tribe, to the representative of
+whom—a village Sheikh—I presented my credentials.
+There was the usual group of men and women and
+children and dogs, the usual exchange of compliments
+and banter; and although at first they had appeared
+a little high-handed, we parted the best of friends.</p>
+
+<p>The country hereabouts shows signs of cultivation,
+large fields being green with the durra. As the sun
+was very hot, we halted in the middle of the wide
+bed of the Khoreiba river, and settled ourselves down
+under a clump of oleander-bushes. The scenery was
+prettier here than any we had seen, as there were more
+trees to vary the dull monotony of the reddish-black
+rock and the yellow land. We had been seated about
+an hour when there came skimming along the river-bed,
+mounted on a beautiful camel, a veritable Apollo
+of an Arab, a specimen of the finest type of the
+Yemen race, whom perhaps it is scarcely justifiable
+to call Arabs at all, so much has their blood become
+mixed since the days of Kahtan, the founder of the
+Yemenite tribes, and Adnan, that of the Arab. However,
+the term Arab can be generally used, as there
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>are scarcely any discernible differences, except in
+traditions, between the Arab and the Yemen blood.
+Noticing us, the man alighted from his camel and
+crawled into the shade in which we were sitting.
+After coffee, wishing to give the new-comer an
+example of the powers of the Christian tribes—as he
+called them—I unpacked an electric machine I had
+with me in my sack of bedding, and administered a
+gentle shock to the beautiful Arab. He never lost
+his presence of mind,—he merely smiled, rose and
+girded up his loins, mounted his camel, and sped as
+fast as the slight little desert dromedary could carry
+him down the river-bed.</p>
+
+<p>The camels of the southern district of the Yemen
+are famous for their breed and fleetness. They are
+slightly built, with fine legs, the very opposite to the
+heavy slow-paced camels of North Africa. Many are
+especially kept and trained for riding purposes, and
+their fleetness is extraordinary. However, this breed
+seems not to exist any farther in the interior than
+about eighty miles, as where the country becomes
+mountainous we find a heavy, shaggy, black camel,
+the very opposite to his brother of the Teháma, as
+the plains which divide the highlands of the Yemen
+from the sea are called.</p>
+
+<p>While we were still laughing over the flight of the
+Arab on coming in contact with civilisation in the
+guise of a small electric machine, two Englishmen
+appeared in view, riding horses, and guarded by a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>considerable number of Indian troopers and a few of
+the Aden corps, and followed by a large train of
+baggage-animals. I had been told before leaving
+Aden that I might meet a surveying-party under
+Captains Domville and Wahab, who had been told off
+by the Indian Government to organise a survey of
+the tribe-lands lying between the Turkish frontier
+and Aden. Although they had been successful up to
+this point, they began here to meet with difficulties
+on the part of the natives, which at length, after I
+had passed on into Turkish Yemen, became so demonstrative
+that guns were once or twice resorted to by
+the natives, and the scheme had to be abandoned
+before it was completely carried out. I spent the
+afternoon with them, and very pleasant it was. I
+was able also to obtain from them the correction of
+my aneroid barometer, for so far I had not resorted to
+boiling-point tubes, keeping what few instruments I
+had with me as much as possible in the dark, so as to
+excite as little suspicion as possible.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner in the luxurious camp of Captains
+Wahab and Domville, I sauntered back to find my
+men already preparing to load the camels, and soon
+after midnight we made a start. It was a bright,
+clear, moonlight night, but chill and cold, a sure sign
+that we were ascending to the highlands, which an
+altitude of nearly two thousand feet on my barometer
+showed to be the case. The Arabs shivered and
+chattered as we pushed along through the valley.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>Presently the road ascended on the left side of the
+stream, and we crossed a plateau at an elevation of a
+few hundred feet above the river. The cold as dawn
+appeared became almost intense, and I was glad to
+alight from my camel and run races with my men,
+getting often a long way ahead of the caravan. Then
+we would sit down and light a little fire of mimosa-twigs,
+over which we would huddle together to keep
+warm until the camels caught us up again.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="illus06" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus06.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>A Valley in Yemen</i>.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Dawn changed to sunset, and the world became
+alive again. The scenery had altered. We had once
+more entered the valley of the Khoreiba river, and
+still the great, bare, rocky mountains rose on either
+side; but the valley itself was green and fresh, and
+the banks of the stream, which appeared in places
+tumbling and dancing over the rocks, again to disappear
+below the surface, were covered with thick
+jungle of dense tropical vegetation, the trees hung
+with garlands of creepers. Birds chirruped and
+hopped from bough to bough; great painted butterflies
+sailed by, rivalling the sunrise sky in gorgeousness;
+and monkeys and apes chattered and grunted on the
+steep mountain-sides. After the journey of desert
+and rock, the change was a delightful one. Spying a
+few female camels grazing in the jungle, we surmised
+that there must be a Bedouin encampment near, so,
+alighting from my lofty perch, I set out with a couple
+of the men to find them—no difficult task, as we came
+across them within the first half-hour. They had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>pitched their little mat huts in a natural clearing in
+the thick vegetation, where they sat idly about, the
+women carrying firewood and milking the cows, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>men, each armed with his dagger and spear, smoking
+long wooden-stemmed pipes with clay bowls.</p>
+
+<p>They received us kindly, and we had soon joined
+their little circle, and were chatting away as if we had
+known each other for years. Great laughter was
+caused by a very elderly female, with buttered hair—rancid
+butter, if you please—and greasy saffron-dyed
+cheeks, kissing me. The joke I could not for a
+time understand; but it finally turned out that the
+fact that I was clean shaven and in breeches led her
+to suppose that I was of the female gender, as in the
+Yemen the men wear loin-cloths and allow their
+beards to grow on the points of the chin, while the
+women decorate their lower limbs in tight-fitting
+trousers. The old hag, on being pointed out her
+mistake, laughed as much as any; and while I was
+engaged in scraping the saffron and butter off my
+blushing cheeks, went off to fetch us a big bowl of
+fresh goat’s milk.</p>
+
+<p>Shouts from our camel-men in the river warned us
+that we must not remain any longer, so pushing our
+way through the thick brushwood, we resought the
+river-bed and mounted once again.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp93" id="illus07" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus07.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Castle of Amir of Dhala.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At nine o’clock, the sun being very hot, we unloaded
+under the shade of some big umbrageous
+trees, and settled in for the heat of the day. At
+our feet ran the river, dancing and rippling over its
+pebbly bed, for all the world like some Highland
+trout-stream, except for the fact that above and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>around it twined masses of flowering creepers and
+strange aloes, while a palm-tree here and there
+raised its feathery head above the dense undergrowth.
+Away on the opposite side of the river,
+about half a mile distant, and perched on the summit
+of a high rock, loomed the frontier fort of the
+Amir of Dhala, a square tower surrounded by some
+lower buildings. The place looked a regular acropolis,
+and seemed impregnable. On a gorgeous Sheikh arriving,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span>I presented the last of the letters which I had
+brought from Aden, for the Dhala territory was the
+farthest in touch with the British authorities, and
+beyond lay Turkish Yemen. Evidently he considered
+the epistle satisfactory, although he was unable to
+read it, and he spent the day with us there. A
+right good fellow he was; but his reports of the
+turbulent state of the tribes beyond, and of the
+murder and plunder with which the mountaineers
+were daily amusing themselves, were anything but
+reassuring. He informed me that the name of our
+halting-place was Mjisbeyeh, of which I found the
+altitude to be two thousand five hundred feet above
+the sea-level.</p>
+
+<p>Off again in the afternoon, passing the picturesque
+village of Thoba, above which to the left we caught
+another glimpse of Jibel Dhu-biyat, with its white-domed
+tomb. The fact that we had now entered
+the land of fixed abodes became every hour more
+apparent. At places were signs of skilful irrigation,
+while ever and anon villages of stone houses piled
+on to the summits of rocks peeped from amongst the
+green fields and the mimosa-trees. One of these, by
+name Aredoah, was particularly picturesque, although
+the surrounding country was more barren than it had
+been. The scenery, too, became very fine. The black
+volcanic rocky hills had given place to mountains
+of limestone, which towered above the surrounding
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>country. Principal amongst these were Jibál Ahurram
+and Ashari.</p>
+
+<p>At one spot a charming scene met our eyes. Under
+the shade of a great creeper-clad rock sat an old
+schoolmaster, book and rod in hand, while at his feet
+squatted a number of small boys, into whose heads
+he was apparently beating verses from the Koran.
+A regular stampede occurred at our approach, and
+the young <i>tholba</i>&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> rushed alongside our animals
+clamouring for alms. I got one or two to show
+me the books from which they were studying, and
+found them to be excellently printed copies of the
+Koran from Beyrout.</p>
+
+<p>As evening came on we kept passing the flocks
+and herds, lowing as they came in from pasture,
+driven by, or more often following, some child, who,
+with wide-open eyes, would stand still and cease the
+music of its cane pipe to watch our little cavalcade
+go by. Not a breath of wind was stirring, and the
+smoke from the evening fires of the little stone
+houses curled up and up, all mauve and purple,
+into the cloudless sky. In groups the men sat
+about, under the shade of the trees, idly listening
+to the hum of the insects and the song of many
+a tiny stream. The whole scene was one of perfect
+peace.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span></p>
+
+<p>The track then entered a narrow gorge between
+high precipices of rock, from which echoed and re-echoed
+the cries of the apes and monkeys. We
+were entering the country known as Beled Ashari,
+under the rule of the Amir of Dhala,—quiet, peaceable
+folk, shepherds and tenders of flocks.</p>
+
+<p>As we proceeded, the gorge narrowed until the
+scenery in the dusky evening light became almost
+oppressive. Just before darkness set in we arrived
+at our halting-place, at Khoreiba, below the village
+of the Amir of Bishi, where, under the shelter
+of a great <i>b’dam</i> tree, we settled in for the night.
+The village is built of stone, and situated on the
+left bank of the river, the collection of stone houses
+being overlooked by a strange pile of natural rock
+crowned with a still stranger tower, a position that
+completely commands the valley. The altitude of
+this spot I made to be four thousand feet above
+the sea-level. The spot was a charming one, with
+the green valley below us, and above the perpendicular
+precipices, too steep almost for any scrub to
+hang to. Here and there along the river-bed were
+shade-giving trees, which stood out black against
+the fields of young corn, as yet only a few inches
+in height.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp10" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp10.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>KHOREIBA.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The success of my journey depended on the next
+day or two. We were fast nearing the Turkish
+frontier. Should I be allowed to pass? To have
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>to turn back would mean the most bitter disappointment.
+Each day’s march was interesting me
+more and more in the country I was passing through,
+and very keen I was to carry my journey to a successful
+issue, and to reach Sanaa, the capital; especially
+keen, perhaps, as, with but one exception, every
+one at Aden had prophesied failure, and told me I
+was insane to venture into the Yemen at the time
+of the rebellion, when even in days of peace it was
+rash and unsafe.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.<br>
+<span class="smaller">ACROSS THE TURKISH FRONTIER.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>We had left the Amir of Bishi’s village some way
+behind when the sun rose the following morning.
+The track continues along the river-bed until the
+valley terminates in a steep ascent. However, the
+old-world Arabs have built a paved way up the
+slope, which renders its surmounting much easier
+than it otherwise would be,—not that it is by any
+means a simple process as it is. Scrambling up on
+foot, we reached the summit some time before the
+camels, and were able to rest for a time and watch
+the poor grunting brutes toiling in and out the
+intricate turns in the path; for it is a mere track
+winding through great piles of overturned rock, and
+along the edges of steep inclines. I found the
+ascent from the valley of Khoreiba to the summit
+to be over six hundred and fifty feet, giving us an
+altitude of nearly five thousand feet above the sea-level.
+The view looking back was a very lovely
+one. Below us lay the valley of Khoreiba, shut
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>in with its precipitous walls of rock, under which,
+amongst green fields and shady trees, flowed the
+river, a streak of silver thread. Away beyond at
+the farther end of the valley one caught glimpses
+of the peaks of other mountains, rearing their
+fantastic heads into the clear morning sky.</p>
+
+<p>When the camels caught us up we filled up our
+water-bottles at a spring of clear water and set off
+again. These water-bottles—<i>zemzemiya</i> they call
+them in the Yemen, and in Morocco <i>guerba</i> (plural
+<i>guerab</i>)—are a regular institution of Arab travel,
+nor would it be possible to proceed without them.
+They are made of leather, those in Arabia being
+cut into shape, while those of Morocco are the
+whole skins.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then we would catch a glimpse of a
+herd of apes scampering away up the steep rocks
+with resounding grunts; but more often we could
+only hear their cries, for their colour does much
+to conceal them from view amongst the limestone
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p>So cool and pleasant was the air at the elevation
+we had reached, that instead of remounting our
+camels, who, poor beasts, were tired with the rocky
+ascent, we strode out on foot. Leaving the village
+of Dar en-Nekil on our right, we passed through
+a gorge of low walls of rock, and then descended
+to the level of the plateau, which here extends
+for a considerable distance, broken now and again
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>by rocky peaks and hills. This plateau, one with
+that on which Dhala is situated, may be said to
+circle round Jibel Jahaf, a limestone mountain
+situated just above the large village of Jelileh,
+where, although not within their frontier as delimitated,
+there is a small Turkish fort. The plain is
+well cultivated, and ploughing was in active progress
+at the time of my visit, besides being dotted
+with trees; but from the fact that the young corn
+had not yet commenced to push, the country looked
+somewhat barren and dreary.</p>
+
+<p>Across the plateau all passage seems to be blocked
+by an immense range of mountains, one continued
+precipice without any apparent break. The range
+bears two names,—the eastern part Jibel Mrais, and
+the western Jibel Haddha. A few miles over the
+plain brought us to a steep ascent leading to the
+village of Jelileh. Although the absolute frontier
+of the Turks is at Kátaba, a town a few hours’
+distance to the north-west, they have erected here
+a fort, and over a round tower perched on a hillock
+floated the red flag with its star and crescent.</p>
+
+<figure class="figleft illowp50" id="illus08" style="max-width: 9.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus08.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>A Girl of the Yemen.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>One of my camel-men was a native of this village,
+and it was to please the good fellow that I decided
+to spend a night there, as otherwise I should have
+been tempted to push on and try to cross the
+frontier that day. Wishing to avoid as much attention
+as possible on the part of the inhabitants,
+I did not spend any time in the village street, but
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span>alighted from my camel at the door of the yard of
+my man’s house, and at once entered his abode. As
+a typical Yemen house of the poorer class, some
+description may not be out of place. Like all the
+dwellings in the highlands of the Yemen, it was
+built of solid squared stone, and consisted of two
+large towers, some thirty feet square at the base and
+twenty at the summit. The lower floor contained
+an arched stable, the roofing supported on pillars
+of stone. To the next storey an outside stairway
+led one. This floor contained a passage and two
+decent-sized rooms, the walls plastered on the inside
+and the ceiling made of wood. The floors, like the
+walls, were coated in cement. The staircase continuing
+led one on to the flat terraced roof, round
+which ran a stone wall some three feet high. The
+whole showed a great amount of labour and no
+little skill in its construction. The second tower
+was larger, but being put aside for the women,
+I did not of course see the interior of it. It
+contained, however, four storeys. Into one of
+these rooms in the men’s tower I was shown by
+my host, who, no sooner was this accomplished, was
+flying all over the place stirring up his womenfolk
+with entreaties and curses to prepare a meal
+befitting such a guest. Meanwhile from my window
+I could obtain a very good view of the surrounding
+country, ay, and more, of my host’s wives and
+daughters. How ugly they were! What little
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>attraction nature might have given them was completely
+concealed under their artificial adornments.
+Their hair, plastered with butter over their foreheads
+in straight fringes, literally dripped with
+grease, while their copper skins were thick with
+paint the colour of red-lead, arranged in a triangle
+on either cheek, as well defined as is that of the
+clown in our Christmas pantomimes. Their loose
+upper garment was more attractive,
+being of dark-blue
+linen embroidered round the
+neck, sleeves, and edge in coloured
+silks; but to do away
+with any grace which this
+simple and classical garment
+might give them, they encased
+their legs in ill-fitting
+indigo trousers, with embroidery
+round the ankles.
+However, my host was evidently
+very proud of his
+ladies; for no sooner did he catch a glimpse of them
+peeping over the parapet of their apartments, or
+straining their heads out of the little windows, than
+he would shout vociferously to them to retreat,
+which they would do, again to reappear and continue
+their criticisms of the newly arrived stranger.
+Meanwhile the male relations of my camel-man
+had appeared, to join me in the feast which was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span>being prepared,—men and youths and boys, nearly
+a score in all, who quite filled up the two rooms
+and passage of our apartments, while nearly every
+one brought his long straight pipe or his hubble-bubble,
+and there was a murmur and gurgling of
+water as we inhaled the cool smoke. Besides the
+guests who arrived to call we had other visitors,
+those tamest of wild beasts—the fleas. It is strange
+that while many an author has told of the friendly
+fellowship of the dog and the horse toward mankind,
+the intense love of companionship of the flea toward
+the human being has been neglected. There is no
+need to tame him artificially: the moment he is old
+enough to swallow food he becomes the friend of
+man—nay, more, he will never willingly part company
+with him, especially in Arabia. His only equal
+is the mosquito, and for affection he almost beats
+the flea. As I write these lines one has been settling
+on my hand, and on my refusing to notice him he
+called attention to his presence by a gentle nip—result,
+a large white lump; and when I tried playfully
+to catch him, he flew away: they always do.</p>
+
+<p>On my next day’s march depended the success of
+my journey. Once across the Turkish frontier, I felt
+that unless any unforeseen event occurred I should
+reach my goal. But I knew how strict the orders were
+to allow no stranger to enter Turkish Yemen, lest
+news of the rebellion, which had for some months been
+disturbing the country, should leak out. However, I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>felt that I was attacking the least probable frontier
+of the country, and one where they would scarcely be
+expecting a stranger to attempt to enter.</p>
+
+<p>A ride of only a few hours brought us the following
+day from Jelileh to the <i>jimerouk</i> or custom-house of
+Kátaba, situated on the south side of the Wadi Esh-Shari,
+and about three miles distant from the town,
+which lies to the north, off the caravan-road. The
+ride was a short but a hot one, and except that all
+the plain was under plough, the country seemed dry
+and desolate. Away to the right could be seen the
+large village of Thoba, a collection of towers on a
+rocky hill, from which stand up prominently the
+white domes of a mosque and tomb, forming quite a
+landmark on a scene otherwise a monotone in yellow.</p>
+
+<p>The buildings of the frontier custom-house consist
+of a low block, forming a fort and a large enclosure
+for the camels and mules of the caravan-owners, the
+whole covering a large extent of ground. The lower
+rooms of the main building are used as stores for the
+goods in transit, while the portion of the upper storey
+not inhabited by the officials is divided up into small
+rooms for the use of people passing and repassing,
+being let out on hire at so much per night. The
+whole place wore a depressing and a depressed look.
+For three months no caravans had passed over the
+roads, and trade was dull. The goods on their way
+up from Aden to Sanaa lay strewn about the place,
+as there were no means for their further transit.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>Three months before, the last caravan to go through
+had been looted, and a ransom of three hundred and
+sixty dollars had to be paid before the merchants had
+been released by the mountaineers.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed strange to think that on that yellow
+building depended the success of my journey, and
+it was with anxious thoughts that I passed through
+its open gateway, by the side of which, in the depth
+of a cave-like chamber, an old Arab was brewing
+coffee. Dismounting in the yard, I sought a shady
+corner to sit down in while my men went and routed
+out the authorities. A few minutes later they
+appeared, and such a group they formed! First
+came an exceedingly dirty Turk in a filthy shirt and
+a well-worn pair of military trousers; following him
+appeared a gorgeous creature arrayed in purple and
+fine raiment, no less a person than the Sheikh Besaisi,
+well known for his influence amongst the Arab tribes,
+and by happy fortune a kinsman of the most disreputable
+and savage of my camel-men. His clothes,
+too, need description. On his bullet-shaped head he
+wore an immense yellow-and-crimson turban, wound
+round with a camel-hair and gold cord; flowing robes
+of dark-blue silk were fastened at the waist with a
+yellow sash, in which was stuck one of the most
+beautiful daggers I have ever seen. This <i>jambiya</i>
+was of exquisite silver-work inlaid with gold Byzantine
+coins of the reign of Constantine. A few rough
+turquoises in the sheath gave a tint of colour to one
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>of the most beautiful weapons I ever saw. I longed
+to make a bid for it; but I knew that should I ever
+mention so large a sum as its value, my chance of
+getting on would be so much the more diminished,
+for it was certain that I should be gently squeezed
+before being allowed to proceed, and that did I let
+out that I had any considerable sum of money with
+me, it would make the squeezing a more serious
+process, and perhaps prevent my getting on at all,
+and certainly announce to the world in general that
+I was worth robbing. Following the Besaisi crept a
+wizened man of perhaps some thirty-five years of age,
+dressed in the costume of the people of Mecca. These
+three were the officials of the <i>jimerouk</i>, though they
+resembled rather three characters of opera-bouffe.</p>
+
+<p>Salutations over, I was asked to ascend, and a few
+minutes later found myself seated with my hosts in a
+small, stuffy, and very dirty room. They were too
+polite to ask straight out who I was, so I began to
+open the attack myself. I had been to Turkey; the
+man who had not seen Stamboul had never lived!
+Glorious Stamboul! All the world over it was a
+pleasure to meet the Turk; he was always a gentleman,
+always kind and polite; and how inexpressibly
+glad I was to meet the Turk before me he might
+imagine, after I had been travelling all the way from
+Aden with only camel-men and a couple of uneducated
+servants; and would he accept a box of cigarettes and
+an amber cigarette-holder, which I had brought from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>my little shop in Port Said with me,—where, by
+the by, my wife and children were starving—(signs
+of tears)—owing to this accursed rebellion; three
+months the coffee I had bought in Sanaa had been
+lying there, and for the dear wife and little ones’
+sakes—(tears)—I was imperilling my life in these
+strange lands to get my coffee down: meanwhile my
+brother, a Greek like myself, was looking after the
+shop; and how delightful the Turks always were,
+&amp;c., &amp;c. So much for number one, my friend in
+the dirty shirt; now for number two.</p>
+
+<p>Was this, then, the Sheikh Besaisi? No; it could
+not be that my infidel eyes were blessed with the
+sight of his honourable corpulency. His fame was
+all over the world. Port Said rang with his name.
+His honour, his boundless wealth—(exorbitant old
+tax-gatherer!)—his immense charities, were famous
+throughout all countries: indeed this was a blessed
+day for me. (Box of cigarettes and amber mouthpiece)—number
+two dead.</p>
+
+<p>Whence came he, number three? No; it could not
+be that his family was from Fez. Mulai Idris, their
+patron saint, might he protect me! Had I known
+that I was destined to meet a Fez Moor here, I should
+have hurried up from Aden. Fez, every street of it,
+I knew, from the tomb of Sidi Ali bou Rhaleb to the
+Dar al Makhzen: and here was Abdurrahman, a
+Tangier Moor. How good the Deity had been in
+joining us together in the bonds of friendship!—cigarettes
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>and amber mouthpiece; general embracings
+and <i>tableau</i>! <i>Exeunt</i> officials. Screams of laughter
+from Saïd, which I had to choke by sitting on him
+on the top of my mattress, lest he should be heard—and
+then coffee.</p>
+
+<p>No Englishman crossed the frontier into Turkish
+Yemen in January of 1892. No; the only stranger
+was a penurious Greek shopkeeper of Port Said, who
+rode his baggage-camel. He was attempting to reach
+Sanaa to obtain some loads of coffee he had bought;
+and so great was his love for his wife and children
+that he was running the risk of being murdered and
+plundered in order to obtain money to buy them
+food, and to save them from an untimely death from
+starvation. I think they believed my story: if they
+didn’t at first, a few dollars wisely expended proved
+to them that it was true, and after two days of
+artificial tears and real dollars permission was given
+me to proceed. But the squeezing was not quite
+at an end, and my rifle was taken from me, on account
+of no arms being allowed to enter the Yemen
+during the rebellion. For this I demanded and obtained
+a receipt, and eventually, after eight months’
+delay, the rifle.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> However, I would willingly have
+sacrificed anything I had at the time, so long as I was
+allowed to proceed. It was an anxious two days, for
+until within an hour or two before my leaving the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span><i>jimerouk</i> I had not received any answer to my petition
+to be allowed to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>At length they told me I might go on. Meanwhile
+Saïd had been at work. Our camels were tired, and
+he had arranged that only one should proceed, a couple
+of mules being supplied in the place of the other two.
+This my men agreed to, as they preferred to hire
+mules on, rather than have their camels attempt the
+next few days’ journey, one of the greatest difficulty,
+and which necessitated as silent and as quick marches
+as possible, as the country was in a most disturbed
+condition. Happily the contract which I had made
+at Aden stipulated that in country in which camels
+travelled with difficulty mules were to be supplied,
+and I had no trouble in having this carried out,
+although, unfortunately, only two mules were forthcoming.
+The simplicity with which my animals were
+changed for me seemed extraordinary; but the fact is
+that these caravan-roads are worked by “companies,”
+relays of animals being kept at various spots along
+the road for transporting goods from district to district
+or town to town.</p>
+
+<p>No doubt the manner in which the country is split
+up into tribal districts makes this necessary, while
+again the natural features of the Yemen are such as
+to render it almost impossible to take the same
+animals for any great distance. For instance, the
+fleet camels of the Abdali of Foudtheli districts would
+be useless in the precipices and ascents of the country
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>between Kátaba and Yerim; while the mountain-mules
+suffer exceedingly in desert-travelling, their feet sinking
+deep into the soft hot sand.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as permission was granted me to proceed I
+was off. I did not wish to give the people in charge
+of the frontier any chance of changing their minds,
+so at mid-day, when they had all retired for their
+siesta, we sallied forth from the gate and entered
+Turkish Yemen.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp56" id="illus09" style="max-width: 23.4375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus09.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Village of Aredoah.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>I had told more untruths in the last forty-eight
+hours than I liked to think about; but, curious to say,
+my delight at having crept through was far more
+keen than any remorse I felt for my wickedness.
+The road does not enter the town of Kátaba, for
+which I was by no means sorry; for under the walls
+of the little place we could see a large Turkish camp
+pitched, that of the division of the army under
+Ismail Pasha, which had come on here after the
+retaking of Dhamar and Yerim, two of the larger
+cities of the central Yemen. Giving them a wide
+range, we soon were out of sight of the camp, and
+after crossing the Wadi Esh-Shari, we entered wild
+broken country, the foot-hills of the great range of
+mountains that appeared to block our way ahead.
+A sad incident happened before leaving the <i>jimerouk</i>.
+A poor Turk, whom I had noticed slouching about
+the place in rags, came to me just as I was leaving.
+Kissing my hand, he besought my protection in
+Turkish, which an Arab in the Osmanli service
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>translated to me. His story was a pitiable one.
+He had been enrolled in the conscription from some
+village near Smyrna, and sent with his brother to
+fight in the Yemen. At length, after much fighting
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span>and many privations, he reached Kátaba, where the
+roll of the surviving troops was called. His name
+was not on the list, and it was found to have been
+a mistake that he ever left his native country.
+Ismail Pasha, then at Kátaba, commanded him to
+be stripped of his uniform and turned loose, on the
+ground that he was not a soldier of the Sultan’s at
+all. This was done, and the poor fellow wandered
+away, a stranger in a strange land, until the Sheikh
+Besaisi took pity on him, and fed him and clothed
+him (!) at the custom-house. He spoke no Arabic,
+and the Arab interpreting for him was the only one
+who spoke a word of his native tongue. He prayed
+me to take him on with me. This unfortunately
+was impossible. The presence of a Turk with me
+would render me very liable to danger from the
+Arabs; but I advised him to try and reach Aden,
+where, being as strong and good-looking a young
+fellow as ever lived, I felt sure he would get work,
+and in time find his way back. Beyond giving him
+the wherewithal to find his way to Aden, I was
+unable in any way to assist him.</p>
+
+<p>Rough as the country we were passing through
+was, it presented here and there little patches and
+valleys rich in cultivation. In many places the
+scenery resembled a lovely garden. The lawns were
+barley, scarcely three inches high, while trees stood
+here and there about the fields. Little streams and
+pools of water added an effect of coolness, while the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span>rocky hills were clothed in plants and flowers,
+noticeable amongst them being a scarlet-flowering aloe
+and a variety of the euphorbia. Great ant-heaps,
+some six and eight feet in height, stood like sugar-loaves
+amongst the rich vegetation. After a glorious
+sunset, night came quickly upon us, and the scenery
+was lost in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>On we plodded in the dark, our little mules carefully
+picking their way over the rough boulders and
+stones with which our path, now a river-bed, was
+strewn. The people of the surrounding tribes had
+taken advantage of the rebellion to throw off any
+form of government, and it was therefore necessary
+to proceed at night. Once or twice we could catch
+glimpses of their village-fires glowing far up on the
+steep mountain-sides, and now and again even catch
+the yelping of their dogs, whose quick ears had
+heard the footfall of our animals on the hard stones;
+but the villagers took no notice more than to shout
+to one another, their voices sounding far away and
+sepulchral in the thick darkness. The river-bed
+over which we were travelling commenced shortly
+to ascend, and the path was by no means an easy
+one to get along in safety.</p>
+
+<p>“We must wait here for the men,” said an old
+Arab, an acquisition from the Besaisi. What men
+he meant I did not know, but as he seemed to be
+the recognised head of our caravan I refrained from
+asking. We dismounted and lit a fire in a hole in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>the rock, round which we clustered to warm ourselves
+at its welcome heat: not that it was allowed
+to blaze, for the Arab, fearful lest its glare should
+attract notice, kept damping the wood sufficiently
+to keep the blaze low without putting it out
+altogether.</p>
+
+<p>For a time we waited, but there being no traces
+of “the men,” we left the burning embers as a sign
+that we had passed on, and continued our journey.</p>
+
+<p>It was a picturesque scene this little halt of ours,
+with the dark figures of the half-nude Arabs, each
+one armed with a spear, bending over the glowing
+fire, and one that will not easily be forgotten. It
+was difficult to say which sparkled the most, their
+polished spear-heads or their glossy locks. Every
+now and again a bright flame would leap into the air
+in spite of our precautions, showing us that the cliff
+above was hung in clusters of feathery creepers, while
+strange aloes and cacti appeared in the crevices.</p>
+
+<p>Rougher and steeper grew the road as we proceeded.
+At length in the middle of a rocky ascent a shout from
+behind, answered by one of the men, announced the
+arrival of the long-expected party, who had seen our
+signal and were following us; and a few minutes later,
+in the starlight, for the moon had not yet risen, we
+could discern dark shadows hurrying along after us
+on the track. A wild crew they were too, six or
+seven of them armed with matchlock-guns and
+spears. Of all the antiquated weapons I have come
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>across upon my travels, these guns of the Yemen are
+the most curious. The stocks are straight, and end in
+a lump like a croquet-ball, which forms the shoulder-piece;
+the barrels are long, and nearly always rusty.
+A hole in the barrel communicates with a pan on the
+outside, into which a little loose powder is dropped.
+The trigger possesses no spring except a weak rebounding
+arrangement. The nipple is formed like a
+fork, into which slides the fuse, made of aloe-fibre
+and slow burning. When the trigger is pulled the
+“match” descends into the loose powder, and the gun
+may go off or no. The chances are about equal, I
+should think.</p>
+
+<p>For an hour more we crept along the dark road.
+Thorny mimosas tore our clothes and baggage and the
+poor mules’ legs, and at places threatened to bar our
+passage altogether. Then we left the path, and descending
+by a steep rocky slope, we entered a deep
+nullah, half a mile or so along which a halt was
+called, and my guides informed me that this was to
+be our night’s resting-place. Fastening the strip of
+canvas sheeting, or rather such as remained of it after
+the sandstorm, over the boughs of a thorn-tree, as
+protection from the heavy dew, we lit a fire and set
+to work to cook our supper of tough old goat and
+rancid butter.</p>
+
+<p>This bivouac in the ravine below the large village
+of Azab was the last night spent out in the open; for
+although we continued for the next few days to take
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>advantage of the darkness to push through the most
+difficult country, we were able to rest in the <i>cafés</i> of
+villages, and after Yerim, in the regular caravanserais,
+some of which had pretensions even to being clean
+and comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning I was able to see more of my surroundings.
+We had spent the night in the rocky
+course of a stream, in some of the pools of which was
+water. Opposite us the hills rose almost precipitously,
+strewn with boulders, and here and there tangled in
+clumps of mimosa-trees and other thorny brushwood.
+Away up the nullah stood Azab, a village perched on
+the very summit of a high hill, a confusion of walls
+and towers.</p>
+
+<p>We spent the day quietly under the little shade
+the scanty trees gave. A couple of the men went to
+the village to buy provisions, and returned with a
+bowl of rancid butter, bread of a thin consistency
+that would have served any purpose other than
+edible, from boot-soles to wrapping up parcels in,
+and a goat whose age was unfathomable. However,
+one cannot be too particular when travelling in such
+countries as the Yemen.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp11" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp11.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>VIEW OF AZAB.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At sunset our mules were packed, and we set off
+once more, creeping out of the nullah so as not to be
+seen from the village above, the inhabitants of which
+would be only too likely to take advantage of our
+position to go shares in my belongings—probably
+forgetting to give me my portion, unless they did so
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>with one of their curved daggers. The last glow of
+daylight still hovered in the sky; the last rays of the
+setting sun still tinged with pink and purple and gold
+the huge jagged peaks of the mountains before us.
+Very grand it is, this range of limestone, torn into all
+manner of fantastic shapes, the peaks here resembling
+some bewitched feudal castle, there the tapering spire
+of a cathedral.</p>
+
+<p>The track was as rough as usual, and constant short
+ascents and descents rendered our progress very slow.
+When darkness was complete, except for the glimmer
+of the stars, our men called a halt, and ranging themselves
+in line upon the soft white sand of a stream-bed,
+cried “Allah Akbar,” and rose and fell with
+monotonous motion in prayer. Wild shadows they
+appeared in their nudeness and shaggy locks,—wild
+shadows that some fevered brain might imagine; but
+the odour of the rancid butter and oil on their hair
+proved their reality. No decent ghost would smell
+as they did.</p>
+
+<p>Enjoining silence on every one, the men lit the
+fuses of their guns, and a couple going ahead to keep
+a sharp look-out, we pushed on. Like the glow of
+cigarette-ends, I could follow the spark of their guns
+as they crept along.</p>
+
+<p>The valley becomes more distinct as one proceeds,
+the mountains closing in on either side, leaving but
+little level ground beyond the absolute course of the
+stream, and that was uneven enough. Hanging over
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>the river-banks were trees and thick undergrowth,
+but the darkness prevented one seeing anything but
+their outline. At length our path seemed abruptly
+to end. Here a halt was called and we dismounted.
+From this point commenced an ascent I shall never
+forget. A winding path, a mere track in the face of
+the precipices, climbs the mountain-side until an
+elevation of over eight thousand feet above the sea-level
+is reached. The night was as yet moonless, and
+one could scarcely see a step in front of one, and it
+was bitterly cold. Lightening the animals as much
+as possible by dividing the baggage amongst the
+men, every one taking his share, except Abdurrahman,
+who carried my shot-gun, we commenced the
+ascent. Any moment man or beast might have made
+a false step and alighted somewhere in the valley
+beneath. Not only was the ascent trying, but it
+must be also remembered that we were now in rebel
+country, and that our discovery would mean certain
+death, to myself if not to all of us. The very tribe
+whose lands we were entering, the Kabyla el-Owd,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>
+had only a few months before thrown off the Turkish
+yoke, and celebrated their day of independence by
+cutting up their Sheikh into small pieces and distributing
+him over the country, as a warning to others.
+Our party, including our new retinue supplied by
+El-Besaisi, numbered in all some ten persons; but
+with the exception of my shot-gun and revolver we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>had no weapons worth considering as such, unless it
+came to hand-to-hand fighting, when ten-foot-spears
+may be useful. However, our numbers made any
+attack from a small party improbable. Up and up
+we toiled, often on all-fours. We had not ascended
+many hundreds of feet before we found that our remaining
+camel was perfectly incapable of surmounting
+the difficulties of the road, while his constant mumblings
+and gruntings threatened every moment to
+bring the natives upon us, and already we could hear
+their dogs barking in the villages below. Once or
+twice, too, men called to one another, and lights could
+be seen moving about. Then we would lie still and
+hold our animals so as to ensure silence. At length
+it was decided to send the camel back, and two of the
+men undertook the job, trusting to be out of danger’s
+way before daylight. This made extra weights for
+the men and mules, but they cheerily lifted their
+burdens and our scramble recommenced.</p>
+
+<p>I began to think the ascent would never end.
+Steeper and steeper it became, until, two hours after
+commencing, and having climbed over two thousand
+feet in that time, we reached the summit, where on a
+ledge of rock some humane person has built a well to
+rejoice the heart of man and beast with its cool waters.
+Here we rested for ten minutes, but more time we
+could not spare, tired as we were, for a long march
+had yet to be covered before dawn. Passing through
+a gorge at the height of eight thousand one hundred
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>feet above the sea-level, we began once more to
+descend; and scrambling down through thick undergrowth
+and over loose rolling stones, we reached the
+level of a valley, along which our road now lay, and
+through which flows the Wadi el-Banna, a large stream
+which reaches the sea, when flooded, at Ras Seilan,
+some thirty miles north-east of Aden. How the apes
+chattered and roared as we disturbed their night’s
+rest; and every now and then we could hear the
+stones rattling under their feet as they scampered
+away. Collecting our little band together, and examining
+our weapons, we continued our march in
+silence through the strongholds of the Kabyla el-Owd.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.<br>
+<span class="smaller">SOBEH TO YERIM.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>With this descent to the level of the valley commenced
+the most dangerous and difficult part of the
+whole journey. The surrounding country was thickly
+inhabited, and dotted with villages, capture by any
+one of which meant the destruction of our caravan, if
+not of ourselves. A long march yet lay before us
+until a place of tolerable safety could be reached, and
+there remained only a few hours more of night. It
+would mean a fast and difficult walk at any time, but
+now especially so in the midst of so many dangers.
+The road had not been traversed even by Arab traders
+or members of strange tribes for more than three
+months. For this period the district had remained
+closed, and I could not help feeling, as once more our
+head-man enjoined the strictest silence, that I was
+rather foolhardy in attempting to be the first to open
+it again.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the track, we struck into the thick brushwood
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>in order to avoid as much as possible approaching
+the villages. One, however, we were obliged, by
+nature of the country, to pass much nearer than was
+pleasant. This was Sobeh, the principal stronghold of
+the Owd tribe. How silently we crept on! But sure-footed
+as were our little mules, they could not help
+now and again making a false step, and rattling the
+stones with which our path was strewn. When this
+happened we would all stand still for a second, holding
+our breath to listen. Once a dog barked, others
+took it up, and presently it seemed as though a
+hundred yelping curs, intent on our discovery, were
+doing their utmost to give warning of our proximity.
+Happily they did not leave the village, but, after the
+custom of Arab dogs, barked from the shelter of
+their masters’ homes. Nevertheless, the noise was
+loud enough to wake a man, who shouted to another,
+and a conversation took place. Seizing me by the
+wrist, my men dragged me into a thick cluster of
+bamboos, whence we could see a light, evidently
+a lantern, flickering in the village only a few hundred
+yards away. It was an anxious moment; but
+at length the dogs ceased their barking, and the
+light disappeared. Waiting to make sure that all
+was quiet, we stole on again, thankful at our narrow
+escape.</p>
+
+<p>Then the moon rose, but the cold was too intense,
+and I was too tired to admire the lovely mist-swathed
+valley and the broken mountain-peaks. Once or
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>twice more we awoke the dogs, and once again, too,
+a man shouted to know who was passing; but we did
+not hide this time, as dawn was approaching, and my
+men whispered to me that even as it was it would be
+a mere chance if the sun did not rise to find us still
+in the enemy’s country.</p>
+
+<p>At length it came, cold steely-grey dawn; then the
+sky flushed crimson and pink, and we put on our
+final spurt, driving the mules before us with sharp
+cuts from bits of rope, and hurrying as fast as our
+feet would carry us. The sun was nearly up when
+one of the men pointed out to me, a long way ahead,
+a solitary tower standing on the edge of a precipice
+overlooking the river. “Once there,” he whispered,
+“we are safe; they are friends of ours.” At length
+we almost ran. The sun would be up in a quarter of
+an hour, and the cold grey mist which at present
+helped to conceal us would rise.</p>
+
+<p>A little before the great gold orb appeared over the
+mountains to the east, we forded the icy-cold river
+and scrambled up to our looked-for goal, Beit en-Nedish.</p>
+
+<p>This village, standing on the very edge of high
+precipices, presents a most picturesque appearance.
+In the centre rises a high tower, the largest of these
+solidly built Arab <i>burj</i> we had as yet come across, it
+being six storeys in height, as far as one could judge
+from the windows. The summit seemed to be unfinished,
+and only half roofed in. Around it stood a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>few low stone houses with flat roofs, while a little
+farther from the
+precipice was a
+mosque, and a larger
+part of the village.
+A graveyard surrounded
+the whole
+on the mountain-side.
+Near the tower
+were a few shady trees, adding not a little to the
+picturesqueness of this strange spot.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp60" id="illus10" style="max-width: 25.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus10.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Beit en-Nedish.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span></p>
+
+<p>A yelping and barking of dogs welcomed us, but we
+paid no heed to them, but straightway lit a fire by
+which to thaw our chilled limbs; and setting some
+coffee in a rough earthen pot to brew, I rolled myself
+up in my carpet, and was soon fast asleep. When I
+awoke a warm sun was streaming down upon us. A
+crowd of laughing, chattering Arabs had gathered
+round us, and were seated in a semicircle anxiously
+waiting for me to awake. When I did so I was
+stiff and sore, and without more ado, pulling
+out some clean clothes from my sack of baggage,
+ran down to the river and bathed in the cool fresh
+stream, after which I joined the circle, whose centre
+of interest was myself—a thing the like of which
+they had never seen before. Meanwhile breakfast
+was ready, and inviting a few of the throng to join
+us, we said “Bismillah”—“In the name of God”—and
+dipped our fingers into the rough earthen
+pan.</p>
+
+<p>What a glorious morning it was, and how fresh and
+lovely everything looked! The dew still sparkled on
+the green trees and grass, the mist still hovered in
+the valley beneath, and the hot sun was tempered
+with a gentle breeze. It was like a spring day in
+England. How cheery we were, too, after our night’s
+dangers and fatigues, all laughing and joking in the
+exhilaration of high spirits! But our hopes for a
+day’s rest were soon dashed to the ground, for my
+men received timely warning that it would be safer
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>for us to proceed, and a few hours later saw us on the
+way again.</p>
+
+<p>We had entered Arabia Felix! On all sides of us
+were tiny streams, splashing and tumbling through
+fern-covered banks over pebbles and stones. One
+does not realise what music there is in the sound of
+running water until one has travelled, as the writer
+has once or twice in his life, over deserts where the
+muddy pools are two and three days apart. But
+the deserts and rocky valleys were all forgotten now—they
+seemed merely the imaginings of the past.
+Everywhere were green fields in which the young
+barley showed promise of rich crops, everywhere
+great shady trees and jungle covered the slopes.
+The sun was hot, but at that great altitude the
+freshness of the air compensated for it. My men
+went merrily on, singing and laughing, and now
+and again running races and brandishing their spears—and
+yet we had rested only two or three hours
+after our march of nearly twelve hours, during which
+we had covered some thirty miles of road, and what
+a road!</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp12" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp12.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>MAN AND WOMAN OF THE HIGHLANDS OF THE YEMEN.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Here we came in contact for the first time with
+the mountaineers, a much finer people than those of
+the plains. They are, as a rule, taller and better built,
+their limbs being freer in action and their legs more
+gracefully formed, no doubt owing much to the fact
+that they are great walkers. Like the people of the
+plains, the men wear their hair long, shaving their
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>upper lip but allowing a small beard to grow on the
+points of their chins. As well as the dark-blue loin-cloth,
+stuck full of daggers, they wear a thick sheepskin
+coat, the wool on the inside, the rough skin
+being coarsely embroidered in black thread. This
+forms a very necessary precaution against the cold,
+to which these high altitudes expose them. The
+women, like their sisters of the plains, wear dark-blue
+skirts, embroidered round the neck and sleeves
+and on the breasts in coloured silks, and now and
+again in gold or silver thread. Their heads they
+cover with dark-blue hoods, often richly but coarsely
+embroidered. While the men are often almost divinely
+handsome, the women are just the contrary, being
+generally thickly built. No doubt the hideous tight
+blue trousers and the oil and paint on their faces
+tends not a little to disfigure them. In the cold
+early mornings the oil on their hair hangs in little
+solid drops on the points of their fringes; but as the
+heat of the day increases it trickles down their faces,
+washing away the red-lead-coloured powder, with
+which they so thickly smear their faces, in long
+streaks.</p>
+
+<p>From Beit en-Nedish we proceeded on a three
+hours’ ride, and crossing the river at a ford that
+might have been in the upper waters of the Tay, we
+ascended the opposite bank to Beit Saïd, a large and
+prosperous-looking village, situated on the west bank
+of the river amidst groves of shady trees.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span></p>
+
+<p>Before reaching this spot two large villages have
+to be passed, one on each side of the river. They
+are respectively on the left bank Nadir, above which
+the Turks had built a fort, and on the right bank
+Ghadan—both large and flourishing villages, well and
+handsomely built of stone. The fort was now in
+possession of the Arabs, as, in spite of its commanding
+position, the Turks had found it untenable, and
+deserted it on the breaking out of the rebellion.
+With the exception of Ismail Pasha’s camp and the
+custom-house at Kátaba, this was the first sign we
+had as yet seen of the occupation of the Yemen by
+the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>The land, carefully terraced to allow of more cultivation,
+presented from a distance an appearance of
+a great flight of steps, so evenly was this immense
+work carried out. Although at this spot the terracing
+was comparatively simple compared with many
+other places, owing to the slope being gentler, it
+showed signs of an enormously laborious task. But,
+compared to places that we afterwards saw in the
+Yemen it was <i>nil</i>. At one spot I counted one hundred
+and thirty-seven of these terraces on the side
+of a mountain, one above another, and each and
+every one, as far as one could judge, higher than it
+was wide; that is to say, the stone wall supporting
+the small strip of cultivated land was perhaps nine
+feet in height, while the supported strip was only six!
+This is particularly noticeable in the coffee-growing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>districts. However, as it was in this valley of the
+Wadi el-Banna that we first came across this process
+of cultivating the soil, although it was well known
+to me in the Atlas Mountains, Madeira, and many
+parts of Europe, it struck one as showing not only a
+propensity for hard work not usually found amongst
+Arab peoples, but also no little amount of skill and
+engineering.</p>
+
+<p>In other parts of the Mahammedan world the
+Arabs are exceedingly fond of making and planting
+gardens, and even trying experiments in cultivation;
+but whether failure or success awaits their efforts,
+they allow the whole concern to fall into disrepair,
+and the fields and gardens to become thick with
+weeds. It is not usually so much a want of experimenting
+as a want of continuing that is the ruin of
+so many Arab peoples. I have known Moors plant
+gardens which gave promise not only of beautiful
+surroundings but of considerable profit; I have
+known them plant them with all manner of fruit-trees,
+and build aqueducts to bring the water from
+some distant spring, a work of by no means little
+expenditure, and a few months later I have seen the
+place deserted, goats feeding on the young orange
+and almond trees, and the place run to wreck and
+ruin. But not so in these valleys of the Yemen.
+Here the supporting wall of every terrace was in
+excellent repair, here every little artificial channel
+and aqueduct brimmed over with water, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>whole surroundings wore not only the appearance of
+great laborious skill, but of the idea being present
+that the people were aware of the necessity of
+maintaining the results of their labours in a state
+of repair.</p>
+
+<p>It was a trait of character I had never before met
+with in the Arab people, and I was immensely struck
+with it. In the Atlas Mountains, five hundred miles
+in the interior of Morocco, I have seen on a small
+scale the same industrious attention; but in that case
+the people are Berbers, untainted with Arab blood.
+In the country of the Gallas surrounding the city of
+Harrar one finds much the same; but again, however
+nearly the Somalis may be related to the people of
+the Yemen, the Gallas are no doubt a perfectly distinct
+race. It may be argued that the necessities of
+life and the nature of the country would render existence
+impossible were the people not obliged to terrace
+and cultivate their lands in this manner; but I have
+passed in many parts of the world where the same
+argument would apply, and found an entirely different
+state of things existing. I rather believe this attention
+to cultivation, and especially the growing of coffee,
+&amp;c., to be due to the existence of true Yemeni blood
+in the veins of the people, apart from their mixed Arab
+pedigrees. There is little doubt that this system of
+fixed abodes and attention to agriculture could not
+have been introduced in the Arab invasions of the
+Yemen, but was existent there long before the time of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>the introduction of Islam. All the historical records
+point to this effect, and it was probably owing as
+much to this as to the natural wealth and beauty of
+the country that the province obtained the name of
+Arabia Felix.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp42" id="fp13" style="max-width: 25.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp13.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>MOSQUE AT BEIT SAÏD.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>We found the village of Beit Saïd to be by far the
+most flourishing we had as yet entered. A large open
+space divided a pretty little white mosque, half covered
+by trees, from the rest of the village. The houses were
+well built of stone, one especially fine, being of two
+storeys in height, with arched doorways and heavy
+wooden doors. This we found to be the caravanserai
+and house of a cousin of the Sheikh Besaisi of Kátaba,
+to whom my men were well known, and who quickly
+made us welcome in an upper chamber of the house,
+to which an outside stone stairway led. The room
+was small but cool, and we quickly unpacked our
+baggage and stored it away, settling in for a much-needed
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>A crowd watched our operations,—a gathering of
+men, women, children, and dogs, who, open-mouthed
+and open-eyed, watched the strange little caravan
+arrive, whispering their criticisms to one another.
+However, they were quite polite, the presence of El-Besaisi
+no doubt keeping them at a distance; for, like
+his cousin at Kátaba, he was no small personage
+here.</p>
+
+<p>We found the people of Beit Saïd extremely pleasant;
+in fact, the callers almost crowded us out of our
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>room, they were so many, a constant crowd watching
+with the greatest interest the strange visitor. The
+rest was a welcome one, and we hoped not only to
+spend the day here, but to obtain, for the first time
+for many days, a night’s repose; but fate was against
+us. Having turned in about eight <span class="allsmcap">P.M.</span> in a portion
+of the big store, where, except for the rats, I felt I
+should be quieter than in the guest-room, I was soon
+asleep, weary with all the anxiety and travel which
+we had accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>I had been asleep only an hour or two when I felt
+myself quietly shaken. I asked who was there. A
+voice whispered in my ear, “Hush! do not speak.”
+I struck a light, and as a wild long-haired creature
+leant over me to blow it out, I had just time to see
+that the man was a stranger. “Get up,” said the
+voice again; “you are in danger. Not a word, mind.
+Give me your bedding and carpet.” In the dark I
+hurried into my clothes, while the unknown seized
+my carpet and such baggage as I possessed, and left.
+I waited for a few moments, when he returned.
+“Your mules are already being laden,” he continued;
+then seizing me by the hand, added, “Follow me.” I
+followed him out into the quiet moonlit streets, and
+keeping under the shadows of the houses, left the
+village. Here I was surprised to find my mules
+already laden. No one was stirring, and in the
+bright moonlight we passed silently away from the
+place without disturbing a soul. Our road was a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>difficult and a steep one: at many places the track,
+under two feet wide, was cut into the side of a precipice,
+far down which we could see the white mists
+hovering over the damp valley.</p>
+
+<p>The reason of our flight I was at a loss to understand,
+yet never for a moment did I doubt that there
+was a reason. I somehow, without knowing why,
+trusted the man who had warned me. He was a
+stranger, and as far as I could remember, as I watched
+him leading our little caravan over the awful road, I
+had never seen him before. Once in my life already
+I had been saved by a stranger, who had risked his
+own to save mine—an Arab too, but in a land far away
+from the Yemen. I need not tell the story here:
+sufficient that I arrived at his house weary, by night,
+my bare feet bleeding with the stones and thorns,
+pursued by men who had vowed to take my life; and
+that he, good noble fellow, found me and took me in,
+bathed my blood-stained ankles, and tore up his own
+clothes to bind them in, and, after keeping me in
+hiding for two days, escorted me in safety out of the
+country. He died a few months later, foully murdered
+in a blood-feud. Perhaps it was the recollection of
+this that imbued me with so much confidence and
+trust in my new-found friend. That I was not wrong
+the sequel will show.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes a stone loosened by our animals’ hoofs
+would fall, and, bounding from rock to rock, disappear
+into the darkness. At each of these occurrences our
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>guide would utter a guttural sound of disapproval.
+Once or twice I ventured to ask him the reason of
+our sudden flight, but was always met with a sharp
+“Silence!” in reply. On and on, until some three
+hours after leaving Beit Saïd our path commenced to
+descend, and, slipping and sliding down slopes of sand
+and stones, we entered the large village of Seddah,
+now wrapt in sleep; then on through the village of
+Mundah, and out into the open country again. The
+dogs barked a little, and one or two men, armed with
+spears, accosted us, but, after a few words whispered
+with our men, we passed on again. It is at Seddah
+that the valley turns to the west, and here the Wadi
+Thuba flows into the Wadi Banna. This latter river
+has a direction almost north and south, and although
+the Banna is the main stream, the other continues
+the general direction of the valley.</p>
+
+<p>An hour later, leaving the valley and mounting a
+steep ascent, we crossed an elevated plateau, finally
+arriving at the village of Sôk el-Thuluth. I had been
+given no idea of whither we were going or where our
+new guide considered it safe for us to rest; and when,
+on nearing the village, he told me that I might stay
+there as long as I liked, it was a most pleasant surprise.
+The streets of the little place were deserted
+except by the dogs; but after knocking long and
+loudly at a door, we succeeded in awakening a
+woman, who turned out to be the proprietress of the
+small <i>café</i> and caravanserai of the place. She was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span>a good kindly soul, and did not grumble at being
+turned up at one <span class="allsmcap">A.M.</span> on a cold morning. Admitting
+us into a cave-like room with a stone arched ceiling,
+reeking with the pungent odours of strong tobacco
+and coffee—not to mention the odours of its Arab
+occupants, who lay sleeping about the door rolled up
+in their dirty sheepskin coats—she lit a fire, put
+water on to boil, and then commenced by violently
+kicking the Arabs in order to awake them, calling
+to them to turn out and make room for a more
+honoured guest. I persuaded her to leave them in
+peace,—more out of regard, it must be said, for my
+own slumbers than for theirs; and calling to Saïd
+and Abdurrahman to make up my bed on the roof,
+was soon asleep.</p>
+
+<p>When I awoke it was dawn. What a sight met my
+eyes! Never had I before, and I think never since,
+seen such a view as lay before me. Sôk el-Thuluth,
+or “Tuesday market,” as its name implies, is situated
+above the junctions of the Wadi Banna and Wadi
+Thuba, on a spur of the mountains of the main
+valley. Below me lay the great valley up the straight
+course of which we had been travelling for the last
+two nights. Over its green fields floated a transparent
+hazy mist, through which I would watch the
+river sparkling and flashing like a silver serpent, as it
+passed on its way to the desert and the sea. Along
+its banks the dark-foliaged trees stood out clear and
+defined. On either side of this silver streak lay terraced
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>fields, rising step by step from the water’s
+edge to where the mountain-slopes became too steep
+for cultivation. Here they were covered with thick
+jungle undergrowth, while above rose precipice upon
+precipice, crowned, thousands of feet in the pink
+morning sky, by broken crags and pinnacles of rock,
+touched with snow. At my very feet, for I was on
+the house-top, the villagers, rejoicing in the glorious
+morning, were passing out to their labours, and the
+flocks and herds bleated as they sought their pasturage.
+Women carrying beakers wended their way to
+the spring; while the men, spears in hand, their long
+glossy locks tumbling in unrestrained glory over the
+shoulders, added a fierce element to a scene of the
+most perfect peace and beauty. It was worth all the
+desert travel and all the dangers of our night marches
+to see what I saw then. This was Arabia Felix!
+As I gazed the mists rose, every detail in the valley
+became distinct: little villages far below, crowning the
+rocky mounds on which the Arabs of the Yemen so
+love to build, stood out from the green fields all grey
+and severe, each a fortress in itself, with its battlements
+and towers. Around the pink-and-gold crags
+hovered little fleecy clouds, attracted by the small
+patches of snow—now hiding, now disclosing the
+grandeur of the mountain pinnacles.</p>
+
+<p>All our dangers were over; from here our road was
+safe. We were soon to enter the great plateau of the
+central Yemen, now safely once more in the hands
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>of the Turks, though woe betide the Osmanli soldier
+who found himself alone and without protection. As
+I looked upon that glorious valley, more glorious
+than ever now that the sun had risen, I could not
+realise how exciting a time we had experienced in
+passing through it, so lovely, so quiet, so peaceful it
+seemed.</p>
+
+<p>Calling to Saïd, I told him to send me the man
+who had led us to Sôk el-Thuluth the night before.</p>
+
+<p>He had gone!</p>
+
+<p>Never a word of thanks, never a reward! He had
+left me sleeping, and gone back to his own affairs and
+to his own life. Like the character in some play that
+appears but once, so had this Arab come and gone.
+My men had tried to stop him, had tried to keep him
+until I awoke, promising him a reward, but he had
+laughed and shaken his raven curls, and, spear in
+hand, girded up his loins and vanished. Strange
+good fellow! he saved my life, and never even gave
+me the opportunity of thanking him!</p>
+
+<p>We had left one of our men the night before behind
+us at Beit Saïd. He had gone off in the evening
+to supper in the house of a friend, where he had
+slept, unaware of our flight. In the early morning
+he had found us gone, and followed us, not by the
+roundabout mountain-track we had come by, but by
+the main road.</p>
+
+<p>He solved the mystery of our flight, for but a few
+miles from Beit Saïd he found the road held by some
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>forty men, armed to the teeth, whose object was my
+plunder. How little the poor fellows would have got!
+A few dollars and a little shabby clothing, an old carpet
+and a mattress, and that was about all. But they
+had imagined that I was a trader taking up great
+sums of money, and had resolved my death—for life
+is cheap out there—and the plundering of my goods.
+I asked our man what they had said to him. He replied
+that they had asked after me, and that finding
+I had been warned and escaped them, they went off
+laughing and swearing, apparently rather amused at
+the whole episode.</p>
+
+<p>Our rest had done us all good, and we set out with
+light hearts, knowing that no probable dangers lay
+ahead.</p>
+
+<p>The path leads one along the east side of the valley,
+at a great height above the river, often, like that we
+had traversed the night before, only a footway cut in
+the edge of the precipices. Here for the first time
+we came across the coffee-plant, growing amidst
+tumbling waterfalls on terraces built up against the
+steep mountain-side. Everywhere was water, here
+in artificial channels, there in tiny streamlets. Wild
+flowers abounded, and in places the walls of rock were
+green and white with jasmine. A thousand feet below
+us were the villages, on to the roofs of the houses of
+which we looked from above. It seemed but a step
+from us to them. At one spot my men pointed out
+where a short time before a camel and its load had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span>fallen from an overhanging rock. It never touched
+the precipice, they said, until it fell upon a ledge they
+pointed out to me hundreds of feet below, and thence
+it bounded into the valley.</p>
+
+<p>Rich in the extreme is this part of the country,
+owing to its everlasting supply of water, and many
+are the tales the Arabs of the plains tell of it. Beled
+el-Hawad they call it, of which Howra is the chief
+village,—a place like a feudal castle built on a pile of
+rocks.</p>
+
+<p>After a time the road turns to the right, and, following
+the course of a small stream, ascends a valley.
+To the left of this valley, on the very summit of a
+high mountain, is the village of Ofar, to reach which
+necessitates a climb of a thousand feet or more from
+the road. At several places one passes drinking-fountains,
+erected, like the great tanks we were afterwards
+to meet with in the plateau, for the refreshment of
+man and beast. They are simple affairs, but excellently
+built. In form they are usually square, and
+domed, some six feet each way perhaps. A trough
+on the outside supplies the water for the animals,
+while a hole in the wall, large enough for one to insert
+one’s head through, is for human beings. Within the
+water rises to the level of this hole, being carried off
+by an overflow pipe into the trough below, so that
+the clear liquid just reaches the level of one’s lips,
+while the roof above keeps it fresh and cool. These
+fountains, common all over the Yemen, have been
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>usually erected by private philanthropists for the
+benefit of their fellow-men. Unlike the custom in
+England, no flowery inscription tells the world the
+name or the generosity of the builder—they are the
+memorials of anonymous benefactors. Here, too, we
+came into contact for the first time with the mountain
+camel—a very different beast from that of the Teháma
+and desert, being a rough-haired, heavily-boned creature,
+usually black in colour and the picture of ugliness.
+Those of Lahej and the surrounding country,
+renowned throughout Arabia, are light in colour and
+remarkably finely built, and often exceedingly pretty.
+To those who think that the camel is essentially a creature
+of the desert, and incapable of traversing with
+ease stony or rocky country, the fact that we were
+passing caravans of camels nearly eight thousand feet
+above the sea-level, and on the worst possible roads,
+must seem strange. It is well known, of course, that
+the camel of Central Asia traverses mountainous
+country, but I doubt if many are aware that it forms
+also the beast of burden in the extreme highlands of
+the Yemen, travelling over roads which one would
+have thought impassable almost for a mule. Yet so
+it is.</p>
+
+<p>At length the end of the little valley was reached
+at an altitude of only a little under nine thousand
+feet above the sea-level. A slippery rocky path winds
+up the last few hundred yards of the ascent, which is
+extremely difficult to surmount, both for man and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>beast, for the constant traffic of centuries has polished
+the surface until it shines like glass.</p>
+
+<p>Here the beauty ends, for one has reached the
+plateau of central Yemen—a vast plain lying at an
+average altitude of about eight thousand feet above
+the sea, broken only by hideous ledges of black volcanic
+rock, which crop up here and there from its
+level surface. It was too early yet in the year for
+the young grain to show; and the scene that met
+our eyes, as we rested ourselves and our mules after
+the steep climb, was a dreary one—miles of yellow
+level plain, and black jagged rocks. A short but
+steep descent brings one to the level of the plateau,
+over which, with but little exception, the road passes
+from this spot as far as Sanaa, the capital.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="illus11" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus11.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Inscribed stone at Munkat, near Yerim.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The natives have made use of the ledges of rock,
+which appear in every direction, as sites for their
+villages, many of which are perched on the extreme
+summits, while others lie on the slopes. At one of
+these—by name Munkat—we stopped for a little
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span>while, to see the place and some curious Himyaric
+remains still existing therein.</p>
+
+<p>This is, I think, the first mention I have made of
+the strange people, descendants of Himyar, who formerly
+inhabited the Yemen; but rather than enter into
+any account of them and of other historical matters
+at this point, I have reserved these questions for
+separate chapters, as I have also done in the case
+of the geography, trade, and general description of
+the Yemen. It has been my wish, as far as possible,
+to separate the account of my journey from other
+and more important matter, so that each may be
+taken separately. In all matters historical and geographical,
+I have consulted, as far as has been in my
+power, the best authorities upon the subject; but in
+the account of my own travels I have thought it expedient,
+instead of breaking the narrative with incursions
+into more serious subjects, to omit, except in
+cases in which it may illustrate and explain more fully
+than would otherwise be the case, nearly all reference
+to historical or political affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Munkat is a walled village containing a considerable
+number of houses, one of which, a kind of fort, is
+curiously perched on an enormous boulder, and a pretty
+white mosque, surrounded by tanks of good water.
+Built into the wall of the mosque are stones inscribed
+in Himyaric characters, and some also in Kufic.
+Copies of the former were, I believe, taken some
+years ago by Dr Glaser. In another part of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span>village is a white marble column, some eight or ten
+feet in height, of Himyaric origin, which is said by
+the villagers to have appeared suddenly at this spot.
+The ignorance of the natives in this part of the
+country is astonishing; for out of many stones they
+showed me, some were in Arabic and some in the
+Himyaric character, but the inhabitants were uncertain
+as to which was which. They seemed, however,
+to reverence these remains to some extent, as
+they had carefully built them into the walls. At
+one spot, over a doorway and in a prominent position,
+they had carefully placed a marble stone containing
+the first chapter of the Koran—“Bismillah
+Alrahman Alrahim,” &amp;c.—upside down. When I
+told them of their mistake, it was quite sad to hear
+their excuses. “We are only poor people,” they said,
+“and we are terribly taxed. We have to till the
+soil to feed ourselves and the Osmanli Pashas, and
+there is no time to learn to read or write.” In many
+parts of the country to such an extent do they have
+“to feed the Osmanli Pashas,” that they scarcely get
+ought to eat themselves. It is the old tale of cruelty
+and oppression, of extortion and corruption.</p>
+
+<p>The regard shown by the poor villagers of Munkat
+for these inscribed stones is not by any means uncommon,
+a great reverence for writing being innate
+in all Arab peoples. I once had an Arab servant, himself
+perfectly illiterate, who treasured a torn manuscript
+copy of the ‘Arabian Nights.’ Its contents he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>did not know, nor had he ever taken the trouble to
+find out: that it was a <i>book</i> was sufficient for him,
+and he carried it about as a sort of talisman. In
+spite of its good luck, it did not keep him out of
+prison, when one day he helped himself to things that
+weren’t his.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most beautiful sights to be seen upon
+the plateau of the Yemen are the lizards—little creatures
+of gorgeous metallic blue, now pale turquoise,
+now transparent sapphire, as the sunlight dances on
+their backs. In no other part of the world have I
+come across such gorgeously coloured reptiles, although
+I have seen the same lizard, but less brilliant in hue,
+in the mountains of the Zarahoun, to the north of
+the road between Fez and Mequinez, in Morocco.</p>
+
+<p>An hour or two more of winding path and we were
+in sight of Yerim, one of the principal towns of the
+Yemen, which but a short time before had been taken
+by the Arabs in the rebellion, and retaken by the very
+Ismail Pasha whose camp we had seen at Kátaba.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.<br>
+<span class="smaller">YERIM TO DHAMAR.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The immediate approach to Yerim is over a level
+plain a mile or two in width, across which, immediately
+in front of one, lies the town—a poor enough
+looking place, lying half on the level ground and half
+on the steep slope of a mountain, Jibel Samára. This
+flat ground is dotted in places with tanks, and here
+the townspeople congregate to do their washing, and
+many a pretty group we passed of men, women, and
+children engaged in that wholesome pursuit. Eastern
+washing processes are too well known to need any
+description here: suffice it to say that it is generally
+performed by men, whose one desire seems to be, by
+stamping on the clothes and beating them with large
+stones, to see how many fragments they can tear them
+into. They are generally successful in sending the
+things back in shreds. It must be an invigorating
+profession; for the fact that one places the clothes
+upon a rock, and then proceeds to dance first on one
+leg and then on the other with all the energy and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>strength one possesses, at the same time issuing a
+series of low cries, must tend to strengthen not only
+the limbs but the lungs also!</p>
+
+<p>We did not stay, however, to watch the washers,
+but hurried on into the town; for although I had
+some days before successfully crossed the frontier of
+Turkish Yemen at the <i>jimerouk</i> near Kátaba, this
+was the first time I was to find myself in a Turkish
+garrisoned town.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp42" id="fp14" style="max-width: 25.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp14.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>UPPER FLOOR OF A KHAN AT YERIM.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As soon as we had approached the place Turkish
+soldiers became apparent, and a miserable crew they
+were. A few were sauntering about near the gate,
+laughing and talking to others who leaned over the
+parapet of the old tower that forms one corner of the
+fortified entrance to the place. Passing through the
+gateway without any particular notice being taken of
+us, we proceeded by narrow streets to an open square,
+which serves as a market, and entered the huge doorway
+of a large caravanserai or khan. This place,
+typical of the country, calls for some description.
+The building was evidently an old one, the material
+used being stone on the lower storeys, and above sun-dried
+bricks. An archway led one into a large covered
+space, some ten or fifteen yards in width, and perhaps
+thirty in length. There was no light admitted except
+from the great doorway and a curious barred window
+above it. This portion of the khan was of great
+height, the roof of the building forming the only
+obstacle between it and the sky. This roof was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>supported by large arches on buttresses running out
+from the wall on either side. A series of brick fire-places
+for charcoal ran along one side of the building,
+divided from one another by low brick seats, where
+the Arabs could sit and brew their own <i>keshour</i>, or
+drink of coffee-husks. Farther in the space served as
+a stable, and there were quite a number of camels,
+mules, and donkeys within its precincts. The
+opposite side to that on which the stoves were was
+taken up by a staircase leading to a long gallery.
+Here the better class of people, such as merchants
+and native sheikhs, congregated. The buttresses
+supporting the roof divided the gallery into compartments,
+and it seemed to be the custom for a party to
+engage one for themselves, where they would spread
+their carpets and smoke their hubble-bubbles, calling
+to the khan servants below for their coffee and food,
+and charcoal for their pipes. One end of this gallery,
+on the left of the staircase, formed a little room,
+which I was able to procure for my use. The fact
+that it was built immediately above the kitchen, and
+that the thickest of wood fumes crept up between the
+ill-laid boards, did not add to my comfort. The
+ceiling and walls of the whole building were black
+with the smoke of ages, but the scene was a most
+picturesque one, and I sat at the doorway of my little
+chamber and sketched the place.</p>
+
+<p>However, I was not to be left very long in peace,
+for an impudent young Turk came and began to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>search my luggage, and to speak in such an impertinent
+manner that he had to be ejected. I knew that,
+whatever orders he might have had, he would have
+received none that would allow of his conducting
+himself in this way—for the Turk, be he what he may,
+seldom if ever fails to be polite. There is an innate
+manner in him that is always charming, in spite of
+the many other drawbacks to his character.</p>
+
+<p>I called on the Kaimakam a little later and told
+him what had happened, saying that I was quite
+prepared to have my luggage searched, but asking
+that I might be treated with a certain amount of
+decent respect. The Turk of whom I complained
+was sent for, and such wrath did the Kaimakam show
+with him that the young man, a junior clerk in one
+of the Government offices, had to ask me to beg the
+Governor to forgive him, which I readily did. I
+found my host as pleasant and gentlemanly as any
+Turk I met in the country, and he insisted on my
+spending an hour with him and his brother officers.
+I showed him my passport, for here there was no
+longer any need to pretend that I was a Greek trader,
+and he seemed much impressed with the number
+of seals and stamps with which it was covered. Of
+what value the wording and decoration of this British
+passport was at Sanaa will be told anon. But more
+astonished still was his Excellency at the fact that I
+had pushed through the Owd tribe and arrived from
+Kátaba—for, as he said, the road had been impassable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>for many months, and he laughed heartily at an
+Englishman having been the first to open it again.
+Yerim, he said, was the dullest of dull places, and he
+longed for the society and gaieties of his native town—some
+out-of-the-way spot in Asia Minor, the name
+of which I had never even heard.</p>
+
+<p>Returning from his residence to the khan, he followed
+me half an hour later and returned my call,
+accompanied by a couple of his officers. However,
+the fact that one could scarcely see across the room
+for smoke did not tend to detain him long, and I
+was soon left to my own devices.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as it was cool enough, under the guidance
+of Saïd, who knew the place well, I sauntered out
+and strolled through the bazaars; but although I
+wore on my head a Turkish fez, all sorts of rumours
+had been spread about concerning me, and I was the
+whole time the centre of a large crowd, who, though
+they pressed me rather hard, were polite but dirty,
+so that I found it advisable after a short time to beat
+a retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Yerim apparently has no great pretensions to antiquity,
+although there formerly stood on the same
+spot, or somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood,
+a city of the name of Dhu-Ruayn. The ancient
+capital of this district is Zafar, the ruins of which,
+lying some miles to the south-east, are still visible on
+the summit of a circular hill.</p>
+
+<p>There is but little to see in Yerim. The town is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>essentially a poor one, and although built partly on
+the slope of a mountain where stone is procurable,
+the houses are almost entirely composed of sun-dried
+bricks. Dirt and squalor abound on every side, and
+the streets of narrow bazaars show no signs of any
+great commerce or trade. What little importance the
+place can lay claim to is owing to the fact that it lies
+on the main road from Sanaa to Aden, and is a garrisoned
+city. Like Dhamar, it fell into the hands of
+the Arabs during the rebellion at the end of 1891,
+but was retaken by Ismail Pasha, whom we had seen
+a month or two after its recapture, encamped at
+Kátaba. The Arabs, however, seem to have gone to
+no excesses; and beyond taking prisoner the Kaimakam,
+who was still at this time in the hands of the
+Imam at Sadah, and his officers, behaved with great
+leniency toward the Turks, many of whom threw in
+their lot with the Arab cause.</p>
+
+<p>During the evening I received many callers, who
+came probably from curiosity rather than from any
+other reason. Amongst them were several of the
+“Ashraf,” of the family of Ahmed ed-Din, the leader
+of the rebellion, who had seen all through that their
+cousins’ cause was a hopeless one, and had remained
+neutral during the war. I found them exceedingly
+pleasant, and they conversed for a long time about
+their country. One was especially a fine man,
+young and exceedingly handsome. As is the custom
+amongst the nobility, these guests all had closely-shaven
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span>heads. One or two of them were richly
+dressed in silk robes, and wore daggers of exquisite
+silver and gold work. It was late before I got rid of
+the last of them, and was able to seek a few hours’
+rest before starting again.</p>
+
+<p>At dawn we were off, our caravan augmented by a
+couple of Arab soldiers in the service of the Turks,
+who, by the by, would have proved of little advantage
+in an attack, as they were armed solely with
+spears; but in all probability they were sent to
+watch my movements. The Turks employ a very
+considerable number of these soldiers in their service,
+many being of the class of “Akhdam,” probably
+descendants of the Abyssinians who invaded
+the Yemen in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 525; while others come from
+Yaffa and Hadramaut, and are ready to fight against
+any one so long as pay and booty are to be
+obtained.</p>
+
+<p>We left Yerim by a gate to the north of the city,
+near which is a picturesque stone mosque, with a
+white dome, which I had failed to notice the previous
+day.</p>
+
+<p>Emerging through the gateway, the track proceeds
+for a time along a straight level road, lying below
+the slopes of Jibel Samára, on which a few Arabs,
+mounted on ponies, were galloping to and fro, with
+the evident purpose of thrilling me with their equestrian
+powers. They were good riders certainly, and
+very picturesque they looked with their long black
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>hair waving behind them, and the rising sun sparkling
+on their polished spear-heads.</p>
+
+<p>The level surface of the plateau over which we
+were passing made one forget the great altitude we
+had reached; and such is the appearance of the surrounding
+country, that one could scarcely realise that
+one was not on some low level plain, but at an elevation
+of over eight thousand feet above the sea-level.</p>
+
+<p>At one spot, however, this is forcibly brought to
+one’s mind, for the road passes close to the edge of
+a deep narrow gorge through which flows the river
+Kha. This valley presents a most extraordinary
+appearance as seen from above, for it is nothing more
+or less than a huge slice cut out of the plateau. We
+passed it at its apex, and could see down nearly its
+whole course. The distance from side to side at
+the upper part is extraordinarily small, the sides of
+the valley being formed of perpendicular precipices.
+Far, far down below us, some thousands of feet at
+the nearest part, were the coffee-groves and villages,
+dotted here and there along the broken rocks that
+fringed the edge of the river, which we could follow
+with our eyes, a thread of silver, till it was lost in
+the hazy mists that lay across the valley many miles
+away. Beyond this again rose the torn fantastic
+peaks to which we were now becoming so accustomed.
+It was a wonderful sight, and we reined in our mules
+and stood, Arabs and European alike, gazing at it
+with wondering eyes. The Wadi Kha, unlike so
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span>many of these Yemen rivers, eventually reaches the
+sea. It flows into the Wadi Zebeed, and continuing
+its course through the city of that name, and across
+the Teháma, reaches the Red Sea at Ras Zebeed,
+opposite the island of Jibel Zukur. Just as suddenly
+as we had come in sight of this strange gorge, just so
+suddenly did we lose it again, and only a few minutes
+after having left its brink the surrounding scenery
+assumed its former appearance, that of a dusty rocky
+plain.</p>
+
+<p>Close to this spot is a mark in a rock which is
+supposed to be the footprint of Ali, the son-in-law
+and one of the successors in the Caliphate of the
+Prophet Mahammed, or of his horse, there seems to
+be no certainty which. The imprint itself is vague
+enough to be anything, but too large to be either
+of those mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>Below the village of Digishúb we stopped to refresh
+ourselves and take breakfast. A few rough stone
+huts have been erected by the roadside, near which
+some kind philanthropist has built a series of small
+tanks, supplied with delicious cold water by a spring.
+In one of these tanks live an enormous quantity of
+fish. The water is very shallow, and the pond small,
+and were it not that the passers-by feed them on
+crumbs, there would be but little chance of their
+being able to exist in such a small space. Unlike
+fish in the springs of Morocco, they are not held in
+any way sacred, and the Jews often catch and cook
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span>them, though the Arabs say that they themselves
+never touch them.</p>
+
+<p>The funniest old specimen of age, rags, and dirt
+made our coffee for us—as dishevelled an old witch as
+ever man set eyes upon. She is reported, in spite of
+her filthy condition, to be of great wealth—for the
+country, of course—and is apparently a well-known
+character upon the road. Quite a number of caravan-men,
+who happened to be resting there, kept up a
+continual volley of chaff, which reached its climax
+when, on hearing of her reported riches, I offered to
+become a Moslem, and lead her a blushing bride to
+the altar. She took it all in very good part, and
+laughed as much as her begrimed parchment-like
+skin would allow, but I feared now and again it
+would crack.</p>
+
+<p>On the road between Digishúb and the city of
+Dhamar are three sets of old Himyaric tanks, cut in
+the solid rock, as are, with the exception of a few
+where the nature of the country allows of some small
+gully being made use of, all the tanks of this period.
+Although resembling somewhat the tanks of Aden,
+there are here none of the natural advantages to be
+found at that place; for there the crater pours its
+water by aqueducts and natural channels into the
+tanks, which are built tier above tier in the wall of
+rock and between precipices. These between Digishúb
+and Dhamar, however, lie in the level plain, and are
+excavated. They are dependent entirely upon the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>rainfall for supply, and, as far as has been found
+possible, the water has been drained toward them;
+but this, owing to the dead level of the country, is
+to a very slight extent practicable. These tanks are
+circular in form, and of considerable size and depth.
+At one spot a flight of steps descends to the water’s
+edge, while a smaller tank above the steps can be
+filled from buckets, &amp;c., for the animals to drink from.
+The entire tanks are lined with intensely hard cement,
+which takes a peculiar polish, and on one were visible
+rough designs of men on horseback, and gazelle,
+scratched into the plaster evidently at the time it
+was originally applied. The extraordinarily perfect
+condition in which these tanks are to-day, steps and
+all, speaks to the excellence of the workmanship of
+those who excavated and built them; and the caravans
+are still mainly dependent upon these extremely
+antique reservoirs for water for the men and their
+beasts of burden.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the plateau is broken by valleys to the west,
+but in no way to compare with that through which
+the Wadi Kha flows. There a slight descent takes
+one from the boulder-strewn undulating hills to the
+flat ground again, broken here and there by rocky
+barren crags which stand out against the dull yellow
+earth. On one of these is situated Dhamar el-Gar, a
+village of some size; and on approaching this spot we
+caught sight of, far ahead of us, all shimmering in the
+fierce sunlight, the city of Dhamar itself. For the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>last hour and a half of the road we proceeded over
+perfectly level ground, strewn with sandy dust, and,
+though showing signs of cultivation, boasting scarcely
+a blade of anything green. As we neared the city we
+obtained a better view of the place, so twisted and
+turned had it at first been by the steaming vapour
+rising from the heated ground.</p>
+
+<p>Dhamar lies in the flat plain, the nearest hill of any
+size being Hait Hirran, a mountain rising some
+hundreds of feet above the surrounding country a
+couple of miles or so to the north of the city. Many
+high mountains, however, are visible, especially the
+range of Jibel Issi to the east, though it is a long way
+distant. This and its neighbouring mountains must
+be of great height, for Dhamar itself is situated almost
+exactly eight thousand feet above the sea-level. It
+is not a walled city, but is more or less defended by a
+series of small, and, for the most part, mud-built forts.
+Three minarets dominate the town, one of them sadly
+out of the perpendicular, as it was struck by a cannon-shot
+during one of the many wars it has been its lot
+to witness.</p>
+
+<p>A narrow street, twisting and turning amongst open
+drains, ruined tombs, and apparently objectless walls,
+leads one into the city. Here there are signs of more
+wealth, many of the houses being well built of stone,
+while a wide open square gives quite a handsome
+appearance to the place.</p>
+
+<p>It is on to this square that the Government offices
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>look, and before we had half crossed it our mules were
+stopped by a number of Turkish soldiers, under whose
+guidance we proceeded to visit the Kaimakam of the
+town.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp60" id="illus12" style="max-width: 25.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus12.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Mosque and minaret at Dhamar.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Alighting at a large gate leading into a yard and
+garden, we entered a house, built in European style
+and with glass windows, and, ascending a staircase,
+found ourselves in a large room. Divans surrounded
+the walls, and a few shabby chairs and a table or two
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>stood about the place. Seated at one end of the room,
+drinking coffee and smoking, were four or five Turkish
+officers in clean bright uniforms. As I entered one of
+these rose, and, walking to meet me, shook hands with
+me, and led me to the divan, at the same time calling
+to a servant for cigarettes and coffee. My guard, who
+had come with me from Yerim, presented a letter
+that had been intrusted to him by the Kaimakam of
+that place, which was immediately opened and read.
+The officer then told me I was welcome, and we conversed
+for about half an hour on general subjects. He
+could not understand how I had ever attempted or
+succeeded in getting through the country between
+Kátaba and Yerim, and laughed considerably when I
+told him of my adventures. He was, in fact, as were
+those with him, most polite and kind, and the one or
+two calls I paid to him, and he to me, during my stay,
+will always be remembered by myself as most pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the Kaimakam I obtained his permission
+to take up my residence in the house of Saïd
+during my stay in that town; for the latter had insisted
+on my not going to a khan, but spending the
+few days we had determined to stay here in his father’s
+house. This favour was readily granted me, and
+mounting my mules once more, Saïd, full of impatience,
+leading the way, we crossed the big square,
+and winding in and out amongst the narrow streets,
+finally drew up at a large three-storeyed detached
+mud-brick house, which Saïd, almost dancing with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>delight, pointed out to me as “<i>el-beit betaana</i>”—“our
+house.”</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp91" id="fp15" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp15.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>MY QUARTERS AT DHAMAR.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Saïd received quite an ovation on his arrival, being
+kissed and hugged in turns by all manner of strange
+people: an old grey-bearded father followed his grey-haired
+mother; brothers, sisters, cousins, children,
+aunts, swarmed out of that house like ants, until one
+believed that every available inch of the place must
+be taken up by living people, and I began to feel
+quite nervous as to where room would be found to
+put myself away. At length the greetings were got
+through, and the male portion of the relations turned
+their attention to my mules, which were quickly unpacked
+and the baggage carried indoors. Then Saïd
+approached me, and having run his hand through his
+wavy black curls, as was a habit of his, bade me enter.
+As I stepped into the doorway with him he greeted
+me in true Yemen fashion, and with all the demonstration
+an Arab loves so much—and I believe in his
+case it was genuine.</p>
+
+<p>Climbing to the top storey of the house, we entered
+a large airy room, the proportions and decoration of
+which fairly astonished me, for from the outside, although
+the house was large, it had a poor enough
+appearance, being built entirely of sun-dried mud-bricks.</p>
+
+<p>The guest-room, for such the chamber evidently
+was, measured some thirty-five feet in length by
+fifteen wide. One end showed a bare floor of cement,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span>but the other was richly carpeted with rugs and
+striped cloths, while divans, thick woollen mattresses,
+ran round the walls. The room was evidently not in
+use, which was reassuring, as I feared vermin. A
+number of handsome bronze brasiers, and strange
+bowls and coffee-pots, were piled up in one corner,
+while another was occupied by a pile of cushions,
+principally covered in European cottons, and happily
+tolerably clean. Sunk into the walls were alcoves, in
+which scent-bottles and sprinklers, cups and saucers,
+and many other things in which the heart of the
+Oriental delights, were standing. But of all the pretty
+things with which the room was filled, the windows
+were certainly the most lovely. Except for two or
+three that closed with wooden shutters from the inside,
+they did not open, the place of glass being taken
+by alabaster. The effect of the light falling through
+the semi-opaque stone was soft and luxurious, a rosy
+yellow in colour. The slabs used for these windows
+vary in thickness, so that the light is regulated, and
+though in this particular instance they were of uniform
+depth, in other places I saw them richly carved
+in relief, so that the background was a monotone of
+yellow; but where the carving, principally geometric
+designs, was, a much deeper tone of colour was reflected,
+owing to the thickness of the material being
+greater. Such, then, were the quarters we took up in
+the house of Saïd el-Dhamari.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp16" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp16.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>KARIAT EN-NEGIL.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">DHAMAR TO SANAA.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>Although the city of Dhamar boasts of a considerable
+antiquity, it displays none of the more remarkable
+points of the interest of age, and except that a
+large portion of the place is in bad repair, it might
+have been built but a few years ago. There are no
+walls to the city, and necessarily no gates. The
+absence of this has led the inhabitants to extend
+the town in many directions, with the result that
+it occupies a much larger space than would be
+necessary for the population it contains. This,
+however, has not prevented the streets from occupying
+the narrow limits the Oriental loves to
+give to the passer-by, and in the bazaars especially
+only two or three people could possibly walk
+abreast.</p>
+
+<p>Ibn Khaldun, in his geography of the Yemen,
+makes no mention of Dhamar, but this can scarcely
+be looked upon as meaning that the town did not
+exist in his day—in fact, it is more probable that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span>his failing to notice the place was due to an omission,
+as the neighbouring fortress of Hirran is also
+left without mention, though from the remains existing
+there it is very probable that it was a site and
+fortress of no little importance in far earlier times
+than that of the native geographer; and El-Janadi,
+in his account of “The Karmathians,” speaks of the
+capture of Hirran by Ibn Fadl about the year 293
+<span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>, and as the fall of the fortress was only one item
+of the leaders successful march to Sanaa, it is very
+probable that the event was considered one of no
+little importance. Several of the other early Arab
+historians make direct mention of Dhamar itself.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="map2" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/map2.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>ROUTE MAP—DHAMAR TO SANAA<br>BY W. B. HARRIS</p>
+      <p>W. &amp; A. K. Johnston. Edinburgh &amp; London.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>A few hours after my arrival in the city I sauntered
+out with Saïd to the bazaars, to purchase a few little
+luxuries in the way of food and fruit, for so far we
+had lived during our journey upon the bare necessities
+of life. Although at times a considerable crowd
+thronged us, we found the people extremely polite,
+and what little inconvenience we were put to was
+owing entirely to the curiosity of the inhabitants.
+The bazaars boast but little beyond their natural
+picturesqueness, which in many places is most
+noticeable. The shops are the usual little one-storeyed
+box-like dens of the Eastern world, and
+the trades are divided up into separate streets and
+quarters. Here, as elsewhere, the Jews have an
+entirely separate town, situated to the east of the
+city, from which it is divided by a large open space.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>Near this great square is the principal mosque of the
+town, a walled enclosure, with three large gates facing
+the city, and a handsome, though damaged,
+minaret. In one respect, however, it is in better
+order than that of another of the mosques, for it
+still maintains its upright position, whereas the
+other is sadly out of the perpendicular, owing to
+its having been struck by a cannon-ball. A third
+mosque of considerable size is within the bazaars,
+but none of them possess much claim to architectural
+beauty, being built in the simple and undecorative
+Arab style, native cement and mud-bricks
+being the principal materials used in their
+construction. Prettier, certainly, are one or two of
+the Shereefian tombs, with their white domes and
+arcades of arches. One of these, lying on the
+extreme south of the city, near where we had
+entered the town, is realty charming, with a small
+garden in front of it and a huge shady tree for the
+pilgrims to the sanctuary to rest under. Near here,
+but standing separate from the town, we saw the
+ruins of the Turkish barracks, which had been destroyed
+by the Arabs on their capture of Dhamar
+from the Turks a few months before.</p>
+
+<p>At sunset we returned to Saïd’s house to spend
+the evening in a family party, the members of which
+varied between the ages of seventy or eighty and
+grimy babies of a few months old. However, it
+was an insight into Arab life, and was rendered
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>by no means unamusing by Saïd’s wonderful lies
+about Aden, his earthly paradise. He fairly took
+the breath away from his relations with the startling
+untruths he told, but I scarcely believe that
+they gave him credence; and probably had he kept
+to the strict truth, and only told about the forts
+and troops and good government there, they would
+equally have taken it for exaggeration. Perhaps
+after all he pursued the best course, and possibly
+by knocking off some ninety-nine per cent for the
+native love of story-telling, they arrived at about
+the right result.</p>
+
+<p>We were up with the sunrise, and enjoyed the
+luxuries of a Turkish bath. Fortunately the windows
+to admit the light were very small, otherwise
+we should, I think, have seen much that was not
+tempting; but one forgot any possible disadvantages
+in the luxury of soap and hot water. From the
+“hummum” we proceeded to a <i>café</i> in the principal
+square, and perching ourselves cross-legged under
+an awning in front of the coffee-shop, joined in
+the swim of conversation over “hubble-bubble”
+pipes. A handful of troops were drilling before us
+in the square, poor dishevelled creatures, many
+without even a boot on their feet. There were
+perhaps a hundred and fifty in all, and I was told
+that of the four hundred who had been sent to
+garrison the place after Ahmed Feizi Pasha’s successful
+relief of Sanaa two or three months before,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>these were all that remained, sickness having
+carried off the rest—starvation probably. The
+officers seemed as disheartened as the men, and
+appeared to lack all interest in the drill. Many of
+the soldiers were smoking cigarettes, but no one
+seemed to take any notice of it; and after an
+hour or so the soldiers wandered off in different
+directions, without apparently being dismissed. It
+was sad to see their poor wan faces, thinned and
+paled with sickness and hunger.</p>
+
+<p>Although crowds now and again collected round
+me, it was surprising how polite every class of native
+was to me, and I do not once remember, during all
+the time I was in the Yemen, except on one or two
+occasions from the guards of my prison at Sanaa, a
+word of abuse. The Yemenis are the aristocracy of
+Islam. Wild in appearance, their manners are perfect,
+and though their nature now and again leads
+them to violence, they are as a rule gentle and hospitable,
+and as my travels proceeded, the more I saw
+of them, especially the inhabitants of the mountains
+and the plateau, the more I liked them. Nor did I
+find any difference with the townspeople, and many a
+kind word of welcome was said to me now and again.</p>
+
+<p>Much as I wanted to push on to Sanaa, I had
+promised Saïd to stay three days at his house at
+Dhamar, and to tell the truth, I was by no means
+sorry of a pretext to rest in such comfortable quarters.
+Many a visit I received there. I think that there
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>could not have been a single Turkish official in the
+town who did not at some time or another come and
+see me, and although they seemed always to be suspicious
+as to the objects of my travels, they were
+charmingly polite. Nor were the Turks my only
+visitors, for many an Arab merchant in long robes of
+silk came and spent an hour or so over coffee and
+tobacco, and on one occasion I was honoured by the
+visit of a local Shereef, first cousin to Ahmed ed-Din,
+leader of the late rebellion, but who, wisely, had
+not taken part on either side, preferring before entering
+into the affair to see who was going to win.
+Saïd’s people thought a great deal of the visit of this
+Shereef, and personally I found him charming. He
+was a man of perhaps some thirty years of age,
+extremely handsome and beautifully dressed. He
+seemed well educated, and had travelled a little, and
+the hour he spent with me I shall always remember
+with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>But of all the insights that I obtained into Arab
+life during my time in the Yemen, the most interesting
+was the dinner-party given by Saïd in my honour.
+About seven o’clock our guests commenced to arrive—and
+what guests! The first to come were half-a-dozen
+Arab tribesmen, with long wavy black hair and
+a scarcity of clothing—in fact, their entire costume
+consisted of a turban and a dark loin-cloth, from the
+latter of which appeared the handles of their silver
+daggers. Strange lithe beautiful creatures they were,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span>with limbs that would have been worth a mint of
+money to an artist to paint from. A couple of merchants
+followed a few minutes later, their servants
+carrying their silver hookahs. Natives of the same
+country, it is extraordinary what a difference is apparent
+between the townspeople and the tribesmen;
+and our merchant friends were fat and heavy, boasting
+little of the grace of their wilder countrymen, and
+in place of the scanty clothing, wrapped in long silk
+garments of gaudy hues, and wearing white turbans
+on their heads. More of the tribesmen followed, each
+as he entered placing his long spear against the walls
+in the corners of the room, till the place wore quite
+the appearance of an armoury. Then came the
+musicians, natives of the Hadramaut, wilder and
+longer-haired than the Yemenis present, and bearing,
+in place of spears, strange richly painted instruments.
+More and more guests, until our room, big as it was,
+was filled.</p>
+
+<p>What a night it was! One of those nights in a
+lifetime which can never be forgotten. The cool dim
+light of the swinging alabaster lamps, the flashing
+spears heaped together in the corners, the wonderful
+dark crowd of swarthy men, the steam of the brewing
+coffee issuing from strange jars, the rich dark carpets
+and gaudy cushions, the murmur and the blue curling
+smoke of the pipes—ay, a dinner-party in
+Dhamar is worth seeing! And then the soft music
+and singing of the musicians, whose tall beautiful
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span>figures moved slowly here and there as they played
+strange melodies! It seemed like some dream:—no
+wild African feast, merely the echo of the long-past
+glories of Arabia!</p>
+
+<p>Then they brought us great dishes heaped with
+food, for the most part our old friend the antiquated
+goat, and we dipped our fingers into copper bowls of
+rose-water and ate together. Then coffee and pipes,
+and the bitter herb <i>kat</i>, and music and dancing.
+And the cool night air blew in through the windows
+and sent the filmy smoke circling here and there, and
+now and again ruffled the raven locks of one or other
+of our guests, who lay recumbent and silent, expressionless
+and beautiful, listening to the tales of
+love that our musicians, with strange monotonous
+dancing, sang to the strains of their painted guitars.
+We were back again in the days of Haroun el-Rashid,
+and all the hurry and scurry of modern life seemed
+lost and gone.</p>
+
+<p>At length I brought out my electric machine, and,
+the guests joining hands, felt, for the first time in
+their lives, a shock. They smiled, and asked for
+more. Then one was brave enough to hold the
+handles by himself. I turned it on full, and fairly
+whizzed the wheels round. With a scream the man
+jumped into the air, and then apologised. Silently,
+one by one, our guests arose, and shaking me by the
+hand with the compliments the Arab knows so well
+how to bestow, bade me good-night. Then, taking
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>their spears in their hands, they walked slowly to the
+door, until fairly outside, when they flew down the
+stairs at a pace that was positively dangerous, and
+from the window I could see them tearing down the
+street at a break-neck run. Such was the effect of
+a small electric machine at a Dhamar dinner-party.
+The following morning we paid a visit to the tombs
+of the family of a Turkish general, Ahmed Rushti
+Pasha, who had himself fallen near Lohaya in the
+beginning of the rebellion. The enclosed garden,
+with its mosque and tombs, tells of a sad story, for
+the family of Ahmed Rushti were assassinated by their
+house being blown up with gunpowder some few years
+since. However, as the story is to be found in the
+chapter on the Yemen rebellion, I shall not refer to it
+more particularly here. The tombs are situated without
+the city, on the west side. An acre or two of
+land are enclosed with high walls, in which stands a
+summer-house, where the bereaved Pasha was wont
+to come and sit; but this, like the tombs themselves,
+was sacked by the Arabs during the rebellion, and
+little but the outside walls and the graves remain
+to-day. Passing back through the town we visited
+the Jews’ quarter, which, unlike the Moslem city, is
+walled, the gates being locked every night from the
+outside. Miserable squalor and dirt existed on all
+sides, although the Jews themselves seemed well to
+do, and their houses airy and large. They are built
+almost entirely of mud-bricks, plastered inside and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>out. This material forms a hard surface, and seems
+to be very durable.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="illus13" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus13.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Hirran.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Our last day was spent in visiting the old fortress
+of Hirran, lying a mile or two to the north of Dhamar;
+and well worth the trouble and heat I found the
+expedition, for Hirran boasts many antiquities.
+Passing through the north quarter of Dhamar, one
+emerges into the dusty plateau, across which the
+road continues for a couple of miles or so. Hirran is
+clearly visible from Dhamar itself, the dark rocky
+hill standing out black against the light soil. One
+reaches the place near the south-west point of the
+jagged rock, where are some old tanks sunk in the
+solid stone, and of very considerable size. Keeping
+still to the west side of the hill, we shortly reached
+the scene of an old cemetery, the flat rock being
+honeycombed with graves. These were often sunk
+to the depth of twenty feet and more, and generally
+measured some seven feet in length, and two to three
+in breadth, but one or two were circular. They did
+not point in any direction, but lay scattered about
+the little elevated rocky flat in which they were sunk,
+some east and west, some north and south. Besides
+the empty ones, there were a great many visible
+which had apparently escaped the hands of man, nor
+could I find out why or when those that had been
+dug out had been spoiled. An old goatherd, the sole
+inhabitant of Hirran, told me that he had always
+remembered them thus, and during his lifetime had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span>never seen any one digging in the graves, though
+lately some of the larger cave-tombs further up the
+rock had been searched for treasure, but only a few
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span>coins and beads, he said, had been found with the
+bones.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="illus14" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus14.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Cave-Tombs, Hirran.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The hill of Hirran is double-peaked, each point
+rising to some hundreds of feet above the level of the
+surrounding plain. These peaks lie almost due north
+and south, the rock taking a curving form between
+them, so that the whole forms a sort of crescent,
+which was formerly defended by a huge wall, still
+remaining, joining the lower slopes of the two extremities
+on the eastern side.</p>
+
+<p>Like the graveyard, the cave-tombs are situated on
+the west side of the hill, at a spot where the steep
+precipice, which rises to the summit, is joined by the
+lower boulder-strewn slopes. Although we entered
+all of the caves that are to-day open, there were signs
+of numerous others which the collection of falling
+material from the precipice had so blocked that considerable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>digging would be necessary to procure an
+entrance.</p>
+
+<p>The first cave-tomb which I visited consisted of a
+circular chamber with a domed roof; the room measured
+some twelve feet in diameter, and the highest
+point of the roof was five feet eight inches from the
+floor. To the left of the entrance was an alcove
+three feet deep, three high, and four in length.
+The door was three feet wide and over five feet in
+height, but the walls were lower in the chamber.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp62" id="illus15" style="max-width: 15.625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus15.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Ground plan of Tomb III.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>A little higher up the side of the precipice we were
+able to gain entrance to a
+second cave, which I call
+Cave II. This excavation
+formed two oval chambers,
+partly divided from one
+another by a buttress
+running out from the solid
+rock. On both sides of
+this partition, and on the
+main walls facing it, were
+ledges cut in the rock three
+feet above the ground; in
+the dust of one of which I found a few bones and an
+engraved bead.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp70" id="illus16" style="max-width: 23.4375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus16.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Interior of Tomb III., Hait Hirran.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Cave No. III. was perhaps the most important I
+visited, and showed signs of more careful excavation
+than any of the others. A doorway led one into
+a circular chamber, off which to right and left two
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>small rooms opened out. This circular entrance-hall
+led, opposite the door, into a still larger chamber,
+into which in turn opened two alcoves and a room,
+all of them four-sided. On the left and immediately
+in front the doors were raised above the ground and
+nearly square, the floor of the alcoves being level with
+the lower part of the openings. On the right, however,
+was a chamber level with the floor, entered
+through an archway. The two alcoves showed evident
+signs of having at one time been closed up, for in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span>the lintels of rock were visible holes which may
+either have held a door or been used for joists to
+strengthen any masonry which may have been arranged
+to fill up the opening.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="illus17" style="max-width: 21.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus17.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Entrance to Tomb IV., Hait Hirran.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Cave IV., again, to the south of the others, presented
+quite a new feature, the face of the precipice being
+cut to form a large square chamber, in the back wall
+of which a doorway opened into the tomb. Below
+this window, a foot or two above the ground, ran a
+series of five holes drilled a short way into the rock,
+and which seems at some time to have held the supports
+of a platform or seat. Apparently the whole
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span>outer chamber was lined with plaster, and may have
+been once separated from the face of the precipice
+by masonry. The window or aperture opening into
+the tomb was situated three feet from the ground,
+and was two and a half feet in height and two feet
+three inches in breadth. The interior consisted of an
+alcove six feet in length, two feet wide, and three in
+height. Here, as in Cave No. III., I found bones
+amongst the accumulation of dust, but nothing else.</p>
+
+<p>The fifth cave consisted of one large room, some
+sixteen feet by eight, at each end of which were
+ledges in the rock eight feet long by eighteen inches
+wide. The door leading into this cave-tomb was
+three feet six inches wide, and the roof inside five
+feet in height. The rock here was strewn with small
+chips of rock, and I found no signs of bones.</p>
+
+<p>All these caves showed signs of having been opened,
+and my old guide the goatherd said that such was
+the case. Asking him how Moslems reconciled themselves
+to breaking open tombs, he replied that they
+were the tombs of “unbelievers,” and that had they
+been Mahammedan graves no one would have dared
+to have touched them. This he exemplified to me by
+pointing out some tombs on the summit of the rock,
+in which Moslems are supposed to be buried, and it
+was quite apparent they had been left untouched.</p>
+
+<p>Following the hill to its southernmost extremity,
+I climbed by a difficult ascent to a tank cut in the
+rock where water was formerly collected. To reach
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span>this spot, so difficult and slippery was the path, I had
+to go barefooted, a by no means pleasant task, as the
+stones were so hot as to blister my feet. Descending
+again, we proceeded to the site of the former “fortress,”
+formed by the two eastern points of the hill
+being joined by a great wall. This, however, showed
+signs of early Arab work, being built of the peculiar
+cement which is typical of Arab construction. This
+wall is of enormous height and width, being some
+hundred and fifty yards long and twenty feet high,
+and one could drive a carriage and pair anywhere on
+its summit. The only one dating from Arab times
+that I have seen to equal it in size is the great wall
+attributed to Mulai Ismail at Mequinez in Morocco.
+Within the wall is a deep well, the upper portion of
+which is built, the lower part sunk into the solid
+rock. Above the northern end of the great wall are
+a series of three tanks, reached by a roughly cut
+stairway. Still ascending, one arrives at the summit,
+where are the five Moslem tombs I alluded to, enclosed
+in low stone walls, and the remains of much old
+building, of which it is difficult to gather any distinct
+idea, to such a state of ruin has it fallen. At all
+events, the enormous amount of broken pottery, some
+of gorgeous colour and fine design, speaks to the size
+of the place.</p>
+
+<p>From the summit one gains a fine view of the
+surrounding country,—a great flat plain broken by
+ridges of dark volcanic rock, like that on which we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span>were standing, until in the far east a tall range of
+mountains appeared on the horizon. Below us to the
+south lay Dhamar, almost as yellow as the plain itself,
+for there is but little green in its neighbourhood,
+although it is said that in the rainy season the whole
+country entirely changes its aspect. To the east of
+Hirran, and immediately below it, lie the remains of
+an old city, the loose stone walls of the houses still
+standing to the height of a few feet above the ground.
+Altogether the place must have been one of great
+importance in early times, and I regretted much that
+I was unable in my hasty visit to find any inscriptions.
+However, I was able to take the notes given
+above before a mounted Turkish soldier appeared
+on the scene, sent by the Kaimakam to watch my
+movements, and who begged me politely to return.
+Fearing that any suspicion on the part of the
+Governor toward myself might prevent my continuing
+my journey to Sanaa, I stated my readiness
+to comply with his request, and bidding adieu to the
+old goatherd, once more mounted my mule and
+returned to the town.</p>
+
+<p>I was able to learn but little about Hirran in
+Dhamar, or in fact anywhere, except that it was once
+the centre of a great trade, a sort of caravanserai for
+the goods of Sanaa and the north, the kingdom of
+Saba or Sheba, and Aden. This is the only early
+tradition the natives seem to have concerning its
+former wealth and its being a centre of trade in very
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span>early times, and this tradition has led me to a conjecture—it
+is nothing more—that Hirran may be the
+site of the Haran of the Old Testament. The places
+mentioned in the same verse are, I believe, all in
+Southern Arabia, and have all been recognised, Haran
+alone remaining undiscovered. It is more than
+possible, judging from the similarity of names and
+the report of its former importance in trade, that
+they may be one and the same place.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>During the afternoon I paid a farewell visit to the
+Kaimakam, which was returned an hour later, when
+he promised me a couple of soldiers to see me safely
+to Sanaa.</p>
+
+<p>The following morning we left Dhamar. There
+was, of course, a great leave-taking of Saïd, and just
+as they had done on our arrival, a long string of
+relations, illustrating all the seven ages of man, with
+many of the intermediary gaps filled in, streamed out
+of the house to bid him farewell. Good simple people
+they were, though the younger members of the family,
+when away from their parents’ eyes, were importunate
+in their demands for <i>bakshish</i>. The road led us to
+the west of Hirran, close to the large tanks I mentioned
+as having seen on my ride to that place, and
+then on over the dreary plain. Leaving the large-walled
+village of Jaffa to our left for a time, we saw
+but little signs of life.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span></p>
+
+<p>The early morning effect upon the flat plateau was
+one of great beauty, in spite of its dry arid appearance.
+A dull warm haze hung over the more distant
+desert, for such it really was at this period of the
+year, through which the far-away mountains shimmered
+in the heat, turquoise-blue in colour. As we
+proceeded the cultivated land became very sparse, the
+soil for the most part consisting of sand and stones,
+until, passing through a narrow gorge of rock, we
+entered a great circular plain enclosed by low rocky
+hills on all sides, no doubt the crater of some long-extinct
+volcano. From this point one catches a
+glimpse of Jibel Doran, a range of mountains of
+great elevation, which terminate in a strange sugar-loaf
+peak, unequalled in curious form by any I have
+seen elsewhere in the world, with the exception perhaps
+of “The Needle of Heaven” in the I-chang gorge
+of the Yangtze-Kiang, some eleven hundred miles up
+that river.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp17" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp17.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>JIBEL DORAN—EARLY MORNING.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At a small <i>café</i>—half a cave, and half built of
+rough stones—we spent an hour or two during the
+hottest part of the day. Quite a number of men
+and camels had arrived before us, and in spite of
+the fact that scarcely a blade of anything green
+was to be seen, the surroundings were by no means
+unpicturesque. Joining in with the caravan-men,
+a cool corner was found for me in the cave, and
+our mid-day rest passed quickly and pleasantly
+enough. Far above us, perched on the summit of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span>a hill, was the large village of Athaik, its tall
+towers dominating the surrounding plain and giving
+the place the appearance of some old feudal castle.
+A descent led us to a slightly lower portion of the
+plain. The soil here was richer, but I noticed that
+there was no cultivation, a fact that was explained
+to me to be owing to the rebellion, which had deterred
+any investment in crops that were bound to
+fall a prey either to the Turks or independent robbers.
+To our left we could see the walled town
+of Resaaba, but wishing to push on to Sanaa, and
+as it did not lie in our road, I did not visit it.
+There is but little of interest, I was told, to be
+seen within its walls. It is, in fact, rather a very
+large village than a town, and bears all the characteristics
+of the villages of the Yemen plateau.
+Again, another reason deterred me from penetrating
+there; that I felt it advisable to give as wide a
+berth as possible to any places where I might be
+likely to run up against Turks and Turkish authorities.
+To have so nearly reached Sanaa, and then
+be turned back, would indeed have been a disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Several times along the road we passed the deep
+rock-cut tanks that even to-day form the water-supply
+of the passing caravans. One that we
+stopped to drink at as evening was approaching
+bore rough designs of men on horseback, and inscriptions
+in the Himyaric language cut in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span>plaster that lined the rock walls. Like so many
+of these tanks, a flight of steps led to the water’s
+edge, at the summit of which was a smaller pool,
+to be filled by hand for the beasts of burden to
+drink from, and, like the main reservoir, circular in
+form. The mountains we had seen all the afternoon
+far ahead of us were now growing nearer, and as
+evening drew on we found ourselves in a large open
+valley, semicircular in form, and closed at the far
+end by steep broken crags. The soil here was well
+cultivated, though, as we were still nearly nine thousand
+feet above the sea-level, the young crops had
+not yet begun to show, and the place looked dreary
+and burnt up. That the soil must repay cultivation
+is evident from the great number of wells distributed
+over the country. At many of these, men, women,
+and camels were engaged in drawing water. A
+couple of tree-trunks form uprights to a beam laid
+across their tops, over which the rope that supports
+the skins in which the water is raised passes. At
+the other end of the rope, men, women, or some
+beast of burden is harnessed. Owing to the great
+depth of these wells, and the size of the skins used
+as buckets, the weight to be raised is very great,
+and the labour of raising it proportionately so. But
+the natives have discovered a means by which the
+work is lessened, while at the same time their
+irrigation is rendered more practicable—namely, by
+building the wells upon the summits of mounds.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span>A long sloping path leads from the high mouth of
+the well to the level of the surrounding fields, so
+that the drawer, harnessed to the end of the rope,
+is assisted by the centre of gravity, instead of being
+dependent upon his, her, or its personal strength.
+This raising of the wells above the fields also renders
+easy the carrying of the water in little dikes
+to whatever spot it is needed. The skin, on reaching
+the well’s mouth, empties itself into a trough
+from which the water pours into the irrigating
+channels. The fact that these channels consist of
+only small ditches adds much to the toil and labour,
+as the thirsty soil sucks up a large quantity of the
+fluid before it reaches its destination. However,
+labour is cheap, and a man, so long as he possesses
+a donkey, a camel, or a wife to work his well, can
+sit and smoke and look on himself.</p>
+
+<p>At length we drew up at the village khan of
+Maaber, our resting-place, and climbing a rough
+outside staircase, found ourselves in a clean whitewashed
+room, cool and airy, where our carpets were
+quickly spread and coffee on the boil. The people
+were very inquisitive, and at last I was obliged to
+give peremptory orders that no one was to be allowed
+to enter my room. But this did not seem to
+be of much avail, and eventually I posted a guard
+outside the door, armed with a long stick. The
+village is a poor enough place, built of mud-bricks,
+with a little stone masonry showing here and there.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span>The people seemed poor and dirty, and there was
+little or nothing of interest to be seen. Very different
+are these villages of the plateau to the well-built
+and fortified towers of the country we had
+passed through to the south of Yerim, nor were the
+people of this part half so clean or genial or handsome
+as the wild mountaineers.</p>
+
+<p>Early the next morning we were on our way again,
+the road continuing over the dusty plain. A mile
+or two from Maaber we witnessed some skirmishing
+between the Turkish troops and the hillmen of Jibel
+Anis, one of the last tribes to hold out, and one that
+probably will never surrender to the Turkish Government.
+The country inhabited by this tribe consists
+of wild inaccessible country, into which the Osmanli
+troops are powerless to penetrate. The battle we
+witnessed was not apparently a very bloody affair,
+for it consisted principally in a small field-battery of
+the Turks firing into a few hill villages, from which
+a desultory and ill-aimed fire was kept up by the
+Arabs. This was the first active sign we had as yet
+seen of the rebellion; for although Turkish garrisons
+were to be found in Dhamar and Yerim, their
+reconquest of these cities from the Arabs had been
+accomplished almost without bloodshed. For a time
+we stayed and watched the little battle, listening to
+the sharp cracking of the rifles and the louder tones
+of the field-guns, until, as it was apparent that the
+Turks had no idea of trying to climb to the villages
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>or the Arabs of descending to the level, we continued
+our journey. The plain ends in an abrupt
+line of high rocky mountains, over which we could
+see our path twisting and turning in serpentine coils.
+Entering a narrow gorge, we passed close under the
+grandly situated village of Kariat en-Negil, its every
+rock crowned by stone towers—a striking and wild-looking
+place. Here it is that the old pilgrim-road
+from Aden and the Hadramaut probably joins the
+track I had travelled on. We had left the old road
+at Lahej, whence it continues <i>viâ</i> Ibb, our route
+lying more to the east. I have mentioned elsewhere
+this great pilgrim-track, founded by Huseyn ibn
+Salaamah in the fifth century <span class="allsmcap">A.H.</span>, and there is no
+further need of description here. Suffice it to say
+that at every night’s <i>nzala</i>, or resting-place, was
+built a mosque, while tanks refreshed the weary with
+water by the way.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp18" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp18.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>KHADAR.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>A tremendous climb takes one to the summit of
+the pass, where there is an old round tower, now
+used as a watch-house by the Turks. The path is extremely
+steep, and, though roughly paved, so slippery
+that all riding up was impossible, while the rarefied
+air made the climb by no means an easy or a pleasant
+one. The summit I found by observation to lie nine
+thousand one hundred feet above the sea-level, about
+eleven hundred feet above the city of Dhamar.</p>
+
+<p>A steep descent and an hour’s ride along a broken
+valley brought us to the large village of Khadar,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span>where we rested for an hour over pipes and coffee.
+The place is a picturesque one, though greatly lacking
+in vegetation. The upper portion of the village
+is situated on the summit of a precipitous hill, and
+is walled, while every available peak holds the usual
+tower-house. The few buildings that stand near the
+road are for the most part caravanserais and <i>cafés</i>.
+The inhabitants are almost entirely Jews, who, like
+certain tribes of their co-religionists that I have
+seen in the Atlas Mountains, are cultivators of the
+soil and agriculturists. A small mosque, the only
+whitewashed building in the place, shows, however,
+that there must be some Moslem inhabitants
+in Khadar.</p>
+
+<p>A wild group were seated at the door of one of the
+<i>cafés</i>, Arabs and camels from Mareb, whence they
+were bringing salt. Our mutual curiosity in each
+other led to conversation, and I found them good
+fellows on the whole, though rougher in manners
+than the Yemenis I had as yet come in contact
+with.</p>
+
+<p>Two hours after leaving Khadar we reached our
+night’s resting-place, Waalan, the best-built village
+we had as yet come across. The size and solidity
+of the houses was astonishing; and when, on being
+led up a staircase and along a wide passage into a
+beautifully clean room in a handsome khan, the
+change from the quarters we had as yet found on our
+journey in the other villages, almost took one’s breath
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>away. Our chamber, which commanded a fine view
+of several surrounding villages through large windows
+opening down to the ground, was well whitewashed,
+the doors and window-shutters being handsomely
+carved of polished dark wood, and with a ceiling of
+the same material overhead. The change from what
+we had been accustomed to was a most pleasant one,
+and we soon made ourselves comfortable. A dear
+old lady, and a very tolerably clean one, waited upon
+us, and insisted on cooking our dinner, a task usually
+shared by Abdurrahman and Saïd—and very well she
+did it too.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp95" id="fp19" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp19.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>VIEW FROM WAALAN.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>This appearance of cleanliness and civilisation was
+a sure sign that we were nearing the capital, and I
+turned in to rest that night with a feeling of satisfaction,
+for only a few hours’ ride lay between us and
+Sanaa.</p>
+
+<p>Four hours of heat along the valley of the Beni
+Matar, and we reached the large village of Estaz,
+where we rested for an hour or two in a large but
+dirty <i>café</i>. There is certainly but little to see in the
+place, though Turkish soldiers were more common
+here than elsewhere, and the curiosity of their officers
+would not allow of my being left undisturbed even for
+the brief space of the hour or so we stayed there.
+They must needs come and call and ask all sorts of
+absurd questions. Estaz, however, boasts one superiority
+over much of the Yemen plateau, a river of
+running water that flows by many channels through
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span>gardens, the greenness of which was most pleasant
+after days of travelling over yellow plains.</p>
+
+<p>Before mid-day we were off again, and turning a
+corner could see far away across the level ground,
+shimmering white and yellow in the steaming heat,
+the city of Sanaa.</p>
+
+<p>With a thrill of satisfaction I urged my mule on to
+its quickest paces, and a couple of hours later found
+us entering the city by an old broken-down gateway,
+near which a company or two of troops were drilling.
+Signs of the fighting were common enough. Some of
+the little towers erected as forts by the Turks outside
+the walls were in ruins, and half an hour earlier we
+had passed all that remained of the village of Dar es-Salaam,
+the “house of peace”—ill-fitting name!—where
+the Arabs had made their last strong stand
+against their Turkish enemy, and which they only
+left when driven forth by the Turkish artillery playing
+upon the houses of the village. Little remains
+to-day but broken walls and tumble-down towers.
+In many places one could see exactly where the shot
+had hit, and one tower was drilled through, the torn-up
+flooring and rafters showing what havoc the ball
+had accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>At length we were in Sanaa. The road had been a
+difficult and a dangerous one, but this was all forgotten
+now. In spite of warnings and repeated efforts
+to dissuade us from so rash an undertaking, we had
+been successful, and it was with the keenest satisfaction,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>though not without some doubts as to how I
+should be received, that I watched my little caravan
+enter the city.</p>
+
+<p>Passing through a narrow street with high houses
+on either hand, we drew up at the door of a great
+caravanserai, a four-storeyed building of which the
+rooms all looked out on to balconies overhanging a
+large <i>patio</i>. The place was in wretched condition,
+and the ground-floor, which served as a stable for
+camels, horses, mules, and donkeys, looked as though
+it had never been cleaned out. Here I paid off my
+men, with the exception, of course, of Abdurrahman
+and Saïd. I had made a bargain with a caravan-man
+in Aden to send me through to Sanaa, and this bargain
+he had carried out in every particular, in spite
+of all manner of dangers and difficulties; and it was
+with much satisfaction that I paid the worthy fellows
+the remaining half of the sum agreed upon at Aden,
+and sent them on their way with more <i>bakshish</i> than
+had probably ever been in their possession before.
+Our parting was almost a sad one: from the day they
+had joined me we had shared the same food and the
+same room at the khans, and though it was under
+three weeks that they had been with me, I felt as
+though I had known them ages, and shall always
+remember with pleasure the trustworthy way in which
+they saw me through the country, and how, weary as
+they must at times have been with the long marches,
+they maintained their tempers throughout, and were
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>always ready to do me some little service, however
+far removed it might chance to be from the routine
+of their work.</p>
+
+<p>A saunter through the bazaars brought us to the
+quarter in which the Government buildings are
+situated, and in a few minutes more I found myself
+in the residence of his Excellency Ahmed Feizi
+Pasha, Governor-General of the Yemen and Commander
+of the Seventh Army Corps. I was almost
+immediately ushered into the generals presence.
+He was seated on a divan at the end of a handsome
+room, surrounded by quite a number of his staff.
+His Excellency received me pleasantly, and after
+exchange of salaams, a chair being fetched for me,
+he began to ask me what had brought me there.
+I thereupon presented him with my passport, vizéd
+by the Turkish Consul-General in London, and made
+out for the “Ottoman Empire,” which had been
+issued to me by H.M. Foreign Office the day before
+I left London to visit the Yemen. Being unable
+to read English, Ahmed Feizi Pasha sent for an
+Armenian who spoke and read French, and the wording
+of my passport was explained to him. Suddenly
+his Excellency’s manner quite changed, and he became
+very red and irascible, asking all sorts of
+absurd questions, which he did not give me time to
+answer. First, I was not an Englishman at all;
+then I was an officer sent from Aden to map out
+the country, and assist the Arabs in the rebellion;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>until at last I almost became bewildered as to what I
+was, or rather what the Pasha imagined me to be.
+Abdurrahman, good Moslem that he is, was an
+Englishman in disguise. No Arab, the Pasha said,
+ever spoke Arabic with such a foreign accent; and as
+to Morocco there was no such country, and no such
+person as Mulai el-Hassan, its Sultan, for he knew
+well enough that all North Africa was under the
+French. At length he insisted on his saying the
+Mahammedan belief, to assure himself that he was
+in truth a co-religionist. Abdurrahman’s indignation
+was intense, especially as Saïd happened to be present;
+for with a true oriental love of exaggeration the
+Moor had been telling the Yemeni wonderful tales
+of the greatness and power of his country and its
+Sultan, and it pained him to find that the Turkish
+Pasha had never heard of either, and Saïd’s smile
+and look were anything but reassuring to his pride
+in his fatherland.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp20" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp20.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>THE AUTHOR BEING EXAMINED AND HIS PASSPORT READ IN THE
+    PRESENCE OF AHMED FEIZI PASHA, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE YEMEN.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At length, in a burst of anger, Ahmed Feizi called
+to a couple of officers, and his remarks being translated
+to me by the Armenian, I learned that I was to
+be kept in security for the present. A hand was laid
+on my shoulder, and I was gently led away, leaving
+the handsome old Pasha as scarlet as a tomato. In
+the large anteroom I was handed over to a guard of
+four soldiers, who conducted me through the streets
+to a guard-room, situated above the prison yard,
+where I was soon ensconced, the door banged and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span>locked, and a sentry posted on the outside. My baggage,
+which I had left at the khan, was sent to me
+a little later. Meanwhile, Abdurrahman and Saïd
+were strictly cross-examined by the Governor-General,
+and as the account the first had to give of himself
+did not seem satisfactory, he quickly followed me
+to jail. That Saïd was a Yemeni there could be no
+doubt, but he suffered a like fate—I suppose for keeping
+such bad company.</p>
+
+<p>I spent five days in prison at Sanaa. The room
+was clean, and I was decently treated, being only
+once roughly handled. Wishing to speak to an
+officer in the courtyard, I proceeded to leave my
+room, the door of which was kept open by day, when
+I was rudely pushed back by the sentry.</p>
+
+<p>The first night I was allowed to sleep alone and in
+peace; but on the succeeding three, two non-commissioned
+officers shared the chamber, dirty things in
+uniforms, which wore the look of never having been
+taken off. However, they were good-hearted fellows,
+and both spoke Arabic well.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp75" id="illus18" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus18.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>The Author in prison at Sanaa.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>My meals I was sent out to get for the first day;
+but after that, all leaving the place was forbidden to
+me, except to take exercise in charge of a guard of
+soldiers. On the whole I had little to complain of,
+except that the water and sanitary arrangements
+were both very bad—so bad, in fact, that on the last
+night I was taken with violent fever, as also were
+Saïd and Abdurrahman, who by no means shared
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>such good quarters as I did, being housed in a large
+dirty room, where chained prisoners were their companions.
+This, however, was changed on my representing
+that both were suffering from fever to the
+Governor-General on my second interview. On this
+occasion I found his Excellency more reasonable, and
+once or twice he even laughed, being apparently
+much amused when I told him how I had got over
+the frontier in the disguise of a Greek. But the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span>Pasha’s merriment did not bring about any change
+in my condition, and I was taken back from his
+presence to the same prison as before. I told him
+at this interview that one of my reasons for visiting
+the country was to correspond for the ‘Times,’ and
+he thereupon entered into a long political statement
+as to the rebellion and its reasons. His Excellency
+asked me what we should do in India in a like circumstance,
+and I replied that I thought the matter
+could be best solved by a total disarmament of the
+Arabs. While agreeing with me, he acknowledged
+such a task an impossibility with the troops under
+his command, and said he was earnestly hoping for
+further reinforcements from Constantinople. From
+his manner, and what I could gather about Ahmed
+Feizi Pasha, he seems to be a man of great personal
+courage and perseverance, besides possessing an extraordinary
+amount of diplomacy and skill in dealing
+with the Arabs, learned, no doubt, during the time
+that he was Governor of Mecca; and in spite of the
+fact that he saw right to put me in prison, I cannot
+but admire the thorough character which the general
+seems to possess. His surroundings showed that
+here, at least, some regard was shown for the common
+soldiers, and all wore boots, not to say fezzes.
+Here, too, their uniforms were not in rags, nor did
+they seem to be on the eve of starvation. There
+seemed, too, in Sanaa, more organisation than I had
+seen elsewhere. I asked the Pasha why I was kept
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span>in prison, and he replied that my presence was not
+entirely satisfactory, and that he had ordered me to
+be lodged in the guard-room lest the Arab population
+might do me harm.</p>
+
+<p>I can quite imagine that to the jealous Turk the
+unexpected arrival of an Englishman was by no means
+a pleasant surprise. Up to this time all truth concerning
+the rebellion had been withheld, and the sole
+matter that the press had been able to obtain was
+from official sources at Constantinople. Therefore
+any chance of the truth leaking out, and the general
+public being made aware how very nearly the Osmanli
+Government had lost the southernmost of its Arabian
+possessions, would prove far from acceptable to the
+authorities. On this account Ahmed Feizi’s bearing
+toward myself is explicable, nor do I complain very
+much of it. Not so, however, with the action of H.M.
+late Secretary of Foreign Affairs, who laid all the
+blame of my imprisonment upon myself, and entirely
+ignored the fact that my passport,—demanding that
+I should be allowed to pass without let or hindrance,
+and that I should be afforded every assistance and protection
+of which I might stand in need in the Ottoman
+Empire, and which had been vizéd by the Turkish Consul-General
+in London,—bore his own signature, which,
+if it were not lithographed, might have been worth the
+sum paid for the document that bore it, as an autograph,
+but was certainly entirely useless for the purpose
+for which it was supposed to be affixed. Although
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span>I made my journey through the Yemen with the
+knowledge and consent of the late Sir William White,
+then H.M. Ambassador at Constantinople, I was informed,
+in one of those elegant despatches of the
+Foreign Office, that I had entered the Yemen on
+entirely my own responsibility, and must bear the
+results of my actions myself! and that if the Turkish
+Government saw right to put me in prison and give
+me such bad water to drink that fever was the result,
+they really could not hold any one responsible for it
+beyond my own person. My question as to whether
+the wording of my passport was of any value, or
+merely a form that meant nothing, they entirely
+ignored, and to this day I have been unable to obtain
+a reply. Suffice it to say that with all its seals and
+titles and stamps, a British passport does not seem to
+be of much value in the Ottoman Empire; nor when
+it is absolutely disregarded is any one blamed by the
+Foreign Office except the unoffending bearer, who may
+have been so dazzled by its splendour as to believe
+that it might be of service to him. However, what
+with making treaties and doing their duty in society,
+it can be easily understood that the time of
+the officials is too much occupied to attend to such
+an unimportant question as the imprisonment of
+an Englishman, even though by such an occurrence
+every word and sentence of a paper to which H.M.
+Secretary of State appends his signature is disregarded
+and abused.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.<br>
+<span class="smaller">SANAA, THE CAPITAL OF THE YEMEN.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The city of Sanaa is situated in a wide valley, at an
+elevation of seven thousand two hundred and fifty
+feet above the sea-level. Although the town lies
+almost altogether on the flat bottom of the valley, a
+mountain, Jibel Negoum, rises abruptly on the east—so
+abruptly, in fact, that the old fortress and castle
+which form the citadel of Sanaa are perched on one
+of its spurs, from which the main peak rises in rocky
+bareness to a very considerable height.</p>
+
+<p>The town is in form a triangle, the apex being
+formed by the <i>kasr</i> above-mentioned, and the base by
+the wall of the garden suburb Bir el-Azab. There
+are three distinct quarters within the outer walls:
+the first or east quarter that of the Turks and Arabs,
+where are situated the bazaars, the Government
+buildings, and the principal native houses; the
+second the Jews’ quarter, separated from the last
+by a wide strip of barren ground, part of which shows
+signs of once having been a cemetery; and thirdly,
+this suburb of Bir el-Azab, where many a villa stands
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span>within luxurious gardens of fruit and other trees,
+enclosed with high walls. In spite of the fact that
+Sanaa is situated only between the 15th and 16th
+degree of north latitude, and so well within the
+tropics, there are very few signs to be seen of anything
+approaching tropical vegetation, and one is
+surprised at first, until the great altitude of the place
+is taken into consideration, to find that nearly all our
+English fruits flourish there. Although, of course,
+by day the sun is intensely hot, it is quite a common
+occurrence to experience frosts on winter nights.
+Yet in spite of lying at so great an elevation above the
+sea, Sanaa is subject at times to serious droughts; and
+although in the rainy season a torrent of water pours
+down the river-bed which runs through the centre of
+the town, in the dry periods of the year water is procurable
+only from wells sunk to a great depth in the
+solid rock. The water drawn from these wells is said
+to be very fresh and good. As is the custom in so
+many parts of the East, it is a marketable produce,
+and is carried about in skins by water-bearers, and
+sold at so much per skin, or even per cup. Yet
+in spite of water being a thing of money value, it
+is extraordinary how clean the general population of
+Sanaa seem to be, with the exception of the lower-class
+Turks, who, to judge from their appearance, one
+could believe never to have even heard of its existence.
+However, happily they are in the minority.</p>
+
+<p>The whole town of Sanaa is surrounded by a wall
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>built for the most part of mud-bricks dried in the
+sun, though in many cases the towers, which at
+regular intervals protect the walls, and on most of
+which the Turks have mounted small guns, are of
+stone. The city is entered by four principal gates,
+one lying to each point of the compass. Although
+extremely badly built, and capable apparently of withstanding
+no armed force, the walls of Sanaa formed
+a sufficient protection to the city against the wild
+Arab hordes by whom the place was infested in the
+autumn and winter of 1891. Had the Arabs been
+possessed of any artillery, instead of being armed
+with only a few matchlock-guns and rifles and their
+spears, no doubt the city would have fallen. Yet
+it has been found by proof, especially in the several
+bombardments of Mokha, that walls and fortifications
+of sun-dried bricks are by no means as easy to form
+a breach in as it might be supposed. However, in
+these days of shells they would offer but poor resistance,
+although when fired at with shot the missile
+merely buries itself in the clay, without doing any
+appreciable damage. To further fortify the place, the
+Turks have at regular intervals built, some few
+hundred yards outside the walls, towers, somewhat
+resembling our martello towers of the south coast.
+Here, as they have done upon the main wall, they
+have erected small guns which proved of great use in
+the Arab attacks upon Sanaa. These towers, by being
+built within easy range of one another, and being exposed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span>to no more serious fire than that of matchlock-guns,
+are said to have played terrible havoc amongst
+the natives, as a handful of Turks in each, with one
+piece of artillery and a dozen or so rifles, were able to
+pour a telling fire into the flanks of the Arabs as they
+approached the city walls.</p>
+
+<p>But the strongest point in the fortifications of
+Sanaa is the old fort on the spur of Jibel Negoum,
+the walls of which are solidly built of stone. Where
+necessary, the Turks have repaired and strengthened
+it. It was opposite to the gate of this fort, which
+serves as the Turkish arsenal, that I was lodged
+during my stay in Sanaa; and I was not a little
+amused to notice that the guns by which the walls
+are protected point ominously into the city. It is
+no doubt by the constant view of these cannon, whose
+gaping mouths point direct at the Arab quarter,
+that revolt and revolution against the Osmanli forces
+was held in check within the city, when all the rest
+of the Arab population, with but few exceptions, had
+risen up in arms.</p>
+
+<p>A fort, but not nearly so large or strong, protects
+the city to the west, lying close to the gate by which
+the highroad to Hodaidah and the coast leaves the
+town. Both this edifice and that at the east end of
+Sanaa contain the remains of old palaces, but to-day
+they have fallen into disrepair. No longer the fountains
+splash their crystal waters into the clear air;
+no longer the pavements re-echo with the bells and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>anklets of dancers: now nothing is heard but the
+rough voice and rougher tread of the Turkish troops
+upon the marble floors. There is, in fact, but little to
+tell of the former grandeur of Sanaa. No doubt,
+within many of the houses there must be beautiful
+courts and gardens; but of these I saw little or
+nothing, for although I visited the Turkish Governor-General,
+Ahmed Feizi Pasha, in one of the old palaces
+of the Imams, the place has been so changed and
+decorated and spoiled that it resembles to-day a huge
+barrack rather than a palace. The walls have been
+whitewashed, the great staircases are dirty, and the
+steps worn away by the nails of the soldiers’ boots;
+and even in the great rooms in which Ahmed Feizi
+Pasha resides, or does his business, the simple old
+Arab taste has been changed for decoration of <i>Louis
+Quatorze</i>, by no means bad of its kind, some of the
+wall-painting being far above the average, but still
+sadly out of place.</p>
+
+<p>Of the remains of the old palace and temple of
+Ghumdan, reached by some sixteen hundred steps,
+nothing but a heap of ruins remains to-day. Yet
+what a strange great place it must have been, with
+its four walls painted different colours, and its centre
+tower seven storeys in height, each diminishing in
+size, until the highest of all was floored with a single
+piece of marble. At each corner of this little summer-house
+was a marble lion, the open mouth of which
+exposed to the wind seemed to emit roaring. Strange
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span>fancies they had, these old-world Yemen people; and
+it must be regretted that the old palace and the
+adjacent temple dedicated to Zuhrah, supposed to be
+the Venus of Arabia, should have incurred the fanatical
+wrath of Othman, the third Caliph, and by his
+orders have been destroyed; for had it been left to
+die a natural death, there is little doubt that, in the
+situation and climate it enjoyed, there would have
+been at least some of it left to-day to tell of its former
+splendour.</p>
+
+<p>Although one cannot see the interior of the Arab
+houses of Sanaa, a fair estimate of their size can be
+gained from the outside; and even to us English,
+who are used to great houses, many of those of Sanaa
+appear immense. It is impossible to describe the
+style of architecture in which they are built, for it
+is a style that exists nowhere else. It is purely and
+essentially Yemenite, though in some cases gateways
+and windows are found of Byzantine and Gothic form.
+There is one house at Dhamar, built of red brick and
+faced with white stone, with a stone porch, that, were
+it set down in an English country district, would pass
+for Elizabethan. The house, too, forms an E, and
+although I could find out nothing about its history,
+it seems impossible that the strange building could
+be an accident; and I am inclined to believe that it
+must have been erected by one of the many renegades
+who, in the middle ages, sought their fortunes in the
+wealthy cities of Arabia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span></p>
+
+<p>At Sanaa I saw no houses of this kind, the style
+of architecture, with the exception of the decoration
+of doors and windows, being more or less uniform.
+Many of the larger houses are built of stone and brick
+and cement, the lower two storeys perhaps being of
+well-squared stone of various colours, arranged so as
+to form designs, the upper portion being of brick
+covered with a hard cement that takes a fine polished
+surface, not unlike the material used in Cairo, and
+corresponding to the <i>tabbia</i> of Fez. Many of the
+upper storeys are built overhanging the streets, but
+this is not carried out to nearly such a large extent
+as in many of the oriental cities; while the <i>musher-ibeyeh</i>
+work of Cairo is rare here, its place being
+taken by long narrow windows filled in with stained
+glass in designs. From the outside the pattern is
+often inappreciable, as the chips of glass are simply
+stuck into the plaster framework. From within, however,
+only such of the glass is exposed as fits in
+between the solid pattern, and the designs are often
+exceedingly fine. The same can be seen in the tomb
+and mosque of Kaït Bey, one of the tombs of the
+Caliphs at Cairo, and again some specimens of the work
+exist in the museum of Arab antiquities in the same
+city. What carved wood there is used for window-screens
+does not in the least resemble that of Egypt,
+but is arranged in geometric designs, much more in
+the style of Chinese and Japanese workmanship, with
+which some of the designs are identical.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span></p>
+
+<p>A word must be said here on the extraordinary
+quantity of Chinese and Japanese pottery to be found
+in the Yemen. There is scarcely a <i>café</i> by the roadside
+where one will not find that the cups have come
+from the far East, and yet I found that but very little
+enters the country to-day. I believe the origin of the
+presence of this extraordinary amount of oriental
+pottery is to be traced to the last few centuries, when
+Aden was the great mart of exchange between the
+East and Europe. With great wealth in the cities of
+the Yemen, a very appreciable quantity of the goods
+brought to Aden would be taken into the interior,
+and the care with which pottery and antiquities are
+treasured by the natives of the country would explain
+their existing until to-day. There is little doubt that
+should the Yemen ever be opened up, and Europeans
+be able to travel with safety and comfort, that it will
+become a field for the curio-hunter such as has not
+been known since the days when the Egyptian
+antiquities began to be unearthed. Coins, gems,
+inscriptions, sculptures, old Persian and Arab antiquities,
+embroideries, arms, brass and copper work,
+manuscripts, carpets, oriental pottery and glass—the
+Yemen is full of them, and as yet her treasures
+are almost untouched.</p>
+
+<p>Although many of the streets of the town consist
+of narrow byways, turning and twisting in every
+direction between the high walls of the houses, there
+are parts that are by no means badly laid out, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span>one or two of the main streets are quite wide
+thoroughfares, in which the few carriages which
+Sanaa boasts are able to pass each other. The most
+important of these streets leads from the square
+into which the Government buildings look to the
+bazaars. It is only a few hundred yards in length,
+it is true, but still it is sufficiently wide, and the
+shops on either side sufficiently good, to compare
+favourably with many in European towns. The
+“square” itself is a large oblong open space, faced
+on the east by the old castle and the large much-bedomed
+Turkish mosque, and on the west by what
+were once the palaces of the Arab rulers, and to-day
+form barracks and Government offices. At one end
+of the square an enterprising Turk has built a large
+<i>café</i>, where the officers and the few Greek shopkeepers
+love to congregate, and from the large doors
+and windows of which float clouds of pale-blue tobacco-smoke,
+issuing in curling clouds from the <i>shishas</i> of
+the smokers. It is from this point that the main
+street leads off to the bazaars, and in the few hundred
+yards of thoroughfare are to be seen the best shops,
+kept either by Turks or by Greeks, in which every
+imaginable article can be procured, from tins of sardines
+and inferior Turkish cigarettes to photograph-frames
+and musty chocolate creams. One or two have
+large glass windows in which the goods are exposed
+to view, but they have a dingy dusty appearance,
+and seem to tell that trade is not bright. There,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span>too, is a small restaurant, where all the favourite
+Turkish dishes can be obtained, some of which are
+by no means to be despised; while bottles of Greek
+and native wines standing on shelves tell that the
+Turks of Sanaa do not keep too strictly to the tenets
+of Islam with regard to drinking.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp93" id="illus19" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus19.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Turkish officers in a café at Sanaa.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Issuing from this street, one emerges into the
+bazaars, and here one sees Sanaa proper, not as it
+has been altered and changed to suit Turkish tastes.</p>
+
+<p>Of the many scenes that the city presents to the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span>traveller, the bazaars are perhaps the most interesting;
+for here one loses all idea of more modern times,
+and is thrown back, as it were, into the past. The
+bazaars have never changed. From time immemorial
+there have existed the strange box-like little shops,
+filled with much the same objects, and tended by
+people who, from the distance that they are separated
+from the outer world, have changed but little. Just
+as they dress to-day, so have they dressed since the
+word of Islam was first heard in the land. The only
+change, perhaps, noticeable to the casual observer, is
+the scattering of Turks and Turkish soldiers, whom
+now and again one passes in the narrow streets. The
+shops are all of one storey, the floor being raised
+about two feet above the ground, but not projecting
+on to the street in the little platforms one is so used
+to in Egypt and elsewhere. Here the seller sits
+cross-legged amongst his goods in the shadow of his
+mud-brick shop, gazing in front of him into the sunlit
+yellow street and beyond into the shop opposite.
+A little awning or covering of wood often projects
+above the opening, sufficient to give a patch of shade
+large enough to shield the purchaser from the sun’s
+hot rays.</p>
+
+<p>As is the custom throughout the East, each trade
+has a number of shops, or often a whole street, put
+aside to its special business. The workers of arms,
+the jewellers, the second-hand shops, the sellers of
+silks and cottons, the crockery and china vendors,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span>each has his own special quarter; while the vegetable
+and fruit bazaar is an open space, where, under rough
+little awnings, supported on poles and canes, the
+market produce is exposed for sale.</p>
+
+<p>Particularly interesting amongst the shops are those
+of the jewellers and makers of arms. The walls of
+the former are hung with silver necklaces and bangles
+and anklets, many of which are of very beautiful design.
+Some of the necklets particularly are extremely
+lovely, resembling in workmanship the finest and best
+Greek and Etruscan work, with none of the roughness
+apparent in the jewellery of so many oriental
+countries. The favourite design seems to be single
+chains supporting pendants of various shapes and
+forms, from discs of fine filigree-work to solid pear-shaped
+globules of metal. The bracelets are generally
+bands of worked silver, though some, like the necklaces,
+are decorated with small chains and hanging
+pendants. But the greatest skill of the jewellers of
+Sanaa, who are rightly renowned for their workmanship,
+is exhibited in the dagger-sheaths, many of
+which are of rich silver-gilt, and even, at times, of
+gold. Perhaps the most lovely, however, are of plain
+polished silver inlaid with gold coins, principally of
+the Christian Byzantine emperors; others again, of
+delicate filigree, which the natives line with coloured
+leathers or silks. But more than even the sheaths of
+these <i>jambiyas</i>, as they call their daggers, the natives
+value the blades. Antique ones are generally considered
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span>the best, and the people declare that the old
+art of hardening the steel has been lost. Be this as
+it may, there is no doubt that the modern blades are
+of no mean workmanship, and great prices, for the
+Yemen, are paid for good specimens. The two parts
+of the dagger are nearly always sold separately, and
+a Yemeni, having found a blade to suit him, has a
+sheath made according to his taste and wealth. The
+early European visitors to Sanaa speak of the jewelled
+arms worn by the Imams and their companions; but
+I saw only one specimen of these in the bazaars, a
+silver-gilt sheath studded with rough pearls and turquoises,
+for which the shopkeeper was asking some
+forty pounds sterling, without the blade. Another
+art long lost, but of which examples are still to be
+procured, is the application of silver to copper and
+brass. This kind of work usually takes the form of
+boxes of one of the latter metals, covered with inscriptions
+in Kufic or other Arabic characters in silver.
+The later forms of this work are very inferior to the
+earlier, and the silver is apt to peel off.</p>
+
+<p>One of the great institutions of Sanaa are the
+khans, or caravanserais, of which there are a considerable
+number, the greater part being situated near the
+gates of the city. These buildings vary in size, but
+some are very large, though nearly all in bad repair.
+They usually consist of large houses three and four
+storeys in height, open to the sky in the centre. The
+lower floor forms stabling for the animals, while a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span>number of rooms of various sizes open out on to the
+balconies which surround the court on the upper
+storeys. The hire of these rooms is very small, something
+like twopence a night, and as many as like to
+crowd into it do so. There is nearly always a <i>café</i>
+attached, where cooking can be done, either by the
+visitors themselves, or, if more extravagantly inclined,
+by the servants of the khan. Assembled round the
+gates of these khans are to be seen the tribes-people
+from every part of the interior—bringers of salt from
+Mareb, the modern Saba or Sheba; of coffee from the
+northern districts; of indigo and grain and spices
+from wherever the soil is suitable to their growth.
+Caravans from the Hadramaut and Yaffa discharge
+their goods here too, to reload their camels with the
+produce of the largest city of Southern Arabia.</p>
+
+<p>The population of Sanaa, although there is no
+official census to base one’s calculation upon, probably
+numbers some forty to fifty thousand people, of whom
+twenty thousand are said to be Jews. These, as has
+already been stated, have a quarter entirely to themselves;
+and although many hire shops in the bazaars,
+and are daily engaged in the town in attending to
+them, or in carrying on their respective trades, at
+night retire to the <i>ghetto</i>, with the exception of a few
+who are servants, and who sleep in their masters’
+houses. There seems to be no more oppression of
+the Jews in the Yemen than there is of the Arabs.
+They are free to carry on whatever trade they will;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span>to attend their synagogues and schools, and, in fact,
+seem very little interfered with by the Turks. They,
+of course, pay their regular share in the taxation, as is
+only right they should; and if it be exceptionally
+heavy in their case, it is so also in the case of the
+Arab inhabitants—though naturally the Jews, as to
+nature born, cry out a great deal more than the
+natives.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>ghetto</i> is quite separate from the Arab city.
+The houses are built almost entirely of mud-bricks,
+but look clean and comfortable, though the habit of
+throwing all their refuse into the streets is by no
+means a pleasant one for the passer-by. However,
+in this they are little worse, if at all, than the Arabs,
+whose drain-pipes project well over the middle of the
+narrow streets, through which generally flows an open
+drain. The passer-by has to be careful to keep near
+the house-wall, or he will run the risk of coming
+terribly to grief. There are said to be more than
+twenty synagogues in the Jews’ quarter, and over
+seven hundred boys attending the schools. The whole
+male population is supposed to be able to read; but
+the females attend entirely to their house-work, or
+the sewing of garments, and all education is neglected
+in their case.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Jews of the Yemen are believed to have come
+from India, and, as far as is known, there are none
+remaining of the old Jewish stock of pre-Islamic
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span>times. Although much despised by the proud Arabs,
+they are seldom treated with violence or even roughness,
+and what little persecution there can be said to
+exist consists almost entirely of the jeers of small
+boys, and even this is rare.</p>
+
+<p>One cannot help noticing and admiring the extremely
+pleasant manners shown by the people of
+the Yemen toward Europeans. With the exception
+of the lower classes there is no crowding; and even
+when curiosity leads the people to congregate round
+a stranger, there are no rude remarks, much less any of
+the ribald cursing which distinguishes the attitude of
+the Moors of Morocco toward Europeans. This trait
+in the character of the people of the Yemen adds
+very largely to the pleasure of travelling, and many
+a kind word was said to me on my journey by
+“warriors” of the fiercest aspect, and many a pleasant
+smile and “God-speed” followed me as I rode
+away from the villages and towns. In fact, with a
+very few exceptions, I never heard a word of unpleasantness
+spoken either to or of myself. There is apparently
+less religious fanaticism towards Christians
+than exists between the two sects of Islam represented
+in the country—the Zaidis&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> by the Arabs,
+and the Sunnis by the Turks.</p>
+
+<p>Through the centre of Sanaa flows at times the
+river Kharid. However, the river-bed is dry
+except in the rainy season, when a huge torrent
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span>pours down its course, often doing considerable
+damage to the adjacent houses. A bridge spans the
+river at one spot, and from here a good view is
+obtained both up and down the stream, the high
+yellow banks of which are crowned with tall houses,
+built in the peculiar style of architecture common
+to the place.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the Jews’ quarter, and to the extreme
+west of the town, is the suburb of Bir el-Azab, of
+which mention has already been made. Here the
+roads are wider, and pass between the high walls of
+the gardens, over the top of which can be seen the
+leaves and blossoms of the fruit-trees. Two villages
+also form country residences for the inhabitants of
+the city—Jeraaf, about two miles to the north, and
+Raudha, the same distance farther on. Shortly before
+my arrival at Sanaa the rebels had succeeded in
+blowing up with gunpowder the Turkish barracks
+at the latter place, together with some five-and-twenty
+soldiers.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp93" id="illus20" style="max-width: 31.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus20.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Turkish mosque at Sanaa, as seen from the prison window.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>With the exception of the Turkish mosque, all the
+others seem to be in bad repair, owing, it is said,
+to the Osmanli Government having seized most of
+the mosque property, the sole means of adding to
+and keeping in order the building themselves. The
+great mosque is a huge square building surrounded
+by a high wall, and boasting two tall minarets of
+curious construction. It was here that Ibn Fadl,
+the leader of the Karmathians, in the year 911 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span>carried out one of those acts of licentious cruelty
+with which the history of the East teems. Having
+in that year successfully installed himself at Sanaa,
+from which on two previous occasions he had been
+ousted, he caused the great courtyard of the mosque
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span>to be filled some three or four feet deep with water,
+into which were driven naked all the young girls of
+the city. From his seat on the minaret he gazed
+upon them, and such as pleased him he dishonoured.
+The height of the water, however,
+discoloured the walls,
+and for centuries told the tale
+of the brief power wielded by
+this licentious usurper.</p>
+
+<figure class="figright illowp31" id="illus21" style="max-width: 12.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus21.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Turkish soldier.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>But of all the sights offered
+by the city of Sanaa, the
+population presents the most
+interesting. Everywhere some
+strange figure meets the eye:
+here it is some wild tribesman
+with bronzed skin and
+raven-black locks, girded with
+his loin-cloth of dark blue
+cotton; there some merchant
+from the Hejaz, slow and
+stately, with strange glassy
+eyes that speak of <i>hashish</i>,
+robed in striped silks, and
+whose turban, so white it is,
+literally seems to sparkle in
+the sunlight. Again it is some ill-fed, ill-clothed
+Turkish soldier, with only one boot perhaps, and that
+scarcely more than a shadow of its former self, with
+face unshaven and sunk with illness; and as one is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span>still watching him, there rattles past a shabby
+victoria, in which is seated some fat Pasha or
+Bey, with hideous black-cloth clothes richly sewn
+in gold lace; and one knows that as often as not
+his clothes, his carriage, and his horses are bought
+with the money that ought to feed the soldiers, for
+but a small proportion of the pay of the troops ever
+reaches them. Then, again, a woman passes, wrapt
+head to foot in coloured garments, the veil of
+coloured stuff just transparent enough to allow
+her to grope her way, for so do the women of Sanaa
+hide their charms; and here, there, and everywhere
+are the “gamins,” the same all over the world,
+though their blood and their language be different,—little
+monkeys all, and in Sanaa rebels to the very
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the cities of the Yemen, there is none that
+can boast the antiquity of Sanaa. Tradition says
+that it was founded by Ad, the ancestor of the tribe
+of Adites, who were destroyed by a miraculous hot
+blast of wind for refusing to listen to the voice of the
+Prophet Hud. A second tribe, that of Thamud, met
+with a like fate for disregarding the Prophet Salih;
+only in their case it was a terrible voice that called to
+them from the skies that caused their deaths.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> There
+is only one drawback to this tale—namely, that long
+after the destruction of the Adites we find them
+attacked and conquered by a descendant of Yarub,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span>brother of Hadramaut, and son of Kahtan. He was
+apparently more successful than the miraculous hot
+wind, for they were evidently entirely wiped out on
+this occasion, and we find no more mention of them
+in history. But there is another interest belonging
+to the Adites—namely, that they were of the autochthonous
+stock of the Yemen, and therefore probably
+one of the original Semitic people who afterwards
+spread over Arabia and founded the Arab races, and
+who have, with the propagation of Islam, wandered
+far into Asia and Africa. The original name of Sanaa
+was Azal, Uzul, or Uwal, the latter of which means
+“primacy” in the Arab tongue. The authorities appear
+to differ as to which was really the first name,
+and it seems not improbable that Azal or Uzul was
+the original title, which, being incomprehensible to the
+later races, they changed to the Arabic Uwal—a word
+that described not only the antiquity of the place,
+but also bears a strong resemblance to its original
+name. This is, however, merely a conjecture.</p>
+
+<p>Although Saba seems in the days of the Sabæans
+to have been a more important place than Sanaa,
+there is little reason to doubt that the latter was in
+existence; and amongst other authorities Ibn Khaldun
+states that Sanaa was the seat of the Tubbas
+or Himyaric kings for centuries before the time of
+Islam. This alone, apart from the traditions of far
+greater antiquity, of which we have no reason to
+doubt the truth, shows that probably two thousand
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span>years ago the city of Sanaa was a flourishing community,
+the seat of the government of powerful kings,
+who were living in a state of civilisation and culture.
+But the question of the antiquity of Sanaa is not one
+that can be entered into at any length here, and interesting
+as is the subject, space does not allow of
+carrying it further.</p>
+
+<p>There are one or two episodes in the history of
+Sanaa that cannot be passed over without some slight
+mention. The first is the erecting there of a Christian
+church by Abrahá el-Ashram, Viceroy of the Yemen,
+under the Abyssinian King Aryat, for the building of
+which the Emperor of Rome is said to have supplied
+marble and workmen. Abrahá, who was a fanatical
+Christian, hoped by the erection of this wonderful
+structure, of which unfortunately we have but few
+details—and such as do exist are absurd—to change
+the goal of pilgrimage from the Kaabah at Mecca,
+which, it must be remembered, was an object of
+veneration long before the time of Mahammed, to
+Sanaa. Failing to entice the Arabs, he attempted by
+force to bring them to his church, which eventually
+led to his famous attack upon Mecca in 570 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>,
+and in the total destruction of his army by pebbles
+dropped from the claws and beaks of birds.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p>
+
+<p>At the time of the introduction of Islam into the
+Yemen, we find the government in the hands of
+Budhan, or Budzan, the Persian Viceroy, who, however,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span>embraced the new religion, and was confirmed
+by Mahammed as Governor of the Yemen—a post
+he held until he died. Within a year or two of
+the death of Mahammed himself, Islam was firmly
+grafted in the country, owing, it must be added, to
+the indomitable courage and energy of Mohajir, who,
+on his triumphal march to the Hadramaut, secured
+the leaders of the party dissentient to the rule of
+the then Caliph Abou Bekr, and, sending them prisoners
+to Mecca, planted the Caliph’s rule firmly in
+Sanaa.</p>
+
+<p>Although the Christians of Nejrán continued such
+for a period, the enthusiasm of the people for Islam
+swept them along in its tide, and idolatry and Christianity
+soon became extinct in the Yemen—the third
+Caliph, Othman, destroying almost the last vestige
+of the former by razing the temple of Zuhrah at
+Ghumdan, the remains of which and of the Christian
+church of Abrahá are visible to-day in a heap of ruins
+at and near Sanaa respectively.</p>
+
+<p>From this period the history of Sanaa has been a
+troubled one. Constant warfare with foreign princes,
+and assassinations and rivalry fraught with bloodshed
+between the local rulers, help to make up as dark a
+page of history as can be imagined. Yet in spite of
+this, the city has been always an important and
+flourishing one, renowned for its manufactures, its
+trade, and its wealth. With every disadvantage
+accruing from a constant change of government, it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span>managed to survive; and not only to survive but to
+increase, until toward the middle of the seventeenth
+century it reached unparalleled prosperity under the
+then powerful Imams. But as they sank in power,
+so did Sanaa lose its prosperity. Its fate seemed
+drawn along with that of its Imams; and as ruler
+after ruler lost more and more of his territory, so
+the glories of the capital diminished. Yet there was
+now and again a flicker in its death-throes; but never
+did it last above a few years, when once more the
+steady decline would commence.</p>
+
+<p>How it ended is well known; for, broken in spirit
+and harassed by the surrounding tribes, Sanaa offered
+no resistance when the Turks, in 1872, entered the
+place; and the city, which had nobly held her own in
+so many encounters, almost welcomed the stranger
+into her midst. Had the inhabitants been aware at
+that time how their action would lead to their oppression,
+there is but little doubt that they would have
+hesitated in their invitation to the Turkish forces,
+already firmly established on the coast, to come and
+take over the reins of government.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="fp21" style="max-width: 29.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp21.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>MENAKHA, FROM THE NORTH.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.<br>
+<span class="smaller">SANAA TO MENAKHA.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>As long as I live I shall never forget my departure
+from Sanaa. In the cold grey dawn, the temperature
+little if anything above freezing, worn out with a
+night of raging fever that still throbbed in my veins,
+I was lifted on to my mule at the door of the <i>conàk</i>,
+and, with a couple of soldiers to accompany me, sent
+upon my way. Weird and wretched everything
+looked. The houses, that only the day before had
+struck me as beautiful in their strange oriental architecture,
+now looked like pallid ruins, depressing in the
+extreme; while the few hurrying persons we passed
+seemed but shadows in the grey light of dawn.</p>
+
+<p>On through the bazaars with their closed shops; on
+by narrow streets and byways, over which the tall
+houses seemed verily to hang suspended; across the
+bridge that spans what is at times a roaring torrent
+but was now but a dry bed; across a wide open space
+and through the dirty Jews’ quarter, and the garden
+suburb of Bir el-Azab; then out under the great town
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span>gateway with its strange towers, on which a shivering
+sentry or two kept guard, into the open country. A
+long level road leads one from the city across the
+surrounding plain, a road as good as one could expect
+to find in England. Then a range of bare hills seems
+to block the way, and one begins to climb up and up
+by the winding twisting track, until the summit is
+reached. Looking back, a fine view of Sanaa was
+obtained, lying on the spur of Jibel Negoum, backed
+by still higher mountains. To right and left extended
+the valley, until some way off to the north one could
+see the town of Raudha, where not a month before
+the rebels had blown up the Turkish barracks and
+some twenty-five soldiers with gunpowder. From
+this spot one could obtain a better idea than we had
+as yet been able to do of the size of Sanaa, as it lay
+mapped out below us, a great flat-roofed city, dull
+yellow and white, upon still yellower and whiter
+plains, the only break in which were the gardens at
+Bir el-Azab.</p>
+
+<p>At the summit of the ascent a plateau is reached
+scattered with villages, now all more or less knocked
+down by the Turkish artillery, after the road from
+Hodaidah had been forced, and the Arab Shereef,
+Sid esh-Sheraï, dislodged from Hajarat el-Mehedi, a
+spot a few miles farther on. Over the plateau the
+road proceeded tolerably straight, though the going
+was by no means good, in spite of the fact that the
+track was a wide one. But its repair had evidently
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span>been neglected for a time, and it was strewn with
+stones.</p>
+
+<p>After the sun had risen it became very warm, but
+it was a change for the better from the miserable cold
+of the early morning, and, weak as I was from fever,
+I was glad to get off my mule for a time and stretch
+my limbs by walking.</p>
+
+<p>At the <i>café</i> of Metneh we stopped for our mid-day
+meal. A large, low, stone building forms the caravanserai,
+both for man and beast. The place is roughly
+built, one storey in height, the roof being supported
+on arches and stone columns, round the bases of which
+are little raised platforms, on one of which we spread
+our carpet and rested for a time. The <i>café</i> was nearly
+full of Turkish troops, poor, ill-fed, and ill-clothed
+fellows, but the very acme of good-humour. It was
+amusing to hear them discussing my presence with
+some Arab merchants who happened to be there at
+the same time. The conclusion they arrived at was
+that the presence of a Christian in the country foretold
+the downfall of the Yemen, and the sooner they,
+the Moslems, cleared out of it the better. It was
+flattering certainty to hear one’s self considered of
+such vital importance to a country the size of the
+Yemen; nor did the fact that I was a prisoner in the
+hands of a Turkish guard seem to lessen their opinion
+of me. On discovering at length that I spoke Arabic,
+we joined parties and lunched together, and very
+polite they all were. The group was a strange one,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span>representing in the Arabs the rebel party, in the
+Turks the conquerors and oppressors, and last, but
+not least, in my humble self the future of the Yemen
+(for so they deemed my presence to foretell). Yet
+we were a merry band, and shared the same hubble-bubble
+of peace, and parted with protestations of profound
+respect and friendship for one another.</p>
+
+<p>One of the pleasantest recollections of the Yemen
+that I bore away with me is, and always will be, the
+hours spent in these wayside <i>cafés</i>. Then more than
+at any other time one saw the people as they really
+are. Then all restraint was thrown aside; there was
+exhibited none of the suspicion we habitually show to
+fellow-travellers; and often we unburdened our aims
+and ideas to one another, the Arabs and I. As I
+write of it I long once more to go back, to sit cross-legged
+on the floor and sip the beverage of coffee-husks
+from the tiny Japanese and Chinese cups the
+Yemenis love so much, and listen to the patient
+murmur of the hubble-bubble amongst a group of
+half-naked Arabs.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Metneh in the afternoon, we pushed on
+through Bauan, with its strange market, toward our
+night’s resting-place. The road still continues to
+ascend, and is in most parts very rough and bad,
+rendering travelling by no means pleasant. However,
+any unpleasantness from this was amply repaid by
+the magnificent view that from time to time met our
+gaze. The track was leading us along the summit of a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span>mountain-top, which to the north looked straight down
+into a great valley thousands of feet below. What
+a wonderful valley it was, full of coffee-groves, and
+luxuriating in all the glories of gorgeous vegetation,
+amongst which banana-leaves could be plainly distinguished,
+waving their great green heads! Amongst
+all this verdure, clinging as it seemed to the mountain-sides,
+were villages, each crowned by its <i>burj</i> or fort,
+the whole perched on some overhanging rock. On to
+their very roofs we seemed to look. Often on the
+road I would rest for a few minutes to gaze in wonderment
+on this entrancing scene, until, as evening came
+on, filmy mists rose from the valley, and concealed
+from view all but the opposite mountain-peaks, torn
+and rugged, which rose above the sea of iridescent
+cloud like great cathedral steeples. What a land it
+is, the Yemen! What a world of romance and history
+lies hid in those great mountain valleys! What tales
+the little, sparkling, dancing rivulets could tell, for
+often, I wot, their limpid waters have run red with
+blood! Night fell, and the scene became one of still
+grey silence, weird and strange.</p>
+
+<p>After reaching an altitude of ten thousand feet
+above the sea-level the road began to descend, and we
+passed once or twice through villages, crowned by
+their strange towers, until at length Sôk el-Khamis,
+our night’s resting-place, was reached. There are
+several of these villages in its vicinity, and one we
+passed was occupied by Turkish troops, whose riotous
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span>laughter and singing jarred on the peaceful sounds of
+night, the humming of the insects and the soft hoot-hoot
+of the rock owls.</p>
+
+<p>We stopped at one of these strange tower-like
+buildings, and my guard informed me that this was
+our halting-place. After repeated knockings at a
+heavy wooden door we were admitted into a yard,
+and from thence entered the house—the way led by a
+dirty mountaineer in little else but a sheepskin coat,
+who, with a small oil-lamp, lighted us up a flight of
+stone stairs into the guest-chamber. A poor enough
+place it was, and none too clean, its ceiling blackened
+by the fumes of charcoal-fires, its floor of rough stones
+and mortar, the ups and downs of which a carpet ill
+disguised. This was, however, the sole accommodation,
+and our host plaintively asked us to make ourselves
+as comfortable as we could, while he went off to
+search for provisions, adding that the Turkish garrison
+at the neighbouring village had exhausted the supply.</p>
+
+<p>So we spread our carpet, and Abdurrahman and
+Saïd, and the Turkish and Arab soldiers who formed
+my guard, sat down together over a charcoal brasier,
+in which bubbled one of the common narrow-necked
+earthenware pots in which they brew their drink of
+coffee-husks, and smoked our hookah in peace, sharing
+alike in its cracked amber mouthpiece. We were all
+tired, and talked but little; but Saïd now and again
+would burst into song, and very well he sang, too, the
+plaintive melodies of the country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span></p>
+
+<p>Presently our host returned with a scarecrow of a
+fowl and some leathery bread, which was all the good
+fellow was able to raise, and it was not long before a
+rather too savoury dish of rancid butter and chicken-bones—for
+there was little else—had usurped the place
+of our coffee-pot on the brasier. What jokes we made
+about that poor chicken! After all, we agreed, it
+could not be anything but thin after having lived
+through the late rebellion. However, we ate it
+all right.</p>
+
+<p>The view as we left Sôk el-Khamis the next morning
+was almost as lovely as that of the day before.
+As the night-mists rose at sunrise, range after range
+of mountains loomed up before us, peak above peak,
+until in the far west one great mass overtopped all
+the rest.</p>
+
+<p>The road descends steeply, winding the while, in
+parts showing signs of the repairs of the Turkish
+engineers, in others merely a foothold on the mountain-side.
+Numbers of blue rock-pigeons fluttered
+hither and thither in the morning sunlight; but
+lovely as they were, I was enticed to shoot a few, for,
+after all, one fowl is not sufficient food for eight
+persons, and there seemed every likelihood of our
+faring as ill at our next halting-place as we had done
+the night before.</p>
+
+<p>At one spot we passed one of the most lovely
+scenes I had as yet seen in the Yemen. Half-way
+down a steep slope, wooded with forest-trees, was a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span>tomb and fountain, the clear cold water tumbling
+into a deep tank. Away behind a peak of the mountain
+rose bare and rocky into the blue sky, its lower
+slopes covered with trees, its summit crowned with
+the ruins of a village which the Turkish artillerymen
+had destroyed, leaving little but the walls to tell of
+its existence. The domed mosque, a tiny place,
+glistening white against the foliage, and the sound
+of the running water, added a charm to a scene of
+perfect peace and loveliness.</p>
+
+<p>At length the descent was accomplished, and we
+entered a desolate valley, keeping to the rock-strewn
+river-bed, now almost dry, as being better than the
+road, which here is almost indistinguishable, winding
+and turning amongst great boulders, which appear to
+have fallen from the steeps above. An hour or so
+later we passed under the strange fortress of Mefhak,
+grandly situated on a pinnacle of rock some five
+hundred feet above the valley; and, leaving a large
+encampment of Turkish troops on our left, once more
+began to ascend. For a while our way led through
+the loveliest of little valleys, which seemed like the
+greater one we had been passing through in miniature.
+On either side walls of rock some fifty to a hundred
+feet in height rose precipitously, but, sheltered from
+the sun, a number of varieties of wild-flowers had
+taken root, and the place was a fairyland of colour.
+Great clusters of jasmine hung over the precipices,
+while on every side bloomed acacias and aloes. A
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span>gorgeous flowering-tree, bearing pale-pink blossoms,
+edged the narrow water-course, just as if it had
+been planted there by the hand of man.</p>
+
+<p>An hour more and we drew up at the caravanserai
+of Ijz for our mid-day rest. Very hot it was; but the
+proprietor of the <i>café</i>, a wounded Turkish soldier,
+full of grievances and very dirty, amused us much,
+mumbling and grumbling as he leaned over the fire
+to cook my coffee and the men’s drink of coffee-husks.
+Although coffee in very large quantities is exported
+from the Yemen, it is drunk only by the Turks and
+the richer classes, the poorer contenting themselves
+with, and preferring, they say, the boiled husks.</p>
+
+<p>We spent only an hour or two at Ijz, as I was
+anxious to push on to Menakha before dark; and
+accordingly in the heat of the early afternoon we said
+good-bye to our old host and the handful of Turkish
+troops who had joined us in our meal, and mounted
+our mules once more.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp48" id="illus22" style="max-width: 20.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus22.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>Gorge near Menakha.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As our road proceeded it increased in magnificence,
+entering the heart of the mountains, on the summit
+of one of which the town of Menakha is perched.
+This river lies at an elevation of somewhat over five
+thousand feet above the sea. Quite suddenly the
+valley comes to an end, and we commenced one of
+those steep ascents to which we were almost becoming
+accustomed now. The path is little but a boulder-strewn
+track in the mountain-side, and one could
+not help wondering how our little mules would ever
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span>accomplish the climb. Dismounting at the foot,
+Abdurrahman, Saïd, and I raced ahead, scrambling
+and tumbling over the rocks, and nearly frightening
+the wits out of a descending caravan, who probably
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span>had never seen the like of us before; for although
+Saïd was in the Yemen costume, Abdurrahman wore
+the there unknown dress of the mountaineers of
+Morocco, while I was in riding-breeches, and flannel
+shirt, and a red fez cap. Great proud-looking fellows
+the caravan-men were, and they watched us with a
+startled stare, evidently putting us down as lunatics.
+However, our laughter at their surprise so amused
+them that they became quite friendly, and would not
+let me go on till I had shaken each singly by the
+hand, which I was only too pleased to do. Up and
+up we toiled, leaving the mules to follow with the
+muleteers. Every here and there are springs which
+the natives have aided by building tanks, and now
+and again we would stop to drink and bathe our faces
+and hands.</p>
+
+<p>Almost suddenly we reached the summit, after a
+climb of over two thousand five hundred feet up the
+execrable zigzag path, and the little town of Menakha
+lay before me.</p>
+
+<p>I determined to wait here for my soldier-guards,
+whom we had left a long way behind us; so we threw
+ourselves down, panting and hot, upon a ledge of rock,
+and gazed at the scene before us. Wonderful, stupendous
+it was! Around us on all sides the bare
+fantastic peaks and perpendicular precipices, on the
+edge of one of which we were perched, and up the
+face of which we could see the path we had climbed
+winding in and out. Below us, far, far below, like
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span>little ants, we could see our mules and men toiling
+up. A thread of river, the Wadi Zaum, was distinguishable
+down the valley, the few green thorny
+trees which grew along its banks being, with the
+exception of some stunted brushwood and a few
+aloes and creepers, the sole vegetation in view. A
+very entrance to the “Inferno,” gloomy and dark.
+The rays of the setting sun lit up in contrast to all
+this the roseate peaks of the mountains, many of
+which, thousands of feet above us, were crowned with
+strange villages and towers. At length our mules
+caught us up, and mounting again for the few yards
+that yet remained between us and Menakha, we made
+our entry into the town, drawing up at the principal
+Government building, where the Kaimakam resided.</p>
+
+<p>My guard of Turkish soldiers had been intrusted
+with letters to the governors respectively of Menakha
+and Hodaidah, and no sooner was our missive presented
+than I was shown into the presence of the
+Kaimakam. I found him pleasant, as nearly all
+Turks can be when they like, and an hour or so
+passed very cheerily. Meanwhile he had given
+orders for a room to be prepared for me within
+the precincts of the Government offices, and on
+leaving him I was shown to a large, comfortable,
+airy chamber on the ground-floor, with a window
+looking over a sort of drill-yard, beyond which was
+a fine view of the mountains, the opposite spur of
+which, at an altitude of some hundreds of feet
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span>above the town, was crowned with a Turkish fort,
+near which some artillerymen were drilling.</p>
+
+<p>It should have been mentioned already that the
+road we had been following from Sanaa was almost
+identically the line taken by the Sanaa and Hodaidah
+telegraph-wire, which, like all provincial Turkish
+telegraphs, is, I believe, worked by the Government,
+from a representative of whom one is obliged to
+obtain permission before making use of it. This
+permission had been refused me at Sanaa. At
+Menakha there is quite a pretentious office.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the Kaimakam I went for a stroll in
+the town, followed of course by a guard, who, however,
+did not in the least interfere with my actions,
+and in whose presence I was venturesome enough to
+sketch, without calling forth any sterner reproof than
+that if they were caught allowing me to draw they
+might get into trouble, so that I had better creep
+behind a rock and make any sketches I wanted from
+a spot where I would not be seen.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the places it has ever been my lot to see,
+Menakha is the most wonderfully situated. The
+town is perched on a narrow strip of mountain that
+joins two distinct ranges, and it forms the watershed
+of two great valleys—that up which we had proceeded
+on our arrival, and the second to the west. So narrow
+is the ridge on which the town stands, that the walls
+of the houses on both sides seem almost to hang over
+the precipices; and there are spots—for instance, near
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span>the military hospital—where one can sit and look
+down absolutely into the two great valleys at the
+same time. Curious and wonderful as this is, the
+grand effect of the scene is doubly increased by the
+extraordinary peaks which rise above the place—enormous
+pinnacles, for no other word can express their
+fantastic shapes and forms. Great, bare, rocky crags
+they are, perpendicular, and ending, like sugar-loafs,
+in points, on which, in several places, the natives
+have built their strange towers. How they ever
+ascend or descend seems incredible, or from whence
+they obtain their water-supply.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Menakha is quite a small one. It contains,
+perhaps, some five thousand inhabitants, without
+counting the very considerable number of Turkish
+troops stationed there at the time of my visit. The
+houses are well built of stone, some of them four
+storeys, and many three, in height. The Government
+offices and the military hospital and barracks
+give the place quite a European appearance, for
+they are all built in modern Turkish style, with glass
+windows and flat roofs.</p>
+
+<p>The bazaar is tolerably well supplied with the necessaries
+of life, though at the time of my visit meat
+and vegetables were scarce, on account of the influx
+of troops. There are, too, several large shops, one or
+two kept by Greeks. I was surprised, in passing
+through the town, to be accosted in excellent English
+by one of these shopkeepers, who, he told me, had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span>been a servant to an Englishman in Suakin for some
+years. I went with him to his store, where everything
+was purchasable, from sardines to port wine,
+and spent half an hour or so talking with him. He
+was evidently an intellectual man, and seemed well
+up in the affairs of the Yemen. He had been present
+at the taking of Menakha by the Arabs, and its recapture
+by the Turks; but his property had been
+respected in both cases, and he had suffered little if
+any loss.</p>
+
+<p>The great altitude at which Menakha is situated—some
+seven thousand six hundred feet above the
+sea-level—renders it liable to sudden changes of
+temperature; and two hours after we had arrived
+in blazing sunshine, clouds gathered over the town,
+obscuring the view, and the temperature fell to below
+50°. We managed to procure a charcoal brasier, over
+which my men and I huddled, our circle being joined
+by a couple of charming Turkish officers, both of
+whom spoke Arabic well.</p>
+
+<p>About eight o’clock I was taken suddenly ill with
+fever, which did not leave me until ten the next
+morning, by which time I was so weak that I could
+only stand with assistance, and accordingly travelling
+was out of the question. The Kaimakam made
+no difficulties about my remaining another day, and
+did all in his power to make me comfortable. During
+the afternoon I had sufficiently recovered my
+strength to crawl out and seek the shade of a hollow
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span>in the rocks, where my men lit a little fire and
+brewed coffee. The spot we had chosen looked
+directly into the great valley that runs west from
+Menakha, far down which we could see. Away below
+us, tier above tier, were the terraced coffee and
+banana groves; while the rocky precipices, here bare
+and frowning, were in other parts hung with creepers,
+while in every crevice some strange flowering aloes
+had found room to grow.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst this mass of verdure, for, far away below
+us, lay villages, their flat roofs upturned, as it were,
+to us, who were so high above them, looking like the
+squares on some fairy chess-board. Away down the
+valley a silvery thread of light told the presence of a
+river, fed by a hundred little streams, which, issuing
+from the rocky slopes, leaped and danced to join the
+larger stream below. Beyond, again, all was haze
+and mountain-peaks, faint as a cloud and inexpressibly
+lovely.</p>
+
+<p>Wild-flowers and ferns, especially maidenhair, grew
+in abundance round our little nook in the rocks, in
+which we were shaded from the sun’s rays by an
+overhanging crag. The whole scene was so framed
+by shrubs and creepers and flowers, a mass of blossom
+and green, that one lost the effect of distance;
+and, in the clear air, it seemed but a step from our
+resting-place to the bottom of the valley, and a step
+more to the far-away peaks.</p>
+
+<p>But it is not on account of its gorgeous scenery
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span>that Menakha has become an important place.
+Rather it is owing to its great strategical position;
+for it dominates the two parts of the highroad from
+Hodaidah to Sanaa, from each of which it is roughly
+equidistant. It is, no doubt, on this account, and
+to the practical advantages it offers, owing to its
+fine position for keeping up a line of communication
+between the capital and the coast, that a considerable
+number of troops are stationed and some forts erected
+there.</p>
+
+<p>It played by no means an unimportant part during
+the rebellion; and although this has been referred
+to elsewhere in a chapter dealing with that subject,
+it may be as well to mention the facts here.
+Menakha was one of the first Turkish strongholds
+to fall into the hands of the Arabs. The governor
+was taken prisoner; numbers of the troops were
+killed in the rebel rush; and what remained of its
+military population were sent to the leader of the
+rebellion at Sadah. It was not, in fact, until after
+the battle fought near Hojaila, on the road from
+Hodaidah, at a spot where the Teháma ends and
+the mountains commence, that Menakha was retaken.
+To Ahmed Feizi Pasha belongs the credit of the wonderful
+march from Hodaidah to Sanaa, in which the
+Turks dragged their guns by execrable roads over
+passes ten thousand feet in altitude; and it was upon
+this triumphal entry of the new Governor-General of
+the Yemen that the town once more came into the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span>possession of the Turks, being deserted by the Arabs
+before the arrival of the Osmanli troops. Had the
+native horde only been better officered and possessed
+better arms; had they destroyed the road more successfully
+than they did, and stood firmly to their
+impregnable position at Menakha,—there is little
+doubt that the capital could not have held out,
+and that the Yemen to-day would have been in the
+hands of the Imam Ahmed ed-Din. At sunset, as
+had happened the evening before, the place became
+wrapt in cloud, and the temperature fell to such an
+extent that even in our room, with a fire, we suffered
+considerably. However, one can bear the cold, provided
+one is free from fever; and, tired and weary
+after a sleepless night, I lay like a log, and, in spite
+of the cries of sentries and the occasional blowing of
+a bugle, did not awake until grey dawn was creeping
+up, and my men were loading the mules.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.<br>
+<span class="smaller">MENAKHA TO HODAIDAH.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The road from Menakha to the coast leads one for the
+first few miles along the mountains on the southern
+side of the valley, gradually ascending the while, until,
+an hour or so after leaving the town, an altitude of
+eight thousand feet above the sea-level is reached.
+At this spot a spur in the mountain is crossed, near
+to which is the remarkable village of Kariat el-Hajra,
+a rock crowned with tall stone houses, many of which
+are built in the strange fashion of towers. A precipice
+surrounds the village on every side, the lower slopes
+of which are cultivated in terraces. The place has
+the appearance of being a large and important one,
+and from its position must be exceedingly strong.
+The country immediately surrounding this spot is
+very beautiful, there being an abundance of water and
+no lack of trees, while the terraces and fields were, at
+the time of my visit, green with young grass and
+crops, and gorgeous with wild-flowers. Leaving
+Hajra on the right, the road begins to descend, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span>soon another village, more extraordinary than that we
+had already passed, came into sight. This is Attara.
+From an expanse of terraced slope rises a single
+pinnacle of rock some hundreds of feet in height,
+split perpendicularly into two divisions. On the very
+summit, on which there is only just room for it to
+stand, is a large building, apparently a house and
+tower. Although unable to see the track by which
+this, to the eye, apparently unscalable position is
+reached, my men informed me that there is a stairway
+cut in the solid rock, by means of which the
+inhabitants ascend and descend. Close nestling under
+the pinnacle is the rest of the village, built tier above
+tier on the steep mountain-side. The path by which
+we were descending zigzags down until one arrives in
+a sort of amphitheatre, of which the village forms an
+apex. The ground here is richly cultivated with
+coffee-trees and bananas, growing upon terraces. In
+one place the jungle seems to have gained possession
+of what was originally cultivated land, and appears
+in a mass of euphorbiæ and other strange trees and
+plants. Here, too, jasmine grows in wonderful
+abundance, the whole air being filled with its sweet
+fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>Zigzagging down the mountain-side, we arrived
+before mid-day at the <i>café</i> of Wisil, wonderfully
+perched on the very edge of the precipice. The place
+is poor enough, but a few shady huts of grass and
+mats have been erected round a little terraced garden,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span>over the wall of which one gazes far down into the
+valley beneath. Here under a shady tree we spread
+our carpet and refreshed ourselves, revelling in the
+magnificence of our surroundings. This resting-place
+was situated at an elevation of a little over four
+thousand five hundred feet above the sea-level, so
+that since the morning we had descended some three
+thousand feet.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp22" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp22.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>THE VILLAGE OF EL-HAJRA.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>From this spot is obtained perhaps the most extraordinary
+view of the terraced mountains we had
+as yet obtained. These surrounding ranges are celebrated
+for their coffee, principally Jibel Masar and
+Safan, both of which lie to the north of the road.
+Away above the terraces the mountains rise in perpendicular
+precipices, and nearly every peak is crowned
+with one of the curious towers already described.</p>
+
+<p>The view from Wisil was the last we were to see of
+its kind, for we were fast leaving the mountains
+behind and descending to the plains, or Teháma, and
+even from here the change to the country was
+appreciable, for far away to the west the great mountains
+became lower, and the horizon was bounded with
+rough barren hills, very like those we had seen around
+Jibel Menif, when we left the desert beyond Lahej.
+A weird old lady served us with coffee and food at
+our resting-place—a parchment-skinned grinning old
+hag, half clothed in torn dark-blue rags, with a lot of
+what looked like dirty bandages wound round her
+head; but she was a cheery old gossip, and Saïd took
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span>advantage of her to exhibit his wit and sarcasm, much
+to her amusement as well as our own.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp41" id="illus23" style="max-width: 17.1875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus23.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>View near Wisil.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Poor Saïd! The wear and tear of the last month
+had worn him a bit. Fever had paled his skin, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span>left him thinner than he was when he had started from
+Aden; but no weariness, no fever, had caused him to
+pay less attention to his personal charms than before,
+and his curly locks were as soft and silky and glossy
+as ever, although his loin-cloth and sash told tales of
+travel. Still, in all our hardships he had been ever
+bright and gay, and as we neared civilisation once
+more, and there seemed some chance of his seeing his
+paradise—Aden—again, his eyes regained their former
+twinkle, and his laugh grew more cheery than
+ever. With Abdurrahman it was different, and the
+strain and exertion he had been through had told on
+his more delicate constitution. Brought up in the
+bracing mountains of Morocco, where frosts are common,
+and even in the daytime the heat is never oppressive,
+he had felt severely the sudden changes of
+the tropics. All his gaiety had left him, and he
+scarcely spoke. It was with difficulty that we could
+rouse his spirits, try hard as we did, Saïd and I. Almost
+every evening, in spite of arsenic and quinine,
+fever would seize him, and he would lie awake of a
+night, tossing and moaning in a way that was pitiful
+to see and hear.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Wisil, the road descends, by a zigzag track,
+the steep mountain-side. Here were apparent one
+at least of the advantages of the Turkish occupation
+of the Yemen, for the road was wide and in good repair,
+supported by a stone embankment, and planted
+on either side with mimosa-trees, which no doubt help
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[346]</span>in some degree to prevent the floods which the heavy
+rainfalls occasion from washing the stones away, and
+which will eventually prove no small advantage to the
+traveller by their shade. At length the bed of the
+water-course was reached, down which the road proceeds,
+roughly and unpleasantly, over great boulders
+and stones that tired our poor little mules, and
+necessitated our proceeding on foot. Thick vegetation,
+principally trees of the mimosa type, fringe the
+edge of the river-bed, which, except for an occasional
+pool or spring, contained no water.</p>
+
+<p>On and on, until the gorge narrows and enters a
+defile, merely the water-course and walls of rock on
+either hand, some eighty feet perhaps in height.
+Here was a sight that caused us an hour or so of
+amusement and laughter, for the precipices were the
+haunt of hundreds of apes and monkeys, which scampered
+away at our approach, and sat chattering and
+grinning at us from their perches. So tame many of
+them were, that we were able to approach within
+fifteen or twenty yards of them before they would
+seek refuge in the nooks and crannies of the rocks.
+My men were eager to shoot one or two, but I would
+not allow it, as it was a real pleasure to watch the
+funny creatures in their antics, and to listen to their
+squeaking and chattering. In some cases the larger
+apes were carrying their young in their arms, and
+handling them as carefully as a woman does her child.
+Even Abdurrahman awoke from his melancholy, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[347]</span>laughed heartily at the strange creatures, which
+bounded from rock to rock, or showed their rows of
+chattering white teeth from some hole in the cliff.</p>
+
+<p>Continuing along the bottom of the valley for some
+little way farther, we turned eventually from the
+water-course, and climbed a bare rocky hill to the
+north of the river, and, crossing a small plateau, descended
+to the village of Hojaila, which we reached
+an hour or two before sunset.</p>
+
+<p>At this point we had said farewell to the mountains,
+for although the foot-hills extend farther into the
+Teháma, beyond Bajil in fact, we were to see no more
+of the greater ranges. But not only is Hojaila the
+finishing spot of the mountains, but the people entirely
+change, becoming from that point Arabs of the
+plains, dwelling in mud and thatch houses, and different
+in appearance and habits.</p>
+
+<p>We had passed during the day’s march through a
+part of the country the inhabitants of which need investigation,
+and about which I, unfortunately, can say
+but little here. These are people of a religious sect
+who called themselves Makarama, but of the origin of
+which, except that their belief is said to be of Indian
+extraction, I have found it impossible to discover
+anything. These Yemenis are in language and appearance
+like their Moslem neighbours, although
+several names in the vicinity tell of India. Principal
+amongst them is the “Dar el Hinoud,” or Indians’
+monastery or house, farther on in the Teháma. Of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[348]</span>their belief but little was to be ascertained. It is
+summed up, however, in two lines of poetry, of which
+I was able to obtain the translation:—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“God is indiscoverable, by day or by night.</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Do not worry about anything, there is neither heaven nor hell.”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>Professing these strange tenets, there is this sect
+on the highroad from Hodaidah to Sanaa. As to
+their observances, the only man of their belief I
+met with would say but little, while the Moslems,
+although uninfluenced by the fanaticism one would
+expect to find, are careless. They have, I was told,
+the old Judaic observance of the scapegoat, and a
+particular night in the year in which they shut
+themselves into their houses, and are said to practise
+incest. This, however, may be possibly the Moslem
+idea of what really takes place. Were this to be
+absolutely depended upon, the fact might point to
+a Karmathian origin, for Ibn Fadl allowed the
+drinking of wine and this practice; but then it is
+scarcely likely that a Karmathian superstition should
+survive in a belief which is in direct contravention
+to Islam. It is known that in certain Phœnician
+rites incest was allowed, and the practice of a certain
+nightly annual feast in which the houses are illuminated
+might point to the worship of Adonis, certain
+remains of which, I am informed, are found amongst
+the mountaineers of the Himalayas. My information
+on this sect of the Makarama continues that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[349]</span>they are at times visited by natives of India, who
+prize the charms that they are in the habit of
+writing; and most probably their origin may be
+found in that country, for Hodaidah has always
+been largely frequented by Indian traders.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp23" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp23.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>TURKISH CAMP OF HOJAILA.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Hojaila is but a small place, more a collection of
+huts than a town, as it is elsewhere described, though
+at the time I passed through it was augmented by a
+large Turkish camp, pitched near the <i>jimerouk</i>, or
+custom-house. There seems, with the exception of
+this building, a large, low, square place, to be no
+other of importance, though the Sheikh resides in a
+house two storeys in height, painted red and white
+in bands, which stands a curious landmark on the
+edge of a steep incline leading down to the river-bed.
+A few trees are scattered about the place, and
+under these were lolling Turkish soldiers, while the
+tents, and sentries passing and repassing, gave quite a
+martial appearance to the otherwise dreary scene; for,
+with the exception of these trees and the oleanders in
+the river-bed, the country was dull and sun-dried.</p>
+
+<p>Only a short rest was allowed me here, although
+we had been travelling, almost without interruption,
+since the early morning. However, as I was
+entirely in the hands of the Turkish guards who
+had been sent to see me to Hodaidah, any attempt
+at expostulation was out of the question. Another
+advantage, too, was to be gained by pushing on—namely,
+the moonlight night.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[350]</span></p>
+
+<p>We had left behind us now the high elevations
+and watered valleys, and nothing but plain and
+desert lay between us and Hodaidah, some eighty
+miles distant, over which, although the month was
+February, travelling by day is torment. So an
+hour or two was all the time we spent in the
+<i>café</i> at Hojaila, and as soon as the sunset glow
+was dying away we loaded our little mules again
+and set off.</p>
+
+<p>From sunset until near dawn we plodded on over
+the plain, the broken rocky hills showing up on
+either side in the clear moonlight, which was sufficiently
+bright to allow us to see that a considerable
+portion of the country we were passing through was
+under cultivation.</p>
+
+<p>How balmy and warm the night was! and had it
+not been that one was tired and weary with the long
+ride from Menakha, it would have proved most enjoyable.
+As it was, one could not help admiring the loveliness
+of the still moonlight, and the silence, broken
+only by the thud of our mules’ feet upon the sand and
+the humming of the insects in the air. Every now
+and then we would pass a caravan of camels, slow-gaited
+and patient, which seemed to grow out of the
+moonlight like spectres, only to vanish again into the
+darkness.</p>
+
+<p>As dawn grew near we reached Bohay, situated to
+the north of Jibel Damir. It is a poor little place;
+but the rest in a mat <i>café</i> was inexpressibly refreshing,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[351]</span>for out of the last twenty-four hours we had been
+nearly twenty on the road.</p>
+
+<p>Stretching ourselves upon the string couches, which
+do not seem to be in use anywhere out of the Teháma
+and the southern plains, we were soon wrapped in
+sleep. But at sunrise my guards woke me, and we
+made a start again. But our march was happily to
+prove only a short one, and three hours later we drew
+in sight of Bajil, where at length I was promised a
+well-earned rest.</p>
+
+<p>Bajil is quite a little town, its population numbering
+probably some 3000 souls. Except for a large
+Turkish fort, built for the most part of squared stones,
+and a few houses of the same material, it consists of
+mud-and-thatch and mat houses, enclosed by high
+hedges of dry mimosa and acacia thorns in the form
+of zarebas. The place is prettily situated, lying at
+the foot of Jibel Obaki, the surrounding plain being
+cultivated with millet of two varieties, the <i>dokhn</i> and
+the <i>durra</i>; while a good water-supply allows of the
+growth of a considerable number of trees, principally
+acacias, which render the place a veritable oasis.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>café</i> here, except for those of the towns and
+that at Waalan, was the best we had come across;
+for although it only consisted of a series of mat-huts
+built round a large yard, everything was so clean and
+so tidy that it was a real pleasure to rest in the shade,
+all the more so as by this time the rays of the sun had
+become fierce in their heat.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[352]</span></p>
+
+<p>We engaged one of these mat-houses for our private
+use, and unloading our mules, settled in for the day.
+What rendered our stay at Bajil more refreshing than
+it otherwise would have proved was the presence of
+an excellent <i>masseur</i>, under whose skilful hands one’s
+limbs lost all their weariness.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the cool of the afternoon allowed, I
+sauntered out for a stroll through the little town.
+There was but little to see, it is true; but a Yemen
+village always presents sights which, if not exactly
+pretty, are generally of interest. A wedding-party
+was in full swing, guns were being fired off, tomtoms
+rendered the air hideous with their sound, and shrill
+pipes added to the confusion. The crowd of women
+who filled the open spaces between the zarebas, that
+answered for streets, were attired in holiday garments,
+and a gay throng they were; for, in spite of their
+dull-blue clothing, they had succeeded in tying themselves
+up with handkerchiefs and scarves of all colours,
+until they resembled rainbows. Here, as elsewhere,
+it seems to be the lot of womankind to do the hard
+work, and I stood for a time to watch them filling
+their pitchers from the wells. The manner in which
+the water is drawn is the following. A framework of
+wood is built over the mouth of the well, a solid beam
+passing from side to side; over this cross-beam runs
+the rope, to the end of which is fastened a bucket.
+Owing to the great depth to which the wells have to
+be sunk, these ropes are necessarily of enormous length,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[353]</span>and the only means by which the weight can be supported
+is by a couple of the women harnessing themselves
+to the end and running at a gentle trot until
+the bucket has reached the surface, where it is emptied
+by a third. One well, the length of the track passed
+over to draw the bucket to the surface I measured,
+was only a few feet under two hundred in depth.
+The labour is a severe one, but the women seem to
+take it as a matter of course. In southern Morocco,
+where much the same system is in use, camels or
+donkeys are harnessed in their place.</p>
+
+<p>The only building of any size or importance in
+Bajil is the Turkish fort. It is a great square place,
+with circular towers jutting out here and there,
+and is built almost entirely of cut stone and
+bricks. Though useless against artillery, it would
+prove impregnable to Arab hordes, armed only with
+spears and matchlock-guns. A few ill-dressed Turks
+were lying about under the shade of some acacia-trees,
+and half-a-dozen field-guns, none too well kept,
+stood near the door; but the place offered no other
+signs of things military, and wore the weary appearance
+of orientalism.</p>
+
+<p>This was all that there was to be seen in Bajil, so
+I retraced my steps to the <i>café</i>, where I found our
+mules being loaded preparatory to a start. A number
+of Turkish officers from Sanaa had arrived during
+my absence, and we instantly struck up an acquaintance,
+as we were proceeding over the same road to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[354]</span>Hodaidah. They had been invalided from the steamy
+Teháma, and had been in hospital at Sanaa. Their
+recovery told a tale of the magnificent climate of
+that place, for they assured me that they had left
+Hodaidah a couple of months before almost dead of
+fever.</p>
+
+<p>At four o’clock we made a start, our two little
+caravans uniting. The road continues over the desert,
+which is here dotted with mimosa-bushes and tufts
+of long grass. It was the delight of the Turkish
+officers to throw matches into the latter, and as night
+came on we left a track behind us of fiery stars and
+heaps of black ashes. There was no danger of the
+fire taking too large dimensions, as the tufts of grass
+were sufficiently far removed from one another to prevent
+the flames spreading.</p>
+
+<p>It was the last of our desert marches. A glorious
+night, the sky a blaze of myriads of stars, the desert
+like a silver sea. Quietly and quickly our little
+mules glided on. Every now and again a caravan
+of slouching camels would pass by us with a dozen or
+so wild Bedouins in charge, on the heads of whose
+spears the moonlight played and flashed, but they
+soon vanished into the night. One could scarcely
+believe that this cool plain, fragrant with the sweet
+scent of mimosa, its fragrance increased by the heavy
+dew, was in the daytime a howling desert, where the
+sun scorched everything to death save the thorny
+bushes and the coarse grass tufts, and the camels and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[355]</span>their Bedouin drivers; but even they scarcely ever
+travel by day. Wonderful as were the sights and the
+grandeur of the mountains of the Yemen, I think
+these night-rides over the desert have fixed themselves
+more upon my memory. Tired as we often
+were, one could not but wonder at the glories of the
+starlit heavens, and revel in the fragrance of falling
+dew and mimosa.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="fp24" style="max-width: 43.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/fp24.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>GATE OF A WALLED VILLAGE IN THE YEMEN.</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Before midnight we reached a <i>café</i>, merely a few
+little huts in the desert, but welcome nevertheless, and
+with shouts and cries we woke the owner, who lit a
+lamp and showed us into his best accommodation, a
+roof of grass supported on long canes. However, one
+could need no more; for it kept off the chill of the
+dew, and allowed the breeze, which every now and
+again stirred, to cool the hot night air.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget that last night in the desert,—Turks,
+Arabs, Moors, and Englishman squatting on
+carpets, sharing a common pipe in a dimly lit <i>café</i>
+in the desert. Coffee and supper were cooking, and
+one could hear the bubbling of the coffee-husks in
+the earthen pot that was preparing for our men.
+And then they brought our supper, a couple of desert
+fowls that tasted as though they had tramped a century
+over the sand, so tough they were. A rest of
+an hour or two was all we were allowed, and long
+before daylight we were off again. The desert here
+takes the form of sand-dunes, in parts covered with
+scanty scrub, in parts bare yellow sand, broken only
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[356]</span>by the hideous lines of crooked telegraph-posts.
+There were no signs of a road, not even a track in
+the sand, for the slightest breeze destroys the marks
+left by those who have gone before. But our men
+knew the way well, and just a little after seven
+o’clock, when we were beginning to suffer severely
+from the intense rays of the sun, a cry proceeded
+from our foremost man, who stood spear in hand, a
+silhouette against the burning sky.</p>
+
+<p>Hodaidah! There it was at last, dancing in the
+shimmering heated air of the desert,—turned, and
+twisted, and indistinct, but Hodaidah nevertheless!
+As we neared the town the scene became quite
+picturesque. Here an old Turkish fort, half in
+ruins, stood out yellow from the white sand; there
+the remains of some aqueduct in which no water
+flowed. Then we entered palm-groves, whose greenness
+after the desert was refreshing, under the shade
+of which nestled the clean grass-and-mat huts and
+zarebas of the Arab and Indian inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>Still on; past many a pretty country-house of
+the Arab merchants, surrounded by gardens, until
+at length we emerged into the great market-place
+that lies without the walls of the town proper,
+above which rise the houses snowy white, tier upon
+tier in strange disorder.</p>
+
+<p>Passing under a great gateway, the upper part of
+which served as barracks, we proceeded by narrow
+streets to our destination, a large <i>café</i> kept by a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[357]</span>Greek. Here I engaged a room, and sending my
+Arabs and Turkish guards to forage for themselves
+until I had rested, we carried our scanty baggage to
+an upper chamber, the windows of which looked out
+on one side to the sea, and on the other to the
+principal street I settled myself in.</p>
+
+<p>But the fatigue of my march from Sanaa had
+been too much for me, and in an hour my fever
+had returned, and I was lying, almost unconscious,
+tossing from side to side. Saïd and Abdurrahman
+likewise were attacked, and suffered as much perhaps
+as I did. But our journey was over, we had finished
+with the mountains and plains of the Yemen, and our
+goal was reached.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[358]</span></p>
+
+<h3 class="nobreak" id="PART_II_CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.<br>
+<span class="smaller">HODAIDAH.</span></h3>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>The earliest mention that one finds of Hodaidah in
+Mahammedan history is its capture by El-Ghuri,
+Sultan of Egypt, in <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span> 1515. In the native historian’s
+account of the invasion of this wild horde
+of Circassians, Kurds, and other strange peoples, the
+town is mentioned by the name of Jadidah,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> the new
+(town), although this by no means can be taken as
+a proof that the city had only been founded shortly
+before that period—for Jadidah, as the name of a
+city, is common all over the East, and every place
+was probably at one time “new,” though the title
+may long ago have become inappropriate. This tends
+to prove that it was probably not until the Red Sea
+trade had reached a flourishing condition, although
+at that time entirely in the hands of the natives, that
+Hodaidah sprang into existence.</p>
+
+<p>Being situated on the sea-coast, and only a little to
+the south of the country of the Asir tribes, it has not
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[359]</span>escaped from attack from both quarters. Principal
+amongst these, perhaps, was its capture by the Asir
+chief, Abd el-Hakal, in 1804. In the interests of the
+Wahabi belief, which he, like so many of his tribe,
+had embraced, he made an organised attack upon the
+northern Teháma. His people, buoyed up with the
+fanaticism of their new tenets, devastated whole districts,
+and held the entire Yemen in terror. Four
+years later, however, Hodaidah was once more restored
+to the then reigning Imam of Sanaa, Seyed
+Ahmed ibn Ali Mansur.</p>
+
+<p>From this time, for a space of some four-and-twenty
+years, we find Hodaidah thriving under the impetus
+given to trade by the European merchant-ships,
+which were at this period crowding to the Red Sea;
+and its lot seems to have been a peaceful one, until
+the arrival there in 1832 of the dreaded Turkchee
+Bilmas, by which nickname Mahammed Agha was
+generally known. Marching overland from the Hedjaz,
+he encamped close to the city, while his vessels, which
+had proceeded by sea from Jeddah and Yembo, blockaded
+the port. On being refused provisions by the
+governor, he commenced to open fire upon the town
+walls, whereupon the place capitulated. However,
+the energetic Mahammed Agha did not remain there,
+but, leaving four hundred men under the command of
+Agha Murshid, he marched on Zebeed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Egyptian Government abandoned the Yemen
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[360]</span>in 1840, eight years after the taking of Hodaidah
+by Turkchee Bilmas, and it was arranged that this
+portion of the country at least should fall into the
+possession of the Grand Shereef of Mecca. But
+another claimant stepped forward in the person of
+Huseyn ibn Ali, Shereef of Abou Areesh, who with
+the Asir tribe, whose assistance he had been able to
+obtain, took the field with twenty thousand men;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a>
+and the very day that Hodaidah was abandoned by
+Ibrahim Pasha, the Shereefs troops, under the leadership
+of his brother, Abou Taleb, took possession of
+the place. Notwithstanding the recognition of the
+Shereef Huseyn’s power did not last long; for the
+Asiri, ever ready for plunder, occupied the town,
+and only released the merchants, whom they had
+imprisoned, on their paying large ransoms.</p>
+
+<p>In 1849 a great change was destined to take place
+in the government of the Yemen, and the Turks, proceeding
+from Jeddah, occupied Hodaidah, the Shereef
+of that town obtaining a subsidy from the Ottoman
+Government in return for his handing over the place.
+This pension, however, he never received; and accordingly,
+in 1851 he started to report his case to the Sultan
+at Constantinople. But sudden death cut short his
+career on the road, and there is little doubt but that
+he was murdered.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> The leader of this Turkish expedition,
+Tufieh Pasha, became governor of Hodaidah
+and the surrounding country.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[361]</span></p>
+
+<p>It was shortly after this that a treaty was drawn
+up between the Imam of Sanaa and the Sublime
+Porte, in which the principal clauses were that the
+Imam was still to continue to reign, but that he
+should be considered as a vassal of Abdul-Mejid, the
+then reigning Sultan of Turkey; that the revenues
+were to be equally divided between the Sultan and
+the Imam; and that Sanaa should be garrisoned by
+Turkish forces. Although the sequel of this story
+belongs rather to the history of Sanaa than to that of
+Hodaidah, it may be given briefly at this point, as it
+follows as a sequence upon this treaty of Hodaidah.
+Returning with the Imam, Tufieh Pasha arrived at
+Sanaa, and the change in government was made
+known to the inhabitants. What, however, seems
+particularly to have fired them to opposition was the
+substitution of the name of Abdul-Mejid for that of
+their Imam Mahammed Yahia in the prayers. Being
+of the Zaidi sect, one of the many divisions of the
+Sheiyas,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> this naturally affected them more than any
+temporal changes could have done, and before midnight
+they had cut to pieces a large proportion of the
+Turkish troops, who, although they had taken possession
+of one of the city forts, were unable to make
+any resistance. At length, wounded, and with only
+a handful of men, Tufieh Pasha bought a permit
+to return to Hodaidah, for which he paid twenty
+thousand dollars, and retired to that spot, where he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[362]</span>died of his wounds and exhaustion. Mahammed
+Yahia, the unfortunate Imam who had entered into
+this treaty with the Turks, was secretly assassinated,—Ali
+Mansur, already twice deposed, being installed
+in his place.</p>
+
+<p>But a still more horrible tale is yet to be told
+regarding Hodaidah. In 1855 some sixty thousand
+men of the Asir tribe marched against the place with
+the idea of sacking it. They deferred the attack,
+however, owing to the presence of British ships of
+war; but the inhabitants, owing to all communication
+with the interior being cut off, had reached a
+condition of great misery, when cholera broke out
+amongst the Asiri, no less than fifteen thousand
+dying before they reached their homes.</p>
+
+<p>But to return to Hodaidah as I saw it in February
+and March of last year—1892.</p>
+
+<p>Hodaidah lies on the north-east side of a large bay,
+and somewhat sheltered by a promontory on the
+north-west. The town is a large one, and contains
+probably between thirty and thirty-five thousand inhabitants,
+though at the time the author was there the
+number was swelled by a large addition of Turkish
+troops. The place is a nourishing one: the bazaars, of
+which more anon, are well supplied; the houses solidly
+built, and high. Its one great drawback is its feverish
+climate, the few Europeans and the natives alike
+suffering at certain periods of the year. After a rainfall,
+for instance, or in the winter when the westerly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[363]</span>winds are blowing, fever attacks the place like an
+epidemic.</p>
+
+<p>With this short description I may revert to my
+personal experiences of Hodaidah.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as my attack of fever had worn off sufficiently
+to allow of my going out, accompanied by my
+guards, I proceeded to the Governors residence. He
+received me most politely, a chair was at once got
+for me, cigarettes and coffee brought in, while his
+Excellency perused the letters which my soldiers had
+brought from the Governor-General at Sanaa. This
+over, he bade me welcome, and we had a pleasant
+chat, conversing in Arabic, of which his Excellency
+knew less than myself, so that at last we found that
+things went more easily when a Greek entered who
+spoke French.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp60" id="illus24" style="max-width: 25.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/illus24.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p><i>A Street in Hodaidah.</i></p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The Governor’s first question to me was worth recording.
+He was a little nervous at first, and for a
+minute there was an awkward silence, which his
+Excellency broke by asking, “Did you fight in the
+Crimea?” I replied that I was not born until some
+ten years after that war was over. However, I found
+the question had a purpose, for on the Governor’s
+breast hung the English Crimean medal, which he
+handed me to examine with great pride. After this
+episode conversation was carried on more easily, and
+finally I obtained his Excellency’s permission to continue
+residing in the upper chamber of the <i>café</i> until
+I should depart. Very different were the Government
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">[364]</span>offices here from the gorgeous apartments of
+the Governor-General at Sanaa. Here there was only
+a small bare room with a
+few chairs, none of which
+were in very good repair.
+An outside staircase
+of rickety steps leads to
+the first storey of the building, where the principal
+offices appear to be situated, the lower portion serving
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[365]</span>as a store. A constant flow of gaudy officers and ill-clothed
+soldiers passed and repassed. I had several
+interviews with the Governor during my stay of a
+week in Hodaidah, and on every occasion found him
+polite and amiable, although he refused to allow me
+to continue my journey by land, as I had hoped to
+have done, <i>viâ</i> Beit el-Fakih, Zebeed, and Hais.</p>
+
+<p>On my return to my quarters I found a couple of
+Turkish soldiers calmly seated in my room, one of
+them on my bed, and smoking my cigarettes. Although
+I was prepared to be watched, I was not at
+all inclined to put up with this intrusion, and with
+the aid of Abdurrahman, Saïd, and a boot, soon put
+them to flight. I at once returned to the Governor
+to explain the matter to him, and on my way to his
+apartment was accosted in the most polite manner by
+an officer, who begged me not to report the matter,
+saying that if I liked to pay him a couple of dollars
+he would see that the guard was removed. But
+what with annoyance and fever, I was not in a mood
+to pay anybody anything, so went straight to his
+Excellency and told my story. The old man and his
+officers burst into fits of laughter, explaining to me
+that the guard had only been put there for me to
+pay something for their removal, and that the whole
+thing was a “plant.” I begged him to send for the
+officer who wanted <i>bakshish</i>, and speak to him, so
+that I should not be put to the same annoyance again,
+and this he willingly did. Nevertheless, in spite of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[366]</span>the fact that I was left in tolerable peace, I soon
+found that my every movement was watched, but
+never interfered with. This last was no doubt
+owing partly to the good offices of one who showed
+me great kindness and hospitality in Hodaidah,
+Dr Ahmed, a native of India, who ably represents
+H.B.M. Government as Vice-Consul there. I cannot
+speak highly enough of my appreciation of his
+and his English wife’s many acts of kindness toward
+me; and although, owing to ill health, my recollections
+of Hodaidah are none too cheery, I shall always
+remember how anxious Dr and Mrs Ahmed were to
+render pleasant my stay. A doctor of Glasgow University,
+Dr Ahmed made his name in Assam in the
+Indian medical service, and was only a short time ago
+appointed Vice-Consul at Hodaidah; and it is to be
+hoped that the skilful way in which he carries out
+his by no means easy duties there, and keeps firmly
+rooted in that town a feeling of respect between the
+British and Turkish Governments, will shortly obtain
+for him a post in some more healthy and important
+place.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>café</i> in which I had taken up my quarters
+faced the sea on one side, and the only wide street in
+the town on the other, that which lies along the seaboard,
+from which it is only divided by the Government
+offices and huts of <i>areesh</i> or reeds. From my
+window on the second storey I was able to watch the
+people passing and repassing, and many an hour was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[367]</span>spent thus in idleness. But if this street offered
+scenes of character, how much more so did the bazaars!
+and there, when I was well enough, I used to sit talking
+to the Arab shopkeepers and sipping coffee. Good
+intelligent fellows many of them were, and always
+ready to waste half an hour in listening to tales of
+Egypt and Morocco, and even of my journey in the
+Yemen. What sights the bazaars offer! All the nationalities
+of the world seem to crowd there—strange
+weird people in every stage of clothing, from almost
+nakedness to rich robes of striped silks. Unlike the
+bazaars at Aden, those of Hodaidah are roofed in from
+the sun, the fierce rays of which yet find cracks and
+crannies in the wood and mats to creep through. But
+their brilliant light falling upon some stall of fruit
+perhaps only tends to throw into deeper shadow the
+rest of the crowded street. In the cool of the afternoon
+I would saunter round and take up my station
+on the little shop-platform of a seller of books, and
+spend an hour or two with him. A wizened little old
+man he was, a native of Zebeed; but he was good
+company, and would put aside all ideas of business
+when he saw me coming, and would point out the
+strange figures amongst the passers-by, and tell me
+whence they came and who they were. Jews, Indians
+of all kinds, Persians, Arabs, Egyptians, Bedouins,
+Abyssinians, Turks, Greeks, negroes, and a few Europeans,
+would jostle each other in the narrow ways.</p>
+
+<p>From the bazaars to the town walls is but a step.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">[368]</span>Passing out of the fortified gates, of which there
+are several, one issued on to the large open space,
+the <i>sôk</i> or market, which we had crossed when we
+entered the town. Here garden produce was offered
+for sale, generally exposed on the ground, though
+a number of little mat-and-reed huts contained small
+shops. The larger of these flimsy structures serve
+as <i>cafés</i>, and one or two as Parsee theatres. The
+largest of the <i>cafés</i> was a constant resort of mine,
+and of an evening I would sit, accompanied by
+Saïd, who, in spite of his fever, had polished up
+his dress—what there was of it—and his raven
+locks. So beautiful had he become that little
+groups of the female sex would come and joke
+with him; and though he treated them with a
+certain amount of haughty indifference, he was by
+no means unappreciative of their attentions, and
+had a knack of being out after dark. There one
+would see the Turkish officers in gold-lace, with
+their glass hookahs in front of them, lounging
+away the afternoon hours. There, too, were the
+merchants, gorgeous in silk raiment and turbans,
+talking business over coffee and tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>The remaining streets and places of Hodaidah
+offer but little attractiveness. The streets are
+narrow and the houses high, and except now and
+again for a richly carved doorway, there is but
+little of interest to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest disadvantage to Hodaidah, after its
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[369]</span>feverish climate, is the exceedingly poor water-supply;
+for although there are some brackish wells in
+the neighbourhood, all pure water has to be brought
+from a distance of some miles. It is carried in skins
+and barrels on the backs of camels and donkeys.</p>
+
+<p>Near these wells, under the guidance of Dr Ahmed,
+I spent a pleasant afternoon in a beautiful garden
+belonging to a certain wealthy Arab, whose fortune
+was made, it is said, by purchasing the right of
+collecting taxes from the Ottoman Government.
+This, in the hands of an unscrupulous and hard
+man, means a very considerable income, and the
+garden in question was a proof that the old Arab
+evidently throve. The road from the town passes
+along sandy lanes and amongst palm-groves until
+the open desert is reached. Continuing over this
+for a mile or so, one reaches the wells, while green
+trees peeping over the high garden walls break the
+monotony of sand and scrub.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately on our arrival the gate was thrown
+open, and we entered a veritable paradise—a walled
+garden many acres in extent, and filled with
+gorgeous trees and shrubs, which the owner is said
+to have collected from all quarters of the tropics.
+Irrigation was carried on by water-wheels and wells,
+and streamlets flowed in every direction. Under the
+shade of the large trees summer-houses had been
+erected of trellis-work, over which jasmine and roses
+and many a creeper, the name of which I did not
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[370]</span>know, climbed in luxuriance. In these divans were
+arranged, and one could enjoy the sight of the
+flowers in cool shade. Wonderful they were, those
+shrubs and trees and plants, hung with great masses
+of bloom of every colour, while here and there tall
+lilies raised their stately heads. The trees were full
+of birds, and the garden was sweet with the scent of
+the flowers and the hum of the insects’ wings.</p>
+
+<p>Long into the moonlit night we sat there, until the
+chill dew told us it was time to seek more secure
+shelter. Yet in all their loveliness there lurks poison
+in this paradise, and nearly all our party suffered
+from fever in consequence of our visit.</p>
+
+<p>But few Europeans live in Hodaidah, with the exception
+of the Greeks. The wife of the British Vice-Consul
+was the one English lady in the place, the
+only other British subject, excepting natives of India,
+&amp;c., being a Maltese gentleman, agent for a British
+firm. A few Americans, however, are to be found,
+the trade in skins to America being an important one.
+Of the other nationalities there are perhaps in all
+half-a-dozen representatives.</p>
+
+<p>During my stay the port was visited by a small
+Turkish gunboat, the captain of which, whose name
+I never discovered, paid me a call. He had been
+educated at the Naval College at Constantinople, and
+spoke English remarkably well. He was tired of his
+berth, he said, his weariness being materially added
+to by the irregularity of his pay. In this respect, he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[371]</span>added, he was better off than most of the Turkish
+soldiers in the Yemen, for they received none at all.
+Although at Hodaidah the condition of the troops
+seemed fairly good as regards food and clothing, we
+had found at more than one place in the interior
+the soldiers bootless and payless, and receiving as
+rations only two loaves of bread a-day, one of which
+they usually ate, the other being exchanged for
+tobacco. A piastre or two to a soldier won as
+genuine thanks as ever one heard. It meant little
+luxuries which his heart longed for, cigarettes and
+coffee, and which for weeks very likely he had been
+unable to attain to.</p>
+
+<p>At length, after seven days of fever, a steamer
+arrived in the port, and I saw means of getting to
+Aden. Saying good-bye to Dr Ahmed on the rickety
+little pier, down one of the supports of which I was
+obliged to clamber in order to reach the rowing-boat,
+as the steps had been washed away, or never built, I
+forget which, I shook off the dust of Hodaidah from
+my feet, and in an hour or so was aboard an English
+steamer, having a yarn with an English captain and
+mate.</p>
+
+<p>In a few days we were back once more in Aden,
+arriving on the very day on which quarantine from
+the Red Sea ports was removed, so that I was only
+detained half an hour on the hulk Hyderabad, in
+place of the seven days I had feared I would have
+to undergo.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[372]</span></p>
+
+<p>The welcome I received from all friends here was
+very kind, and many a laugh we enjoyed together
+over my adventures in the Yemen.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>Just as my journey was then concluded, so is my
+account of it finished now. A year has passed since
+I left the country, and yet its every detail is as clear
+to me as if it had all happened yesterday. As I lay
+down my pen I conjure up in my mind the desert-rides
+under a myriad of brilliant stars; I feel upon
+my cheek the soft balmy southern breeze; I see again
+our little party hiding in the gullies, and creeping on
+by night over the terrible rough roads of the mountains.
+Once more, warned by an unknown friend, I
+escape by night from Beit Saïd; once more, but this
+time with a smile, I spend five days a prisoner in the
+<i>conàk</i> of Sanaa. Once more I pass through the great
+valleys and descend to the desert, and I shudder over
+the remembrance of nights and days of fever—a fever
+that clung to me for months. Yet my recollections
+of the country are ones that I shall always treasure;
+and in spite of dangers and sickness, in spite of long
+marches and days in prison, the Yemen will always be
+for me, at least, Arabia Felix.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="FOOTNOTES">FOOTNOTES</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> In 1871 the rainfall at Aden was only one-fourth of an inch.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> Hist. gen. des Voyages, vol. xxxi. p. 438.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, p. 22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> Ibid., pp. 135-139.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Sailing Directions for the Red Sea.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> Kay’s translation of Omarah’s Yemen, 1892.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> Ibn Khaldun, Kay’s translation, 1892.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, p. 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 68.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 43, 44.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> Kay’s Omarah. London, 1892.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Professor Sayce’s “Ancient Arabia” and “Results of Oriental
+Archæology,” in the Contemporary Review.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> Human Origins. S. Laing, 1892. P. 94.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> These measurements were made by Mons. D’Arnaud in 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> Vincent’s Periplus, vol. i. p. 53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> Koran, chap. lxxxv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> Akhdam, plural of Khedim, a word usually employed for a slave
+to-day.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> Ibn Khaldun, Kay’s translation, 1892.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> A list of the Imams of Sanaa will be found <a href="#IMAMS">at the end of the book</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> Niebuhr’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 85.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 113, 114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 118, 119.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, p. 131.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, p. 147.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, pp. 153, 154.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> Mahomet and Islam. Sir William Muir. 1887.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> Al-Baha-’l Janadi, ‘Karmathians in Yaman.’ Kay’s translation,
+1892.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> Les Confréries Musulmanes du Hedjaz. A le Chatelier. Paris 1887.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> The Sunnis hold that the Caliphate need not necessarily descend in
+the family of the Prophet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Sadah is situated about eight days’ journey north of Sanaa, on the
+borders of the desert.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> Ezek. xxvii. 21-23.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> “Arriani periplus maris Erythræi.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> Itinerario de Ludovico de Barthema, 1535. Translated by
+Richard Eden, 1576.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> Three Hours in Aden. Bombay, 1891.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> “In the name of God”—the Arab grace before eating.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> The salutation of Moslems all the world over.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> <i>Tholba</i>, the plural of <i>thaleb</i>, a name generally applied to those who
+have studied the Koran—members of the priesthood.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> This rifle was returned to me on the eve of my departure from Tangier
+for the Atlas Mountains in October 1892.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> <i>Kabyla</i> = a tribe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> “Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur,
+and Chilmad, were thy merchants.”—Ezekiel xxvii. 23.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> General Haig, in the Royal Geographical Proceedings, August 1887.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> The Zaidis are a division of the Sheiya sect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> The Koran, <i>sura</i> vii.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> The Koran, <i>sura</i> xv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> Kay’s Omarah, p. 237.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> Records of the Bombay Government.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Playfair’s Yemen, p. 146.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Ibid.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> See chapter on “The Influences of Islam in the Yemen.”</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[373]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX">APPENDIX</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[374]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="GENEALOGICAL">GENEALOGICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TREE OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA,<br>
+<span class="smcap">Showing their Descent from MAHAMMED.</span></h3>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp64" style="max-width: 37.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/genealogy2.jpg" alt="Genealogical descent:
+  MAHAMMED, died A.D. 632 (= A.H. 11). -> FATIMA AND ALI. -> HASAN. -> HASAN.
+  -> IBRAHIM. -> ISMAIL. -> IBRAHIM. -> ALI KASIM ER-RASSI. -> HOSEYN. -> EL
+  HADI YAHIA. -> EN NASIR AHMED. -> YAHIA. -> YUSUF ED DAY. -> SEVERAL
+  GENERATIONS. -> ALI EL AMLAHI. -> MAHAMMED. [three sons:] -> (4) AHMED,
+  1677. / (1) MANSUR EL KASIM, 1620; died 1620. / HOSEYN. [son of Ahmed:]
+  (6) MAHAMMED, 1707. [sons of Mansur el Kasim:] (2) EL MUAYYAD MAHAMMED,
+  1645. / (3) ISMAIL, 1676. [sons of Hoseyn:] (10) ABBAS, 1774. / (5)
+  MAHAMMED, 1678. [no issue] / (8) KASIM, 1719. [son of Kasim:] (9)
+  HOSEYN, 1740. [sons of Abbas:] (11) ALI, 1809. / KASIM. [descent
+  from Kasim:] MAHAMMED. -> (15) ABDULLAH, 1840. [son of Ali:] (12)
+  AHMED, 1817. -> [three sons:] YAHIA. / (16) MAHAMMED, 1844. [no
+  issue] / (13) ABDULLAH, 1834. [descent from Yahia:] (18) MAHAMMED,
+  1849. -> (20) GHALIB (Living in 1859). [son of Abdullah:] (14) (17)
+  (19) ALI (three times Imam). 186-.">
+</figure>
+
+<p><i>Note.</i>—The parentage of the seventh Imam Mahammed ibn Hasan is not known for certain. He died
+in 1708.</p>
+
+<p>The names in italics are those of the Imams of Sanaa. The numbers within parentheses refer to the
+order in which they reigned. The numbers after the names are the probable dates of their deaths.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[375]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="IMAMS">A LIST OF THE IMAMS OF SANAA, GIVING THEIR FULL TITLES.</h3>
+
+<p><i>Note.</i>—This list is compiled from Niebuhr’s table, as given in Sir R. L.
+Playfair’s ‘History of Yemen,’ with one or two corrections from
+native authorities.</p>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>1. Mansur El-Kasim El-Kebir.</li>
+  <li>2. El-Muayyad Mahammed.</li>
+  <li>3. Ismail El-Metawakil Al’ Allah.</li>
+  <li>4. Ahmed El-Mejd Billah.</li>
+  <li>5. Mahammed El-Mehdi Hadi.</li>
+  <li>6. Mahammed El-Mehdi.</li>
+  <li>7. Mahammed En-Nasir.</li>
+  <li>8. Kasim El-Metawakil.</li>
+  <li>9. Hoseyn El-Mansur.</li>
+  <li>10. Abbas El-Mehdi.</li>
+  <li>11. Ali El-Mansur.</li>
+  <li>12. Ahmed El-Metawakil.</li>
+  <li>13. Abdullah El-Mehdi.</li>
+  <li>14. Ali El-Mansur.</li>
+  <li>15. Abdullah En-Nasir.</li>
+  <li>16. Mahammed El-Hadi.</li>
+  <li>17. Ali El-Mansur.</li>
+  <li>18. Mahammed El-Metawakil.</li>
+  <li>19. Ali El-Mansur.</li>
+  <li>20. Ghalib El-Hadi.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[376]</span></p>
+
+<h3 id="PEDIGREE">PEDIGREE OF THE REIGNING ABDALI SULTAN OF LAHEJ.</h3>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" style="max-width: 37.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/genealogy3.jpg" alt="Genealogical descent:
+  SALEM. -> SÁLEH. -> FOUDTHEL. -> ALI. -> [1728] 1. FOUDTHEL, First
+  Independent Sultan. -> [1742] 2. ABD-EL-KARIM. [three sons:] -> [1753]
+  3. ABD EL HADY. / [1777] 4. FOUDTHEL. / [1792] 5. AHMED. -> [son of no. 4.
+  Foudthel:] [1827] 6. MHASSEN. -> [two sons:] [1847] 7. AHMED.  [1849] 8. ALI.">
+</figure>
+
+<p><i>Note.</i>—The dates are those of their succession according to
+Playfair’s ‘Yemen.’</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[377]</span></p>
+
+<h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">INDEX TO PROPER NAMES.</h2>
+
+</div>
+
+<ul>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Abbaside dynasty, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abd el-Hakal, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abd er-Rabi, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abd esh-Shems, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abdali tribe, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sultan, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abdul Hamid, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92-94</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mejid, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Wahab, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abdullah the Sulayhite, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abou Arish, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Bekr, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">’l Jaysh, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mahammed, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abrahá, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abraham, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Abyssinia">Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Abyssinians, <a href="#Page_41">41-45</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Acacia eburnea, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ad, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Adites, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aden, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6-8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121-129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130-133</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148-150</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165-167</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Gulf of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Little, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Adenum obesum, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Adirbijan, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Adnan, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Adonis, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ælius Gallus, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Africa, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Agha, Mahammed, or Turkchee Bilmas, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Agha Murshid, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ahmed ed-Din, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Doctor, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Feizi Pasha, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Ali Mansur, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Musa, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Pasha, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sultan, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ahurram, Jibel, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akhaf, desert of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akhdam, the, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akrabi tribe, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akran, el-, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akriba, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Alajioud, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Albuquerque, Alphonso de, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Alexander">Alexander the Great, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">or Iskander, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[378]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Algeria, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Ali">Ali abou Mehdi, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">bou Rhaleb, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Mansur, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Abou Taleb, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Fadl, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Mansur, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sultan of Lahej, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aloui tribe, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amat, El-, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">American traders, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amin, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amin el-Bahr, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">es-Sôk, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amir Morjaun, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amir of Bishi, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">of Dhala, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amran, <a href="#Page_104">104-106</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Anis, Jibel, and tribe of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arab tribes, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Zaidis, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arabia Deserta, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Felix, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Petræa, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">South, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aredoah, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arib, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arnaud, Mons d’, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aryans, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aryat, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Asaad_abou_Karib">Asaad abou Karib, or Dhu Nowas, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Yafur, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Ascension,” the ship, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ashari, Beled, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Jibel, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ashram, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ashur, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Asia, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Central, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Minor, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Asir, tribe of, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Assam, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Assassins, the, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Asshur, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Astarte, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aswad, El-, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Athaik, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Athl trees, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Atlas Mts., <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Attara, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aylan, Kays, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ayyubite Caliphs, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Azab, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Baal, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bab el-Mandeb, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bagdad, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bajil, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351-353</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Balkis, Queen, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Banna, el-, Wadi, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Barthema">Barthema, L. de, or Vertomanus, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bashi-bazouks, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bashir ibn Ardeb, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bas-Katéb, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bauan, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bedouins, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beit el-Fakih, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">en-Nedish, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Saïd, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beled Alajioud, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ashari, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Hawad, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Jehaf, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Kabail, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Belkama">Belkama, or Yalkama, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beni Hallel, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Matar, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Meruan, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Yafur, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Zuray, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Berbera, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Besaisi, Sheikh, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beyrout, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">B’dam trees, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bir Ahmed, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Azab, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bishi, Amir of, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Blanket, Admiral, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[379]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bohay, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bombay, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">British traders, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Broeck, Van den, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bruce, Captain, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Budhan or Budzan, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bukht Nasser, or Nebuchadnezzar, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bulhar, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Cadi, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cæsars, the, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cairo, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Caliph of the East (Harun el-Rashid), <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Caliphs, the, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Campbell, Mr, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Canneh, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Caparidiciæ, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Catha edulis (“Kat”), <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chaldæa, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chevalier, Mons. A. le, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chilmad, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">China, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chinese, the, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Christianity, <a href="#Page_70">70-74</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Christians, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46-48</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Circassians, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Claudius, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cleopatris, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Constantine, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Constantinople, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Constantius, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Coote,” H.M.S., <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Covilham, Pedro de, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Crimea, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Cruizer,” H.M.S., <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Damascus, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Damir, Jibel, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Danish expedition, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dar el-Hinoud, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">en-Nekil, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">es-Salaam, <a href="#Page_107">107-288</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Darling,” H.M.S., <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">David, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Day Imran, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Denmark, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Deria dowlat,” <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhala, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhamar, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_256">256-259</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263-265</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Gar, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhofir, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhu-biyat, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhu Jiblah (or Jiblah), <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhu-Nowas. <i>See</i> <a href="#Asaad_abou_Karib">Asaad abou Karib</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dhu Ruayn, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Digishúb, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dodekites, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Dokhn,” <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dommicetti, Lieutenant, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Domville, Captain, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Doran, Jibel, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dowla, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Druses, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Durra,” <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dutch traders, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">East India Coy., <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Eden, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Egypt, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Egyptians, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Asfal, Medinet, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Faki, Saïd, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Ghuri, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Hadi Mahammed, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Hadi Yahia, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Hajra, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Hasan, Mulai, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Hinoud, Dar, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Islam, Sheikh, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Kasim, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Kebir, Wadi, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Khamis, Sôk, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Mamun, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Mehdi Abbas, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Mehdi Najoul, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Mehdi Senussi, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Muayyad Mahammed, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Mustansir, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Mutawakil, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">El-Muzaffer, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[380]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Emporium Romanum, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">En-Nekil, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Es-Salaam, Dar, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Es-Seghir, Wadi, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Esh-Shari, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ethiopia, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Euphorbiaceæ, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Fatimide dynasty, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fez, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fezzan, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Florence, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Foudthel ibn Ali, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Foudtheli tribe, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">France, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Frederick V. of Denmark, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">French, the, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">traders, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Galata, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Galla-land, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ghadan, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gharrah, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Ghee,” <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ghubbat Seilan, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ghumdan, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Glaser, Dr Edward, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Goa, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Greece, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Greeks, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gregentius, St, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Habesh. <i>See</i> <a href="#Abyssinia">Abyssinia</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Haddha, Jibel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hadramaut, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Haig, General, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Haines, Captain, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hais, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hait Hirran, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hajarat el-Mehdi, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hajeriya, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hakim, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hamdani princes, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hanífa, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Haran, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Harrar, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Harun el-Rashid, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hasan Pasha, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hashishiyin (or Assassins), <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hashid wa Bakil, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hashma, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hazarmaveth, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hedfaf Pass, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hejaz, the, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hejira, the, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Helena, Queen of Abyssinia, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Himalayas, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Himyar, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Himyaric kings, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hindus, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hodaidah, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hojaila, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hormuzd, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“House of the scholar,” or Beit el-Fakih, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Houshabi tribe, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Howr, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Howra, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Howta, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hud, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hungary, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Huseyn, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Ali, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Salaamah, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Shereef, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hyderabad, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Ibb, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ibn Abou Taleb. <i>See</i> <a href="#Ali">Ali</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ali Foudthel, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ardeb, Bashir, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hasan, Mansur, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hasan, Tubba, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Huseyn, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Khaldun, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Khalifa, Nizar, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mehdi Ali, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Salaamah, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Yafur. <i>See</i> <a href="#Asaad_abou_Karib">Asaad</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[381]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ibrahim, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ibrahim Pasha, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Tabátabá, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Idris, Mulai, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Imamites, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Imams, the, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57-59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60-62</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Imran, Day, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">India, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Indian merchants, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ocean, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ishmael, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ishmaelites, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Iskander. <i>See</i> <a href="#Alexander">Alexander</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Islam, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70-73</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82-87</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sheikh el-, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ismail, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Pasha, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Seyed, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ismailites, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Issi, Jibel, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Jadidah, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Janad, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Janadi, el-, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jaskum, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jeddah, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jehaf, Jibel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jelileh, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jeraaf, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jews, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jibál, the, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jibel Ahurram, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Anis, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ashari, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Doran, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Issi, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Jahaf, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Menif, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mrais, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Negoum, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Obaki, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Safan, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Samára, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Zukur, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jiblah, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">John, Prester, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Joktan, or Kahtan, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jopp, General, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Joseph, or Yusef, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Judaism, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Kaabah, the, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kabail, Beled el-, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kabyla el-Owd, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kahtan, or Joktan, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kaimakams, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kaït Bey, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kamaran, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kariat en-Negil, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Karmathians, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kasim el-Kebir, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">er-Rassi, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Kat” (Catha edulis), <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kátaba, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kaukeban, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kay, Mr, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kebir, Wadi el-, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kedar, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kesra, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kha, Wadi, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khadar, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khaldun, ibn, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khalid, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khalifa, Nizar ibn, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khamis, Sôk el-, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kharejites, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kharid, Wadi, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khasraji, el-, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khaulán, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khoreiba, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Konfoda, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kopts, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Koran, the, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76-78</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[382]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Koreish, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kos, Bishop, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kudaah, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kufa, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kurds, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Lahej, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167-169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Wadi, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Laing, Prof., <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lakhnia, or Lakhtiaa, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lebanon, Mt., <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Liars,” the, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lisbon, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lohaya, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lokman, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ludovico de Barthema, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lumley, Captain, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Maaber, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Maadi Karib, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Maala, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Madeira, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Mahammed">Mahammed, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44-49</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Agha, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ali Pasha, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Meccawi, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Ziad, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Rushti Pasha, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Yahya, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mahdi el-Fakih Saïd, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mahmoud, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Main Pass, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Makarama, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Makulla, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Malik, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mamlooks, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mamun, el-, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mansur, el-, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mansur el-Kasim, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Hasan, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mareb, Saba, or Sheba, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Masar, Jibel, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mashonaland, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mavia, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mecca, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Medina, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Medinet el-Asfal, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mefhak, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mehdi el-Mantether, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mehdi, Senussi el-, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Melh, el-, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sailet, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Menakha, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Menes, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Menif, Jibel, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mequinez, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Meruan, Beni, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Merveille, Mons. de, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Metneh, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Middleton, Admiral, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Milne, Captain, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Minæans, or Maïn, <a href="#Page_32">32-36</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mjisbeyeh, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mohajir, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mokha, <a href="#Page_10">10-13</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63-66</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Morocco, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mosailma, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Moulas, the, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mrais, Jibel, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mshareg, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Muavia, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Muayyad, Mahammed el-, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Muir, Sir William, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mundah, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Munkat, <a href="#Page_243">243-245</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Munsoorie Hills, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mustain, el-, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mustansir, el-, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mutawakil, el-, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mutazelites, the, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Muza, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Muzaffer, el-, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Nadir, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nebuchadnezzar, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Negoum, Jibel, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[383]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nehm, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Negil, Kariat en-, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nejed, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nejrán, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Niebuhr, Karsten, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nisáb, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nizar ibn Mustansir, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Noah, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Obadites, the, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Obaki, Jibel, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ofar, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Okelis, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Oman, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Omar, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Omarah, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Omeyyad dynasty, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Osmanli Government, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Othman, the Caliph, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Othman, Sheikh, <a href="#Page_133">133-135</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ottoman Empire, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Oulaki tribe, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Oun, Mahammed ibn, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Owd, Kabyla el-, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Palestine, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Parsees, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Paruiz, Kesra, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Peppercorn,” the ship, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Peri Pasha, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Perim, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Periplus,” Vincent’s, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Persia, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Persian Gulf, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Persians, the, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Phœnician characters, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Playfair, Sir R. L., <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Popham, Sir Horne, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Port Said, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Porte, the Sublime, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Portuguese, the, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">traders, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Prester John, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Prophet, the. <i>See</i> <a href="#Mahammed">Mahammed</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Punt, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Quarnu, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Raamah, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rabiah, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Raïs Suleiman, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ras Seilan, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Zebeed, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rashid, Harun el-, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rassites, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Raudha, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Red Sea, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10-14</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Resaaba, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rima, Wadi, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rodaa, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Romans, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rome, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Russia, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst" id="Saba">Saba, Sheba, or Mareb, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sabæans, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sadah, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52-54</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Safan, Jibel, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sahán, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Saïd, Beit, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Faki, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sailet el-Melh, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salah ed-Din or Saladdin, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salih, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salt, Mr, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Samára, Jibel, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Samarcand, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id="Sanaa">Sanaa, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20-26</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61-64</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104-107</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322-324</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sargon I., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sayce, Prof., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seddah, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seghir, Wadi el-, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seilan, Ghubbat, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ras, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Selim I., <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[384]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Semitic races, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Senussi, Sheikh, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seyed Hasan, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ismail, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Kasim, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mahammed el-Hadi, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">esh-Sheraï, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sham-sham, Jibel, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shari, Beled esh-, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Wadi, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sheba. <i>See</i> <a href="#Saba">Saba</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sheikh el-Beled, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Besaisi, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Islam, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Othman, <a href="#Page_133">133-135</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sheiyas, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-87</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shem, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shereef, Huseyn, <a href="#Page_66">66-69</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shoa, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sidi Sheikh, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sinai, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Smyrna, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Soarez, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sobeh, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sôk el-Khamis, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">el-Thuluth, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Solomon, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36-38</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Somali-land, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Somalis, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Soudan, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stace, Col., <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stamboul, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Suakin, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sublime Porte, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Suez, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Canal, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Suleiman the Magnificent, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Raïs, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sufis, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sunnis, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84-86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Syria, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Tabátabá, Ibrahim, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Taif, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Taiz, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tartars, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tawahi, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Teháma, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_13">13-18</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Teima, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Thamud, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Theophilus Indus, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Thoba, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Thuba, Wadi, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Thuluth, Sôk el-, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tigris, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Topaz,” H.M.S., <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Towers of Silence,” <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tripoli, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tsar, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tubba el-Akran, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">ibn Hasan, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tubbas, the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tufieh Pasha, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tunis, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Turan Shah, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Turkchee Bilmas, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Turkey, Sultans of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Turkish dominions in the Yemen, <a href="#Page_24">24-26</a>, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">troops, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Turks, the, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Uzul. <i>See</i> <a href="#Sanaa">Sanaa</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Venice, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vertomanus. <i>See</i> <a href="#Barthema">Barthema</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vincent’s “Periplus,” <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Waalan, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wadi el-Kebir, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wahab, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wahabis, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wáhat, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wahraz, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[385]</span></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">White, Sir William, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wisil, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Yaffa, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yahya, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yakoub Bey, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yalkama. <i>See</i> <a href="#Belkama">Belkama</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yarub, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yasir, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yemenite tribes, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yerim, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yusef, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Zafar, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zaida, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zaidis, the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zanzibar, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zarahoun, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zaum, Wadi, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zayd, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zebeed, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_359">359</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ras, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Wadi, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ziad, ibn, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zurayites, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="titlepage">PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS</p>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp54" id="map3" style="max-width: 75.0em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/map3.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      <p>Sketch Map of<br>THE YEMEN<br>illustrating<br>THE ROUTE OF W. B. HARRIS.</p>
+      <p>Stanford’s Geogˡ. Estabᵗ., London</p>
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 76757 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
diff --git a/76757-h/images/cover.jpg b/76757-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e84b1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp01.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp01.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..14dd62d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp01.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp02.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp02.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..407a54e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp02.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp03.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp03.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ea33ba5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp03.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp04.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp04.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74dffa6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp04.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp05.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp05.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ae4563
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp05.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp06.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp06.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a4ddc26
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp06.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp07.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp07.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da92e3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp07.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp08.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp08.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..acc74a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp08.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp09.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp09.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..749b456
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp09.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp10.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp10.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2bc947f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp10.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp11.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp11.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..373f2d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp11.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp12.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp12.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8a4d009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp12.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp13.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp13.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fc9833
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp13.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp14.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp14.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed4f381
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp14.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp15.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp15.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7929436
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp15.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp16.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp16.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b7629c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp16.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp17.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp17.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f2974b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp17.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp18.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp18.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..641862d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp18.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp19.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp19.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f346311
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp19.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp20.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp20.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d47b3f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp20.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp21.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp21.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..742e50f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp21.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp22.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp22.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..82f867d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp22.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp23.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp23.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ab8fec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp23.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/fp24.jpg b/76757-h/images/fp24.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efdb78f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/fp24.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/genealogy1.jpg b/76757-h/images/genealogy1.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6ca587f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/genealogy1.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/genealogy2.jpg b/76757-h/images/genealogy2.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..45012ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/genealogy2.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/genealogy3.jpg b/76757-h/images/genealogy3.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fde57fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/genealogy3.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus01.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus01.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8dd6bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus01.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus02.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus02.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d2e36a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus02.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus03.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus03.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d0a868b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus03.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus04.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus04.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36e7a0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus04.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus05.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus05.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5cf59b9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus05.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus06.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus06.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2eda8f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus06.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus07.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus07.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71bd6da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus07.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus08.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus08.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1cfc582
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus08.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus09.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus09.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d2e0b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus09.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus10.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus10.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6eb2a2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus10.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus11.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus11.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87900fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus11.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus12.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus12.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5acf81d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus12.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus13.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus13.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6157d95
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus13.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus14.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus14.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e8da4b2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus14.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus15.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus15.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9af90cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus15.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus16.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus16.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..30729b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus16.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus17.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus17.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bf5dd7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus17.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus18.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus18.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e1d77d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus18.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus19.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus19.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8620ad4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus19.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus20.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus20.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..96b032e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus20.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus21.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus21.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31fe1f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus21.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus22.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus22.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b072e0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus22.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus23.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus23.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f78fb36
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus23.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/illus24.jpg b/76757-h/images/illus24.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..74e737b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/illus24.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/line.jpg b/76757-h/images/line.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..504a43e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/line.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/map1.jpg b/76757-h/images/map1.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c2d02e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/map1.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/map2.jpg b/76757-h/images/map2.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ed62b4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/map2.jpg
diff --git a/76757-h/images/map3.jpg b/76757-h/images/map3.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d905fd0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/76757-h/images/map3.jpg
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1db49d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #76757
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76757)