Travels in Arabia; Comprehending An Account of Those Territories in Hedjaz Which the Mohammedans Regard As Sacred

mounds of sand, among which is the cemetery of the inhabitants, we travelled across a very barren, sandy plain, ascending slightly towards the east; there are no trees in it, and it is strongly impregnated with salt to about two miles from the town. After threehours' march, we entered a hilly country where a coffee-hut stands near a well named Raghame. We continued in a broad and winding valley amongst these hills, some sandy and some rocky, and, at the end of five hours and a half, stopped for a short time at the coffee-hut and well called El Bcyadhye. Of these wells the water is not good. From thence, in one hour and a half, (seven hours in all,) we reached a similar station called El Fertiyne, where we overtook a caravan of pilgrims, who were accompanying goods and provisions destined for the army: they had quitted Djidda before us in the evening. The coffee-huts are miserable structures, with half-ruined walls, and coverings of brushwood ; they afford nothing more than water and coffee. Formerly, it is said, there were twelve coffee-houses on this road, which afforded refreshments of every kind to the passengers between Djidda and the holy city ; but as the journey is now made chiefly during the night, and as the Turkish soldiers will pay for nothing unless by compulsion, most of these houses have been abandoned. The few that still remain are kept by some of the Arabs of the Lahyan tribe, (a branch of the Hodheyl Arabs,) and Metarefe, whosefamilies are Bedouins,... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.