The Public Edifices Are Six Mosques, Including The Jami, Or Cathedral, For
Friday Prayer:
These buildings have queer little crenelles on whitewashed
walls, and a kind of elevated summer-house to represent the minaret.
Near
one of them are remains of a circular Turkish Munar, manifestly of modern
construction. There is no Mahkamah or Kazi's court; that dignitary
transacts business at his own house, and the Festival prayers are recited
near the Saint's Tomb outside the eastern gate. The northeast angle of the
town is occupied by a large graveyard with the usual deleterious
consequences.
The climate of Zayla is cooler than that of Aden, and, the site being open
all around, it is not so unhealthy. Much spare room is enclosed by the
town walls: evaporation and Nature's scavengers act succedanea for
sewerage.
Zayla commands the adjacent harbour of Tajurrah, and is by position the
northern port of Aussa (the ancient capital of Adel), of Harar, and of
southern Abyssinia: the feuds of the rulers have, however, transferred the
main trade to Berberah. It sends caravans northwards to the Dankali, and
south-westwards, through the Eesa and Gudabirsi tribes as far as Efat and
Gurague. It is visited by Cafilas from Abyssinia, and the different races
of Bedouins, extending from the hills to the seaboard. The exports are
valuable--slaves, ivory, hides, honey, antelope horns, clarified butter,
and gums: the coast abounds in sponge, coral, and small pearls, which Arab
divers collect in the fair season. In the harbour I found about twenty
native craft, large and small:
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