This Place Is A Stage And A Half From Mecca; And Though There Are
Several Shoals Both Above And Under Water, The Port Is Good, And The
Town Has Abundance Of Provisions:
But no water is to be met with, except
from a few cisterns which are filled with rain water.
This place abounds
in merchandize, and the country round produces dates, ginger of
Mecca[218], and other sorts. In a mosque on the outside of the town is a
tomb, which according to the Mahometans is the burial-place of Eve. The
inhabitants go almost naked, and are meagre and swarthy. The sea
produces abundance of fish. The natives tie three or four pieces of
timber together about six feet long, on one of which slight rafts a man
rows himself with a board, and ventures out to sea eight or nine miles
to fish in all weathers. At this place the fleet remained four days and
took in a supply of water.
[Footnote 217: Otherwise Jiddah or Joddah, the port of Mecca. In his map
of Egypt, Nubia, and Abyssinia, De L'Isle makes Zidem, which he also
names Gidde, doubtless a corruption of Jiddah, a distinct place a
little to the south from Jiddah. This must be a mistake; as Jiddah has
for many ages been the port of Mecca, as Zidem is said to be in the
text. This is farther confirmed by the mention of Eves tomb in the
text, which Pitts saw at Jiddah. Thevenot says her tomb is at Gidde,
which De L'Isle supposed to have been a different place from Gidda,
Joddah, or Jiddah, whence arose his mistake.
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