The
Sherifs in Mekka and Djidda, great merchants, olemas, and all the chief
people are in the habit of drinking this liquor, which they persuade
themselves is neither wine nor brandy, and therefore not prohibited by
the law. The less wealthy inhabitants cannot purchase so dear a
commodity; but they use a fermented liquor made from raisins, and
imported from Tayf, while the lower classes drink bouza. During my stay
at Tayf, a Turk belonging to the suite of Mohammed Aly Pasha distilled
brandy from grapes, and publicly sold it at forty piastres the bottle.
The Mekkawys are very expensive in their houses: the rooms are
embellished with fine carpets, and an abundance of cushions and sofas
covered with brocade: amidst the furniture is seen much beautiful china-
ware, and several nargiles adorned with silver. A petty shopkeeper would
be ashamed to receive his acquaintances in a house less splendidly
fitted up. Their tables also are better supplied than in any other
country of the East, where even respectable families live economically
in this respect. A Mekkawy, even of the lower class, must have daily on
his table meat which costs from one and a half to two piastres the
pound; his coffee-pot is never removed from the fire; and himself, his
women and children are almost constantly using the nargile, and the
tobacco which supplies it cannot be a very trifling expense.
The women have introduced the fashion, not uncommon in Turkey, of
visiting each other at least once a week with all their children; the
visit lasts the whole day, and an abundant entertainment is provided on
the occasion: the vanity of each mistress of a house makes her endeavour
to surpass her acquaintances in show and magnificence; thus a continual
expense is entailed on every family. Among the sources of expenditure
must be enumerated the purchasing of Abyssinian female slaves who are
kept by the men, or money bestowed on the public women whom several of
them frequent. Considerable sums are also lavished in sensual
gratification still more vicious and degrading, but
[p.198] unfortunately as prevalent in the towns of the Hedjaz as in some
other parts of Asia, or in Egypt under the Mamelouks. It has been
already observed that the temple of Mekka itself, the very sanctuary of
the Mohammedan religion, is almost publicly and daily contaminated by
practices of the grossest depravity: to these no disgrace is here
attached; the young of all classes are encouraged in them by the old,
and even parents have been so base as to connive at them for the sake of
money. From such pollution, however, the encampments of the Arabian
Bedouins are exempt; although their ancestors were not, in this respect,
immaculate, if we may credit some scandalous anecdotes recorded by
Eastern historians.
But my account of the public women (who are very numerous) must here be
resumed.
