I shall
not venture to speak of the married women of the Hedjaz: I have heard
anecdotes related, little to their credit; but in the East, as in other
countries, the young men sometimes boast of favours which they never
have enjoyed. The exterior demeanour of the women of Djidda and Mekka is
very decorous: few of them are ever seen walking or riding in the
street; a practice so common at Cairo, though contrary to Oriental ideas
of propriety: and I lived in three different houses at Mekka without
having seen the unveiled faces of the female inmates.
The great merchants of Mekka live very splendidly: in the houses of
Djeylany, Sakkat, Ageyl, and El Nour, are establishments of fifty or
sixty persons. These merchants obtained their riches principally during
the reign of Ghaleb, to whom Djeylany and Sakkat served as spies upon
the other merchants. Their tables are furnished daily in abundance with
every native delicacy, as well as with those which India and Egypt
afford. About twenty persons sit down to dinner with them; the favourite
Abyssinian slaves, who serve often as writers or
[p.199] cashiers, are admitted to the table of their master; but the
inferior slaves and the servants are fed only upon flour and butter. The
china and glass ware, in which the dishes are served up, is of the best
quality; rose-water is sprinkled on the beards of the guests after
dinner, and the room is filled with the odours of aloe-wood, burnt upon
the nargiles. There is great politeness without formality; and no men
appear in a more amiable light, than the great Mekkawys dispensing
hospitality to their guests. Whoever happens to be sitting in the outer
hall, when dinner is served up, is requested to join at table, which he
does without conceiving himself at all obliged by the invitation, while
the host, on his part, appears to think compliance a favour conferred
upon him.
The rich Mekkawys make two meals daily, one before mid-day, the other
after sun-set; the lower classes breakfast at sun-rise, and eat nothing
more till near sun-set. As in the negro countries, it is very indecorous
for a man to be seen eating in the streets: the Turkish soldiers, who
retain their native manners, are daily reprehended by the people of
Mekka for their ill-breeding in this respect.
Before the Turkish conquest, and the wars of the Sherif with the Wahabys
which preceded it, the merchants of Mekka led a very happy life. During
the months of May and June they went to attend the sale of India goods
at Djidda.
