In March, water melons are brought from Wady Fatme, which are
said to be small, but of a good flavour.
The Arabs eat little fruit
except grapes; they say it produces bile, and occasions flatulency, in
which they are probably not mistaken. The fruit sold at Djidda is
particularly unwholesome; for having been packed up at Tayf in an unripe
state, it acquires a factitious maturity by fermentation during the
journey. The Turks quarrel and fight every morning before the shops, in
striving to get the fruits, which are in small quantities and very dear.
Vegetables are brought to Djidda from Wady Fatme, six or eight miles
distant to the north, which also supplies Mekka. The usual kinds are
Meloukhye, Bamye, Portulaca egg-plants, or Badingans, cucumbers, and
very small turnips, of which the leaves are eaten, and the root is
thrown away as useless. Radishes and leeks are the only vegetables
regularly and daily used in Arab cookery; they are very small, and the
common people eat them raw with bread. In general, the Arabs consume
very few vegetables, their dishes being made of meat, rice, flour, and
butter. In these fruit-shops, tamarind (called here Homar) is also sold;
it comes from the East Indies, not in cakes, like that from the negro
countries, but in its natural form, though much decomposed. When boiled
in water, it constitutes a refreshing beverage, and is given to sick
people boiled with meat into a stew.
Eight date-sellers. Of all eatables used by the Arabs, dates are the
most favourite; and they have many traditions from their prophet,
showing the pre-eminence of dates above all other kinds of food. The
importation of dates is uninterrupted during the whole year. At the end
of June, the new fruit (called ruteb) comes in: this lasts for two
months, after which, for the remainder of the
[p.30] year, the date-paste, called adjoue, is sold. This is formed by
pressing the dates, when fully ripe, into large baskets so forcibly as
to reduce them to a hard solid paste or cake, each basket weighing
generally about two hundred weight; in this state the Bedouins export
the adjoue; in the market it is cut out of the basket and sold by the
pound. This adjoue forms a part of the daily food among all classes of
people. In travelling, it is dissolved in water, and thus affords a
sweet and refreshing drink. There are upwards of twelve different sorts
of adjoue; the best comes from Taraba, behind Tayf (now occupied by the
Wahabis.) The most common kind at present in the market is that from
Fatme; and the better sort, that from Kheleys, and Djedeyde, on the road
to Medina. During the monsoon, the ships from the Persian gulf bring
adjoue from Basra for sale, in small baskets, weighing about ten pounds
each; this kind is preferred to every other. The East-India ships, on
their return, take off a considerable quantity of the paste, which is
sold to great profit among the muselmans of Hindostan.
Four pancake-makers, who sell, early in the morning, pancakes fried in
butter; a favourite breakfast.
Five bean-sellers. These sell for breakfast also, at an early hour,
Egyptian horse-beans boiled in water, which are eaten with ghee and
pepper. The boiled beans are called mudammes; they form a favourite dish
with the people of Egypt, from whom the Arabs have adopted it.
Five sellers of sweetmeats, sugar-plums, and different sorts of
confectionary, of which the Hedjaz people are much fonder than any
Orientals I have seen; they eat them after supper, and in the evening
the confectioners' stands are surrounded by multitudes of buyers. The
Indians are the best makers of them. I saw no articles of this kind here
that I had not already found in Egypt; the Baktawa, Gnafe, and Ghereybe,
are as common here as at Aleppo and Cairo.
Two kebab shops, where roasted meat is sold; these are kept by Turks,
the kebab not being an Arab dish.
[p.31] Two soup-sellers, who also sell boiled sheep's heads and feet,
and are much visited at mid-day.
One seller of fish fried in oil, frequented by all the Turkish and Greek
sailors.
Ten or twelve stands where bread is sold, generally by women; the bread
has an unpleasant flavour, the meal not having been properly cleansed,
and the leaven being bad. A loaf of the same size as that which at Cairo
is sold for two paras, costs here, though of a much worse quality, eight
paras.
Two sellers of leben, or sour milk, which is extremely scarce and dear
all over the Hedjaz. It may appear strange that, among the shepherds of
Arabia, there should be a scarcity of milk, yet this was the case at
Djidda and Mekka; but, in fact, the immediate vicinity of these towns is
extremely barren, little suited to the pasturage of cattle, and very few
people are at the expense of feeding them for their milk only. When I
was at Djidda, the rotolo or pound of milk (for it is sold by weight)
cost one piastre and a half, and could only be obtained by favour. What
the northern Turks called yoghort, and the Syrians and Egyptians leben-
hamed, [Very thick milk, rendered sour by boiling and the addition of a
strong acid.] does not appear to be a native Arab dish; the Bedouins of
Arabia, at least, never prepare it.
Two shops, kept by Turks, where Greek cheese, dried meat, dried apples,
figs, raisins, apricots, called kammared'din, &c. are sold at three
times the price paid in Cairo. The cheese comes from Candia, and is much
in request among all the Turkish troops. An indifferent sort of cheese
is made in the Hedjaz; it is extremely white, although salted, does not
keep long, and is not by any means very nutritive. The Bedouins
themselves care little for cheese; they either drink their milk, or make
it into butter.
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