This Is The Lowest Part Of The Town; And Whenever Great Floods,
During The Rainy Season, Inundate The Valley, The Water Rushes Through
This Street, In Its Way To The Open Country.
Some remains of the
aqueduct are visible here; for when it was kept in good repair, its
water, after supplying the town, was conducted this way into the
southern valley, where it served to irrigate some fields.
The Souk-es'-Sogheyr is sometimes comprehended in the Mesfale, or "low
place," the name of the quarter on the east and south sides of the Souk;
but that name is more commonly applied exclusively to the latter
district. The Mesfale is tolerably well built, and, like the Shebeyka,
contains a few new houses; but that part of it which lies towards the
great castle-hill is now almost entirely in ruins. It is inhabited by
Arab and Bedouin merchants, who travel in time of peace to Yemen,
principally to Mokhowa, from whence they import grain, coffee-beans, and
dried grapes. It is also the residence of many poor Indians, established
at Mekka; these let out their houses to their countrymen, who visit this
city in the time of the Hadj. In the ruined dwellings, Negro pilgrims
take up their temporary abode; some of these are settled in Mekka, and
their wives prepare the intoxicating liquor made from durra, and called
bouza, of which the meaner inhabitants are very fond. It was in the
Mesfale, as I have already mentioned, that I took up my lodging on
returning from Djidda, at first in the house of a Maggrebyn settler,
from which I soon afterwards removed into that of a Yemen merchant close
by.
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