The Dried Meat Sold In These Shops Is The Salted And
Smoked Beef Of Asia Minor, Known All Over Turkey By The Name Of
Bastorma, And
[P.32] much relished by travellers.
The Turkish soldiers and the Hadjis
are particularly fond of it, but the Arabs never can be induced to taste
it; many of them, observing that it differs in appearance from all other
meat with which they are acquainted, persist in regarding it as pork,
and the estimation in which they hold the Turkish soldiery and their
religious principles is not likely to remove their prejudices on this
head. All the dried fruits above mentioned, except the apricots, come
from the Archipelago; the latter are sent from Damascus all over Arabia,
where they are considered a luxury, particularly among the Bedouins. The
stone is extracted and the fruit reduced to a paste, and spread out upon
its leaves to dry in the sun. It makes a very pleasant sauce when
dissolved in water. On all their marches through the Hedjaz, the Turkish
troops live almost entirely upon biscuit and this fruit.
Eleven large shops of corn-dealers, where Egyptian wheat, barley, beans,
lentils, dhourra, [Or durra, from Sowakin, which comes from Taka, in the
interior of Nubia, and a small-grained sort from Yemen, are also sold
here.] Indian and Egyptian rice, biscuits, &c. may be purchased. The
only wheat now sold in the Hedjaz comes from Egypt. In time of peace,
there is a considerable importation from Yemen into Mekka and Djidda,
and from Nedjed to Medina; but the imports from Egypt are by far the
most considerable, and the Hedjaz may truly be said to depend upon Egypt
for corn. The corn-trade was formerly in the hands of individuals, and
the Sherif Ghaleb also speculated in it; but at the present, Mohammed
Aly Pasha has taken it entirely into his own hands, and none is sold
either at Suez or Cosseir to private persons, every grain being shipped
on account of the Pasha. This is likewise the case with all other
provisions, as rice, butter, biscuits, onions, of which latter great
quantities are imported. At the time of my residence in the Hedjaz, this
country not producing a sufficiency, the Pasha sold the grain at Djidda
for the price of
[p.33] from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty piastres per
erdeb, and every other kind of provision in proportion; the corn cost
him twelve piastres by the erdeb in Upper Egypt, and including the
expense of carriage from Genne to Cosseir, and freight thence to Djidda,
twenty-five or thirty piastres. This enormous profit was alone
sufficient to defray his expenses in carrying on the Wahaby war; but it
was little calculated to conciliate the good-will of the people. His
partisans, however, excused him, by alleging that, in keeping grain at
high prices, he secured the Bedouins of the Hedjaz in his interest, as
they depend upon Mekka and Djidda for provisions, and they were thus
compelled to enter into his service, and receive his pay, to escape
starvation. The common people of the Hedjaz use very little wheat; their
bread is made either of durra or barley-flour, both of which are one-
third cheaper than wheat; or they live entirely upon rice and butter.
This is the case also with most of the Bedouins of Tehama, on the coast.
The Yemen people in Djidda eat nothing but durra. Most of the rice used
at Djidda is brought as ballast by the ships from India. The best sort
comes from Guzerat and Cutch: it forms the chief article of food among
the people of the Hedjaz, who prefer it to the rice from Egypt, because
they think it more wholesome than the former, which is used exclusively
by the Turks and other strangers from the north-ward. The grain of the
Indian rice is larger and longer than the common sort of Egypt, and is
of a yellowish colour; whereas the latter has a reddish tint; but the
best sorts of both are snow-white. The Indian rice swells more in
boiling than the Egyptian, and is for this reason preferred by the
Arabs, as a smaller quantity of it will fill a dish; but the Egyptian
rice is more nutritive. The Indian rice is rather cheaper, and is
transported from Djidda to Mekka, Tayf, Medina, and thence as far as
Nedjed. A mixture of equal portions of rice and lentils, over which
butter is poured,
[p.34] forms a favourite preparation with the middle class, and
generally their only dish at supper. [This dish is known in Syria, and
called there medjeddereh, because the lentils in the rice look like a
person's face marked with the small-pox, or djedreh.] I found, in every
part of the Hedjaz, that the Bedouins, when travelling, carried no other
provision than rice, lentils, butter, and dates. The importation of
biscuits from Egypt has of late been very considerable, for the use of
the Turkish army. The Arabians do not like and seldom eat them even on
board their ships, where they bake their unleavened cake every morning
in those small ovens which are found in all the ships of every size that
navigate the Red Sea.
Salt is sold by the corn-dealers. Sea-salt is collected near Djidda, and
is a monopoly in the hands of the sherif. The inhabitants of Mekka
prefer rock-salt, which is brought thither by the Bedouins from some
mountains in the neighbourhood of Tayf.
Thirty-one tobacco-shops, in which are sold Syrian and Egyptian tobacco,
tombac, or tobacco for the Persian pipe, pipe-heads and pipe-snakes,
cocoa-nuts, coffee-beans, keshre, soap, almonds, Hedjaz raisins, and
some other articles of grocery. The Egyptian tobacco, sometimes mixed
with that of Sennar, is the cheapest, and in great demand throughout the
Hedjaz. There are two sorts of it: the leaf of one is green, even when
dry; this is called ribbe, and comes from Upper Egypt:
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