All The Poorer Class Of Indians Turn Beggars As
Soon As They Are Landed At Djidda.
Many Syrians and Egyptians follow the
same trade; but not so the Negroes.
I have already stated in a former
journal, that the latter reach the Hedjaz by the three harbours of
Massouah, Souakin, and Cosseir. Those who come by Sennar and Abyssinia
to Massoua, are all paupers. The small sum of one dollar carries them
from Massoua to the opposite coast of Yemen; and they usually land at
Hodeyda. Here they wait for the arrival of a sufficient number of their
countrymen, to form a small caravan, and then ascend the mountains of
Yemen, along the fertile valleys of which, inhabited by hospitable
Arabs, they beg their way to Djidda or to Mekka. [In 1813, a party of
Tekrourys, about sixty in number, having taken that road, the Arabs of
those mountains, who are Wahabys, and who had often seen black slaves
among the Turkish soldiers, conceived that the negro hadjys were in the
habit of entering into the service of the Turks. To prevent the party
then passing from being ever opposed to them, they waylaid the poor
Tekrourys on the road, and killed many of them.] If rich enough to spare
two dollars, they obtain, perhaps, a passage from Massoua direct to
Djidda, where they meet with such of their countrymen as may have landed
there from Souakin or Cosseir. Immediately on their arrival at Djidda or
Mekka, they apply themselves to labour: some serve as porters, for the
transport of goods and corn from the ships to the warehouses; others
hire themselves to clean the court-yards, fetch wood from the
neighbouring mountains, for the supply of which the inhabitants of
Djidda and Mekka are exclusively indebted to them, as none of their own
lazy poor will undertake that labour, although four piastres a day may
be gained by it. At Mekka, they make small hearths of clay, (kanoun,)
which they paint with yellow and red; these are bought by the hadjys,
who boil their coffee-pots upon them. Some manufacture small baskets and
mats of date-leaves, or prepare the intoxicating drink called bouza; and
others serve as water-carriers: in short, when any occasion requires
manual
[p.258] labour, a Tekroury from the market is always employed. If any of
them is attacked by disease, his companions attend upon him, and defray
his expenses. I have seen very few of them ask for charity, except on
the first days after their arrival, before they have been able to obtain
employment. From Mekka, they either travel by land, or sometimes make a
sea voyage by way of Yembo to Medina, where they again supply the town
with fire-wood. Indeed, the hadjys would be much at a loss in the
Hedjaz, if they could not command the laborious services of these
blacks. During the Wahaby conquest, they continued to perform the
pilgrimage; and it is said that Saoud expressed a particular esteem for
them.
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