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.
