But This
Custom Has Been Abolished By The Wahabys, Whose Chief, Instead, Receives
A Regular Tribute, And Has Reconciled The Hostile Parties, And Opened
The Pastures Of Nedjed To Any Tribes Of Wahabys Who May Choose To
Frequent Them.
A Bedouin assured me that twenty encampments of different
tribes may now be seen here in the course of one day's march - such is the
security maintained by the Wahaby chief, who is inexorable in the
punishment of robbers.
The fine pastures of Nedjed have produced an excellent breed of camels,
more numerous here than in any other Arabian province of equal extent.
The Arabs call this country Om el Bel, or "the mother of camels," and
resort to it from all quarters for the supply of their own herds; and it
constantly furnishes not only Hedjaz, but Syria and Yemen, with camels,
of which useful creatures an ordinary one is sold for about ten dollars
in Nedjed. In this country there is also a most excellent breed of
horses, so remarkable that the finest blood Arabs are properly
denominated Kheyl Nedjade, or Nedjed horses. But the Wahaby power has
caused a diminution of this breed; for many Arabs have sold their best
horses in foreign parts, lest they should be forced to attend the Wahaby
chief, who, in his wars, frequently required cavalry.
Nedjed, however, is often subject to scarcity, caused by the failure of
rain, and consequently of herbage: this soon affects the cattle of the
Bedouins, who seldom expect, in this country, more than three or four
successive years of plenty, although absolute famine does not occur
above once in ten, or perhaps fifteen years. It is generally accompanied
by epidemical diseases, much like the plague, consisting of violent
fevers (but without biles or buboes,) that prove fatal to great numbers.
Nedjed is peopled by small tribes of Bedouins, who never leave it, and
by settlers intermarried with them, and often travelling as merchants to
Damascus, Baghdad, Medina, Mekka, and Yemen: they export camels and
woollen cloaks (abbas), of which the best are manufactured at El Hassa;
and from Baghdad they receive rice, (the produce of the banks of the
Tigris), and articles of dress, especially the keffies, or
handkerchiefs, striped green and yellow, of cotton, wool, or silk: these
the Bedouins wear over their bonnets. From Mekka they get coffee, drugs,
and perfumes, much used among them, particularly the perfume called
Arez, which comes from Mokha. In general there is a spirit of commerce
very prevalent in Nedjed, where the merchants are wealthy and of better
repute for honesty than most of the Eastern traders. The settlers here
are armed with matchlocks, and constitute the best portion of the Wababy
infantry: they are generally successful against the Bedouins who invade
their crops or pastures; and, as saltpetre is found in Nedjed, every
family makes its own yearly provision of gunpowder.
In Nedjed are many ancient wells, lined with stone, and ascribed by the
inhabitants to a primeval race of giants.
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