There
Was Great Disorder In The Place, And Nobody Could Attempt To Sleep.
Soon
after our arrival, a troop of soldiers passed, and pitched their tents a
little farther on the plain;
They then entered the coffee-huts, and took
away all the sweet water, which had been procured from a well about
half-an-hour distant, and kept at Hadda in large jars. The huts of the
few miserable
[p.56] inhabitants, thus exposed to all the casualties attending the
continual passage of troops, are formed with brushwood, in the shape of
a flattened cone, and they receive light only through the entrance; here
the whole family lives huddled together in one apartment. The numerous
coffee-huts are spacious sheds, supported by poles, with the coffee-
waiter's hearth placed in one corner. They are infested by great numbers
of rats, bolder than any I ever saw.
We left Hadda about five o'clock in the evening. The road continuing
over the plain, the soil is sandy, in some parts mixed with clay, and
might, I think, be easily cultivated by digging wells. At one hour from
Hadda, we saw on our left, in the plain, some date-trees: here, as I
understood, flows a small rivulet, which in former times irrigated some
fields. The trees are at present neglected. We now left the plain, and
diverging a little south-ward from our easterly course, again entered a
hilly country, and reached, at two hours from Hadda, another coffee-hut,
called Shemeysa. Behind it is the Djebel Shemeysa, or mountain of
Shemeysa, from which, according to the historians of Mekka, was
extracted the marble of many columns in the mosque of that holy city. In
the mountain, near the hut, is a well. From Shemeysa we rode in a broad
valley overspread with deep sands, and containing some thorny trees. At
four hours from Hadda, we passed Kahwet Salem, or Salem's coffee-shop,
and a well; there we met a caravan coming from Mekka. The mountains
nearly close at this place, leaving only a narrow straight valley,
crossed at intervals by several other valleys. We then proceeded as far
as Hadjalye, a coffee-house, seven hours distant from Hadda, with a
large well near it, which supplies the camel-drivers of the Syrian
pilgrim caravan, on the way to and from Mekka.
Not having enjoyed a moment's sleep since we quitted Djidda, I lay down
on the sands, and slept till day-break, while my companions pursued
their road to Mekka. My guide only remained with me;
[p.57] but his fears for the safety of his camels would not allow him to
close his eyes. The route from Djidda to Mekka is always frequented by
suspicious characters; and as every body travels by night, stragglers
are easily plundered. Near Hadjalye, are the ruins of an ancient
village, built with stone; and in the Wady are traces of former
cultivation.
August 26th. - At half an hour from Hadjalye, we came to a small date
plantation, surrounded by a wall.
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