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.
Two shops, kept by Turks, where Greek cheese, dried meat, dried apples,
figs, raisins, apricots, called kammared'din, &c. are sold at three
times the price paid in Cairo. The cheese comes from Candia, and is much
in request among all the Turkish troops. An indifferent sort of cheese
is made in the Hedjaz; it is extremely white, although salted, does not
keep long, and is not by any means very nutritive. The Bedouins
themselves care little for cheese; they either drink their milk, or make
it into butter. 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.
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