The Dowaser Are Said To Be Very Tall Men,
And Almost Black.
In former times they used to sell at Mekka ostrich
feathers to the northern pilgrims, and many pedlars of Mekka came here
in winter to exchange cotton stuffs for those feathers.
Adjoining the Dowaser, but I cannot exactly ascertain in what direction,
are the Beni Kelb, Bedouins of whom many absurd fables are related in
the Hedjaz: thus it is said, the men never speak Arabic, but bark like
dogs; a notion, perhaps, arising from the name Kelb, which signifies a
dog. Their women, however, it is allowed, can speak Arabic; but the
truth is, that the stranger who alights at their tents is entertained by
the women, and not by the men.
Half way between Wady Dowaser, or the winter pasture-land of the Dowaser
tribe, and Sanaa the capital of Yemen, a short day's journey east of
Thohran, (the territory of the Wadaa Arabs,) and four or five days from
the town of Sada, lies the Wady Nedjran, on the first of the great chain
of mountains. It is a fertile valley between inaccessible mountains, in
which the passes are so narrow that two camels cannot go abreast. The
valley is watered by rivulets, and abounds with date-trees. Here reside
the Beni Yam, an ancient tribe, distinguished lately by their opposition
to the Wahabys: they consist of settlers and Bedouins; the former being
Shyas, or heretics of the Persian sect, followers of Aly, while the
Bedouins are mostly Sunne or orthodox Muselmans.
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