The Expenses Incurred By These Menzels Are Shared Among The
Heads Of Families, According To Their Respective Wealth, And Every
Tavern Has A Kind Of Landlord, Who Keeps The Accounts, And Provides The
Kitchen Out Of The Common Stock.
I was told that every respectable
family paid about fifty piastres per annum into the hands of the master
of the Menzels, which makes altogether a sum of about £1000.
Spent in
the entertainment of strangers. Were the place dependent on any Turkish
government,
[p.352] more than triple that sum would be extorted from its inhabitants
for the support of passengers. Besides the Menzels every family is
always ready to receive any acquaintances who may prefer their house to
the public inn. It will readily be conceived, that upon these terms the
people of Szalt are friends of the neighbouring Bedouins; who moreover
fear them because they have a secure retreat, and can muster about four
hundred fire-locks, and from forty to fifty horses. The powerful tribe
of Beni Szakher alone is fearless of the people of Szalt; on the
contrary, they exact a small yearly tribute from the town, which is
willingly paid, in order to secure the harvest against the depredations
of these formidable neighbours; disputes nevertheless arise, and Szalt
is often at war with the Beni Szakher.
While I remained at Szalt I was told of a traveller of whom I had also
heard in the Haouran; he was a Christian of Abyssinia, whose desire it
was to end his days at Jerusalem; he first sailed from Massoua to
Djidda, where he was seized by the Wahabi, and carried to their chief
Ibn Saoud at Deraye, where he remained two years.
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