The Cafes,
Which Abound Here, Have Already Been Described In The Last Chapter;
They Are Rendered Dirty In The Extreme By Travellers, And It Is
Impossible To Sit In Them Without A Fan To Drive Away The Flies.
The
custom-house fronts the landing-place upon the harbour; it is managed
by Turkish officials,-men dressed in Tarbushes, who repose the livelong
day upon the Diwans near the windows.
In the case of us travellers they
had a very simple way of doing business, charging each person of the
party three piastres for each large box, but by no means troubling
themselves to meddle with the contents.[FN#4] Yambu' also boasts of a
Hammam or hot bath, a mere date-leaf shed, tenanted by an old Turk,
who, with his surly Albanian assistant, lives by "cleaning" pilgrims
and travellers. Some whitewashed Mosques and Minarets of exceedingly
simple form, a Wakalah or two for the reception of merchants, and a
saint's tomb, complete the list of public buildings.
In one point Yambu' claims superiority over most other towns in this
part of Al-Hijaz. Those who can afford the luxury drink sweet
rain-water, collected amongst the hills in tanks and cisterns, and
brought on camelback to the town. Two sources are especially praised,
the Ayn al-Birkat and the Ayn Ali, which suffice to supply the whole
population: the brackish water of the wells is confined to coarser
purposes. Some of the old people here, as at Suez, are said to prefer
the drink to which
[p.228] years of habit have accustomed them, and it is a standing joke
that, arrived at Cairo, they salt the water of the Nile to make it
palatable.
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