Travels In Arabia

J >> John Lewis Burckhardt >> Travels In Arabia

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In the town are several wells of brackish water, but no cisterns. The
supply of water for drinking is obtained from some large cisterns,

[p.423] at about five minutes' walk from the Medina gate, where the
rainwater is collected. Small canals have been dug across the
neighbouring plains, to convey the streams of rain-water to these
cisterns. They are spacious, well-cased, subterranean reservoirs, and
some of them large enough to supply the whole town for several weeks.
They are the property of private families, whose ancestors built them,
and who sell the water, at certain prices, fixed by the governor, who
also exacts a tax from each of them. The water is excellent, much better
than that of any other town of the Hedjaz, where the inhabitants are not
industrious enough to form similar cisterns. When the winter-rains fail,
the inhabitants of Yembo suffer severely, and are obliged to fill their
water-skins at the distant wells of Aseylya.

Yembo was formerly annexed to the government of the Sherif of Mekka, who
ought to have divided the receipts at the custom-house with the Turkish
Pasha of Djidda. Ghaleb appropriated it entirely to his own treasury,
and kept here a vizier, or governor, with a guard of about fifty or
sixty men. He appears to have had little other authority than that of
collecting the customs, while the Arabs of the town were left to the
government of their own Sheikhs, and enjoyed much greater liberty than
the people of Mekka and Djidda. The powerful tribe of Djeheyne was not
to be trifled with by the Sherif; and whenever a man of Yembo was
unjustly persecuted, he flew to his relations in the Desert, who
retorted the oppression upon some of the Sherif's people or caravans
until the matter was compromised.

When Saoud, the Wahaby chief, attacked the northern parts of the Hedjaz,
his first endeavours were to reduce the two great Bedouin tribes Beni
Harb and Beni Djeheyne to submission; which was greatly facilitated by
the hatred and animosity that had always existed between those tribes,
who were frequently at war with each other. After the Djeheyne had
surrendered, and Yembo el Nakhel had received a garrison of Wahaby
soldiers, Saoud attacked Yembo, for the first time, in 1802, with a
considerable force, which remained encamped before it for several weeks,
and repeatedly attempted to carry it by assault. After his retreat, the
Yembawys built the new strong wall round

[p.424] the town, by order of the Sherif, who made them bear the whole
expense of the work. After Sherif Ghaleb himself had submitted to the
superior power of Saoud, who took possession of Mekka, Yembo still held
out for some months; and it was not till a strong army was preparing to
attack it, and the Vizier himself had fled, that the Yembawys sent a
messenger to Saoud, and capitulated, adopting at the same time his
creed. The Wahabys did not place a garrison in the town; the Sherif
continued to keep his governor there: but the Wahaby tax-gatherers came;
and the inhabitants, who, except customhouse duties, had never before
been subject to any imposts, found the government of the Wahabys press
very heavily upon them.

In the autumn of 1811, when the Turkish army under Tousoun Pasha
effected its first landing near the town, the Yembawys were very willing
to shake off the government both of the Sherif and the Wahabys; and the
officers of Ghaleb and Saoud then in the town fled, and, after a
trifling show of resistance, the two first days, by Ghaleb's commander,
who had but a few soldiers with him, and who soon saw that the spirit of
the inhabitants was wholly against fighting, the town opened its gates,
and experienced some slight injuries from the disorderly Turkish
soldiers. Since that time Yembo has been garrisoned by them, and was
made the commissariat depot of the Turkish army employed against the
enemy in the neighbourhood of Medina. The soldiers, being at a distance
from the Pasha, or his son, behaved with much more irregularity than
they dared to do either at Djidda or Mekka. Every Bimbashy, or commander
of a company, who landed here with his soldiers, assumed, during his
stay, the government of the town; while the real governor, Selym Aga,
who had but a few soldiers under him, was often reduced to a mere
cipher. Several affrays happened during my stay, and the inhabitants
were extremely exasperated. A Turkish officer shot, with his pistol, in
the open street in mid-day, a young Arab, to whom he had for some time
been making infamous proposals; he committed this murder with the
greatest composure, in revenge for his refusal, and then took refuge in
the quarters of a Bimbashy, whose soldiers were called out

[p.425] to defend him against the fury of the populace. The relations of
the Arab hastened to Medina to ask the life of the aggressor from
Mohammed Aly Pasha; I left Yembo before the affair was settled.

The Yembawys are all armed, although they seldom appear so in public,
and they carry usually a heavy bludgeon in their hand. A few of them
keep horses; the Djeheyne established at Yembo el Nakhel have good
breeds of Nedjed horses, though in small numbers. Asses are kept by
every family, to bring water to the town. The want of servants and day-
labourers is felt here still more than in the other towns of the Hedjaz.
No Yembawy will engage in any menial labour, if he has the smallest
chance of providing for his existence by other means. Egyptian peasants,
left on this coast after their pilgrimage, and obliged to earn money for
their passage home, engage themselves as porters and labourers, bring
wood, water, &c. I have seen a piastre and a half paid to a man for
carrying a load the distance of five hundred yards from the shore to a
house.

Yembo is the cheapest place in the Hedjaz with regard to provisions; and
as it possesses good water, and appears to be in a much more healthy
situation than Djidda, a residence in it might be tolerable, were it not
for the incredible quantity of flies that haunt this coast. No person
walks out without a straw fan in his hand to drive off these vermin; and
it is utterly impossible to eat, without swallowing some of them, which
enter the mouth the moment it is opened. Clouds of them are seen passing
over the town; they settle even upon the ships that sail out of the
harbour, and remain on board during the whole voyage.

[p.426]FROM YEMBO TO CAIRO.

I EMBARKED at Yembo on the morning of the 15th of May, in an open
sambouk, or large boat, bound to Cosseir, there to load with corn; the
Reys or master was the son of the owner, a native of Yembo. I had agreed
for my own and my slave's passage from hence to Cosseir at five dollars,
two dollars being the usual charge paid by hadjys, and one dollar by
poor people and servants. The government allowed the ship-owners only
half a dollar per head for the transport of soldiers. As the partner of
the commander of Yembo had a share in this boat, it was allowed to
proceed without soldiers, and the Reys had told me that there were only
a dozen Arab passengers on board. In making me pay two dollars more than
the usual fare, he had agreed to let me have a small place behind the
steerage to myself. When I came on board, however, I found that I had
been deceived; above thirty passengers, principally Syrians and
Egyptians, were crowded together in the boat, with about ten sailors.
The Reys, his younger brother, the pilot, and the steward, had
established themselves in the place behind the helm for which I had
agreed. To revisit Yembo, the abode of death, was not advisable; and as
I saw no appearance of plague on board, I submitted to my lot without
any unavailing dispute. We immediately set sail, keeping close in shore.
In the evening I saw that my situation was much worse than I had
suspected it to be when I came on board; in the hold were lying half a
dozen

[p.427] sick people, two of whom were in a violent delirium; the Reys's
young brother, who had his seat close to me, was paid to attend the
sick; one of them died on the following day, and the body was thrown
overboard. Little doubt remained of the plague being actually in the
ship, though the sailors insisted that it was a different malady. On the
third day, the boy, the Reys's brother, felt great pains in his head,
and, struck with the idea of the plague, he insisted on being set on
shore. We were then in a small bay; the Reys yielded to his entreaties,
and agreed with a Bedouin on shore to carry him back on his camel to
Yembo. He was landed, and I am ignorant of his fate. The only precaution
I could take against infection, was to place my baggage round me, so as
to form an insulated spot in which I had just room enough to sit at my
ease; but notwithstanding this, I was compelled to come in contact every
moment with the ship's company. Very luckily the disease did not spread;
we had only another death, on the fifth day from our departure, though
several of the passengers were seized with the malady, which I cannot
possibly affirm to have been the plague, as I did not examine the
corpses, but every thing led me to that belief. The continual sea-
sickness and vomiting of the passengers were, perhaps, to them a
salutary operation of nature. As to myself, I was in a very low state of
health the whole of the voyage, and frequently tormented with my ague,
which was increased by the utter want of comforts on board. I had taken
a disgust to all food, excepting broths: whenever we entered a port, I
bought a sheep of the Bedouins, in order to have a dish of soup; and by
distributing the meat among the ship's people, I obtained their good-
will, so that in every instance I was well treated by them; and could
command their assistance whenever I stood in need of it, either to raise
a temporary awning every morning, or to fill my water-skins on shore.

The navigation is here the same as what I have already described in my
voyage from Sowakin to Djidda. We went into a harbour every evening,
never sailing during the night, and started again at day-break. If it
was known that no small creek or harbour lay before us, near enough to
be reached before sun-set with the then existing wind, we sometimes
stopped at an anchoring-place soon after mid-day. Unfortunately,

[p.428] the ship's boat had been carried away by a heavy sea, in a
preceding voyage; we therefore could seldom get on shore, excepting at
places where we found other vessels, whose boats we took, as we usually
anchored in deep water. The sailors showed as great cowardice here, as
those of Sowakin on a former occasion. Whenever it blew fresh, the sails
were taken in; the dread of a storm made them take shelter in a harbour,
and we never made longer courses than from twenty-five to thirty-five
miles per day. A large square cask of water was the only one on board,
and contained a supply for three days for the ship's crew only. The
passengers had each his own water-skin; and whenever we reached a
watering-place, the Bedouins came to the beach, and sold us the contents
of their full skins. As it sometimes happens that the ships are becalmed
in a bay distant from any wells, or prevented from quitting it by
adverse winds, the crew is exposed to great sufferings from thirst, for
they have never more on board their boats than a supply for three or
four days.

For the first three days we steered along a sandy shore, here entirely
barren and uninhabited, the mountains continuing at a distance inland.
At three days' journey by land and by sea from Yembo, as it is generally
computed, lies the mountain called Djebel Hassany, reaching close to the
shore; and from thence northward the lower range of the mountains are,
in the vicinity of the beach, thinly inhabited throughout by Bedouins.
The encampments of the tribe of Djeheyne extend as far as these
mountains: to the north of it, as far as the station of the Hadj called
El Wodjeh, or as it is also pronounced, El Wosh, are the dwelling-places
of the Heteym Bedouins. In front of Djebel Hassany are several islands;
and the sea is here particularly full of shoals and coral rocks, rising
nearly to the surface; from the various colours of which, the water,
when viewed from a distance, assumes all the hues of the rainbow. In
spring, after the rains, some of these little islands are inhabited by
the Bedouins of the coast, who there pasture their cattle as long as
food is found: they have small boats, and are all active fishers. They
salt the fish, and either carry it in their own boats to Yembo and
Cosseir, or sell it to the ships which pass. One of these islands,
called El Harra, belongs to

[p.429] the Beni Abs, once a powerful Bedouin tribe, but now reduced to
a few families, who live mixed with the Beni Heteym, and, like them, are
held in great disrepute by all their neighbours. Upon another island
stands the tomb of a saint, called Sheikh Hassan el Merabet, with a few
low buildings and huts round it, where a Bedouin family of the Heteym
tribe is stationary, to whom the guardianship of the tomb belongs. The
course of the Arab ships being usually close by this island, the crews
often despatch a boat with a few measures of corn to those people, or
some butter, biscuits, and coffee-beans, because they consider Sheikh
Hassan to be the patron of these seas. When we sailed by, our Reys made
a large loaf of bread, which he baked in ashes, and distributed a morsel
of it to every person on board, who eat it in honour of the saint, after
which we were treated by him with a cup of coffee.

In general, the Arab sailors are very superstitious; they hold certain
passages in great horror; not because they are more dangerous than
others, but because they believe that evil spirits dwell among the coral
rocks, and might possibly attract the ship towards the shoal, and cause
her to founder. For the same reason they observe the constant practice
of throwing, at every meal, a handful of dressed victuals into the sea,
before they sit down themselves to the repast; saying that the
inhabitants of the sea must also have their morsel, otherwise they will
impede the vessel's course. Our Reys once forgot this tribute; but on
recollecting it, he ordered a fresh loaf to be baked, and threw it into
the sea.

We met every day, during this voyage, ships coming from Egypt, and often
lay in the same bay with three or four of them, in the evening. On such
occasions quarrels frequently happen about water; and ships are often
obliged to wait one or two days before the Bedouins bring a sufficient
supply down to the coast. Butter, milk, honey, sheep, goats, salt fish,
firewood, thin branches of the shrub Arak, of which the Arabians make
their tooth-brushes, and which the Bedouins collect on this coast, are
every where to be had in plenty, and are generally exchanged for corn or
tobacco. These Bedouins are daring robbers, and often swim to the ships
during the night, to watch for the opportunity

[p.430] of pilfering. The water on the whole coast is bad, except at
Wodjeh and at Dhoba. Wodjeh, which is usually reckoned at three days'
journey northward from Djebel Hassany, is a castle on the Hadj route,
about three miles inland. Close by it is excellent spring water; and
there are likewise copious wells of tolerable water in the vicinity of
the small bay which serves as a harbour to the castle, and is therefore
called Mersa el Wodjeh. Some Moggrebyn soldiers garrison the castle,
which was said to be well stocked with provisions. Several of them were
married to Bedouin women, and carried on a trifling trade in provisions
with the ships that pass.

The neighbouring mountains of Wodjeh are inhabited by the Bedouin tribe
of Bily. To the north of Wodjeh, and about two days' journey south of
Moeyleh, lies the anchorage of Dhoba, renowned for its excellent wells.
The anchoring-place is in a large bay, one of the best harbours on this
coast, and the wells are about half an hour's distance inland, under a
grove of palm and Doum date-trees. The route of the Egyptian Hadj passes
here; and for its convenience, a birket, or reservoir, has been
constructed. The ships that sail from Cosseir to Yembo generally make
this point, and continue from thence their coasting voyage southwards.
North of Dhoba two days, lies the castle and small village of Moeyleh,
in the territory of the Howeytat and Omran Bedouins. We passed it at a
distance; but I could see considerable plantations of date-trees near
the shore. What is called the castle, appears to be a square building,
upon the plain close by the water-side. The position of Moeyleh is
distinguishable from afar by the high mountain just behind it; three
pointed summits of which, overtopping the rest, are visible sixty to
eighty miles off: I was told that in clear winter days they could be
distinguished, from Cosseir, at the moment of sun-rise. Moeyleh is the
principal position on this coast from Akaba down to Yembo. Its
inhabitants, who are for the greater part Bedouins, become settlers,
carry on a trade in cattle and fish with Tor and Yembo, and their market
is visited by numerous Bedouins of the interior of the country. It is
the only place on this coast where a regular market is kept, and where
provisions are always to be found, and thus often affords timely relief
to ships detained on their

[p.431] passage by contrary winds. Provisions being very dear in the
Hedjaz, and very cheap in Egypt, ships, on leaving the Hedjaz harbours
for Cosseir or Suez, never lay in more than is absolutely necessary; but
the passage, which is usually calculated by them at twenty days, very
often lasts a month, and sometimes even two months.

From off Moeyleh, the point of the peninsula of Sinai, called Ras Abou
Mohammed, is clearly distinguished. Ships bound from Yembo to Cosseir
generally make this promontory, or one of the islands lying before it,
and thence steer south to Cosseir. They do this, in order to take
advantage of the northerly winds that blow in these parts of the Red Sea
for nine months of the year; and they prefer the tedious, but safer mode
of a coasting voyage, during which they often enjoy a land-breeze, to
the danger and fatigue of beating up, in open sea, against the wind, or
of standing straight across from Djidda or Yembo to the African coast;
with the harbours of which, south of Cosseir, very few Red Sea pilots
are acquainted, and of the Bedouin inhabitants of which they all
entertain great fears.

On reaching Ras Mohammed, they anchor near one of the small islands, or
go into the harbour called Sherm, where they wait till a fair wind
springs up, which usually carries them to Cosseir in one or two days.

As for ourselves, we had not during the whole voyage any sort of
disagreeable occurrence, though the wind, which was seldom fair, obliged
us once to remain three days at the same anchorage; and I often expected
the vessel to be wrecked, on seeing the pilot steer among the shoals in
shore: a practice in which these people have acquired great experience,
and in which they display as much boldness as they do cowardice in the
open sea.

After twenty days' voyage we reached the neighbourhood of Ras Abou
Mohammed, on the 4th of June: the boat was secured for the night with
grapplings to some coral rocks, leeward of a small island ahead of the
promontory; the pilot intending to strike across the next morning.

As I knew that Bedouins were always to be found in the harbour of Sherm,
to transport passengers by land to Tor or Suez, I wished to be set on
shore here. The road from hence to Cairo was much shorter

[p.432] than by way of Cosseir; and my low state of health rendered it
desirable to leave the vessel where I had not the slightest
accommodation, and where the fears of the plague had not yet subsided,
though no person had died on board during the last fortnight. For the
sum of four dollars given to the Reys, and one to the pilot, they were
kind enough to go a little out of their course, and on the following
morning, the 5th of June, we entered the harbour of Sherm.

Sherm is about four or five hours distant from the point called Ras Abou
Mohammed, and is a good and spacious harbour, with anchorage for large
ships; it lies at the entrance of the gulf of Akaba, and is the best
harbour on the west side of that gulf. Under the name Sherm, or Sheroum,
(the plural,) are included two harbours half a mile distant from each
other, both equally good; but the southern is the most frequented. As a
copious well is near, these harbours are often visited by ships coming
from and going to the Hedjaz; and passengers who wish to save themselves
a voyage up the Gulf of Suez, (which during the prevalence of the
northerly winds is often of long duration,) land here, and are carried
by the Bedouins upon camels to Tor and Suez. These Bedouins, living up
in the mountains, see the ships from afar, and on their arrival hasten
to the coast to offer their services. In former times, when the Pashas
of Egypt exercised but a nominal power over the neighbouring Bedouins,
the Arabs of Tor were much dreaded by the crews of ships; they enforced
from them regular tributes whenever they entered their harbours, and
conducted themselves in a very oppressive manner. At present, Mohammed
Aly, through the means of the commander at Suez, has succeeded in
overawing these Bedouins; their conduct is now very friendly, and
travelling with them is perfectly safe: but if a ship happens to be
wrecked on their coasts, or on the islands near them (no unfrequent
occurrence), they still assert their ancient right of plundering the
cargo.

In the evening a ship came in, laden with soldiers, which left Yembo six
days before us; the commander of the soldiers, and four or five of his
party, were set on shore, to proceed by land to Cairo, and both vessels
continued their voyage the next morning for Cosseir.

[p.433] There was no difficulty in obtaining camels; more than thirty
were ready to be hired; and we started, on the evening of our arrival,
in two parties, the one in advance composed of the soldiers, and the
other, at about two hours' distance behind, composed of myself and
slave, and two fellow passengers, men of Damascus, who were glad of this
opportunity of shortening their journey home. We rode this evening about
one hour and a half in a valley, and then rested for the night.

On the 6th of June we continued our road in barren valleys, among steep
rocks, mostly of granite, till we halted, about noon, under a projecting
rock that afforded us some shade. The Bedouins went to fetch water from
a place up in the western mountains, called El Hamra, which proved to be
of excellent quality. A poor woman with two goats lived in the valley
quite alone. Among the Bedouins themselves the most perfect security
prevails in this district, which is interrupted only by the scandalous
behaviour of the Turkish soldiers who pass this way. I knew these men
well from repeated experience, and therefore had declined joining their
party. When we continued our route towards evening, we met on the road
one of the Bedouin boys who served as camel-drivers to the party before
us. His camel, upon which one of the soldiers was mounted, had not been
able to keep up with the others, and its rider, furious at this delay,
had drawn his sabre, and cut the animal to make it move at a quicker
pace: when the boy remonstrated and seized the halter, he also received
a cut on the shoulder; and as he persisted in keeping his hold, the
ruffian discharged his gun at him; the boy then ran off, and waited for
our coming up. At a few miles' distance we heard from afar the soldier's
loud cursing, and found him walking behind the camel. As I expected an
affray, I had loaded my gun and pistols. When he saw me riding in front
of our people, he immediately ran towards me, and cried out to me in
Turkish to descend and to change camels with him. I laughed at him, and
told him in Arabic I was no fellah, to be addressed in that manner. In
the usual style of those soldiers, who think that every person who is
not a soldier must yield to their commands, he then turned towards my
slave and ordered him to alight, swearing

[p.434] that he would shoot one of us, if we did not obey. On hearing
this I took up my gun, and assured him that it was loaded with good
powder, and would send a bullet to his heart better than his would to
mine. During this altercation his camel had strayed a little into the
valley, and fearing for his baggage, he ran after it, and we rode on.
Not being able to follow us in the sands, he discharged his gun at me,
from a distance, which I immediately answered, and thus the battle
ended. Farther on we came up with his companions, who had alighted. I
told them, that their friend behind was embarrassed with his camel, upon
which they dispatched one of their Bedouins to fetch him, while I myself
rode on, and encamped that night in a side valley out of the road, where
the Bedouin boy again joined us, not wishing to be seen by the other
soldiers.