Page 122 - A Hand book of Arabia Vol 1 (iii) Ch 4,5

156 YEMEN

Beni Matar is also well known. Ta‘izz is the centre of the southern
coffee districts.

Coffee is undoubtedly still the most important crop of the Yemen,
in spite of prices dropping owing to the competition of Brazil and
the present insecurity and difficulties of transport. Local con­
sumption is enormous, but the thrifty Arabs use (and seem to
prefer) the husk and keep the berry for market. The outlets for
the marketable berries are Hodeidah and Aden, but increasingly
the latter in consequence of tlje comparatively greater security
of the routes to Aden. The other main crops of the highlands are
barley, bearded wheat, millet, vegetables, and kat. The latter
calls for a passing notice. The plant (Catha edulis), resembling the
spindle-tree, is cultivated in Yemen over limited areas in such
districts as suit it, at an altitude of about 5,000 ft. It is tended
with zealous care in walled enclosures, and is perhaps the most
profitable of all the Yemen products. The tender leaves and twigs
are the valuable parts of the plant, and are chiefly in demand. The
natives chew these for their exhilarant and stimulant properties,
and the habit is almost universal among the inhabitants of this
part of Arabia. The only implements used by the highland farmer
are a hoe, a mattock, a reed basket (the latter for transporting soil), j
and an empty kerosene tin for watering purposes. As to the crops
farther eastward of the plateau, the country here becomes less and j
less fertile, and cultivation gives way almost entirely to pastoral
occupations.

The farmers of Yemen in general are guided as to seasons by the •
stars. They watch, for example, the movement of the Pleiades for
the spring activities : the Arabs call it Thurayya (from a word
meaning wealth), and when the cluster swings low in the west he
knows the spring rains are at hand ; or, when he sees Aldebaran on
the western skyline at dusk, he starts his ploughing, for the spring
rains have then set in and the ground is soft enough for the plough
or the mattock.
Produce has to be transported from the farms by hand, or in
absurdly small loads on donkeys, in consequence of the extreme
difficulty in negotiating some of the mountain paths, often the
merest footholds. When it has been carried to a main caravan
route, the husbandman is then faced by the exorbitant cost of
transport, often further enhanced by difficulty in obtaining fodder.
The caravan routes too are beset by marauders, more especially
towards the coast, where the best, though remote, markets lie
laced by such obstacles, production is often restricted to local
requirements. Yemen is fertile enough and will produce
most