Page 236 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

M.] COAST or ARABIA. 217 I

purchase at liis own price, and content them­
selves with retailing it to the Bedowins at a
moderate profit.

It is only when the communication with the
interior is interrupted, that Medina and Nejd
are exclusively supplied with grain and coffee
by the route of Yembo’. When the road is
open, as at present, they convey a consider­
able quantity of both articles by caravan from
Yemen to Medina.
At the period of our visit, Yembo’ was
garrisoned by five hundred Albanian troops,
who were relieved at stated intervals from
Medina. The situation of governor, who

superintends the landing and forwarding of
grain to that city, as well as the fulfilment
of Mohammed All’s very advantageous agree­
ments with the respective Bedowin chiefs
in the vicinity of Yembo’, is an appoint­
ment of some importance and emolument,
though his salary is said to be only five hun­
dred dollars a month. The person who held
that office during our stay was a Turk who
had been a pipe-bearer to the Pasha. In his
divan, no one maintained a more dignified
deportment and reserve than Hassan Aga.