Page 392 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XVIII.] I) EUREKA. 305

sal in Arabia; the northern provinces being
i.
supplied from Egypt; but Jiddah, Mecca,
many provinces in the interior, and almost all !
Yemen, receive theirs from the African ports.
urn
Being made from goat, sheep, and cow’s milk,
they esteem the ghl of the latter country to
be far preferable to that procured from Egypt,
'
which is made from the milk of buffaloes *.
It is brought over in large leathern skins,
similar to those used in India. A considerable
quantity of indigo is forwarded from hence

to Mokhfi and Makullah, where blue cloth
seems in more general use than at Jiddah,
or any of the northern provinces. Owing,
probably, to its composing the dress of the
Fellahs of Egypt, for whom the Arabs enter­
tain great contempt, it is there seldom worn
by any but the lower classes. A great sup­
ply of indigo was some years ago annually
demanded from India, Abyssinia, and Yemen ;
but the improvements Mahommed All has
since made in the growth and manufacture
of that reared in Egypt, put an end to the

* In this and other parts of the work I have retained the Indian
name of this substance (which is clarified butter), in preference to
the Arabian local term, semin, as throughout the coast it is more
generally understood than the latter.