Page 414 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XIX.] SOUTHERN ARABIA. 387

pidated and tottering state, and will not, in
all probability, withstand another monsoon.
They are handsome buildings, of octagonal
figure, and about sixty feet in height; their
summit adorned with a cupola, and their sides

ornamented with various devices in relief;
but the several mosques to which these
were attached are now in ruins. One of
them, called Shuma, was frequented until
lately ; but though the Muezzin’s call is still
heard every Friday from its minaret, the
prayers of the faithful are offered up in
a spacious shed contiguous to it. They
are wholly constructed of burnt bricks or
tiles. Within the enclosure is a well, which
formerly supplied a fountain, the water of
which is used by the Mussulmanns in their
ablutions. All, however, has now gone to
decay, and the once sacred spot has neither
floor, roof, nor doors, and is filled with dirt
and rubbish. The other minaret, still in
tolerable repair, is situated near the Suk,

or market-place, but its mosque is in an
equally ruinous state. Of the houses which
remain, a few only are now habitable;
the most capacious and best preserved of
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