Page 422 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XIX.] SOUTHERN ARABIA. 395

females, and are the porters and the brick­

layers of this town and Lahedsje. A few of
their number distil an intoxicating liquor from
raisins, which the Arabs consume in great
quantities. Grain, and a few trifling articles,
are sold by them in their own houses: some
catch fish along the beach with nets, and
bring them to the tank for sale; but none, as
at Mokhd, go to sea in boats for this purpose.
Within their village they have a small syna­
gogue and two schools, in which their children
are instructed in reading, writing, and a know­

ledge of the Hebrew language: they write
on a wooden tablet with red chalk. Their
mode of recitation seemed, to us at least, sin­
gular; every individual calling out the pas­
sage he is acquiring a knowledge of, to the ut­
most extent of his voice; and in as mall room
filled with thirty or forty boys, the effects of
such a Babel may readily be conceived. I
observed that the master paraded the room
with a whip in his hand to punish the negli­
gent or refractory.

Attracted by the excellence of its harbours,
which are undoubtedly the best in all Arabia,
Aden is still visited by several vessels, par-