Page 443 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

41b
SOUTHERN ARABIA. [CII.

The principal occupation of the inhabitants

of Jaffa is cultivating their coffee, wheat,
Indian corn, and senna. If any attempt is
made to invade or insult their territories,
the people are collected by messengers, who
go round and summon them to attend their
Sheikh on an appointed time. Though the
Sheikh has no regular troops, the number he
can thus assemble is said to be ten thousand.
Howhar is situated but a short distance
from the beach, and is, moreover, a town of
considerable extent; yet it has not hitherto

found any place in our maps. This may
have arisen from its being partly hidden
from the view of those who sail along the
coast by a range of sand-hills, running paral­
lel to the beach, and extending for some dis­
tance into the interior. Howhar lies five
miles from the sea in a direct line. It oc­
cupies a considerable space of ground, but
the number of houses does not exceed six
hundred. These are scattered into groups or
hamlets, some of which are picturesquely
situated amidst groves and thickets of acacia,
and nebek trees. The number of inha­
bitants was estimated at three thousand: they