Travels In Arabia | Page 9

carpenters’ work. There is,
generally, a spacious hall at the entrance, where strangers are received,
and which, during the heat of the day, is cooler than any other part of
the house, as its floor is kept almost constantly wet. The distribution of
rooms is nearly the same as in the houses of Egypt and Syria; with this
difference, however, that in Djidda there are not so many large and
lofty apartments as in those countries, where but few houses, at least of
the natives, have two stories, whilst the rooms on the ground-floor are
sometimes of a considerable height. It thus happens that, in many
houses of the Hedjaz, the only cool spot is the entrance-hall; and here,
at noon, the master, with all his male attendants, hired servants or
slaves, may be seen enjoying, the siesta. [Although the cool breeze
comes only from the north, yet the Arabians do not seem to take so
much advantage of it in their houses as the Egyptians, whose principal
rooms are generally so contrived as to open towards the north. The
large ventilators constructed on the terraces of houses in Egypt, and

which diffuse a current of air through all the lower apartments, are
unknown in the Hedjaz.] As building is very expensive in this country,
little is adapted for outward show beyond the lattice-work of the
bow-windows; this frequently is painted with most gaudy colours, both
on the outside and inside. In many houses the lawful wife of a man
occupies one part, and his female Abyssinian slaves are lodged in their
own distinct apartments; convenience, therefore, in the building, is
more studied than size or beauty; yet, in Egypt, many ordinary houses
have spacious and handsome rooms.
Uniformity in architecture is not observed at Djidda. Some houses are
built with small, others with large square stones, the smooth side
outwards, and the interior filled up with mud. Sometimes the walls are
entirely of stone; many have, at intervals of about three feet, thin layers
of planks placed in the wall, and these, the
[p.11] Arabs imagine, tend to increase its strength. When the walls are
plastered, the wood is left of its natural colour, which gives to the
whole a gay and pleasing appearance, as if the building had been
ornamented with so many bands; but the dazzling white of the walls
during sun-shine is extremely distressing to the eyes. Most of the
gateways have pointed arches; some few round; and the latter are seen,
though less frequently, over the gates of private houses in every part of
Egypt. No buildings of ancient date are observed in Djidda, the
madrepore being of such a nature that it rapidly decays when exposed
to the rain and moist atmosphere prevalent here. [In general, it may be
said that Djidda is a modern town; for its importance as a market of
Indian goods can only be traced to the beginning of the fifteenth
century, although it had been known in the most ancient times of
Arabian history as the harbour of Mekka.] Besides many small
mosques, there are two of considerable size: one of these was built by
Sherif Serour, predecessor of the last reigning Sherif Ghaleb. The
Governor’s habitation, in which the Sherif himself frequently resided,
is a paltry building; such, likewise, is that in which dwells the collector
of the customs. There are some well-built public khans in the town,
with good accommodation, where the foreign merchants reside during
their short stay here. In these khans are large open squares with arched
passages, which afford a cool shade to the merchants for the greater
part of the day. Except during the monsoon, when Djidda is extremely

crowded with people, private lodgings may easily be procured in the
most distant quarters of the town. The best private dwellings of Djidda
belong to the great mercantile establishment of Djeylani, who, with his
family, occupies a small square behind the principal street. This square
is composed of three large buildings, the most commodious and costly
private houses in all the Hedjaz. Every house of moderate size has its
cistern; but as the rains are not sufficiently regular or abundant to fill
the cisterns from the tops of the houses, (as
[p.12] throughout Syria,) they are often supplied with water from pools
formed outside of the town in rainy seasons.
Of these cisterns, the water is very inadequate to the consumption of
Djidda, and is reckoned a delicacy. Much of the drinking water is
drawn from some wells a mile and a half distant on the southern side;
water, indeed, may be found every where at a depth of fifteen feet, but
it is generally of a bad taste, and in some places scarcely drinkable.
Two only of the wells afford water that can be called