Under the influence of the quarantine, El-Wijh, the town on the
northern bank of its cove, has blossomed into a hauteville,
dating from the last dozen years. The ancient basseville,
probably the site of many former settlements, is now used chiefly
for shops and stores. Another and a more pretentious mosque has
supplanted the little old Zawiyah ("chapel") with its barbarous
minaret, whose finial, a series of inverted crescents, might be
taken for a cross; while a Jami' or "cathedral," begun in the
upper town, has stopped short through want of funds. Some of the
best houses now extend towards the northern point. As usual in
Arab settlements, they are long, tall claret-cases of coral-rag
and burnt lime; flat-roofed, whitewashed in front, and provided
with wooden doors and shutters. Lastly, on the slope still
appears the smoky coffee-shed that witnessed the memorable
encounter between its surly proprietor and "Saad the
Devil."[EN#43]

Stony ramps, stiff as those of Gibraltar, connect the low with
the high town, the cool breezy new settlement upon the crest of
the northern cliff, whose noble view of the Jebel Libn and the
palm-scattered Wady el-Wijh were formerly monopolized by the fort
and its round tower. This work, only sixty-five years old, now
stands so perilously near the undermined edge of the
rock-cornice, that some day it will come down with a run. It is
used by the garrison, and serves as a jail; but lately a Bedawi
prisoner, like a certain Mamluk Bey, jumped down the precipitous
cove-face and effected his escape. Behind it are the "Doctors'
Quarters," empty and desolate, because the sanitary officers have
been removed. They are sheds of white-washed boarding, brought