illness at Djidda. During the night, the Kadhy of Mekka arrived from
Tayf.

September 8th. At day-break, I went to visit the Kadhy, whom I found
smoking his pipe and drinking coffee; availing himself of the privilege
granted to travellers in Ramadhan, of dispensing with the fast.
According to our agreement at Tayf, I was to join him here on his way to
Mekka; I could not therefore avoid joining him; but I was extremely
averse to continuing with him, because he would probably carry me to his
house at Mekka, where I should be again placed in a situation similar to
that which had proved so uncomfortable at Tayf. He seemed, however,
willing to avoid the trouble and expense of a guest; for when I
expressed some appre-hensions that my tired ass would be unable to keep
pace with his fine mule, he immediately answered, that he hoped, at all
events, to meet me again at Mekka. I departed, therefore, with the
soldiers, leaving the Kadhy to repose a little longer. We passed the
mid-day hours at the coffee-hut called Shedad, where several Bedouins
were amusing themselves by shooting at a mark. They gave proofs of great
dexterity, often hitting a piastre, which I placed at about forty yards'
distance. Except coffee and water, nothing is to be procured in any of
the huts on this road; the coffee is not served up in single cups, as
usual in most parts of the Levant; but, whoever asks for it, has a small
earthen pot of hot coffee set before him, containing from ten to fifteen
cups: this quantity the traveller often drinks three or four times a
day. These pots are called mashrabe. (See their form in the outlines
annexed.) [Illustration not included].

Into the mouth of the pot is stuck a bunch of dry herbs, through which
the liquid is poured. I have already noticed the immoderate