Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Travels in Arabia; comprehending an account of those territories in Hedjaz which the Mohammedans regard as sacred by John Lewis Burckhardt
page 24 of 566 (04%)
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 sweet; but even this
is considered heavy, [Heavy and light, applied to water, are expressions
common in most languages of the East, where both natives and foreigners,
from the vast quantity which they consume, become more refined in their
taste regarding it than the people of our northern climates.] and, if
suffered to stand twenty-four hours in a vessel, it becomes full of
insects. The good water of these two wells being scarce and dear, cannot
always be procured without the assistance of powerful friends; in fact,
DigitalOcean Referral Badge