gardens that are to be seen in the neighbourhood of the city.

'Abulfeda ascribes eight gates to Zebid; but, of these, five only are now standing, and the river is gradually breaking down a part of them. The walls of the old city are demolished, and the very ruins are sold by poor people, who gather out the stones, and sell them for building new houses. The present buildings occupy about one half of the ancient extent of the city. Zebid is still distinguished for an academy, in which the youth of Tehama, and of a part of Yemen, study such sciences as are cultivated among the Mussulmans. This is, besides, the seat of a dowlah, a mufti, and a kadi of the sect of Shaffei, and of two other kadis, of the sect of Zeidi, to which the imaum and the greater part of his subjects profess to belong.'

Much indigo is grown here; and where the vale has not been encroached upon and ravaged by the torrents, the fields have a rich and beautiful appearance. Between Wady Zebid and Beit el Fakih, there is another beautiful valley, in which formerly stood a considerable town called El Mahad; and which still contains some populous villages. It receives the waters of Mount Rema, and discharges them into the sea near Shurem.

Niebuhr made an excursion from Beit el Fakih to Bulgosa, in the coffee-mountains, distant half a day's journey. The roads are very bad: neither asses nor mules can be used, for the hills are to be climbed only by steep and narrow paths. Compared with the parched plains of the Tehama, the scenery is delightful. The mountains are of basalt, and detached rocks, composed almost entirely of basaltic columns, form a grand and picturesque feature in the landscape.

some instances, cascades are seen to rush from the summits, having the appearance of flowing over rows of artificial pillars. These columns, being easily

separated, are shaped into steps where the ascent is most difficult, and into terraces to support the coffeeplantations, which rise in the form of an amphitheatre. The coffee-trees were at this period (March) in flower, and exhaled an exquisite perfume. The air at Bulgosa is much fresher and cooler than in the plain, and the women have a fairer complexion; yet here, the Travellers had climbed scarcely half the ascent to Kusma, where the dowlah of the district dwells, upon the loftiest peak of this range of mountains.

Another excursion was, from Beit el Fakih to Udden and Djobla. The first day's journey lay in a S. S. E. direction across the plain, passing through several villages, to Robo, where there is a weekly suk or market, -a distance of about seven leagues. The next day, in about a league, they entered upon the mountains. Here, near the village of Meschal, the learned Traveller saw, for the first time in Yemen, running water. The channel of the river, which is called Wady Zebid till it enters the Tehama, is very broad at this place, but the stream was not above twenty-four feet in width: as soon as it reaches the burning plains, it spreads into a shallow lake, and is lost among the sands. At the end of eight hours and a quarter, they halted at Machsa, a miserable village, although it is the residence of a sub-dowlah, and has a weekly fair. The huts are still more wretched here, than those in the Tehama. They have no walls, consisting merely of a few poles laid together and covered with reeds, and are so small, that two persons lying on the floor, occupy almost the whole area. The inhabitants sit and sleep on the bare ground; and for bedding, these mountaineers get into a large sack, which keeps them warm by confining the natural perspiration. Coarse millet bread and camels' milk were all that these villages afforded, but the water every where in the mountains is delicious.

The next day, they passed, by winding roads, into a district where the lands begin to appear more fertile and better cultivated, and came to a high hill called Nakil, which, from the glistering micaceous sand at its foot, is supposed by the natives to contain gold. They rested in a hut near a village which is inhabited only on a market day. The fourth day, they crossed several rivulets, and rejoined Wady Zebid, and in the evening, reached the town of Udden. This is a small place, containing not above 300 houses, but all solidly built of stone. The governor is an hereditary sheikh. The coffee-trees of this district are esteemed to yield the very best coffee of all Yemen. The country, which had hitherto appeared thinly peopled, now assumed a more populous aspect. The road from Udden to Djobla lies over a steep mountain, and has formerly been paved, but was now out of repair. On this mountain,' says Niebuhr, 'I saw a new instance of the care with which the Arabians provide for the accommodation of travellers. Here, for the first time, we found a madjil or reservoir of excellent water for the use of passengers. These reservoirs are of masonry, of a conical figure, and a vase always stands ready for drawing the water. Through all the fertile parts of Yemen, we found many of these madjils by the side of the highways. As storms are pretty frequent among these mountains, some small vaulted houses have been built upon that over which we passed, to shelter travellers when surprised by any sudden blast. As we advanced, we saw several villages situated in a cultivated tract. The sides of the hills were covered with rye, and had an agreeable aspect. This part of the country, though in other respects very fertile, produces no coffee.'

Djobla is the head town of a district, and the residence of a dowlah. It stands upon the brink of a steep precipice, and contains about 600 houses of a tolerable height and appearance. Its streets are paved,

an uncommon circumstance in Yemen. There are Jews here, who, as in all other towns where they reside, have a separate quarter. The town has neither castle nor walls, nor ancient remains. The tomb of a Turkish pasha at some distance, shows, however, that the conquests of the Ottoman have been extended over these mountainous regions.

From Djobla, the learned Traveller proceeded three hours in a direction S. E. by S., over an undulating country, and slept in a large simsera (the name here given to a khan or karavanserai), situated two-thirds of the way up the southern side of a very high mountain named Mharras. The next morning, they were an hour in ascending a still higher summit called Choddra, on which are ruins of a considerable building of hewn stone, the walls of which have been flanked by towers, and two reservoirs of masonry. The whole structure appears to be of high antiquity, but is in complete ruin. Niebuhr could discover no inscriptions. The Arabs ascribe the building of this castle, and of another on Mount Takel near Djobla, to a certain Assâne Jahheli, the word Jahhel (ignorant) being the term they apply to their pagan forefathers. From this elevation, there is a noble prospect of a considerable tract of country studded with villages. Mount Mharras is descended by a paved road which winds round the steep declivity, this being the high road between Mocha and Sanaa. Our Traveller now turned to the S.S.W., and pursued the road to Mocha as far as Taas; he then left the great road, and proceeded westward, traversing the territory of Ibn Aklan, an independent sheikh, to the small town of Haas, situated in the Tehama. He crossed several times, towards the latter part of this journey, a considerably large and rapid river, called Wady Suradji, and passed through several small streams which appear to empty themselves into one large river. Haas is the residence of a dowlah, who lives in a small for

tress: its district is of narrow extent, but fertile in corn and dates. It is bounded on one side by Zebid, on the other, by Ibn Aklan. The town is small and ill built: a considerable quantity of coarse earthenware is manufactured there. The distance from Taas is about seventeen leagues. Near the confines of the Tehama, M. Forskal (Niebuhr's companion) discovered the shrub which produces the real balm of Mekka: it was in flower. The Arabs call it Abu sham, the sweet-smelling tree, but know of no other use for it than burning the wood as a perfume. On leaving the mountains, the heat became most oppressive. In the way to Zebid, the Travellers crossed, without wetting their feet, the river Suradji which they had seen so large among the hills. From Zebid, they returned to Beit el Fakih.

After remaining here for some time to recruit their health, Niebuhr and his companions again set forward for Mocha. The road lay through the beautiful valley of the Zebid, where the peasants were busily employed in cultivating their fields, and raising dykes for the purpose of irrigation. From these fields to Mocha, there occur very few villages, and the whole intervening country is arid and sandy, but covered with bushes and coarse grass. Four leagues and a half from Zebid is the village of Sherdje, supposed to be the Alsharjia of Abulfeda, who describes it as a port; but, if it was ever situated on the coast, the waters of the gulf must have receded very considerably. It stands in lat. 13° 59'. On the fourth day, after a disagreeable and fatiguing journey, they entered the town of Mocha. For the description of this place, however, we shall turn to the pages of two more recent travellers,