A Journey through the Yemen and some General Remarks Upon that Country by Walter Harris

YERIM TO DHAMAR.

The immediate approach to Yerim is over a level plain a mile or two in width, across which, immediately in front of one, lies the town-a poor enough looking place, lying half on the level ground and half on the steep slope of a mountain, Jibel Samára. This flat ground is dotted in places with tanks, and here the townspeople congregate to do their washing, and many a pretty group we passed of men, women, and children engaged in that wholesome pursuit. Eastern washing processes are too well known to need any description here: suffice it to say that it is generally performed by men, whose one desire seems to be, by stamping on the clothes and beating them with large stones, to see how many fragments they can tear them into. They are generally successful in sending the things back in shreds. It must be an invigorating profession; for the fact that one places the clothes upon a rock, and then proceeds to dance first on one leg and then on the other with all the energy and strength one possesses, at the same time issuing a series of low cries, must tend to strengthen not only the limbs but the lungs also!

We did not stay, however, to watch the washers, but hurried on into the town; for although I had some days before successfully crossed the frontier of Turkish Yemen at the _jimerouk_ near Kátaba, this was the first time I was to find myself in a Turkish garrisoned town.

As soon as we had approached the place Turkish soldiers became apparent, and a miserable crew they were. A few were sauntering about near the gate, laughing and talking to others who leaned over the parapet of the old tower that forms one corner of the fortified entrance to the place. Passing through the gateway without any particular notice being taken of us, we proceeded by narrow streets to an open square, which serves as a market, and entered the huge doorway of a large caravanserai or khan. This place, typical of the country, calls for some description. The building was evidently an old one, the material used being stone on the lower storeys, and above sun-dried bricks. An archway led one into a large covered space, some ten or fifteen yards in width, and perhaps thirty in length. There was no light admitted except from the great doorway and a curious barred window above it. This portion of the khan was of great height, the roof of the building forming the only obstacle between it and the sky. This roof was supported by large arches on buttresses running out from the wall on either side. A series of brick fire-places for charcoal ran along one side of the building, divided from one another by low brick seats, where the Arabs could sit and brew their own _keshour_, or drink of coffee-husks. Farther in the space served as a stable, and there were quite a number of camels, mules, and donkeys within its precincts. The opposite side to that on which the stoves were was taken up by a staircase leading to a long gallery. Here the better class of people, such as merchants and native sheikhs, congregated. The buttresses supporting the roof divided the gallery into compartments, and it seemed to be the custom for a party to engage one for themselves, where they would spread their carpets and smoke their hubble-bubbles, calling to the khan servants below for their coffee and food, and charcoal for their pipes. One end of this gallery, on the left of the staircase, formed a little room, which I was able to procure for my use. The fact that it was built immediately above the kitchen, and that the thickest of wood fumes crept up between the ill-laid boards, did not add to my comfort. The ceiling and walls of the whole building were black with the smoke of ages, but the scene was a most picturesque one, and I sat at the doorway of my little chamber and sketched the place.

However, I was not to be left very long in peace, for an impudent young Turk came and began to search my luggage, and to speak in such an impertinent manner that he had to be ejected. I knew that, whatever orders he might have had, he would have received none that would allow of his conducting himself in this way-for the Turk, be he what he may, seldom if ever fails to be polite. There is an innate manner in him that is always charming, in spite of the many other drawbacks to his character.

I called on the Kaimakam a little later and told him what had happened, saying that I was quite prepared to have my luggage searched, but asking that I might be treated with a certain amount of decent respect. The Turk of whom I complained was sent for, and such wrath did the Kaimakam show with him that the young man, a junior clerk in one of the Government offices, had to ask me to beg the Governor to forgive him, which I readily did. I found my host as pleasant and gentlemanly as any Turk I met in the country, and he insisted on my spending an hour with him and his brother officers. I showed him my passport, for here there was no longer any need to pretend that I was a Greek trader, and he seemed much impressed with the number of seals and stamps with which it was covered. Of what value the wording and decoration of this British passport was at Sanaa will be told anon. But more astonished still was his Excellency at the fact that I had pushed through the Owd tribe and arrived from Kátaba-for, as he said, the road had been impassable for many months, and he laughed heartily at an Englishman having been the first to open it again. Yerim, he said, was the dullest of dull places, and he longed for the society and gaieties of his native town-some out-of-the-way spot in Asia Minor, the name of which I had never even heard.

Returning from his residence to the khan, he followed me half an hour later and returned my call, accompanied by a couple of his officers. However, the fact that one could scarcely see across the room for smoke did not tend to detain him long, and I was soon left to my own devices.