A uniform system of architecture pervades the houses of Aden, nearly all
of which would appear to have arisen out of the ruins of former more
extensive edifices, now buried far below the surface of the accumulated
soil. Tiers of loose undressed stone are interlaid, instead of mortar,
with horizontal bands of timber; the walls thus traversed being
perforated with pigeon-holes to serve as windows, and surmounted by a
low parapet concealing the terraced roof. Many, occupied by the more
wealthy, have attained to a third story; but nearly all are destitute of
ornament. This is now restricted to the decayed palace of the sultans
of Yemen, where
"In proud state
Each robber chief upheld his armed halls,
Doing his evil will."
In the thick coating of cement with which the shattered edifice is still
partially encrusted, are the remains of various raised devices; and a
profusion of open fretwork in wood is still observable, interspersed
with latticed cornices, comprising choice sentences from the Koran.
The shops of Parsee and Mohammadan merchants already extend an
assortment of European commodities to the notice of the visitor; and in
a bazaar, infested like other fish-markets by a legion of cats, are
exposed sharks and a variety of the finny tribe. Water from the
sweetest well is hawked about in dirty skins, instead of the lemonade
and sherbet of large oriental towns; and piles of fruit, drugs, dates,
molasses, and other abominations, present the same amount of flies, and
no abatement of the compound of villainous smells, by which the booth of
the shrewd and avaricious Gentoo is so invariably distinguished.
In the suburbs, the frail cadjan wigwam of the Arab and Somauli
population impart the undeviating aspect of the portable encampment of
the nomade hordes. The tattered goat-hair awning of the bare-footed
pilgrim to the shrine at El Medina is here; and low crazy cabins of
matting or yellow reeds are so slenderly covered in with the leaves of
the palm as to form but a scanty shelter against the intolerable heat
and dust occasioned by periodical blasts of the fiery Shimal.
During his diurnal reign, the sun has shone fiercely over the extinct
crater of Aden, and the relentless shower of dust and pebbles has kept
the inhabitants within their rude dwellings. But as the declining rays
cast a lengthened shadow across the narrow alleys, and the hot puffs,
abating in violence, are succeeded by a suffocating calm, the hitherto
torpid population is to be seen abroad. That bronzed and sun-burnt
visage, surrounded by long matted locks of raven hair--that slender, but
wiry and active frame--and that energetic gait and manner, proclaim the
untameable descendant of Ishmael. He nimbly mounts the crupper of his
now unladen dromedary, and at a trot moves down the bazaar on his way
back to the town of Lahedge. A checked kerchief around his brows, and a
kilt of dark blue calico about his loins, comprise his slender costume.
His arms have been deposited outside the Turkish wall, which stretches
its barrier across the isthmus from sea to sea, where flying parties of
the Foudthli still infest the plain; and as he looks back, his meagre
ferocious aspect, flanked by that tangled web of hair, stamps him the
roving tenant of the desert.
The Arab has changed neither his character nor his habits since the days
of the patriarchs, and he affords a standing evidence of the truth of
the scriptural prophecy. He regards with disdain and with proud
indifference every other portion of mankind, for who can produce so
ancient monuments of liberty as he who, with little intermission, has
preserved it from the very Deluge? Is the land of his ancestors
invaded? A branch torn by the priest from the venerated _Nebek_ [A tree
bearing a fruit like the Siberian crab], having been thrust into the
fire, is quenched in hot blood welling from the divided throat of a ram
which has only the moment before been slaughtered in the name of God the
one omnipotent. Dripping with the crimson tide, the emblem is solemnly
delivered to the nearest warrior, who hies him forth with this his
summons for the gathering of the wild dans. Down from their rocky
fastnesses pour the old and the young, the untried stripling, and the
stern veteran with a thousand scars. On, on speeds the messenger with
the alarum of coming strife. Transferred from hand to hand, it rests
not in the grasp of any; and in a few brief hours, thousands of wild
spirits, calling upon Allah for victory, and thirsting for the blood of
the foe, have mustered around the unfurled standard of their prophet.
Thus it was that the numerous hill-forts and strongholds studding the
rich province of Assyr, which borders on the Holy Land of the Moslem,
last poured forth their hordes to meet the invader of her fair plains,
and the despoiler of her countless flocks. Sixteen thousand warriors,
composing one of the most ancient as well as bravest of the Arab tribes,
cast aside spear and falchion, and, armed only with the deadly creese,
stole during the night upon the camp of the insatiate Egyptian, and
slaughtering the greater number, drove Ibrahim Pacha, with the wreck of
his army, to seek safety in precipitate flight to Hodeida.
In yonder fat and sensual money-changer from the city of Surat is
presented the very antipodes to the posterity of Hagar. In drowsy
indolence, see him emerge from his treasures of ghee and groceries,
among which, scales in hand, he has been patiently squatted since
earliest dawn at the terrace of his booth, registering his gains in the
daily ledger. Not one spark of animation is there. A dark slouching
turban, and ample folds of snowy drapery, envelope the sleek person of
the crafty Hindoo, and his lethargic motions render it difficult to
comprehend how he should have contrived to exile himself from his native
soil, and in such a forbidding spot, even in pursuit of his idol,
Mammon.
Ajan and Berbera, famous for their early connection with the Greek kings
of Egypt, have both contributed largely to the population that now
throngs the street. The regular and finely-turned features of those
Somauli emigrants from the opposite coast are at once selected from the
group, although some have disguised their hair under a thick plaster of
quick-lime, and others are rendered hideous by a wig of fiery red curls;
whilst the dyed ringlets of a third have faded to the complexion of a
housemaid's mop, and a fourth, forsooth, is shaven because his locks
have been pulled in anger. [It is the practice of the Somauli to shave
the head when thus insulted, and to make a vow that the hair shall not
grow again until they have had their revenge.] All present a curious
contrast to the jet black skin and woolly pate of the Suhaili, who, in
his turn, is destitute of the thick pouting lip which adorns that
stalwart Nubian, swaggering like a great bully by his side. At the door
of those cadjan cabins, which resemble higglers crates, not less in size
than in form and appearance, groups of withered Somauli crones are
diligently weaving mats, baskets, and fans, of the pliant date-leaf; and
their laughing daughters, yon tall, slim, and erect damsels with the
earthen pitchers above their plaited tresses, present, on their way up
from the well, some of the comeliest specimens of the ebon race.
"Honesty," saith the Arab proverb, "is found only amongst poor fools."
The Bedouin has for ages been celebrated for his ingenuity and daring,
and the African offset is nothing behind the parent stock. A Somauli
thief is perhaps "the cunningest knave in the universe." He has been
known to cut away a pile of tobacco so as to leave to the merchant who
reposed thereon, naught but the effigy of his own figure: and after
entering through the roof of a house, the burglar has taken his exit
through the door with chests of treasure, from the top of which the
sleeping proprietor has been first hoisted, with his bed, by a tackle
lowered through the aperture, and so left hanging until the morning!
Muffled in a Spanish mantilla, see the spouse of the bigoted Islam
taking the air upon the crupper of a donkey, her fat face so
scrupulously concealed, that nothing of it is visible save two sloe
black eyes which glitter through perforations in the white veil, and
impart a similitude to the horned owl. On the rude steps of the
clustering habitations that she has passed, surrounded by rosy-cheeked
urchins, are seated numerous dark-eyed and well-dressed Jewesses.
Rachel, although discreet, and preserving the strictest decorum, is
unveiled. Were it possible to prevail upon her to have recourse to
daily ablution, in lieu of the hebdomadal immersion which celebrates her
sabbath eve, her complexion would not be less fair than that of the
native of Southern Europe; and in the well-chiselled features and
aquiline profile of the brunette, are preserved all those marked
peculiarities which in every part of the world distinguish the scattered
daughters of Israel.
The children of the tribe of Judah are most completely identified with
the soil of Aden, and may be regarded as the artisans and manufacturing
population. Victims heretofore of the tyranny and intolerant
persecution which the infidel has ever to expect at the hand of the true
believer, they toiled and accumulated, but feared lest a display of the
fruits of their labour should excite the cupidity of a rapacious master.
Now their prospect has brightened, and the remnant of a mighty though
fallen and dispersed people, no longer exists here in poverty and
oppression, insulted and despised as they have always been in every part
of the Eastern world; but in uninterrupted security ply their
industrious occupation, and under British protection fearlessly practise
those rites which have been religiously preserved from the time that
their priests bore aloft the ark of the covenant. Stone slabs with
Hebrew inscriptions mark the resting-place of the departed; schools
witness the education of the rising generation; and men and women,
arrayed in their holiday apparel, sit apart in the synagogue, to listen
at each return of their sabbath to the law which had been read since "by
way of the wilderness of the Red Sea" their fathers "went up harnessed
out of the land of Egypt."
Volume One, Chapter IV.