The inhabitants of Jeddah are very interesting in many ways. There are
some two hundred nautch-girls there; but they are forbidden to dance
before men, though I have heard that the law can be evaded on occasions.
In the plains there are two different types of Arabs: the, Bedawin, and
the "settled men." The latter are a fine, strong, healthy race, though
very wild and savage. We used frequently to ride out into the desert and
make excursions. I would have given anything to have gone to Mecca. It
was hard to be so near, and yet to have to turn round and come back.
There was a rumour that two Englishmen had gone up to Mecca for a lark,
and had been killed. This was not true. But all the same Mecca was not
safe for a European woman, and it was not the time to show my blue eyes
and broken Arabic on holy ground. I therefore used to console myself
by returning from our expeditions in the desert through the Mecca Gate
of Jeddah, and then riding through the bazars, half dark and half lit,
to see the pilgrims' camels. The bazars literally swarmed with a
picturesque and variegated mob, hailing from all lands, and of every
race and tongue. We were not interfered with in any way; though had it
been 1853, the year when Richard went to Mecca, to have taken these rides
in the desert, and to have walked through the Mecca Gate, would most
certainly have cost us our lives. I also saw the khan where Richard
lived as one of these pilgrims in 1853, and the minaret which he sketched
in his book on Mecca.
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