Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

APPENDIX. 401
sionally being snow in the months of December
and January, and with the thermometer
at + 2 to +10 degrees Reaumur, figs, almonds,
lemons, apples, pears, plums,
apricots, peaches,
thrive here.
The inhabitants are red Arabians
of fine form. But few slaves are brought here
for agricultural purposes, for even if the Arab
of the country farms, he is still more or less of
a nomad, and does not willingly have strangers
about him.
" From Had a the route lies in a south-easterly
direction, ascending for 2000 feet to the
village of Geru, where some slaves are generally
sold.
" An hour from Geru is Tayf, where slaves,
and also
beautiful female slaves from Abyssinia
and the Galla countries, are to be met with.
Tayf
is one of the most beautiful, as well as one of
the pleasantest
towns of Arabia, and has about
5000 inhabitants, who carry on farming to a
. large extent, as well as cultivation of the vine.
Here, as in Rhenish Bavaria, the vines are kept
low. Barley, wheat, durra (that is, sorgheim),
are here cultivated in a temperature which,
in
the course of the tyear, varies from -f 7 to 23
degrees of Reaumur.
" Tayf is perhaps rather more than 4000 feet
above the level of the sea, and it is one of the
cleanest of all the towns that I saw in the