Dhow Chasing in Zanzibar Waters - The Search For Mecca

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APPENDIX. 411
dadilifera), where all kinds of vegetables are
cultivated by means of artificial irrigation. I
have also been in Sannieli and other towns in
the neighbourhood of Mecca.
" No Christian is permitted to set foot in Tajf,
it being held as a sacred city and the residence
of the second Scherif, and containing the mausoleum
of near relations of Mahomed, but I was
allowed to live there because my botanizing
occupations gave rise to the supposition that I
should be useful as a medical man! Those
inhabitants of Tayf who do not belong to Mecca,
that is to say, the native townspeople of
pure Arabian origin, have much less religious
fanaticism than the Mohammedan mixture of
many nationalities in and near Mecca. Here I
had the opportunity of gaining a great deal of
accurate information as to the state of affairs as
regards slavery, and also learned much from my
own observation.
"It is an error to suppose that the actual
Arabians keep slaves ;
they are only to be found
in Mecca, Tayf, and the neighbourhood, and
also in the seaport towns, where there is a
conflux of many different nationalities of
Islam.
In the interior of Arabia, from north to south,
I saw no slaves, not even in
the densely-populated
district
of Nedsch (956,000 inhabitants)
in the country of Wohabi, with the exception of
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