e as labourers, for
which they receive in the spring milk and cheese; at the date harvest
they get wages in kind; with this, and the produce of the chase, they
manage to exist in the desert without agriculture or flocks.

The Jews in Arabia.

In southern Arabia the Jews form a large element in the town population.
According to one authority their presence in Yemen dates from the time
of Solomon, others say from the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar.
Manzoni estimated their number in Sana in 1878 at 1700 out of a total
population of 20,000; at Aden they are a numerous and wealthy community,
with agents in most of the towns of Yemen. Even in remote Nejran,
Halevy, himself a Jew, found a considerable colony of his
co-religionists. They wear a distinctive garb and are not allowed to
carry arms or live in the same quarter as Moslems. Another foreign
element of considerable strength in the coast towns of Muscat, Aden and
Jidda, is the British Indian trading class; many families of Indian
origin also have settled at Mecca, having originally come as pilgrims.

Estimates of the population of Arabia vary enormously, and the figures
given in the following table can only be regarded as a very rough
approximation:--

Hejaz 300,000
Yemen and Asir 1,800,000
Nejd 1,000,000
Hadramut 150,000
Oman 1,000,000
El Hasa 300,000
Syrian desert and border 275,000
---------
4,825,000

_Communications._--The principal land routes in Arabia are those leading
to the holy cities. In the present day the Syrian pilgrim route, or Darb
el Haj, from Damascus to Medina and Mecca is the most used. The annual
pilgrim caravan or haj, numbering some 6000 people with 10,000 pack
animals, is escorted by a few Turkish irregulars known as _agel_; small
fortified posts have been established at the regular halting-places some
30 m. apart, each furnished with a well and reservoir, and for the
further protection of the haj, payments are made to the Bedouin tribes
through whose territories the route passes. The road is a mere camel
track across the desert, the chief places passed are Ma'an on the Syrian
border, a station on the old Sabaean trade route to Petra, and Medain
Salih, the site of the rock-cut tombs and inscriptions first brought to
notice by Doughty. From Me