ies returning there, as it tended to distribute food among the Arabs
and get it away from the Turks. Dhows bringing cargo from the African
coast or from Aden were permitted, provided they did not carry
contraband of war; this permitted native cereals, such as millet, but
barred wheat and particularly barred barley, which the local Arab does
not eat for choice, but which the Turks wanted very badly for their
cavalry.

In this connection a typical incident may be mentioned as illustrating
the sort of thing we were up against.

The ship I was serving in at the time lay off Jeddah and had three boats
down picketing the dhow-channels leading in to that reef-girt harbour,
for which dhows were making like homing bees. In such cases my post was
usually on the bridge, while the ship's interpreter and Arab-speaking
Seedee-boys went away in the boats. The dhows were reached and their
papers examined, then allowed to proceed if all was in order. Otherwise
the officer examining signalled the facts and awaited instructions.
Usually it was some technical point which I could waive, but on this
occasion one of the cutters made a signal to the effect that barley in
bulk had been found in one dhow. I was puzzled, because all the dhows
were from Suakin or further south, quite outside the barley-belt, except
on very high ground which rarely exports cereals. However, the signal
was repeated, and I had to have the dhow alongside. Meanwhile the
"owner" was anxious to get steerage-way, for we were not at anchor and
in very ticklish soundings; so I slid off the bridge and had a sample of
the grain handed up to me: it was a species of millet, looking very like
pearl-barley as "milled" for culinary purposes. I shouted to the _reis_
to go where he liked as long as he kept clear of our propellers, which
thereupon gave a ponderous flap or two as if to emphasise my remarks,
and he bore away from us rejoicing. In the ward-room later on I rallied
that cutter's officer on his error. "Well, it was just like the barley
one sees in soup," was his defence.

In the southern part of the Red Sea, which was handled politically from
Aden, the problems of blockade were even more complex, for there even
arms and ammunition were allowed between certain ports to meet the
convenience of the Idrisi chief, who was theoretically at war with the
Turks, but rather diffident about putting his principles into practice,
especially after the Turkish success outside Aden.