Meanwhile Mr. Clarke and Ali Marie were busy with
buying up such stores as El-’Akabah contains;
and the officers of the fort, who stayed with us to
the last, were profuse in kind expressions and in
little gifts which, as usual, cost us double their
worth. In these lands one must expect to be “done”
as surely as in Italy. What the process will
be, no one knows till it discloses itself; but all
experts feel that it is in preparation.
The following is a list of the stores with their prices.
It must be borne in mind that the Hajj-caravan was
passing at the time we visited El-’Akabah.
A large sheep cost half a napoleon; the same was the
price of a small sheep, with a kid.
Fowls (seventy-one bought), thirteen pence each; pigeons,
sixpence a head.
Eggs (sixty), two for threepence.
Tobacco (8 lbs.), coarse and uncut, but welcome to
the Bedawin, one shilling per pound.
Samn ("liquefied butter” for the kitchen) also
one shilling per pound. This article is always
dear in Arabia, but much cheaper than in Egypt.
Pomegranates (fifty), four shillings a hundred.
Onions (one kanta’r or cwt.), one sovereign.
Thin-skinned Syrian raisins, fivepence per pound.
Dried figs, twopence halfpenny per pound.
Matches (sixteen boxes), three halfpence per box.
A small quantity of grain may be bought. Lentils
(Revalenta Arabica) are to be had in any quantity,
and they make an admirable travelling soup. Unfortunately
it is supposed to be a food for Fellahs, and the cook
shirks it—the same is the case with junk,
salt pork, and pease-pudding on board an English cruiser.
Sour limes are not yet in season; they will be plentiful
in April. A little garden stuff may be had for
salads. The list of deficiencies is great; including
bread and beef, potatoes, ’Raki, and all forms
of “diffusable stimulants.”
Here, as at Cairo, the piastre is of two kinds, metallic
(debased silver) and non-metallic. Government
pays in the former, which is called Sagh ("coin");
and the same is the term throughout Egypt. The
value fluctuates, but 97-1/2 may be assumed = one sovereign
(English), and one hundred to the Egyptian “lira.”
The second kind, used for small purchases, is not
quite half the value of the former (205:100); in North-Western
Arabia it is called Abyas ("white"), and Tarifa ("tariff");
the latter term in Cairo always signifying the Sagh
or metallic. The dodges of the Shroffs, or “money-changers,”
make housekeeping throughout Egypt a study of arithmetic.
They cannot change the value of gold, but they “rush”
the silver as they please; and thus the “dollar-sinko”
(i.e. the five-franc piece), formerly fetching 19.10,
has been reduced to 18.30. The Khurdah, or “copper-piastre,”
was once worth a piastre; now this “coin of
the realm” has been so debased, that it has
gradually declined through 195 to 500 and even 650
for the sovereign. Moreover, not being a legal
tender, it is almost useless in the market.
