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The hills that
form the wall of the crater are almost circular.
Those on the west are steep and hard, without
any absorbent power of soil or vegetation, so
that rain falling upon them would be carried
rapidly toward the sea. To arrest this precious
flood, which comes in decades, and not in years,
the reservoirs were constructed. Their shape is
fantastic, for advantage has been taken of every
feature in the ground. Here a dyke has been
built across the gorge of a valley; there a
curve of masonry shuts in an angle. One is a
great pit, eighty yards across, with a double
staircase cut out of the rock. Another is a tiny
lake dotted with white islands, while out of the
depths of a vast quarry rises a pillar of stone
shaped after the fashion of a minaret. Channels
have been cut in the gently sloping surface so
that the overflow of one cistern shall be caught
and stored in another. Each reservoir is faced
with stucco, so hard and white and polished that
it looks like marble. Alas! they were empty, and
have been for several years.
Having seen
the cisterns we rode back to the town and walked
through its streets and bazaars. They are full
of the bright colour and still life of the East.
The mixture of races is not so apparent as at
Steamer Point, where a demand for labour has
been created by shipping and coaling companies.
Arabs, Jews, and Persians are the majority, and
do the bulk of the trade. The Jews have a
speciality in ostrich feathers, of which
considerable quantities are exported. The
process of drying and cleaning is guarded as a
secret, and the short and spoiled feathers are
made into boas. Apart from this there is no
special industry in Aden, though the
market-place, with its flocks of fat-tailed,
black-faced sheep from Berbera, its bales of
cotton and silk, and its camels laden with hides
and grain, are indications of prosperity.
For five days we
had seethed and boiled in this tropical kettle,
awaiting the coming of the Ophir. At seven
o'clock in the morning of April the 7th her grey
hull glided over the horizon, and moved silently
towards the little volcanic island at the
entrance to the harbour. |
During the night
she had been signalled from Perim, the bare
rock, seamed with dry watercourses and covered
with coarse grass, in the Straits of Bab el
Mandeb, where a detachment of Indian troops keep
guard over this important coaling station.
Aden is under
the government of India and the Political
Resident went on board without delay. Before
noon the Sultan of Abdali paid his respects, and
presented the Princess with a necklace of gold
sequins, a beautiful piece of Arabian work.
Aden is not a
place where you would look for lavish display.
Nothing that is green or beautiful grows on this
cinder heap, and no man lives there for pleasure
or for the good of his health. Yet Aden
succeeded in making an admirable show. Camels
had for days come into the town laden with
millet leaves and stalks from the interior of
the Yemen. These feathery leaves and palm-like
branches adorned triumphal arch and pavilion.
The deluge of paint had dried up and left even
the native quarter a vivid white and green.
Plant pots had not escaped the flood, and so
fresh and green were the shrubs near the landing
stage that one could not avoid the thought that
they, too, had submitted to the ubiquitous brush
of the painter. Fairy lights, fed with
evil-smelling coconut oil, hung in festoons
along the beach. The Prince and Princess were
welcomed in a pavilion, and received an address
from Mr Cowasjee Dinshaw, a wealthy Parsee
merchant, whose father had a like honour in
1875, when the King visited Aden. A group of
Indian and Arab ladies in robes of silk,
officers in white uniform, and the Sultans of
the two tributary States gave colour to the
scene. The Sultan of Abdali is a handsome man
with a strong, dark face, and looked imposing in
the rich, dark dress of an Arab sheikh. His
retinue, short, sturdy youths of true Bedouin
type, carried their curved daggers in heavy
girdles ornamented with silver, and had a wild,
barbaric aspect and attire that sent the
imagination in full flight across the
inhospitable deserts of Arabia. |
