'Field Notes on Sa'udi Arabia, 1935' [‎21r] (46/248)

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They incline to be much less fanatical although often equally
observant of religious forms.
Mecca is said, in Hashimite times, to have been one of the most
immoral cities of the world. The inhabitants compose much the
same elements to-day, and these, once released from Wahhabi Arab
tutelage, would perhaps revert to a life of greater licence. It should
be said that Jedda, Mecca, and Medina have very mixed populations,
pilgrims from all parts of the world having stayed on to become
citizens, while there are villages, here and there, in the Hejaz, almost
exclusively populated by negroes, slaves or descendants of slaves.
(ii) Attitude to Government. —Their attitude to government is not
remarkable. They supply levies when ordered to do so with,
apparently, commendable obedience and are, as far as is known,
regular in their payment of taxes. Only in Asir is there a somewhat
recalcitrant spirit among the villagers towards government, due to
Asir having only recently come under Sa’udi governance and to
religious differences. It is not strongly marked.
(iii) Pursuits and more important means of livelihood. —Primitive
agriculturalists, the inhabitants of the villages and oases live mostly
by cultivating date palms. The dates are sold to the Bedouins, the
palm wood is used for cooking, and the fibre for making ropes.
They also have small flocks of goats and sheep, whose flesh they
trade.
Wheat, barley, and lucerne in small quantities, usually only
enough for immediate local use, is grown. Cloaks and rugs are
woven from camel, goat, or sheep hair.
(iv) To what extent self-supporting. —They could exist for some
time without exterior supply, but they have been so long accustomed
to such commodities as sugar, tea, coffee, and cotton goods, which
only reach them from outside their country, that they would now find
their absence irksome at first and, in time, intolerable.
(v) Seasons when crops are sown, cut, and stowed. — Ihe date
harvest is in August, the fertilization, by hand, of the date-palm
taking place in the early spring.
Crops are wheat, barley, maize, and millet ; in the Hejaz there
are two crops a year (Shitwi) or winter, and (Rabi a) spring to
summer crop, the first depending upon the rain and the second upon
irrigation and the lateness or otherwise of the Shitwi, itself varying
with the rainfall in any year.
(vi) Constructional vulnerability of houses to air bombardment
and ground attack. —In the smaller villages the houses are built of
clay, usually with an upper floor and often spacious. I he flooring is
of beaten earth, the rafters of tamarisk or palm-beams. The roofs
are flat. The village houses are easily destructible. In the towns
of Nejd the houses are of similar construction, as are the forts of the
Shaikhs and Amirs. In the coastal towns of the Hejaz, however,