'Handbook of Yemen' [‎13r] (30/190)

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and important tribe, the Khaulan et-Tawal, anti-Turk
and pro-Imam ; and west of San'a are some small Zeidist
units, the Beni Hebeish, Kama'lah, and Senhan. The
main tribal unit, however, in this region, is the Anis, a very
ancient settled tribe, which occupies a large block of territory
west of the main north-south road and embracing all the
main ridge from near Mefhak down to the latitude of
Dhamar. This tribe, with all its immediate neighbours,
is Zeidist. The rest of Southern Yemen, from Dhamar to
Qa'tabah, is held by three large tribes, the Ahl ' Ammar,
the Ahl Sha'ir, and the Ahl el- 'Ud, all settled agricul
turists, with some smaller units here and there, e.g. the
Rada 5 a, in and about the town of that name, and the
Mekhadir, near Jiblah.
Domestic Life and Appliance.
A sharp line must be drawn between the life of the
littoral population and that of the highlanders.
(i) In the loivlands pastoral clans range and settle as
grazing and water dictate. The black goat-hair tents of
the more inland desert-dwellers are rarely seen, but the
natives raise huts of matting on poles, with an entrance
covered with a piece of matting and no other aperture.
Furniture is scant and light, so that movement may be
easy : a wooden bed laced with palm cord, a few gourds
for sour milk, some conical-lidded baskets for stores, a
primitive water-pipe made out of an empty cocoa-nut, and
several vessels of crude green-glazed earthenware, complete
the domestic apparatus ; and one family one hut is the rule,
with no attempt to separate the sexes.
Food rarely includes meat, and the staple diet consists
of round flat unleavened cakes, eaten with liquid butter
or sesame oil, and dates. The corn is not ground by querns
of the ordinary type, which would be heavy to carry; it is
moistened and then crushed on a concave stone with a
stone pestle grasped with both hands and rubbed to and
fro, a process requiring much effort and patience and