"كُتيّب اليمن" [ظ‎‎١‎٥] (١٩٠/٣٥)

(1) Loheiah is a fair-sized Red Sea port, situated on the
northern side of a small shallow bay, with poor anchorage
for small craft only, and difficult of approach because of
reefs. It has dhow traffic with Jiddah, Hodeidah, and
Aden, exports small quantities of coffee, and imports grain.
The population is about 5,000, and seems to have risen in
recent years, for in 1881 the number of inhabitants was
estimated at 2,000 only. There are several hillocks at the
back of the town, on one of which (alt. 150 feet) is a fort
of some strength where some modern guns are mounted.
Loheiah is used as a base of operations in Asir ; the garrison,
normally, however, is a battalion. Water is scarce and
brackish. There is telegraphic communication, south with
Hodeidah, and north with Midi.
(2) Sa dah is the northernmost town in Yemen, the focus
of Zeidism and the seat of the original Zeidist dynasty. It
is said to be as large as the native (Arab) quarters of San'a;
to be surrounded by an old and ruinous wall and to be in a
plain wider than that of San f a, with much cultivation and
irrigation from very shallow wells. The gates are five:
suq and government buildings are in the south quarter, as
is also the chief mosque (El Hadi).
Eastward of Sa dah the tribes [see pp. 11, 57) soon begin
to be reported semi-nomadic or wholly nomadic, a sure sign
that down-like pastoral country prevails. This region has
the reputation of being bleak and inclement and appar-
entlj it deteriorates to steppe and even desert, till the
great depression of Nejran, the settled centre of the
semi-nomadic Yam clans, is reached.
South of Wadi Mur, as far as Hodeidah, the littoral is
v® r > unfertile and almost desert, but fertility begins with
the first foothills; and from these lands and the control of
the caravan traffic up Wadi Mur come the means of
existence of the Beni Suleil, who own one village almost