The Supply Which It Affords In
Ordinary Times Is Barely Sufficient For The Use Of The Inhabitants, And
During The
Pilgrimage sweet water becomes an absolute scarcity; a small
skin of water (two of which skins a person may carry)
Being then often
sold for one shilling - a very high price among Arabs.
There are two places in the interior of Mekka where the aqueduct runs
above ground; there the water is let off into small channels or
fountains, at which some slaves of the Sherif are stationed, to exact a
toll from persons filling their water-skins. In the time of the Hadj,
these fountains are surrounded day and night by crowds of people
quarrelling and fighting for access to the water. During the late siege
the Wahabys cut off the supply of water from the aqueduct; and it was
not till some time after, that the injury which this structure then
received, was partially repaired.
The history of this aqueduct, a work of vast labour and magnitude, is
given by the Arabian historians at great length. Zebeyda, the wife of
Haroun-er'-Rashid, first carried the spring, called Ayn Noman, from its
source in Djebel Kora to the town. The spring of Ayn Arf from the foot
of Djebel Shamekh to the north of Djebel Kora, which watered the fertile
valley called Wady Honeyn, was next brought to join the Ayn Noman; and,
finally, four other sources were added to the aqueduct - El Beroud,
Zafaran, Meymoun, and Ayn Meshash.
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