Part 1 — NOTE ON THE SUPPLIES TO BE BOUGHT AT EL-'AKABAH.
Reading edition
The following is a list of the stores with their prices. It must be borne in mind that the Hajj-caravan was passing at the time we visited El-'Akabah.
A large sheep cost half a napoleon; the same was the price of a small sheep, with a kid.
Fowls (seventy-one bought), thirteen pence each; pigeons, sixpence a head.
Eggs (sixty), two for threepence.
Tobacco (8 lbs.), coarse and uncut, but welcome to the Bedawin, one shilling per pound.
Samn ("liquefied butter" for the kitchen) also one shilling per pound. This article is always dear in Arabia, but much cheaper than in Egypt.
Pomegranates (fifty), four shillings a hundred.
Onions (one kanta'r or cwt.), one sovereign.
Thin-skinned Syrian raisins, fivepence per pound.
Dried figs, twopence halfpenny per pound.
Matches (sixteen boxes), three halfpence per box.
A small quantity of grain may be bought. Lentils (Revalenta Arabica) are to be had in any quantity, and they make an admirable travelling soup. Unfortunately it is supposed to be a food for Fellahs, and the cook shirks it—the same is the case with junk, salt pork, and pease-pudding on board an English cruiser. Sour limes are not yet in season; they will be plentiful in April. A little garden stuff may be had for salads. The list of deficiencies is great; including bread and beef, potatoes, 'Ráki, and all forms of "diffusable stimulants."
Here, as at Cairo, the piastre is of two kinds, metallic (debased silver) and non-metallic. Government pays in the former, which is called Ságh ("coin"); and the same is the term throughout Egypt. The value fluctuates, but 97-1/2 may be assumed = one sovereign (English), and one hundred to the Egyptian "lira." The second kind, used for small purchases, is not quite half the value of the former (205:100); in North-Western Arabia it is called Abyas ("white"), and Tarífá ("tariff"); the latter term in Cairo always signifying the Ságh or metallic. The dodges of the Shroffs, or "money-changers," make housekeeping throughout Egypt a study of arithmetic. They cannot change the value of gold, but they "rush" the silver as they please; and thus the "dollar-sinko" (i.e. the five-franc piece), formerly fetching 19.10, has been reduced to 18.30. The Khurdah, or "copper-piastre," was once worth a piastre; now this "coin of the realm" has been so debased, that it has gradually declined through 195 to 500 and even 650 for the sovereign. Moreover, not being a legal tender, it is almost useless in the market.
As regards the money to be carried by such expeditions, anything current in Egypt will do. The Bedawin prefer sovereigns when offered five-franc pieces, and vice versa. The Egyptian sovereign of 100 piastres (metallic) or 250 "current" must not be confounded with the Turkish = 87.30 (curr. 175.20 to 180). The napoleon averages 77.6 (curr. 160); the dollar varies according to its kind; the shilling is 3.35 (curr. 10), and the franc 3.35 (curr. 8). It is necessary to lay in a large quantity of small change by way of "bakhshísh," such as ten and twenty parah bits (40 = 1 piastre).