BEIT EL FAKIR, or The Duelling of the Sage, is a city of Arabia, in the province of Yemen, situated in a well cultivated plain, about 24. miles from. the Arabian Gulf. The tomb of Ahmed iba. Mu-• sa, situated on a sandy hill near the town, attracted the inhabitants of Ghaleflca, when their harbour was choked up with sand, to settle in the vicinity of that consecrated spot. As the new city increased in mag nitude, a citadel was built.for its protection. The town is composed of a number of houses, or rather huts, detached from one another and after it was burned down in 1765, many edifices of stone were erected. The mode of building is constantly im. proving ; yet a 'great many of the houses are built with mud mixed with dung, and the roof is thatched with a kind of grass common in the country. These houses are not divided into separate apartments. A range of straw beds surrounds the apartment; and it is not often that they have any windows. A species of ant, called and by the Arabs, infest the houses to a very great degree. By forming covert ways,
they introduce themselves into the houses, and destroy both clothes and provisions. The trees in the garden suffer also from their depredations ; and even when their cells and passages are destroyed, they repair them with astonishing celerity.
"This city," says Niebuhr, " is in a favourable si tuation for trade, being only half a day's journey from the hills on which the coffee grows, and but a few day's journey from the harbours of Loheia, Hod eida, and Mocha, from which this commodity is ex ported ; it naturally becomes the most considerable market for it. This trade brings hither merchants from Egypt, Syria, Barbary, Persia, Habbesch, and often from Europe." A dola, who resides in this town, has an extensive jurisdiction over the sur rounding, country. According to Lord Valentia's chart of the Red Sea, Beit el Fakih is situated in East Long. 43° 23' 40", and North Lat. 14° 32' 10". Sec Niebuhr's Travels, Sect. viii. chap vi. (Q)