The inhabitants being Mussulmans, water is the ordinary beverage;
_tej_ and araki (made from honey) can, however, be purchased
in the bazaar. The limited supply of water obtained from the few
remaining tanks is quite inadequate to meet the wants of even a
small portion of the community; water is consequently brought in
daily from the wells a few miles north of Massowah, and from Arkiko.
The first is brought in leather bags by the young girls of the
village; the latter conveyed in boats across the bay. The water in
both cases is brackish, that from Arkiko highly so. For this reason,
and also on account of the greater facility in the transport, it
is cheaper, and is purchased only by the poorer inhabitants.
To avoid useless repetitions, before speaking of the population,
climate, diseases, &c., a short account of the immediate neighbourhood
is necessary.
About four miles north of Massowah is Haitoomloo, a large village
of about a thousand huts, the first place where we meet with sweet
water; a mile and a quarter further inland we came upon Moncullou,
a smaller but better built village. A mile westward of the last
place we find the small village of Zaga. These, with a small hamlet
east of Haitoomloo, constitute all the inhabited portions of this
sterile region. The next village, Ailat, about twenty miles from
Massowah, is built on the first terrace of the Abyssinian range,
600 feet above the level of the sea.
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