NEDJED, a central province of Arabia. The name signifying high or elevated ground, is applied to this country in opposition to Tehama, or “low lands,” which is applied to the tracts of low land along the coast by which the border of high land in Arabia is encompassed. It is described by Burckhardt as an oblong tract, extending between three and four days’ journey from west to east, and two journeys in breadth from south to north. It is a cultivated territory, the most populous portion of Arabia, irrigated by many ancient wells lined with stone, which are ascribed by the inhabitants to a primeval race of giants. These wells are from twenty-five to thirty fathoms deep, being mostly the property of individuals, who exact a certain contribution from the tribes whose cattle they supply with water. Within this province there are above twenty-six small towns or villages. The chief town is Bereyda, where the sheikh resides. Under the Wahabees Dera yah became a place of note. Nedjed is celebrated throughout Arabia for its excellent pastures, which, after rain, abound even in its deserts, and feed an excellent breed of camels, more numerous here than in any other of the Arabian provinces of equal extent. It is called the mother of camels, and Arabs resort to it from all quarters for the supply of their own herds; it also furnishes a constant supply, not only to Hedjaz, but to Syria and Yemen. A camel in Nedjed costs ten dollars. There is also an excellent breed of horses in this country, so remarkable that the finest blood Arab horses are properly’denoted Nedjed horses. But the temporary ascendency of the Wahabees caused a diminution of the breed, as many of the Arabs sold their horses to foreign ports, lest they should be pressed into the service of the Wahabee chief, who frequently required cavalry. Nedjed is subject to scarcity, caused by the failure of rain, and consequently of herbage. This soon affects the cattle of the Bedouins, who seldom expect in this country more than three or four successive years of plenty, though absolute famine does not occur above once in ten or fifteen years. It is generally accompanied by epidemical diseases, much like the plague, consisting of violent fevers, .which prove fatal to great numbers. Nedjed is peopled by small tribes of Bedouins, who never leave it, and by settlers intermarried with them, and often travelling as merchants to Damascus, Bagdad, Medina, Mekka, and Yemen. Here the pure manners of the Arabs continue unaltered by conquest, and retain all their original simplicity; nor have they been contaminated by an influx of strangers; for if we except the caravans of pilgrims travelling from Bagdad to Mekka, no foreigners ever pass through Nedjed. “For this reason,” says Burckhardt, “I consider Nedjed and the mountains between Tayf and Sanaa as the most interesting portion of Arabia, affording more objects of inquiry to a traveller than any other part of the peninsula.” Those who are settled here as travelling merchants export camels and woollen cloaks, of which the best are manufactured at El Hasse; and from Bagdad they receive rice, the produce of the banks of the Tigris, and articles of dress, especially the keffies or handkerchiefs, striped, green, and yellow, made of cotton, wool, or silk. The Bedouins wear these over their bonnets. From Mekka they obtain coffee, drugs, and per [7:16:75]fumes, much used amongst them, particularly a perfume much valued which comes from Mocha. A spirit of commerce prevails generally amongst the inhabitants of Nedjed, where the merchants are wealthy, and of better repute for honesty than most of the eastern traders. The settlers are generally armed with matchlocks, and they constituted, during the ascendency of the Wahabee power, the best portion of their infantry. They are generally successful in repelling the inroads of the other wandering Arabs on their pastures. Saltpetre being abundant, every family makes its own yearly provision of gunpowder.