Eighteen druggists. These are all natives of the East Indies, and mostly
from Surat. In addition to all kinds of drugs, they sell wax candles,
paper, sugar, perfumery, and incense; the latter is much used by the
inhabitants of the towns, where all the respectable families perfume
their best rooms every morning. Mastic and sandal-wood, burnt upon
charcoal, are most commonly used for this purpose. Spices of all sorts,
and heating drugs, are universally used in the Hedjaz. Coffee is rarely
drunk in private houses without a mixture of cardamoms or cloves; and
red pepper, from India or Egypt, enters into every dish. A considerable
article of trade among the druggists of Djidda and Mekka consists in
rose-buds, brought from the gardens of Tayf. The people of the Hedjaz,
especially the ladies, steep them in water, which they afterwards use
for their ablutions; they also boil these roses with sugar, and make a
conserve of them. The sugar sold in the drug-gists shops is brought
from India; it is of a yellowish white colour, and well refined, but in
powder. A small quantity of Egyptian sugar is imported, but the people
here do not like it; in general, they prefer every thing that comes from
India, which they conceive