of Turkish influence, and has probably by this time been reoccupied by the Osmanli troops. With these few remarks upon the plain districts of the Yemen, scanty as they are, notice may now be taken of the mountainous districts. Such parts as the author travelled through will be more minutely treated of in the narration of his journey, together with the towns of Yerim, Dhamar, and Sanaa, the three principal cities of the Yemen plateaux. However, there are other places of importance to which reference must be made here, and which, although not situated upon the plateau, must by their position be included in this division of the Yemen. Of these the most important are Ibb and Jiblah. Both of these mountain-fortresses are of some antiquity, and have played no mean part in the history of the country. Ibb is mentioned by Omarah as being situated upon the great pilgrim-road built by Huseyn ibn Salaamah, a slave-vizier, which led from the Hadramaut, east of Aden, to Mecca itself, which was constructed about the year 400 A.H. After leaving Aden this great pilgrim-route was split up into two parts, one proceeding _viâ_ Ibb and the mountains, joining the author’s route at Kariat en-Nekil, north of Dhamar; the other following the Teháma. The road which leads _viâ_ Ibb proceeds through Sanaa, and thence _viâ_ Sadah and Taif to the Holy City. Jiblah, or Dhu Jiblah, as it was formerly called, owes its name to the fact that it was built upon the site of a pottery belonging to a Jew, Jiblah by name. It lies some ten miles to the south-west of Ibb. Ibn Khaldun gives a short description of the place. It is, he says, a fortress, and was founded by Abdullah, the Sulayhite, in the year 458 A.H. Like Taiz, it was a royal residence. [Illustration: VIEW OF MOUNTAIN-RANGES NEAR SÔK EL-KHAMIS. _On the road from Sanaa to Hodaidah._] The other cities of the mountain district, lying principally north of Sanaa, the capital, and therefore not coming under that portion of the country which it was the author’s lot to travel over, will be noticed anon.