The town of Menakha is quite a small one. It contains, perhaps, some five thousand inhabitants, without counting the very considerable number of Turkish troops stationed there at the time of my visit. The houses are well built of stone, some of them four storeys, and many three, in height. The Government offices and the military hospital and barracks give the place quite a European appearance, for they are all built in modern Turkish style, with glass windows and flat roofs. The bazaar is tolerably well supplied with the necessaries of life, though at the time of my visit meat and vegetables were scarce, on account of the influx of troops. There are, too, several large shops, one or two kept by Greeks. I was surprised, in passing through the town, to be accosted in excellent English by one of these shopkeepers, who, he told me, had been a servant to an Englishman in Suakin for some years. I went with him to his store, where everything was purchasable, from sardines to port wine, and spent half an hour or so talking with him. He was evidently an intellectual man, and seemed well up in the affairs of the Yemen. He had been present at the taking of Menakha by the Arabs, and its recapture by the Turks; but his property had been respected in both cases, and he had suffered little if any loss. The great altitude at which Menakha is situated—some seven thousand six hundred feet above the sea-level—renders it liable to sudden changes of temperature; and two hours after we had arrived in blazing sunshine, clouds gathered over the town, obscuring the view, and the temperature fell to below 50°. We managed to procure a charcoal brasier, over which my men and I huddled, our circle being joined by a couple of charming Turkish officers, both of whom spoke Arabic well. About eight o’clock I was taken suddenly ill with fever, which did not leave me until ten the next morning, by which time I was so weak that I could only stand with assistance, and accordingly travelling was out of the question. The Kaimakam made no difficulties about my remaining another day, and did all in his power to make me comfortable. During the afternoon I had sufficiently recovered my strength to crawl out and seek the shade of a hollow in the rocks, where my men lit a little fire and brewed coffee. The spot we had chosen looked directly into the great valley that runs west from Menakha, far down which we could see. Away below us, tier above tier, were the terraced coffee and banana groves; while the rocky precipices, here bare and frowning, were in other parts hung with creepers, while in every crevice some strange flowering aloes had found room to grow.