133 CHAP. yiii.

Effects of ccposurc to the sun — Diseases of the natives — Tlieir insensibility to pain—Stoicism under surgical operations — Mograbin soldiers —. A travelled iirab—Tyranny ot Mcheiuet xili—Amulets—roreigners in Egypt—Turkish prejudice.

Tv"e suffer greatly from the beat ; and it is only in cases of much urgency we stir out, or quit our hut, from noon till four hours after it. AVhen \ve are summoned by the Pascha,—and to appear before him, one nuist at any hour be ready, — we cover up our heads, in addition to the tagliie (takie, under-cap) and tarbusli, by a hood or cloth, as ve have been warned by sad experience to take every precaution. On our journey up, my brother received a stroke of the sun in spite of his straw hat, and had for two days to strugcle with death ;, and I only saved him by the desperate remedy of constantly blistering his stomach and tiie soles of his feet. In spite, of this fearful heat, we still wear our usual woollen clothing ; and even over this, a warm, silken scarf (hessahn), which, as it produces perspiration, is much to be preferred to thinner stuffs. The principal care we Germans require is, shading the head ; on the march, we keep this rolled up, and so covered, that we often cannot see out of our eyes ; we must cut queer figures. But even the Bedouins themselves, in warm sunshine, carefully cover their heads with their woollen barakan (batanie), although almost all the rest of the body is left exposed or naked ; and, for the same reason, the Turks wear two tarbushes. As far as the present inhabitants of Dongola and the Island are concerned, the sun does not seem to exercise any very hurtful power on their brain-pans. Both races, however, are well protected from his rays, by their well-greased and plaited hair, which, like the woolly Lair of the negroes, forms a good sheltering roof, or thatch : but even among them are to be found old bald-headed men, who seem to care as L 2