PTOLEMETA TO MERGE. 395 otherwise have done, from the alleviation which this operation afforded to the pain of a well-known cutaneous disease, that it will not be necessary to name, we must state, at the same time, that it is by no means peculiar to them alone ; since the greater part of the Arabs from Bengazi to Derna are afflicted with a similar complaint.

As they have either no effectual remedy for the disorder, or neglect the precaution of applying it, the consequences must be distressing in the extreme to them ; and it is certain, that their appearance is not often remarkably prepossessing, and, perhaps, as we have said, not altogether in character with the beautiful scenery about them. We shall insist, notwithstanding this unlucky objection, that the scenery of the country in the neighbourhood of Merge, is among the most beautiful that we have ever beheld ; and that the people who inhabit it are not the less patriarchal in their manners, and customs, and appearance, because they happen to be afflicted with a cutaneous disease the name of which has not usually been associated, in modern times, with ideas of pastoral, or any other enjoyments. At the same time, we confess that we did not feel ourselves called upon to fill our water-skins any more from the pool which we had hitherto used, when we found for what purposes it was occasionally employed ; although the Arabs themselves could see no sufficient reason why it should not be drank on that account.

Near the centre of Merge is a ruin now called Mardbut Sidi Arhooma, and a few miles to the south-east of it are remains of an inconsiderable town which the Bey informed us had been built by a 3 E 2