244 AFRICAN WANDERINGS.

written amulets that bring evil on those, who secretly foster illwill against him ; they are very old, as are all such papers we have examined. Mahmud Aga, Bulluk Baschi, and Abdin Bey have great seals, the impression of which they stamped on paper, and gave to those who had the fever to wear about them ; if this has no effect, there must be some evil spirit (schittan) in the way.

There are also papers (uarrag) that sick men must eat, or burn and inhale the smoke. Osmar Kaschef, as a preventive to cold and cough, drinks the water with "which the ink of certain written words has been washed off a wooden table ; and he swears that a frog split open and placed on a shot-wound will draw out any ball within twelve hours. Even the most intelligent among them believe more in their charms than in the best doctor. Tlie Pascha, a freethinker, states his belief in men living to the age of 400 or 500 years. All, both Turks and Arabs, are much prejudiced against the European method of treating diseases. If the medicine does not give immediate relief, it is bad, all bosh. All that any friend recommends is at once tried, and faki and charms are always employed along with the attending doctor. Their own receipts are powerful, as, for instance, for a cold, pepper, ginger, and hot spices, &c. Almost for every illness they ojxn some particular vein ; the vena ranina for indigestion, the vena frontalis for headache, the vena digitalis for ailments in the limbs, &c. &c.

Garlic, placed on or in the tarbush is a preventive to coup de soleil ; and garlic and salt, placed under the tongue, a cure for thirst and fever. Arabs and Turks groan and cry at every attack of illness, and call on Allah and the Prophet, " ia Rabbi ! Rassul Allah! Sheik Abd-el-Kader I " &c. During illne.-s they seldom change their clothes, and remain in their under garments, which are clogged with perspiration. On fresh wounds they place sulphur, wash them often wnth brandy, and strew on them coffee, salt, and gunpowder. For lance wounds the natives here roll round a piece of stickgoat's hair or cotton, and turn it round in them. When these in a day or two become highly inflamed, they make a rim of paste round the wound, and pour into it boiling butter. That the butter that runs over after being applied to the wound is never wasted, but drunk up, is a matter of course. They say if it does not bum like fire it does no good, and it is incredible how