Footnote 65:[ (return) ] The Aoudad; for a particular description of which, see Jackson's Marocco, Chapter V., Zoology, p. 84.
Footnote 66:[ (return) ] The Gazel, or Antelope, outruns at first the greyhound; but after running about an hour the greyhound gains on him.
TIME.
They measure time [67] by days, weeks, lunar months, and lunar years; yet few can ascertain their age.
Footnote 67:[ (return) ] The hour is an indefinite term, and assimilates to our expression of a good while; it is from half an hour by the dial to six hours, and the difference is expressed by the word wahad saa kabeer, a long hour; and wahad saa sereer, a little hour; also by the elongation of the last syllable of the last word.
RELIGION.
They have no temples, churches, or mosques, no regular worship or sabbath; but once in three months they have a great festival, which lasts two or three days, sometimes a week, and is spent in eating and drinking. He does not know the cause; but thinks it, perhaps, a commemoration of the king's birth-day; no work is done. They believe in a Supreme Being and another state of existence, and have saints and men whom they revere as holy. Some of them are sorcerers, and some ideots, as in Barbary and Turkey; and though physicians are numerous, they expect more effectual aid in sickness from the prayers of the saints, especially in the rheumatism. Music is employed to excite ecstasy in the saint, who, when in a state of inspiration, tells (on the authority of some departed saint, generally of Seedy Muhamed Seef,) what animal must be sacrificed for the recovery of the patient: a white cock, a red cock, a hen, an ostrich, an antelope, or a goat. The animal is then killed in the presence of the sick, and dressed; the blood, feathers, and bones are preserved in a shell and carried to some retired spot, where they are covered and marked as a sacrifice. No salt or seasoning is used in the meat, but incense is used previous to its preparation. The sick man eats as much as he can of the meat, and all present partake; the rice, or what else is dressed with it, must be the produce of charitable contributions from others, not of the house or family; and every contributor prays for the patient.
DISEASES.
The winds of the desert produce complaints in the stomach, cured by medicine. They have professed surgeons and physicians. The bite of a snake is cured by sucking the wound. They have the jlob [68] violently, for which sulphur from Terodant in Suse is taken internally and externally. This disorder is sometimes fatal. They are afflicted also with fevers and agues. Bleeding is often successful; the physicians prescribe also purgatives and emetics. Ruptures are frequent and dangerous; seldom cured, and often fatal. They tap for the dropsy. He never heard of the venereal disease there. Head-aches and consumptions also prevail. The physicians [69] collect herbs and use them in medicine.
Footnote 68:[ (return) ] Probably the itch, called El Hack in Barbary.