"(2nd Postscript at the side.)—Salutation also to our uncle, and say to him, that among the people of the Sheikh (اهل الشيخ) we obtain nothing, except what the Lord has brought us (a proverbial expression of the Moors, signifying nothing at all.) So farewell!
Address.
"To the hand of our esteemed brethren Abu Bekr, and Muhammad and Abdullah ben Ali Ibn Talib; may God amend their condition, amen!
"(With Solomon's seal, and a rude commencement of another; the name of Ben Talib, and the mystical words طه and بسم the first of which is prefixed to the xxth chapter of the Koran, and the other probably intended for طسم, heading the xxvith, and xxviiith; or for يس xxxvi.)"
Obs.—This letter is written within and without, and on every fold of it. The advice to seal the letter to prevent it from being "Grahamized" is curious. I have seen a hundred letters in The Desert unsealed, and it is only in case of suspicion, that the Saharan merchants seal their letters. Such is their confidence in each other's honour and good faith, that it is an insult to seal a letter when put into the hands of a friend. It would appear, from this letter, that some twenty years ago the commerce of Timbuctoo was in the most languishing deplorable state; but as far as I can judge, from the present operations of the merchants in Ghadames, the trade of Timbuctoo has in a measure revived. The letter itself is a most admirable specimen of the epistolary style of the Saharan Moors, and in this respect alone is of considerable value.
When walking out this morning, an impudent young dog came running after me and shouted, "There is no God but God, and Mahomet is the Prophet of God;" whilst another cried out, "You Kafer!" Judging it necessary to put a stop to this, I gave each little imp for his pains a hard rap of the head with my fly-flapper, which greatly surprised them, and sent them off yelping. Some of the boys, however, are very friendly, and come running after me and take hold of my hand. A day or two afterwards these young rascals came running after me again in the same way; but they were chased by an adult Moor, who gave them a good thrashing.
22nd.—Weather fine. Nothing new. Bought Said a new pair of Morocco shoes, and made him happy for a day or two. He begins to sulk about going amongst the Touaricks. To my great joy, the Shantah from Tripoli has arrived, bringing letters from Colonel Warrington, and Mr. Francovich, which latter has remitted to me 125 mahboubs. Two Touaricks have also arrived from Touat. The road is open. Rain has fallen in many places of The Desert in copious showers, which has buoyed up the hopes of the camel-graziers. Rumours of fighting between the Shânbah and Touaricks are prevalent.
The Tibboo left during the night for Ghat—alone! riding on a single camel. His conduct has astonished everybody. Some say "he's mad," and some say "he's a bandit." He had with him a small quantity of light goods, and about 300 dollars in cash. I asked the Rais about him. He observed, "That Tibboo has no wit. Many people die on the routes, the camels running away whilst they sleep. What can he do alone!" I asked the people, all of whom replied, "The Tibboo is a wonderful fellow!" One said, "Ah, that's a man, Yâkob. No Christian like the Tibboo." But another said, "Without doubt he's a cut-throat, that is the reason he goes alone. Even the Touaricks are afraid of him; and when they brought him here he quarrelled with them several times. Besides, a few days ago he was going to knock down the toll-taker at the gate." After this display of personal daring, I shall never have a contemptible idea of a Negro. The free, independent, and enlightened gentleman slave-driver of Yankee Land, armed with that symbol of order and good government, the bowie-knife! would find his match in this his brother Tibboo slave-driver. The Tibboo has done what no man of this city would have dared to do, in undertaking a journey of some twenty days over The Desert alone. What is very extraordinary, he never travelled the route but once before, that is, when he came here. They say he will arrive at Ghat in twelve days. He took the precaution of purchasing a good pair of horse-pistols before he left. I may add, he arrived safe and sound at Ghat.
23rd.—This morning exceedingly cold. In going out, a man said to me, "Where are you going this cold morning?" People were all shivering, or wrapped up in their burnouses. Said is attacked with ophthalmia. Received a visit from an old Arab doctor. He says cattle are attacked with the plague, as well as men. He wrote me a receipt for the cure of night-blindness, which would cure it in one night. He says, in the neighbouring desert, towards the west, there is a small oasis of Arabs, who are called El-Hawamad—الحومد—who are always afflicted by night-blindness, which singular affection is called by them Juhur (جُهُر). Mr. Jackson, in his Morocco, calls this strange disease butelleese. The Arabs of El-Hawamad see perfectly well in the day-time. But I must mention, that I received an application for medicine from a person who is affected with the same strange kind of malady. The European physicians call this disease Nyctalopia (Νυκταλωπια). I recently myself met with a case in London. But what is equally extraordinary, Captain Lyon (I think) mentions a case which he met with in The Desert, of a person who could see in the night-time but not in the day-time—a human owl. We conversed about other diseases in Ghadames. The principal, as before-mentioned, are ophthalmia and diarrhœa. There are two lepers; a few dropsical people; and, occasionally, small-pox and syphilitic diseases. There are, besides, various cutaneous affections. Dogs are known to go mad amongst the Arabs, but not very often. When mad, they are called makloub. The remedy is, when they bite people, the hair of the mad dog himself, rubbing it over the part bitten. Mussulmans are fond of this antagonistic idea, of the bane and the antidote being one and the same thing, for they preserve the dead scorpions to be applied to the sting of the living ones, and they aver it to be a certain cure. Quackery is the native growth of the ingenious as well as the whimsical and hypochondriacal ideas of men. In dropsy the native doctors cut the body to let out the water, as we do.
