Continue unwell and in low spirits, or as the Negroes say, am possessed by the Boree ("blue devils.") Days are short, and nights tedious and painful to me, as I cannot use my eyes by lamp-light, on account of a slight continued ophthalmia. Nothing remarkable to-day. If you want to feel alone in the world, which at times has its advantages, go into The Desert.
17th.—To my great satisfaction the mail arrived this morning, bringing letters and newspapers. The Governor is very friendly and is in better health. Quarrelled with Ben Mousa, my taleb, for eating Said's dinner when I was out of the way; to-day Said got him reconciled to me. Haj Mansour's family consists of thirty-two persons, all living in one house. This is the great quasi negro-merchant before mentioned. His father died a Saharan veteran of the age of one hundred and one. He had been more than a hundred times over The Desert trading. Yesterday died a man at the age of ninety-six. There are several women now living more than eighty. How long these poor creatures survive their feminine charms! A woman in The Desert gets old after thirty. I think, from what I have heard, people live to a great age in this and other oases—if not to a good and happy old age. Some remarkable cases of longevity in The Desert have been narrated by Captain Riley. Said says the people rob us desperately when they make our bread. We usually buy the wheat and have it ground and made into bread at the same time. I tell Said we must expect this sort of pilfering where there are so many hungry people.
My taleb began his interminable discussions on religion. He said he had hoped that I should have recognized Mahomet as the prophet of God, being acquainted as I was with Arabic, the language of truth and unmatched by any language in the world[58]. I replied language was not enough, other things were necessary; besides, indeed, some of the Mussulman doctors had said the Koran could be imitated and even excelled. The taleb replied, "A lie! the doctors were heretics and infidels, it is impossible to imitate the Koran's beautiful language," citing the well-known words of Mahomet:—
"Answer.—Bring therefore a chapter like unto it; and call whom you may to your assistance, besides God, if ye speak the truth."—(Surat ii., entitled "Jonas.")
The taleb then turned to my turjeman, who was present, and cited another passage, thinking I did not understand what it was. The passage quoted was the famous anathema of judicial blindness denounced against infidels:—
"As to the unbelievers, it will be equal to them whether thou admonish them, or do not admonish them; they will not believe. God hath sealed up their hearts and their hearing; a dimness covereth their sight, and they shall suffer a grievous punishment."—(Surat ii., entitled "the Cow.")
This is evidently an imitation[59] of our Scriptural passages, of which there are several:
"Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people has waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."—(Acts xxviii. 25, 26, 27.) So we have in John x. 26:—"But you believe not because you are not of my sheep."
Besides these imitations, Mahomet has made differences for the sake of differences. So the Sabbath of the Moslemites is on the Friday, because that of the Christians and Jews is on the Saturday and Sunday. I taxed my taleb with his quotation. He did not flinch or blink a hair of the eyelid, but said, "You Christians cannot believe if you would, because God has blinded your eyes and hardened your hearts." "Why do you complain of us?" I remonstrated. "I do not complain," he rejoined, "it is all destined." I then related a story of predestination which I had heard, of one man asking another, "If all things were predestined?" and he replying, "Yes;" the questioner immediately threw him out of the window, saying, "Well, that is also predestined." An old Moor sitting by, very attentively listening, exclaimed immediately, "Well, even that throwing out of the window, Yâkob, was also predestined." Said then brought in some stewed meat. I gave my theological disputants, reasoning—
"Of Providence, foreknowledge, will and fate, Fix'd fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, And found no end, in wandering mazes lost,"