MadderTs Travels in Turkey, #c. 117 



both of soul and body. After a most unintelligible exordium, 

 oil of wax was proposed, and agreed to. The doctors got their 

 fee, (four Spanish dollars each, the only rational part of the 

 story,) and the patient soon afterwards died. The secret of 

 the Turkish priest's activity then came out. The bulk of the 

 patient's property was invested in a mosque. 



The faith of Turks in the power of amulets, fertilizing 

 potions, and madjouns, seems to be universal. Indeed, from 

 what we learn in these volumes, the principal business of the 

 doctor is the prescribing of these efficacious remedies. " There 

 are few Mahometans," says the author, page 63, " who do not 

 put faith in amulets. I have found them on broken bones, on 

 aching heads, and sometimes over love-sick hearts. The latter 

 are worn by young ladies, and consist of a leaf or two of the 

 hyacinth. Sometimes these amulets consist of unmeaning 

 words, at other times of a scroll, bearing the words, \ Bismii- 

 lah,' * in the name of the "most merciful God,' with some ca- 

 balistic sign ; but most commonly they contain a verse of the 

 Koran. In dangerous diseases recourse is had to the most 

 potent of all charms, shreds of the clothing of the pilgrim- 

 camel which conveys the Sultan's annual present to the sacred 

 city. The amulet in most common use is an amber bead, with 

 a triangular scroll worn over the forehead. This is probably 

 an imitation of the phylacteries which the Jews were com- 

 manded c to bind for a sign upon their hands, and to be as 

 frontlets between their eyes.' " They are manufactured by Ma- 

 rabouts and Arab sheiks. Some very preposterous applica- 

 tions of a similar kind are occasionally to be seen, such as a 

 roasted mouse laid upon a gun-shot wound, and intended to 

 extract the ball. These absurdities, it may be said, only indi- 

 cate the low state of intellect in the mass of the Turkish popu- 

 lation, but it may reasonably be doubted whether the sick would 

 be better off in the hands of the faculty. 



Ladies were incessant in their demands upon the Doctor for 

 some potion that would ensure fertility. A woman in Turkey 

 has no honour or respect until she prove a mother, and all there- 

 fore are desirous of a progeny like Priam's. In spite of the 

 specifics, however, they have in general but few children, for 

 polygamy is undoubtedly injurious to population. But great as 

 is the fondness of the women for medicines to make them 

 fruitful, it is exceeded by that of the men for aphrodisiacs, 

 which they denominate madjoun. The author was solicited for 

 them in every province of the empire which he visited. It is 

 lamentable to think that hardly a man arrives at the age of 

 five and thirty whom debauchery has not debilitated and made 



