1907.] TRIPOLI, 203 



pay the slightest attention to their method of culture, and im- 

 prove it more or less, they could raise anything which was 

 adapted to the climate and could make their country much 

 more productive than it is. 



I want to speak of the desert air. Personally, I am 

 getting to be a good deal of a sanitarian. In all of my life 

 experience I have never had anything so pure as the breath of 

 the desert air. It is just as if one's lungs were taking in the 

 breath of creation's morn, the very first that entered man's 

 lungs, so pure and sweet is it. It is really wonderful what an 

 effect that pure air has upon one. I believe the people in that 

 region would have no disease of any kind if they would obey 

 the sim.plest requirements of hygiene, but they are not cleanly, 

 and they are not over scrupulous in their habits, and they have 

 a great deal of trouble with their eyes. All of the houses 

 are surrounded by white w^alls. That undoubtedly has some 

 effect upon the eye. Then there is more or less fine dust in 

 the air, carried into it by the winds, which has a very bad effect 

 upon the eyes, but I think if they wxre careful to shield their 

 eyes properly there would be no trouble whatever. The 

 English people there do not have the same troubles, and the 

 troubles which they do have yield almost instanth' to the 

 slightest treatment, and it is nothing but carelessness which 

 produces the eye diseases one sees there upon every hand. The 

 people almost never have any trouble with their lungs. They 

 have nothing that is peculiar to the country, out of the ordinary 

 except the trouble with their eyes. Of course, the houses are 

 most unhygienic. I would like to show you a picture of the 

 Tripolitan houses, but I have no facilities for that purpose 

 here. Instead, I will give you a description of the weather 

 when the wind blows from the desert. The only thing that 

 happens in the air is the disagreeable weather which occurs in 

 the summer, sometimes. When the wind turns from the south 

 then it blows what they call a kabellah. It blows three days 

 from that direction. When the wind is north to northeast or 

 northwest, and usually when east or west it is very beautiful 

 weather, but if the wind turns, and instead of blowing from 

 one of those directions comes from the south it blows direct 

 from the desert, and the air soon begins to feel like air which 

 comes out of a furnace. One morning I put my head out of 



