1907.] TRIPOLI. 211 



the Mohammedans, of course, had their reHgious duties at the 

 mosques. So there were three different days that interfered 

 very much with the work of setting up the instruments. That 

 was the principal difficulty. There were others, but generally 

 those three religions constituted the principal obstacle to our 

 getting ready for the eclipse. By this time our preparations 

 had been well advanced, and we found that the interest in our 

 work among the populace was considerable. There was a 

 great deal of misunderstanding due to their superstitions. 

 The women were especially fearful that something dire was 

 going to happen and had to be assured that it would not bring 

 any harm to them. When we were there in 1900 I was invited 

 into a room among a number of women, and I found a great 

 deal of terror among them. They begged me to postpone the 

 eclipse, and when I told them that I could not do that, then 

 they begged me to see that when the terrible day of darkness 

 arrived nothing should happen to them ; that no harm should 

 come to them. I said that I really could not put off the day 

 of darkness, that I must allow that to come, but that otherwise 

 there would no harm come to anyone; that it would not last 

 but a short time, and then that everything would be as it 

 was before. On the occasion of our second visit, while we 

 had a great many interesting experiences, there was not the 

 terror expressed that there was upon the first time. There 

 was more intelligent interest in it. But they could not see 

 or understand how it happened that the same man should come 

 back to observe the eclipse a second time. There was a great 

 deal of interesting gossip about it. When we were there in 

 1900 they said that my husband was to go up in some 

 tremendous balloons, and that when he got up almost to the 

 sun he would set them on fire, and that would shut out the sun- 

 light, and that would produce the eclipse. How one astrono- 

 mer was to go up in several balloons was something I never 

 could understand. They called him, the second time, the great 

 sorcerer. 



But I must tell you a little more about the market days 

 before I go into any further description of the eclipse. I am 

 afraid that my time is rapidly coming to an end, and there 

 are so many things of interest to speak about that I must not 



