MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 121 



with a book in his hand. " "What is this ?" he ex- 

 claimed ; " What are you doing ?" " You write 

 down our country," he continued, in a passionate 

 tone, " our mountains, our pasturing places, and 

 the rain which falls from heaven ; other people 

 have done this before you, but I, at least, will never 

 become instrumental to the ruin of my country." 

 Burckhardt assured him that he had no bad inten- 

 tions towards the Bedouins, for whom he enter- 

 tained the greatest esteem ; and then appealing to 

 his superstitious credulity, he informed him that he 

 was only using secret charms for the preservation 

 di their lives ; " For (said he), had I not occasion- 

 ally written down some prayers ever since we left 

 Toba (where they were in danger of being attacked), 

 we should most certainly have been killed ; and it 

 is very wrong in you to accuse me of that which, if 

 I had omitted, would have cost us our lives." At 

 this reply Ayd was startled, and seemed nearly satis- 

 fied. " Perhaps you say the truth (he observed), 

 but we all know that some years since, several 

 men, God knows who they were (alluding to Seet- 

 zen and M. Agnotti), came to this country, visited 

 the mountains, wrote down every thing, — stones, 

 plants, animals, even serpents and spiders; and 

 since then, little rain has fallen, and the game has 

 greatly decreased." These opinions prevail, not only 

 in the peninsula of Sinai, but among the Bedouins 

 of Nubia. They believe that a sorcerer, by writing 

 down certain charms, can stop the rains, and trans- 

 fer them to his own country; and even conjure out 



