CHARACTERS. 
patient, when a female, her com- 
pany, and attendants, and others 
who might happen to be in the 
courts through which he must pass, 
have either veiled, or retired out of 
sight. He is then conducted to the 
chamber of the sick lady by a slave, 
who continues, in a loud voice, tu 
give warning of his approach, by 
exclaiming, Dirb, Dirb, al Hakeem 
Gia-y. Way! Way! the doctor is 
coming: @ precaution which does 
not always prevent the unveiled 
Jadies, who have not been apprized, 
from accidentally crossing the court, 
in which case it becomes the well- 
bred physician to turn his eyes ano- 
ther way. 
Upon entering the chamber, he 
finds his patient covered with a 
“loose veil, and, it being a vulgar no- 
tion that the malady may be dis- 
covered from the pulse,* he is no 
sooner seated, than the naked wrist 
is presented for his examination. + 
She then describes her complaints, 
and, if it be necessary to look at the 
tongue, the veil is for that purpose. 
removed, while the assistants keep 
the rest of the face, and especially 
the crown of the head, carefully co- 
vered. The women do not hesi- 
‘tate to expose the neck, the bosom, 
or the stomach, when the case re- 
quires those parts to be inspected, 
but, never without extreme reluct- 
ance consent to uncover the head. 
Ladies whom I had known very 
young, and who, from long ac- 
quaintance, were careless in con- 
[*13 
cealing their face from me, never 
appeared without a hankerchief or 
some other slight covering thrown 
over the head. So far as I could 
judge, from general practice, it 
seemed to be considered, in point of 
decorum, of more consequence to 
veil the head, than the face. 
The physician is usually enter- 
tained with tobacco and coffee. 
which, being intended as a mark of 
respect, cannot in civility be de- 
clined, though the compliance leads 
to an intemperate use of both. Af- 
ter he has examined, and given di- 
rections concerning his patient, he 
requests leave to retire, but is sel- 
dom aliowed to escape without 
hearing the incurable complaints of 
as many valetudinary visitants, as 
happen to be present, who either sit 
ready veiled, or talk from behind a 
curtdin occasionally suspended in 
the chamber. These ladies always 
consider themselves entitled to ver- 
bal advice, or at least to an opinion 
of such remedies, as have been re- 
commended by others; and a prin- 
cipal part of the medical art, among 
the native practitioners, consists in 
being able to acquit themselves 
dexterously in such incidental con- 
sultatious. 
In families which the European 
physician has been accustomed to 
attend, and when bis patient is on 
the recovery, he is sometimes in 
duced to protract the visit, and to 
gratify the curiosity of the ladies, 
who ask numberless questions con- 
* The native practioners give a sanction to this foolish notion. “I followed, in 
that respect, the example of my brother, who, except in fevers, always insisted on 
the sick giving an account of their complaints, before he would feel the pulse. 
_~ + Lhave been offered, sometimes, the wrist covered with thin muslin, but the 
Aleppo ladies in general ridicule that punctilio, and I always refused compliance 
with a piece of prudery not sanctioned by custom. 
Tournefort found the practice different in the harems he visited. Voyage, tom. 
ik p. 17. 
cerning 
