THIRTY- FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 23 



fair is held at an insignificant fortress (Muzerib), at which 

 a larcje quantity of articles are sold and purchased, and 

 whither also the Arab chiefs, of different tribes, from the desert, 

 bring their goods, principally horses, for sale. At that time,, 

 the Pasha and the Surra-Emini pay them money, and distri- 

 bute state dresses among them, for which they undertake to 

 provide the pilgrims, going to and coming from Mecca, 

 with the required number of camels, without which the road 

 through the desert would be impracticable. 



I accompanied the Pasha both going and returning. 

 On my arrival in Damascus, I found a medical man, 

 Mr. H. I. De Turck, now at Ghent, who was come from 

 Paris, where he had studied medicine, and the Arabic 

 language. Shortly after, I received a letter from Bagdad, 

 from Mr. Anton Swoboda, a native of Hungary, who 

 had a warehouse there for Bohemian glass, under the 

 firm of Ign. Zahn and Company, of Pesth and Aleppo ; it 

 was in the latter place that I made his acquaintance. 



He informed me in that letter, that Dohud-Pasha wished 

 to engage a European physician and surgson, and advised me 

 to accept his offers. I communicated the contents of this 

 letter to Mr. Henri De Turck, proposing to him to undertake 

 the journey with me, to which he agreed. At that time there 

 were two caravans, a great and a small one (galat), the latter 

 of only ten camels, ready to start immediately for Bagdad. 

 But as the former, for the sake of food and water, was 

 obliged to take a roundabout way, lasting full six weeks, 

 whilst the latter, by following the direct road through 

 the desert, would occupy only two weeks in the journey,, 

 we sent our luggage by the greater caravan, and went, with 

 our two camels, with the galat, which consisted now of 

 twelve camels. We were obliged to take with us provi- 

 sions for about ten or twelve days — some clothes, and a few 

 medicines. Each camel was provided with two goat-skins, 

 to carry water, as we arrived only every third or fourth 

 day at watering-places. Each camel had also its driver, 

 who sat behind, and his fiirs, by the way, were full of vermin. 



Kirkor, aa Armeaian merchant, from Bagdad, who led 



