62 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



r//i^announccd that I was the physician of Mourat 

 Bey and Ismain-Abou-Ali ; that it was necessary 

 to make trial of the whole extent of my knowledge, 

 and that, moreover, they might speak with perfect 

 freedom before me, for I did not understand Arabic. 

 He began by declaring, that being in the habit of 

 losing some blood once every year, he had for tiie 

 first time neglected that precaution, and that he 

 was disordered in consequence of it. His next 

 neighbour said, that a sudden cold had seized him, 

 from having passed the night in a boat, and that it 

 occasioned him great pain. Another was choked 

 with bile. They all explained, in a high tone of 

 voice, and in their own way, the real or imaginary 

 cause of their diseases, that each of them might be 

 in a condition to judge if my science could enable 

 me to discover, or rather to divine them. 



The Kiaschef made me approach him, and held 

 out his wrist to me: he waited till I pronounced 

 my opinion, v/ith the impatience of curiosity. I 

 gave myself the air of meditating upon it for some 

 portion of time before I pronounced the oracle ; I 

 then informed tiie K'laschef^ by the interpreter, that 

 it was necessary he should be bled. I assured his 

 neighbour that his dreadful pains were the conse- 

 quence of a cold which he had caught some little 

 time before. I advised the third to get rid of the 

 bile v/hich choked him ; at last, when I had made 



the 



