AND LOWER EGYPT. 67 



corne myself an assassin, in order to prevent others 

 from being so, and, above all, tbat bis bandfuls of 

 gold did not tempt me, my gentleman quitted me 

 very much displeased, and I never beard vvbetber 

 Ibe fears wbicb he manifested were well grounded; 

 it would indeed have been a very imprudent act 

 in me to procure information of it. 



In the number of diseases wbicb T have bad 

 occasion to prescribe for, I observed a very singular 

 one on the skin of an inhabitant of Siout, His 

 complexion, like that of all the other natives of 

 the same southern cantons of Egypt, was of a 

 deep brown. But about five or six years before, 

 a part of this blackish skin had given place to 

 another perfectly white ; these white spots were 

 spreading more and more, so that when I saw this 

 man, his face, his arms and hands, and his whole 

 body, were covered, and, as it were, marbled with 

 large flakes of brown and white ; the blackish 

 skin was disappearing gradually, and it is to be: 

 presumed that his skin will have become com- 

 pletely as white as milk. He did not experience, 

 in other respects, any pain or uneasiness. 



This disorder is a species of leprosy. It is, ac- 

 cording to all appearance, the same with the bakcik 

 or behaq of the Arabs *. When it spreads itself all 



* See the Description of Arabia, by Niebuhr, page 120, nnd 

 the note of Forskal on the following page. 



F 2 over 



