OF THE ANCIENT ARABS. 187 



never happened, — to predict all contingent events, 

 — to interpret dreams, and even tell and explain 

 visions which the dreamer had forgotten, — to be 

 questioned and give answers on any subject a stran- 

 ger wished to know, — to tell what was passing in 

 distant places, — to give news of absent persons, and 

 discover goods that had been lost or stolen. Most 

 of these soothsayers pretended they were inspired 

 by a peri or fairy ; for these little green genii, so 

 popularly knoAvn in this country, were natives of 

 the East, and may be classed among the poetical 

 fictions which the Saracens brought to Europe. 

 Kings applied to these wizards in their perplexities. 

 When the last of the Tobbaas had a vision, which he 

 could neither relate nor comprehend, he assembled 

 four hundred of them, at the head of whom were the 

 famous Shak and Satih. They related and inter- 

 preted to him the particulars of his dream, which 

 portended that a black race from Ethiopia would 

 seize his kingdom, and abolish the Jewish religion. 

 To augury, and other popular superstitions, the 

 Arabs were extremely devoted. The flight of a bird, 

 or the particular motion of an animal, was sufficient 

 to suspend the most important journey. If the for- 

 mer flew to the right it was a lucky omen, if to the 

 left the traveller returned home. The most ordinary 

 events in life, — ^justice, medicine, courtship, matri- 

 mony, — were regulated by the imaginary influence 

 of certain spells. A hare's foot suspended round 

 the neck, or in any part of the house, was a charm 

 against the witchery of an evil eye, and protected 

 the family from all sorts of male demons, whether 

 from the woods or the deserts, that haunt the abodes 

 of men. The tooth of a fox or a she-cat, or the red 

 gelatine exuded from a prickly shrub {Spina Egyp- 

 tia), was worn as an amulet, to prevent blindness or 

 other malignant influence of female demons. If 

 th« youth of either sex wished to have a fine and 



