320 SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



women and slaves eat what is left by the men ; and 

 it is seldom they have the good fortune to taste any 

 thing but the fragments and refuse of the table. It 

 is accounted a mark of respect towards superiors 

 not to eat out of the same dish. 



From their regular and temperate life the Arabs 

 are subject to few diseases. Leprosy seems always 

 to have been an endemic in that country. Of the 

 three varieties, two are reckoned more disgusting 

 than dangerous ; but the third is infectious, andx^ery 

 malignant. The ravages of the small-pox have long 

 been arrested by artificial means ; as the practice 

 of inoculation has been in use among the Bedouins 

 from time immemorial. ]\Iothers perform this opera- 

 tion on their children, by opening the skin of the 

 arm with the prickle of a thorn or the point of a 

 needle charged with infected matter. There are 

 many tribes, however, where this art is unknown, 

 and in consequence whole encampments have fallen 

 victims to this unsparing malady. Vaccination has 

 been lately introduced, and met with a favourable 

 reception. Attacks of the Guinea-worm (the Vctia 

 Medinensis) are common in Yemen ; and supposed to 

 originate from the use of putrid waters in which the 

 eggs of the insect have been deposited. The dis- 

 order is not fatal if the person affected can extract the 

 >vorm, which is slender as a thread, and two or three 

 feet long, without breaking it. This is done by roll- 

 ing it gradually on a small bit of wood as it comes 

 out of the skin. Toothache is rare ; but ophthalmic 

 disorders are very common. • Jaundice, bilious com- 

 plaints, and agues or intermittent fevers are of fre- 

 quent occurrence, though seldom fatal. At Medina, 

 Burckhardt reckoned the mortality at about 1200 

 deaths annually, which may be considered a large 

 proportion for a population of 10,000 or 12,000. The 

 plague is the most terrible scourge of Arabia, though 

 it is less destructive there than in some other East- 

 ern countries. Notwithstanding the belief of the 



