382 



SOCIAL STATE OF THE ARABS. 



iron. In cases of rheumatism the patient is rubbed 

 with warm oil or the fat of mutton ; in dropsical 

 complaints the water is drawn off by means of se- 

 tons in the back. Toothach is sometimes cured by 

 inhaling the smoke of a certain plant ; and the bite 

 of venomous serpents by sucking out the poison. 

 Bloodletting is performed with a common knife, and 

 the lower classes sometimes scarify their legs, being 

 of opinion that this has a tendency to improve their 

 strength. From the same persuasion the inhabit- 

 ants of Yemen anoint their bodies with oil, which 

 protects them from the heat of the sun, and by 

 closing the pores of the skin is supposed to check 

 the debilitating effects of too copious perspiration. 

 The Arabs have many family nostrums, and are 

 implicit believers in the efficacy of charms and other 

 mystic arts. No species of knowledge is more highly 

 venerated than that of the occult sciences, which 

 afford a maintenance to a vast number of quacks and 

 impudent pretenders. The science of Ism Allah 

 (or Name of God) enables the possessor to discover 

 what is passing in his absence, to expel evil spirits, 

 cure diseases, and dispose of the winds and seasons 

 as he chooses. Those who have advanced far in this 

 study pretend to calm tempests at sea by the rules of 

 art, or say their prayers at noon in Mecca, without 

 stirring from their own houses in Aden or Bagdad. 

 The Simia is not quite so sublime a science, as it 

 teaches merely the feats and illusions of jugglers. 

 Dervises and mollahs practise it, and appear to the 

 astonished spectators to pierce their bodies with 

 lances, strike sharp-pointed instruments into their 

 eyes, or leap from the roofs of houses upon a pole 

 shod with iron, which seems to run through their 



