368 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER. 
and I agree, andthough I have lived many years with peo- 
ple of your religion of all ranks, yet lam far from knowing 
what are the manners of Atbara; what will offend you or 
them, or what not; for, as I ee no view but your good 
and theirs, I would not expofe myfelf to any illufage to 
which a miftake of your cuftoms may fubject me. In fhort, 
I mutt afk thefe ladies anumber of queftions, which, if you 
choofe to hear, you may, but no perfon elfe muft, as is the 
cuftom of my country.” “What has he to do with us and 
our phyfician? faid the eldeft of the two; all his bufinefs is 
to pay you money when you have made us well.” “ What 
would become of him, fays Adelan’s daughter, if we were 
to be ill? he would flarve for want of people to make ready 
his meat.”—Aye, and his arink too, fays the other, which 
he is fonder of than his meat.”——“ No, no, fays Shekh Fidele, — 
in perfect good humour, we know you, Hakim; you are 
notlike us; afk them all the queftions you pleafe, I neither 
wifh nor intend to hear them; I hear too much of them 
every day againft my will, and only with to God you would 
cure them or make them dumb altogether, and then they 
will not teaze me with their illnefs any longer; a fick wo- 
man is plague fufficient for a devil.”—* Then, clear the 
room, faid I,in the firft place, of all thefe idle women-fer- 
vants; only leave two or three of the fteadieft flaves to ferve 
their miftreffes.” He did not feem at a lofs how to do this, 
for he took up a fhort whip, or fwitch, which lay at hand, 
and happy were they who got firft tc the door. I fawamong 
thefe a genteel female figure, covered from head to foot, 
whom Fidele pulled in with his hand, after he had pufhed. 
the others out of the door, faying, “Come in, Aifcach ;” and 
immediately after this he went away. 
~] was 
. 
Le ak lk ol a a 2 
