THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. n 7 



Friar Christopher, whom I underltood to have been a 

 Milanefe barber, was his phylician, but he had not the fci- 

 ence of an Englifh barber in furgery. He could not bleed, 

 but with a fort of inftrument refembling that which is ufed 

 in cupping, only that it had but a fmgle lancet ; with this 

 he had been lucky enough as yet to efcape laming his 

 patients. This bleeding inftrument they call the Tabange, or 

 the Piftol, as they do the cupping inftrument likewife. I never 

 could help fhuddering at feeing the confidence with which 

 this man placed a fmall brafs box upon all forts of arms, and 

 drew the. trigger for the point to go where fortune pleafed,. 



Shekh Ismael was very fond of" this furgeon, and the- 

 furgeon of his patron ; all would have gone well, had not 

 friar Chriflopher aimed likewife at being an Aflronomer. A- 

 bove all he gloried in being a violent enemy to the Coperni- 

 can fyftem, which unluckily he had miftaken for a herefy in,* 

 the church ; and partly from his own flight ideas and ftock: 

 of knowledge, partly from fome Milanefe almanacs he had 

 got, he attempted, the weather being cloudy, to foretel the 

 time when the moon was to change, it being that of the 

 month Ramadan, when the Mahometans' lent, or failings 

 was to begin. 



It happened that the Badjoura people, and their Shekh 

 Ifmael, were upon indifferent terms with Hamam, and his 

 men of Furfhout, and being defirous. to get a triumph over 

 their neighbours by the help of their friar Chriflopher, they 

 continued to eat, drink, and fmoke, two days after the con- 

 junction, . 



The 



