i 4 8 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



told you Shekh already, fays he, Curfed be the man who 

 lifts his hand againft you, or even does not defend and be- 

 friend you, to his own lofs, were it Ibrahim my own fon." 



I then told him I was bound to CofTeir, and that if I 

 found myfelf in any difficulty, I hoped, upon applying to 

 his people, they would protect me, and that he would give 

 them the word, that I was yagoube, a phyfician, feeking no 

 harm, but doing good ; bound by a vow, for a certain time, 

 to wander through deferts, from fear of God, and that they 

 fhould not have it in their power to do me harm. 



The old man muttered fomething to his fons in a dialect 

 I did not then underftand ; it was that of the Shepherds of 

 Suakem. As that was the firft word he fpoke, which I did 

 not comprehend, I took no notice, but mixed fome lime- 

 water in a large Venetian bottle that was given me when 

 at Cairo full of liqueur, and which would hold about four 

 quarts ; and a little after I had done this the whole hut was 

 fdled with people. 



There were firlejls and monks of their religion, and the 

 heads of families, fo that the houfe could not contain 

 half of them. The great people among them came, 

 and, after joining hands, repeated a kind of * prayer, 

 of about two minutes long, by which they declared 

 themfelves, and their children, accurfed, if ever they 

 lifted their hands againft me in the Tell, or Field in the 

 defert, or on the river ; or, in cafe that I, or mine mould fly 



to 



* This kind of oath was in ufe among the Arabs, or Shepherds, early as the time of Abraham, 

 Gen. xxi. 22, 23. xxvi. 28, 



