Chap. XLIX. MOHAMMEDAN LEARNING. 375 
that for the last twenty years he had not met a single 
person who knew what sort of thing an astrolabe was. 
He was a very enlightened man, and in his inmost 
soul a Wahabi ; and he gave me the same name, on 
account of my principles. I shall never forget the 
hours I passed in cheerful and instructive conversa- 
tion with this man ; for the more unexpected the 
gratification was, the greater, naturally, was the im- 
pression which it made upon me. Unluckily he died 
about a year after I left the country. In general 
it was I who called upon him, when he used to 
treat me with a very good cold rice pudding, and 
with dates from Kanem, which were rather of an 
inferior description ; but when he came to me, I used 
to regale him with a cup of coffee, which was a great 
treat to him, carrying him back to more civilized re- 
gions, and he never omitted to press the cup to each 
of his temples. The only drawback to my intercourse 
with this man was, that he was as anxious to obtain 
information from me with regard to the countries of 
the Christians, and those parts of the world with 
which he was less acquainted, as I was to be instructed 
by him ; besides that, he had a great deal of business, 
being occupied with the Sheriya or Mohammedan law. 
He had a singular predilection for emetics ; and he 
begged me so urgently to favour him with this treat, 
that in the course of a few weeks I gave him more than 
half a dozen for himself, besides those I was obliged to 
supply to his family. He suffered from bilious afFec- 
B B 4 
