394 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chap. L. 
the lieutenant-governor, and entreated me to call 
and see her mother, who was suffering from a sore 
in her right ear. Thinking that her house was not 
far off, I followed her on foot, but had to traverse 
the whole town, as she was living near the gate 
leading to A'bu-Gher ; and it caused some merriment 
to my friends to see me strutting along with this 
young lady. But afterwards, when I visited my pa- 
tient, I used to mount my horse ; and the daughter was 
always greatly delighted when I came, and frequently 
put some very pertinent questions to me, as to how I 
was going on with my household, as I was staying 
quite alone. She was a very handsome person, and 
would even have been regarded so in Europe, with 
the exception of her skin, the glossy black of which 
I thought very becoming at the time, and almost 
essential to female beauty. 
The princesses also, or the daughters of the absent 
king, who in this country too bear the title of "rnairam" 
or ''meram," called upon me occasionally, under the 
pretext of wanting some medicines. Amongst others, 
there came one day a buxom young maiden, of very 
graceful but rather coquettish demeanour, accom- 
panied by an elder sister, of graver manners and 
fuller proportions, and complained to me that she 
was suffering from a sore in her eyes, begging me 
to see what it was ; but when, upon approaching her 
very gravely, and inspecting her eyes rather atten- 
tively without being able to discover the least defect, 
I told her that all was right, and that her eyes 
