Chap. XXX. DANGEROUS MEDICAL PRACTICE. 285 
or the Psalms of David, which even the Arabs esteem 
very highly, and would esteem much more if they 
were translated into a better sort of Arabic, and after- 
wards the whole Bible, which he wished to take with 
him on his long land-journey. 
The Arabs and the Fiilbe, as is well known, are in 
almost continual warfare all along the line from the 
Senegal as far as Timbuktu ; and it was most in- 
teresting for me to see him and Ahmed in violent 
altercation about the advantages of their respective 
nations, while I was thereby afforded an excellent 
means of appreciating their reports with regard to the 
state of the tribes and countries along the Senegal. 
The way in which they began to communicate to me 
their information was in itself expressive of their re- 
spective characters, Ahmed protesting that, before he 
dared to communicate with me, he was compelled to 
ask the permission of the vizier, while Ibrahim laughed 
at him, declaring that he felt himself fully authorized 
to give me any information about Negroland. Ibra- 
him became an intimate friend of mine, and took a 
lively interest in me, particularly commiserating my 
lonely situation in a foreign country, far from home, 
without the consolations of female companionship. 
As an example of the risks which European tra- 
vellers may incur by giving medicines to natives to 
administer to themselves at home, I will relate the 
following incident. Ibrahim told me one day that he 
wanted some cooling medicine ; and I gave him two 
strong doses of Epsom salts, to use occasionally. 
