126 
TORTURES OF THIRST, 
diminished. On the sixth day^ 1 thought that I could no 
longer endure these privations. The east wind blew vio- 
lently ; the heat increased ; my throat was parched, my 
tongue, dry and chapped, was like a rasp in my mouth, and 
I thought I should sink under my sufferings. I was not the 
only one who was in this state ; every body around me was 
tormented in the same way. The marabouts, at last, bathed 
the face, head, and part of the body, and I was allowed to 
do the same 5 but I was watched very closely, and could only 
have deceived my Arguses at the risk of my life, in case I had 
been seen to swallow a drop of water. When my sufferings 
were excessive, and a murmur escaped me, they told me, 
for my encouragement, that when I died Mahomet would 
receive me into heaven, present me with a vase of deli- 
cious liquor to quench my thirst, and reward me for the 
pains and privations I had endured. One day I contrived to 
enjoy this treat beforehand, as the law permits you to wash 
your mouth, and to snuff up water through the nose, pro- 
vided you spit it out again ; I seized the moment when my 
maralDOut, being engaged in washing himself, could not ob- 
serve me, to swallow part of the water that I had in my 
mouth : it seemed to me as if the prophet was that moment 
opening the gates of heaven to me, for I had never tasted 
any thing so delicious. This was the only time that I could 
elude their vigilance, and I did it then with fear and trem- 
bling. I fasted thus for seventeen days, and on the eighteenth 
I was attacked with a fever; a dispensation from fasting 
was then granted me, if a man can be said not to fast because 
he drinks a little water in the course of the day : they gave 
me absolutely nothing to eat. 
Besides being compelled to observe a most rigorous fast, 
1 had to bear the insolence of a number of travelling has- 
sanes, with whom my sufferings were a subject of ridicule. 
If they found me lying upon my mat, and expiring of thirst 
and exhaustion, they pulled me by my clothes, and pinched 
