FROM ACRE TO NAZARETH. IGl 
persons : we therefore began, by keeping them chap. 
at such a distance as might prevent any ' , — ' 
communication of the disorder from their 
persons. The younger of the two, perceiving 
this, observed, that when we had been longer 
in the country, we should lay aside our fears, 
and perhaps fall into the opposite extreme, 
by becoming too indifferent as to the chance 
of contagion. They said they visited the 
sick from the moment of their being attacked ; 
received them into their convent ; and admi- 
nistered to their necessities ; always carefully 
abstaining from the touch of their diseased 
patients \ The force of imagination is said 
to have great influence, either in avoiding or 
in contracting this disorder ; those who give 
way to any great degree of alarm being the 
most liable to its attack ; while predestinarian 
Moslems^ armed with a povrerful faith that 
nothing can accelerate or retard the fixed 
decrees of Providence, pass unhurt through 
the midst of contagion ^ Certainly, the 
( 1 ) We afterwards found a very different line of conduct observed 
by 'the Monks of the Holy Sepulchre, who refused, and doubtless with 
very good reason, to admit any of our party after a visit to Bethlehem, 
Tvherc the plague was vehement. 
(2) Tlie author knew a Moslem of high rank, who, when his wife was 
attacked l)y the plague, attended her with impunity, until she died. He 
would 
