is steep, tlie country is desert; is there but one
path, or are there many? Your path and mine
are different, but with God’s help they will lead
us to the top. Shall we quarrel over the well
upon the thirsty way ? or shall we drink together,
and be thankful for the cool waters, and strive to
reach the end ? Drink from my water-skin when
upon the desert we thirst together, scorched by
the same sun, exhausted by the same simoom,
cooled, by the same night, until we sleep at the
journey’s end, and together thank God, Christian
and Mahometan, that we have reached our
home.”
The good fakeers rejoiced in such simple explanations,
and they came to the conclusion that we were
“ all the same with a little difference,” thus we were
the best of friends with all the people. If not exactly
a cure of their Mahometan souls, they acknowledged
that I held the key to their bowels, which were
entirely dependent upon my will, when the crowd
of applicants daily thronged my medicine chest, and
I dispensed jalap, calomel, opium, and tartar emetic:
Upon one occasion a woman brought me a child of
about fifteen months old, with a broken thigh; she
had fallen asleep upon her camel, and had allowed
the child to fall from her arms. I set the thigh,
and secured it with gum bandages, as the mimosas
afforded the requisite material. About twenty yards
of old linen in bandages three inches broad, soaked
in thick gum-water, will form the best of splints
when it becomes dry and hard, which in that
climate it will do in about an hour. There was one
complaint that I was obliged to leave entirely in the
hands of the Arabs,—this was called “frendeet;” it
was almost the certain effect of drinking the water
that in the rainy. season is accumulated in pools
upon the surface of the rich table-lands, especially
between the Atbara and Katariff; the latter is a
market-town about sixty miles from Wat el Negur,
on the west bank of the river. Frendeet commences
with a swelling of one of the limbs, generally accompanied
with intense pain ; this is caused by a
worm of several feet in length, but no thicker than
pack-thread. The Arab cure is to plaster the limb
with cow-dung, which is their common application
for almost all complaints. They then proceed to
make what they term “ doors,” through which the
worm will be able to escape ; but, should it not be
able to find one exit, they make a great number,
by the pleasant and simple operation of pricking the
skin in many places with a red-hot lance. In
about a week after these means of escape are provided,
one of the wounds , will inflame, and assume
the character of a small boil, from which the head
of the worm will issue. This is then seized, and
fastened either to a small reed or piece of wood,
which is daily and most gently wound round, until,
in the course of about a week, the entire worm
will be extracted, unless broken during the operation,
in which case severe inflammation will ensue.