country contiguous to the river Draha, as well as many districts in S u s e ; and, in short, settling themselves, and pitching their tents wherever they found a fertile country with, little or no population. T h e symptoms o f this plague varied in different patients, the variety o f age and constitution gave it a like va r ie ty o f appearance and character. Those who enjoyed perfect health were suddenly seized with head-aches and inflammations ; the tongue and throat became o f a v iv id red, the breath was drawn with difficulty, and was succeeded b y sneezing and hoarseness; when once settled in the stomach, it excited vomitings o f black bile, attended with excessive torture, weakness, hiccough, and convulsion. Some were seized with sudden shivering, or delirium, and had a sensation o f such intense inward heat, that they threvv off their clothes, and would have walked about naked in quest o f water wherein to plunge themselves. Cold water was eagerly resorted to by the unwary and imprudent, and proved fatal to those who indulged in its momentary relief. Some had one, two, or more buboes, which formed themselves, and became often as large as a w alnut, in the course o f a d a y ; others had a similar number o f carbuncles; others had both buboes and carbuncles, which generally appeared in the groin, under the arm, or near the breast. Those who were affected * with a shivering, having * M’drob is an idiom in the Arabic language somewhat difficult to render into /English ; it is well known that the Mohammedans are predestinarians, and that they believe iri the existence of spirits', devils, 8cc. their idea of the plague is, that it is a good or blessing sent from God to clear the world of a superfluous population— that n a medicine or precaution can cure or prevent i t ; that every one who is to be a victim to it is (mktube) recorded in the Book of Fate; that there are certain Genii who preside over the fate of men, and who sometimes discover themselves in various forms, having often legs similar to those o f fowls ; that these Genii are armed with arrows: that when a person is attacked by the plague, which is called in Arabicd’araer, or the destiny or decree, he is shot by one of these Account o f the Plague. t,1t no buboe, carbuncle, spots, or any other exterior disfiguration, were invariably carried off in less than twenty-four hours, and the body o f the deceased became q u ick ly pulrified, so that it was indispensably necessary to bury it a few hours after dissolution. It is remarkable, that the birds o f the air fled away from the abode o f men, for none were to be seen during this calamitous p e r io d ; the hyaenas, on the contrary, visited the cemeteries, and sought the dead bodies to devour them. I recommended Mr. Baldwin’s* invaluable remedy o f o liv e oil, applied according to his directions ; several Jews, and some Moo- selmin, were induced to try it, and I was afterwards visited b y many, to whom I had recommended it, and had given them written directions in Arabic how to app ly i t : and I do not know any instance o f its failing when persevered in, even after the infection had manifested itself. I have no doubt but the epidemy which m ade its appearance at Cadiz, and all along the southern shores o f Spain, immediately as the plague was subsiding in West Barbary, was the same disorder with the one above described, suffering, after its passage to a Christian country, some variation, originating from the different modes o f liv in g , and other circumstances; for nothing can be more opposite than the food, dress, customs, and manners o f Mohammedans and Christians, notwithstanding the approximation o f Spain to Marocco. W e have been c ied ib ly Genii, and the sensation of the invisible wound is similar to that from a musquet- b all; hence the universal application of M drob to a person affiicted with the plague, i, e. he is shot; and if he die, ufah ameruh, his destiny is completed or terminated (in this world). I scarcely ever yet saw the Mooselmin who did not affirm that he had at some time of his life seen these Genii, and they often appear, they say, in rivers. * Late British Consul in Egypt. A A
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