36S TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
and I agree, and though I have lived many years v/ith peo- ple of your religion of all ranks, yet I am far from knowing what are the manners of Atbara ; what will offend you or them, or what not ; for, as I have no view but your good and theirs, I would not expofe myfelf to any ill ufage to which a miftake of your cuftoms may fubjed; me. In fliort, I muft afk thefe ladies a number of queftions, which, if you choofe to hear, you may, but no perfon elfe muft, as is the cuftom of my country." " What has he to do with us and our phyXician ? faid the eideft of the two ; all his bufmefs is to pay you money when you have made us well." " What would become of him, fays Adelan's daughter, if we were to be ill ? he would ftarve for want of people to make ready his meat." — Aye, and his drink too, fays the other, which he is fonder of than his meat."—" No, no, fays ShekhFidele, in perfe6t good humour, we know you, Hakim ; you arc not like us ; afk them all the queftions you pleafe, I neither wifti nor intend to hear them ; I hear too much of them every day againft niy will, and only wifli to God you would cure them or make them dumb altogether, and then they will not teaze me with their illnefs any longer; a fick wo- man is plague fufficicnt for a devil." — " Then, clear the room, faid I, in the firft place, of all thefe idle women-fer- vants; 6nly leave two or three of the fteadieft ftaves to ferve their miftrefles." He did not feem at a lofs how to do this, for he took up a fliort whip, or fwitch, which lay at hand, and happy were they who got firft to the door. I faw among thefe a genteel female figure, covered from head to foot, whom Fidele pulled in with his hand, after he had puflied the others otit of the door, faying, " Come in, Aifcach ;" and immediately after this he went away.
I WAS
