or affected not, to observe Bruce until he was close to him, and started when he uttered the "salām." He appeared at first to have forgotten why he had sent for the physician, but presently explained the nature of his indisposition; upon which, among other questions, Bruce inquired whether he had not been guilty of some excess before dinner. The bey now turned round to Risk, who had by this time entered, and exclaimed, "Afrite! Afrite!"—(He is a devil! he is a devil!) Bruce now prescribed warm water, or a weak infusion of green tea, as an emetic, and added, that having taken a little strong coffee, or a glass of spirits, he should go to bed. At this the bey exclaimed, "Spirits! do you know I am a Mussulman?"[1]—"But I," replied the traveller, "am none. I tell you what is good for your body, and have nothing to do with your religion or your soul." The bey was amused at his bluntness, and said, "He speaks like a man!" The traveller then retired.
Our traveller now prepared to depart; and having obtained the necessary letters and despatches both from the patriarch and the bey, commenced his movements with a visit to the Pyramids. He then embarked in a kanja, and proceeded up the river, having on the right-hand a fine view of the pyramids of Gizeh and Saccara, with a prodigious number of others built of white clay, which appeared to stretch away in an interminable line into the desert. On reaching Metraheny, which Dr. Pococke had fixed upon as the site of Memphis, Bruce discovered what he thought sufficient grounds for concurring in opinion with that traveller in opposition to Dr. Shaw, who contends in favour of the claims of Gizeh. The
- ↑ Major Head, in his account of this laughable consultation, by omitting all mention of the spirits, makes it appear that the bey meant to insinuate that vomiting, or drinking green tea, was contrary to the Mohammedan religion. But, although the Koran commands its followers to abstain from wine, under which denomination rigid Islamites include all kinds of spirits, it is by no means so unreasonable as to prohibit vomiting, or the drinking of warm water, or weak green tea.
