told you Shekh already, says he, Cursed be the man who lifts his hand against you, or even does not defend and befriend you, to his own loss, were it Ibrahim my own son."
I then told him I was bound to Cosseir, and that if I found myself in any difficulty, I hoped, upon applying to his people, they would protect me, and that he would give them the word, that I was yagoube, a physician, seeking no harm, but doing good; bound by a vow, for a certain time, to wander through deserts, from fear of God, and that they should not have it in their power to do me harm.
The old man muttered something to his sons in a dialect I did not then understand; it was that of the Shepherds of Suakem. As that was the first word he spoke, which I did not comprehend, I took no notice, but mixed some lime-water in a large Venetian bottle that was given me when at Cairo full of liqueur, and which would hold about four quarts; and a little after I had done this the whole hut was filled with people.
There were priests and monks of their religion, and the heads of families, so that the house could not contain half of them. The great people among them came, and, after joining hands, repeated a kind of *[1] prayer, of about two minutes long, by which they declared themselves, and their children, accursed, if ever they lifted their hands against me in the Tell, or Field in the desert, or on the river; or, in case that I, or mine should fly
- ↑ * This kind of oath was in use among the Arabs, or Shepherds, early as the time of Abraham, Gen. xxi. 22, 23. xxvi. 28.
