The
Report Of This Extraordinary Phenomenon Soon Spread Abroad, And A Vast
Concourse Of People Assembled; But My Guard Would Not Allow Any One To
Enter Without My Permission.
In the evening I sent for a band of
music, and my company continued dancing and rioting till morning.
They
brought in several Jewish women, and carried the farce to such a
length, that I was completely rejoiced to get rid of them,
determining, in my own mind, never again to venture such another
entertainment.
LETTER XXI.
_Prevalent Diseases - Abuse of Stimulants - Medicinal
Well - Sorcery - Hydrophobia._
Mequinez.
Although the plague is not so common in these states as in Turkey and
Egypt, yet it is often brought hither by means of the caravans, and
several articles of luxury imported annually by the merchants from
Mecca and Medina; and, for want of proper precaution, it is suffered
to spread, to desolate, and to stop of its own accord; for the Moors
continue obstinately blinded by the same superstitious and absurd
notions that are entertained by the Mahometans of the Turkish empire,
of its being a punishment occasionally inflicted upon the true
believers by their angry Prophet, and that it is incurable; and here I
receive on this subject the same tales and romantic accounts that I
did during my residence in Egypt in the year 1801.
The most prevailing diseases in this country that have come under my
observation, are, cutaneous disorders of all kinds, intermittent
fevers, those of a putrid, malignant, pestilential kind, and the
puerperal fever, which proceeds from the barbarous treatment of
lying-in women in this country, as they are kept in small confined
rooms, deprived of the benefit of pure air.
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