While I Was Sitting In A Coffee-House Near The Harbour, Three Funerals
Passed At Short Intervals; And Upon Expressing My Surprise At This, I
Learned That Many People Had Died Within These Few Days Of Feverish
Complaints.
I had heard, when at Beder, that a bad fever prevailed at
Yembo, but then paid little attention to the report.
During the rest of
the day I saw several other funerals, but had not the slightest
[p.411] idea to what so many deaths were to be attributed, till night,
when I had retired to my room up-stairs, which overlooked a considerable
part of the town; I then heard, in every direction, innumerable voices
breaking out in those heart-rending cries which all over the Levant,
accompany the parting breath of a friend or relative. At that moment the
thought flashed upon my mind, that it might be the plague: I attempted,
in vain, to dispel my apprehensions, or at least to drown them in sleep;
but the dreadful cries kept me awake the whole night. When I descended
early in the morning into the okale, where many Arabs were drinking
their coffee, I communicated to them my apprehensions; but had no sooner
mentioned the word plague, than they called me to order, asking me if I
was ignorant that the Almighty had for ever excluded that disorder from
the holy territory of the Hedjaz? Such an argument admits of no reply
among Moslims; I therefore walked out, in search of some Greek
Christians, several of whom I had seen the day before, in the street,
and from them I received a full confirmation of my fears.
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