the abode of men, for none were to be seen during this
174 calamitous period; the hyaenas, on the contrary, visited the
cemeteries, and sought the dead bodies to devour them. I
recommended Mr. Baldwin's[135] invaluable remedy of olive oil,
applied according to his directions; several Jews, and some
Muselmin[136], were induced to try it, and I was afterwards visited
by many, to whom I had recommended it, and had given them written
directions in Arabic how to apply it: and I do not know any
instance of its failing when persevered in, even after the
infection had manifested itself.

[Footnote 134: _M'drob_ is an idiom in the Arabic language
somewhat difficult to render into English; it is well known
that the Muhamedans are predestinarians, and that they believe
in the existence of spirits, devils, &c.; their idea of the
plague is, that it is a good or blessing sent from God to clear
the world of a superfluous population--that no medicine or
precaution can cure or prevent it; that every one who is to be
a victim to it is (_mktube_) recorded in the Book of Fate; that
there are certain Genii who preside over the fate of men, and
who sometimes discover themselves in various forms, having
often legs similar to those of fowls: that these Genii are
armed with arrows: that when a person is attacked by the
plague, which is called in Arabic _l'amer_, or the destiny or
decree, he is shot by one of these Genii, and the sensation of
the invisible wound is similar to that from a musquet-ball;
hence the universal application of _M'drob_ to a person
afflicted with the plague, i.e. he is shot; and if he die,
_ufah ameruh_, his destiny is completed or terminated (in this
world). I scarcely ever yet saw the Muselman who did not affirm
that he had at some time of his life seen these Genii; and they
often appear, they say, in rivers.]

[Footnote 135: Late British Consul in Egypt.]

[Footnote 136: Muselman, sing.: Muselmin. plur.]

I have no doubt but the epidemy which made its appearance at Cadiz,
and all along the southern shores of Spain, immediately as the
plague was subsiding in West Barbary, was the same disorder with
the one above described, suffering, after its passage