We found that houses were provided for us in the town; but the kafila bivouacked outside the gates. It had always been our intention to halt at Sockna, for three or four days; and here we expected to be joined by a party of the Megarha Arabs, whom their sheikh, Abdi Smud ben Erhoma, had left us, for the purpose of collecting together. Hoon and Wadan were also to furnish us with another quota. My house consisted of a court-yard eighteen feet square, and a small dark room, leading out of it by two steps: the court, however, was the greater part of the day shaded; and here, on a carpet, I received my visitors. The Arabs, as they arrived, were all sent to me by Boo-Khaloom; and their presentation has a form in it, not much in character with their accustomed rudeness: they all came armed with their long guns; and the same girdle which confines their barracan contains also two long pistols. The chief enters, and salutes, dropping on one knee, and touching the stranger’s right hand with his, which he carries afterwards to his lips; he then says, “Here are my men, who are come to say health to you.” On receiving permission, they approached me, one by one, saluting in the same manner as their chief, who continued to remain at my side: they then sat down, forming a sort of semicircle round me, with their guns upright between their knees; and, after a little time, on the sheikh making a signal, they all quitted the presence. Boo-Khaloom, who had suffered very considerably from fever, cold, and ague, now became so seriously ill, that our departure was of necessity postponed, and he insisted upon my prescribing for him, saying, “he was quite sure that I could cure him, if it was the will of God that he should live: if not, that nobody could.” His confidence in me gave me some confidence in myself: but alone, with very few medicines, and less skill, my situation was really one of great anxiety; for no one could foresee what might have been the consequence, had any thing serious happened to him while under my hands. He became alarmingly ill, and for two days and nights I had great doubts of his recovery; to my great satisfaction, however, on the third morning, after a night of pain and delirium (and which I had passed in watching by his side), a violent eruption appeared on his skin, with some little moisture, produced by covering him up the whole day with blankets, and suffering no one to come into the room but his favourite female slave. By the evening, he became much better.—Hajamad, or charms, are what the Arabs have most faith in, when they are ill. All the fighis (writers) and maraboots in Sockna were employed on this occasion by my friend’s friends, and one night the tassels of his cap were literally loaded with them. He assured me, when alone, that he had no faith in such things, and smiled when he said his friends would think ill of him, were he to refuse; his faith, however, was stronger than he chose to acknowledge,