We were the guests of the Bishop of Jilu, Mar Sergius, in his very primitive palace; and as we had arrived at noon, spent a good deal of the afternoon "holding _Diwan_" in his reception room--sitting that is in the seat of honour on a low _diwan_, while all the village came to us, and talked of anything and everything that occurred to them. Many of course desired medicine, for any Englishman is a doctor by hereditary right; and always carries with him good "English salt," which is quinine, as well as other drugs. So, "distribute medicines manfully" is the rule for the traveller here, whether you chance to know anything about the trade or not. Fever you can recognize at any rate, or the patient will recognize it for you; and if you have not the ghost of a notion what the disease is, look doubly wise and administer something harmless and bitter. The nastier the drug, the more it will stimulate the faith of the sufferer, and that, after all, is the essential thing. Speaking generally, you will cure more efficiently when you do not know what the trouble is, than when you do. Only remember certain rules. First, that to give mild aperients to an Oriental is a sinful waste of good drugs; and diminishes faith in foreign medicines, which is worse. Second, if you go by book at all, give three times the "book dose" to an Assyrian, and five times the amount to a Kurd; for then you may produce some sort of effect. This instruction was given to the writer by men of experience when he was new to the country, and it staggered him for the moment, but he was reassured. "Yes," said a worthy member of the Syrian nation, "it is very difficult to poison a Kurd at all; and if you succeed, it does not much matter." Still, we own that we have once known an Oriental suffer from an overdose. He had applied to a Syrian friend for an aperient; and the friend (who called himself _hakim_ on the strength of three months spent as bottle-washer in an American Mission dispensary) had given him "a strong medicine." Both parties were startled at the result; and as the writer turned up opportunely next day, he was called in as a consultant, and found the victim in a very reduced state indeed after a night spent upon the rack! "What did you give him?" he asked the _hakim_. "Croton oil," said he. "And how much?" "Oh, not much; only a teaspoonful." (N.B. half a minim is the maximum allowed by the British Pharmacopoeia!) Persian tea-spoons are not as big as English, so perhaps he had not given much more than thirty times the full dose. The consultant gave it as his opinion that as the patient had survived twenty-four hours, he would recover; and the event justified his wisdom.