The ceremonies are here much easier and shorter than at Mekka, as will be presently seen. In a quarter of an hour I had gone through them, when I was at liberty to return home to arrange my domestic affairs. My Mezowar assisted me in the purchase of all necessary provisions, which were not obtained without difficulty; Tousoun Pasha, the governor of the town, having, by his inconsiderate measures, frightened away the Bedouins and camel-drivers, who used to bring in provisions. Flour and butter, however, those prime articles in an Eastern kitchen, were to be had before sunset, though not found in the public market; but it was three days before I could procure any coal, the want of which was sensibly felt at this cold season of the year. Hearing that Yahya Efendi, the physician of Tousoun Pasha, the same person who [p.318] in July last had taken my bill upon Djidda, was here. I paid him a visit next day, and showed him a letter received at Mekka, before I had left that town, from my Cairo banker, mentioning the payment of the bill, no news of which had yet reached Yahya himself. Much as this gentleman’s acquaintance had been of service to me on that occasion, a good deal took place now to detract from it. At a visit which he paid me soon after, he happened to see my small stock of medicines, the same that I had in my Nubian journey, during which it never was touched, some emetics and purges only having been used whilst I staid at Djidda and Mekka; I had therefore half a pound of good bark in my medicine sack, untouched. Several persons of the Pasha’s court were at this time ill of fevers; Tousoun Pasha himself was in an indifferent state of health, and his physician had few medicines fit for such cases. He begged of me the bark, which I gave him, as I was then in good health, and thought myself already in the vicinity of Egypt, where I hoped to arrive in about two months. I owed him, moreover, some obligations, and was glad to testify my gratitude. Two days after I had cause to repent of my liberality; for I was attacked by a fever, which soon took a very serious turn. As it was intermittent, I wished to take bark; but when I asked the physician for some of it, he assured me that he had already distributed the last dram, and he brought me, instead of it, some of the powder of the Gentiana, which had lost all its virtue from age. My fever thus increased, accompanied by daily and repeated vomiting, and profuse sweats, being for the whole first month quotidian. The emetics I took proved of no service; and after having from want of bark gone through the course of medicines I thought applicable to the case, and being very seldom favoured with a visit from my friend Yahya Effendi, I left my disease to nature. After the first month, there was an interval of a week’s repose, of which had I been able to profit by taking bark, my disorder would, no doubt, have been overcome; but it had abated only to