_13th._--Wrote this evening to the Governor of Ghat, to tell him I wished to come to Ghat, and begged for his protection; and that I should be obliged if he could send some trusty person to fetch me, whose expenses I would pay. Wrote also letters to go by courier to Tripoli. _14th._--Weather continues hot. My taleb calls the season _khareef_, "autumn;" and says the fruits of heaven which are always ripe have nevertheless a peculiar ripeness at this period. Staring at him, he continued, "Yes, there is a greater correspondence between earth and heaven than people think." I was recommended this taleb by the Rais. He writes my Arabic letters for The Desert; he calls himself Mohammed Ben Mousa Bel Kasem. The reader will hear now a great deal about him, and his learning and character. He takes up my Arabic Bible now and then, and reads a verse or two; but it is astonishing how little effect, even in the way of curiosity, it produces on the mind of these Mussulmans. One would think at least they would like to know something of its contents. Notwithstanding, The Book, which contains the religion of the civilized world, hardly excites curiosity enough in them to take it up and read a single verse! I have often offered it to them to read, but they have refused to open the book. A great disadvantage is the crabbed, miserable language into which it is translated. After the bold, impudent, and sublime language of the Koran, they cannot relish the tame and stunted language of the Arabic New Testament. As for the simple and grand truths of the New Testament, these they cannot or will not comprehend. Force, or the Sword--as the Might of the Almighty--is the thing alone which strikes the minds of Mussulmans, in spite of all their moral maxims and philosophy. But I must confess I never expected that a religion like that of the Koran, which contains so few fundamental truths, and so few mysteries, would have produced such a race of superstitious pharisees. To-day a fellow, whose eyes are dreadfully inflamed with ophthalmia, refuses to have them _doctored_, because the solution administered to the eye may enter the stomach, by which he would violate the sanctity of the Ramadan. I can only beg him to come at night. Another jackanapes, who suffers equally, refuses to have my solution at all applied. He said to me, "I suffer, and I may be blind, but it will be the will of God." I wonder the whole population is not blind. Another sufferer craved a talisman to drink with water at night[26]. FOOTNOTES: [23] _Tut_, "Morus alba," L. It is pleasant and sweet, but a little insipid eating.