At eleven o’clock at night, some sangleh was brought for supper; I remarked that a greater quantity had been made than usual, but I ate very little, for thirst had taken away my appetite and I felt feverish. The women had all intended to fast, but at noon they were obliged to drink, and their fast was broken. For my part, I persevered for the next few days, and my sufferings increased, as my strength diminished. On the sixth day, I thought that I could no longer endure these privations. The east wind blew violently; the heat increased; my throat was parched, my tongue, dry and chapped, was like a rasp in my mouth, and I thought I should sink under my sufferings. I was not the only one who was in this state; every body around me was tormented in the same way. The marabouts, at last, bathed the face, head, and part of the body, and I was allowed to do the same; but I was watched very closely, and could only have deceived my Arguses at the risk of my life, in case I had been seen to swallow a drop of water. When my sufferings were excessive, and a murmur escaped me, they told me, for my encouragement, that when I died Mahomet would receive me into heaven, present me with a vase of delicious liquor to quench my thirst, and reward me for the pains and privations I had endured. One day I contrived to enjoy this treat beforehand, as the law permits you to wash your mouth, and to snuff up water through the nose, provided you spit it out again; I seized the moment when my marabout, being engaged in washing himself, could not observe me, to swallow part of the water that I had in my mouth: it seemed to me as if the prophet was that moment opening the gates of heaven to me, for I had never tasted any thing so delicious. This was the only time that I could elude their vigilance, and I did it then with fear and trembling. I fasted thus for seventeen days, and on the eighteenth I was attacked with a fever; a dispensation from fasting was then granted me, if a man can be said not to fast because he drinks a little water in the course of the day: they gave me absolutely nothing to eat. Besides being compelled to observe a most rigorous fast, I had to bear the insolence of a number of travelling hassanes, with whom my sufferings were a subject of ridicule. If they found me lying upon my mat, and expiring of thirst and exhaustion, they pulled me by my clothes, and pinched me, and tormented me in a thousand ways to force me to answer their questions, which were all intended to insult me. They commonly concluded by asking me if I would not drink a little brandy and eat pork, and whether I did not intend to be circumcised. At each of these questions, to which I refused to reply, they laughed violently, and answered for me, affecting the most cutting contempt. The marabouts did not like this, but they could not protect me from the annoyance, and it was not till after the departure of the hassanes that they censured them and called them infidels.