Although the Arabs in places remote from the immediate action of
the Egyptian authorities are generally lawless, they are
extremely obedient to their own sheiks, and especially to the
fakeers: thus it is important to secure such heads of the people
as friends. My success as a physician had gained me many friends,
as I studiously avoided the acceptance of any present in return
for my services, which I wished them to receive as simple acts of
kindness; thus I had placed the Sheik Hassan bel Kader under an
obligation, by curing him of a fever; and as he chanced to
combine in his own person the titles of both sheik and faky, I
had acquired a great ascendency in the village, as my medicines
had proved more efficacious than the talismans. "Physician, cure
thyself," applied to the Faky, who found three grains of my
tartar emetic more powerful than a whole chapter of the Koran.
We frequently had medical discussions, and the contents of my
large medicine-chest were examined with wonder by a curious
crowd; the simple effect of mixing a seidlitz powder was a source
of astonishment; but a few drops of sulphuric acid upon a piece
of strong cotton cloth which it destroyed immediately, was a
miracle that invested the medicine-chest with a specific
character for all diseases.
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