garlic highly, declaring that it "strengthens the body, prepares the
constitution for fatigue, brightens the sight, and, by increasing the
digestive power, obviates the ill-effects arising from sudden change of
air and water." The traveller inserts it into his dietary in some
pleasant form, as "Provence-butter," because he observes that, wherever
fever and ague abound, the people, ignorant of cause but observant of
effect, make it a common article of food. The old Egyptians highly
esteemed this vegetable, which, with onions and leeks, enters into the
list of articles so much regretted by the Hebrews (Numbers, xi. 5;
Koran, chap. 2). The modern people of the Nile, like the Spaniards,
delight in onions, which, as they contain between 25 and 30 per cent.
of gluten, are highly nutritive. In Arabia, however, the stranger must
use this vegetable sparingly. The city people despise it as the food of
a Fellah-a boor. The Wahhabis have a prejudice against onions, leeks,
and garlic, because the Prophet disliked their strong smell, and all
strict Moslems refuse to eat them immediately before visiting the
mosque, or meeting for public prayer.
[FN#5] A policeman; see Chap. I.
[FN#6] The stricter sort of Moslems, such as the Arabs, will not wear
gold ornaments, which are forbidden by their law.
[FN#7] See "The Gold Mines of Midian," and "The Land of Midian
(Revisited)," by Sir R. F. Burton.
[FN#8] The projecting latticed window, made of wood richly carved, for
which Cairo was once so famous. But they are growing out of fashion
with young Egypt, disappearing before heating glass and unsightly green
blinds.
[FN#9] Caste in India arises from the peculiarly sociable nature of the
native mind, for which reason "it is found existing among sects whose