Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-10-25
ORIENTAL PHYSICIANS

y Dr.
age TO the Moslem shrines of Medfns -.
Mecca, gives an amusing account of the s,t.
which Oriental physicians have 10 resort to r.
order to OBTAIN practice:
You must begin with the porter, who I,
sure to have blear eyes, into which you dr,p
little nitrate of silver, while you instil int
MS ear the pleasing intelligence that Won
never take fee from the poor He recoyers.
nus report OF you spreads far and wide, crowd.
ing your doors with paupers. They come 70
you as though you were their servant. and
"hen cured turn their backs upon You for
ever when the mob has raised You to fame.
patients OF a better class win slowly appear
u :ne scene after some coquetting about
etlquette, whether you are TO visit thar or
they are to call upon you, they make NJ tbeir
mind TO see you, and judge with their eve,
| Wnether you are TO be trusted or not vbils
| you, on your side, set out with the de srmi,-
ation tnat they shall at onco cross the Rubi-
CONN less classical phrase, swallow your
oruS. III you visit the house, you insist upon
the patents servants attending You He
must also provide and pay for an ass for your
| conveyance. no matter il il be only 10 the
| other side Of the street
Your confidential man accompanies vou-
primed for replies TO the fifty searo6ins
questions of the " servants hall" You are
ilfted on the saddle tenderly, ss nurses dis
mount their charges, when you arrive At the
gate, and you waddle up stairs with dignity.
Arrived at the sick room, you salute those
present with general " Peace be upon Won 90
to which they respond. "And upon you be tn.
pesce aud the mercy of Allah, and bis bless
ing To the invalid yoa say, There in
nothing the matter, please Allah, except the
hneatn, TO which the proper answer-for
here every sign of ceremony has its counter
s!gn-Ls, May Allah give thee health 80
You then sit down, and acknowledges the
presence OF the company by raising your
right hand TO your lips and forehead, bowine
the while circularly Each individual re.
turns the civility by similar gesture Then
inquiry about the state of your health ensues.
Then you are asked what refreshments Won
will take. You stsdiously mention something
not likely to be in the house, but at last you
rough 1t with a pipe and a cup of coffee.
Then you proceed to the patient, who extends
MS wrist and asks you wha. his complaint is,
The disease, to be respectable, must inva-
riably be connected with enc Of the four tenn
peraments, or the four elements, or the bu-
mors of HippOcrates. Cure ia easy, but Il
will take time, and you, the doctor, requiIe
attention; any little rudeness it is in your
power to punish by an alteration in the Dill or
powder, and so unknown, is professional honor
that none will brave your displeasure. If you
would pass for native practitioner you must
then proceed 10 most uncomfortable part of
our visit-bargainingf for fees Nothing more
effectually arouses suspicion than disinterest-
ness In a doctor Properly sneak
Ing, the fee for a visit to a respectable man. is
twenty piasters, but with the rich patient you
begin by making. bargain. He complains,
for instance, of dysentery and solstica You
demand fl0 for the dysentery and twenty for
the sciatica; but you will rarely get it. rhe
L Istern pays his doctor bill as the Irishman
pays his " rint, making a grievance Of it,
Whatever you prescribe must be
solid and material, and if you accompany it
with something painful-such a.. rubbing unto
better. Easterns, as our peasants in Europe,
Ike the doctor to "give the value of their
money" besides which, rough measures act
bene6cially with their imagination.
So the Hakim of the Jog Of Persia cures
fever by bastinadO; patients are benefciaIIy
baked in a bread oven at Bagdad and sn
Egyptian at Alexandria, whose quartau re-
sisted the strongest appliances Of European
physic, was efectually healed by the actual
cautery which acertain Arab Shaykh applied
to the crown Of bis head. When you admin
ister with your hand the remeiy-haK a dozen
huge bread pills, dipped in a solution of aloes
ard cinnamon favored with ssssfatids, which
i the case Of the dyspeptc rich often suffice,
if they will but diet tthemselyes-you are care
full to say, In the name of Allah, the COM
passion ate, the merciful' And after the pa
tient has been dosed, Praise be to Allah,
the curer, the healer" You then call for
pen, ink and paper, and write some prescrip-
ton like this
"In the name of Allah, the compassionate,
the merciful, and blessings and peace upon
our Lord the Prophet, and his family, and his
companions, one and all! Bat afterwards let
him take bees honey and cinnamon, and al
bum grecum, Of each half part, and Of gin
ger a whole part, which let him pound and
mix with the honey aud form boluses, each
bolus the weight of a miskal, and of il let
him use every day a miskal on the saliva,
THAT is to say, fssting) Verify, its effects are
wonderful. And let him abstain from flesh,
fish, vegetables, sweetmeats, fatulent food,
acids Of all description, as we'll as the major
ablution, and live in perfect quiet. So shall
be be cured by the help of the King, the
Healer. And the peace"
Lieutenant Burton's great advantage in his
travels was his familiar knowledge of the Per-
sian, Hiniosanee and Arabic languages, by
which be So thoroughly deceived the natives
that they thought him one of their country