black) ones a fair omen. The Bedouins
have many other superstitions about ani
mals. 1 he superstition as to the flesh of
the rock badger, which Palmer noted in
the Peninsula of Sinai, is unknown here;
but there is a similiar idea alout the mon
keys which frequent Mount Kara. These,
it is said, were once men who came to visit
the Prophet. He set before themjmilk and
water, directing them to tlnuk the former
aud perform their ablutions with the lat
ter. The perverse visitors drank with the
water and washed with the milk, ana were
transformed to monkeys for their disobe
dience. As they were once men, their
flesh is not eaten. The legend is closely
akin to what one reads in the fabulous his
tory of early Arabia about Nasnas and the
Waliar iu the great sandy desert. Both
these words are monkey names, quite cur
rent in the present day, thsugh not recog
nized by the lexicons. The latter is an
ape, the former a monkey with a tail. Ex
cept in this monkey story, I could find no
trace of the superstitious rejection of the
flesh of any animal. But some kirds of
fish have a magical virtue attached to
them. A man who suffers in any member
ot his body seeks a cure by eating the cor
responding part of a hyena. The hyena
is all eaten in the neighborhood of Suez,
for a friend of mine who shot one near the
Wells ol Moses was requested by the Be
douins to give them a leg. A similar vir
the attaches to the flesh of the gemsbok,
(Wudhephy,) a rare species of antelope,
found far in the interior. When eaten, it
draws an obstinate bullet fron a wound.
IMrtures by Lightning.
