ABSTRACT
IN Najd as in AI-Yaman, it is not wise-it is even considered unseemly and irreligious-to speak of infection or contagion; for you hurt the poor sick one when you tell him that he is likely to give his disease to his brother man, and you offend moreover against the dogma of predestination. I caught the cold of our servant Rajhan, but Saiyed Hashem, who slept near him in the tent on the same rug, did not. He would not argue the matter with me, however, for he is a bit of a philosopher himself, and he is acquainted with Darwin. 'I have read Darween,' he would say, whenever he found it necessary to prove his superiority. He is acquainted with him, through the medium of Buckhner, who is the only door, in Arabia, to Darwinism. Not for this reason, however, would I ascribe certain simian traits to my rafiq.
