DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0220
AND LOWER EGYPT. 203
At Komscherick I found a few medals, which,
though of little importance, prove that there was
a settlement here in ancient times. Durins: the
day I spent at this place, I had great reason to be
pleased with the behaviour of the Mameluc offi-
cer who had the command here.
If my professing physic removed some difficul-
ties in the course of my journey, and if the exer-
cise of it sometimes amused us with tolerably di-
verting scenes, on the other hand it exposed me
to severe trials. I had been prevailed upon to
remain a day at Komscherick, in order to wait for
an Arab sheick, a man of great consideration in
this district, who was ill. When he came he ex-
hibited the most frightful and disgusting spec-
tacle. This miserable creature had nothing left but
the upper part of his head : the other part, from
the mouth, including the whole of the lower jaw,
was gone, having been consumed by a dreadful
cancer. The tongue having lost its support, hung
dry and immoveable: its root was exposed, and
the insicfo of the fauces, the flesh and integuments
of which were eroded so as to leave them almost
bare, announced by its black and inflamed appear-
ance a speedy termination to the sufferings of the
man, to whose horrible state of existence an im-
possibility of swallowing, or even breathing,
would soon put an end. Terrified at the view of
a hca^,
At Komscherick I found a few medals, which,
though of little importance, prove that there was
a settlement here in ancient times. Durins: the
day I spent at this place, I had great reason to be
pleased with the behaviour of the Mameluc offi-
cer who had the command here.
If my professing physic removed some difficul-
ties in the course of my journey, and if the exer-
cise of it sometimes amused us with tolerably di-
verting scenes, on the other hand it exposed me
to severe trials. I had been prevailed upon to
remain a day at Komscherick, in order to wait for
an Arab sheick, a man of great consideration in
this district, who was ill. When he came he ex-
hibited the most frightful and disgusting spec-
tacle. This miserable creature had nothing left but
the upper part of his head : the other part, from
the mouth, including the whole of the lower jaw,
was gone, having been consumed by a dreadful
cancer. The tongue having lost its support, hung
dry and immoveable: its root was exposed, and
the insicfo of the fauces, the flesh and integuments
of which were eroded so as to leave them almost
bare, announced by its black and inflamed appear-
ance a speedy termination to the sufferings of the
man, to whose horrible state of existence an im-
possibility of swallowing, or even breathing,
would soon put an end. Terrified at the view of
a hca^,