[106] I cannot conceive what made the accurate Niebuhr fall into the
strange error that "apparitions are unknown in Arabia." Arabs fear to
sleep alone, to enter the bath at night, to pass by cemeteries during
dark, and to sit amongst ruins, simply for fear of apparitions.
And Arabia, together with Persia, has supplied half the Western
World--Southern Europe--with its ghost stories and tales of angels,
demons, and fairies. To quote Milton, the land is struck "with
superstition as with a planet."