54 REV. ALFRED T. liRYANT. 



ov iMaln'IcJunyo)si (Eulopliia avenaria) are slig'litly ])oiled, 

 and a tablespoonful of the liquid occasionally drunk. 



The prospect of at last attaining to the crown of maturity 

 is hailed with proud delight by both boys and girls alike. 

 All kinds of measures are employed by them to hasten its 

 accomplishment. Should the menstruation be delayed — and 

 this equally applies to all subsequent retarded periods — resort 

 is had to the imPlnilisa (Rubia cordifolia). Over-eager 

 children even eat the raw roots of the plant ; but the orthodox 

 method is to boil them and drink the decoction. Another first- 

 menstruation specific is the iuDairo (Cyperus esculent us), 

 a handful of whose nodulous roots are boiled and mashed in a 

 little amahele porridge and then eaten ; but the action of this 

 may perhaps be tliat of a general stomach tonic rather than of 

 an emmenag'oo'ue. 



So constantly does this plant iiiiPindi,s-a reappear in all 

 native treatment of all sexual ailments that one is almost 

 forced to believe that it must possess some useful quality. 

 One might at first have supposed this property to be of a 

 nature inducing "heat" or local excitement, seeing that it is 

 indicated for impotency as well as retarded menses. But this 

 can scarcely be the case, if those native doctors be right who 

 prescribe it also in cases of metrorrhagia. 



For profuse menstruation of all kinds, the roots of the 

 imPindisa are mixed with those of the urnTtsliiki grass 

 (Eragrostis plana), boiled, and the liquid drunk. The 

 menstrua cynocephali, deemed so necessary an in- 

 gredient by the native doctor, for the homoeopathic reason 

 that the complaint is held to be due to a malicious poisoning 

 of the individual with such sulistance, need not be mentioned 

 here. 



When the monthly process is accompanied by pain — a dis- 

 order coming under the generic term isiLumo (any unrecog- 

 nised abdominal "gnawing") — relief is sought in the 

 ])ink-tlowered isiDica (Gladiolus ludwigii). Two double 

 handfuls of its nut-like roots are crushed and boiled in two 

 cups of water, which is then injected per rectum, and may 



