ZULU MEDICINE AND MEDICINE-MEN. 59 



Heart troubles are an accustomed complication of rheuma- 

 tism. The native doctor knows nothing about the functions 

 of the heart, though acquainted with the symptoms of heart 

 diseases (commonly termed ^(.Fa/o, because supposedly located 

 in the cartilage at the end of the sternum), and, in his feeble 

 way, he is able to meet the call made on his skill. 



He takes the roots of the blue-umbelled iiBani (Aga- 

 panthus um bell at us), makes therewith a hot infusion in a 

 quart of water, to be admiuistered as an emetic and repeated 

 daily. Such a daily emetic may be also prepared froui the 

 red roots of the uml^ahii shrub (? Elephantorhiza sp.) ; or 

 these same roots may be dried, pounded, and rubbed into 

 incisions below the breast. A handful of the leaves of a 

 species of Mesembryanthemum (Called by the natives by 

 the generic term iKhamhhi lamahulawo) is sometimes infused 

 in a little boiling Avater and used as an emetic against the 

 fearful dreams symptomatic of heart weakness. For such 

 dreams the iLahaf]iel-a (Hypoxis latifolia) is also used, a 

 hot infusion beiug made of its bulb and taken as an emetic. 

 The inner bark of the white-floweriug iiNtliziyonkulu or 

 iiiii7tWane tree, as also the bark of the uMoijau-ovungu tree 

 and the roots of the iDiiVnma (Turrasa floribunda) tree, 

 taken as an emetic, are other remedies. 



The hiDahiilaluvcdo (chips of crystal or natural glass 

 hawked in from Basutoland) so valued by the natives, is 

 not worth referring to, unless to show what absurd and 

 injurious practices (for the glass is broken up and taken 

 internally !) these people are capable of mixing up with much 

 otherwise reasonable treatment. The like remark applies to 

 the specific of some doctors for palpitation, viz. the dried 

 hearts of the inDlilondhJo snake and the uXainu (Monitor 

 n i 1 o t i c u s) ; but the roots of the uMampeshu)) a (0 1 d e n 1 a n d i a 

 decumbens) herb, crushed, infused in boiling water and 

 drunk, which are used for this same purpose of palpitation 

 and shortness of breath, may perchance be of some benefit. 



Dropsy of the lower limbs (called nMaiilcunl-nuJcu, IsiKhu- 

 khukh n, or i Kh imkulo, by which latter name rheumatic swellings 



