G2 EEV. ALFRED T. BKYANT. 



incisions in it along the ground and so right away up the 

 whole unaifected side of the body. On the following day this 

 process is repeated with the other or affected side. Finally, 

 thebai'k, after having been rubbed into the incisions, is boiled 

 in water, and the patient, dipping his fingers into the hot 

 decoction, is required to keep sucking the liquid from the 

 finger-tips, afterwards smacking Avith them the several 

 affected joints. A cure follows — when the omens are pro- 

 pitious ! " 



Other doctors approach nearer the mark of reason, and 

 advocate the hot-air treatment. A hole is dug in the ground, 

 a great fire is kindled inside, and, after the ashes have been 

 removed, the patient enters, and the hole at the top being 

 loosely covered over, is allowed to perspire freely for some 

 time. He is supposed to come out more or less cured. It is 

 possible that the shock caused by the burial in a half-roasting 

 pit, apart from the general benefit conferred on the system by 

 the copious perspiration, may also not be without its advantages. 

 It seems pretty certain that the native doctors have an inkling 

 of the curative effect of " shock " on certain nervous and 

 muscular diseases. 



A native is reported as " unable " to move his limbs — ■ 

 perhaps from paralysis of some kind. The doctor orders him 

 to be placed amidst a heap of dry faggots completely encircling 

 hiin, and perhaps a foot or more high, at a foot's distance. 

 The sticks are then set on fire, and the patient, "unable to 

 move," is compelled to see and to feel the nerve-disturbing 

 flames arise on every side around him. Water medicated 

 with iCimamlilo and similar herbs is constantly sprinkled by 

 the doctor on the firebrands nearest the patient, so as to 

 control the flames and prevent burning. This sprinkling- 

 further creates also an amount of steam about the patient 

 scarcely less dreaded than the fire. At length the fire burns 

 itself out; the sufferer is removed "much exhausted," but 

 sometimes quite recovered. 



In this connection I may add how in a case of epilepsy the 

 patient was ordered to supplement the medical treatment by 



