MEDICAL PRACTICE IN DAMARALAND. 529 



The men who perform massage have by repeated practice acquired a 

 fair knowledge of the normal condition of the abdomen, and of the 

 more usual irregularities that take place there ; and they have also, by 

 practice in cutting up slaughtered animals, gained some knowledge of 

 the anatomical relations of the parts. I have satisfied myself, by close 

 observation of the procedure, that every part can be so fully separated 

 from the others as to permit the whole to be plainly felt by the 

 finger. 



The skill attained in this art is particularly serviceable in midwifery 

 cases, and makes up in a great measure for the lack of instruments. 

 By it faults in the position of the f cetus are soon discovered, and much 

 skill is displayed in remedying them. Even the white women are 

 not afraid to call in the native midwives ; and they can really be 

 recommended without peril. As a rule they are women of the higher 

 social ranks. The art of massage is handed down from mother to 

 daughter, or to other relatives of the younger generation. Occasion- 

 ally men practice at it. 



Chest-diseases and pains in the extremities are treated by cupping 

 and the moxa. Cupping is done with a horn. The skin having been 

 scratched with a knife, the larger end of the horn, which has an open- 

 ing at the point, is placed over the wound, and the operator sucks out 

 the air and as much blood as he can, making of himself a kind of an 

 artificial leech. 



Moxas are preferred for diseases of the lungs and liver, and are 

 applied in the simplest imaginable manner, by burning the end of a 

 stick and putting the glowing coal upon the skin. Some ten or fifteen 

 points are thus burned in succession, the scars of which afterward look 

 like a kind of tattooing. When I first saw these scars on the breasts 

 and backs of the Hereros, I thought they had been made for decora- 

 tion, but was soon set right in the matter. 



For internal remedies the people have a considerable number of 

 simples. Every one knows of a few plants that are good as laxatives, 

 emetics, sudorifics, or quietives. Among the heathen natives, super- 

 natural help appears to be regarded as more important, and to be more 

 approved. It is invoked, I observed, in two forms : One kind seems to 

 be a traditional survival of the old patriarchal sacrifice ; and the other 

 embraces a kind of combination of secret knowledge with jugglery. 

 A very obvious distinction is made between the two kinds of invoca- 

 tion, in the fact that some honorable member of the family is chosen to 

 officiate in the former, while the latter is left to some wretched charla- 

 tan, or juggler, who sometimes has to suffer death as a penalty for Ms 

 practice. In the former kind of invocation a beast is always slain, 

 with whose meat and fat certain ceremonies are performed and" formu- 

 las uttered over the patient, in a way that has been handed down by 

 tradition. 



One of the simpler features in the practice of the juggler-doctors 

 VOL. XXVIII. — 34 



