292 
MEDICAL PRACTICES AND SUPERSTITIONS OF KORDOFAN 
Method of 
wearing 
charms 
Routine 
methods of 
supernatural 
cure 
Prayer and 
laying on 
of hands 
them — and all receive small offerings and decorations. They are the favourite spots, too, 
for the swearing of solemn oaths, and should such an oath prove false dread consequences 
are expected. 
The greatest care is taken in the preservation and cleanliness of these graves, even in 
the most out-of-the-way places. 
In the case of FA Barad we have an instance of the master wearing a charm to protect 
his beast from disease. The beast may in like manner carry charms to safeguard his 
master from ills and dangers on the road (as well as others to heal and protect himself). 
(Plate XLII., fig. 10.) 
Mode of Wearing C,harms. The position of a charm on the person differs according to 
sex, status, and the effect aimed at. Thus amongst women, who naturally carry larger 
numbers than men, they are suspended round the neck, hanging on a level with the 
breasts and hips, and having in these positions usually a bearing on love or its sequelae. 
Men wear them fastened round either arm above the bend of the elbow, often in large 
bunches, which are considered highly ornamental (this is well shown in the illustrations of 
the gum collector. Figs. 205 and 208, pages 419 and 425); the Kordofan knife being carried 
in the same position, the sheath of which is usually supplied witli two or more surgical 
instruments {Sam.undin), and often with emergency roots and writings of small size, against 
the evil eye, reptiles, etc. (Fig. 86.) Bound the wrist too, or attached to the Sihah (rosary), 
are often smaller or more valuable Hegabat. 
The better-class Arab wears his charms on his left flank, suspended in line on a single 
silk or leather cord passed over the right shoulder. They lie, as a rule, next tlie skin, and 
are here quite hidden by the clothing. 
In localised disease, where special local effect is sought, the Ketab is fastened over or 
above the site to be acted upon; thus for wounds of extremities, strained joints, faranteet,i 
etc., it is tied round the injured limb immediately above the lesion, whilst for headache and 
toothache round the temples and in abdominal troubles round the waist; often for a single 
effect two or more Hegabat are required. So, for increasing sexual vigour, four are worn — 
two at the breasts and two at the hips, sirspended or sewn into the clothes ; for preventing 
conception there are three; and again three are required if one wishes to render a 
person sterile, two being secretly placed beneath the subject’s angerib (bed) and another 
deposited at night within a neighbouring grave. In most severe or prolonged diseases, 
and during child-birth also, numerous Ketabat are hung round or attached to the bed, as 
well as on the person of the sufferer; whilst if a drug and writing bear on the same ill 
they are usually coupled one in front of the other on a single cord (Plate XLI., 
figs. 1 and 10). Amongst a certain class who cannot afford the true article, false charms 
holding only small blocks of wood instead of writings are worn (Plate XLI., fig. 15) as a 
sign of respectability or prosperity, and also with the view of hoodwinking not only seen 
but unseen neighbours; these are usually conspicuous by their weight and bulk. Strips of 
leather passed round the body or limbs and knotted, though unaccompanied by any 
writings, are also worn for protection, and correspond to the luck knots employed, 
I believe, by other primitive jjeople. 
Having detailed these passive remedies, some of the more usual routine methods of 
supernatural cure require brief mention. 
1. Prayer and Laying 07i of Hands, together with exhortations to the depai’ted 
Fiki, saint, and sherif, as well as to the more mysterious “unseen,’’ are offered up (for a 
wage) by the holy man on behalf of the sufferer before, during, and after courses of 
^ Guinea worm.—A B. 
