MEDICAL, I’KACTICES AND SUI'EKSTITIONS OF KOKDOFAN 
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on his hands), which he may do, causing much outcry and distortion on the part of the 
patient, who, as a rule, falls hack in a stupor, waking later in his right mind and with 
no memory of what has happened. This procedure can lie varied and supplemented hy 
fumigations of the room and body, prayers, fastings, exhortations, etc., especially in the 
case of stubborn devils, some of whom, liowever, it is impossible to banish. The devil 
having been expelled a Ketab is at once written by the holy man and placed round the 
patient’s neck to prevent his re-entry. 
6. Saiid-yaziny. The Falatah, who form such a considerable factor in the populations Sand-gazing 
of the large towns of the province and who are reputed to be a nation of Fikis, have 
recourse to sand-gazing, for the purpose of making a diagnosis and predicting the course, 
treatment and issue of an illness, the medium being a small boy (one who has never been 
bitten hy a dog nor burnt in the fire). The latter, gazing on the word “ Allah ” in the centre 
of a Khatim traced in the sand, and under the controlling eye of a Fiki, calls to the 
“ King of the Devils,” who, on his arrival, will answer any questions put, regarding the 
sick, through the medium of the child, by this time sunk into a trance. (Water or a 
mirror may be placed for the hoy to gaze into instead of the sand.) 
7. Buried Fowl Cure. In cases of mysterious illness and bad luck, these people Buried fowl 
(the Falatah) also adopt a strange prophetic and curative custom, as follows:— 
The sufferer procures a cock and a sheep, the latter being sacrificed and the flesh 
given to the poor. The former is fed with a Mahaia preparation and has certain 
roots inscribed with Koranic quotations placed round its neck. It is then put under 
an inverted “burma,” or basket, and buried below the ground. After a period of seven 
days (during which time the Fiki is supposed to pray vigorously) the bird is uncovered. 
If found dead, grave consequences are to be expected. If alive, all will be well; the 
Fiki is highly paid and the cock killed, its flesh being cooked and given as a specific 
to the person who has undertaken this somewhat expensive and decidedly cruel remedy. 
From the foregoing pages it will be gathered how intimately superstition, in the form 
of magical beliefs (sympathetic, symbolic, etc.), faith in mystic writings, the influence of 
spirits, ghosts, and the like, and the belief in talismans, amulets and charms, has become 
blended with the religion of these inhabitants of Kordofan ; and in consequence what an 
all important part it plays among their medical customs and practices. It is, indeed, one 
of many examples of the encroach of magic, fetishism, and debased worship into a purely 
monotheistic belief, and only shows what a little span separates these rugged 
people from their ancient idolatries, between which and so-called fetishism many 
imperceptible graduations without an appreciable difference exist. In viewing these 
beliefs, however, one must take into consideration the unstable nervous and mental 
condition of all primitive people, the influence on them of ignorance, suggestion, 
exaggeration, surrounding, etc., coupled with a strong animistic tendency, all of wliich 
help to impress a sincere faith in the supernatural scarcely credible to the more 
enlightened, although in fact the very faith (psychic concentration, mental suggestion) that 
is the potent factor in our so-called “Faith” and “Christian Science” cures, which is 
certainly not without the same influence amongst these people as amongst ourselves. 
Local Diiugs, etc.^ 
In collecting the following drugs (those of common use in Kordofan) it has been Local 
hy no means easy to assign to each its specific uses, or even to discover such essential 
‘ For the botanical names of most of the plants mentioned, one is indebted to Mr. A. F. Brouu’s “ Catalogue 
of the Flowering Plants of the Sudan.” 
