MKniCAIj PRACTICES AND SID’ERSTITIONS OF KOKDOFAN 
303 
fi. The infr.cUviti/ of, and necessity for isolation in, exantheins seems to he well 
recognised. 
Chest Coiiplaints 
}fp.tho<ls of treatment :— 
1. Half a rotl' of simsini oil (Sesame) {Zeit Wad-el-Assam) with salt to taste— 
drunk everj’ morning and evening. This is considered soothing, and is decidedly 
purgative. 
2. One quarter of a rotl gum arabic boiled with 1 rotl of water until the colour becomes 
red. This mixture is drunk every morning for a week, and no restriction of diet made. 
3. One ounce powdered Garad mixed with 1 rotl of cold water to be drunk every 
morning. 
4. Powdered Tnnira root (Tamarind) mixed with milk and drunk every morning. 
5. Garad. The fruit of the Sunt tree sucked fresh is a specific for coughs. 
In all cases of chest trouble, scarring, cupping and cauterisation is resorted to over 
the thorax, commonly below the clavicles, or at sites of pain or swelling. 
Leprosy 
[Extract from my recent report on “ Leprosy in Kordofan ”] 
Native treatment :— 
The itinerant Falatahs are apparently held in considerable repute as healers. At 
Um Sheiheta I was shown a girl said to have been completely cured of leprosy by 
one powerful dose of an unknown drug, and some even more powerful exhortations at 
the hands of a Falatah Fiki; and certainly when I saw her she showed no signs of the 
disease, no matter what her symptoms may have been before. Some of the specific drugs 
also bear Falatah names in precedence to their .\rab equivalents. The written charm or 
Ketab possesses the same quiescent remedial power in leprosy as it does in all other diseases 
and evils. As also the universal treatment known as Mahaia (polishing off), in which 
the patient eats or drinks the solution of the holy writ. 
In leprosy, a verse from the “ Suret El Ekhlas ” (Chapter of Hanctity) is written 
a thousand times on Garad (fruit pods of the Sunt tree or Acacia arabica) or on small 
pieces of paper. decoction is then brewed from these, drunk in large quantities and 
rubbed over the entire body “ as a certain cure,” with, however, no very startling results. 
The native, I think, in his heart recognises that the disease is incurable, though he does not 
appreciate its infectivity and ultimately fatal issue. 
Nuba, treatment :— 
This has (round Murta and Kadugli), as its foundation, general scarification of 
the body, apparently with no relation to the site or extent of the lesion, and cupping 
of considerable quantities of blood, after which a decoction from the root of the 
liudn plant (Striga hermonthica, Benth.), or the bark of El-Talh-Kl-Ilamra [Acacia seya ), 
or a mixture of both, is administered in large doses and a course of warm baths or 
fumigation thrice daily indulged in. Decoctions, too, from the root of a Falatah shruh, 
termed in their tongue “ Akagod," in the Arabic “Kakadu," (Dirhrostachys nutatis, 
Benth.), is used, whilst for the local treatment of skin lesions, ulcers, etc., the powdered bark 
of the Shagarah-El-Nar (?) mixed with dried and powdered Ramia. [Ilibiscus esculentus, 
Linn.) vegetable leaves is applied, or, even better, the powdered leaves of a tree called 
Likhalie (?), which possesses the decided advantage of effecting a cure in three days. 
Treatmenl of 
chest 
complaints 
Treatment of 
leprosy 
Nuba 
treatment 
One rotl = 0'99 11). or 4.‘)0 grammes or 0*79 pint. 
