320 
MEDICAL PRACTICES AND SUPERSTITIONS OF KORDOFAN 
Special 
operations 
Amputations 
The operation will not prove a success unless sufficient cutting has secured a complete 
secondary union, extensive enough to exclude the entire vulva, with the exception of an 
aperture only large enough to admit the little linger with difficulty. 
Where only the clitoris and labia minora are removed the operation is termed “ Tahuret 
Sunna,” and is that prescribed by the Mohammedan law. This is, I believe, the vogue 
amongst Egyptian women, but in the Sudan it is mostly restricted to the Bagara tribes 
(Mesareah, Hommr, Habanea, Rezigat, Howazma, Gimma, etc.), whilst amongst the 
remaining Sudanese Mohammedans the more radical “ Tahuret Farohen ” is performed, in 
which the upper two-thirds of the labia majora are also removed. 
The “ Tahuret Farohen ” is of interest since it is popularly supposed to denote an 
ancient method practised in and handed down from the time of the Pharaohs, which has 
survived in the Sudan despite the innovation of Muslim law. 
A few tribes, I believe (amongst the Nomad camel owners), only remove the clitoris, 
leaving the vulva otherwise intact, whilst others, who have but feebly adopted the 
Mohammedan religion, or who still practise a religion of their own, do not circumcise 
at all —notably in Kordofan, the Nubas. 
5. Opening. An operation performed on the wedding-day. The bride is placed in 
a tukl and laid on an angareeb. The Hakima, attended by female relatives, enters and 
divides the old sear tissue centrally from behind forwards, an ishfa (blunt hook) being 
commonly used to render prominent the site of operation. The blooded razor or knife is 
afterwards exposed to the gaze of the assembled guests. This operation is sometimes 
performed by the husband himself, who in any case is provided with a knife or razor to 
carry out any further alterations he may find necessary. 
When the scar has been opened, hot water is applied and a dusting powder, commonly 
of salt. Micturition and coitus are of course extremely painful, and the first few days of 
married life far from pleasant. 
6. Opening at Ghild-birth. Owing to the mutilation consequent on circumcision it is 
almost invariably found necessary to enlarge the vulva during child-birth by means of 
the knife. 
7. lie-closing. Young divorced women and widows who wish to regain their virginity 
frequently submit to a second operation. They are after this, of course, far more eligible 
and demand a higher dower. 
These “patchwork” operations are, needless to say, unacconqjanied by any display, 
as are the circumcision and bridal ceremonies. 
The Arab saying, “ Woman is as a girba,’ we sew her iqj, open her, and fill her as we 
please,” if somewhat crude, is indeed not without truth. 
8. Amputations —of the large limbs. Such operations are not unnaturally only 
undertaken as a last resource. 
The method is primitive. The patient is seated in a chair. One assistant holds the 
limb above the site of amputation, another fully extends it and exerts traction, whilst a third 
supports the victim from behind. The operator, armed with a heavy, keen-bladed sword, 
sweeps down with one blow and severs the limb from the body. The cut end is then dipped 
into boiling oil and tightly bound, so as to arrest the haemorrhage. A dressing of salt, 
wood ash, charcoal or the like being applied later. 
Should the patient be frightened (perhaps a woman or a child), he or she is placed 
within a tukl and the diseased limb thrust out through a hole in the straw side, the 
operation itself being conducted as above. I have never seen an amputation thus performed 
' Leathern water-huttle. 
