SoMK TiiiBAL Customs in theii: Kioi.ation to BIkdictne and IVFokals 



OF THE 



Nyam-nyam anj) (tOuk People 



INHADITINti Till-; KaSTERN B AH K-E L-G H AZ A L 



BY 



Captain K. G. Anheuson, M.K.C.S., L.R.C.P., R.A.M.C. 



Attai'lir(l ]']>4yi)tiaii Ariiiy 



Intboduction 



In compiling this article I have been at some pains to limit its scope so far as 

 possible to the medical customs, superstitions and other matters relative to medicine, in 

 its broader sense, of the savage people dealt with. I have found it, however, impossible 

 to dissociate these customs entirely from others of a general nature, and this more 

 especially since medical and surgical j)ractices in these latitudes form as yet no exact 

 science, and merge imperceptibly with the religious, social and moral usages of the 

 community. The difficulty, too, of interpretation (very often through two or more 

 languages) in a country where local dialects abound has rendered my information far 

 from accurate, thorough, or comprehensive. 



It had been at first my intention to include the medical practices of the Dinkas 

 amongst these notes ; this idea, however, I have abandoned, since it would, I feel, only 

 complicate and lengtlien my subject unduly by the addition of material which has 

 already been dealt with, far more ably than I could hope to do, by Major S. Lyle 

 Cunnuins, E.A.M.C. (late B.A.), in a paper on the " Sub-tribes of the Bahr-1'jl-Ghazal 

 Dinkas " {Journal of the Roi/d! Aiith.nipiiloiii.cal luKtitiUe, January, 1904). 



Tkihal Distkibution 



Before entering on the subject matter of the paper it will be as well, in the first 

 place, to outline briefly the various more important divisions and sub-divisions of the 

 two main tribes dealt with, the Nyam-nyam and the Gours (commonly mis-spelt and 

 pronounced Jurs), amongst each of whom prevail customs, sometimes peculiar to the 

 tribe or to a sub-tribe, sometimes sliglitly diverse, though often nearly universal and similarity in 

 differing in no essential between the two peoples. This close similarity of customs ="s'°"is 



T. ■iTi' •■•IT between widely 



and superstitions not only amongst adjacent tribes, but often arising independently separated 

 between savage races widely separate in tyjje and locality, is of great interest^ tribes 



The Nyam-nyam People 



The origin and present constitution of the Nyam-nyam race is very instinctive : it 

 may be outlined as follows : — 



The Avungara, a tribe raiding from the south-west, conquered and coalesced with 

 their kindred, the Zandeh (the .Azandeh of Belgian territory), over whom they took 

 precedence, constituting themselves the royal house of tiie tribe. These two then 

 combined against the closely-connected .Amieumba and Abangbinda, conquering and 



