' medical 

 practitioners 



248 SOJIE TKlUAJj CfSTOJlS I.N THKIK KELATION TO MKnU'INE AM) IMOKALS 



3. Angongo, produced by obvious and natural causes, wounds, burns, accidents, etc., 

 for which various drugs and courses are resorted to. 



DOCTOES 



Amongst all the tribes (but especially throughout the Gebelawi Nyam-nyani) there 

 are recognised doctors, some purely spiritual (exorcists, diviners, witch-doctors, and 

 devil-dancers), who correspond to the Mohammedan Pikis ; others dealers in physic 

 alone, and others again that combine the two offices, a classification very similar to that 

 in Kordofan (ride Ibid, Third Eeport). 

 Varieties of Tlie doctor, in the Zandeh tongue, is termed Binza, sometimes Ivugour (a bastard 



word) by the Gours, Dakaoa, and amongst the semi-civilised of both races Hakim, the 

 Arab name. He usually traffics from place to place armed with a paraphernalia of drugs, 

 dressings, and implements (Plate XVII., figs. 2, 3, 5, 6, 9), often, too, with the native wooden 

 pillow (Fig. 62). One such with whom I came in contact at Meridi (and to whom I am 

 indebted for much information), Bonda^ by name {vide Fig. 67), applied himself solely 

 to physic and the supernatural. He would have no truck with obstetrics or surgery 

 (perhaps fortunately so), the former remaining in the hands of married w^omen, 

 aided sometimes by small boys (a custom also common to some parts of Uganda, 

 Mr. E. W. Haddou, Collector, Gondokoro, informs me). There are besides these 

 professional doctors a community which might be termed "hereditary specialists," 

 their secret knowledge of remedies and incantations, for special cases, being jealously 

 guarded and passed on from father to son. Such family remedies form quite a feature 

 of savage medicine as they must have done in ancient Egyptian days when the 

 ''profession" was entirely composed of "specialists." For his fee the doctor may be 

 rewarded in "kind" (grain, chickens, eggs, etc.) or in the very primitive "coin of the 

 realm " shown in Plate XIX., figs. 1-4. 



Cures and Rites 



Though not as elaborate or numerous as are those of the Arabs (which have, however, 

 influenced many of them considerably), the cures and rites of the Nyam-nyam and Gour 

 are so confused together that it will be as well to consider them under one heading. 

 Unless otherwise noted these customs are common to both people. 

 The Salt Cure. [Nyam-nyam, Goa). 

 ■ Goa" A grey, salty paste manufactured from the ash and charcoal of Kata-Dendera, Dama, 



and Kata-Bumblie (specimens of these roots could not be identified), to which is added 

 Tikba, or native wood-ash salt, derived from the wood of the Paio tree. This complicated 

 mixture is essentially contained in a bush-buck horn [ciile Plate XVII., fig. 1), suspended 

 by a brass ring, from which it can be extracted on a long skewer of wood or bone. 



Goa is a far-reaching and universal remedy ; it is taken internally in small quantities 

 for fevers and illnesses of every description, whilst externally it is added to fat or oil 

 and applied over any site of pain or swelling, alone, or in conjunction with scarring or 

 tying. Another of its uses is in the " sucking cure." 



' (inano " Sucking Cure. {Nyam-nyam, Gnano) 



This procedure has its counterpart amongst ourselves in the recently revived vacuum 

 methods of surgical treatment. I saw it carried out on several occasions, once by the 

 medicine man Bonda as follows : — The malady being pain and stiffness of the neck, 

 the patient a youth of about 19 years, Bonda first palpated the part carefully, in a 



' This man's full name was Bonda-Ding-Ringba alias Mohamed Allah-Gaboh, an example of the change 

 from Pagan to Mohammedan nomenclature. 



