250 



SOME TKIBAL CUSTOMS IX THEIU RELATION TO MEDICINE AND MORALS 



most professional manner. Thrice then he passed the Goa skewer between his lips ; 

 next, seizing the patient by his shoulders, he made a violent and sudden snap at the 

 seat of the lesion. Catching a large fold of skin tightly between his teeth, he pulled it 

 out and sucked vigorously and noisily for about two minutes, at the end of which time, 

 releasing his hold, he triumphantly produced a small spicule of bone from his mouth, 

 the which, he informed us, as the cause of ill, he had extracted painlessly and with no 

 apparent scar. The deception was obvious, and yet no one seemed to consider it as such, 

 wliilst the sufferer admitted himself vastly relieved. 



"Extraction" Extraction of foreiij)!. Iiodies 



The extraction of foreign bodies on a much larger scale, however, is common amongst 

 these people. I saw several pieces of iron, bits of stone and fragments of a burma (clay 

 water vessel) which had been removed by a Gour doctor from a Sudanese Mohammedan 

 soldier, the method being to place the sufferer on an angareeb (native bed), under which 

 were set many gourds filled with hot water. As the steam uprose through the open 

 meshes of the bed the doctor recited incantations, to such effect that the missiles fell 

 one b)' one from the man's body into the receptacles beneath. 



"Tying cure" Thp tijinq ciirp 



The use of "ties" of native cord and leather (very often coupled with the addition 

 of small charms or with scarring of the part) placed round affected limbs in lesions 

 thereof, such as about the brow in headache, and encircling the chest for cough (vide 

 Figs. 68, 69), is a favourite form of treatment. These " ties " will be referred to again later. 



".Scarring" Scarring 



Besides its employment for cosmetic effect {vide Fig. 78), scarring is, as in nearly all 

 primitive medical practice, a universal remedy for the relief of pain and swelling, and 

 for the cure of internal lesions having no outward manifestation. A knife or spear- 

 head is the instrument used, the scars being made in a regular pattern, often in groups 

 of three. 



Cupping Cupping. (Makanowa bunga tirio, Gour tongue) (ride Fig. 70). 



The cup consists of a perforated bush-buck horn, often possessing no leather valve, as 

 in the Arab instrument (the operator substituting his tongue in the intervals of sucking). 

 Dry and wet cupping are employed. This method is, I suspect, an Arab innovation, the 

 word Makanowa being a corruption of the bastard French-Arabic, Mekana (an instrument). 



Heat Hi'iit cure 



('anterigation, so common amongst the Arabs, is seldom, if ever, employed by these 



people. 



Hot water and hot mud are, however, used as applications for the relief of pain and 

 swelling, the former also as a beverage in cases of fever. 

 Saliva Spitting 



Is employed in many cures, the saliva being used particularly as a ready first-aid 

 application to wounds and abrasions. It is also dispensed with certain prescriptions. The 

 employment of saliva in the oracle Euwa will be described anon. {Vide page 252.) 



Spitting has no religious significance as in the Mohammedan Azima\ though a 

 superstitious dread attaches to saliva (as to any part or secretion of the body) in its 

 relation to the working of Sahar, and spells, which have been aptly named " contagious 

 magic." 



To spit as a greeting, an almost universal primitive custom, is common amongst these 

 people. 



' Vide T/iinl Jlrjjorl, IVellcomc Tropicnl Research Lnbnrntorks, Khartoiiiii 



