262 SOME TRIBAL CUSTOMS IN THEIB RELATION TO MEDICIXE AND MORALS 



1-t. Wood-Ash 



Is used as a tooth po\Yder, a drug, a dressing, and as a substitute for salt when 

 no better can be obtained. It is also ajiplied to the bodies of men and animals to 

 ward oif the bites of mosquito and tsetse. 



Note. — For this purpose " red earth," a " wash " made from tobacco, and the smoke of 

 burning leaves and green wood are also employed. Elsewhere in the Bahr-El-Ghazal 

 (according to a note kindly supplied me by Dr. Andrew Balfour) the root of a tree 

 (I'itis pi-o(h(ct(i), called Yiao in the Gonr tongue, is crushed up witli water, and applied 

 as a " wash," or given internally as a draught for animals in the tsetse country. 

 A similar, if not the same root, is mentioned by Livingstone. 



15. Salt 



As an article of diet and for medicinal jjurposes is very highly valued. It forms, 

 therefore, one of the most imjjortant media of exchange among traders who import 

 the native Arab article (Natrun) in "heads" and occasionally the purer rock salt of 

 commerce. 



The potash salts manufactured by the people themselves are many in number : — 



Dokodo (Gotir) derived from the asli of Yada or Begno woods by solution, filtration 

 and evaporation of the filtrates. 



Tikba {Nyam-nyam) from the same process with the ash of Paio wood. 



Yobo (Morro, Nyain-nyam) salt derived in like manner from the seed heads of a 

 large thistly plant termed Bringa or Yabu. 



Livingstone mentions the "Burning of coarse rush stalks of Tsitla in order to extract 

 the salt from the ash," and the late Boyd-Alexander referred to its being obtained by 

 the natives round Lake Chad from the rotting vegetation in stagnant pools. 



Salt is frequently carried in hollow horns as shown in Plate XVII., fig. 1. 



16. Tobacco (Nicotiana tahacum) 



Tobacco and Is widely grown and used (smoked and cliewed) in the Bahr-El-Ghazal as indeed 



Hashish throughout Central Africa. {Vide Livingstone, Schweinfurth, Boyd-Alexander, and 



others). It is called by the universal name of Tumbak, by the Nyam-nyam also 

 Goundo, and by the Gour, Tabba. 



The tobacco leaves are crushed when fresli and roughly moulded into discs varying 

 from a few inches to a foot in diameter according to local custom. It is chewed, or 

 smoked in crude pipe bowls attached to a length of hollow stick (vide Plate XIX., fig. 5), 

 or else in a pirimitive hubble-bubble made from a long thin-necked gourd perforated 

 to allow the clay bowl to protrude into the water {vide Fig. 73). 



Tobacco is a staple remedy for nearly all ills, being used as a drug, a dressing, and 

 also in the preparation of a wash to safeguard animals against the bites of "fly." 



17. Hashish 



{Gannahis indica) — termed Bange in the Zandeh tongue (the Bang of Persia) — like 

 tobacco an importation of the "Turks" is grown in small quantities, chiefly at centres of 

 civilisation along main roads. It is usual for the hashish smoker to keep a few living 

 plants close to his hut, plucking and smoking the leaves (mixed with tobacco) as he requires 

 them. Livingstone describes hashish as being "extensively used by all the tribes of the 

 interior" in Central Africa, and Dudley Kidd' mentions its use amongst the Kaffirs, 

 even by their children, who employ it to add dash and excitement to their games. 



• Savage Childhood 



