2G4 



SOMK TKIHAL CUSTOMS IN THEIK EELATION TO MEDICINE AND MOUALS 



Substances 

 used to poison 

 arrows 



Liicumcision 



Akeow Poisons (Quanzi Benga) {(lour and N;/aiii-ni/iuit, tongue) 



Besides the letlial Benga, which we liave ah'eady mentioned in discussing 

 "Divination," "The Ordeal," and "Execution," there are many other substances, chiefly 

 vegetable products, employed as arrow poisons, amongst the Nyam-nyam and Gour. 



1. Giru {Xijnm-nijam). The seeds of a small bush, crushed, charred and mixed 

 with a fat for application to arrow heads. 



2. Gumarie {(jonr). The juice derived from the root of a shrub similarly used. 



3. EUie (Ni/am-Hi/am), Turuf or Bulo (Qowr), Shagar el Leban {AraJiir). The milky 

 sap of the candalabra tree [E/tphm-hia Gaudahiliruin) inspissated to a thick paste 

 and then moulded over the neck of the arrow head (;oide arrow on extreme right 

 in Plate XIX., fig. 9). This poison is said to rapidly deteriorate and lose its 

 effect. In this it resembles Benga. 



4. Macrube {Gour), the poisonous juice derived from a bulb, about the size of an onion. 



5. Dadala {Gour). The same from a bulb slightly smaller than " No. 4." 



G. Tappa {Nynm-iiyam). Already referred to under "Execution," pa(i<' 246, is also 

 used by the Nyam-nyam as an arrow jioison. 



Specimens of these poisons have so far detied classification, two bulbs of " Nos. 4 

 and 5 " were planted out by me and have been growing now for over a year without 

 producing the flowers which are essential to their identification. 



Putrid flesh, though used by the adjacent people of Mongalla (Captain P. S. Dove, 

 Senior Inspector) and by the tribes near Wall in the Lado (Boyd-Alexander), snake venom 

 employed by the Dinkas and Shilluks (x\ustrian Mission), the entrails of certain caterpillars 

 "A Bushman spear and arrow poison" (Livingstone), and tetanus-infected soil adopted 

 elsewhere on the west coast, I believe, — ^are apparently none of them common to the 

 Nyam-nyam or Gour. 



Surgery 



The term "surgery," as applied to the procedure of these people, is in reality a 

 misnomer, since with the exception of occasional i-ii-cimicision (introduced by IVIohammedans), 

 certain tribal vosmetic: operation^:, and the every day minor nuniicdl dresshirji^, srnn-itKjn, etc., 

 it does not exist. 



Girciimcinioii. 



Called by the mutilated Arabic word Tahuri, or Ganzai in the Zamlch tongue, is of 

 Aral) introduction and forms one of the outward signs of that " unconscious conversion " to 

 Islam, already referred to in dealing with the influence of civilisation on these people. 



Circumcision is so far entirely limited to adult males, members of the community at 

 stations where that crude Mohammedan element, the Sudanese soldier, is present. The 

 female Tahur of the Arabs has as yet found no footing. The operation is nearly always 

 associated with the adoption of the simple creed of Islam (though the reverse is by no 

 means the case) and with other manifestations of civilisation. A circumcised man 

 inniiediately gains in social standing and prestige so that its influence is decidedly U>y 

 good. 



Tahuri is carried out by the simplest .\ral) method, a knife (Sappi) being employed and 

 tlie bleeding controlled by a split cane clamp. Dressings of Kita-Dondura leaves and hot 

 water or powdered Gangiila root are applied. 



A month after the operation a Deluka (Dancing Feast) is held at which the circumcised 

 appears clad in a short " kilt " of flowing grass or hair. (Termed Mududa and very similar 



