SFOR T IN ABYSSINIA. 1 63 



worm breaks, a horrible ulcer forms. As to scrofula 

 and its origin, I saw very little of it, the natives 

 seeming, on the whole, pretty free from this terrible 

 scourge. When a person among them is afflicted with 

 very bad rheumatism they have rather an original way 

 of effecting a cure, which is by putting bits of cotton 

 on the parts affected, and igniting them, making them 

 burn fiercely by blowing upon the cotton. This is 

 even sometimes done for the purpose of creating 

 beauty marks, as they are considered- — a young man 

 showing his fortitude by allowing one of the fair sex 

 to light one of these bits of cotton, and blow on it to 

 create as much heat as possible. If by any chance he 

 flinches, or shows any indication of pain, he is thought 

 to be a coward, and not worthy of the lady's notice. 

 Concerning this mode of curing rheumatism, I believe 

 there is some similar custom among country people 

 in England, the modus opcrmidi being a heated flat 

 iron with which the affected limb is treated. 



Feb. 13. — I rode out this morning on my mule 

 through a green, thorny jungle which lay opposite the 

 hill on which we were camped. I was on the look- 

 out for big game, and so did not fire at a large flock 

 of guinea-fowl which I put uj) : there must have been 

 at least two or three hundred of them, and they all 

 rose at once, making a tremendous row. It was a 

 very pretty sight, and one quite peculiar to the coun- 



