OUR STATIONS ON THE NILE 



191 



small space in front, where it was cut to expose the mud-wall 

 with its neatly finished arched entrance. Like most of the 

 natives, men and women smoke. 



Many of the small children have a very large abdomen, 

 and remind one of nestlings. In one village over a score of 

 these children 

 were marched 

 up to me for 

 treatment. It 

 was a sight! In 

 not a few cases 

 the condition 

 is natural, the 

 child devouring 

 whatever it can 

 lay its hands 

 on ; in other 

 cases it is due 

 to ailments 

 which readily 

 yield to treat- 

 ment. 



One of the 

 difficulties with 

 which the medi- 

 cal man has to contend in these regions is the impossibility 

 of finding out the exact ailment of the patient, owing to the 

 interpreter's limited knowledge of the language. A ludicrous, 

 though rather unpleasant, occurrence once happened to me in 

 this connection. I was attending a number of Wakavirondo 

 captives, women and children. The patient had some gastric 

 trouble. I do not know, of course, how the interpreter trans- 

 lated my question, but the patient, together with eight or ten 

 other women, proceeded to give me a visible proof of the form 

 her indisposition took. 



Another difficulty is, that natives often come for treatment 

 for imaginary complaints. One of the great Waganda chiefs, 

 the Kago, used to come to me regularly with his story of the 

 "worm." One day the "worm" was in his heart, another day 

 in the small of his back, another time it had travelled to his 

 arm, and so on. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and 



A FALUA DWELLING. 



