272 USED AS A MEDICINE. 



the market, where it is disposed of in exchange for 

 grain or cotton, a handful of the latter, or a drink- 

 ing-hornful of the former, purchasing sufficient for 

 two doses, two large handsful. When taken, this 

 medicine is reduced upon the mill to a very fine 

 powder, having previously been well dried in the 

 sun upon a small straw mat, upon which from some 

 superstitious reason or other, several bits of charcoal 

 are placed. The largest drinking-horn being then 

 produced, the powdered cosso is mixed with nearly 

 a pint of water, and, if it can be obtained, a large 

 spoonful of honey is also added. When everything 

 is quite ready, a naked sword is placed flat upon the 

 ground, upon which the patient stands. The nurse 

 then takes between two bits of sticks, as a substitute 

 for tongs, a small bit of lighted charcoal, and carries it 

 around the edge of the vessel three times, mumbling 

 a prayer, at the end of which the charcoal is 

 extinguished in the medicine, which is immediately 

 drank off by the patient, who all this time has been 

 pulling most extraordinary faces, expressive of 

 his disgust for the draught. The operation is 

 speedy and effectual, and to judge by the prostra- 

 tion of strength it occasioned in my servants, when 

 they employed this medicine, it must be dreadfully 

 severe. I can answer for this, that it occasions 

 frequent miscarriages, often fatal to the mother, 

 and even men have been known, after a large dose, 

 to have died the same day from its consequences. 

 I am, therefore, surprised at the noise this remedy 



