1867.] NSAMA IS ROUTED. NATIVE CUPPING. 223 



received two arrow wounds there; they had only twenty 

 guns at the time, but some were in the stockade, and though 

 the people of Nsama were very numerous they beat them 

 off, and they fled carrying the bloated carcase *ofj_Nsama 

 with them. Some reported that boxes were found_£in the 

 village, which belonged to parties who had perished before, 

 but Syde assured me that this was a mistake. 



Moero is three days distant, and as Nsama's people go 

 thither to collect salt on its banks, it would have been 

 impossible for me to visit it from the south without being 

 seen, and probably suffering loss. 



The people seem to have no family names. A man takes 

 the name of his mother, or should his father die he may 

 assume that. Marriage is forbidden to the first, second, and 

 third degrees : they call first and second cousins brothers 

 and sisters. 



A woman, after cupping her child's temples for sore eyes, 

 threw the blood over the roof of her hut as a charm. 



[In the above process a goat's horn is used with a small 

 hole in the pointed end. The base is applied to the part 

 from which the blood is to be withdrawn, and the operator, 

 with a small piece of chewed india-rubber in his mouth, 

 exhausts the air, and at the proper moment plasters the 

 small hole up with his tongue. When the cupping-horn 

 is removed, some cuts are made with a small knife, and 

 it is again applied. As a rough appliance, it is a very good 

 one, and in great repute everywhere.] 



