322 THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



and the patient howls with pain for twenty-four hours. 

 They bleed frequently as Italians, who even after being 

 startled resort to a mild phlebotomy, and they cut down 

 straight upon the vein with a sharp knife. They prefer 

 the cucurbitula cruenta, like the Arabs, who say, — 



" Few that cup repent ; 

 Few that bleed, rejoice." 



A favourite place is the crown of the head. The prac- 

 titioner, after scarifying the skin with a razor or a dagger, 

 produces a vacuum by exhausting the air through a horn 

 applied with wetted edges ; at the point is a bit of wax, 

 which he closes over the aperture with his tongue or 

 teeth, as the hospital " singhi " in India uses a bit of 

 leather. Cupping — called ku hu mikd or kurmka — is 

 made highly profitable by showing strange appearances 

 in the blood. They cure by excision the bite of snakes, 

 which, however, are not feared nor often fatal in these 

 lands. They cannot reduce dislocations, and they 

 never attempt to set or splint a broken bone. 



The mganga or medicine-man, in his character of 

 u doctor," is a personage of importance. He enters the 

 sick-room in the dignity of antelope-horn, grease, and 

 shell-necklace, and he sits with importance upon his 

 three-legged stool. As the devil saves him the trouble 

 of diagnosis, he begins by a prescription, invariably 

 ordering something edible for the purpose, and varying 

 it, according to the patient's means, from a measure of 

 grain to a bullock. He asserts, for instance, that a 

 pound of fat is required for medicine ; a goat must be 

 killed, and his perquisite is the head or breast — a pre- 

 liminary to a more important fee. Then the price of 

 prescription — a sine qud non to prescribing — is settled 

 upon and paid in advance. After certain questions, in- 



