380 



THE LAKE REGIONS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 



weaker and thinner than he had ever been before. When 

 he recovered, Gaetano fell ill, and was soon in the happy 

 state of unconsciousness which distinguished all his 

 fevers. The bull-headed slave Mabruki also retired into 

 private life, and Bombay was laid up by a shaking ague, 

 whilst the Baloch and the sons of Kamji, who had 

 led a life so irregular that the Arabs had frequently 

 threatened them with punishment, also began to pay the 

 penalty of excess. 



Snay bin Amir was our principal doctor. An adept 

 in the treatment, called by his countrymen " camel- 

 physic," namely, cautery and similar counter-irritants, 

 he tried his art upon me when I followed the example 

 of the party. At length, when the Hummah, or hot fit, 

 refused to yield to its supposed specific, a coating of 

 powdered ginger, he insisted upon my seeing a Mganga, 

 or witch, celebrated for her cures throughout the coun- 

 try-side. She came, a wrinkled old beldame, with a 

 greasy skin, black as soot, set off by a mass of tin- 

 coloured pigtails : her arms were adorned with copper 

 bangles like manacles, and the implement of her craft 

 was, as usual, a girdle of small gourds dyed red-black 

 with oil and use. 



After demanding and receiving her fee in cloth, she 

 proceeded to search my mouth, and to inquire anxiously 

 concerning poison. The question showed the preva- 

 lence of the practice in the country, and indeed the 

 people, to judge from their general use of " Mithri- 

 dates," seem ever to expect it. She then drew from 

 a gourd a greenish powder, which was apparently bhang, 

 and having mixed it with water, she administered it 

 like snuff, causing a convulsion of sneezing, which she 

 hailed with shouts and various tokens of joy. Presently 

 she rubbed my head with powder of another kind, and 



