(217) 
MEDICAL FOLK-LOEE OF THE ABANTU IN THE LIJDENBURG 
DISTRICT, TRANSVAAL. 
By Cornelis Pijper. 
In the great number of books that have been written on South African 
natives several data may be found concerning the way in which the witch- 
doctors treat their ailing fellow-men. Yet the following observations, made 
by me while I was practising in the Lijdenburg district, have, so far as I 
know, never been published before ; they are to be regarded as a contribution 
to the study of comparative medical folk-lore. 
(a) Inflammation of the eyes is combated by making holes in the lobes 
of the ears ; I was given to understand that in this way the disease was 
given an opportunity to escape. It is interesting to note that this practice 
is met with in Europe too ; in Holland the people improve on it by wearing- 
rings in the holes.* 
(b) Children who suffer from nocturnal incontinence of urine are made 
to eat a certain kind of mouse streepmuis "), roasted whole. (Zoology 
knows two kinds of " streepmuis " in the Transvaal : one with one stripe — 
JDendromus mesomelas ; the other iVith four stripes — Arvicanthiis jjumilio.) 
It is interesting to compare Plinius, Hist. Natur., xxx, 14 (47) — " Urina 
infantium coliibetur muribus elixis in cibo datis," and Bcal, Passetemps 
d-'un practicien d'Auvergne, Paris, 1900 — " Les bonnes femmes vous diront 
avec conviction, qu'une friture de rats empcche les mioches de pisser au 
lit." I have tried to find out what, in the native mind, was the " ratio " of 
this treatment, but have not met with success. 
(c) For affections of the chest the native doctors like to administer the 
dejections of the hippopotamus, boiled. This highly-valued material is 
procured by means of barter from the natives living near the Limpopo ; I 
am sorry that I have not been able to find out exactly what is given in 
exchange. The internal use of the dejections of animals (and even of man) 
was in former centuries, even as late as 1650 (see the description in the works 
of the Dutch poet Cats of that time), common all over Europe, while already 
Oalenus is stated to have said : " Medicus ignorare non debet medendi 
^ Van Andel, Volksgeneeskunst in Nederland, 1909, p. 186. 
