154 
NATIVE CURES AND MEDICINES. 
By day, dogs walked into our huts, and by night hyena 
often carried away our fowls. Indeed, while lying 
awake, one came sniffing with his nose in the air up 
to my couch, and ran sulkily away on my shouting at 
him. One cannot say whether he would have sprung 
upon me had I been asleep, but the precaution of a 
trap was taken for several nights following. 
The most curious disease known in this country was 
a case of dropsy brought to be operated upon. Some 
days after having seen it, and declined the operation, 
a number of watery globules, the size of common 
marbles, were brought me upon a leaf, said to have 
been extracted from the person afflicted. This opera- 
tion they performed generally without fatal conse- 
quences, and the disease was not uncommon. There 
were several leprous people, favourites about the court. 
One, an old woman, who saluted us with " Vihoreh," 
had flesh-coloured hands and colourless patches on her 
arms. M nanagee complained of not being able to 
drink his usual fare of milk ; and though his know- 
ledge of herbs was very extensive, he could not cure 
himself. One of his favourite medicines was a prepa- 
ration from the long roots of nettles found growing in 
the shallow end of the lake. These, I was informed, 
were used in decoction as purgatives. On my request- 
ing him to give me his tapeworm medicine, it was ob- 
tained with considerable difficulty. The servant was 
told to go to a certain bush on the hillside, never to look 
back on his way thither, but to return without pluck- 
ing the plant if he should meet a dog ! Through 
the kindness of M'nanagee, his nephews, and others, 
a species of frankincense and many interesting plants 
were examined and preserved. 
