of Edinburgh, Session 1884-85. 
259 
damoor rag. As soon as the worm makes its appearance, it is care- 
fully drawn out and wound round a stick, a little each day. 
All fevers are treated by heat. Large fires are made in the huts 
near to the patient’s bed, who either rubs himself with castor oil, or 
is rubbed and kneaded well by his friends. Warm decoctions of 
leaves are given him to drink. 
There is one drug celebrated far and near. It is said to make 
women sterile, and in men it causes the testicles to atrophy. It is 
often given out of spite. I saw two men — one about 40, the other 
an Arab about 25 — who said they had had this drug given them, 
and certainly their testicles were very small ; but I confess I was 
dubious, though most strongly assured of the power of the drug. An 
antidote is known by a very few of the magicians, and is very dear. 
Syphilis is treated by a decoction made of twelve parts of a root to 
one of pepper, and boiled over the fire for about six hours, water 
being added occasionally. A small gourdful is taken twice a day, 
and the patient may eat nothing salt or sour for six days, and must 
drink as little fluid as possible ; then for six days he must eat only 
bread, and perhaps a little fowl, but no salt ; for the next week he 
may eat a little meat, and then return to ordinary diet. The medi- 
cine is taken for twenty days. Slatin Bey told me he had seen 
twenty or thirty cases thus treated and cured (V). I saw a good number 
of people suffering from secondary and tertiary symptoms. Necrosis 
of the skull bones is apparently common. The people say that this 
disease was introduced by the Arabs from the north many years ago. 
Persons afflicted by it do not try to communicate it with the hope 
of curing themselves, as is the case in some neighbouring districts, 
Kordofan for instance. Inoculation is not practised. A pecu- 
liarly virulent form of gonorrhoea, accompanied by cystitis, is very 
common ; the Tors are very noted for this disease. Leprosy and 
elephantiasis are far from uncommon ; the former is said to be 
hereditary. Ulcers of the leg are not so general in Darfur as among 
the tribes farther south. Ophthalmia is very rife, but is invariably 
cured by the application of a lotion made from the root of a shrub. 
Epilepsy is frequent ; girls are more prone to it than boys, in whom 
it is rare. It is thought to be caused by the afflicted person com- 
mitting some fault, such as pilfering food, or going into a hut which 
is under the protection of the Zittan (see above), or committing 
