Chap. X. 
NATIVE REMEDIES. 
195 
a pot with water, and, when it was boiKng, placed it on a spot 
beneath a blanket thrown around both me and it. This pro¬ 
duced no immediate eifect; he then got a small bundle of different 
kinds of medicinal woods, and, burning them in a potsherd nearly 
to ashes, used the smoke and hot vapour arising from them as 
an auxiliary to the other in causing diaphoresis. I fondly hoped 
that they had a more potent remedy than our own medicines 
afford; but after being stewed in their vapour-baths, smoked 
like a red herring over green twigs, and charmed secundem 
artem^ I concluded that I could cure the fever 'more quickly 
than they can. If we employ a wet sheet and a mild aperient in 
combination with quinine, in addition to the native remedies, they 
are an important aid in curing the fever, as they seem to have the 
same stimulating effects on the ahmentary canal, as these means 
have on the external surface. Purgatives, general bleedings, or 
indeed any violent remedies, are injurious; and the appearance 
of a herpetic eruption near the mouth is regarded as an evidence 
that no internal organ is in danger. There is a good deal in 
not “ giving in ” to this disease. He who is low-spirited, and 
apt to despond at every attack, will die sooner than the man 
who is not of such a melancholic natoe. 
The Makololo had made a garden and planted maize for me, 
that, as they remarked, when I was parting with them to pro¬ 
ceed to the Cape, I might have food to eat when I returned, as 
well as other people. The maize was now pounded by the women 
into fine meal. This they do in large wooden mortars, the exact 
o 2 
