CHAPTER XVII.
Determine to be cupped.—Mode of operating.—Medical knowledge of the Shoans.—Surgery.—Remarks upon their diseases and their remedies.—The cosso tree.—Mode of using the cosso.—Other curative processes.—Manufacture of gunpowder.—Success.—Health improving.
August 7th.—Being Sunday, Tinta did not come to my house. I also staid within all day, and took advantage of Walderheros having nothing to do, to be cupped in the Abyssinian manner, during the cold stage of the fever, and which I expected would attack me in the afternoon. A constant dull pain in the left side, just over the region of the spleen, gave me considerable uneasiness, for although I was aware that in ague this viscus is always affected, still I could not divest myself of the idea that in my case it must be organically diseased. I proposed, therefore, that the incisions should be made in that situation, but Walderheros would not hear of such a thing. Abstracting blood, to be beneficial, he asserted, must either be upon the crown of the head or at the back of the neck, and should he perform the operation anywhere else, and after all I should die, that the Negoos would put him to death as my murderer. Seeing that I could not induce him, and both his wife and Goodaloo being of the same opinion as himself, I allowed him to use his own discretion. During the consultation, however, that was held upon the occasion, Hadjji Abdullah came in, and it was decided among them I should be cupped upon the top of the head. The hair being accordingly shaved off the assigned place, in a circle about the size of a crown-piece, the hollow upper end of a horn, about four inches in length was then placed upon the bare skin. To the tapered extremity of this, through which was a small hole communicating with the interior, Walderheros applied his mouth and exhausted the air. This being done, he then closed the aperture with a piece of wax, that had been placed ready for that purpose around the end of the horn. The usual tumefaction of the integument immediately beneath was occasioned by being thus relieved of atmospheric pressure. After a little time remaining in this position, a needle was inserted into the wax, and air being admitted into the horn, it fell off. Walderheros, with the heel of a sharp razor, then gave three jerking cuts in the skin, and immediately replacing the horn over the part, again withdrew the air, and a slight movement of the tongue closed the aperture as before with the wax. In a few minutes, the ascending surface of the blood, seen through the white semi-transparent horn, indicated that sufficient had been extracted, and holding down my head, at the request of Walderheros, the primitive instrument was withdrawn, the whole operation having been performed by these simple means as speedily and as effectually as with the most expensive apparatus.
Excepting their acquaintance with some few cathartic remedies, all derived from the vegetable kingdom, the Shoans possess but little knowledge of medicine. A specific effect upon the bowels appears to be absolutely necessary to convince them that the remedy employed is medicine; and it is upon this principle that the articles contained in their limited “Materia Medica” have been selected. The only exception to this is a demulcent drink, made with honey and the mucilaginous seeds of the soof, Carthamus tinctorius, which is taken to relieve the local symptoms of “goomfon” (common catarrh).
The science of medicine principally consists of mysterious ceremonies, to be observed whilst collecting the few herbs employed as remedies, and in a knowledge of certain absurd formula of characters, which, being inscribed upon a little bit of parchment, is then enclosed in a case of red leather. The amulet is worn around the left arm above the elbow, or among the women around the neck, attached to the front of the martab. Pieces of red coral, sea shells, and various other things, are also believed to have protective powers against diseases. Copper rings, especially around the ancles or wrists, are considered to be very efficacious in the cure of rheumatism. These kind of remedies are supposed to be obnoxious to certain demons who afflict the body during sickness, named “saroitsh,” of which there are several, but great difference of opinion exists as to their exact number.
The Shoans have also external applications, and little operations, by which they remedy the consequences of accidents, but these are mere exigencies, conceived at the moment by the most sagacious of the spectators, and, excepting blood-letting and cupping, no art or mystery exists among them worthy of being dignified with the name of surgery. A strange operation for the removal of the whole tonsil, when enlarged by inflammation, I have often heard spoken of, but never had any opportunity of witnessing, although I believe one of the Irish soldiers attached to the Embassy, was foolish enough to submit to the operation, and almost died in consequence. The mode they employ of blood-letting and cupping is of very ancient origin, and appears to have been received from former Egyptian connexion; as, since my return to England, I have observed, in some representations preserved to us of the arts and manners of the people of that ancient country, the same method of venesection was adopted by them, as by modern Abyssinians, and also, I may remark, by their less civilized neighbours, the Dankalli. This is performed in Shoa with the blade of a small razor, held between the fore-finger and thumb. The point of the left thumb of the operator is then placed upon the frontal vein of the forehead, which becoming turgid, is laid open by a jerking cut with the razor, and the blood flows freely. Cupping with the assistance of a cow’s horn, as I have before been describing, I have also seen practised in exactly the same manner, by the negroes of the western coast of Africa, so that this method of abstracting blood appears to be very general, and strongly attests a previous civilized condition among the ancestors of the inhabitants of this continent, as such a practice argues a greater advance in intellectual acquirement for its first introduction into use, than we are willing, ignorant as we are yet of what civilization exists in the unknown countries of intertropical Africa, to accord to the ignorant natives, with whom we are at present acquainted.
I must not omit to observe, that among other external remedies, counter-irritation is a very favourite practice among the Abyssinians. Thus, in inflammations of the lungs, several small burns are made upon the chest, either with a red-hot iron rod, or a piece of burning charcoal, and this remedial process appears, and, I dare say, deservedly, to rank high as being very efficacious in the opinion of the inhabitants. In rheumatism, also, this kind of treatment, and the disease, is so common on the high table land of Shoa, that an exhibition of joints, to intimate how the patients have suffered, is sometimes most ludicrous; our inclination to laugh, such is man’s nature, not at all diminishing with increased evidences of the patient submitting to the barbarous, but still, I have no doubt, excellent remedy.
Syphilis has been represented to be the curse of the land; and certainly, from King to beggar, according to their own account, they either have it, or are about to have it. Priests and their wives are not exempt, nor do even children of the tenderest age escape. The reputation of this disease is as general among the Shoans, as scrofula is in England, and it is admitted and spoken of in the same manner without any reluctance or shame. This disease is supposed by the natives to originate from several causes; among others, that of eating the flesh of fowls which have become diseased, by living in the neighbourhood of some one more than usually afflicted, and great care accordingly is taken, when purchasing fowls in the market, to learn from whence they came. The prevalent opinion also is, that it is communicable by the simplest contact, and those who are suffering from it are, therefore, carefully avoided, except by their own relations, and for years after they are quite cured, a reluctance to eat or drink with them, except with certain precautions, may be observed among those of their acquaintance who are aware of their previous condition. From these and many other observances against contagion, it may be surprising that the disease should be so general. As it struck me as being very remarkable, I made a point of examining into the subject, and have concluded that by far the greater majority of sores, and unhealthy appearances upon the body, though referred by the patients themselves to this disease, arise, in fact, from other causes, and are confounded with syphilis, sometimes, probably, from the consciousness of having deserved it, but more frequently from their ignorance of the fact, that the peculiarity of their situation, and the character of their system in consequence, predisposes them to an extensive ulceration, should the continuity of the skin be separated by the slightest bruise. The ill effects which arise from this, the unfortunate sufferers, unable to account for it in any other manner, refer to a complaint, whose best known symptoms are of a similar character; and without any idea of disgrace attaching to them for what has arisen most innocently, they jump to the conclusion that they have become contaminated by an unfortunate contact with some affected individual. This is one reason, also, of the very various remedies popularly employed; for many of the cases, as I have observed, not having the least taint of syphilis, when a rapid recovery takes place by the use of any simple cathartic, a reputation is immediately gained for it, as being a certain cure for the presumed obstinate disease for which it has been taken, and which it has so readily subdued. Many vegetables in this manner are considered to be most efficacious in this disease, without the least claim to it, farther, than being gentle aperients and generally, in consequence, having a beneficial influence upon the human frame. On many such mistaken cases, the effect of blue pill was most wonderful, and it was a general observation with the medical officers of the Embassy, the remarkable efficiency of this remedy upon the Abyssinian human system, when, if its cause had been examined into, it would have been found that its simple alterative effects, producing a healthy reaction, was all that was required to establish a healing process very rapidly in the numerous cases of common ulcers, that were prescribed for under the impression that they proceeded from one sole cause: that a universal syphilitic taint characterized the whole population of Shoa.
The Abyssinians, immoral as they appear to be, are much more simple than depraved. It is the virtuous confidence of people afflicted with the reputed complaint, conscious of having no improper cause to attribute it to, and still, in their ignorance, believing it to be syphilis, which has given support to the general opinion among them of its extremely contagious character, and which has occasioned that apparent shamelessness with which this disreputable and distressing disease is spoken of by all classes and conditions.
The most generally employed remedy, for common purposes, by the inhabitants of Shoa, is the flowers and unripe seeds of the Hagenia Abyssinica, called by them “Cosso.” Bruce gives us a good description, and was the first who directed the attention of Europeans to this remarkable tree. In Shoa it grows frequently to the height of fifty feet. About one half of the way up the Tchakkah ascent, it flourishes remarkably well. It appears to be a short-lived tree. Of its wood the Negoos has all his gun-stocks manufactured, as it approaches nearly in colour to that employed for the same purposes in the European firearms he possesses. The wood, however, is far from being strong; but whilst the colour satisfies the eye of the monarch, the workmen he employs find it is well adapted, by its soft nature, to their tools, and its excellence for the purposes required is therefore never questioned, except by the unfortunate gunman, who, when the stock of his piece is fractured by any accident, must submit to a stoppage in his rations or pay, until its value has been reimbursed to the monarch, who always takes this method of ensuring carefulness as regards valuable property.