Malaria is not a prevalent disease amongst the Kaffirs owing principally to the fact that their kraals are always built on high ground.
B. CONSTITUTIONAL DISEASES.
Syphilis. I-gcushiuva or I-hashe elingwevu (grey horse) to be distinguished from I-hashe (gonorrhoea) which latter is treated by fomentations and is not common.
The leaves of the Paramelia conspersa, (Ubu-lembu belitye) a lichen of very bitter taste, are used in infusion, and the dry powder used on the sores, or mixed with fat as an ointment.
In the same manner Cisampelos campensis or the Solanum melongena, (Um-tuma) or the Withania somnifera, (Ubu-vumba) may be used and are believed to have cured many cases.
The natives state that this disease was introduced by the white man, and certainly it is within the knowledge of many that even in the last twenty years its prevalence has greatly increased among the tribes, probably due to the common use of drinking and other utensils and the close and often overcrowded life led at night in the huts. [[59]]
Another undoubted cause of spread is the lewd practices which accompany, of late years, the ceremonies of Intonyane and Abakweta at puberty.
Leprosy. I-qenqa or In-Gqinda, said to be caused by suddenly seeing the Icanti in his natural form in the river. This suddenly seeing something is called “Ukwalama” and a person who has thus seen the Icanti must not talk until he has been doctored lest he take some disease such as the I-qenqa.
Some of the Kaffir doctors blame Hottentots (an altogether different race) for having introduced leprosy among them from the Cape Colony. It is certainly a disease of comparatively recent occurrence amongst the Kaffir.