Obstruction of the bowels. Uku-quina.
Treatment: All the usual cathartics may be tried and they failing, the rubbing doctor “Igqira-elokuqubula,” may be called in who massages the belly. If he fails the person must be bewitched; when the witch doctor is requisitioned to see the end of the chapter and have [[81]]someone punished for the result.
Peritonitis. Inflammation of the bowels is treated generally as colic and fever.
Dropsy. I can get no authentic record of this being recognised. One informant calling it “Igalimoya” gives as a method of treatment used the injection and administration by the mouth of infusions of Utangazano (Cucumis Africanus) a wild cucumber, which is a hydrogogue cathartic.
Piles. U-mzi.
a. Charms are used to cause their disappearance, e.g., I-kubalo or lika Mlanjeni (Pelargonium pulverulentum) of which the leaves are chewed.
These leaves were given to the warriors in the Kaffir Wars of 1850, as war medicine, by the great witch doctor Mlanjeni, to charm away the British bullets, and make the guns miss fire. Kaffirs were found, dead on the field, who had these leaves chewed in their mouths.
b. Another method of treatment is to mash into a pulp the rootstalk of the Isi-kolokoto [[82]](Sansevieria thyrsiflora) and use the pulp locally and internally.
Thread worms. Izlio.
Tape worm. I-palo.