SULPHUR AND SALTPETRE.

261

mortars to grind down and pulverize the other ingredients, sulphur and saltpetre, of which a large quantity of each had been brought to my house from Ankobar during the day.

Both sulphur and saltpetre abound in Shoa, the former being obtained from the volcanic country immediately to the west of the Hawash, near Azbottee. From an extinct crater, nearly half a mile from our halting-place at Lee Adu, I had brought to me a piece of the purest sulphur, that required no farther process of refinement than the natural sublimation by which it had been deposited in the fissures of the cone. The Adal Bedouins who

occupy that neighbourhood bring it to the Negoos of Shoa as a kind of tribute, and sometimes a demand is made upon them for a certain quantity, which is delivered in a few days, so plentifully is it found, to the Wallasmah Mahomed, who forwards it to the Negoos.

Saltpetre is found in many places, both on the table-land of Shoa, and in the valley countries to the south and east. It is principally brought from Bulga, where the grey rubbly earth it forms is ploughed over, and the disturbed soil containing more than fifty per cent. of the salt is placed in immense earthenware jars containing water, in which, by frequent agitation, the saltpetre becomes suspended. The liquor is then decanted, and in large saucers allowed to evaporate, when the finest needle-formed crystals of the salt are formed.

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 bloodletting 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