Illnesses and remedies--Curious theories about fever--Evil
spirits--Blacksmith and dentist--Exorcisms--Surgical
operations--Massage and cupping--Incurable
illnesses--Deformities--Deafness--Fits and
insanity--Melancholia--Suicides.
THE Lamas became quite communicative, enabling me, partly with the little
Hindustani that I knew and partly with the Tibetan I had picked up, to
enter into a conversation about illnesses and their remedies, certain as
I was that they must have strange notions on the subject. I was not
disappointed in this surmise, and from that conversation and my own
observation on previous and subsequent occasions, I am able to give a few
details of the methods of the Lamas in curing the more frequent ailments
found in the country.
The Lamas explained to me that all diseases arose from fever, instead of
fever being an accompaniment of most illnesses, and furthermore, that
fever itself was but an evil spirit, which assumed different forms when
it entered the body, and caused all sorts of complaints. The fever demon,
they asserted, was a spirit, but there were yet other demons who were so
good as to bring us riches and happiness. For instance, when a man after
a dangerous illness visited a a cave, waterfall or river-gorge which
these demons were supposed to haunt, he might have a relapse and die, or
he might be instantly cured and live happy ever afterwards. In the latter
case, as would naturally be expected, the recipient of such inestimable
privileges generally returned to pay a second visit to the kindly spirits
who made his life worth living, "but," said the Lamas quite seriously,
"when he goes a second time he will get blind or paralytic, as a
punishment for his greediness."
"The evil spirits," continued a fat old Lama with crooked fingers, which
he clenched and shook as he spoke, "are in the shape of human beings or
like goats, dogs, sheep or ponies, and sometimes they assume the
semblance of wild animals, such as bears and snow leopards."
I told the Lamas that I had remarked many cases of goître and also other
abnormalities, such as hare-lip and webbed fingers and toes, as well as
the very frequent occurrence of supernumerary fingers or toes. I asked
them the reason for such cases, and they attributed them, with the
exception of webbed fingers, to the mischievous work of demons before the
child's birth; they could not, however, suggest a remedy for goître.
Inguinal and umbilical hernia are quite common, as I have on several
occasions observed, and coarse belts are made according to the taste and
ingenuity of the sufferer, but are of hardly any efficacy in preventing
the increase of the swellings.
A common complaint, especially among the older women, was rheumatism,
from which they seemed to suffer considerably. It affected their fingers
and toes, and particularly the wrists and ankles, the joints swelling so
as to render them quite stiff, the tendons contracting, swelling, and
becoming prominent and hard in the palms of the hands.
Both before and after my conversation with the Lamas I had opportunities
of ascertaining that the stomachs of the Tibetans are seldom in good
working order. But how could they be when you consider the gallons of
filthy tea which they drink daily, and the liquor to which they are so
partial? This poisonous concoction is enough to destroy the gastric
juices of an ostrich! The tongue, as I have mentioned already, is
invariably thickly furred with a whitish coating, and Tibetans have often
complained to me of tumours as well as of painful burnings in the
stomach, the latter undoubtedly caused by ulcerations. It is to be
regretted that, even in the high land of Tibet, the worst of all sexual
diseases (called by the Tibetans _Boru_) has made vast numbers of
victims, palpable traces of it showing themselves in eruptions,
particularly on the forehead and on the ears, round the mouth and under
the nostrils, on the arms and legs. In cases of very long standing, a
peculiar whitish discoloration of the skin and gums was to be noticed,
with abnormal contraction of the pupils. That such a disease is well
rooted in the country we have proof enough in the foul teeth which the
majority of Tibetans possess. In nearly all cases that I examined, the
teeth were, even in young men, so loose, decayed and broken as to make me
feel quite sorry for their owners, and during the whole time I was in
Tibet--and I came in contact with several thousand people--I believe that
I could almost count on my fingers the sets of teeth that appeared quite
regular, healthy and strong. As a rule, too, the women had better teeth
than the men. No doubt the admixture of bad blood in the Tibetan race
contributes a great deal to the unevenness and malformation of their
teeth, and if we add to this the fact that the corruption of the blood,
even apart from disease, is very great owing to their peculiar laws of
marriage, it is not surprising that the services of dentists are
everywhere required. The teeth of Tibetans are generally of such a
brittle nature that the dentist of Tibet--usually a Lama and a blacksmith
as well--has devised an ingenious way of protecting them from further
destruction by means of a silver cap encasing the broken tooth. I once
saw a man with all his front teeth covered in this fashion, and as the
dentist who had attended to him had constructed the small cases
apparently with no regard to shape or comfort, but had made most of them
end in a point for mastication's sake, the poor man had a ghastly
appearance every time that he opened his mouth. The Tibetans are not very
sensitive to physical pain, as I have had reason to judge on several
occasions, when I have seen teeth extracted in the most primitive
fashion, without a sound being emitted from the sufferer.
In South-Western Tibet the _Hunyas_ (Tibetans) have the same strange
notions on transmigration of evil spirits that are common to the Shokas.
For instance, if a man falls ill, they maintain that the only remedy is
to drive away the evil spirit which has entered his body. Now, according
to Tibetan and Shoka ideas, evil spirits always enter a living body to
satisfy their craving for blood: therefore, to please the spirit and
decoy him away, if the illness be slight, a small animal such as a dog or
a bird is brought and placed close by the patient; if the illness be
grave, a sheep is produced and exorcisms are made in the following
fashion. A bowl of water is whirled three or four times over the sick
man's head, and then again over the animal selected, upon whose head it
is poured. These circles, described with certain mystic words, have the
power of drawing the spirit out of its first quarters and causing it to
enter the brain of the second victim, upon whose skull the water is
poured to prevent its returning back.
"Of course," said my informer with an air of great gravity, "if you can
give the evil spirit a present in the shape of a living being that will
satisfy him, he will depart quite happy." If the illness is slight, it
means that the spirit is not much out of temper, and a small present is
enough to satisfy him, but if the disease is serious, nothing less than a
sheep or even a yak will be sufficient. As soon as the spirit has changed
his temporary abode the animal is quickly dragged away to a crossing of
four roads, and if there are no roads a cross is previously drawn on the
ground, where a grave for the animal is dug, into which it is mercilessly
thrown and buried alive. The spirit, unable to make a rapid escape,
remains to suck the blood of his last victim, and in the meantime the
sick man, deprived of the company of his ethereal and unwelcome guest,
has time to make a speedy recovery. When a smaller animal is used, such
as a dog or a bird, and when the patient complains of more than one
ailment, the poor beast, having been conveyed to the crossing of four
roads, is suddenly seized and brutally torn into four parts, which are
flung in four different directions, the idea being that, wherever there
may be spirits waiting for blood, they will get their share and depart
happy. After their craving is satisfied, the evil spirits are not very
particular whether the blood is human or not. In Shoka land especially,
branches with thorns and small flying prayers are placed on each road to
prevent their immediate return. These are said to be insuperable barriers
to the evil spirits.
[Illustration: BRANCH WITH THORNS TO PREVENT RETURN OF EVIL SPIRITS]
When a patient completely recovers, the Lamas naturally obtain money for
the exorcisms which have expelled the illness, and they never fail to
impress upon the people the extraordinary powers they possess over the
much-dreaded demons.
The Tibetans are unsuccessful in surgery, first of all because they do
not possess sufficient knowledge of human anatomy; secondly, because
their fingers are wanting in suppleness and sensitiveness of touch; and
lastly, because they are not able to manufacture instruments of
sufficient sharpness to perform surgical operations with speed and
cleanliness. In Tibet everybody is a surgeon, thus woe to the unfortunate
who needs one. It is true that amputation is seldom performed; but if it
should become necessary, and the operation is at all difficult, the
patient generally succumbs. The Tibetan surgeon does not know how to saw
bones, and so merely severs the limb at the place where the fracture has
occurred. The operation is performed with any knife or dagger that
happens to be at hand, and is, therefore, attended with much pain, and
frequently has disastrous results. The precaution is taken to tie up the
broken limb above the fracture, but it is done in such a clumsy way that
very often, owing to the bad quality of Tibetan blood, mortification sets
in, and, as the Tibetans are at a loss what to do on such occasions,
another victim goes to join the majority.
Considering the nomadic habits of the Tibetans and the rough life they
lead, they are comparatively immune from very bad accidents. Occasionally
there is a broken arm or leg which they manage to set roughly, if the
fracture is not a compound one, by putting the bones back in their right
position, and by tightly bandaging the limbs with rags, pieces of cloth
and rope. Splinters are used when wood is obtainable. A powder made from
a fungus growing on oak-trees in the Himahlyas is imported and used by
the Tibetans near the frontier. A thick layer of it, when wet, is rubbed
and left upon the broken limb, over which the bandaging is afterwards
done. In a healthy person, a simple fracture of the leg, which by chance
has been properly set, takes from twenty to thirty days to heal, after
which the patient can begin moving about; and a broken arm does not
require to be kept in a sling more than fifteen or twenty days. If these
cures are somewhat more rapid than with our more civilised methods of
bone-setting, it is merely due to the wholesome climate and the fact that
the natives spend most of their days out in the open air and in the sun,
undoubtedly the best cure for any complaint of that kind; but, of course,
it is but seldom that the bones are joined properly, and they generally
remain a deformity. More satisfactory results are obtained with cases of
dislocations by pulling the bones into their right position.
In case of wounds the bleeding is arrested by the application of a wet
rag tightly bound over the wound. In most cases of unbandaged wounds that
came under my notice the process of healing was a very slow one, the
great changes in the temperature between night and day often causing them
to open of themselves. They made good headway towards recovery in the
beginning, but the skin was very slow in joining and re-forming.
Burns are treated by smearing butter over them; and a poultice of
rhubarb is used to send down swellings of contusions as well as for the
purpose of bringing boils, from which the Tibetans suffer much, to a
speedy maturation.
Aconite is given for fever and rheumatism, and a rough kind of massage is
used to allay pain in the muscles of limbs. It is generally done by the
women, who, as far as I could judge, practised it with no real knowledge
but merely contented themselves with violent rubbing and pinching and
thumping until signs of relief appeared on the sufferer's face. Whether,
however, these manifestations were due to actual soothing of pain, or to
the prospect of the masseuse bringing her treatment to an end, I could
never properly ascertain. Tibetan fingers are not well adapted for such
work, being clumsy and, compared with those of other Asiatic races, quite
stiff and hard.
Cupping is adopted with success. Three or four small incisions are made
close to one another and a conical cupping-horn about seven inches long,
having a tiny hole at its point, is applied over them. The operator then
sucks through this small aperture until the horn is full of blood, when
it is removed and the operation begun again. With poisoned wounds the
sucking is done by applying the lips to the wound itself.
Bleeding is used as a remedy for bruises and swellings, and for internal
pain, also for acute attacks of rheumatism and articular pains. If it is
not sufficient, the branding cure is resorted to, and if this should also
fail, then the tinder cones, to be described later on, come into play
and, the seat of the pain being encircled with them, they are set alight.
When even this remedy proves inefficacious, and the patient survives it,
the illness is pronounced incurable!
Natural abnormalities and deformities are frequent enough in Tibet, and
some came under my notice in nearly every camp I entered. Deformities of
the spine were common, such as displacement of the shoulder-blades; and I
saw during my stay in Tibet many cases of actually humpbacked people.
There were frequent cases, too, of crookedness of the legs, and clubfoot
was not rare, while one constantly met with webbed fingers and
supernumerary fingers and toes, as well as the absence of one or more of
them. Malformations of the skull, such as the two sides being of marked
unequal shape or an abnormal distance between the eye sockets, were the
two most common deformities that came under my notice.
The ears of men of the better classes were much elongated artificially
by the constant wearing of heavy earrings, which sometimes even tore the
lobe of the ear.
The most frequent and curious of all was the extreme swelling of
children's stomachs, caused by the umbilical cord not being properly tied
at birth. The operation was generally performed by the mother and father
of the newly-born or by some friend at hand. The infants had such
enormous paunches that in some cases they were hardly able to stand; but,
as they grew older, the swelling seemed to gradually abate and the body
assumed its normal shape.
Deafness was common, but I never came across any dumb people, though I
now and then encountered cases of painful stammering and other defects of
articulation arising from malformation of the palate and tongue.
Occasionally, however, the difficulty of speech was caused by dementia,
which seemed very common in Tibet, especially among the young men.
Whether it was caused by cardiac affection subsequent to organic vices,
as I suspected, or by other trouble, I could not say for certain, but
presently I based my suspicions on certain facts which I happened to
notice, besides the presence of symptoms indicating great nervous
depression and strain, extreme weakness of the spine and oscillations of
the hands when spread horizontally with the fingers and thumbs wide
apart. This may in one way be accounted for by the difficulty that men
have in obtaining wives, owing to the scarcity of women. Apoplectic and
epileptic fits and convulsions were not of very frequent occurrence, but
they seemed severe when they did occur. The fire cure was usually applied
in order to drive away the spirits that were supposed to have entered the
body, but, all the same, these fits at times resulted in temporary or
occasionally permanent paralysis, and much derangement and disfiguration
of the facial expression, particularly about the eyes and mouth. I had
occasion to study three very good specimens of this kind at Tucker, at
Tarbar, north of the Brahmaputra River, and at Tokchim.
Much to my regret I never came across any violent cases of insanity
during my stay in the country, though many times I observed strange
peculiarities among the men, and signs of mania, more particularly
religious.
In women I several times noticed symptoms of melancholia, caused no doubt
by abuse of sexual intercourse, owing to their strange laws of polyandry.
I was told that occasionally it led to suicide by drowning or
strangulation. However, I was never able to keep any of the suspicious
cases under close observation for any length of time, and, as our arrival
into Tibetan camps generally created some amount of fear and sensation,
and we usually left before they could be quite at home with us, I never
had a chance of studying the subject more closely.
[Illustration: THE TOKCHIM TARJUM]