The skill of the medical officers attached to the Embassy had already
produced its effect upon a nation so ignorant of the healing art.
Woizoro Indanch Yellum, aunt to His Majesty, arriving from Achun-Kurra
on a visit to the court, was made the bearer of compliments on the part
of Zenama Work, the Queen-dowager, [i.e. rain of gold] "respecting the
pardon of the delinquent slave." But they were accompanied by a request
for medicine, and an admonition that the British guests of her son would
do well not to squander all their drugs amongst those who knew not how
to appreciate them. "We have seen wondrous things achieved in the time
of Sahela Selassie," concluded this message from "the golden
shower,"--"and the prophecies respecting the red men have indeed fully
come to pass."
The fame, too, of the operation performed with such singular success
upon the governor of Mentshar had spread far and wide, and applications
for surgical aid became daily more numerous--the patient, in lieu of
tendering a fee, invariably insisting, when cured, upon the receipt of
some reward. Priests, renowned for the sanctity of their lives, applied
in the same breath for a white head-dress, and for a remedy against
disorders superinduced "by eating the flesh of partridges." Even nuns
did not disdain assistance, and many a hapless victim to Galla barbarity
sought a cure for his irreparable misfortunes.
An exceedingly ill-favoured fellow, striding into the tent, exhibited a
node upon the forehead, which he desired might be instantly removed.
"The knife, the knife," he exclaimed; "off with it; my face is spoiled,
and has become like that of a cow." A ruffian who, in a domestic brawl,
had contrived to break the arm of his wife, entreated that it might be
"mended;" and a wretched youth, whose leg had been fractured twelve
months previously, was brought in a state of appalling emaciation, with
the splinters protruding horribly. Amputation was proposed as the only
resource, but the Master of the Horse was loud in his opposition. "Take
my advice," he remonstrated, "and leave this business alone. If the boy
dies, all will declare that the `proprietor of the medicines' killed
him--and furthermore, should he survive, it will be said the Almighty
cured him."
In Shoa, the practice of surgery directs the removal of a carious tooth
with the hammer, punch, and pincers of the blacksmith. Should
venesection be required, a stick placed in the patient's mouth is
tightened by means of a thong passed round his neck, and the distended
veins of the forehead are then opened with a razor. Cupping, performed
by means of a horn exhausted by suction, is also extremely fashionable;
and actual cautery, which is believed to strengthen the muscles of the
spear arm, is applied by means either of a pile of lighted cotton, or a
stick heated by rapid friction. Fractured bones that have united badly
are said to be violently rebroken to admit of their being properly set;
and upon the authority of Ayto Habti, the chief physician in ordinary,
it may also be stated, that splinters coming away are successfully
supplied by portions of the skull of a newly-slain sheep or goat!
But amulets and enchantments are by all classes held far more
efficacious than the drugs of the Abyssinian "possessor of remedies,"
[_Bala medanit_, "the master of the medicines," is the term applied to
every physician] which of a truth must be acknowledged to form but a
feeble _materia medica_. Insanity, epilepsy, delirium, hysteria, Saint
Vitus's dance, and in fact all obstinate disorders for which no specific
is known, are invariably ascribed to the influence of demons or
sorcerers, and the patient is either declared to be possessed of a
devil, or to labour under the disastrous consequences of inumbration by
the shadow of an enemy. Shreds of blue paper are held to be
preservatives against headache, and the seeds of certain herbs are worn
as charms against hydrophobia and disasters on a journey; but of these,
some must be plucked with the left hand, and others with a finger on
which there is a silver ring, and all under a fortunate horoscope, or
they can avail nothing.
Small-pox frequently devastates the land, and a free boy of pure blood
is then selected from among the number of the infected, and carefully
secluded until the pustules are ripe. Many hundred persons assemble,
and a layman, chosen for the rectitude of his life, having mixed the
lymph with honey, proceeds to inoculate with a razor. Death is often
the consequence of the clumsy operation, of the origin of which no
tradition exists; neither has any charm been yet discovered to avert the
scourge.
Whilst invalids of all classes daily flocked to my camp for medical
assistance, applications were not wanting from the palace, in proof of
the reputation that we had acquired. One of the princesses royal, who
had been lodged with the illustrious guest from Achun-Kurra, in the
crimson pavilion presented by the British Government, found herself in
need of advice; and on being visited, lay concealed beneath the basket
pedestal of a wicker dining-table, whence her sprained foot was thrust
forth for inspection. Divers respectable duennas of the royal kitchen,
who had been severely scalded by the bursting of a pottage cauldron,
were also treated with success when they had been given over by the body
physician, at whose merciless hands the sobbing patients had been
plastered over with honey and soot. A mutton bone was next extracted
from the throat of a page, where it had been firmly wedged for three
days. But the cure which elicited the most unqualified and universal
amazement was that of a favourite Baalomaal [Officer of the royal
household] who, labouring under a fit of apoplexy, which had deprived
him of animation, was suddenly revived by venesection, after fumigation
with _ashkoko goomun_ [Hyrax's cabbage] had been tried without the
smallest avail, and preparations were already commencing for his
interment.
Medicine, in fact, now engrossed the royal attention. Phials and drugs
without number were sent to the tent, with a request that they might be
so labelled as to admit of the proper dose being administered to
patients labouring under complaints, for the removal of which they were
respectively adapted. Two or more invalids, who objected to be seen,
were certain to arrive at the palace within every four and twenty hours;
and no subterfuge that ingenuity could devise was left untried, by which
to augment the already ample stock of pills on hand. "You will take
care not to give the whole of the remedies to my people, or there will
be none left for myself, should I fall sick," was an almost daily
message from the selfish despot. But prescriptions designed for his own
use were invariably tried first upon a subject; and the much-dreaded
goulard-wash having been once more prepared, directions were given to
apply it constantly to a boy who had been found labouring under
ophthalmia, in order to ascertain whether he died or survived.
The most particular inquiries were instituted relative to the mode of
counteracting the influence of the evil eye, and much disappointment was
expressed at the unavoidable intimation that Dr Kirk's dispensary
contained neither "the horn of a serpent," which is believed to afford
an invaluable antidote against witchcraft, no preservative against
wounds received in the battle-field, nor any nostrum for "those who go
mad from looking at a black dog."
"We princes also fear the small-pox," said His Majesty, "and therefore
never tarry long in the same place. Nagasi, my illustrious ancestor,
suffered martyrdom from this scourge. Have you no medicine to drive it
from myself?"
Vaccine lymph there was in abundance, but neither Christian, Moslem, nor
Pagan had yet consented to make trial of its virtues. Glasses,
hermetically sealed, betwixt which the perishable fluid had been
deposited, were exhibited, and its use expounded. "No, no!" quoth the
king, as he delivered the acquisition to his master of the horse, with a
strict injunction to have it carefully stitched in leather--"this is
_talakh medanit_, very potent medicine indeed; and henceforth I must
wear it as a talisman against the evil that beset my forefathers."
"You must now give me the medicine which draws the vicious waters from
the leg," resumed His Majesty, "and which is better than the earth from
Mount Lebanon;--the medicine which disarms venomous snakes, and that
which turns the grey hairs black;--the medicine to destroy the worm in
the ear of the queen, which is ever burrowing deeper;--and, above all,
the medicine of the seven colours, which so sharpens the intellects, as
to enable him who swallows enough of it, to acquire every sort of
knowledge without the slightest trouble. Furthermore, you will be
careful to give my people _none of this_."
Volume Two, Chapter XXI.