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
blood-letting 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 thumb
of the operator is then placed upon the frontal vein of the forehead,
which becoming turgid, is laid open by a jerking cut with the razor,
and the blood flows freely. Cupping with the assistance of a cow’s
horn, as I have before been describing, I have also seen practised
in exactly the same manner, by the negroes of the western coast of
Africa, so that this method of abstracting blood appears to be very
general, and strongly attests a previous civilized condition among the
ancestors of the inhabitants of this continent, as such a practice
argues a greater advance in intellectual acquirement for its first
introduction into use, than we are willing, ignorant as we are yet of
what civilization exists in the unknown countries of intertropical
Africa, to accord to the ignorant natives, with whom we are at present
acquainted.
I must not omit to observe, that among other external remedies,
counter-irritation is a very favourite practice among the Abyssinians.
Thus, in inflammations of the lungs, several small burns are made
upon the chest, either with a red-hot iron rod, or a piece of burning
charcoal, and this remedial process appears, and, I dare say,
deservedly, to rank high as being very efficacious in the opinion of
the inhabitants. In rheumatism, also, this kind of treatment, and
the disease, is so common on the high table land of Shoa, that an
exhibition of joints, to intimate how the patients have suffered,
is sometimes most ludicrous; our inclination to laugh, such is man’s
nature, not at all diminishing with increased evidences of the patient
submitting to the barbarous, but still, I have no doubt, excellent
remedy.
Syphilis has been represented to be the curse of the land; and
certainly, from King to beggar, according to their own account, they
either have it, or are about to have it. Priests and their wives
are not exempt, nor do even children of the tenderest age escape.
The reputation of this disease is as general among the Shoans, as
scrofula is in England, and it is admitted and spoken of in the same
manner without any reluctance or shame. This disease is supposed by
the natives to originate from several causes; among others, that of
eating the flesh of fowls which have become diseased, by living in
the neighbourhood of some one more than usually afflicted, and great
care accordingly is taken, when purchasing fowls in the market, to
learn from whence they came. The prevalent opinion also is, that it is
communicable by the simplest contact, and those who are suffering from
it are, therefore, carefully avoided, except by their own relations,
and for years after they are quite cured, a reluctance to eat or
drink with them, except with certain precautions, may be observed
among those of their acquaintance who are aware of their previous
condition. From these and many other observances against contagion,
it may be surprising that the disease should be so general. As it
struck me as being very remarkable, I made a point of examining into
the subject, and have concluded that by far the greater majority of
sores, and unhealthy appearances upon the body, though referred by
the patients themselves to this disease, arise, in fact, from other
causes, and are confounded with syphilis, sometimes, probably, from the
consciousness of having deserved it, but more frequently from their
ignorance of the fact, that the peculiarity of their situation, and
the character of their system in consequence, predisposes them to an
extensive ulceration, should the continuity of the skin be separated
by the slightest bruise. The ill effects which arise from this, the
unfortunate sufferers, unable to account for it in any other manner,
refer to a complaint, whose best known symptoms are of a similar
character; and without any idea of disgrace attaching to them for what
has arisen most innocently, they jump to the conclusion that they
have become contaminated by an unfortunate contact with some affected
individual. This is one reason, also, of the very various remedies
popularly employed; for many of the cases, as I have observed, not
having the least taint of syphilis, when a rapid recovery takes place
by the use of any simple cathartic, a reputation is immediately gained
for it, as being a certain cure for the presumed obstinate disease
for which it has been taken, and which it has so readily subdued.
Many vegetables in this manner are considered to be most efficacious
in this disease, without the least claim to it, farther, than being
gentle aperients and generally, in consequence, having a beneficial
influence upon the human frame. On many such mistaken cases, the effect
of blue pill was most wonderful, and it was a general observation with
the medical officers of the Embassy, the remarkable efficiency of this
remedy upon the Abyssinian human system, when, if its cause had been
examined into, it would have been found that its simple alterative
effects, producing a healthy reaction, was all that was required to
establish a healing process very rapidly in the numerous cases of
common ulcers, that were prescribed for under the impression that
they proceeded from one sole cause: that a universal syphilitic taint
characterized the whole population of Shoa.
The Abyssinians, immoral as they appear to be, are much more simple
than depraved. It is the virtuous confidence of people afflicted with
the _reputed_ complaint, conscious of having no improper cause to
attribute it to, and still, in their ignorance, believing it to be
syphilis, which has given support to the general opinion among them
of its extremely contagious character, and which has occasioned that
apparent shamelessness with which this disreputable and distressing
disease is spoken of by all classes and conditions.
The most generally employed remedy, for common purposes, by the
inhabitants of Shoa, is the flowers and unripe seeds of the _Hagenia
Abyssinica_, called by them “Cosso.” Bruce gives us a good description,
and was the first who directed the attention of Europeans to this
remarkable tree. In Shoa it grows frequently to the height of fifty
feet. About one half of the way up the Tchakkah ascent, it flourishes
remarkably well. It appears to be a short-lived tree. Of its wood the
Negoos has all his gun-stocks manufactured, as it approaches nearly in
colour to that employed for the same purposes in the European firearms
he possesses. The wood, however, is far from being strong; but whilst
the colour satisfies the eye of the monarch, the workmen he employs
find it is well adapted, by its soft nature, to their tools, and its
excellence for the purposes required is therefore never questioned,
except by the unfortunate gunman, who, when the stock of his piece is
fractured by any accident, must submit to a stoppage in his rations or
pay, until its value has been reimbursed to the monarch, who always
takes this method of ensuring carefulness as regards valuable property.
The cosso tree, as was remarked by Bruce, does not grow below a certain
elevation, which is about eight thousand feet above the level of the
sea, in the 10th degree of latitude north of the equator. It is a very
beautiful tree in appearance, and, I think, would grow very well
in England. Its leaves are largely pennated, and of a lively green
colour; a great deal brighter than the foliage of the chesnut-tree,
which, in figure, the cosso somewhat approaches to, except that it is
not quite so high. The flowers are of a blood red colour, and hang in
large bunches, sometimes a foot or a foot and a half long, consisting
of numerous small flowerets attached to one common footstalk. Amidst
the bright green leaves of the tree, these drooping crimson masses
have a very picturesque appearance. Cosso-trees do not seem to be so
carefully cultivated at the present day in the country to the west of
Tchakkah, as they appear to have been when the Sara and Durra Galla
tribes occupied the country between the Barissa and Angolahlah. We
find them now generally marking the sites of former Galla villages. On
riding off the road on one occasion to examine a group of these trees,
a civil herdsman conducted Walderheros and myself into a cave of some
extent where cattle used formerly to be kept by the Galla, whom I then
learned, in this situation had their principal town.
The fruit of the cosso is gathered for medicinal purposes before the
seeds are quite ripe, and whilst still a number of the flowerets
remain unchanged. The bunches are suspended in the sun to dry, and
if not required for immediate use deposited in a jar. Cosso is taken
in considerable quantities to the market, where it is disposed
of in exchange for grain or cotton, a handful of the latter, or a
drinking-hornful of the former, purchasing sufficient for two doses,
two large handsful. When taken, this medicine is reduced upon the mill
to a very fine powder, having previously been well dried in the sun
upon a small straw mat, upon which from some superstitious reason or
other, several bits of charcoal are placed. The largest drinking-horn
being then produced, the powdered cosso is mixed with nearly a pint
of water, and, if it can be obtained, a large spoonful of honey is
also added. When everything is quite ready, a naked sword is placed
flat upon the ground, upon which the patient stands. The nurse then
takes between two bits of sticks, as a substitute for tongs, a small
bit of lighted charcoal, and carries it around the edge of the vessel
three times, mumbling a prayer, at the end of which the charcoal is
extinguished in the medicine, which is immediately drank off by the
patient, who all this time has been pulling most extraordinary faces,
expressive of his disgust for the draught. The operation is speedy and
effectual, and to judge by the prostration of strength it occasioned in
my servants, when they employed this medicine, it must be dreadfully
severe. I can answer for this, that it occasions frequent miscarriages,
often fatal to the mother, and even men have been known, after a large
dose, to have died the same day from its consequences. I am, therefore,
surprised at the noise this remedy has occasioned the last few years
in Europe, as if it promised to be a valuable addition to our Materia
Medica. This, I conceive, can never be, for no civilized stomach could
bear the bulk of the drug necessary to produce its effects. Even in
Abyssinia it is but barely tolerated, and let another remedy, equally
efficacious for dislodging tape-worm be introduced into that country,
and the use of cosso will be soon abandoned. In fact, several other
vegetable productions are now employed to escape the punishment of
a dose of this violent cathartic. Among many I could enumerate, but
without any benefit arising from the list, is the “kolah,” the same
berry which is used in making the “barilla” tedge, also the red berries
of a climbing plant called “inkoko,” growing in the forest at the foot
of the hill of Kundi, near Michael wans. These are swallowed whole,
like pills, but a very great number are required to produce the desired
results.
Besides the use of the cold bath, employed in the manner I have before
related, and which may be of considerable benefit in some diseases,
I have no notes upon any other medical treatment employed by the
Shoans, excepting that from which I derived considerable benefit in my
intermittent; the vapour bath, prepared by putting several species of
odoriferous herbs, such as wormwood, rue, bergamot, and some others in
boiling water, and then placing the vessel beneath a large tobe, I was
wrapt up in, and which was securely fastened around my neck and in
front, to prevent the escape of the vapour of the medicated decoction.
This kind of bath was always followed by profuse perspiration, and
assisted materially to relieve the violence of reaction in the hot
stage, by accelerating that relaxation of the pores of skins which
marks the return of something like comfort to the suffering patient.
_August 8th._--Felt a great deal better after the cupping, and even
proposed, as the Negoos was now at his palace at Michael wans, about
six miles distant from Aliu Amba, that either on the morrow or the
next day after, I should take the gunpowder which we had begun very
early this morning to manufacture. Tinta sent me a good pair of English
scales, several wooden mortars, and two handmills, with a party of
labourers, consisting of eighteen or twenty men and boys. One request
he made was, that as he desired to learn how to make gunpowder, I would
not, therefore, commence weighing and mixing the ingredients till he
could come to me.
My garden now exhibited a lively scene, several men standing around
huge mortars two feet and a half high, made out of the round trunks
of trees, and pounding the charcoal, or else the saltpetre into fine
powder. The pestles consisted of heavy pieces of wood three feet
long, which were generally kept going up and down by two men standing
opposite each other, and who were relieved three or four times in the
course of an hour. Several others were on their knees upon the ground,
leaning over coarse flat stones, grinding the sulphur beneath another
heavy one they moved about with the hands. Some hours were employed
in this occupation, for it was long before the several materials were
reduced to a sufficiently fine powder to commence mixing them together.
It was too much to expect such another fortunate accident, by which the
supply of charcoal had been obtained, and as I knew quite as little of
the manufacture of gunpowder, I was very much afraid I should fail in
this attempt also; I determined, however, it should not be for want
of pounding, and to encourage the men, sent Wallata Gabriel with an
ahmulah to purchase some ale.
Tinta came very soon after, and with him, a learned scribe, who had
been desired by the Negoos to watch the proceedings, and mark the
proportionate amounts of saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur, I used. The
scales were produced, and then it was discovered there were no weights,
but this difficulty I soon got over by employing bullets, and having
duly apportioned the necessary amount of each ingredient, they were
thrown together into the largest mortar, with water sufficient to make
a stiff paste. A second pounding match now commenced, for to do the
business effectually, I divided the mass into three portions, which I
placed in separate mortars, and set as many couples at work again. The
constant fear, that the whole party was now in, was most ludicrous.
I was scarcely permitted to sit a moment--here, I was wanted--there,
I must go and look, and the other mortar would, perhaps, be actually
deserted; and all arose from a suspicion that an explosion would take
place; water was continually being added, and the least approach to
friableness frightened the workmen, as if a hot cinder was about to
be thrown into a barrel of dry gunpowder. However, I managed to keep
them to their guns until sunset, when they were discharged, without
any casualty, from the dangerous duty; for which, I don’t know, if the
Negoos has not rewarded some of them for military service.
After Tinta, scribe, and all were gone, then my anxious moments came
as to my success. A small quantity being taken out of the mortar, was
placed upon paper near the fire, and soon drying, Walderheros had the
immortal honour of firing the first sample, which flashed off in the
most approved manner, much to the delight of Wallata Gabriel, and
Goodaloo, and in fact, of us all, and more especially of myself, as I
least expected it.
_August 9._--Tinta was at my house, as soon as it was light, and as I
had put the evening before a small portion of the damp powder in the
fragment of a jar, and placed it among the warm ashes of the hearth,
sufficient for two charges, was quite dry and ready for proofing when
he came. I soon loaded my double-barrelled carabine, and having
examined the nipples of the locks, covered them with caps. The
shoulder-bone of an ox was our make-shift target, and each taking a
shot at the distance of about forty yards, both of us were successful
in perforating it with the balls.
It was now determined, that Tinta should provide me with a mule, and
that next day I should follow him to Michael wans, usually pronounced
Myolones, to bring the gunpowder and present it to the Negoos.
Accordingly, Walderheros returned with Tinta to his house, and after
some hours brought me back a mule; during which time, I and Goodaloo,
dividing the powder into small portions, dried them well before a
low red fire of the spare charcoal. The temerity of the latter was
extraordinary, but it was quite in keeping with the silent steady
manner he always performed any service I required. The large grains of
the powder being afterwards forced through a sifting basket of grass,
used in fining flour, I then secured it in a quart bottle I happened to
possess; and which it about two-thirds filled.