Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/67

 Skin-diseases are very common and of many different kinds. A reddish eruption called uri and a kind of swelling resembling, in appearance and the irritation it causes, the bite of the mosquito, are treated by rubbing in the ashes of wood (abèë dapu) and the slaver of sirih (ië babah mirah).

We have already noticed kudé (the skin-disease of the students) and its treatment, and glum and kurab (ringworm), some varieties of which no attempt is made to cure, the disease being actually fostered to ensure invulnerability, or because the marks it leaves are thought to enhance personal beauty. For kurab ië is used a paste made of the leaves of the bush called glinggang (cassia alata), mixed with alum (tawaïh) and white onions.

A sick person who plucks glinggang leaves for his own use must take care that his shadow does not fall upon the bush, as this would mar the efficiency of the remedy in his case.

Pimples and pustules are called chumuët, other words being added to express their size, e. g. chumuët lada (like peppercorns) or ''ch. gapeuëh'' (cotton-tree seeds). Such excrescences are treated with a compost of buds of the pi-tree mixed with onions. Larger pimples and boils on various parts of the body are called rahō; the barah occurs most generally on the thighs, and the birèng under the arm-pits. More confidence is however placed in checking such pustules at the start than in the application of healing drugs. This method of suppression is called bantōt, and consists in pressing on the part affected some lime over which a rajah has been recited.

The various sorts of purèë, which according to the Achehnese has nothing to do with venereal disease, are regarded as difficult of treatment. Hardly a family in Acheh escapes this infectious disease, which appears especially in the nose, mouth, feet and anus. In children it is treated with a corrosive mixture of blangan fruits, vitriol and janggōt jén (a lichen, usnea barbata), laid on the ulcers after they have first been opened by rubbing the skin. Grown-up people, who usually catch this ailment from children, find it difficult to shake it off.

The sores called kayab, which emit blood and pus, are also very infectious. A special variety is known as kayab-apuy ("fire-kayab") from