Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese Vol II. - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/70

 also be added a portion of the 44 herbs which we shall presently describe.

Siawan is a complaint which is supposed to result in the early falling out or turning grey of the hair, the rapid decay of the teeth and weakening of the eyesight. Its symptoms are toothache, a disagreeable sensation in the nose, and headache. The medicinal cigar just described is also used as a remedy for this complaint.

A moderate use of various narcotics is prescribed for sundry purposes, as for example the smoking of ganja (hashish) to excite the appetite, and the eating of opium to render the body thickset or to prolong sexual enjoyment.

The bitter extract of beum-leaves taken on an empty stomach, serves to dispel a chill and shivery feeling often experienced on rising in the morning.

The Achehnese very rarely drink tea or coffee on ordinary occasions, but in case of illness these beverages are employed in place of water, or at all events the latter is boiled before use, a custom which European medical science is certain to regard with approval.

A soup composed of various vegetables mixed together (gulè rampòn) is the favourite fare of convalescents.

Tears of the sea-cow or duyong (ië mata duyōn) are generally known by name as a sovereign cure, but no one has ever beheld them.

The methods of treatment are for the most part identical with those common to the Malays and Javanese.

A large number of external remedies are applied to the spot on which they are supposed to act by ejection from the mouth. The bespuing of a wound with water to cleanse it is called preut, and the same word is applied to the beslavering of a sick person with sirih spittle or "charmed" water. This last is also called seumbō, but the more special meaning of this word is the bespuing of patients with chewed-up medicaments, whether blessed by an incantation or not. Blowing (prōïh) on the head or some other part of the patient's body as a finale to the recitation of a rajah, and of massage (urōt), for which, as we have seen,