Page:First Footsteps in East Africa, 1894 - Volume 1.djvu/173

V.From Zayla to the Hills. 127 Badawi is naturally long lived. I have seen Macrobians hale and strong, preserving their powers and faculties in spite of eighty and ninety years.

Consumption is a family complaint, and therefore considered in- curable ; to use the Somali expression, they address the patient with " Allah have mercy upon thee ! " not with " Allah cure thee ! " There are leeches who have secret simples for curing wounds. Generally the blood is squeezed out, the place is washed with water, the lips are sewn up and a dressing of astringent leaves is applied. They have splints for fractures, and they can reduce disloca- tions. A medical friend at Aden partially dislocated his knee, which half-a-dozen of the faculty insisted upon treating as a sprain. Of all his tortures none was more severe than that inflicted by my Somali visitors. They would look at him, distinguish the complaint, ask him how long he had been invalided, and hearing the reply four months would break into exclamations of wonder. " In our country," they cried, " when a man falls, two pull his body and two his legs, then they tie sticks round it, give him plenty of camel's milk, and he is well in a month ; " a speech which made friend S. groan in spirit.

Firing and clarified butter are the farrier's panaceas. Camels are cured by sheep's head broth, asses by chopping one ear, mules by cutting off the tail, and horses by ghi or a drench of melted fat.