Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 28.djvu/542

528 not only with natives, but also with trustworthy Europeans, who have seen it spit. The attack produces a running inflammation in the eyes, which lasts for about a fortnight.

The various behavior of the natives toward surgical and internal disorders is curious to the European. No one can be more indifferent than they are to external injuries and the pains they occasion. Except in the rarest cases, they never utter a sound or move a limb, whatever may be done to them. A thoroughgoing surgeon could not want better subjects; and only when the question is directly asked them will they admit that they suffer any pain. An illustration of this power of endurance is given by the poorer mountain Damaras, whose clothing, for summer and winter, is reduced to a mere loin-cloth. Their only way of warming themselves in cold weather is to hover over the fire as closely as possible. They thereby become blistered nearly from head to foot, and acquire a rather mottled appearance; yet they never seem to mind the smart of the burns. But let them suffer from any slight internal disorder, if it be no more than a common cold, no one can touch them, and it is very hard to make them submit to a medical examination. It was common in our school when one asked a person suffering from such a disorder, "Where do you suffer the most pain?" for him to return the answer, "In my arms, neck, head, back, stomach, all over my body." These imaginary sick gave us a great deal of trouble, and it became necessary to keep them as much out of the way as possible. I found an effectual means to accomplish this, and one that was characteristic of the people. I ordered calf-soup for the sick man. To kill one of their calves was more than the Hereros were willing to do just to make a sick man well; and no one to whom I made this prescription ever came to me a second time.

Massage plays an important part in native therapeutics, and is applied upon the whole of the lower part of the body and the bowels. I can not deny that this operation is quite thoroughly and in a manner scientifically performed. It is a circumstance favorable to this process that the skin over the abdomens of the natives is stretched and flabby on account of their custom—which arises from their necessities—of overeating at times, and at other times having to endure long hunger. The operator, first with a slow, light, but continuous movement of his oiled finger-tip draws the bowels clear over to one side till he can plainly feel the inner part of the hip-bone with its muscles and vessels on the other side; then the bowels are slowly pushed back, with a movement so executed that every knot and every induration is rubbed as thoroughly as possible between the fingers. A number of the unpleasant symptoms that may arise from costiveness, uterine disorders, or the troubles of pregnancy, are removed by this operation, and it can not be denied that the effect of the kneading on the circulation is beneficial. The whole process lasts from an hour to an hour and a half, and in serious cases is repeated every two or three days.