Young Dogs, As A Cure For
Distemper, Are Thrown From The Roof Of A House To The Ground--A
Height Of About Ten Feet.
One night we were sitting at dinner,
when we suddenly heard a great noise, and the air was illumined
by the blaze of a hut on fire.
In the midst of the tumult I heard
the unmistakeable cries of dogs, and thinking that they were
unable to escape from the fire, I ran towards the spot. As I
approached, first one and then another dog ran screaming from the
flames, until a regular pack of about twenty scorched animals
appeared in quick succession, all half mad with fright and fire.
I was informed that hydrophobia was very prevalent in the
country, and that the certain preventive from that frightful
malady was to make all the dogs of the village pass through the
fire. Accordingly an old hut had been filled with straw and
fired; after which, each dog was brought by its owner and thrown
into the flames. Upon another occasion I heard a great yelling
and commotion, and I found Mahomet's "mother's brother's cousin's
sister's mother's son," Achmet, struggling on the ground, and
nearly overpowered by a number of Arabs, who were determined to
operate upon a large boil in his groin, which they had condemned
to be squeezed, although it was not in a state that admitted of
such treatment. The patient was biting and kicking liberally on
all sides in self-defence, and his obstinate surgeons could
hardly be persuaded to desist.
Syphilis is common throughout the country, and there are several
varieties of food that are supposed to effect a cure. A sheep is
killed, and the entire flesh is cooked with the fat, being cut
into small pieces and baked in a pot; several pounds of butter or
other grease are then boiled, and in that state are poured into
the jars containing the baked meat; the patient is then shut up
by himself in a hut with this large quantity of fat food, with
which he is to gorge himself until the whole is consumed. Another
supposed cure for the same disease is a pig dressed in a similar
manner, which meat, although forbidden by the Koran, may be taken
medicinally. The flesh of the crocodile is eaten greedily, being
supposed to promote desire. There are few animals that the Arabs
of the Nubian provinces will refuse; the wild boar is invariably
eaten by the Arab hunters, although in direct opposition to the
rules of the Koran. I once asked them what their Faky would say
if he were aware of such a transgression. "Oh !" they replied,
"we have already asked his permission, as we are sometimes
severely pressed for food in the jungles; he says, 'If you have
the KORAN in your hand and NO PIG, you are forbidden to eat pork;
but if you have the PIG in your hand and NO KORAN, you had better
eat what God has given you.'"
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