A Narrative Of Captivity In Abyssinia With Some Account Of The Late Emperor Theodore, His Country And People By Henry Blanc
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(None Came Under My Care.)
The Pasha Himself Was Several Times On The Point Of Death, From
Debility And Complete Loss Of Tone Of The Digestive Organs.
He was
at last prevailed upon to leave, and saved his life by a timely
trip to sea.
The Bedouins of the Samhar, like all bigoted and ignorant savages,
have great confidence in charms, amulets and exorcisms. The "medicine
man" is generally an old, venerable-looking Sheik - a great rascal,
for all his sanctified looks. His most usual prescription is to
write a few lines of the Koran upon a piece of parchment, wash off
the ink with water, and hand it over to the patient to drink; at
other times the writing is enclosed in small squares of red leather,
and applied to the seat of the disease. The Mullah is no contemptible
rival of his, and though he also applies the all-efficacious words
of the revealed "cow," he effects more rapid cures by spitting
several times upon the sick person, muttering between each ejection
appropriate prayers which no evil spirit could withstand, should
his already sanctified spittle not have been sufficient to cast
them off. Massowah boasts, moreover, of a regular medical practitioner,
in the shape of an old Bashi-bazouk. Though superior in intelligence
to the Sheik and the Mullah, his medical knowledge is on a par with
theirs. He possesses a few drugs, given to him by travellers; but
as he is not acquainted with their properties or doses, he wisely
keeps them on a shelf for the admiration of the natives, and employs
simples, with which, if he effects no wonderful cures, he still
does no harm.
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