DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0036
16
M. M. 'Abd Allah
Charms and Medicines. Every ailment in Siwah requires a special charm, without
the use of which any amount of medical treatment would be quite useless. If a man gets
a fever he goes to the sheikh, who takes his name, his mother’s name, and the name of the
day on which he fell ill. The sheikh then consults the stars, makes additions or subtrac-
tions, or makes use of some other method of divination which is unfamiliar to his patient,
after which he begins to prophecy as to whether or not the man will recover. If he is
going to recover he tells how long the illness will last. Then he begins to write charms.
The paper on which the charms are written is either worn, or it is soaked in water and the
water drunk, or it is burned and the fumes inhaled. In addition some prescription is
advised. Examples of these are as follows:
Fever (usually malaria).
a) A special charm is burnt daily.
b) In rigors, vapor of Kusbara 57 is inhaled.
c) Strips of hard skin from the sole of an old negro are burned and the fumes inhaled.
d) Inhalation of burnt spider’s web or goat’s hair.
e) The adan 58 is written on his back.
f) A secret charm is repeated and a knot tied on a piece of string daily for a day.
Syphilis.
a) Bathing in any spring.
b) Eating a dog secretly.59
n. b. Now-a-days the people of Siwah generally consult a doctor when they contract
this disease.
Diarrhoea.
a) Large quantities of boiled rice are eaten.
Abdominal Pain.
a) A pigeon is slaughtered and its blood mixed with wood ashes on the patient’s
abdomen. The pigeon is then eaten and the blood and ashes are used as the basis of a
charm which is very efficacious.00
57 Kusbarah is coriander.
68 The dzdn is the summons to public prayers proclaimed from the minaret. See T. P. Hughes, op. cit., p. 28, s. v.
“Azan” for the formula. This writing on the patient’s skin is related to medical tatooing.
69 Cf. O. Bates, 'Siwan Superstitions’ (Cairo Scient. Jour., vol. 5, No. 55, p. 90); C. V. B. Stanley, op. cit., p. 31.
The eating of dog’s flesh is of course in flagrant opposition to Moslem ideas. On this subject the reader may consult,
with caution, L. Bertholon, La cynophagie dans 1’Afrique du Nord, Tunis, 1896.
60 Dr. 'Abd Allah has drawn on C. V. B. Stanley for this list of remedies: all the prescriptions he lists under
“fever” are substantially the same as those given by that writer (op. cit., p. 32), and they are moreover here pre-
sented in the same order. The other remedies are also found in Stanley’s account (p. 30 sqq.).
M. M. 'Abd Allah
Charms and Medicines. Every ailment in Siwah requires a special charm, without
the use of which any amount of medical treatment would be quite useless. If a man gets
a fever he goes to the sheikh, who takes his name, his mother’s name, and the name of the
day on which he fell ill. The sheikh then consults the stars, makes additions or subtrac-
tions, or makes use of some other method of divination which is unfamiliar to his patient,
after which he begins to prophecy as to whether or not the man will recover. If he is
going to recover he tells how long the illness will last. Then he begins to write charms.
The paper on which the charms are written is either worn, or it is soaked in water and the
water drunk, or it is burned and the fumes inhaled. In addition some prescription is
advised. Examples of these are as follows:
Fever (usually malaria).
a) A special charm is burnt daily.
b) In rigors, vapor of Kusbara 57 is inhaled.
c) Strips of hard skin from the sole of an old negro are burned and the fumes inhaled.
d) Inhalation of burnt spider’s web or goat’s hair.
e) The adan 58 is written on his back.
f) A secret charm is repeated and a knot tied on a piece of string daily for a day.
Syphilis.
a) Bathing in any spring.
b) Eating a dog secretly.59
n. b. Now-a-days the people of Siwah generally consult a doctor when they contract
this disease.
Diarrhoea.
a) Large quantities of boiled rice are eaten.
Abdominal Pain.
a) A pigeon is slaughtered and its blood mixed with wood ashes on the patient’s
abdomen. The pigeon is then eaten and the blood and ashes are used as the basis of a
charm which is very efficacious.00
57 Kusbarah is coriander.
68 The dzdn is the summons to public prayers proclaimed from the minaret. See T. P. Hughes, op. cit., p. 28, s. v.
“Azan” for the formula. This writing on the patient’s skin is related to medical tatooing.
69 Cf. O. Bates, 'Siwan Superstitions’ (Cairo Scient. Jour., vol. 5, No. 55, p. 90); C. V. B. Stanley, op. cit., p. 31.
The eating of dog’s flesh is of course in flagrant opposition to Moslem ideas. On this subject the reader may consult,
with caution, L. Bertholon, La cynophagie dans 1’Afrique du Nord, Tunis, 1896.
60 Dr. 'Abd Allah has drawn on C. V. B. Stanley for this list of remedies: all the prescriptions he lists under
“fever” are substantially the same as those given by that writer (op. cit., p. 32), and they are moreover here pre-
sented in the same order. The other remedies are also found in Stanley’s account (p. 30 sqq.).