Mixed Marriages — A Malady in Darfur — Story of the Small-pox — Diseases — Medicine — Birth — Education — Climate — Cause of Depopulation — Food — Weykeh — Food of Poor — Hunting — Classes of Hunters — Bedawin Arabs — Speculation in Ostrich Feathers — Milk — Gold — Money — Salt — Apology for Money — Curious Money. There is a peculiar malady in Darfur, called Abou-lessan, or father of the tongue, which consists in the appearance of an excrescence at the root of the tongue, which it is necessary to excise.[21] Dysentery is sometimes cured by cauterisation round the navel. When convulsions are brought on by the malice of demons, who find a child left alone for a moment, it is customary, in Egypt and Tunis, for an exorciser to be called in to make invocations, and sometimes the patient is relieved, and sometimes not. But, in Soudan, this disease is treated by actual cautery on the forehead, and cures often result. The small-pox is common in Soudan. As soon as a person is attacked by it he is immediately removed to a hut built in a lonely place—a kind of hospital, in fact, where there are servants who have already had the disease. The Bedawin Arabs are very frightened at this disease. A man of Birguid, named Othman, once related to me that, having had the disease, and having escaped danger, though his skin was still marked, he used to go out with his face covered with the cloth of his turban to protect him from the flies. One day, being thus veiled, a party of Arabs approached, and sent forward a man, who walked with a hesitating and uncertain step. When he was near he cried out,— “Tell me, I pray thee, if in this village there be any one ill of the small-pox?” “God preserve me,” replied Othman, “from exciting in thee a dangerous security by a false answer!” So he uncovered his face, and the Arab fell at once to the ground with a great cry. His companions ran forward and carried him away, and Othman fled, or otherwise they would have killed him. He afterwards learned that the unhappy man died in three days. The people of Soudan have a curious idea on the origin of the small-pox. They pretend that it is brought by a little animal, imperceptible to the eye, but which leaves evident traces of its passage on the ground. This insect fixes on the skin, and thus engenders the disease. I am told that its track consists of a series of round points, disposed in a single straight line, so, . . . .; and they say that, whenever this track is observed in the morning directed towards any house, the small-pox infallibly appears there.