34 TIMBUCTOO.

the jlob ° violently, for which sulphur from Terodant in Suse is taken internally and externally. This disorder is sometimes fatal. They are afflicted also with fevers and agues. Bleeding is often successful ; the physicians prescribe also purgatives and emetics. Ruptures are frequent and dangerous ; seldom cured, and often fatal. They tap for the dropsy. He never heard of the venereal disease there. Head-aches and consumptions also prevail. The physicians •" collect herbs and use them in medicine.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. The nails and palms of the hands are stained red with henna cultivated there: the Arabs tatoo their hands and arms, but not the people of Timbuctoo. These people are real negroes ; they have a slight mark on the face, sloping from the eye ; the Foulans have a horizontal mark ; the Bambarrahees a wide gash from the forehead to the chin. Tombs are raised over the dead ; they are buried in a winding-sheet and a coffin : the relations mourn over their graves, and pronounce a panegyric on the dead. The men and women mix in society, and visit to-* Probably the itch, called El HAck in Barbary.

P The physicians have a very superior and general knowledge of the virtues of herbs and plants.

A decoction of the herb henna produces a deep orange die. It is used generally by the females on their hands and feet : it allays the violence of perspiration in the part to which it is applied, and imparts a coolness.