'Personal Narrative of a pilgrimmage to Al-Madinah and Meccah. Vol. I' [‎390] (455/564)

■
390 Pilgrimage toAl-Madinah Meccah.
not removed till the wound heals, which amongst this
people of simple life, generally takes place by first inten
tion. Ulcers are common in Al-Hijaz, as indeed all over
Arabia. We read of them in ancient times. In a.d.
504, the poet and warrior, Amr al-Kays, died of this
dreadful disease, and it is related that when Mohammed
Abu Si Mohammed, in a.h. 132, conquered Al-Yaman with
an army from Al-Hijaz, he found the people suffering
from sloughing and mortifying sores, so terrible to look
upon that he ordered the sufferers to be burnt alive.
Fortunately for the patients, the conqueror died suddenly
before his inhuman mandate was executed. These sores
here, as in Al-Yaman, 1 are worst when upon the shin
bones; they eat deep into the leg, and the patient dies
of fever and gangrene. They are treated on first ap
pearance by the actual cautery, and, when practicable,
by cutting off the joint; the drugs popularly applied are
Tutiya (tutty) and verdigris. There is no cure but rest,
a generous diet, and change of air.
By the above short account it will be seen that the
Arabs are no longer the most skilful physicians in the
world. They have, however, one great advantage in their
practice, and they are sensible enough to make free use
of it. As the children of almost all the respectable
citizens are brought up in the Desert, the camp becomes
to them a native village. In cases of severe wounds or
chronic diseases, the patient is ordered off to the Black
Tents, where he lives as a Badawi, drinking camels'
milk (a diet for the first three or four days highly cathartic),
and doing nothing. This has been the practice from time
immemorial in Arabia, whereas Europe is only beginning
to systematise the adhibition of air, exercise, and simple
living. And even now we are obliged to veil it under the
garb of charlatanry—to call it a "milk-cure" in Switzer-
1 They distinguish, however, between the Hijaz"Nasur" and
the " Jurh al-Yamani," or the " Yaman Ulcer."