. The Baganda . nd all the priests of the gods ofthe land came together to diagnose his disorder. If he died,he was supposed to have offended one of the gods by robbingthe temple; or else his death was thought to have been causedby one of the ghosts. The only living people whom the Kingfeared were the widows of his father who had sons whomthey wished to see on the throne. Influenced by such fears 98 CH. IV SICKNESS, DEATH, AND BURIAL 99 he made these widows prisoners as soon as he ascended thethrone, and kept them in strict confinement until their sonsdied. This was the former custom, but in m
. The Baganda . nd all the priests of the gods ofthe land came together to diagnose his disorder. If he died,he was supposed to have offended one of the gods by robbingthe temple; or else his death was thought to have been causedby one of the ghosts. The only living people whom the Kingfeared were the widows of his father who had sons whomthey wished to see on the throne. Influenced by such fears 98 CH. IV SICKNESS, DEATH, AND BURIAL 99 he made these widows prisoners as soon as he ascended thethrone, and kept them in strict confinement until their sonsdied. This was the former custom, but in more recent timesthe King was wont to capture all the princes and had themput to death, in order to ensure peace : in the case of KingMutesa his Mother took this step for him, and put the princesto death by starvation. When a man fell sick, his wife immediately consulted the Treatmentnearest medicine-man, who came, and by consulting the oracle able to tell what was the cause of the sickness, and also. FIG. 19.—CUPriNG HORNS AND BURNING IRONS. to prescribe for the patient. If he was suffering from head-ache only, the usual remedy was to bleed him, in order torelieve him of the alien matter introduced into his head bymeans of magic, or by some ghost. When the cup wasremoved, the blood was poured into a leaf, and examined bythe medicine-man, who invariably found something which hadbeen drawn out in the cupping-process to account for theheadache. The method of cupping was to apply one, andsometimes two cups, as the case demanded : these were shortends of horns, generally the tips of cowshorns about threeinches long; at the tip a small hole was made, to create avacuum. The medicine-man hair from the side ofthe head, if he meant to cup the head ; washed the place with H 2 100 THE BAGANDA chap. water; took a sharp knife and made a number of scratchesor shght incisions ; again wetted the place over the scratches,applied the cup to the head, and sucked out the a
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