CHAP. V. VARIETIES OF NATIVE MEDICINE. 141 My visitors were generally as willing to have their houses taken as their own portraits; hut I sometimes found it dif ficult to prevent the crowd, which invariably gathered round, from standing before the camera, either with a desire to look or to be included in the picture. From the natural objects in the neighbourhood, I obtained views of some curious species of pandanus surrounding a cattle-fold not far from my dwelling. Sometimes, while thus employed, I had applications of another kind. On the first morning when I went out, as soon as I had fixed the camera before the house which I wished to take, the mistress of the premises came and asked me to look at a slave who had been suffering some days with toothache. I fetched an instrument and immediately extracted the tooth. Many of the natives appeared to suffer from toothache; and in more than one instance I was required to remove two teeth at the same time from one individual. From all that I learned in conversing with the natives and with foreigners long resident in the island, it would appear that Madagascar is rich in medicinal plants and gums; and that the natives are, to a certain extent, acquainted with the medicinal properties of many of the productions of their country. They also manifest considerable skill in the use of them; but still many sufferers are met with whom it is pro bable that more efficient medical skill might relieve or restore. The fever which prevails at certain seasons of the year, especially near the coasts, is the most fearful malady to which they are liable; and natives from the interior, as well as strangers from abroad, are alike subject to its attacks; while the people themselves know of no specific or effectual mode of treatment for it. Their remedies are in general effectual in the cure of the bites or stings of the smaller kinds of venomous reptiles and insects, though at times these are such as to occasion great suffering. I once found a large scorpion on my pillow; at
