Asia, and was well known in Europe when Sarsaparilla
arose to dispute with it the palm of popularity.
In India, Persia, and Afghanistan, it is called chob-chini,-the
“Chinese wood.” The preparations
are in two forms, 1. Sufuf, or powder; 2.
Kahwah, or decoction. The former is compound
of Radix China Qrient, with gum mastich and sugar-candy,
equal parts; about a dram of this compound is taken
once a day, early in the morning. For the decoction
one ounce of fine parings is boiled for a quarter
of an hour in a quart of water. When the liquid
assumes a red colour it is taken off the fire and left
to cool. Furthermore, there are two methods of
adhibiting the choh-chini: 1. Band; 2.
Khola. The first is when the patient confines
himself to a garden, listening to music, enjoying the
breeze, the song of birds, and the bubbling of a flowing
stream. He avoids everything likely to trouble
and annoy him; he will not even open a letter, and
the doctor forbids anyone to contradict him. Some
grandees in central Asia will go through a course
of forty days in every second year; it reminds one
of Epicurus’ style of treatment,-the downy bed,
the garlands of flowers, the good wine, and the beautiful
singing girl, and is doubtless at least as efficacious
in curing as the sweet relaxation of Gräfenberg or
Malvern. So says Socrates, according to the Anatomist
of Melancholy, “Oculum non curabis sine toto
capite, Nec caput sine toto corpore, Nec totum corpus
sine animo.” The “Khola” signifies
that you take the tonic without other precautions
than the avoiding acids, salt, and pepper, and choosing
summer time, as cold is supposed to induce rheumatism.
[FN#16] Certain Lamas who, we learn from M. Huc, perform
famous Sie-fa, or supernaturalisms, such as cutting
open the abdomen, licking red-hot irons, making incisions
in various parts of the body, which an instant afterwards
leave no trace behind, &c., &c. The devil may
“have a great deal to do with the matter”
in Tartary, for all I know; but I can assure M. Huc,
that the Rufa’i Darwayshes in India and the Sa’adiyah
at Cairo perform exactly the same feats. Their
jugglery, seen through the smoke of incense, and amidst
the enthusiasm of a crowd, is tolerably dexterous,
and no more. [FN#17] A holy man. The word has
a singular signification in a plural form, “honoris
causa.” [FN#18] A title literally meaning the
“Master of Breath,” one who can cure ailments,
physical as well as spiritual, by breathing upon them-a
practice well known to mesmerists. The reader
will allow me to observe, (in self-defence, otherwise
he might look suspiciously upon so credulous a narrator),
that when speaking of animal magnetism, as a thing
established, I allude to the lower phenomena, rejecting
the discussion of all disputed points, as the existence
of a magnetic Aura, and of all its unintelligibilities-Prevision,
Levitation, Introvision, and other divisions of Clairvoyance.
[FN#19] In the generality, not in all. Nothing,
for instance, can be more disgraceful to human nature