A QUAINT DOCTOR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20105, 26 March 1928, Page 8

A QUAINT DOCTOR

THREE FEET HIGH A KNOWLEDGE OF HERBS The huts of Makokotele, the quaintest doctor in the world, stand under three marula trees. The doctor is about 30 inches in height and he cannot use his feet. His head is the only part of his body that seems to be normal, for this is of the usual dimensions for an averaged sized man and is very well shaped. Alakokotele is a remarkable example of the conquest of mind over matter. His intellect is undoubtedly super-nor-mal. If it were not so he could not have developed the excellent medical practice he now has, nor could he have worked those wonderful cures that he has to his credit. To satisfy the native mind he makes a show of throwing the bones and so learning in which direction the evil spirits may be troubling the bowels, but this native doctor knows that this is senseless child’s play. His cures depend mainly upon his*knowledge of the healing power of herbs, with which he works skilfully (says W.L.S. in the Cape Times). As Alakokotele has never during his three score years been able to use his feet, he cannot go to his patients. These have to come or be brought to him. And when they have received his advice they must work out their own salvation, obeying the directions of the master mind.

Occasionally Alakokotele does visit a patient, and services of this sort the client has to provide a conveyance and has to pay proportionately high charges. The fee is generally two cows or an ox. 1.-'or ordinary advice at his own kraal Alakokotele charges a sheep or a goat, and after the first payment he allows three additional consultations at an extra charge of a sheep. Alakokotele also attends the poor, and if these cannot afford to.give him a few fowls or a quantity of garden produce, he instructs them to dig for a month in his lands.

Alakokotele is unable to use his hands, which he cannot even raise. The fingers are contorted grotesquely, ami his arms dangle uselessly beside him. Because he is thus unable to help him-

self in any way, the doctor is always attended by Letta, the youngest sister of his mother. .She props him up when anyone calls to see him, for Alakokotele cannot sit dow T n in the ordinary way. He is a man without a backbone.

Tn spite of his many disabilities, Alakokotele is one of the merriest men alive. And in his jokes, at the expense of his patients, Letta joins in with a merry laugh that is as disarming as Makokotele’s loud guffaw. This happy attitude towards life seems to affect as many cures as the herbs in which the doctor deals, for it does inspire hope and confidence. Alakokotele, on account of the shape of his body, does not wear the clothes adopted by the doctors of civilisation, nor those which distinguish natives famed as witch doctors. Generally he is robed in a cotton undervest, probably the only garment that would fit him.

This interesting and striking man does not. as many may suppose, present a repulsive sight. Some of the dirty* looking patients one sees about his courtyard are of loathsome appearance, but not so the doctor, with his hearty laugh. It is somewhat, difficult to reach the abode of this wonder-man. The name of the place is Arcona, ami it is hidden away among boulders and confusing spruits, as though Alakokotele did not wish to be found. Arcona is nearly a score of miles from Pokwani, a little place on the road from Pretoria to Afiddelburg.