Travels in India (Tavernier) 17.1.4

17.1.4

Before passing further it is necessary to note here a curious fact concerning the people called Augans, who inhabit (the country) from Kandahar to Kabul, towards the mountains of Balch, and are powerful men, and great thieves at night. It is the custom of these Indians to clean and scrape the tongue every morning with a small curved piece of a particular root. This causes them to throw up a quantity of foul matter, and excites them to vomit. And those who inhabit the country on these frontiers of Persia and India practice the same thing, nevertheless they vomit but little in the morning ; but instead, when they take their meals, as soon as they have eaten two or three mouthfuls, their heart is disturbed, and they are obliged to vomit, after which they return to eat with appetite. If they do not do so they only live to the age of thirty years, and they become dropsical.