Kassat el Hawa

Kassat el Hawa: sucking glasses, ventouses.

For breathing difficulties or bronchitis, those precious kassat el hawa were applied to your back. Kassat el hawa were similar to drinking glasses except they had a rounded bottom and smaller neck.

You prepared a torch and soaked it in alcohol then put a match to it. The patient outsetched on his abdomen, you turned the torch in the kassat and quickly applied them to the back. You looked like a tortoise with a glass roof.

The patient had to keep still till the skin inside the kassat turned bluish and looked as though ready to explode.

What a relief when those kassat made that kissing noise and your back was liberated!

However there were marks on your back: black and blue moons or half moons. These remained for a few months. When summer came along and the marks had not faded out, it was embarrassing in a swimsuit. But then you knew who had been ill that winter.

Sultana Latia (Suzy Vidal)

taken from THE JASMINE NECKLACE TRILOGY