ABSTRACT
The principal medicine-house (gidan tsafi) in Tunis is a long, narrow room in an Arab building called the Gidan Kuri (House of Kuri), though really it is only a part of the Gidan Jama’a (House of the Community), jama’a originally signifying the elementary social unit, or clan, though it does not bear exactly that meaning in this case. Gidan Jama’a is the more general name, and it corresponds to our “temple” or “church,” the temples being named after particular bori (in this case Kuri) just as are our churches after saints. Unfortunately I have lost the measurements, but they were about 25 ft. by 18 ft. by 9 ft. In any case they are not important, as the room was only rented; it was not built for the purposes of the Musu-Bori.
