The nature of the kurāru-disease has long been the subject of discussion and uncertainty. While it is clearly some sort of contagious skin lesion, modern editors are more or less evenly split between two different translations: ringworm (Dermatophytosis) or a kind of lump. The present paper will offer a few observations which favour the latter understanding. It should be stated in advance that we do not propose to investigate every attestation of kurāru in detail – in particular the medical attestations have been studied in detail recently and so are not investigated here. Rather, the intent is to try to better capture the nature of the skin lesion kurāru. There is, of course, still much more research to be done, not least on the related terms kurartu, kuraštu or gurartu, garaštu, guraštu, gurištu, and kullarum, but this is beyond the scope of the present offering.