Illness is generally ascribed to evil spirits (tsandhramo) or the wandering of the patient’s soul (omon), who accordingly calls in a medicine man (ratsen) to extract from his body the bit of earth or wood or hair which the evil spirit put there, or causes a ceremony to be performed to call back his soul. A few medicines are, however, known. Fat pork is eaten as an aperient. For an emetic, chicken dung and rat dung are whipped up with water and the mixture is drunk—probably as effective an emetic as any known to science. For diarrhœa the remedies are roasted goat’s hoof or the gall of either cow or pig. For stomach-ache and intestinal worms an infusion of the bark of nshitong (Stereospernum chelonoides) is drunk. For indigestion and stomach troubles [80]in general a little of the dried upper stomach of the porcupine is ground up and taken mixed with water, or a poultice of wild lemon leaves (tsoshü) or the crushed leaves of Maesa indica (tsandhrammozü, lit. “devil’s medicine”) is put over the affected part. For a cough the green pentagonal-shaped berries of the yenkuti tree are chewed, or a berry called riko is ground up and taken with “rohi madhu.” The yenkuti berry is also used as a tonic for weak children. Bat’s flesh is another tonic for children whose mothers cannot suckle them properly. For headache the leaf of the kizu tree (Bischoffia javanica) is laid on the forehead. For wounds the commonest remedy is a poultice of the ground-up bark of young shoots of the nungnung tree (Callicarpa arborea roxb., fam. Verbenaceæ). This has the effect of stopping bleeding. The mashed-up leaves of the pontengcho tree have the same effect. A bush called temphak (Rhus semialata) provides two medicines. The juice of the berries is a cure for stomach-ache, and a cooling lotion for use in cases of chicken pox and smallpox is prepared from the pounded leaves. The gall of the python is said to cure fever and intestinal troubles. A lotion made from Taraktogenos kurzii (hmhmti) bark is used to disinfect wounds. If maggots get into a wound in an animal a mash of pounded giant woodlouse (sharhi) is applied. Soot (live) is applied for skin diseases. For burns the ash of the leaves of the woropentung tree is applied. For dog-bite a whisker of the dog which bit the man is singed and put on the wound. Another example of the “hair of the dog” is the practice of drinking very hot “rohi madhu” as a remedy for drunkenness. To bring a boil to a head a little yeast (vamhe) is damped and rubbed over it. When ready it is lanced with a sharp splinter of bamboo. To get rid of warts a black-and-yellow beetle called potso tsiro (“god’s mithan”) is crushed on them. This causes them to fester and disappear. Goître is not common except in Are. When it occurs it is regarded as being due to drinking water from a spring near which plants with bulbous roots grow. The only known remedy is to run a red-hot umbrella wire through the goître, but this heroic measure is rarely employed. Most sufferers [81]prefer the disease to the cure. For soreness of the eyes the leaves of the mongsentung are crushed up and held to the face so that the fumes reach the eye. For a sprain of any kind the great remedy is to draw blood. In the case of slight sprains the affected place is scratched and made to bleed and a leech put on to suck. For more serious sprains or contusions the swelling is cupped. The instrument used is a serow horn. The base is smoothed down so that it will lie closely against the skin, and a small hole is bored near the tip of the horn, round which a thin, slightly withered leaf is wrapped. The skin is pricked with a splinter of bamboo and the horn being placed in position the blood is sucked up into it by the hole near the top. The thin leaf allows the air to be sucked from the interior of the horn, but acts as an efficient valve when the operator stops to take breath. This method of cupping is used for sprains, bruises and dropsy, in fact in any case where it is desired to reduce a swelling. In cases of snake-bite the limb affected is first tightly bound above the bite. An infusion of the bark of a tree called nungatsung is rubbed on the legs as a protection against leech-bites.