The women giggle, flirting with their husbands’ clans- 
men and boasting of real or imaginary sexual adventures. 
At least one woman’s boasting appeared to be genuinely 
delusional, and several of them seemed to have momen- 
tary delusions that they were still unmarried. 
Men who are komugl tai behave quite differently. They 
bedeck themselves with their most extraordinary orna- 
ments, seize their arms, and terrorize the community. 
They attack the men of their own clan and their families ; 
some go to the neighboring communities and there 
frighten their relatives. They are tense, excited, and 
afflicted with shivering in the extremities of their fingers. 
They say they see double and they seem to suffer from 
intermittent aphasia. Minor injuries are sometimes in- 
flicted but Miss Reay knows of no serious wounds. The 
men attack fellow clansmen only when spectators are 
present, so that the attackers are restrained in case of 
need. Those afflicted with the madness ignore each other 
and threaten only those who are normal. ‘T'wo men’s 
attempts to set fire to houses belonging to other men of 
their sub-subclans were promptly thwarted. Women and 
youths deliberately encouraged the men to be aggressive, 
emerging from behind houses and trees at a safe distance 
and withdrawing quickly with excited shrieks and gig- 
gles when a madman caught sight of them and lunged 
forward with spear poised or bow drawn. For people not 
affected, it is an exciting diversion; for the chief actors, 
it is a departure from the normal to be joked about in 
retrospect.’ Neither prestige nor stigma accrues to the 
person affected. ‘The Kuma consider that the heros in 
this drama are not responsible for their acts. 
One subject to attacks of ndaadl or komugl tai knows 
when a crisis is coming and can escape by plunging in 
the near-by river. A woman who had been ndaadl before 
said she was now too old to make an exhibit of herself 
[ 16 | 
