18 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 99 



on his head, his imagination forthwith finds cause for speculation, 

 and he may come to the conclusion that the "Little People," or the 

 "Mountain People" have become angry at him and have taken 

 vengeance by the means just stated. 



SUPERNATURAL CAUSES 



If even in cases where the natural course and cause of events 

 seems evident and obvious, a mythologic explanation may be ad- 

 vanced, what are we to expect when it becomes necessary to account 

 for such mysterious, unexplainable, insidious changes of condition to 

 which disease subjects our body and mind? 



The man who but two or three days ago was a living image of both 

 Hercules and Adonis, and who came home from the mountain carry- 

 ing on his shoulder a tree trunli of formidable weight and dimension 

 as lightly as if it were but a bark canoe, to-day lies prostrate, pain 

 and terror stricken, with haggard looks and sallow complexion, 

 suffering, panting, and gasping. . . . 



The buxom woman, from whom last week a chubby, healthy 

 baby boy "jumped down," as the Cherokee express it, is now suffer- 

 ing more than ever she did, and feels herself as being burned by a 

 scorching internal fire . . . 



The sprightly baby, which ever since it moved was as alert and 

 bustling as a young chipmunk or a scampering squirrel, suddenly 

 lapses into spasmodic convulsions, or lies motionless with haggard 

 eyes wide open, as those of a terror-stricken rabbit . . . 



Why? For what reason? 



When we think of how, in a civilized community, as soon as any- 

 thing uncanny happens, as soon as the Awful Incomprehensible 

 makes its presence felt, even the sophisticated lose their reasoning 

 faculties and grasp at ridiculous explanations and at impossible 

 hopes, how can we scoff at the conclusions these poor people reach? 



The man who became Ul so suddenly has had a quarrel a week or 

 so ago with an ill-reputed medicine man, who told him, as they 

 separated, that he would hear about hun again. The wizard has 

 shot an invisible flint arrowhead into his bowels. 



The woman who had laiown the joys of such a happy delivery had 

 not heeded the subsequent taboo, prohibiting all wann food to any 

 one in her condition. That is why she is now being consmned by an 

 internal fire. 



The baby is now paying the penalty of his mother having partaken 

 of rabbit meat during her pregnancy, six months or so ago. And that 

 is why it is now assuming the cramped position, so reminiscent of the 

 hunchback position of a squatting rabbit, or why its eyeballs are so 

 dilated. 



