CONTENTS 



Page 



Bibliography xiii 



Acknowledgments xv 



In memoriam — James Mooney xvii 



Introduction 1 



Material and method 1 



The writer of the manuscript 7 



General background — Informants used 7 



Linguistic notes 10 



Phonetic symbols and abbreviations 11 



Disease, its nature and its causes 14 



Nature of disease 14 



General semeiology 16 



Disease causes 17 



Natural causes 17 



Supernatural causes 18 



Spirits 19 



The Sun 19 



The Fire 21 



The Moon 22 



The River 22 



Thunder — Red Man — Two Little Red Men 23 



Purple Man, Blue Man, Black Man, etc 24 



Various Little People 25 



Animal Spirits 25 



Ghosts 26 



Human ghosts 26 



Animal ghosts 26 



Preternatural causes 29 



Witches 29 



"Man-killers" 33 



aye^'ltGo"Gi diseases 33 



"Mulier menstruans" 34 



Dreams 35 



Omens 37 



Neglected taboos; disregarded injunctions 38 



Causes of contagious disease 39 



Disease and its treatment 39 



Diagnosis and prognosis 39 



List of spirits 42 



Color symbolism — Sacred numbers 51 



Materia medica 52 



Paraphernalia used in the treatment 58 



Curing methods 60 



Prescriptions as to diet, taboos, etc 64 



A typical curing procedure 67 



Surgery 68 



V 



