48 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
the pelican stone. This last is the most highly 
prized of all. It secures the magic presence and 
cooperation of a spirit that dwells in the pelican. 
When the doctor is seeking to enter the spirit 
world in search of the soul of the sick person, this 
spirit ensures to him a swift passage there and back. 
The crystal stone is indispensable in discovering 
where the wandering soul of the sick person is in 
hiding and for detecting the spirit who is causing 
the sickness. And the backbone batu cures dysen- 
tery, indigestion and consumption. 
In practicing medicine for the benefit of the na- 
tives, I worked out one theory in regard to leprosy, 
which is a fairly common ailment in the Archipel- 
ago. I asked myself why, since a snake sheds its 
skin, a man who is afflicted with disease should not 
be able to do the same thing. 
In Singapore there was a rich Chinese leper, 
known as Ong Si Chou, who asked me repeatedly 
why I did not bring him some new remedy for his 
disease. Since he had a large household of servants 
who took care of him, and his own carriages and 
rickshaws when he traveled, he was allowed to live 
untroubled by the authorities; but he was very un- 
happy, because he had tried all the remedies of the 
' native doctors and was steadily growing worse. At 
last I told him that I had something that might 
help. He asked me what it was but I would not 
tell him. When he insisted, I answered, “Snakes.” 
“Uh-la!” he exclaimed, waving his arms in the 
