As on occasions of rejoicing--marriage, harvest-festivals, celebration of successful war or hunting expeditions--so in times of sorrow--illness or death--are the ministrations of the priestesses in demand. Illness--except that which is the direct result of wounds received in foray or battle--is regarded as being due to the machinations of the malevolently inclined, living or dead. That is, it may be a living enemy whose evil and powerful _Ottofu_ causes pain and illness; or it may be the _Ottofu_ of the ghost of some dead enemy. Serious illness is more usually attributed to the latter, since the _Ottofu_ of a ghost is considered to have more power than that of any living person. Naturally the element of terror enters into such a conception; also that of helplessness, since against an enemy already dead there can be no reprisal. The advantage is all on the side of the dead man--an auto-suggestion which tends, of course, to aggravate the illness of the living. In any case of illness a priestess is summoned. The usual mode of procedure on the part of this lady is first to wave a banana-leaf over the patient, chanting as she does so. This is evidently to brush away--or frighten away--any evilly inclined _Ottofu_ that may be hovering about. Then, squatting by the side of the sufferer, she begins to suck at that spot on his--or her--body where the patient complains of greatest pain, and to breathe upon it; now and then she stops sucking, and rocks herself to and fro, as she balances on her heels, chanting in time to the rocking motion. If it be suspected that the _Ottofu_ of a living enemy has caused the illness, the priestess will throw into the air her strips of black and white (i.e. natural-coloured) bamboo, and upon the pattern formed by these, as they fall, will depend her decision as to who is responsible for the illness of the patient. The guilty person will thereupon be hunted down by relatives of the ill man or woman,[84] and a blood-feud will result, for illness or suffering caused by the living can be cured only by the death of the one responsible. Should the priestess decide, however, that it is the _Ottofu_ of a ghost which has caused the trouble, then only “prayer and fasting” can avail--or can be tried, the prayer taking the form of chanting, which often becomes wild and hysterical, the priestess sometimes rising to her feet and dancing as she chants. Apparently the point of the chanting is to invoke the ghosts of the ill man’s ancestors, and to beseech these to overcome the ghost of his enemy. If, by chance, the patient survives the sucking and chanting, and recovers, his recovery is of course attributed to the intercession of the priestess.