Many of the people, especially the older ones, are suffering from rheumatism and arthritis. There are many specific causes but often it is merely the breakdown that comes from a life of exposure and hard work. The people age early and although there are a few very old men and women in the town the average life expectancy is low. Before middle age is reached many are unable to bear their share of the work. Limbs are swollen and stiffened with arthritis and rheumatism, and spines are stiffened or even partially or completely solidified with arthritis. When these conditions come, the bent and crippled oldsters seldom venture far from the cave. They are cared for and honored by their children and their clan relatives. In addition to the many diseases that afflict the people, there are often injuries. During the winter, snow and ice gather in the toe-holds on the cliffs and climbers, becoming momentarily careless, sometimes crash on the rocks below. Fractured skulls, arms and legs result and their treatment gives the priests some of their most serious problems. Compound fractures result in fatal infections and the medicine men can do little in the case of a serious fracture of the skull. Simple fractures of the lower arm or leg are often treated successfully. Thin splints of wood are bound to the limb to hold the bones in position and after the break has healed, full use of the member is often regained. A fracture of the upper arm or leg is seldom treated with success for the powerful muscles pull the bones out of the position and, if the victim survives, a crippled limb results. Over in the north end of the town lives a young lady of nineteen who suffered an accident of this type. Returning from the spring one day with a heavy jar of water on her head, she missed her step and fell over a low cliff. Her left femur was broken just below the hip. Instead of knitting properly, the broken ends of the bone slipped past each other and grew together side by side, with a two inch overlap. The young lady is able to hobble about with the aid of a crutch but her left leg is two inches shorter than the right. The medicine men wage a constant battle against the diseases and injuries which afflict the people. Against some of the diseases they have little success: it simply means that the witches who are to blame are too strong. In other cases the medicine man wins and the patient recovers. Ailments which originate in the mind are common and are easily cured. Since the people live in constant fear of witches, they often feel they have been bewitched by some evil person. This causes them to imagine strange ailments and the medicine men are called upon to counteract the evil spell. Such ailments are easily treated for the patient’s faith in the medicine man and the constant promise of a cure soon drive away the imagined troubles.