It was further stated, in answer to the questionnaire--"I cannot give you
absolute data regarding laughing or crying in an attack, screaming, yells,
foaming at the mouth, biting of tongue, tearing of clothes, although I am of
the opinion that any or all of these things may and do occur. As to violent
resistance, the case, where the man wished to be bound, would show there was
violent resistance, and it is probable that partly for this reason the Onas
and Yahgans do not molest the afflicted except to prevent them from harming
themselves, preferring to wait until the paroxysm exhausts them. I cannot
state positively as to whether the attack is explained by the natives as
being due to an evil spirit. While these people are polygamous, though
having no religious form of worship, they usually believe when any one has a
disease that something has entered them or some one who dislikes them has
surreptitiously sent some small animal or an arrow into them. Among the
Yahgans the 'Yuccamoosh' (doctors) or magicians proceed to pretend to
extract these objects by a form of squeezing and hugging the patient, in the
meantime blowing, hissing, etc., to force the object or evil out. I have
never known of their doing this, however, to a person suffering from an
attack.
"I am unable to supply any direct data as to the relation of love, hunger,
sexuality, death of relatives or absent relatives to an attack. On the death
of a relative the Yahgans go through incantations in the form of a sort of
weird death chant, which they often sing in unison at certain times of the
day and night. They paint their faces to show the death to strangers, but
they rarely mention the name of the dead, in fact by most it is considered
an offence to do so. They say simply 'He is gone,' 'He is no more'; they
feel the loss of relatives very keenly and sorrow for them, and sometimes
become violent with grief and rage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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