Illness is generally ascribed to evil spirits (tsandhramo) or the
wandering of the patient’s soul (omon), who accordingly calls in a
medicine man (ratsen) to extract from his body the bit of earth or wood
or hair which the evil spirit put there, or causes a ceremony to be
performed to call back his soul. A few medicines are, however, known.
Fat pork is eaten as an aperient. For an emetic, chicken dung and rat
dung are whipped up with water and the mixture is drunk—probably as
effective an emetic as any known to science. For diarrhœa the remedies
are roasted goat’s hoof or the gall of either cow or pig. For
stomach-ache and intestinal worms an infusion of the bark of nshitong
(Stereospernum chelonoides) is drunk. For indigestion and stomach
troubles in general a little of the dried upper stomach of the
porcupine is ground up and taken mixed with water, or a poultice of
wild lemon leaves (tsoshü) or the crushed leaves of Maesa indica
(tsandhrammozü, lit. “devil’s medicine”) is put over the affected part.
For a cough the green pentagonal-shaped berries of the yenkuti tree are
chewed, or a berry called riko is ground up and taken with “rohi
madhu.” The yenkuti berry is also used as a tonic for weak children.
Bat’s flesh is another tonic for children whose mothers cannot suckle
them properly. For headache the leaf of the kizu tree (Bischoffia
javanica) is laid on the forehead. For wounds the commonest remedy is a
poultice of the ground-up bark of young shoots of the nungnung tree
(Callicarpa arborea roxb., fam. Verbenaceæ). This has the effect of
stopping bleeding. The mashed-up leaves of the pontengcho tree have the
same effect. A bush called temphak (Rhus semialata) provides two
medicines. The juice of the berries is a cure for stomach-ache, and a
cooling lotion for use in cases of chicken pox and smallpox is prepared
from the pounded leaves. The gall of the python is said to cure fever
and intestinal troubles. A lotion made from Taraktogenos kurzii
(hmhmti) bark is used to disinfect wounds. If maggots get into a wound
in an animal a mash of pounded giant woodlouse (sharhi) is applied.
Soot (live) is applied for skin diseases. For burns the ash of the
leaves of the woropentung tree is applied. For dog-bite a whisker of
the dog which bit the man is singed and put on the wound. Another
example of the “hair of the dog” is the practice of drinking very hot
“rohi madhu” as a remedy for drunkenness. To bring a boil to a head a
little yeast (vamhe) is damped and rubbed over it. When ready it is
lanced with a sharp splinter of bamboo. To get rid of warts a
black-and-yellow beetle called potso tsiro (“god’s mithan”) is crushed
on them. This causes them to fester and disappear. Goître is not common
except in Are. When it occurs it is regarded as being due to drinking
water from a spring near which plants with bulbous roots grow. The only
known remedy is to run a red-hot umbrella wire through the goître, but
this heroic measure is rarely employed.