It is exceedingly difficult to obtain from the doctors any accurate
statement of the nature of a malady, owing to the fact that their
description of the symptoms is always of the vaguest character, while
in general the name given to the disease by the shaman expresses only
his opinion as to the occult cause of the trouble. Thus they have
definite names for rheumatism, toothache, boils, and a few other
ailments of like positive character, but beyond this their description
of symptoms generally resolves itself into a statement that the
patient has bad dreams, looks black around the eyes, or feels tired,
while the disease is assigned such names as “when they dream of
snakes,” “when they dream of fish,” “when ghosts trouble them,” “when
something is making something else eat them,” or “when the food is
changed,” i.e., when a witch causes it to sprout and grow in the body
of the patient or transforms it into a lizard, frog, or sharpened
stick.