The formal one in raising
the hands with an inward curve to the level of the head two or
three times, lowering them, and rubbing them together; the ceremony
concluding with stroking the beard several times. The latter and
more formal mode of salutation is offered to the chief, and by the
young to the old men. The women have no "manners!"
They have no "medicine men," and, though they are aware of the
existence of healing herbs, they do not know their special virtues
or the manner of using them. Dried and pounded bear's liver is
their specific, and they place much reliance on it in colic and
other pains. They are a healthy race. In this village of 300
souls, there are no chronically ailing people; nothing but one case
of bronchitis, and some cutaneous maladies among children. Neither
is there any case of deformity in this and five other large
villages which I have visited, except that of a girl, who has one
leg slightly shorter than the other.
They ferment a kind of intoxicating liquor from the root of a tree,
and also from their own millet and Japanese rice, but Japanese sake
is the one thing that they care about. They spend all their gains
upon it, and drink it in enormous quantities.
