As I have before mentioned severe colds are very prevalent among the Sakais against which they have no efficacious remedy so that it often happens for a simple attack of influenza to turn into a serious bronchial or lung affection and finally result in consumption.
Neither the tenak or cintok is of any use then; the evil spirit never leaves hold of his prey.
Cases of fever are very rare and these few must be attributed to the wind which ascends from the plain bringing with it germs of infection. It is extremely seldom that a woman dies in child-birth, but a great many succumb to senile decay at about 60 years of age.
Both men and women are very subject to a cutaneous disease which covers the body with large blotches of a lighter colour than their skin, giving a repugnant appearance to the poor wretch so afflicted. But it is neither a serious nor a contagious illness, nor does it excite amongst the jungle-dwellers that loathing which it would with us because this discoloration does not prevent them from getting married and having children as healthy as other peoples'.
Sometimes one of them is struck down by an infectious disease for which they know no remedy or cure. The sick person is at once isolated from all the rest and is almost entirely abandoned in order to check any propagation of the malady.
I have never noticed any illness which might be considered as peculiar to the people themselves or the region they inhabit but I have been able to establish the fact (from a special study made by me as to the causes of death among the Sakais) that the victims of wild beasts and serpents are on a very low average.
It is quite an extraordinary thing for anybody to lose their life in this way if they have not by some imprudence brought death upon themselves.
I only remember, perhaps because it took place not long ago, that a young woman incautiously wandered away from her hut one evening, as it was getting dark, and was attacked by a panther which fastened its teeth into her lower jaw. Hearing her scream the husband rushed out just in time to kill the animal and save his poor wife's life, but she, of course, remained deformed.
The pharmacopoeia of these foresters, freed from all superstition, is of truly primitive simplicity and only contains vegetable remedies. A decoction of the root tenak celes is an excellent purgative. A poultice made of its leaves pounded with lime and sirih and applied to the forehead is intended to cure headache.