who are not physicians and who employ that term for any eruptions
of the skin, the natives generally live on much too low a diet; the
Bicols even more than the Tagalogs. [117] Under certain conditions,
which the physicians, on being questioned, could not define more
precisely, the natives can support neither hunger nor thirst; of which
fact I have on many occasions been a witness. It is reported of them,
when forced into such a situation as to suffer from unappeased wants,
that they become critically ill; and thus they often die.

[Imitation mania.] Hence arises the morbid mania for imitation,
which is called in Java Sakit-latar, and here Mali-mali. In Java many
believe that the sickness is only assumed, because those who pretend
to be afflicted with it find it to their advantage to be seen by newly
arrived Europeans. Here, however, I saw one instance where indeed no
simulation could be suspected. My companions availed themselves of
the diseased condition of a poor old woman who met us in the highway,
to practice some rough jokes upon her. The old woman imitated every
motion as if impelled by an irresistible impulse, and expressed at
the same time the most extreme indignation against those who abused
her infirmity.

[The sickness in Siberia.] In R. Maak's "Journey to the Amour," it is
recorded:--"It is not unusual for the Maniagri to suffer also from a
nervous malady of the most peculiar kind, with which we had already
been made acquainted by the descriptions of several travellers. [118]
This malady is met with, for the most part, amongst the wild people
of Siberia, as well as amongst the Russians settled there. In the
district of the Jakutes, where this affliction very frequently occurs,
those affected by it, both Russians and Jakutes, are known by the
name of 'Emiura;' but here (that is, in that part of Siberia where