| text: |
Whilst the Koupooee enjoys good health, he has little anxiety, but if struck by sickness for any length of time, unless he be a person of considerable means the chances are he is ruined. To medicine they do not look for a cure of disease, but to sacrifices offered as directed by their priests to certain deities. All their goods and chattels may be expended unavailingly, and when nothing more is left for the inexorable gods, I have seen their wives and children sold as slaves to provide the means of propitiating them. In sickness, therefore, the speedy recovery or the speedy death of the patient is desirable. |
