The belief so widely held, that ill-health, accident, and death do not occur from natural causes alone, brings much of the medicine under the heading of ritual and belief. One needs to keep in mind when looking into 'practical medicine' like drugs, etc., if there is any ritual connected with it.

Diagnosis

This is often a ritual to get in touch with spirits causing disease; divination may be used or the expert may become possessed by spirits. (Editors note)

The illness may be regarded as due to either:

•  wrongdoing on the part of the patient, his relative or clan;
• evil wishes and magical practices directed toward the patient by some third person; or
•  the action of some spirit.

Dusun

A female ritual expert may be employed to divine the nature of the illness.

Treatment

The treatment may consist of propitiation if the offended spirit, or some method of appeasing the third party to make him remove the evil wishes or magic (this may be by coercion), or such treatment may be combined with other practical therapy and medicine. There may be treatments by which material objects are believed to be extracted from the patient's body.