Don't Sleep There are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle

by Daniel L. Everett

These concepts are important in various ways. Especially interesting is their contribution to our understanding of sickness among the Pirahãs. I learned this early on when Kóhoibiíihíai and I were talking about his daughter, Xíbií. I was trying to explain to him why she had malaria. I was starting to talk about mosquitoes and blood. “No, no,” Kóhoi stopped me in midsentence. “Xíbií is sick because she stepped on a leaf.” “What? I stepped on a leaf. I’m not sick,” I answered, puzzled by his account of Xíbií’s malaria. “A leaf from above,” he said, increasing the enigma for me. “What leaf from above?” “A bloodless one from the upper bigí came to the lower bigí and left a leaf. When the Pirahãs step on leaves from the upper bigí, it makes them sick. They are like our leaves. But they make you sick.” “How do you know it is a leaf from the upper bigí?” I inquired. “Because when you step on it you get sick.”

Internal logic