On the cover: “Healing Figure of a Water Spirit,” Sarawak, Malaysia, wood carving, craftsman unknown, late 19th–early 20th century, The British Museum. Art Resource, New York. Reproduced with permission.

This figure was collected from the northwestern coast of Malaysia, in an area inhabited by the Melanau people, who likely used it in a healing ritual. The area is covered by tropical forests, rivers, and swampy areas in which animals, insects, humans, and spirits coexist following local rules of interaction. If the rules of coexistence are transgressed, illness may ensue, in which case symptoms give clues as to which spirit may have been involved in bringing about the illness. A figure of the spirit is carved, and the symptoms are invited into the carved figure to provide relief to the patient. This water spirit, so identified because it is covered in scales like a fish, holds its hands over the abdomen, suggesting possible distress. Dysentery, common in this region, may be the cause of this abdominal discomfort. (Mary and Michael Grizzard, cover-art editors)