Yodoyamai Cordial, my introduction to Great Lake's family, is a patent medicine, a rich brown liquid much like soy sauce, made in Burma and widely consumed in Kawthoolei. I bought a bottle because I wanted a copy of the leaflet that went with it, and because Great Lake said that he would give the contents to his wife Lili.

On the leaflet there are four illustrations, unfortunately printed from very old blocks on poor paper, or I'd have had them framed. In the first scene, desperate persons are drowning in the choppy seas of Ill Health, only their heads and thrashing hands still above water. A queenly apparition in the sky, buxom and radiant, is holding up a comforting sight, a glowing bottle of Yodoyamai Cordial, while pointing them towards the good ship Yodoyamai which, with a Red Cross fluttering from its prow, is steaming to the rescue.

In frame two, a wasted figure lies on what threatens very soon to be her deathbed, dimly lit by a table lamp, her anxious husband helpless by her side. In the distance, tombstones may be glimpsed in the penumbra. Useless pills and potions litter the table.