of course , rare exceptions were made in the case of illness , but this , too , couldnt be faked easily , unless one maintained the resolve to affect an unkempt look and a fatigue-ridden speech pattern , sufficient enough to continue the pretense through the next few days of visits by neighbors bearing soups or herbal remedies and speaking in intolerably sympathetic tones of voice and prattling on about some relative or the other and how he or she had once become deathly ill , only to realize that the answer to his or her problems lay in the healing powers of some obscure herb whose name was difficult to pronounce , but which grew in some remote province of a country that no one in town had ever visited , therefore , justifying the possibility that it may be more effective than other , more commonly-known remedies .