Sastun by Rosita Arvigo

Author:Rosita Arvigo
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cancer Herb Hierba del Cancer

Acalypha arvensis

An abundant, small herb used to treat stubborn skin conditions, infections, fungus, and wounds and drunk as a tea for stomach upsets.

It may also be collected as one of the Nine Xiv formula for herbal bathing, especially if used for skin ailments.

It was nearly eight o’clock one evening the following October, and Don Elijio and I had been sitting on the cement doorstep, watching the sun go down behind the custard apple tree. San Antonio is on a rise, and the sunsets there stretch for miles—long purple and magenta streaks against darkening blue. It was one of those exquisite nights when the diurnal meets the nocturnal: the orange sun set on one side of the sky as the silver moon rose on the other.

Don Elijio rose stiffly and announced it was time to go to sleep. It had been a long and busy day with many patients. He began closing the doors and windows as he usually did.

Down the path came an energetic group of women and children led by Doña Juana, wife of Don Elijio’s dear friend Don Antonio Cuc. She was one of the village women who came to check on Don Elijio regularly, bring him treats and news.

Doña Juana was in her eighties, still trim with sharply etched Maya features and silvery white hair. Like many Kekchi Maya women, she wore a triple strand of colorful plastic beads tied in a knot at her throat, and a cotton towel lay around her shoulders like a shawl.

She had fifteen children, upwards of eighty grandchildren, and scores of great-grandchildren. She was herself an accomplished granny healer and cared for her clan with simple home remedies gathered from her garden, nearby fields, and roadside paths. Like other granny healers, trained at their mothers’ and grandmothers’ knees, she sought Don Elijio’s assistance when a family member didn’t respond to her usual remedies.

We opened the door wide to let the flood of humanity through the gates of healing. They breezed in, smelling of soap and smoke and taking over the small room.

Don Elijio sat down at the consulting seat at his wooden table. Doña Juana took the patient’s seat. Several young women accompanied her, each with several young children, and a teenage girl held a newborn baby wrapped in a light cotton blanket. One of the women was about seven months pregnant.

“I have brought two of my granddaughters and their children to see you,” she announced.

Don Elijio looked annoyed. “Why do you not come in the daytime?” he asked. “The daytime is for healing, the nighttime is for sleeping. My useless eyes are worse at night. You’re just lucky Rosita is here or you would all have to come back for your medicine tomorrow,” he scolded in a not-too-stern voice.

“My granddaughters live at Mile 7 up the road and only got a late ride here,” she explained. “We had to feed the children first, and tomorrow they must leave by dawn.”

Doña Juana and Don Elijio conversed in Mayan for a while and then shifted to Spanish.

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