Page:Popular medicine, customs and superstitions of the Rio Grande, John G. Bourke, 1894.pdf/9

Rh Fevers.—Make a decoction of the bulb of the "peyote." Use as a drink and as a lotion for feet and head.

The "peyote" is a cactus, bearing a small white flower, and growing close to the ground. (M. A.)

The inner white membrane of the pomegranate is also good.

Chills and Fevers.—Will be produced if you indulge too freely in the fruit of the nopal cactus (tuna), or in the colonche or cider made from it. (The Apaches say the same thing. The remedy is to drink more of the colonche.)

Fire Worship.—United States Deputy Marshal A. B. Betts, while taking a cup of tea with me one afternoon, said very anxiously: "Cap'n, you seem to know most everything that ain't enny use to ennybody, 'n' I reckon you kin tell me what's the matter with my wife. I do believe she'd be all right, if it was n't for the old woman" (a term of irreverence applied to his mother-in-law, a most estimable lady).

"Last Saturday," continued Betts, "I spat in the fire."

"Ah! que Judio!" she exclaimed. "No mas que Judios escupen en la lumbre!" ("Oh! what a Jew you are! Only Jews spit in the fire!")

Betts went on to say that he could get no explanation from either of the women, but that his mother-in-law took a new axe, laid the edge against a piece of firewood, with back to the flame, and when he started to move it "Don't do that, or your wife will die before morning," she said. But Doña Maria Antonia Cavazo de Garza made the whole matter clear as mud. "You must never spit in the fire. Fire comes from 'la providencia de Dios' (the Providence of God). It is just like the sun, and represents God, who made it for our comfort. He who would spit in the fire would spit in the face of God. The Jews spat in the face of God when they crucified Jesus Christ, and that is why Jews will spit in the fire."

Besides explaining to Betts what the old "curandera" had said, I showed him the following from the "Journal of American Folk-Lore:"—

.—I think many customs may be traced to a belief in the efficacy of this sign. In six months spent in different towns of England and Wales, I noticed that when the grate-fire was dull, and ordinary means failed to brighten it, my landlady would set a straight poker upright against the grate, thus forming the sign. No one would ever explain this arrangement, but she would say with an air of embarrassment, "I thought I'd try it."

After my return home I mentioned this once to an intelligent Englishwoman of the lower class, and after some hesitation she answered, "Oh! it 's all nonsense, of course, but at 'ome they always said it was calling the witch to make the fire burn."