Modesto DiegoApril 10

In San Martín there are seven shamans: three in town, and four in outlying hamlets. Some charge a fee before a curing ceremony, others charge afterwards. There is a range of abilities. The best is an old man. There are no young shamans. They use prayers, herbs, and sucking. There is a specific herb for snakebites. The herb is applied to the bite and the leaf sucks out the venom. It works well. A shaman charges between twenty and thirty pesos.

Silvestre CuevasApril 12

People go to a shaman if an owl hoots repeatedly near a house. [They do] the same if there is a great deal of thunder. To counteract the effects of thunder, people bring their children to a shaman, who traces a cross of tobacco dust on each wrist, the forehead, the neck, and the base of the sternum. Tobacco powder is also rubbed on the head.

If someone gets sick the family calls a shaman to come to the house. They pay him 10, 20, or 30 pesos. He chooses four close friends of the family to be witnesses. The family offers them alcohol and cigarettes. They kill a hen and make soup. If it is a large family they kill a number of chickens. The family watches the process. The shaman, by then a bit intoxicated, throws forty-one kernels of corn on a mat or burlap bag laid out in front of him. He then reads the kernels to see whether the person will survive. Then the shaman buries the heart of the hen (never more than one heart) together with chicken eggs and macaw feathers. Before the burial, the witnesses, the shaman, and the patient drink the soup. After the burial the patient takes a concoction of herbs, and the leaves etc. are rubbed all over the body. The people call back the shaman if the patient does not recover soon. If the person dies the shaman is not blamed.

Herb Vendors

Camilo JiménezApril 15

After a shaman comes, the person [the patient] must remain celibate for four days. During this time a patient should [take] neither water nor food from a stranger; neither lend nor borrow money. It may be that a stranger might use [have sex with] the wife (or the husband) of the patient. After four days the shaman comes again with a little live chicken and sweeps the entire body of the patient so the chicken absorbs the sickness. Then a family member brings the chicken to the house of the shaman. If the sickness is grave the chicken dies. For this reason it could happen that the person who carries the chicken dies of contagion. This has happened a number of times in San Martín.

All shamans take people’s pulses. They also palpate the temples. They use medicinal herbs, both boiled and uncooked. At times, if they know ahead of time what kind of disease it is, they bring a bottle of medicine with them. At times he rubs the body with alcohol, but if the patient is a woman he has to show her respect. He can never massage her thighs or lower stomach because her husband might think he is trying to touch “a certain place” (“alguna parte”). He can touch the chest—Camilo showed me this by making (the sign of) a cross on his chest with the back of his hand.

The shaman believes in God. A part of the curing process consists of prayers to God and burning four candles. He also prays to various Saints because there are specific Saints for each disease

Resurrection Sunday; Saint Paul

When a shaman does a curing ceremony he calls four witnesses and a woman who knows how to make the soup. The shaman gives each witness a quarter liter of alcohol. Later they eat the soup, but the shaman says that he won’t have any since he has to do the curing. The shaman explains to them that the patient, who hasn’t wanted to eat, will ask for a tortilla before he himself leaves. When the patient asks for a tortilla, this is a sign that the cure has been effective. The patient is given a tortilla and soup (which has been specially prepared—without hot sauce). Each witness leaves with an egg, which is buried outside of the house. Each egg is wrapped in paper or a cornhusk. In each package are pieces of macaw feather and four cacao seeds. A reed, sprinkled with alcohol, is tied to each side—“the barrel” (“el barril"). The egg is buried with the knot towards the east so that “the Father Sun” (“el Padre Sol”) is able to untie it. It is an offering (“limonsa”-- charity or alms) for the Sun.

Many shamans are envious of other shamans, and, if the egg is buried in this way, they can do no harm. (The Sun reaches the egg first.)

Women hide stray locks of hair (from brushing) because a man could gather them and make some evil. The same with scarfs, etc. A man can scatter tobacco powder near a well, or on the road where he knows she will pass. His curse can provoke the women to commit some misdeed, or cause her husband to send her to the house of her parents.

A story— In another time there were two powerful shamans, a little old man and his son, an orphan who had been adopted. The old man decreed a period of abstinence of 27 days. However, the people complained, saying that it was impossible to keep celibate for so long. So the son arranged that there should be a beautiful girl bathing in the ravine at the hour that the old man would pass by. The old man saw the naked girl and started to touch her. He was unable to resist the temptation and raped her, in this way proving that the shaman himself could not “comply with” (“complir”) the abstinence that he had prescribed for everyone else.

Later the son told the shaman that there was going to be a snake in the road on a given day, but the shaman replied that it didn’t matter to him because snakes left him alone. So the two went off on that day and the snake bit the old man. The old man asked his son to cure him, but the son told him, “After four days.” The old man was desperate because he realized that he would not be able to survive for four days. By some miracle, the old man was alive after four days. Then his son cured him. In that way the shaman learned that he should not impose rules that he himself could not follow.

Shamans say that people who know how to read know many things that they themselves do not know. Therefore, they are also shamans. (Ergo RML is a shaman.)

New San Martín; Silvestre Cuevas (Kati Kwe), Robert’s compadre

Silvestre Cuevas

His father was bitten by a “sorda chica”—[literally “small deaf one,” though vibora sorda is a gopher snake. However, this identification is in some doubt, since gopher snakes do not bite. Gopher snakes can be mistaken for their venomous cousins, the rattler.] Nothing happened to him for twenty days, when his lips, teeth, and the tip of his tongue began “to rot” (“pudrirse”). His father went for the shaman, who cured him by sucking his forehead and temples.

Leonardo Ronquillo

If a child falls or is frightened, the shaman takes a bit of earth from the place the child has fallen, and, adding a bit of water, applies it to the stomach above the navel and on the child’s wrists. Tobacco powder is also applied. In this way the child does not suffer from diarrhea. (The child) asks for a tortilla in the middle of the night and is able to sleep.

If the barking of a dog frightens a child, the father goes to the shaman, who asks for a few hairs from the animal. The shaman put the hair and copal on a piece of pottery with charcoal. Later it is burned while the child is crouched down so that he or she is engulfed in smoke. In this way the fear is ended and the child is able to eat.

~April 16

If a person has rheumatism that lasts a long time the shaman mixes tobacco powder, garlic, and alcohol, which is places on the affected part (of the body). He later sucks so that the person is able to eat and drink without getting sick. The shaman prays to God, requesting that the person is calmed and that the sickness not return again.

At times the shaman prescribes patent medicine that one can buy in the store. The shaman knows when he is unable to cure. If unable to cure, he says to the person, “Why didn’t you come earlier. Now there is nothing that I can do” (“¿Por qué no veniste más pronto? Ahora no hay nada que puedo hacer.”)

When he sucks, the shaman pulls out blood or perhaps “a worm” (“un gusano”) that cannot be seen, because if he who sees it does not have a strong heart, he may die. First the saliva and blood are put in a closed fist. After gathering all the saliva, etc. in the hand, the shaman puts it in a cornhusk that has ash in it. The shaman throws this outside without burying it so the sun can absorb it (“chupar”—literally suck on it).

The shaman is almost always “drunk” (“tomado”) when he cures. He can cure by day. When the shaman analyzes various diseases he can tell the family of the patient (but not the patient himself) that he has a certain spirit – a tiger, a lion, etc.

If a person suffers a fright the shaman touches their hands (the palms) and places incense on their forearms. Then he throws twenty-four kernels of corn on a cloth in front of him. “San Pedro, I want to know the sickness, if it can be cured” (“San Pedro, quiero saber qué tiene el enfermo, si se puede curarle.”) When the shaman has determined that he can cure the patient, he requests that the family bring to him some aquatic roots, “ndikindihi” or “ndikiindah.” After boiling the roots, they are mixed with cacao. The filings of tiger claws are also added to this potion. The patient drinks the potion, and what is left over is rubbed on his feet and his whole body. No one is allowed to talk during this curing ceremony, which they perform at night, when there is no noise to frighten the spirit. They leave the door a bit open so that the spirit may enter at midnight. The patient speaks in a delirium and the next day eats and is healthy. Afterwards he is celibate for four days. He may lend money, but not fire (for a well known reason).

When the shaman speaks, he says, “Corn, Veins, Earth, etc. tell me what is needed—eggs, etc. – to cure the patient” (“Maíz, Venas, Tierra, etc. dígame lo que es que se necesita – huevos, etc. – para curar al paciente”).

If someone falls in the water and gets a fright, the shaman plucks two feathers from beneath each wing of a duck. The shaman then ties two on each side of an egg with a thread, together with two “barrels” (“barriles”) on each side. These are buried in each corner of the house, one in the center of the floor, and one on each side of the door so no evil can enter.

If there are a number of frightful places, eggs are buried at each one. If the place of fear is a ravine, an egg is buried on each side. It’s possible to use six to twelve eggs if there are many places. At times he may give TB to someone if he’s angry with him. This is done by means of a “little stick” (“palito”) of corn that is thrown down the throat and stays there. Leonardo was unable to explain how this was done.

One can buy macaw feathers in Leonardo’s store.

Amador Servín and his store

Silvestre CuevasApril 26

When a shaman uses eggs it’s because spirits like them. Eggs are worth 12 pesos, corn 12 pesos, and for the reeds, a gallon of rum [is used in an exchange].

When a young man wants to do evil to a young woman he grabs her kerchief, a bunch of her “licey” hair (pelo “piojo” suyo), and takes that to a shaman who buries it with an egg under a beam of the house of her beloved. He throws tobacco powder in the house of the girl. In this way the boyfriend is forced to believe not a word of the young woman.

If so and so wants to gain the affection of a young woman he asks her sister, a cousin, or any trusted woman to go to the house of the girl and steal her kerchief, “licey” (“piojo,”) etc. So and so takes this to a shaman, who speaks over this [an incantation], making tobacco powder and a leaf [?]. So and so throws the powder next to the well that is close to the house, etc. Then the young woman will fear no one, so strong will be her love. She says what she likes, and it does not matter if her father threatens her.

A few young men do this, and a friend of Silvestre was going to do so, but died “poor”(“pobre”).

Silvestre Cuevas

Shamans do not use mushrooms. [The highland Mazatec are well known for their use of mushrooms in divination.]

Leonardo Ronquillo

There are many Ojitec shamans. They practice “black magic” (“magia negra”).

Silvestre CuevasApril 17

If someone sickens it is because he [presumably the shaman causing the illness] is a “tiger” (“tigre”). The shaman puts the leaf of the shkandah nisé beneath his straw mat when he’s sleeping so he doesn’t know. When the shaman leaves, the tiger comes to the house and the patient is brushed with leaves. After four days the shaman returns to the place where he cut the leaves and leaves a payment of four cacao seeds there.

April 19

There are two potions one may take when one wishes to become a shaman; shkah Maria (“the leaf of Mary”) or tonahschuh ( “the seed of the Virgin”) [Very likely Turbins corymbosa, or Morning Glory.] Silvestre says that he is going to take shkah Maria to learn why his wife died and what he should do. One can see the past and the future by taking this medicine, even to the point of speaking with San Pedro. One can see as plain as day. Sixty “heads" (“cabezas”) or pairs of leaves are crushed and boiled for the potion. Whatever is left over (pieces of leaves) is rubbed on the body. When one takes the Seed of the Virgin the dosage consists of 200 seeds, crushed and boiled. The husks are rubbed on the body. But the priest must bless the seeds beforehand. [How this was done is hard to imagine.] Women take these medicines as well. They take them to learn why they are sick. [This may be to divine the source of witchcraft, as described above.] Incense is burned, but not copal.