John G. Bourke was an American ethnologist who researched medical treatments and folklore among indigenous groups in what is now southern Texas and northern Mexico. Many of these ‘cures’ were reported to him by Maria Antonia Cavazo de Garza, a Mexican ‘wise woman’ in her early 70s. Bourke summarised some of these cures in an article written in 1895:

For dealing with epilepsy in children:

“Take a newly born pig and rub the naked child with this live piglet, from head to foot. The baby will break out in a copious perspiration and the pig will die.”

For the curing of asthma:

“Bake a tlalcoyote [American badger], bake it in the oven until dry, grind it up, mix with clean flour, add a stew made of Rio Grande jackdaw [a native crow], add a trifle of sugar. Put in the patient’s food and give in the first quarter of the moon… when the moon ends, the disease will end.”

And to assist with consumption, or tuberculosis:

“Take a black cat, kill it and extract all the bones. Rub the consumptive [patient] with the flesh from head to foot, and let him drink the cat’s blood mixed with warm water.”

Maria Antonia also told Bourke that women should be wary of the axolotl [Mexican walking fish]. This diminutive creature, she said, lived in the rivers and backwaters of the region, but was known to:

“..enter the person of the woman at certain times and will remain just as long as would a human foetus.”

One inside, the axolotl makes itself at home – while the unsuspecting female develops all the symptoms of pregnancy. Young girls going through puberty were particularly susceptible to this intrusion, so were warned to take care when swimming in ponds or rivers. The axolotl could apparently be forced out by drinking hot goat’s milk.

Source: John G. Bourke, “The medical superstitions of the Rio Grande”, 1895. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2019-23. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.