John Gregory Bourke

“ It is simply a waste of time to look for the truth in the pages of poets and commentators, who, in nearly every case, distort, embellish, or conceal, instead of making a candid exposition of facts within their knowledge ”

“ Men should always employ the male variety, and women the other.
"If you want the Piedra Iman to act"—said Maria Antonia—"you must give it water to drink every Friday: you must put it in a vessel of water for half an hour. Then feed it with steel (not iron) ; filings. Put upon this a tress of the girl you love and the 'Iman' will draw her to you. You must tell the name of the man or woman you love to the stone before it will act." When you wish a love-philter to act efficaciously, be sure to carry a piece of your lodestone in pocket. ”

“ No more rational principle can be adopted in a philosophical investigation into the origin of religions than that which teaches the importance of searching through the lore and custom of the folk for vestiges and tattered remnants, which, when patched together, bring to light their original purpose and design. ”

“ To cure Asthma ("Orguilla") .—Take a talcoyote (badger) , bake it in the oven until perfectly dry, grind it up, mix on a "metate" with clean flour, add a stew made of the Rio Grande jackdaw, locally known as the orraca, add a trifle of sugar, and put a little of the above mixture in the patient's food. Give in the moon's first quarter. When the moon ends, the disease will end. All diseases which have had their beginning with a new moon can be made to go out with a waning moon. (Maria Antonia.)
Asthma.—Make a drink of hot water and the ripe (black) beans of the ebony roasted. ”

“ When a hen crows, look out for a sudden death in the family to which the hen belongs.
Paralysis.—There is a singular berry growing in the Rio Grande valley, the fruit itself pleasant to the taste and harmless, but the seed poisonous and bringing on paralysis of the lower limbs. This plant is called the coyotillo, because the coyote is too cunning to be deceived by it; the coyote will eat the berry, but reject the seeds. ”

“ There are several remedies; one calls for a liberal fomentation with hot goat's milk, and in the other, a young man appears to marry the girl. Often when women were bathing in the waters of the Rio Grande itself, or in some of the great "acequias," mischievous boys would yell "Axolotl!" ”

“ Thus, if the water in the basin seem to become cloudy, the child is to be a girl; if it remain crystalline, a man: the reason being that a man's existence is out in the open air, clear to the observation of everybody, but a woman leads a life generally of seclusion, and is always wrapped up and under the charge of somebody. ”

“ Whenever a sand-storm or a cyclone occurs in the valley of the Rio Grande, the people out in the fields or travelling along the roads stop and pick up a handful of dust, which they throw up in the air. First Sergeant James T. Murphy, Troop "C," Third Cavalry, United States Army. This practice is of Indian derivation.
Witchcraft.—Maria Antonia was emphatic in her expression of belief that there were lots of "brujas" (witches) around, who took delight in doing harm to you personally, or in spreading sickness among your cattle, blighting your crops, or ruining your fruit-trees. ”

“ Cutting Nails and Hair.—Cut your finger-nails every Friday, and you'll not have the toothache. (M. A.)
When you cut your finger-nails or hair, see that the moon is full. Be careful to burn your hair; do not throw it in the path of other people, because it might do them harm. Never, under any circumstances, pick up human hair lying in the road, especially woman's hair. ”

“ Charles G. Leland, "Roman Etruscan Remains," page 240.
There are not only witches in the world, but a class of people whom she styles "gente de chusma," who seem to be allied to our fairies. They fly about from place to place on the winds. They have sold their souls to the Devil and must never think of God when they die. Their souls fly about from place to place. They will not enter a house where there is mustard. You must take mustard—that in a bottle will do—and make with it a cross upon the wall, alongside of the bed upon which you are to sleep. ”

“ This is guarded in a great temple, in whose court for thirty yards on all sides not a single blade of grass grows. No tree, no flower will flourish on the sacred spot, and even wild creatures are careful not to profane it. ”

“ Evil Eye.—The evil eye, or blight,—mal ojo, meaning bad eye, or simply ojo, is a spell cast upon children by people who look at them steadily, and generally speak kindly to them. If you can find the man who has "echado el ojo" upon a child, make him fill his mouth with water and eject it into the child's mouth. The child will recover at once.
If you cannot find out who has cast the "ojo "on a child, take the herb called "Yerba de Cristo," boil it in water, and wash the infant from head to foot with the decoction. ”

“ The phantoms seen by and the tendencies manifested in those who are intoxicated with hasheesh generally indicate the usual habits of thought and moral character of the intoxicated person, or the thoughts and passions by which the man was possessed on the day that he became intoxicated or at the moment in which the symptoms of poisoning began to make themselves manifest. Persons given to the use of hasheesh who become maniacs are apt to commit all sorts of acts of violence and murder. ”

“ Some people smoke "mariguan" or Indian hemp, in their cigarritos.
Axolotl.—The most curious and incomprehensible superstition of the Mexican people, and one which has the widest dissemination, concerns the curious lizard called the axolotl, a name by which it was known to the Aztecs, although I do not feel prepared to say that they had the superstition concerning it.
The axolotl frequents damp, slimy places, near pools or tanks of water, and all kinds of refuse ("basura") .
It will enter the person of a woman, at certain times, and will remain just as long as would a human foetus. ”

“ Cross.—When a woman has consented to an interview with an old lover, but does not wish to be led into any criminality, she will have her good resolutions strengthened if she make the sign of the cross on the inside of the lower hem of her dress skirt. ”

“ Marriages are most fertile and happy when entered into on the first of the new moon. The morning after marriage, let the bride walk out from her bed, first putting on her clothing, and stepping out with the left foot. ”

“ To keep away witches: Smoke, drink, or chew powdered "mariguan" every morning. This herb is also given secretly in the food of admirers who have grown insensible to the charms of cast-off and despairing sweethearts. (M. A.)
To cure a man who has been rendered impotent by witchcraft: Take out from the lamp hanging in front of the Blessed Sacrament a few drops of oil, put upon a clean rag, and anoint the genitalia. ”

“ One example only will be given, from Starr County, Texas, in 1891.
When the patient is very low, take a black hen [2] and half a pound of mustard; make a plaster of the mustard by using hot water; with this, smear the hen from head to foot, and then burn her alive in a bake-oven. (Mustard is probably only of recent use in this connection.) Meantime, a man who was baptized Juan for a first name furnishes the material for a plaster which must envelop the invalid's body for a change of the moon (eight days) . ”

“ To relieve a Stiff Neck.—Mexican women, of the more ignorant sort, are accustomed to tie around their necks the drawers of a man named Juan, and, conversely, for the same ailment, men make use of the petticoat of a woman named Juana. (Señor Arguelles, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.)
Leland describes an Italian charm: "When a woman has a sore throat she must take her own apron and measure or fold it in a cross thrice for three mornings in succession." ”

“ It is used to aid in expulsion of the placenta, said to be of great value in making love-philters, and is frequently used with the toloachi, or stramonium. For that reason, it has been called the "loco," or crazy weed, but shares that designation with several other plants. A very fine canvas is made from the fibre of the stalk. The flower is small and white.
Many of the Mexicans add powdered mariguan to their cigarrito tobacco, or to their mescal. A bite of sugar, after taking mariguan in any form, intensifies its effects. Indian hemp is the basis of the hasheesh of the East. ”

“ The leaves of the "canelon" (china berry) drive away moths, and the berry itself will make robins drunk and fishes stupid.
Saint John's Day.—Every Mexican, big or little, will take a bath on Saint John's Day, and, if possible, in the Rio Grande, and then new, or at least clean, raiment is donned from head to foot. Hair and nails are also cut on this day. (Federico Rodrigiez.)
On Saint John's Day, every good Mexican must get on some kind of a plug and prance about in the blazing sun. ”

“ If the left foot and left leg make two shadows, she is pregnant with two sons; if one shadow, then with one son only. The pregnant woman generally consults a "partera," who is, usually, a "wise woman," and knows a great many secrets not known to doctors. ”

“ The placenta must not be burned, but buried where animals cannot invade, because it would be a great desecration to have animals uproot and perhaps eat what had been part of a body that was to be baptized. ”

“ All authors are unanimous, basing their opinion on numerous observations among Eastern peoples, that the long use of hasheesh weakens the body and causes atropy, dulls the mind, and creates hypochondria, idiocy, and mania. Those who indulge in hasheesh have a fixed look without expression and an idiotic appearance. ”

“ Alferecia.—To cure "alferecia," or epilepsy, in children, which is due to the moon's influence. Take a newly born pig and rub the naked baby with this (live) pig from head to foot. The baby will break out into a copious perspiration, and the pig will die. But the fact that epilepsy is a brain trouble seems to be dimly recognized. Maria Antonia says that the child's skull breaks in four pieces (in form of a cross +) , and the child then dies. ”

“ See my article, "Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojaves of the Rio Colorado," in "Journal of American Folk-Lore."
Leland also says that the "conjuring stones" of the negro Voudoos "once a week should be dipped or touched with whiskey." Idem, page 372.
Love-philters.—Maria Antonia Cavazo de Garza vouched for all the following:—
1. "Take some of the bulb of the Yerba Gonzalez (specimen sent to the U. S. National Museum) , dry it, reduce to powder, put some inside the shoe of the young woman, at time of catamenial purgation; she cannot help falling in love with you." ”

“ However, these men are exponential rather of the superstition which would credit them with therapeutic power, mundane or supernatural, than of the more generally disseminated practices and ideas which constitute the folk-lore of the Rio Grande.
John G. Bourke. Fort Riley, Kansas, January 5, 1894. ↑ If the man refuse to apply this remedy, upon request, he will suffer from violent headache, which will last while the child is sick. ↑ (Notice the black hen of mediaeval superstition. Of course, the hen superstitions must all be importations from Europe.) ”

“ To cure Hæmorrhoids.—Make an ointment out of the fat of a "tejon" (this word properly means badger, but locally, along the Rio Grande, it signifies a raccoon) and the plant called "oreja de raton" (mouse's ear) ; add five well-burned bottle corks. Apply locally on a rag. At the same time make a tea by boiling a piece of armadillo shell in hot water. (M. A.)
Harvest.—Mr. George Lewis described a procession of Mexican women in Rio Grande City during a great drought, about 1880. ”

“ To care the Sting of a Bee.—Apply a plaster of mud or cow-dung.
Toloachi is stramonium, or Jamestown weed. Has been used by medicine-men of the Hualpais to produce visions and induce prophecy.
The Mexican women put it in potions to be drunk by recreant lovers. It is said to produce dementia lasting for twelve months. (See "Mariguan.")
Italian witches still administer "certain poisons, such as stramonium, which causes strange delusions." Charles G. Leland, "Roman Etruscan Remains, page 208. ”

“ The same peasantry still recite invocations to the spirit of fire. Idem, page 312.
Fishing.—Mexicans during Holy Week fish in the Rio Grande, and march to the river bank to the music of guitars.
Fits and Swoons.—Maria Antonia had a little boy who had reached the age of eighteen months. Retarded dentition made him critically ill; he had fits and was "dead" for twenty-four hours. She made a vow to Our Lady that, if the child should be "restored to life," she would offer an appropriate "milagro," in silver, and hear mass, on bended knees, holding a lighted wax taper in each hand. ”