By Elliott Siamonga

AS seen in the previous article, the herbalist’s medicines are not all based on herbs; some are derived from animals, insects, reptiles and rodents.
It is impossible to list all the ingredients used.
BaTonga elders say often the herbalist mixes parts of animals, or their excretions, with herbs and this mixture is either drunk by the patient or burnt into powder and applied externally, usually into an incision made by the herbalist on the patient’s skin.
However, an interesting feature of these rather complicated medicines is the herbalist’s fee which varies according to the difficulty in which he obtained the components.
One medicine considered particularly effective by a certain doctor, is made from lark droppings that have settled at the bottom of a pool where they become hard concretions, as the herbalist has to dive into the water to look for them, the medicine is unnaturally rather expensive.
Different types of treatment are used in cases where the patient has been be-witched, as here the evil spirit has to be exorcised and driven out of the sufferer.
Usually this is done by transference-the evil being transferred from the sick man to an animal or a fowl which is then driven off into the bush (kurashira) and is presumed to take the evil spirit with it.
BaTonga elders say alternatively the herbalist may take his patient to a crossroads, some way from his village, and there call upon the spirit to leave the sick man, the evil being left by the side of the road to be picked up by a stranger.
The precautions taken by the herbalist to set loose the evil spirit well away from the patient’s village to be picked up by a casual passer-by provide another reason for the BaTonga distrust of strangers. Transference of evil is also implied when the herbalist sucks at the affected part of his patient’s body.
He sucks vigorously with his mouth for a minute or two and spits out a piece of bone, stone or other foreign body, which he has been holding in his mouth.
This proves to the patient that the treatment has been successful and has drawn out the disease.
An ancient form of treatment used with great skill by all BaTonga herbalists is that of the application of the cupping horn, known in Shona as murumiko.
Murumiko is a small horn, its narrow end closed by a piece of wax.
The herbalist makes an incision on the patient’s skin, pierces a hole in the wax and applies the wide end of the murumiko to the incision.
He sucks vigorously through the narrow end and then carefully closes the perforated wax so that a vacuum is maintained.
Elders say the murumiko remains attached to the patient’s skin and is left there for about 10 minutes.
The herbalist then inspects the colour of the blood oozing from the incision, if it is red he is satisfied that his treatment has been effective, but if it is darkish, he applies the murumiko to another site.
After two days he repeats the procedure, and again two days later until the blood appears to be normal.
It is probable that cupping, like sucking, signifies the removal of evil from the patient’s body.
The BaTonga herbalists are also well versed in the art of ‘scarification’: in this procedure fine linear incisions about half a centimetre long are made in the skin usually in pairs on the site of the pain.
The herbalist probably unaware that this treatment and that of cupping increase the blood supply to the affected part and for that reason will prove effective in certain complaints.
If the patient improves credit will undoubtedly be given, in cases where powdered roots are rubbed into the incision, to the medicines rather than to the cupping.
Another way of exorcising evil spirits by the BaTonga herbalists, especially when they have caused mental disorders, is the sprinkling of the patient with a special medicine.
For this the herbalist uses an animal tail which he always carries around with him and which is more often considered a badge of office than a part of his medical equipment.
BaTonga elders say although these medicines are for treatment, there is another group of remedies which the herbalist uses and which are known, in different forms, all over the continent.
These are the so-called magical preparations and are mainly obtained from the n’angas so that they may achieve a variety of results: to set up a pleasant and useful social relationship that looks like breaking up, to confer a special quality such as strength or courage, to ensure parents that their baby will be of desired sex, to protect property from thieves and witches and to increase a man’s crops.
The BaTonga also know that emotional upsets and disappointments occur in life, but they believe that certain medicines guard against well defined emotional contingencies.
For instance, a woman seeing that her husband’s affection for her is waning, cannot explain his loss of interest and suspects that his thoughts are turning to another woman.
She goes to a herbalist and buys medicine called mupfuhwira and adds it secretly to his food.
His love for his wife is said to return after he has eaten the doctored meal.
Again, if a girl wishes to win the love of the boy she fancies, she obtains from the herbalist special powdered roots known as zhambwa in Shona and washes herself in water in which the roots have been soaked, with the result that the boy becomes attracted to her.
According to elders there is also a medicine known as chitsini used by confirmed bachelors which is believed to cure them of their lack of interest and ensure that they become attracted by a woman.