Living
on a small island with such a rich flora as Ibiza, it is understandable that
there are a lot of plants we use for other purposes then just feeding ourselves
or the cattle.
The medical
service was practically unknown for most of the people living out in the country.
Up until
the late 1950s, when we started making real money from tourism, there were a
lot of aged Ibicencos that had never had a doctor's visit, not even for their
own birth.
They never
bought medicine, not because they did not suffer illnesses, like everybody else,
but because doctors were not easily available when they were really needed and
the majority could not afford it anyway (they did not trust them very much either)
not to mention the cost of the proper medicines.
So, the
common thing was to have their own botanical apothecary on every farm, plants
such as Sage, (in ibicenco, Salvia) "Salvia officinalis", Camomile,
(Camamil-la pagesa) "Abrotano hembra", Aloysia (Herba-lluisa) "Aloysia
citriodora", Aloes, (Atzebare) "Aloe vera", Opium poppy, (Cascai)
"Papaver somniferum", among others. They were always planted near
the house, and still are by most Ibicenco families in their new houses, though
most of the young ones don't know yet what to do with it all.
In the
kitchen garden there were always different plants and fruits (garlic, thistles,
artichoke, lemons, prunes, quince, etc.) used both to eat and to be used in
the right way and doses, as medicine, little wounds and burns, indigestion,
rheumatism, liver and kidney problems, etc. They were all treated with these
very common plants.
From the
forest nearby, where they keep the honeybees, fresh rosemary, thyme, small and
tender pine-tree cones, all full of resins and oils, were often collected.
Whenever a winter cold was giving a bad chest to any of the family, a
nice and hot big cup, or two, of a tea made from all these plants, with two
soupspoons of honey and the skin of a lemon.
It did
help to cure bronchitis, influenza and even pneumonia. In the severest cases,
a hot cataplasm, made of wheat-bran, were also applied to the chest and back
of the patient.
The thick
and very bitter aromatic tar, made of the juniper tree roots, "Juniperus
communis" was often use by the whole family too, two or three daily drops
of it for a few days is enough to be released of all kind of intestinal worms.
Some also use it as a blood-cleaner and for skin problems, like eczema for instance,
with good results.
Some other
plants, such as the local tobacco, "Nicotiana tabacum" - "tabac
pota" as we call it - was used as therapy (good for the nerves and the
asthma, they used to say) and as a placebo, becoming a social drug.
Even the smell of this natural and very strong tobacco is really repulsive
and sickly to anybody who doesn't smoke it. "Datura stramonium" is
another plant of the tobacco family that grows wild and in some gardens, for
its pretty and delicate white trumpets, also to be smoked against asthma, (they
say) and also a dangerous psychedelic drug, if it is drunk as tea, though only
a small minority uses it. "Cannabis indica," or Marijuana, as everybody
knows it, has been grown on the Island for many centuries together with "Cannabis
sativa," for its fibres to make ropes and the seeds are ideal as bird food.
The Moors probably brought it in when they were here, until almost eight hundred
years ago, and still could be planted without any control, until the last Spanish
civil war (1936-1939). Since then
it has been forbidden, but it never really disappeared from the Island. By the
way, did you know that marijuana could be smoked as well? Good for glaucoma
(so they say).
From the
late 1960s with the hippies, some new (new only for us) names enlarged the list
of our psychedelic natural drugs. "Inocibe geophylla" was used as
a "magic mushroom" and especially "Pholiota aurea" another
magic or "laughter mushroom" as some call it, also grows here. The
spores of this mushroom were sold by the Internet from Ibiza with instructions
on how it was to be planted and how to use it as a drug. The police arrested
the people in Santa Eulària two years ago.
Please
notice that I do not give any proper and complete recipes of how to prepare
or use any of these plants. It
is not my job and not my will either. If anybody is interested in using any
of them, they will have to look for proper books and learn more about them.
Some of them are very poisonous and dangerous, like the "stramonium"
for instance. Two teenagers were sent to Ibiza's hospital this summer, suffering
a very severe intoxication with the alkaloids of this plant, after drinking
a tea made with it.
Without
medical help it could have been enough to kill them both, as happened in Italy
not long ago when three young people died after taking the same drug in a stupid
ritual, organised by one of those new "illuminated spiritual leaders".
Or the opium poppies, "Papaver somniferum" used until not long ago
as a tea for toothache and as a general painkiller, also used for nervous babies.
The mother drinks the tea before she gives her milk to the baby, so they
both can sleep deeply afterwards, but turning the baby into a very young drug
addict if this is done too often. The mushrooms can give serious gastric problems
while you are still laughing.
There is
not a tradition for witches or official quacks in our Islands, at least for
the two or three last centuries. In my opinion, the religion had a lot to do
with it; the spirit of the Inquisition was still flouting around until Franco’s
death. (There are far more
now then ever, as we can read in the publicity pages of our local paper). So,
every family kept they own medicines at home and they knew how to use them.
They didn't
need to visit anybody, though it is obvious that some knew more then others,
but this was not something to be socially appreciated for anybody to be too
involved in these matters, was suspected of being evil or being insane.
I remember
a good, lonely and tranquil native man, from the Sant Agusti area, who had a
reputation for being a bit of a wizard.
He once confessed to another friend and me how he won this reputation.
He used to be seen spending a few hours every night reading a book in candle
light by his window, and he could be hear prying in a funny language. The book
was a British grammar, and he was teaching himself English, repeating in a loud
voice for a good pronunciation of his lesson, something like: "My tailor
is rich... my tailor is rich". To read a book! At night! In a non-Catholic
language! It was a very unusual thing to do for the time (about fifty years
ago) and the place, so - when one morning, some cattle appeared dead in the
neighbourhood - without an obvious reason, his reputation started growing, and
he had to live with it for most of the rest of his life. |