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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN<br />
Skunk Root Zorillo Payche Chiococca alba<br />
A tropical vine whose dark, brittle, and meandering root is one of the most important remedies in<br />
<strong>Maya</strong> medicine. The root is used for stomach ulcers, pain, and ailments <strong>with</strong> multiple, confusing<br />
systems. The bark of the vine and the root are taken as a tea to ward off black magic, envy, the evil<br />
eye, and evil spirits. The leaves are part of the Nine Xiv formula for herbal bathing.<br />
Only a few weeks later, Don Elijio and I were making a wound powder of<br />
dried Cancer Herb and Tres Puntas leaves when a stocky Indian man bolted<br />
through the doorway.<br />
“Don Elijio.” The man’s voice trembled. “I come <strong>with</strong> much faith. I<br />
bring you a woman who is truly ill.”<br />
The man stepped to one side, revealing a disheveled woman in her late<br />
forties wearing torn and badly soiled clothes. Her hair was stiff and matted,<br />
her complexion gray, and her expression tortured. It was her eyes, though,<br />
that were the most frightening. Her fixed gaze sent an icy feeling through<br />
my veins.<br />
She was being propped up by a brawny man on either side of her. Her<br />
strong escorts, we learned, were her sons Roberto and José.<br />
I instinctively grabbed her hand and helped her to sit down on one of<br />
the stools. She slipped forward, drooling uncontrollably. The drool<br />
streamed down her chin and fell onto her lap. The son named Roberto<br />
quickly jumped up to wipe off his mother’s face.<br />
The woman began shifting her body from side to side and doing what I<br />
can only describe as a panting growl. I looked over at Panti to see he was as<br />
calm and in control as ever.<br />
“Our mother took sick about two weeks ago,” explained José.<br />
Late one Tuesday night, their mother, Angelina, was in her room<br />
combing her hair while the rest of the family sat in the living room.<br />
Suddenly they heard her door slam shut and the lock click. A coarse,<br />
unfamiliar voice bellowed from her room, then moaning and a