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CHAPTER NINE<br />
Anal<br />
Psychotria acuminata<br />
A common herb used primarily in the Nine Xiv formula for herbal baths, for treating skin disorders,<br />
swellings, bruises, nervousness, and insomnia, and for all children’s diseases.<br />
One day as we collected Anal Xiv, I noticed that Don Elijio seemed sad and<br />
distressed. He hadn’t made a single joke all day long. We were on our way<br />
back along the logging road when he cleared his throat and began to talk.<br />
He told me about a woman he called La Cobanera.<br />
She was a Latina woman named Claudia from Cobán, Guatemala, who<br />
now lived in a village ten miles south of San Antonio. She had come to him<br />
as a patient <strong>with</strong> a pain in her belly. After she was cured, they began a<br />
courtship.<br />
But things weren’t going well. La Cobanera had promised many times<br />
to come and live <strong>with</strong> him: “Until you bury me or I bury you,” she would<br />
say. But the last time he had seen her, she had broken this promise <strong>with</strong> yet<br />
another transparent excuse.<br />
“I told her she is like the flower called Amor de un Rato. Love for a<br />
while. She says she still has much work to do before she can stay <strong>with</strong> me.<br />
It is always ‘next week, next week.’ I guess next week never comes.”<br />
He had spoken his heart to her, admitting to her he was lonely and in<br />
dire need of a woman to administer his house. “I promised her she would<br />
not suffer <strong>with</strong> me. I’ve eaten a few beans in my time and I know how to<br />
make a woman happy. Before she could ask me, money would be in her<br />
hand. I have no rushing river of money coming in, but I have a reliable<br />
drip.”<br />
He was getting visibly more upset <strong>with</strong> each disclosure, and soon the<br />
story rushed forth like an emotional hurricane.<br />
“Each time she comes to stay, she asks for money. The nights she<br />
spends <strong>with</strong> me are very affectionate. But in the morning, it hurts me when<br />
she packs up her bag and then holds out her hand. At first it was twenty,