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Back to the Healings List
Roshario's Arm
| PP 15, 242 |
She even noticed the large white horn-shaped flowers of a stout plant with jagged leaves. The members of the Mammoth Hearth she had met called the unpleasant-smelling plant thorn-apple, because of its spiny green fruit, but it brought back memories from her childhood. It was datura. Creb and Iza had both used it, but for different purposes. |
| PP 15, 251-252 |
I'll need something that will make her sleep when the arm is rebroken, she was thinking. Iza would // use datura. It's strong, but it would be best for the pain, and it would make her sleep. I have some dried, but fresh would be best ... wait ... didn't I see some recently? (...)
"I'm going to get some of that thorn-apple I saw on the way here." |
| PP 15, 252 |
When Ayla returned, carrying a pack basket and the datura plants she had washed in the pool, she found a square wooden cooking box, which she decided to examine more closely later, another one filled with water, a hot fire burning in the fireplace with several smooth, rounded stones heating in it, and some small sections of plank. (...)
Using a small bowl, she measured a quantity of water into the cooking box, added several whole datura plants, including the roots, then splashed a few drops of water on the cooking stones. |
| PP 15, 254 |
As she put several stones into the cooking box to start the datura boiling, she looked at the unusual container a little more closely. |
| PP 15, 255 |
Then she opened one of her packages and poured into a small bowl a coarse powder of pounded dried spikenard roots, whose leaves rather resembled foxglove, but with yellow dandelionlike flowers instead. Since she was making a poultice to help the bone fracture mend, a little addition of datura would not hurt, and its numbing quality might help. But she also added pulverized yarrow, for its external painkilling and quick-healing properties. (...) to keep the decoction simmering, smelling it to check for potency.
When she decided it had reached the proper strength, she scooped out a bowlful to let it cool, then carried it to Roshario. (...)
"This medicine will both dull the pain and make you sleep," Ayla said, "but it is very powerful, and it is dangerous. Some people cannot tolerate this strong a dosage. It will relax your muscles, so I can feel the bones inside, but you may pass your water, or mess yourself, because those muscles will also relax. A few people stop breathing. If that happens, you will die, Roshario." |
| PP 15, 256 |
"Do you think I will die if I drink that?"
"I would not offer it to you if I thought you would die. But you may have unusual dreams. It is used by some, prepared another way, to travel to other worlds, spirit worlds." |
| PP 16, 264 |
Ayla dipped the strips of chamois skin in the hot water, placed the spikenard and yarrow on it, wrapped it loosely around the arm, (...) |
| PP 16, 270 |
Ayla looked at her medicine bag, then decided it would be a good time to gather some fresh ingredients for a reviving tea to help bring Roshario out of the datura-induced sleep when she did begin to awaken. "I saw a linden tree on my way here. I want some flowers for a tea for her and, if I can find them, a few other herbs. (...) |
| PP 16, 270 |
"I think I know where that linden tree is," he said. "There are always a lot of bees around it this time of year."
"That's the best time to gather the flowers," Ayla said, "when they smell like honey." |
| PP 16, 272 |
The large old linden tree announced its presence long before they reached it with a rich fragrance, reminiscent of honey, and the droning hum of bees. The tree came into view around a turn in the path and revealed the source of the luscious aroma, small green-and-yellow flowers dangling from oblong, winglike bracts. |
| PP 16, 273 |
"Why is this especially good for Rosh?" Darvalo asked. "People always make linden tea."
"It does taste good, doesn't it? But it's helpful, too. If you're upset, or nervous, or even angry, it can be very soothing; if you're tired, it wakes you up, lifts your spirits. It can make a headache go away and calm an upset stomach. Roshario will be feeling all of those things, because of the drink that made her go to sleep." (...)
"There is another tree I would like to find, Darvalo, but I don't know the name in Mamutoi," Ayla said. "It's a small tree, sometimes growing as brush. It has thorns on it, and the leaves are shaped a little like a hand with fingers. It has clusters of white flowers earlier in the summer, and about now, round red berries."
"It's not a rosebush you want, is it?"
"No, but that's a good guess. The one I want usually grows bigger than a rosebush, but the flowers are smaller, and the leaves are different." (...)
"I think I know what you mean, and there are some not far from here. In spring, we always pick the leaf buds and eat them when we walk by." (...)
They walked for a short while until they came to a stand of hawthorne.
"It's for the heart, restores, strengthens it, and stimulates, make it beat hard - but it's gentle, for a healthy heart. It's not for someone with a weak heart, who needs a strong medicine. (...) It is also good to mix with other medicines. It stimulates them, makes them work better. |
| PP 16, 273-274 |
On the way back, she stopped at a dry sunny bank // and cut some pleasant-smelling purple hyssop flowers. "What does that do?" he asked.
"It clears the chest, helps breathing." "And this," she said, picking some soft, downy leaves of mouse-eared hawkweed that were nearby, "stimulates everything. It's stronger, and doesn't taste too good, so I'll only use a little. I want to give her something pleasant to drink, but this will clear her mind, make her feel alert."
On the way back, Ayla stopped once more, to gather a large bunch of pretty pink gillyflowers. (...)
"Just because they smell nice, and add a sweet, spicy flavor. I'll use some for the tea, and I'll put some in water by her bed, to make her feel good. Women like pretty, nice-smelling things, Darvalo, especially when they are sick."
He decided he liked pretty, nice-smelling things, too, like Ayla.
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| PP 18, 302 |
"Birchbark?" Roshario said.
"When it is soaked in water, it softens and is easy to shape and fit. It gets hard and stiff as it dries, and will hold your arm rigid so the bone will heal straight, even when you are up and around." |
| PP 19, 325 |
"Ayla took off the old birchbark and put on a fresh piece yesterday. Except that it's smaller from not using it, my arm seems healed, but she wants me to keep this on for a while longer. She says once I start using my arm again, it will fill out." |
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Abbreviations |
Editions |
| CB |
The Clan of the Cave Bear |
The page numbers refer to the hardcover editions by Crown Publishers, Inc, New York 1980, 1982, 1985, 1990.
Book 1-3 are the Special Collector's Edition, I don't know if the page numbers differ from those of the 'normal' hardcover editions. |
| VH |
The Valley of Horses |
| MH |
The Mammoth Hunters |
| PP |
The Plains of Passage |
| (...) |
omission |
Copyright |
| ... |
original in text |
All book quotes: © Copyright Jean M. Auel
The format and text contents of this site are the property of the author |
| MGMH |
'A Modern Herbal', by Mrs. M. Grieve |
Comments, suggestions, errors, anything else ... emails are welcome!
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