(TFT) Healthful Herbs

["maou_tsaou1@netzero.net" <maou_tsaou1@netzero.net>]

Wild Plants You Can Eat -Karl Knutsen
Wild Edible Plants Of the Western U.S. -Don Kirk
Stalking the Healthful Herbs -Gibbons
How To Stay Alive In the Woods -Angier
The Complete Illustrated Holistic Herbal -David Hoffmann
Earth Medicine - Earth Foods -Michael Weiner
Various Farmers Almanac articles
Notes from a bunch of History Channel, Discovery, Nova, etc. programes.

The following was done for my Orcs, whom I treat as native peoples verses the advance of western civilization.
Gotta get rid of those savages.
I stoped telling players directly about this as they found it disturbing.
I typed it up awhile ago and just ran across it trying to sort out a bunch o junk burned to CD.
Make of it what you will, but the above is the source material.

"Suffice it, that all military and medical observers who came in contact with the Indians agree that they recovered more rapidly than the white from most wounds, and many recovered from wounds which would have been fatal to the white man.
Bourke reports the cases of two Indians who were discharged from a military hospital that they might die among their people, yet made rapid recoveries as soon as their own medicine-men began their treatment.
At a time when gunshot wounds to the bladder were invariably fatal to the white, the Indians seemed to suffer this accident with impunity.
Loskiel examined a man whose face had been torn away, his rib cage crushed, limbs ripped and the abdomen disemboweled by a bear, yet had been able to crawl four miles to his village and in six months had completely recovered, except for extensive scarring.
Such records could be continued almost indefinitely as all observers were so impressed by this ability to survive terrific wounds that hundreds have been reported."
-Dr. Eric Stone

Don't be too mad at the bear though.
V. K. Chestnut reports on a mash of the fresh root of the Oregon Ash used by the Yokia tribe of Mendocino County, (North California, just below Humboldt) to treat deep wounds suffered in battle.

"One old Indian related a story about a bear fight which he had seen his father, a very powerful man, engage in when he was a boy.
His only weapon consisted of a stick of mountain mahogeny, about 7 feet long, which had a long knob at one end and a sharpened point at the other.
He placed the child in a tree for safety.
As the enraged bear made a dash at the Indian, he, jumping skillfully to one side, hit the animal a terrible blow on the legs as it passed.
Again and again, as the bear dashed forward, it was struck on the legs until it was nearly disabled, when it was speedily dispatched with the sharp end of the club."

He then goes on to describe the treatment of the old warriors wounds.



INTERNAL REMEDIES


Infusion - Boiled water poured onto dried herbs (1 cup per tsp) or fresh (1 cup per 3 tsp), and left to steep for ten to fifteen minutes. (Tea)

Decoction - Herbs in similar proportions to the above, but boiled in the water rather than steeped.
Used for tougher material like twigs or nuts.

Tincture - Herbs soaked in solvent like alcohol or vinegar for long period of time.
Stronger concentration and longer shelf-life.

The above liquids can be mixed in wax, lard, and liquid in roughly equal parts to form an Ointment.
A cloth soaked in the liquids is a Compress.
A distilled Tincture for topical application is a Liniment.
The direct application of plant material is a Poultice.

A list of North American plants helpful in wound healing.

Anemone
Root.
Highly prized by Omaha and Ponca tribes.
Applied as Poultice.

Alumroot
Rhizomes and root.
Meskwakis
Ointment

Blue Flag
Whole plant.
Widely known
Poultice

Chain Fern
Roots
Luisenos
Decoction

Club Moss
Spores
Blackfoot and Potawatomi
Dusted (inhaled for nosebleed)

Death Camass
Blubs
Blackfoot
Compress

Five-Finger Fern
Fronds
Northwest, materia medica
Chewed, or Poultice

Wild Geranium
Root
Huron
Poultice

Oregon Ash
Roots
Yokia
Poultice

Puffballs
Spores
Blackfoot
Dusted

Skunk Cabbage
Root Hairs
Meskwakis, Menominee
Infusion or Poultice

Spikenard
Roots
Widely Known
Ointment or Poultice

Yarrow
Whole Plant
Widely Known
Widely used
Yarrow is known by the generic name Achillea, as an ointment of the plant was said to have been used by Achilles warriors in the Trojan War.
Popularly known in the middle ages as soldiers woundwort.

Here is a Zuni treatment for Bow and bullet wounds.
The plant is Aster hesperius, a member of the thistle family, but the manner is probably very similar for many of these plants.

" This plant is used also by the Priesthood of the Bow for the treatment of bullet or arrow wounds. 
A tea is made by boiling the entire plant. 
If practicable, the missile is removed by squeezing.
The wound is washed out with a bit of twisted cloth dipped into the warm tea.
When possible, the cloth is passed through the cavity of the wound; a slender twig wrapped with raw cotton is then dipped into the tea and the wound is again washed until thoroughly cleansed.
Pinon gum, softened by chewing, is made into a pencil, rolled in the powdered root, and inserted into the wound.
After withdrawing the gum pencil a quantity of the root powder is sprinkled into the wound; then a pinch of finely ground pinon moistened with spittle is put on the wound, and bandaged in place.
The treatment is repeated in the morning and at sunset.
Previous to the dressing of the wound each time, if the missile has not been removed the medicine-man endeavors to extract it by pressure.
The younger-brother Bow Priest informed the writer that usually not more than two days were required for the extraction of the bullet or arrow by means of this process; but it should not be removed in this way, resort was had to the knife."


Physicker anybody?



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