Cacici camuzuqua, or escorcioneira.—There are two qualities of this herb—one large, the other small. The flower is yellow, and very minute in proportion to the size of the leaves. It resembles the saffron of Portugal. The fruit is of the size of a small bead. A decoction of the leaves is applied as a sudorific to the head in cases of headache. The bark of the root, boiled along with the root of wild endive, and drunk, arrests fevers in their progress towards the malignant stage. A simple decoction of the root is applied to tertian fevers; and, when mixed with that of the root of the mucoronga, is applied in cases of complicated gonorrhœa.
Cacici camuzuqua pequena, or escorcioneira menor.—By anointing the body with a decoction of the root of this herb, mixed with the filings of ivory, orange peel, and leaves of the orange-tree, pounded, fever is destroyed.
Avenca.—A plant well-known among the negroes, but it does not seem to be made any use of by them.
Munhaze.—The leaves are oily and sticky. The negroes use the root in the composition of the oil of Friar Pedro, which has the property of drawing the poison out of a wound made by a poisoned arrow.
Uombue.—This herb has broad leaves like a gourd, but at the same time long and very hairy. It produces a potatoe very large, which, when pounded and thrown in water where fish are, destroys them. A poultice of the root pounded, applied to pleurisies, destroys the pain.
Casuzumire.—It is a very small herb like mint. A decoction of it used in baths is a remedy for hemorrhoids and diarrhœa.
Cacumate.—This herb has the appearance of the claws of the sparrow-hawk when dead. A decoction is applied to intermittent fevers, and fevers produced by fatigue. The negroes place it in vessels in which their young animals drink, through a superstition which they have, that the leaves being shrunk and similar to the claws of the sparrow-hawk, their young birds or poultry which drink this water will never be taken by the kite, sparrow-hawk, or any other bird of prey.
Mudossua; figueiro do inferno (the fig-tree of Hell, Palma Christi.)—The flower of this plant is large, white, and funnel-shaped. The fruit like the poppy of Amphiaõ, with the difference of having spines or prickles like the pipons of St. Gregory (wild cucumber). It is always in leaf, and the leaves are applied entire as plasters in the cure of scalds. They have the property of eating away corrupt flesh. From the kernel of the poppy an oil is extracted, which, mixed with any liquid, produces sleep. In short, it produces the same effect as laudanum.
Bange, é o canamo de Portugal (the hemp of Portugal).—The negroes, at the time this plant begins to wither, collect it, stalk by stalk, and make it into bundles. They smoke it through water, and then drink the water through which the smoke has passed, which immediately acts as an emetic. The natives of the interior cultivate it in their villages; and there are some, as the Morenges, who smoke it with a mixture of tobacco, long pepper, and galinhaça, which makes them very nervous. The smoke of the leaves and seed received into the eyes cures belida, or web, that grows over the eye.[10]
Conge.—This plant is what in Brazil is called Pita. The negroes of Muzezuro, a part of the interior where gold is found, work it into thread to make clothes for covering themselves, and the Zimbas, a people of Zimbave, as also the Caffres, make nets of it for hunting and fishing.