“She [often a mother] boils butter for like half an hour and when the froth comes on the top, she scrapes it off, freezes it, mixes it with turmeric and a little bit of baking soda. Then, she will place it in a handkerchief till it gets wet and then apply it on the wound and keep it overnight.”

This way of healing a wound is one of the rituals that the informant claims comes from her home state of Mahrasha. She explained that they have a lot of rituals like this, but this one is the most effective. It works on bruises or cuts, even if you are bleeding. It is always applied in the way described if it is to work.

It is said that by doing this, your wound will heal overnight. However, the informant explained that it actually takes closer to a week of using this every night before it works. After a week though, it does completely heal the wound. She emphasized the fact that this will work only when not using other medication whatsoever though.

The informant relayed this to me while we were re-shelving books in the stacks of Doheny Library at USC. She is one of my co-workers.

I found it interesting that the whole treatment really does not speed up the healing process more than I would assume other forms of medication could on their own. However, I think that the butter mixture may help clean the wound better than other forms of medication might be able to, but I am not an expert and do not know for sure. It is interesting though that they would opt to use this home remedy over other forms of medication that you could buy at a drugstore. However, I think the idea of a mother going through the process of making it creates a sort of connection between her and whoever is wounded, making the healing process a communal thing.