When we are little children we have a propensity for falling easily and this can create problems of susto for them. Susto is an illness that we see in children stemming from shock or severe fright. People also understand it as the earth grabbing them. When they suffer from susto (fright or shock) they do not sleep well. It as if they were reliving that instant over and over. It can also cause them to be slow in speaking or walking.
There are different remedies and techniques for taking the susto away from children. One involves passing an egg over the body of the child so that it absorbs the susto from which the child suffers. Of course, not anyone is able to pass the egg over the child’s body. It must be someone who has the ability.
Another way is to use bread. Other people call back their soul. These are just a few of the ways in which susto is cured. Now we will give you another that is much used in the countryside, especially when people slaughter a cow or bull.
In distant communities, where people raise cattle and farm, they often cure children of susto with a method that is not conventional in the cities. They take fresh cow dung and spread it all over the child, although not on their faces.
When they slaughter a cow or bull, they open their stomach and take the fresh dung they find in them. They also may put the child inside the cows opened belly. Otherwise they just anoint it with the fresh dung. The person who carries out this cure is an older person who has experience with this cure for susto.
It seems strange that people would do this and that it would work. But people from rural areas insist it works. Every time the slice the throat of a cow or bull they make sure to take advantage of the fact in order to cure a child of susto.
This is just one of the many traditions that continue strongly in our rural towns and communities that are part of our culture.
