Bucho encostado
Describes 'bucho encostado', a Madeiran folk name for an intestinal ailment (probably a torsion or spasm), and the healers' treatment by oiled massage, spoken charms and warmed cabbage leaves. The Elucidário mocks the charms but accepts that the massage may be effective.
The ailment known in Madeira by this name seems to be due to a torsion or a spasmodic contraction of the intestine. Folk healers usually treat it by repeatedly rubbing the belly with a hand smeared with olive oil, accompanying the rubbing with the following words, which must be said nine times: ‘as the myrtle opened and closed again, so this is true. May Our Lord be pleased to put this bucho, this belly, this coelheira back in its place.’ After a short rest, the healer says 9 more times: ‘little coelheira, go to your place; bucho, go to your place.’ The patient lies on his back while being rubbed. The healer ends the treatment by pouring olive oil or lard on two cabbage leaves warmed by the fire, placing one on the patient’s belly and the other on the opposite side, usually a little above the coccyx. If on the day after the treatment the leaves are dry, the bucho was ‘encostado’ (displaced); if they are green or wilted, the bucho was in its right place, and the patient must then turn to other means to seek relief from his sufferings.
What is ridiculous in the treatment we have described are the words the healer utters, apparently in order to force the bucho back into its place. As for the rubbing or massage, we dare not dispute its effectiveness, both because numerous cases of cure obtained by it are cited and because medicine also considers it useful in ailments arising from the causes we indicated above.