More tala stories

Earlier I wrote about the tala and the trouble it can cause. My friend Dominga confirmed its existence. Her own father fell victim to the tala!

Her father, who passed away not long ago, was a carpenter. During the war he had a lot of work replacing furniture that had been destroyed during fighting. People became very jealous of him, because as their lives were getting worse, his seemed to be improving. So someone put the tala on him out of envy. His leg became covered in boils and swelled to a large size.

He was a devout Catholic, so he refused to believe that he had fallen victim to witchcraft and, even worse, that his cure lied in witchcraft. Finally, his sister brought the curandeiro (traditional healer) to the house and the two of them were able to convince him to take the cure. The curandeiro made several small cuts on her father's leg and rubbed the herbs in.

The next day he was fine.