In the wake of the Corona Virus Pandemic, we revisited what our elders ate in olden days Sibu, some for medicinal and health reasons and others for food to fill up empty stomachs.
Today, I bring to you one of the reasons why Foochows consumed some anteaters as and when they could (far in between even though anteaters were plentiful in those days).
Before the WW2, my aunts and uncles lived in Binatang, at the Mee Ann Rice and Sawmill.
In those days western medicine was not available easily and public health care was still in its very early stages in Sarawak, hence most families used their own traditional and cultural ways to treat ailments and common diseases. For example, Foochow kids who had bad coughs were asked to chew perilla leaves, while red beans and green beans were made into porridge to cure fevers. Those were among some of the cures prescribed by the elders and bare foot doctors in those days.
My mother said that as a child she never saw a single doctor although she heard of people who were admitted to the Lau King Howe Hospital in Sibu. For small ailments, they were given home remedies.
One of my aunts remembers how my grandfather cured their skin problems which developed from mosquitoe bites. During the landas season mosquitoes came in swarms and attacked the soft skins of the children.
My six young aunts and uncles suffered from itchiness and their scratching of the skin resulted in little bites which were red and puffy. In some cases, the bites would manifest themselves into large wounds which covered their legs especially. This was called, "Wet leg disease" in Foochow and it took a long time to heal.
The normal external cure would be to dress the broken skins or open wounds with powdered 693, a white tablet commonly used by the Foochows for open wounds. The tablets were quite effective but was later deemed a poison by the colonial government.
But my grandfather had an antidote for skin problems.
Each time an anteater was caught by a Malay or Iban man, my grandfathert would buy from them if they passed by the rice mill. He would slit the throat of the anteater, all stretched out on a piece of plank when a bowl of steamed hot water,sometimes with a drop or two of wine, was readied for him. Grandfather would let the blood of the anteater drop into the bowl of steaming hot liquid.
Then the children would line up for their dosage of warmed concoction of anteater blood and wine, probably about 2 tablespoons each. Most of them would try to escape from the dosages but grandfather was stern and no one would be too far away when he called them to get their curative medication.
According to my aunt, this cure probably gave all the sisters and brothers excellent skin when they grew up.
My grandfather must have brought this knowledge from the Wun Chieh mountains of Minqing where anteaters or pangolins were plentiful.
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