During the voyage of the flagship of the Soviet scientific fleet "Vityaz" across the Indian Ocean, the ship entered the small island of Nosy-Be, located not far from the coast of Madagascar. On this island is the Oceanic Institute. The ship stayed there for several days, and the director of the institute, Professor Polian, arranged for one of the participants in this voyage and the renowned French psychiatrist Professor Saint-Urs, who had specially arrived there, an excursion to the hut of the sorcerer Rethram, widely known on the island, who specializes in the treatment of severe mental illnesses.
A large, spacious, but dilapidated sorcerer's hut, covered with palm leaves, stood in a small clearing among the bushes about 300 meters from the village.
Inside the hut was covered with herbs, turtles' shells, dried fruits of some unfamiliar plants, dried carcasses of bats with wings spread out as for flight, mummies of lizards with bizarrely curved tails and some other creatures unknown to Europeans.
On the earthen floor in the center of the hut there was a small hearth, from which a narrow but thick jet of bluish smoke stretched up to the ceiling and, dissipating somewhere in the rafters, fell down in fog. A strange scent spread in the hut. As eyewitnesses later recalled, this aroma, on the one hand, resembled the smell of clove oil, on the other, something indefinite, similar to how at the beginning of the last century the dresses of our grandmothers smelled, stored in chests that were 30 years old, or even all 50, nobody opened and ventilated. In fact, a pleasant, but somewhat intoxicating smell was spread by the yellow flowers of ylang-ylang, which girls collect in the early morning, climbing tall trees.
When the guests entered the hut, there were already seven patients sitting along the walls, and the sorcerer was humming some mournful song, which, apparently, had no end or beginning; walked slowly around the hearth and, having made the next three circles, stopped in front of one of the patients, dipped a small broom into a bucket of liquid and sprayed the patient. In response, some patients lifted large bowls from the floor in front of them and took a sip of the thick, dark liquid from them. The intoxicating aroma, the twilight of the hut and the monotonous chants, which at first did not seem unpleasant, very quickly began to have a depressing effect on the Europeans. They wanted to close their eyes, clasp their heads in their hands, so as not to see or hear anything, to forget about all their affairs and plunge into oblivion.
The influence of the sorcerer was so strong that when this main part of the procedure was over, the guests needed outside help in order to recover and gain the ability to move.
The chants lasted more than an hour, then the sorcerer suddenly stopped, shouted some kind of spell in a guttural voice and poured the remnants of the liquid into the hearth from a bucket. Immediately, as if on cue, fourteen youths rushed into the hut. They took the patients by the arms and led them to the river. There, the sorcerer had a small pigsty that blocked the view of the river, and what was happening on the bank remained hidden from the eyes of strangers.
From there, the patients were brought to the shore one by one, brought into the water up to the chest, three times forcibly submerged under the water and kept there for a long time. When, after the third dive, the patient was released, spitting and gasping for air, raising his head out of the water with bulging eyes, the sorcerer threw a giant chameleon in his face. The animal was used as a kind of test. If the patient was horrified and flee, that is, in the opinion of the audience, showed common sense, he was considered recovered, and he was allowed to go home. All seven patients were declared healthy that day.
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The chameleon was used as a test for a reason. In Madagascar, these animals are not loved and are afraid of panic. You can be convinced of this by reading the numerous sayings, proverbs and legends in which chameleons are mentioned. According to these legends, chameleons are small but very dangerous spirits of the forest. In the language of the Sakalava-Dyubuina and Tsimikheti tribes, they are called, respectively, "tsini" and "nala", which literally means "the spirit of the forest." The people of the Baranarungana tribe call the chameleon the word "andru", that is, "misfortune", and the Merina tribe - the word "Ramilaheluka", which means "the one who makes you guilty."
The people of the Betsimisaraka tribe say: "If you step on this little animal, expect a great misfortune." Or again: "Better to step on a deity than to trip over a chameleon." Indeed, people are afraid to accidentally collide with this creature. They claim that they are able to feel the presence of a chameleon from a few meters away, and bypass the places where these animals can be, and if it was not possible to avoid a meeting, they await inevitable misfortune for a long time.
Madagascar healers share this superstition, but unlike their patients, they are not afraid of chameleons, but use them during their witchcraft rituals and simply to determine whether the patient has recovered or the treatment needs to be continued.
Boris SERGEEV