The Story Of Golden Oil
As a child, Mamanjoon told me a story. It was a summer day and a young neighbor’s son came over to my grandmother’s house to play with her children. The family had a German shepherd that was very close to my Aunt, Nana. As the kids played in the garden and the young boy wrestled with Nana, the dog mistakenly thought that he was trying to hurt her. So he attacked the boy and took a big chunk out of his ankle. When the gardener rushed to get Mamanjoon, she immediately sent him off to get her magic oil from the (zirzamin), the cellar room where she stored all her potions.
He ran back carrying the big dark lapis blue bottle, a bottle of orange Mercurochrome (a disinfectant to clean wounds used back then) and bandages. Mamanjoon kissed the boy and held him a while to calm him down from his hysterical crying and reassured him that everything would soon be all right. She proceeded to clean the wound – the calf muscle was apparently hanging from the cut. She placed the muscle back in place and gathered the skin together. The gardener very carefully dripped the golden oil into her left palm and she rubbed it all over the wound, while holding it in place with the other hand. Together she and the gardener wrapped the bandage around the boy’s calf. She then gave him some fresh lemonade and sent him off.
So you ask what was the golden oil that was kept in the lapis blue jar? Well, it was castor oil into which were infused scorpions that had been caught in the garden. It turns out that scorpion oil has amazing healing abilities. The story goes on. Mamanjoon sent the butler to the boy’s house to ask his mother if he could sleep over for a night or two as other family children were coming over and they would have great fun. On the third day, Mamanjoon called the feisty young boy and removed the bandage to check on the wound. The skin was firmly attached, the calf muscle in place and there remained only a faint pink line to show where the horrible wound had been. And he was in no pain or distress.
