**4. Owls in traditional healing**

There seems to be a worldwide consensus that owls can be used as medicine for healing some diseases, although the effectiveness of any owl part of medicine has not been proven or even studied. Many of the folk remedies survive and reappear throughout the world at different times. How we all happen to hold similar beliefs about parts of the owl's anatomy is partially a mystery. In some cases, the transfer of such beliefs is easy to trace; for instance, many of those held in medieval Europe originated in Greece and Rome, and those held in North America would have traveled to that continent with, say, the slaves of Africa and, later, with European immigrants [26].

The body parts of owls are used in both curative and preventive medicines (**Table 3**). In curative medicine, they are mixed with herbs and/or parts of other animals and given to patients to ingest, use as a lotion, or place on burning coal and inhale the smoke emitted. In preventive medicine, the preparations need not be in contact with the body. The owls or their parts may be buried at a chosen point around the home to keep away bad spirits and illness or be carried in pockets or bags as good luck charms [27].

Not so many details have been written on the use of owls in folk medicines, although some medicinal applications seem to exist for a variety of owl products. Different parts of the owl's anatomy have been and are highly prized as ingredients for indigenous systems of medicine [27].

In Germany, the first natural history and medical encyclopedia was published in 1491 [28] in which it was recorded that treatment for madness included the placing of owl ashes on the lunatic's eyes. This attempted cure was doubtless based on the principle that the owl's wise vision could, in this way, be infused into the madman's wildly distorted vision [29].

An interesting medical belief is that eating raw eggs of owls would cure a person of drunkenness (**Figure 2**). The eggs of an owl should be broken and put into the cups of a drunkard, or one longing for drinks; it will work in such a way that he will suddenly loathe his liquor and be displeased with drinking [30]. In Gironde, France, the same cure involved an omelet made using 5, 9, or 13 owl eggs. The belief presumably came into being because the owl is such a studious, solemn-looking bird that it was felt to epitomize sobriety and therefore to lay sobering eggs [29].

Greek writer Philostratus (ca. 170–250 AD) said that owl eggs made into soup as the moon wanes was the cure for the sickness, and when given to children, it would ensure lifetime sobriety and temperance. It was also presumed that one could restore

#### **Figure 2.**

*Owl eggs have been used to cure a person of drunkenness. Photo: Grayish eagle owl (Bubo cinerascens) eggs/ courtesy of Clive R. Barlow.*

clear thinking or reason after a night's boozing by consuming owls, especially their eggs. People would eat the eggs beforehand as a prophylactic against drunkenness (Mark Cocker, *in litt*.).

A variation of the owl-eggs-for-curing-drunkards theme saw the eggs administered repeatedly in glasses of wine (**Figure 3**). At first glance, there appears to be a basic flaw in this version of the treatment, but then again, perhaps the eggs made the wine taste so vile that even this method eventually worked [29].

One much-acclaimed cure for gout (in earlier times, it was believed to be only the classic boozer's complaint brought on by over-indulgence in alcohol) calls for the sufferer to take an owl, pull off its feathers, salt it well for a week, then place it into a pot and close it with a lid, and put it into an oven so that it may be made into a "mummy." It is then finally mashed, mixed with boar grease, and smeared liberally onto the affected place (**Table 3**).

There is also an old belief that owl soup will help to cure whooping cough. Again, the entire body of an owl is needed to make the soup. This is based on the idea that owls hoot and whoop so much without doing any harm that a broth made from their bodies should cure the disease [27, 29]. Today, due to animal protection, the genuine recipe may, in any event, be hard to come by, but the authentic version is said to beat any modern medicine!

There is a common Indian belief that the meat of an owl is a potent aphrodisiac [21]. On the other hand, in other places and at other times, this "tasty" morsel could cause loss of memory and, if you are particularly unfortunate, result in complete insanity. Also, in India, the eyes and flesh of owls cure some diseases. For instance, seizures in children could be treated with a broth made from owl eyes, and rheumatic pain is treated with a gel made from owl meat. A nomadic Kuravar tribe in India also stated that owl meat, particularly liver, eyes, and flesh, could cure the diseases associated with lungs and eye-related problems [29, 31].

**Figure 3.** *Glasses of wine and owl eggs could cure drunkenness—Especially owl wine. Photo: Courtesy of Rudolf Schaaf.*

Clouston [31] reported that owls' eggs and the blood of their nestlings preserve the hair and make it curly. The Shoshone Indians in the United States believed that dandruff could be cured by simply putting your head inside the burrow of the burrowing owl (*Athene cunicularia*) and shaking your head.

### *Owls Used as Food and Medicine and for Witchcraft in Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108913*

The ash obtained by burning owls' feet together with the herb plumbago is considered a nostrum against snakebite. This is not quite as silly as it sounds because owls kill with their feet and their legs; feathering also gives some protection against prey bites, so people might be justified in thinking it would be just as effective against snakes. Along these lines, there was another bizarre medication in Germany that helped you to avoid being bitten by a mad dog and contracting rabies. You must place the heart and right foot of an owl under your left armpit. Luckily, people in Germany have stopped placing parts of owls under their armpits, thanks to modern medicine against rabies [29, 31].

But in Africa, it is still a general belief that eating the eyeball of an owl would give a person night vision due to the owl's ability to see in the dark. It is interesting that also in northern India, it is believed that if one eats the eyes of an owl, they would be able to see in the dark [21]. In Zambia, for instance, the dried eyes of owls are mixed with other traditional medicines and used by hunters so that they can see clearly and aim at targets during night hunting. According to North African belief, it is essential to know which eye to use, for one eye of an owl sleeps, but the other is permanently wakeful. To tell which one is which, the eyes must be put into a bowl of water; the sleepy eye will sink, while the other will float [1]. In ancient Europe, it was not necessary to eat the eyes, but only applying an owl's tears to a person's eyes enabled that person to see in the dark [32].

In Algeria, owls were used to cure blindness and headache [33]. The advice was to go to an owl's nest and blind all the young ones, and then line the nest with cotton wool. When the female owl returns, she will bring medicines to cure her young, and some of that medicine will fall upon the cotton wool. That can be removed later and used on the human eyes. If the bandage is soaked in a special lotion (fidili + runhu) and tied around the head, it will act through the eyes and cure headaches. Thus, some Tripoli women tie this kind of bandage continuously to their hair on the right side and never suffer from headaches [33].

It is a popular belief in Morocco that the Barn Owl (*Tyto alba*), and often also Little Owl (*Athene noctua*), is thought to cure skin diseases; the birds are killed, cooked, and eaten. It is also believed that "powdered owl," applied as an ointment, is the ideal cure for eye complaints. The remedy for earache is by injecting into the ear an owlet's brain or liver, mixed with oil, or by applying the mixture to the parotid gland. Owl feathers are also of use to man—when burnt over charcoal, they are a good cure for rheumatism. In India, rheumatism is also treated with a gel made from owl meat (**Table 3**).

Commonly, owl's egg soup was reckoned to be effective against epilepsy, the only snag being that it had to be prepared when the moon was on the wane. Folk medicine advocates strain their ears to hear the magical hooting of an owl, guaranteed to banish the severest symptoms of influenza. Again, like in India, seizures in children could be treated with a broth made from owl eyes (**Table 3**).

In South Africa, owls are still used for healing purposes, and it is estimated that 70 percent of the black population makes use of the services of traditional healers [34]. Traditional medicine or "muthi" is a billion Rand business [35]. The apartheid era placed restrictions and censures on this industry, which forced most traditional healers and sangomas to operate in secrecy (Suppression of Witchcraft Act of 1957). The post-apartheid era has allowed traditional healers and the use of traditional medicine to venture into the limelight. Traditional "muthi" medicine markets are now found in all major cities and throughout rural villages within South Africa. The decriminalization of the traditional medicine markets and sangomas in post-apartheid Africa has resulted in calls from traditional healers to be afforded greater recognition within the medical

fraternity. These calls extend from the ability to advertise themselves as doctors to the issuing of valid doctors' notes for illness-related absenteeism within the workplace [35].

As in many cultures globally, owls have featured prominently in South African folklore and mythology. The use of owls and owl parts, although acknowledged, has to date not been qualified or quantified within the traditional healers' "muthi" chest. Through site visits to "muthi" markets in South Africa and the partition of traditional healers in a simple questionnaire, the uses associated with owls and their body parts have emerged. In addition, insights have been gained into the collection and identification of owls by these healers. The so-called "muthi" owls in South Africa are distinct as they are used for both traditional cures relating to headaches and insomnia as well as for spiritual curses and "witchcraft" [35].

Mrs. Zodwa Khumalo is one of those healers in Durban. According to her, there are a variety of beliefs surrounding owls. Alive, they may be a harbinger of bad news or evil spirits, but once dead, they can be used to help people with little energy who sleep during the day. She tells people: "You must wake up in the day. You are a person, not an owl." And then, they must take some medicine made with the owl [34].

With the influx of both legal and illegal migrants in South Africa through undefined borders, the reliance on traditional healers and their remedies will likely continue to rise [35]. Also, in Zimbabwe, the traditional medical business is booming, and this has had serious implications for raptors and other birds used in medicine [36].

In Malawi, south-eastern Africa, where a comprehensive study of owl beliefs, legends, and myths was done [5, 24], owl-based medicines were mainly used for bewitching and killing people, but not so much for healing many diseases.

The idea that owls can be used as medicine for healing some diseases is based on the traditional precepts of sympathetic medicine, whereby eating an animal or parts of it enables the patient to not only benefit from the meat itself but also absorb the physical and moral characteristics of that creature's sharp night vision, very good hearing, and the like, as mentioned above.

Therefore, it is unlikely that traditional healing will end soon. It has even been increasing at least in Africa, which has alarmed many people interested in birds from a scientific or recreational perspective [37, 38]. However, more owls are likely killed on roads by motor vehicles, or lost through habitat destruction, than are sold in medicinal or "juju" markets. But by ensuring a supply of owls for traditional healers, environmentalists could also conserve certain vulnerable species.

In 2000, I raised a not-so-well-defined suggestion that common, easily managed species of owls could be bred in captivity to satisfy some of the demands for body parts of owls from practitioners of traditional medicine. I assumed that this would provide legitimate, readily available material, which would reduce some of the pressure on much rarer species in the wild. My biologist wife, Anita, found this suggestion repugnant and so did many other readers of my paper [39].

After the wife of Bernard Sayers visited the commercial farming of non-domestic animals (crocodiles and tigers) in Thailand, Bernard commented [40] on my wild suggestion and found it a little more acceptable should it reduce the threat faced by so many rare owl populations. The owl keepers could produce enough barn owls for medicinal purposes and thus avoid the unnecessary killing of African Marsh Owls (*Asio capensis*), Madagascar Red Owl (*Tyto soumagnei*), or African Grass Owl (*Tyto capensis*) and other rare species because a medicine man does not know the owl species.

It has been noted in Africa that tourists are flocking the stalls of medicinal street markets and finding how African people use indigenous materials fascinating. If we accept the fact that crocodiles and rhinos are farmed, why not rare birds and owls?

*Owls Used as Food and Medicine and for Witchcraft in Africa DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108913*

Bernard Sayers [40] concluded his writing on my suggestion: "So shall we see Barn Owls or other species of owls farmed commercially to supply the international trade in traditional medicine. I do not pretend to know the answer, and, in many respects, I hope it does not happen, but if through well-run commercial farms the temptation to take much rarer species from the wild is reduced then I guess that it must be the lesser of the evils. Should such an operation arise the critical issues are to ensure that farms are well run, the birds well cared for and the conservation benefits maximized." Then he concluded: "I appreciate that commercially breeding non-domestic animals for slaughter is an extremely emotive and highly sensitive topic and it would be interesting to learn the views of other members (of The International Owl Society)." Due to very strong points of my wife on encouraging questionable medical treatments, I had already decided not to say a word about this suggestion any longer.

However, recently, Haw [35] has given almost similar suggestions to be explored. Wildlife rehabilitation centers and zoological gardens routinely receive owls that require euthanasia, which could contribute to "muthi" markets and this way reduce the exploitation associated with the wild harvesting of owl species by traditional healers.
