Salsa Analgesica

The place is Mexico and the year is about 1450, but this year is known as 10-Tochtli on the calendar used hereabouts. We're in a corn field with an Aztec farmer named Tuhaczatl. Actually, he isn't really an Aztec. He belongs to a tribe ruled by the Aztec Empire, one of many such tribes in the Valley of Mexico.

Yes, the Aztec are the Mesoamerican folk with huge pyramids and advanced mathematics, but that really wasn't of much concern to Tuhaczatl. He was more worried about getting this season's corn harvested before the thunderstorm came, and about that aching tooth in his mouth. Okay, he might not be able to control the weather, but the toothache was his own fault. If he hadn't started that shoving match yesterday with the tax gatherers sent by Emperor Montezuma I, they might not have whacked him in the jaw with his own hoe handle, and he'd be feeling a lot better right now. But Tuhaczatl had a hot and spicy temper, and it didn't take much to get him in a fightin' mood. It didn't take much to beat Tuhaczatl, either, as he was the scrawniest little agriculturalist in the whole village. Whenever he'd come home good and bruised from a probably well-deserved beating, his mother Xitaxlican would yell at him and tell him that a little guy like him should be more careful about whose feathers he ruffled.

Yesterday had been no different. "You ought to know better than to go start picking fights with Montezuma's thugs! After all the times you've been clobbered you'd think someone would have knocked some sense into that hard head of yours!" Xitaxlican grunted as she beat a dried jalapeño pepper into a fine powder with a smooth rock.

"But Mom—"

"I don't want to hear any more of your lame excuses!" she barked, all the while scraping the powdered jalapeño into a small earthen jar filled with honey. "I promise you Tuhie, this is the LAST time I'm going to patch you up! Understand?!"

While it became clear to Tuhaczatl that his mom might run out of patience before he ran out of teeth, Xitaxlican stirred up her honey-pepper mix and took it outside to the mud brick oven beside the family hut, and baked it awhile to let it caramelize. It just so happened that Xitaxlican was the village tepalehuiani, or midwife, and responsible for dealing with routine illnesses and injuries in the village in addition to delivering babies. She knew which plants might ease a given pain and what berry made good teas for treating this rash or that bloating. And she knew that when her kid had a tooth knocked out in a fight, the best way to soothe the pain, if not Tuhaczatl's temper, was a gooey salve made from honey and hot chili peppers.

This goo, once applied, took some time to take effect. But the next day Tuhaczatl was feeling well enough to join the rest of the village in speeding to get the corn crop in before the afternoon thunderstorm drowned them all out.

We don't know whether Tuhie learned his lesson this time, or whether Xitaxlican made good on her promise not to patch him up any more, but we do know that the goo she used to treat her little troublemaker worked because it contained a molecule we call capsaicin. We can't say what made Tuhie's temper ho,t but it is capsaicin that makes chili peppers hot. And it strangely acts as a pain reliever as well.

Next: Recurring Themes