THE THINGS WE DO...: The layered lady that makes you weep (08/12/01)

THE THINGS WE DO...

by Orysia Paszczak Tracz

The layered lady that makes you weep

"Ishla baba z hir, a na nii sto shkir, yak yiyi rozbyraly, vsi nad neyu plakaly." (An old woman came out of the mountains wearing a hundred skins. As they undressed her, all cried over her.) No, not an x-rated story, but a riddle (zahadka). And the answer? An onion (tsybulia), of course.

Back in Orysia's down-home pharmacy, we're talking about a very common, indispensable and useful vegetable. Apart from sweet pastry, can you think of many dishes in which onions are not used? What can top a slice of fresh dark bread spread with butter and covered with chopped green or white onion?

And along with its particular aroma and taste, the onion has very many medicinal properties. Sure, I know, eat a raw onion and everyone will keep away from you - this way you will not catch others' germs. But that is not what I mean by medicinal properties. And besides, according to the book "Liky Navkolo Nas" (Medicines All Around Us), you can get rid of the unpleasant odor in the mouth by chewing a fresh parsley root or sweetflag (an aromatic marsh plant, called ayir or lepekha in Ukrainian).

The tsybulia contains many nutrients, including vitamins, sugars, iodine and acids (including sulphuric, which is what irritates your eyes when you peel the onion). Apart from having a good taste, the onion helps as a diuretic, an anti-bacterial agent, an expectorant and a cosmetic. The fresh juice of a tsybulia is used to remove freckles, warts and pimples; it even encourages hair growth. It improves the appetite, digestion and sex drive. The onion helps in preventing infection, aids in healing hemorrhoids, heals wounds and lessens pain. It also helps in problems with breathing, cirrhosis of the liver, arteriosclerosis, kidney stones, rheumatism and fungal skin conditions.

The encyclopedic dictionary "Likarski Roslyny" (Kyiv: Akademiia Nauk URSR, 1989) by the Faculties of Medicine and Botany, lists the chemical and pharmacological properties of Ukrainian medicinal plants and their external and internal uses.

Along with the raw onion, used for many intestinal illnesses, fresh onion juice is listed for many problems of the respiratory tract. For cough, bronchitis and whooping cough onion juice mixed with honey is suggested. The vapors of a crushed onion are inhaled for various respiratory problems. But it is not recommended to eat too much onion if one suffers from heart and arterial problems. Crushed raw onion (kashka) also helps ease the pain of insect bites. A sliced onion, baked and soft, is applied to boils twice a day to help them come to a head and burst.

A few years ago, on the Infoukes discussion group on the Internet, someone described how a nurse originally from Ukraine working at a youth camp someplace in the United States used a "primitive" method for a child's wound. She actually applied a sliced onion. How unrefined, the writer thought, how backward! Yet, in this age of overuse of antibiotics, of unpredictable results from chemical drugs and of the return to holistic natural health, that nurse used probably the safest, most basic remedy for the wound. Antibacterial, preventing infection. ... What could be better, cheaper and more available?

The specific properties depend on the variety of onion, of which there are over 400. It seems that in Ukraine the most common one must have been a reddish-skinned onion, because most of the riddles talk about a red-coated "lady" (only one riddle mentions a golden coat): "Vyishla pani v chervonim kaptani, khto na neyi podyvytsia, toi zaplache." (Out came the lady in the red caftan. Whoever looks at her begins crying.)

The onion was first cultivated in Asia. It was first mentioned by Chinese Emperor Shen-Nung, who had a particular interest in agriculture and who ruled between 2737 and 2697 B.C. In his text on agriculture, he wrote about the onion. The tsybulia is also mentioned in the Bible. In ancient Egypt and China, the priests and priestesses would not eat onions because they were considered food for the gods.

The onion was known and loved by the Romans, as well as the Germanic tribes who received it from them, and it quickly spread throughout the rest of Western Europe after the Crusades. It came to Ukraine from the Far East; Herodotus listed the onion among the foods grown in the land of the Scythians.

In Ukrainian folk customs, the onion is not as prominent as its relative, garlic. Before the new year, one way of telling whether the precipitation would be good or bad for the season is to peel 12 layers from an onion, giving each the name of a month. A bit of salt is sprinkled on each layer. The next day, the layers are judged. Where the salt is moist, the month also will be; if the salt remains dry, so will the month. Considering the accuracy of our contemporary computerized long-range forecasts, this is as good a method as any!

According to Ukrainian tradition, the onion was to be planted only by women. And it had to be planted before the frogs began croaking and before the first lightning of the season or else the bulbs would not form properly. It was also a symbol of the moon because when sliced vertically it showed all the moon's phases from crescent to full.

If planted on someone's grave, the onion and the bitter radish were symbols of derision, meaning that life with that person was bad. Chubynskyi gives the following verse: "Oy umer mii Davydko, pokhovaly - nohy vydko. Ruchenkamy zahribala, i sama sia dyvuvala. Tsybulkoyu poznachyla, petrushkoyu prytrusyla, redkoyu spomynala, bo hirke zhyttia mala." (My Davydko died, was buried, and his feet are sticking out. I covered them using my hands and was surprised at myself. I marked his grave with onion, sprinkled some parsley/parsnip, remembered him with radish, because I had a bitter life [with him].)

As an aid in fertility, and not only for humans, a wreath of onions was hung in a new pig sty as the pigs were let in.

For Easter, the best krashanky (the solid-colored eggs for eating) with the most beautiful terra cotta color are the ones made the ancient, natural way - from yellow onion skins. Just fill a saucepan with the external onion skins, add raw eggs still in the shell, cover with cold water and slowly bring to a boil. Simmer until the eggs are a deep shade. Be sure to start collecting the skins early - it's not that easy to amass a panful.

One year, someone in our family tossed my precious bag of onion skins onto the compost pile! I had to explain to the produce manager at the supermarket why I needed just the skins from the bottom of the onion bin. Between watching me select eggs for pysanky and glean skins from the bins, the staff gives me a wide berth.

Because it causes crying without real cause, the tsybulia is a symbol of hypocrisy. "She rubbed her eyes with onions" is said about someone who pretends to cry.

I have a lecture on medicinal plants which I have presented quite a few times. The title says it all - "Baba Mala Ratsiyu," or "Baba Was Right All Along."

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