Nombo's Metamorphosis



"Nombo's Metamorphosis" (Winqomtaj: Poñereci Nombombi Axwe ) is a Taj folktale explaining the creation of the white lomboy (Jatropha cinerea), a versatile medicinal plant with antiseptic, cauterizing and coagulant properties, used to disinfect and cauterize wounds and cure ailments like mouth sores and hemorrhoids.

Tale
The tale is set in the distant past and revolves around the young maiden and healer in training called Nombo (Winqomtaj: ) who had given birth to her first child. She did not put a circle of water around her baby's crib to ward off demons, and so, a demon snuck in and gave her baby a deadly fever. When she asked for advice, her teachers recommended baths and herbs, but nothing seemed to cure the fever.

She prayed to compassionate spirits for a cure. After five days and five nights, she awoke with her breasts aching and swollen. She breastfed her child to relieve the pain and, with every squeeze, she felt the child's fever go away.

Nombo told the news to her teachers and they wanted to test if her gift still worked. They brought her a sick old sage with cataracts, leprosy and a broken bone. The sage drank Nombo's breast milk and slowly regained her vision, her skin became clear and her bone healed. Nombo became an acclaimed healer, travelling across "the five queendoms" to share her gift.

One day, Nombo encountered a gray mountain lion with mange, pinned to the ground with golden spikes on each paw. The lion asked her to cure and feed them as a reward for being a loyal servant of the gods. Nombo removed the spikes and fed the lion her milk. The lion turned red and transformed into a demon. It thanked Nombo and ran away.

The next day, the people in the town where she lived were mutilated and torn to pieces, except Nombo. A spirit visited her and told her that to atone, she would have to share her gift with all beings and have her limbs torn everytime they wanted to access it. The spirit then turned her into the white lomboy, which shares the same as her in Winqomtaj.