Goathide Wind (羊皮蛊)

There is a type of black magic that lies between poison and curse said to be originated from ancient Yunnan, China. It is very difficult to translate this type of magic to English but the Chinese used to call it ‘gu’ (蛊) for thousands of years. The character ‘gu’ is mentioned in I-Ching as ‘mountain-wind’ (山风), so I have taken a liberty to name ‘gu’ as ‘rotten wind’. As the matter of fact, the victim of this type of black magic will often show a symptom of ‘rot from inside out’. Since, this type of wind comprises of poisons and germs, it is exceedingly difficult to cure by magical means alone. More often than not, the victim maybe left die rotten away even in the eyes of the modern medicine unless the types of germs and poisons are found in time. Luckily, this type of evil wind is normally practised by the Indochinese mountain tribes who stay far away from our civilizations. Further, this type of ‘wind’ will not be released easily unless a person has done something very wrong towards another party and that there is no possibility of further negotiation.

There are two known lethal animal hide wind that I know. I have posted the cowhide wind in one of my blogs, and the other is the goathide wind. The difference between the two is that the cowhide wind causes a victim to stuffed till dead and the goathide wind causes a victim to suffer from skin deceases that cause his/her skin to become inflame and rotten away.

Whoever wishes to make this goathide wind must first obtain a goat and then feed it with hot and spicy foods. The goat would refuse to eat the spicy foods but when it is hungry enough and there are no other choices; the poor thing will devour those foods anyway. After the goat consumed those spicy food, it would definitely feel burning hot and wanting to drink water. At this point, the goat is again fed with large quantity of hot chilli water. This action will certainly make the goat even more jumpy.

At this point, the sorcerer would take a knife and shave off as much goat fur as possible. After that, a mixture of chilli powder, lime powder, bamboo fur etc. is applied onto the goat body. At this point, the goat would feel that its body is burning hot and becomes very jumpy and restless. This goat will suffer for another 10~15 days before it dies in agony. At this point, the goat carcase would become swollen as if a drum and its skin would be dry and extremely tight.

As soon as the goat is skinned, and the hide is burnt to ashes and pulverized. The powder is stored in container prepared to be used.

This goathide powder is normally mixed into food and beverages. Once consumed, the victim would not feel any uneasiness until one month later. After one month, red spots would appear on the victim’s skin and the victim would feel extremely itchy and started to scratch his/her body. At this point, the victim’s skin would become thin and any type of contact will make him/her feel as if being poked with needles. A few days later, this victim’s body will be full of bloody injuries caused by his/her own scratches.

If this victim is still untreated properly, his/her body will start to swell as if a balloon. His/her skin would become thin and tide. In due time, this victim would be suffocated by his expanding internal organs.

Unfortunately speaking, there is no known remedy for this goathide wind to-date. On the other hand, it is extremely difficult to come by this type of evil wind… unless you have visited mountain ranges Indochina and offended some local VIPs…