Nopuko's Store: Micronesia Books WW2 Books Micronesia Shirts Island Videos Cell Phones & Service Computer & Video Games Cameras & Photo	by Patrick D. McMakin I was an anthropologist, on Guam collecting research data on medicinal and mystical plants. And I was in a dilemma. For a year I had cultivated a rapport with three of the island's traditional herb doctors, or suruhanos. Daily I escorted the secretive and venerable curers as they collected medicines deep in the jungle and cured patients with herbal teas and mystical body lotions containing ingredients like garlic and the ashes of white chicken feathers. It's a common occurrence.  You spend all your time in the field and your personal relationships disintegrate while you type field notes late into the tropical nights.  Then you meet another who is interested in your fieldwork and you fall in love.  I'll call her Larisa. The extremely perceptive suruhanos were quick to notice my discontent   my new source admiration belonged to another man.  Pensively they watched, but could only offer sympathy.  My three informants   Juan, Miguel and Jose   were bound by their Catholic faith never to direct their powers in a malevolent fashion.  There was no way they could use their mysticism to help me lure Larisa to my side. One afternoon, Miguel sat with me in the shade of a large mango tree in his backyard and told me he knew a Trukese woman in his village who made love magic.  A sorceress, unlike a curer, can direct her powers to benefit or harm the recipient.  Miguel was hesitant to mention the woman and asked me not to tell Juan   the master curer with whom I had so painstakingly developed a relationship.  As it happened Juan did find out, but he looked the other way as I was directed to Nopuko's house. As an anthropologist, I was excited at the prospoect of meeting a Micronesian sorceress.  Inwardly I was desperate.  I was devastated by Larisa's sensuous beauty.  But she had determined our relationship was futile and decided she would no longer see me.  I was ready to try the ancient Micronesian method of luring the woman of another man to your side. Nopuko, a 34-year-old "souroog" or sorceress in Trukese, lives in a concrete house subdivision and takes care of her five children while her husband, an American businessman, works.  She serves local Micronesians but also has Chamorros, statesiders, Filipinos and Koreans in her clientele. A sorceress, like the Chamorro suruhano, uses plant medicines, message and supernatural power to cure illness.  She also is believed to have the power to cause illness, both physical and mental, initiate small business failures and prepare love potions.  More importantly, a moral judgement is made by the sorceress.  I was required to explain my entire situation to Nopuko. Sorcery is a sensitive activity, especially in a predominantly Catholic community.  Nopuko takes clients only on referral from close friends, relatives and previous patients.  After learning the details of a case she judges the client's belief, sincerity and motives.  She then decides whether to use her knowledge and powers to intervene to cause a change.  Judgements are important because misuse of her power will anger the ghost of her father, who passed on the practice to her.  Also, the failure of a client to follow her instructions will cause her father's ghost to appear and Nopuko to become ill or insane. As a countermeasure against a client's mistakes, Nopuko casually mentions that if she detects a improper behavior in her visions she will turn her malevolent abilities against him or her and cause them to fail to achieve their goals, become crazy, or possibly even die. Nopuko was 13 years old in 1957 when her father, a Trukese sorcerer, became seriously ill.  She went to visit him and he handed her a piece of paper.  There were tears in his eyes as he told her that he had written down the formulas for Trukese sorcery and that it was time to give them to her and another sister and brother.  Not wanting to see her father cry, she left the room.  A few minutes later she heard the wailing of her mother.  Her father was dead. Since that time, Nopuko has been recognized as having the powers of Trukese sorcery.  After reaching a marriageable age, Nopuko used the formula for love magic to lure her husband to her side. An intense seriousness in Nopuko's expression led me to believe that she firmly believed she could solve my problem. Knowing I was familiar with local plants, Nopuko told me I must go into the jungle and collect the seeds of a large tree known as chopak on Guam.  This tree is most often found in the limestone forest along the northeast coast of Guam.  Walking down a steep, rocky trail in the hot afternoon, I wondered if I would be able to find the essential ingredient.  It became apparent that fatiguing demands made on a client demonstrate to the sorceress that they are sincere in their desire to utilize her services.  The mosquitos were fierce and I had difficulty finding mature chopak nuts because Typhoon Pamela had severely damaged the trees and they were just beginning to bear new fruit.  The first stand of trees had only hollow, worm-chewed seeds, but searching further, I finally collected enough of the large brown seeds for Nopuko to make the potion. Further instructions found me purchasing a bottle of aftershave lotion.  I rarely use aftershave lotion, but I quickly purchased what I learned was the base ingredient of Nopuko's primary love magic potion. Continued Larisa and the Love Potion, Part 2		No one said that potion ingredients smell good.
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