" The Bones of the SEA" by Credo Vusamazulu Mutwa In olden days Africans regarded the sea with great reverence; they honored it as the dwelling-place of the Earth Mother and other great gods and goddesses. They also worshipped it as the source of some of the most important and valuable medicines that they had in the unending war against bodily ills. Zulu Kings as well as Swazi Kings used to send powerful expeditions to the seaside - healers escorted by powerful forces of warriors - to obtain calabashes, full of seawater and sea-sand as well as bundles of kelp and other forms of seaweed, all of which were important medicinal ingredients. Another thing these expeditions used to bring back was something called "AMATHAMBO OLWANDLE" (The BONES of the Sea) a thing, which Healers believed to be one of the Seven Pillars of Longevity. The Bones of the Sea was the African name for Coral of all kinds. Coral was regarded as the holiest substance ever to come out of the sea; our Kings had beads made out of it. Sometimes even garments that covered the whole body were made out of strings of coral beads woven into nets; Priest-Kings wore such garments on ceremonial occasions. Most of the time coral was ground into a fine powder and mixed with ostrich eggshell as well as red ochre, and this powder was swallowed with water by the King and his family once every four days. It was believed that powdered coral, whether mixed with powdered eggshell and red ochre or not, was not only excellent for bodily health but also had power to nourish and strength the soul itself. A warrior King recovering from wounds sustained in battle used to be given a daily drink of powdered pure coral, as did a royal wife suffering from goiter. A goiter sufferer also had to drink water in which kelp had been boiled- first thing in the morning followed by a large calabash full of cold coral water about two hours later. In 1936 I fell very ill, a long and debilitating illness that defied the efforts of mission - hospital doctors to heal, and it was my grandfather and his youngest daughter - my maternal aunt - both of them traditional healers of note who helped me out of that hellish ailment, and amongst the many traditional medicines they used, was a powder that smell of seawater, a white powder which I had to swallow with water each day - a powder my grandfather called the "Bones of the Sea"