Chapter 75

“Thank you,” Mota said and continued his narrative, “Healers came to see me and complained. They demanded I turn people away if they were not from my village. I told them I did not ask the people to come but that they came of their own accord.”

“If the other healers were as good as you, then people from other villages would not have come to you.”

Mota nodded. “I told them that the people had freedom of choice. I offered to teach them my knowledge and this angered them. They said I was telling them that they were inferior to me. That I was better than them. They said if word got out that I was teaching them it would only ruin them altogether.”

Samnom shook his head in disbelief.

“I then offered to give the money the people from other villages paid to me for treating them, to the healers in those villages less the cost of my ingredients for lotions and cures. They refused. They said I was trying to set them up for ruin and that they would then be indebted to me.”

Samnom listened int