Browse:Adam-and-Eve (Volume 1, entries 1092)
Adam-and-Eve
Volume 1, entries 1092. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → CURE AND PROTECTION. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1092
[The term Eve-and-Adam is more frequently used than Adam-and-Eve, a proper name for the plant, but what an informant means by either name I do not know - it could be a plant from six or seven genera. Since one informant calls this root (possibly a corm) Adam-and-Eve-and-Their Son, I would identify it as puttyroot, common name for Aplectrum hyemale, a North American orchid producing annually a solid corm, "two or three of which remain strung together." When there are two, we have Adam and Eve; when three, the son is added. This could suggest The Trinity or The Holy Family, but as often as I heard the plant named I remember the son once. Adam-and-Eve, like lodestone and some other objects, is one of these He-and-She ingredients - see Index.] Ah knows that. Ah had a cousin, she lived in Oil Town, Arkansas. She got poison, see. Dis woman had her howlin' [like a dog - see No. 775, p.256, and second cure under Dog in this subsection later]. Now, ah know this fo' a pus'nal fac'. She wus howlin' an' sometimes she jis' crawlin' on her knees, see. Stood up diff'rent times though. Mah uncle taken her tuh her daddy - he [daddy] taken her out heah tuh Newport, tuh Ca'Zine Dyer. He taken her out theah. She got some rattlesnake dust - ah nevah will fo'git this, an' she made some little bags an' she hung one undah dis arm an' one undah dis one, an' she went an' got some dat Eve-an'-Adam dust an' she place it on cousin right heah [demonstrates]. Now, mah cousin wus crazy - she wus stone crazy.
(Right on her breast?)
Yes. She wus crazy. One [bag] wus made outa rattlesnake dust an' one [bag] wus Eve-an'-Adam dust. Dis one right heah dat's Eve-an'-Adams' dust on yore chest, an' dat whut she put undah her arm dat wus rattlesnake dust yo' see. She put one undah each one of her arms. An' when she got that Eve-an'-Adams' dust, she put that little bag an swung it right there. An' she tole mah uncle tuh buy a bottle of turpentine an' say, "Now, fo' nine mawnin's straight yo' git up an' fix yore water in a washpan an' let her wash her han's fo' nine mawnin's straight an' throw it to de.east." An' mah cousin wus jis' crazy - she wus jis' howlin', she didn't have bita sense. An' when dat woman put that on her, she come back home an' she tole her mama, she say, "Ah feel lak a diff'rent pusson." Dat wus in Newport, [Arkansas]. Strictly brought her back to her min' an' she didn't have sense 'nuff even to entertain mama.
(How did he fix this water in the morning?)
Ah'll tell yo' whut chew do. See, yo' git some watah an' yo' put it in de pan an' yo' put that turpentine in there fo' nine mawnin's straight. Yo' see, yo' take it in yore han' jis' lak yo' goin' wash yore face - co'se lotta folks use a face towel but yo' use it jis' natural, yo' see. [For use it jis' natural, see also the Uncle Ben Mackey story, No. 918, p.337.] Rub it ovah yore han' and stroke it down ovah yore face an' throw it tuh de west. See, throw that tuh de west, an' yo' say, "Lawd, heah am ah. Take all mah troubles an' heal me, In de Name of de Father, Son an' Holy Ghost." Co'se ah wus with mah cousin when she do that an' she wus crazy. She wus jis' as crazy as a rud [red] lizard [see Index].
(When did this happen?)
Dis happen in 1929, Oil Town. An' ah nevah fo'git de woman's name dat did dat [spell]. Her name wus Lou T. [At a later date we shall meet Caroline Dyer again. See near end of my interview with Madam Collins of Memphis in Interview section.]