Browse:Alder (Volume 1, entries 1093–1094)
Alder
Volume 1, entries 1093–1094. 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 1093
Take yo'self - you kin git somepin and fix 'em up - dress yo'self so nobody could harm yo'. (Well, what do I get to dress myself?) Yo' could take three dimes and go to de graveyard - three dimes and three matches and three new pins, and any place you kin git some of dat dust, you pick it up and yo' pay 'em wit de matches and de dimes. Pay de grave. Take up a little of dat dust and fix 'em up together, understand, and git some of rock salt. Take some of dat dey call de elder [alder].
(What?) [Words alder and elder are frequently confused.]
Yo' know de elder [alder] dat grow in de creeks like, you take dat [graveyard dirt] and you fix/it wit dis elder [alder] and you bile 'em you understand. You boil 'em together and you git some gunpowder and you sew it up and wear it round your waist or your neck. Nothing could harm you....
(What do you do with that money and pins...?)
Well, ah tell yo' what ah do wit de money. Now if you go to de graveyard and don't pay 'em, dat one goin' - you understand, he.do somepin to harm yuh. You go and give him a dime. Now 'fore you git some dust - heah, yo' see [demonstrates]. You'll have de matches wit de pins stickin' in de matches head. Put dat dere and put a dime dere. An' you come back and you git some dirt. You do de same thing and when you done, you say, "De Lord giveth and de Lord taketh away, Blessed be de Lord." An' you walks straight away - back out.
(With this graveyard dirt.)
Dat's de graveyard dirt. Den bring it home and you go down to de creekside; you find yo'self a creek. Sometime dey find 'em in de tide - de root in de tide like, you see.
(The alder.)
Den dey git some of dem and dey bile 'em together, and when yo' done boilin' 'em you take dat same stuff and take the things out, you understand....
(What do you do with that graveyard dirt?)
You put de graveyard dirt and de elder [alder] root together and you bile it. Den when you done biling dem, understand, yo' take de water - leave it go off. You take de elder [alder] and same [graveyard] powder and you sew it up in a root bag or cloth or something like that and you wear it from your waist or from your neck and nobody can't harm you.