Browse:Ants (Volume 1, entries 1099–1105)
Ants
Volume 1, entries 1099–1105. 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 1099
I have known a woman who had a swelling from her knee down - from her knee down she was miserable. It hurt her, it kept her in terror, until she got so she could not walk. Finally, when the people had tried everything they knew to rub with and to bathe her legs with, her foot continued just to be swollen in such a nature of misery until she could not bear any weight on it. On a certain day an old woman came by the house. She said, "What have you done for that leg?" She asked how about her foot. They said, "We have done everything we know." She said, "Will you do this?" She said, "I will tell you what to do. You go out in an old field and when you find where these big red ants have made their nest" - it has a big hill, usually there is a lot of young ones in that hill - "you carry a pot with you, take a shovel, go around four ways around the nest and let it go in the ground. Then you just scoop that nest right up on the shovel and put it in that pot, all the live ants you can get, and cover the pot up and take it home. Put it over the fire, get some chamber lye, put the pot on the fire, put the chamber lye in, shut it up tight, let it get hot with the ants in there. When it gets hot and you know the ants is all dead and the dirt is hot through, open the pot, take a piece of cloth, spread this ant hill out on the cloth hot, apply it to the leg, as hot as she can bear it, bind it there and in her instep, bind it good and let it stand. I guarantee you that it will take the misery out of the swelling, because she has been cunjured." That was in Orangeburg County [South Carolina]. I saw the person. I saw the ant hill. I saw the poultice. And the next day she could put her foot to the floor. In four days she could walk. They repeated that twice and the leg Was healed. [New York Citv. (10, Ed.]
Entry 1100
Well, as fo' de red ants - if yo' have a chile dat waters de bed an' yo' kin git it tuh urinate in a pot, yo' kin put it in a red ants bed an' stop de chile from wettin' de bed.
Entry 1101
Yo' kin take a red ants nest an' go to it fo' nine mawnin's - dat if yo' wet de bed - fo' nine mawnin's, if yo' weak, a weak bladder understand. An' go to it nine mawnin's 'fore sunrise an' pee on dat, an' dat'll check dat up.
Entry 1102
If yo' were hurted - if someone take an' done somepin to yo', yo' see - take a red ant an' boil 'im. Take two or three of 'em, yo' know - two or three of 'em an' jes' boil 'em, boil down. Take 'em an' put 'em in a pan of water an' let 'em boil down to a tea an' drink dat, dat will take dat thing off yo'.
Entry 1103
Now if a person put a spell on yo' an' yo' have headache all de time, yo' kin go to one dem big red ants nest an' take a flour sack - a sack, yo' know or somethin' an' take up de whole, jes' as much dat nest as yo' kin. An' take it back home an' put de whole thing in a pan or kettle an' boil it. An' then bathe yo' haid in dat same watah. An' don't throw it out - jest bathe in it 'bout three times an' throw it tuhwards de sunrise. Dey say dat takes dat spell off yo' - yo' won't have dat headache spell no mo' or whatevah dey put on yo' like dat.
Entry 1104
He got in love wit a woman an' he wus a married man an' he wus about tuh quit home - say, he couldn't he'p himself. [This sort of thing is often considered a spell put on a man or woman; even a drunkard drinks because of a spell - see No. 78, p.33.] So he said he went to a ole man [doctor] an' de ole man tole him tuh take a pair of his socks an' put it in dat red ants nest. An' he did so. An' he tole in a certain period of time tuh go back tuh de ants nest an' look at dose socks. An' he said he went back dere an' dey jes' look lak a net, yo' know. An' he [doctor] said, jes' de same as he wus fond of dat woman, jes' dat same way dat he an' her were jes' lak dat, an' he would nevah go back dere any mo'. He jes' weaned off from her. Dat's all ah've evah heard about dat ants nest.
(And your cousin did that in order that he would stay with his wife?)
Dat's whut he did.
The informant narrates instructions to put socks in a red-ant nest; the later relationship change is a reported outcome.
Entry 1105
They carry assafitidee in a bag round their neck to pertek 'em from hoodooism.