Browse:Cow (Volume 1, entries 1196–1203)
Cow
Volume 1, entries 1196–1203. 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 1196
If lightnin' would hit a house an' whenevah dey would swallah some of dat flame or smoke dataway an' dey take de black cow's milk an' give 'em a drink of it, dat de only thing will revive him, yo' see, cause aftah yo' git hit by lightnin' or ketch smoke or anything dataway, it ketch yo' wit a sharp disease. If yo' kin git pure black cow's milk an' drink about a quart, dat will ease yo'. Dat de only thing would do yo' any good. It bettah den any medicine dat de physician give yo'.
Entry 1197
Use it fo' shingles. Yo' evah hear 'em tell of people usin' it fo' havin' shingles?
(No, tell me all about it.)
Yo' take that black cow's milk an' yo' wash dat whole place wit it. Yo' know de shingles starts in a patch an' yo' jes' keep it, yo' know, saturated wit dat black cow's milk.
Entry 1198
Well, ah've heard of 'em gittin' de blood of a snake, a poison snake, an' put it into whiskey an' give a person an' that will grow snakes in them, so ah've heard. When the snakes grow in a person, they kin take sweet milk an' mix it with the grease, which would be lard or somethin' - make a salve an' grease the intestines wit dat chew know, with this grease an' it will draw the snakes because milk will draw a snake, an' it will draw dem from 'em.
(What do you mean grease the intestines?)
Ah don't mean de intestines, ah mean de rectum.
(And the snake would come out that way?)
He come tuh git dat milk - vo' see, he git de scent of dat milk an' he'll gradually git so far he has tuh come on out.
Entry 1199
If a person comes back, they get some new lumber, put an addition to the house with the new lumber. And if that don't stop them [ghost], you get sweet milk and dress all the rooms with the sweet milk. You take the sweet milk and put it on and boil. Then you take something like a little broom, something that will sprinkle, and sprinkle all the rooms good with milk. That's supposed to stop 'em.
Entry 1200
Well, ah know de woman. Once dey had a woman fren', supposed to be, an' she wus jealous of her an' de boy fren'. So in comin' to dis woman's house she tried to break 'em up by talkin' to her an' she couldn't. So den she dressed de do'knob, dressed her do'knob fo' dis woman. An' dis woman dat wus dressed, it started from one finger as a red spot an' den dis red spot grew cross from finger to finger, every finger excepting de thumb. So dis woman's han' swole clean down to dis finger, an' got to de place where she couldn't open it, couldn't git it up ovah her haid, an' she re'lly didn't know whut tuh do. She did things an' did things an' fin'lly she wus told to git her chamber lye an' to put fresh salt in it an' to wash de do'knob with it, an' it would turn white, an' to do dat fo' nine days. An' den she tole 'er to go to a cow lot an' git dis hot passage from de cow an' put a plaster in her han' dat night an' de nex' mawnin' her han' would be as white as a piece of cloth, an' it would rid her of ever'thing. An' she did dat an' dat cured it. (She wiped off that doorknob each day for nine days. She didn't put any chamber lye on her hand or anything?) No - jes' de do'knob.
(All she put on her hand was this cow manure?)
Dat's it - one time. [For interesting story of cow manure on head, see No.967, p.362.]
Entry 1201
And there was another fellow here. His wife had his skin, his urine, his action and everything, she had it all in a bottle and had it buried an' that poor fellow - he was all he could do to walk, he could not straighten up and he bend that way for eleven months. And he couldn't eat anything but a little crackers, a little sweet milk. He came down there one evening dragging - he came in. She [doctor] went back in there - she had been out in the country and she got a big old cow turd and she tied it up in a rag and made him a big cup of tea. He drank that - he drank it, ever bit of it. She said, "Now lay down." " And he slept for about three or four hours and when he got up from there could stand straight. She give him 15c worth of castor oil and about half of a bottle of Sal Hepatica. That is what he needed and it cleaned him out. And she gave him mounds [incense molded into small conical mounds] to take home and watch his wife to burn. [While he burned the mounds, his wife was burning.] And I mean it took every bit off him, put it right back on her. She gave him the brown and black mounds to burn. He burnt these while his wife was gone and threw it right back on her. Just lighted them and burn them in the house where him and her stayed and slept.
Entry 1202
My mother, she was hoodooed at Miss S's house. I guess, if you ever been up on Cherry Street to old S's - they Was Jews - but she had a woman there named Tuley[?] S. Well, my mother was a pastry cook - she was making twelve dollars a week, but this other woman she didn't like that 'cause she wasn't getting the money. But if she got rid of my mother that would be her job. She hoodoo her in her shoe. She put somethin' in her shoe - just poisoned her same as a rattlesnake. She was a hoodoo. And her [mother's] feet come to bothering her and was swollen. Doc come to my mother.
(Doctor Robey?) [Informant had mentioned him in another story.]
Doctor Robey, and told her to go out in the pasture and get some cow manure where it's done got brown just like - just done caked up, and make a tea out of it. Get her a beef gall and -
(What was that - a beef gall?)
A beef gall, and take that beef gall and squeeze a little of that syrup from out of there - whatever it is - squeeze it into that tea and drink it. That stuff come out of her black as your hair - from out of - you know, black as your hair. And she before that - she didn't die neither. That ole man cured her. [My hair was dark brown. Usually informants said, "As black as your hat," referring to an old black hat concealing a microphone on the table - see Intro- duction and in Index, Author, black hat of.]
(Just put the beef gall into this cow manure tea?)
Into the cow manure tea. Boil this cow manure.
Entry 1203
In some parts of the South they claim, if you get some dirt from the cemetery and put it in a box and place it under the steps of your enemy, it will cause trouble in their home. And oft times they sought a cunjure man and he in turn gives them a piece of rawhide and tells them at intervals to tie a knot till that string is exhausted. That will do away with the evil spirit. [See Spirit Caught in Knot, p.389.]