Browse:Medicine by Proxy (Volume 1, entries 971)
Medicine by Proxy
Volume 1, entries 971. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → FOLK MEDICINE (1) PRINCIPLES OF HEALING. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 971
Now, I had some of that in our fam'ly. I remember, I an' mah aunt's boy rode eight mile from the'ah to play a game of baseball. Well, we go over the'ah. After the ball game wus over - those days whiskey wus in that country an' bein' wild, we thought we drink a little whiskey wit de boys after we win de game. We played with those boys an' they give us a real nice time. All right. So that night when we get back - we live in a little country town at that time out from Sewanee [Tennessee] - it wus a supper. It wus on a Saturday night. So we puts our horses up an' we go out to the supper. And one our niece's daughter's wus runnin' for a watch - a prize, and she says to me, she says, "Cousin Rob, '' she says, "give me somepin on mah prize." I says, "All right." When she got around to the other boy, Johnnie, she says, "Cousin Johnnie," she says, "give me somepin on mah prize." He says, "All right. He give a dollah, I give a dollah. At the main time, he says, "Alice, I don't feel good, like I'm gon'a live to see you wear it." And she wus for winnin' the prize that Sunday - takin' up a collection. The one who had the biggest collection won the prize. About ten minutes after he said that, he set down. Well, he gets dizzy head he said. All at onest he fell ovah. When he fell ovah, ever'body in the church, somepin like a church supper, they rally [really] had things to sell - well, I'm gettin' scared - thought perhaps - well, our people didn't know we drank whiskey and I thought perhaps he'd got too much whiskey, you know. Now, I'm scared now, and didn't want nobody know that we evah taken a drink. And all at onest - it wus an ole man there wus somepin like whut they call a two-head man, a witch, he comes up and he says, "Miss Howard," he says, "your boy's hurt." And another one of our aunt's boy had driv out there [to church supper] that night in a buggy. And this ole man say, "If you go to Tullahoma" - guess you heard of Tullahoma, Tennessee - "and get ole man Jack Cleveland and get him to come here and see your boy, 'cause he's hurt." He wus a fortune teller, this man who's tellin' it. And it wasn't anyone to go, and it just somepin came to me, said, "You go." I'd nevah been to Tullahoma, the dirt road, in mah life; but I'd been through there several times on the train. I knowed nothin' about the dirt road. And so mah cousin said, "There's the buggy and mare." He says, "If you drive 'er," he say, "and try to git there," he says, "you kill 'er, we got some mare." And I jis' gits in de buggy and - goes right out through de supper and gets in this buggy. And I drives as fur in de country as I knowed. When I got in this [unknown part of the] country somepin come to me, says, "Slackin' your line." I give this mare the line. She goes right straight to Tullahoma, three mile on de other side of Tullahoma, and walks up to this man gate and nickered. And when this mare nickered, this man come to the doah. Nevah seen 'im before in mah life. He called me directly by my name, told me directly before I got out whut wus the trouble. I came in the house. I'm scared after he told so much. He sent one of his girls to take the mare and put her up. He says, "Come in." I set down. I'm scared. He taken a silver dime, he filed this dime up into a glass of water, some of it, and he says, "Take a drink of it." I drank it, scared to not drink it, [being] young. I drinked that. He says, "Now," he says, "You've driv your mare purty hard," he says, "it over eighteen mile." He says, "In the morning we'll go." And he says, "Your nephew [cousin] is poisoned. He's poisoned about a girl, they tryin' to make him marry her, and the girl said he's not guilty of whut he's 'cused of. And he's poisoned in eggs." So it wus that next day, it wus Sunday. That wus Saturday night. We rest easy that night. Next morning we gets up and hitches up and we drive. When we git to our house, mah aunt's house, he say, "You go ahead and put your mare up. Well, when he step in de house - in those days we had those ole muzzle-loader shotguns, it wus up over a rack; but, he takes this gun off of the rack and gives. it to mah aunt, but tells her nothing. All right. He says, "De one that poisoned this boy, I'm gon'a bring him here so ever'body Will see 'im." And white people knowed de boy, and there wus several [white] people there to find out how he got, 'cause he's awful bad. By me drinkin' this silver killed de pains in him and ease him till he gits there. Well, after he did that, he calls this man [the poisoner's] name three times. This is true. This ole man name wus Sam H. [a white manl. He come runnin' down the big road, a lane, with his shoes off, barefooted, in his sock feet, and bare- headed and no coat on. He runs right up in de yard. He says, "Miss Howard," he says, "How is Johnnie?" And she says, "He's restin' purty well this morning, Mr. H." He turn around and he breaks right out up the lane just as - an' I reaches up after the gun and he pats me and says, "I taken kear of that." All right. He goes under our steps, but I don't know whut it wus. He taken out a little red sack about so long. In those days we'd saw a gum tree down and split it and make steps out of it. And he raises up that step and he takes it out. He takes this boy and put a tin tub under him, and he ask ever'body to come in de house. When they came in the house he taken a tin wash tub and set it by de bed. He retch over and he got this boy and he spoke in de Name of de Lord. He rubbed him in the back of his head and he commence throwing up. Jis' what he said that he wus poisoned on that night, he threw up - nothing but eggs clogged in him, eggs what would been cooked. He had ete those at this man's [Mr. H's] house. After he did that he laid back, laid back on the bed, and he rubbed him. And he says, "Now listen, ' he told 'em, ever'body, he says, "I don't put no spells on nobody," he says, "but I do mine in de Name of de Lord," he says, "but I don't know," he says, "he's got sich a holt on him," he says, "he may live five years, he may live ten." All right. He [the patient] gits up [well]. We ran together, we played ball a year or two together. One day him and I were at the woodpile cuttin' wood. This man [Mr. H.] came down de road - he'd been passing right by de house that they said poison him. He came down de road and this boy when he seen him coming, you never heard him cuss around before, he said, "Yonder comes that God damn bald-headed son-of-a-bitch" - commence to dancin', jis' dancin'. When this man gits to be even with him, he runs out and jis' splits his head wide open with this axe, killed him right there before anybody git a holt. And he jis' commence dancin' aroun', and says, "Oh, I told jah I'd git yah; I told jah I'd git yah." They caught him and sent him^to de 'sylum. He lived three days in de 'sylum. And before this child that he wus 'cused of being with this girl, before this child wus born, he [the conjurer] told directly who would be the father. And the girl never did 'cuse de boy of wrong. Her father and mother were bad black folk. He say, "When this girl bring this child it'll be a white-man child." He told de people's name. And it was true. He's a grown man today. He's livin' today.