Browse:Pain Is Crossed Prayer (Volume 1, entries 1027)
Pain Is Crossed Prayer
Volume 1, entries 1027. 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 1027
[An example of crossing pain was given in Crossmark Cure (p.365), where a boil was willed or intended away. In the following rite the operator asks the spirit to cross or remove the pain - this is prayer:] Ah wus hurt. Ah caught a pain in mah side an' ah stayed sick aboat - it wus t'ree veeks [weeks] befo' ah give up, you know, in de baid. An' ah got a veak [weak] an' ah turnt re'l black. An' ah vent tuh de hospital. Dey couldn't do me no good. An' ah get, you know, medical doctah, an' none of dey [not dem] couldn't do me no good. So I vent in baid on it, stayed in dere t'ree veeks, an' dey [family or friends] had a root doctah tuh come an' zamin me. An' t'wus somepin in mah side wit a pain. It seem lak it keep movin' up - you know, lak somepin turnin' aroun' in yer side. An' she [root doctor] said dat she didn't know no [internal] medicine or nuthin lak dat would of kilt it, but she could of fix an' rub it. She take a penny an' some sulphah an' gas'lene an' salt an' pu-tit tuhgethah an' tell it to cross de pain - yuh know, cross it, cross de pain wit it, zhoo know, jis' rub it. She had tuh mix it all tuhgethah in a jah [iar] an' sha-kit [shake it] re'l good. Yuh see, dat penny get right brown - I mean lak sulphah. Fus' [first] t'ing, she take [starts] to rub it - jis' do lak dat [demonstrates]; made a cross ovah de pain wit de medi-seen. Den she jis' rub it straight down fuh nine mawnin's an' tole me to stay in de baid aboat five days. An' aftah she rubbed it fuh nine mawnin's, den I would of been able to get up, you know, an' walk aroun'. An' it sure did help.
(Did you find out who had done this?)
Dey find it. It wus some needles tied up in a little claht [cloth] an' stuff down in a bottle an' undahneat' mah baid, you know, undah de house. An' den undah de [outdoor] step it wus some match haids an' some kin'a seeds. Dat wus in a bottle. Dat wus undah de step. She found it an' brought it in de house an' sprinkled salt ovah it an' take it wit 'er. [Sulphur, as well as salt, is used to sterilize a hoodoo object - see No. 897, p.328.] She tole me ah could of keep it an' pu-tit in a runnin' watah an' it would do de same good, but ah'd ruthah, yuh know, let 'er care [carry] it off. [Wilmington, N. Car., (231), 155:2+85; happened 1932.] [I would like to illustrate further this important rite of talking over disease or ailment among persons of German descent in Adams County, Illinois:] ["Ten or eleven years ago (1920-1921) I came upon a superstition which was quite new to me at the time. Questioning a little girl about the health of her cousin who was suffering from a badly infected arm I was told that his condition was very serious, "Grandma had to talk to him last night." On inquiry I learned that Grandna knew how to 'talk over' people who were afflicted with wounds or sores and made them well, and that she frequently exercised her art for all sorts of people. She had 'talked over' Marie herself, but Marie declined regretfully but firmly to tell what she said. "You dassunt tell or something bad will happen." The school janitor to whom all the secrets of the 'South End' Ithe Calftown in No. 214, p.60] are an open book, told me that he knew several old women who pretended to this skill, and he mentioned one within two blocks of the school, a radius that would include Grandma also. I mentioned Grandma's curious practice to Mr. B., pastor of K. Church. He received the tale without any surprise and acknowledged that the thing was comnon. Walter [informant's brother] asked several acquaintances of German parentage what they knew about it, and he found that old women who will 'talk over' you can be found in north- east Quincy as well as in south Quincy. No doubt this is an old German superstition. It is certainly alive and flourishing in Quincy." FACI, 1st ed., p.206; 2ed., p.199.] [Miss Ella Randall, one of my great friends, wrote this statement as well as others and also gave material orally. She was interested in my collecting for FACI but died before the first edition of 1935. A copy of the second edition I presented as a memorial to her to the Quincy Public Library, where she for years had been on the Library Board. We first met during high- school-freshman English; she the elderly teacher, I the young pupil.]