Browse:Poison (Volume 1, entries 648–652)
Poison
Volume 1, entries 648–652. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DOCTOR AND DOCTOR: TWO OPPOSING SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 648
[Since sickness is not natural but a condition caused by witchcraft, the doctor claiming to understand and control it lives in a world of magic and false knowledge. To illustrate this, take the word poison in No. 647:] Well, ah kin tell yo' two-three little stories about that. Mah mother onest, she was hurted - she was dressed by mah father and she suffered and she swole up jest big as a bale of cotton, dat big, and they didn't know anything to do for her. All doctors could not do anything fo' her. So there's a ole lady name Miz Chapman, she came to our house since we lived dere.
(Where was she living then?)
In Orrville, Alabama. An' dis lady come in an' she says, "Pore thing," say, "you're poisoned - you were dressed by yore husban'." An' she begin to rub her and rub, and fin'lly de swelling went down, and she give us medicine to take to get her up. And she tole us - it was on the ninth of the month, which it was de first of the month then when this happened - said, "This woman that hurt chew will come in an' ast yo' how yo' feel." And so on that day this woman walked in de room and ast her - ast mah mother how she feels. Mah mother tole her fine and she walked out.
(How did your father dress your mother?)
It was some stuff that this woman put on hr - it was poison, some kind of perfume dat dis woman puts on mah father, yo' see, and de minute dat it hit mother - de one that it was for [see No. 653], it throwed her into fits.
(Where did she put this perfume? On what part of the body?)
Put it under his arms. (What else did that woman do to get rid of this, besides rubbing - did she do anything else?) She give her a bottle of medicine to take.
Entry 649
She was goin' with a woman's husband. She asked her to give him up, but she wouldn't do it. She talked to her three times and told her. She wouldn't, you know. And she says, "I'll make you leave." This woman told us after she [woman going with husband] was dead. She [wife] said she taken a penny and taken the skin off of a red onion. She rubbed it all together. You know a penny is poison. And she put that penny up and she let it dry right dry and make a powder of it. She dressed her husband with it - dusted his clothes. And when he went back [to the other woman] - see, it got on her. And it turnt her jis' as wrong side out. No doctor couldn't git it back. It turnt her wrong side outwards. She died. Jis' turnt her whole womb and everything. It came out. That's what I call trickin' 'em. [Cf. No. 10, p.7.]
Entry 650
Mah brother-in-law [was] poison once. Dis man [was] drivin' a truck an' dat [same] man poison him, an' de [boss] man fi'ed [fired] him an' put mah brother-in-law in dis othah man's place, so dis man couldn't git [back] de job dat mah brother-in-law got [therefore he] want put him out de way, kill him or somepin. Well, he say, "Ah kin git him out de way." He didn't bothah [my brother-in-law] yo' know. So he went to a man, he know some roots dat would - de rootworker tolt dis othah man, give him tuh do it tuh mah brother-in-law, give him some grease [dressed with roots] tuh put on de truck; yo' know, on de automobile, on de truck do'.
Entry 651
You go down in the field and git manure, but you have to git a certain kind of manure. You have to git bull manure, not cow manure. Git that and wrap it in a red handkerchief. He claimed he was tricked. He let someone use his hammer and something they put on his hammer got on his hand and kept him from work. [This proves that he was poisoned.] Some one of these two-headed people that he was dealing with told him he had to git some bull manure. Well, I was jist a boy and they sent me to go git it. I go and git that bull manure and go and git some pokeberry root. Get the he pokeberry root. There's two kinds, a he and a she. The he one is white and the she one is red. The she one has a red skin on it, she come up out the ground. They git that and mix up with this manure together and cook it together and put that on him [his arm] and bind it down. He got so he went to work again.
Entry 652
Ah heard that if a person bit chew that had them blue gums, you would spread that [see later] over it an' it would kill de sore, but yore [the biter's] teeth would drop out or something of that kind like that.
(Well, what do the blue gums have to do with it?)
Well, dey claim that would poison yo'. (The person with the blue gums would poison you. And this chicken manure will take it off. What kind of chicken manure?) Black.