Browse:Silver Turns Black (Volume 1, entries 605–612)
Silver Turns Black
Volume 1, entries 605–612. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 605
Whut chew could do to pertect yo'self against it? Well, yo' kin take yo' a silver dime an' yo' kin take dat dime and put a hole in it. Yo' wear it round yore waist or yo' wrist or yore laig - any place you wanta or either round yore neck. Ah guess yo've seen dem wit dimes round dere necks hanging down. Well, whenever dat dime turns black - a dime is silver - when it begin to turn black, dey say dey trying to harm yo', see. But dey can't git up to yo' long as yo' wear dat piece of money - that silver dime. Well, yo' kin tell if they trying to throw at chew or do anything by that dime turning black.
Entry 606
Ah've heerd tell, jes' lak if yore laig swell or anything an' yo' [want to] find out yore poisoned, yo' take a silver dime an' band[age] it round yore laid, around dis swollen place, an' if there's anything did to yo' in that laig, why it will change de color of de dime, it will turn black. Well, if it's not, why it's jest natch'ly a swelling, de dime won't change color.
The account presents hearsay about a diagnostic claim; no cause of swelling or diagnostic validity is established.
Entry 607
I was talking to a woman the other morning. She was wearing a silver bracelet. She has been wearing it for ten years. If any poison is laid for her, it will go in that bracelet and turn it black. They will wear a dime on the ankle and if they are poison it will turn black.
Entry 608
Wal, ah tole him [Edward, my contact man] ah wus poison one time. An' ah had moved in a house an' de woman had dressed de hat fo' me 'cause she didn't Want to move out of de house, an' mah han's got so till ah couldn't use 'em - mah fingers, yo' know, jes' lak a person have poison. An' ah wus in jes' sech a bad fix - two doctors wus tendin' me. Ah wus jes' about - ah thought ah wus goin' die. So a gentleman recommend me to anothah man, but he went an' got dis man an' bring him to me. An' dis man put a silver dime in mah mouth, an' ah kept it in dere fifteen minutes an' dat dime done turn black. Den he took de dime after it turn black an' put it in a black fryin' pan an' he boiled dat dime in dat fryin' pan fifteen minutes. An' when he boiled it fifteen minutes, he took de watah dat boil in de dime an' gi' me a tablespoonsful of it fo' thirty minutes. An' in twenty-fo' hours ah felt as good as ah feel right now. An' two doctors give me up.
(You say this woman had fixed you in a hat?)
Dressed me in a hat. Ah had done took de hat down an' shaken it - sweepin' yo' know, de house out, an' didn't know dat de hat was dressed fo' me.
Entry 609
Take a silver dime an' place it in yore mouth undah yore tongue at night an' sleep with it undah yore tongue durin' de night, an' in de mawnin' when yo' wake up it will be black as yore coat [see Coat, my black, in Index] - den yo know yore hurt.
Entry 610
Put it round yore leg - that's a good way to tell when yo' poisoned or tricked or witchcrafted any way. Either yo' swallow it or wear it round yore ankle, or either yo' kin hold it in yore mouth. If yo' hold it in yore mouth ten minutes an' yo' take it out, it be black like [that] little thing here [switchbox for my Telediphone.]
(Did you say you swallow it?)
Yo' swallow it.
(How do you swallow it?)
Well, yo' jest swallow it jes' like yo' do bread or anything - it'll remain in yo' body.
(You don't swallow the whole dime though?)
Yo' swallow the whole dime.
(You mean the whole piece or do you scrape ft off?)
Yo' swallows the dime - the whole dime, an' it will remain in yore body some- times 'leven days [see No. 568], but yo' have to watch yo'self an' see when it appears, an' if it black, why yo' know then there is something wrong.
Entry 611
My mother she taken with a pain in the bottom of her foot an' we thought she had rheumatism - that's been around about five years ago [1931] - an' it continued to get worser an' the foot swoll up. An' she had the doctor an' the doctor kept dostin' [dosing] her with medicine an' she didn't get any better an' at last he told her, "Don't know whut in the world's the matter with your foot." So there was a man here by [staying with] a lady he's fixin' [doctoring] - he's suppose to be one of these root doctors or somepin an' we taken her down there to her house an' he looked at her an' examined her an' said, "You're sick - somepin that choo've walked over." So he told her to take three dimes, to put a quart of water on 'em an' boil it an' see if that foot don't turn black [when bathed in this water]. An' she did that an' sure enough it did, an' then he made her some kin'a grease looked like it was made out of mud. I don't know whut - he didn't tell us whut he put in it, but it black like that, an' he greased that foot with that an' he made a tea out of parsley an' give it to her three time a day - one of these wineglass full. She did that for four weeks but after she taken that these pains begin dyin'.
Entry 612
I know a lady in Baltimore, she was taken to the asylum. She was hurt with some kind of white stuff. Someone next door throwed it in her hair. She Was crazy. A man told us he could cure her. The day she was to be taken away he came to see her. He put a Bible under her head and told us to wash her head with tobacco and we did so. Before he did that he taken a glass of milk, he taken a silver ring off of his finger and let it stood in this milk, and give it to her to drink. It [milk left in glass after the drink] didn't turn black, so he said she wasn't hurt inside. He said let her go on to the asylum and he guaranteed in four weeks time she'll be out. So we did. He give me a [dressed] handkerchief, a brand-new one. He told me don't let my hands touch it, carry it to the asylum and give it to her to wipe her face. And I did. I could tell a diff'rence in her before I left. In four weeks time she was at home.