Browse:Transferred to a Stranger (Volume 1, entries 997)
Transferred to a Stranger
Volume 1, entries 997. 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 997
A silver dime in the bath-water - taking a bath in the tub at nighttime, not no day - zinc tub, a washtub. After bathing, keeping the water in the house all night, throwing it out in the middle of the street where someone pass at. The man or woman passing picks that up, picks up all your bad luck and everything that went wrong with you. You git along fine, you as anybody else.
[I stop the machine to ask for a clearer account.]
In the bathtub that you goin' bathe in, you see, you take de water, you put the silver dime and a nickel which is fifteen cents, odd money. Heat the warm water, pour it on the fifteen cents. After takin' this solution - with parsley, granulated sugar, with Karo syrup, ammonia and Jockey Club perfume, see - pour it in the water and bathe from head to feet, leave it stay in the house all night. That next day you throw it out in the middle of the street near to 4 o'clock that morning with the fifteen cents. Of course you know, if anybody passes money on the street, they will pick it up. The one who picks it up, well they picks up your bad luck and you start a new true life again. [For cures, see Transference in Index.]