Browse:We Are Two: Father and Daughter (Volume 1, entries 861)
We Are Two: Father and Daughter
Volume 1, entries 861. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → THE DOCTORS THEMSELVES: BIRTH TO DEATH: DESCRIBED BY LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 861
[The double team is somewhat usual: woman and boy friend, man and girl friend, husband and wife, father and daughter, and others. Frequently one member of the duo came to investigate me before the doctor part of the team appeared - in New Orleans, Peg-Leg's doctor-wife refusing to see me until my second visit two years later:] I've been vitchcraft. An' it became a sore on mah leg - a pimple. So it get larger an' larger. An' I used a lotta medison an' none of it didn't do me no good. An' so I had mah fortune tole, an' dey lady tole me I wus hurt, an' she tole me to get her father an' he would tell me whut it wus an' where to fin' it. An' so he tole me it wus at mah back windah an' down at de one of de side of mah baid. So I had him to come an' get it up. An' it wus nine needles, stickin' pins, in a bottle.
(What sort of sticking pins?)
Straight pins - an' matches an' some kin'a liquid medison.
(This bottle was buried at the back window.)
An' dey [at the baid] wus somepin in a little rag tied up jis' de way dey had my leg bandaged. An' he took them. So he burn 'em up. An' dey dis pop loud lak a pistol ball shoot. [While burning the cunjure article, it is fairly common to hear a loud pop or see a bright light or different colors - trick preparations.] So he tole me he wus gon'a fix me somepin to take an' he got some - he tole me to get some sulphur an' tole me to take nine doses, two doses a day. So I took de nine doses an' stop. Then he tole me he wus gon'a give me some liquid medison, an' to take two doses of dat a day till I take a quart. So I took the liquid medison. [This is the liquid and dry medicine cure.] It looked like some kin'a black draught, syrup. So I took that an' dey's somepin come out on my side jes' broke out, an' dey's a lotta puss come out. An' he tole me if it crost mah body, it would kill me. [The doctor evidently diagnosed shingles or herpes. "When the two ends of a chain of shingles meet, the patient will die" - FACI,2ed., P.240; 16 cures.] So den I commence gettin' better. He fixed a plaster an' put on that sore, hit was all aroun' mah leg, an' it broke out up dere [she points.].
(On the left side of vour head.)
Yes sir. An' my han's swoll up an' dey broke out. My toes wus swollen an' dey broke out, too. So I couldn't do nuthin. An' he fixed [a second] plaster an' mah leg commence to gettin' better an' I commence comin' back to mah right min' den. An' he 'tended me right on.'He come to see about it. He took that plaster off an' it was jest about healed up. It wus some kin'a brown salve.
(On this plaster?)
Yes sir. I don't know de liniment wus it. He put a muddish looking plaster on it - it looked like sut (soot) an' lard. So he tole me when I taked it off to carry it to sunrise an' bury it, the second [plaster].
(What did he do with the first plaster?)
Burnt it up early in the morning. He tole me to wait two day [magic delay] an' to take hit up an' then mah leg's well. An' hit wus done healed up an' well in nine days [magic time].