Browse:Wrongside Out (Volume 1, entries 1068–1072)
Wrongside Out
Volume 1, entries 1068–1072. 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 1068
They say that chew kin take an' wear yore clothes that's next to yore skin - turn it wrongsides out an' wear that, an' bath in household ammonia and in saltpeter - a little pinch, an' a teaspoonful of cinnamint [cinnamon], an' bathe in it. Throw it Tused bathwater] to de sunrise and that will turn dere works back on dem. (You mix all these ingredients up in the same water.) The same water an' put it in three buckets of water in a bathtub or in a ordinary tub and bathe in it.
(What do you mean by putting it in three buckets?)
Three buckets of water - three, "Name of de Father, de Son and Holy Ghost."
(Warm water or hot?)
Warm.
Entry 1069
I can tell you, but I will tell you this because there's lots of people that don't believe in the Bible, you understand. But there's nothing I kin tell you without givin' it to you OUT OF THE BIBLE. Now, this is what you do. You get you some saltpeter. You know what that is. Put that saltpeter and cayenne pepper - that's red pepper ground up, that's what they mean - mix that together and you raise that sole, the inner sole that's in the bottom of your shoe, and you sprinkle that under there good. You take your underwear and get up in the morning and put it on the wrong side and at exactly twelve o'clock of the day you take it from the wrong side and put it back on on the right side. And then you take some of that saltpeter and you take a bath in it; put it in the water and bath yourself good and nobody can't harm you. [Informant's OUT OF THE BIBLE may mean some hoodoo book claiming to be a revelation from God, but I think the meaning is any cure comes from (is approved by) the Bible because the Bible believes in witchcraft - see introductory note, p.361.]
Entry 1070
You get a pair of hose an' - course if it's a man he get de white but if it's a woman it doesn't make any diff'rent in colors - an' put these stockin's on you, wear them. An' if you get up the next mornin' - when you go to bed at night if you take 'em off an' they're turned wrong side outward, you still put em on the same way the next mornin' until after nine nights and days, and then after, when the ninth night and day is over, you get a bottle of sweet spirits of niter, a little knife blade [small blade of pocketknife] of lye [the steel in the knife blade is a part of the ritel, an' you put that in the amount of water tha' chew wanta bathe with, an' make you a big hot fire. Be wearin' those socks. At the end of nine days they should have a hole in 'em, but if they doesn't have a hole in 'em you have to wear 'em until they does git a hole in 'em. An' then you take saltpeter and put it into those an' make a fire even if it's in August an' throw 'em in the fire an' say, "Rid me of my enemy." Partly why it don't make any diff'rent [it is difficult] for a woman because they're seen when they dirty. They wanta change 'em [which would ruin the rite]. But the socks the man wouldn't have to let nobody seen 'em because his trousers be's over 'em.
Entry 1071
They say if a person is trying to harm you and don't like you or some- thing of the kind like that, they say you must take your underclothes and turn them on the wrong side and wear them like that for nine mornings. See. And get up and repeat the Lord's Prayer three times a day. And that's why, they say, your enemies can't harm you.
(I see. Each morning you repeat the Lord's Prayer three times a day.)
Yes, three times a.day - nine, twelve and three.
The informant reports a practice said to avert an enemy's harm; neither an attack nor protection is verified.
Entry 1072
You take your last piece and wear it on the wrong side.
(What do you mean, the last piece?)
Your drawers. You turn them inside out and wear it on the wrong side. And then they can't hurt you.