Subject:Fever
Entries
Entry 6953
Spidahs are good fo' fevah. Say yo' take de spidahs an' yo' boils 'em an' bath [not bathe] patient's body in de watah, an' dey'll recovah from fevah.
Entry 1407
Take de red onion an' split it open an' if yo' got hot fever, yo' kin bind it to yore haid or bind it to yore breast, anywhere 'bout chew lak dat, an' it'll break a fever.
Entry 1440
He [a root doctor] fixed me some raid bay. It grows jis' like a - jis' like that [demonstrates] an' all de stems on it is raid. [The heartwood of this small tree in southern U. S. A. is also dark-red.1 You kin take that [stems] an' boil it an' bathe in it nine time, but don't po' de watah out. [Use the same water for the nine baths.] When you bathe dem nine time, dat kill all de swellin' out, an' it'll kill all de fevah out choo.
Entry 617
Ah knew a lady one time, her foot gave her trouble - it just busted out in little water blisters and the doctor's medicine you put it on there and it almost run the lady crazy. And so ah chanced to be around there. So I asked the lady, I said, "Well, I've did everything I can," I said, "and we have to take the doctor's medicine off," ah said, "and [use] clear salt water." She seemed to have so much fever. Ah said, "I bathes it [with] hot salted water." And it seemed like that do her some good. "Well, '' she [third woman] says, "Well, ah tell you what to do,"' says, "I'm afraid to tell her but I'll tell you, '' says, "seein' as you," was a nurse." And I was a nurse in the home at that time. [She] says, "Why you take a piece of silver money, ' says, "and you put on a pint of water now and boil it down to a half a pint, says, "and then, if that money turns over and jingles very much," she says, "why you boil it again. You put it in a tin-cup, you know, where it could [can] boil quick, and then you boils it down to just about two tablespoonsful." And then we took sulphur and made a paste - sulphur in that water and made a paste and I went in and took a black hen's feather - she [third woman] told me to ketch a black hen's feather and pull one outen her tail. And I went and caught a black hen and pulled a feather outen her tail and I put that paste over her foot, and that's what cured the lady's foot. [My informant was not given any cure by a third woman or the patient; she is trying to hide from me that she is a healer.] She said that she was hurt in it - well now, she said that a lady showed a piece of false hair and she remembered that piece of false hair fell on her foot. And so after I told her how her foot got better - she got so she could walk den - ah told her what ah did. Then she went and seed a hoodoo doctor and they told her it was the dust from out the piece of false hair - it had poisoned her foot.
(False hair?)
Yes.
(Well, did someone drop this false hair to hurt it or?)
Yes, the lady was mad with her over another man, and they were wearing false hair then and it was the style of wearing the hair in a great big knot, and they'd buy this false hair, you know, to work in with the other hair, you know. Course, both the ladies had good hair, but see they were just wearing that for the style - see, made the style of the hair. And so she was showing her - that's the onliest way that she could get to her, you see, and she went to the lady's home, you see, and was showing her and this piece of hair dropped and fell on her foot, you see. See, she had it dressed especially for it, and I guess, prob'bly, the lady must have had on a house shoe or something like that, or eitherwise if she didn't, you see that dust just went right on through her hose - it doesn't take much dust you see to go through your shoes. And so that's what cured her - that sulphur and silver water [see No. 616].
(That caused the swollen foot and she went to the doctor for those blisters?)
Yes, those blisters.
(She went to the doctor?)
Went to the doctor and he gave her medicine and salve to put on there and they Was just almost running her crazy - wouldn't do her any good. They say doctor's medicine don't do anything like that no good, you know, and you'd have to take that off in hot salt water. It would ease her more and it just made the pain - it didn't pain her when that doctor's medicine wasn't on there, but now say you'd put the doctor's medicine on there, it would be painful, and this stuff just continued to spread. She had a very neat foot - she wore a number four shoe and she weighed around about 165 pounds - nice large legs - real good shape she was. And after that her foot got so that she couldn't wear that small shoe - had a pair of shoes there she never could wear - she had to get rid of them - they were black paten leather with the alligator inlaid - she couldn't wear those shoes any place any more. They said it was because, you see, that goofer dust powder was on 'em - they were dressed.
Entry 685
Ah was belonging to de Household of Ruth and ah was goin' dere to make some candidates we did. Ah was their wardess - that was, turning folks in, git de pass an turn 'em in. Well, de lady dat was in dere she was keeping books - secretary. Well, by me knowing how to write better than her, dey moved me from that do' an' put me secretary. An' she got mad wit me about it. Den whilst ah was in de entry room, dey sent me dere to help fix dose candidates. Well, after ah did dat ah seen her wit mah shoes, though ah didn't think anything of it.
(Where were your shoes then?)
They were at the chair where ah got up from to go to the entryroom.
(You had your shoes off?)
Ah'd taken dem off because mah feet was worn out from working all day and Walking there dat night. An' when ah put mah shoes on -
(Why didn't you say something to her when you saw her with your shoes?)
Ah didn't say anything 'cause ah didn't think anything - she was talking 'bout de shoe - her and dis ole man - ole-timey man - ole cunjurating [man] - was talking about de shoe being a cute-made shoe. So when ev'rything was ovah, dey had this festival downstairs for the help of the lodge. So ah'd gone down and all de balance when dey turned out up dere, we went down to de tables.
(This Sister Ruth business is the female side of the Odd Fellows?)
Yes, sir. An' ah got down [took ill] there - after dat was over and ah'd gone out to git in de car [someone was taking her home] then ah took de chill. Well, after the chill was over ah begun, yo' know, throwing up. Mah head ached all through dere. Well, ah woke up next mawnin' with a fever. Well, ah had de fever five days. An' after dat mah legs swoled about dat large an' mah foot - not but one - was about dis high. It shine lak glass. Den it became pi-ded [pied] - jest like a snake - brown and clar-water-looking - pided.
(Different colors.)
Well, dis ole man came 'long while ah hobbled to de mailbox - half crawled an' got down dere to git mah mail, and he said, he says, "Daughter whut's de matter?"
(This wasn't the same old man that was at the lodge?)
No sir, hit was one dat always went to cure dose things. He jest askin' me whut's de matter, an' he said, "Well, ah'm goin' give you something that chew kin git somebody that chew got confidence in to make you some tea to bath that laig, an' 'tween now an' de morning you'll see whut's in it.
(Tell me just how this tea was made.)
Well, she [a woman made the tea] tuk it an' put it in a little pot about dat high - de weed.
(What did she make it of?)
Well, ah didn't know mahself - he give me de weed, yo' know, but dey called it John de Conker, but ah didn't know it, an' she made de tea.
(Just out of this one thing?)
Dat one bunch of weeds [probably more than one kind of root], and give me tuh bath mah feet and bath it three times, 'fore de sun got tuh set. Then, when de sun begun tuh set, he tole me tuh tell her to throw it [toward] de sunset, an' ah'd see befo' day whut was in dat leg.
(You had to bathe that leg before the sun set. Then what do you do?)
When it begun tuh set, throw de water out. An' she throwed it fo' me - ah couldn't walk then, ah had to stay where ah bath-ed it at. An' dat night 'bout two 'clock she woke me up an' ah crawled to de fireplace and blowed up a light wit some matches - made up a light and looked down an' dere were five - looked lak young dirt daubers but dey were log sawyers - dey had dat little brown tip on der haids, flat, an' ah took a little white rag an' throw 'em in de fire. Well, Dr. Jedge Hopper [M.D.?] - ah sent fo' him an' he came an' put me some medicine on dere an' - it was red as blood - an' tole me tuh wrap it up. An' de next morning when ah got up dem places where them things Was healed together, an' from that on, why they begin tuh heal. [Here is the perfect situation to help a person be hoodooed - a tired woman, excited and important by lodge promotion, sees the displaced and hostile woman holding the shoe while talking to a well-known cunjurating man. Normally this Would have caused a suspicion if not a fear, but the flattery about the cute- made shoe, the second compliment of the evening deceived her. Our tired woman goes downstairs and overeats and vomits. There was no other explanation - she had been hoodooed.]
Entry 600
Mah husband, he wus witchcraft heah a little before Christmas, an' when he begin, he begin as a chills-an'-fevah. An' course I didn't know, you know, right then [that he was witchcraft] an' I had de doctor - de medical doctor. They say he had the flu. An' so he wusn't whut you call real, you know, sick like a medical doctor, you know. The medicine he give 'im - he give 'im medicine an' it didn't seem to do him no good. So his mind led 'im that he knew it wusn't pure sickness. So I had my fortune told an' it [her husband's sickness] wusn't pure natural. [This is diagnosis by proxy.] So they fixed 'im - a root doctor fixed him some medicine. An' it holp him, too; but you see, jis' like they put somepin down for yah, all the medicine you take it won't cure you. So I had someone to come to pick it up. I don't know exac'ly whut it wus, but it wus down under the - kin'a in the south part of the house an' right in the middle, jis' like you walk over it. An' this filth, of course you have to step in it. An' they taken it up, an' after takin' it up, you know, they kill it. They kill it with salt. An' then I had to - after takin' it up they put salt on it, wash it off, an' put it in a paper an' let it dry. Then I had to take it an' put lye, an' sulphur, red pepper an' gunpowder, put it in a quart cup an' put a quart of water in it an' boil it airy bit of the water out it, right dry, an' then take an' care [carry] it to a runnin' water an', you know, put it in. That's called, that's turnin' back on the one that did it.
(What was this stuff that you found?)
I didn't look in it becuz I wus kin'a scared. It wus a package. One wus a package an' one's a bottle. I had taken 'im to de hospital, you see. Of course I didn't know it [was witchcraft]. The same day I taken 'im hospital, that's the day I had it taken up. An' the one take it up says he'd find some relief in twenty-four hours, but not till it wus taken up.
Entry 993
Now the spiritual people when yo' go to 'em an' if yo' got any kinda disease or anything wrong wit yo', they would pray ovah this watah - dey call it de holy watah. They goin' pray ovah this watah an' yo' drink three swallows of that watah three times a day, an' when yo' drink the first three swallows it goin' make yo' sick, but chew keep on drinkin' it an' finally yo'll feel bettah. They do's that fo' some kinda sickness or fever complaint or anything lak that.
(Is that holy water that each person makes himself - these spiritual people?)
Yessuh.
Entry 1147
Well, there's a little willow that grows about that big [demonstrates height] and it spreads all out - it's called button willow. [Cephalanthus occidentalis L. Probably button bush - unrelated to true willows.] (It grows about four or five feet tall?) That's all.
Yes, sir, many thousands of 'em - look white - looks like a stone mountain flower when you off a distance - only this one is white. But when you get to it, ain't nothing to it - it ain't no flower. You take that and you get two or three limbs and break it up - small enough to get it into a vessel and boil it in a gallon of water down to a half gallon of water. And you kin take that and get you some grain alcohol and put you - well in that quart of water you put in about a half of a half pint and you sweeten it. You take a half of a half of a pint of grain alcohol, you understand, and you pour that into that half a gallon of button-willow water that you boil down, and then you sweeten it. And then you put you about - well, somewhere around about two tablespoonsful of sweet spirits of niter into that, and you let her take a tablespoonful of it about every three and a half hours. And them chills is going to leave her. Same thing with the typhoid fever. Hit'll sweat her and hit'll work her just the same as any other kind of medicine or purgative medicine that you kin give her - something like them - pills or calomel or something like that. Hit'll clean her system up ~ do away with those chills - yes, sir.
Entry 1237
If yo' have a fever, yo' know, take it an' put it in whiskey or brandy.
(The dogwood tree bark?)
Yessuh, de bark, yo' know whut ah'm talkin' about now. Yo' jes' skin dat bark off - de inside skin. (Any place on the tree?) At de sunrise side, but ah don't believe in dat. Anyway, an' yo' put dat in dere. It's a fine tonic. (You take that bark off the sunrise side of the dogwood tree and make a tea with it if you are running a fever. Any kind of fever?) Yes, dat's whut ah've heard.
Entry 1286
If anyone has a high fever - any kind of a fever - yo' goes to de swamp an' ketch yo' a swamp toad outa de watah an' cut off his tongue an' name dat toad aftah de one who had de fever. Throw it back in dis watah an' why his fever will become perfectly all right. He'll be all right in a few days.
(What do you do with that tongue out of that toad, then?)
Jes' throw it back into de watah.
Entry 1373
If it's a fever dat chew have nevah been cured of befo' - that is if it's a fever dat yo' wus goin' round wit - if it wus malary fever - that yo' could take an' tie nine knots in a piece of string an' take an' tie it round yore waist an' sleep wit it at night, an' git up in de mawnin' time an' go an' tie it round a tree - jes' any kinda tree an' leave it wit'out lookin' back.
(That would cure you?)
Yes sir, dat would cure yo' because ah've done dat.
Entry 1496
Jes' lak some people - yo' know, as chillen [children] - some peoples says when people have fits, says some people done hurt dem. [Fits are caused by cunjure or hoodoo.] Yo' see, dat's de brains. Jes' lak chillen have convulsions after burns from high fevah, dey burn a ole shoe - yo' know, pull off de sole an' burn a ole shoe to git rid of dat.
(What do they do with that when they burn the shoes?)
Dey don't do nuthin with it. Dey jes' burn a ole shoe - say that will stop yo' from havin' 'em.
Entry 6779
Mud daubah nest is only good for fevahs an' diff'ren' things lak dat. Yo' break dat up an' put it in vinegah.
Entry 6840
Dey use de hog hoof fo' curin' a person wit pneumonia. Yo' take de hog hoof an' bake 'em in de stove. Jis' parch 'em real brown an' den boil 'em, an' dat's a certain cure fo' pneumonia. It boils 'em, an' dat's a certain cure fo' pneumonia. It draws de fevah.
Entry 7202
Ah wus goin' wit a girl 'long [along] at dat time an' - well, ah wus engaged tuh marry de girl, an' de boy she wus goin' wit, she tole 'im. He tell 'er, "If yo' don' marry me, "' say, "yo'll nevah do dat othah fellah no good." Well, ah got in a li'le trouble an' ah got on a chain gang fo' six mont's. An' den when ah come back... [I interrupt.]
(Over this girl?)
Yes. Well, he wus livin' wit 'er, see. Ah come back on de 'leven day of March, he wus livin' wit 'er out cheah [here] tuh 'er house. She come tuh me, ah say, "Well, whut chew want?" She says, "Well, ah cain't ha'p [help] mahself." She say, "Ah don' love 'im, ah cain't he'p mahself." Ah say, "Ah don' see how come yo' cain't, yo' goin' wit 'im." Say, "He cain't pake yo' live wit 'im." She say, "Dere somepin othah wrong." Ah says, "Well, ah'll see 'bout dis." Ah jumps an' goes back tuh dis same fellah [in another story] an' tole 'im, ah says, "Heah, '' ah says, "ah has a girl fren' an' she's livin' wit a man, ah'm engaged wit 'er." He say, "Ah knowed all dat." An' he say, "Ah kin git 'haid [ahead] of dat if yo' want." Ah say, "Well, ah would lak fo' yo' tuh do it." Ah say, "How much will dat be?" "Five dollahs, " he says. Cheap. [He says this to me not to the doctor.] He got somepin in a jah [jar], a half-gallon jah, an' he gived me 'bout halfa pint outa dat. An' de way de stuff did look, ah couldn't tell whut i'twas. Dere li'le things jis' about dat long, look lak crawfishes. Well, he give me two drinks outa dat dat day ah wuz dere, an' he put a pint in a bottle. An' he tole me tuh give her a drink of dat fo' nine mawnin's, an' he tole me tuh git a piece of'er step-ins. Yes, ah got a piece of 'er step-ins, an' de sand offa 'er[foot] track, an' take some sulphur, salt an' black peppah an' red cayenne peppah, an' mix it tuhgethah, an' tote it aroun' nex' tuh mah waist. An' he say ah would git 'er back. An' she come back, she quit 'im.
(She quit the other fellow and came back to you?)
She come back tuh me. An' in '37 on de third day of April, she took sick. Well, now, when it came - it started in 'er thumb an' it went from 'er thumb tuh 'er wrist, an' from 'er wrist, in 'er shouldahs. An' ah carried 'er tuh.a doctor [M.D.] an' he says it's de rheumatic rheumatism. Dat's whut de doctor say. He give me some medicine, an' de medicine he give me tuh rub her an' fo' her tuh take, it would do mo' harm den it would good. [Everywhere in Hoodoo we learn that a medical doctor's medicine is useless for hoodoo.] An' it lef' out 'er shouldahs an' it went tuh de bottom of 'er foot, right in de centah [de pam (palm) of the foot it is often called]. An' it lef' from de centah an' it com- mence tuh workin' in de joints. Den ah carried 'er back an' ah said, "Dis medicine didn't do her no good." Ah said, "De misery goin' all ovah 'er." He took a x-ray pichure of 'er an' [it] goin' - nex' she had tuh be cut down undah heah, nex' tuh 'er foot down undah heah [demonstrates].
(Right under her knee?)
Yeah. Ah tole 'im, "Well, ah wouldn't wish fo' her tuh be cut, fo' if she cain't walk now, she nevah will walk if yo' cut 'er undah dere." He say, "Yes, we kin treat 'er, we kin git 'er up." Well ah say, "Ah haven't got no money right now tuh put 'er in de hos'pital." Say, "Yo' kin come down an' see her 'bout once a day." Say, "Dat even much as ah know yo' kin stand." Well, he come down an' he didn't do her no good. An' ah tried Dr. [Somebody]. He didn't do her no good. He jis' tole me - he come out an' say, "Well, ah cain't do her no good. Ah don' know whut's wrong wit 'er." Well, ah jumped up an' went to a place, an' dis fellah tole me.
(Here in town, did you go?)
No, outa town. [Out-of-town doctor] said, "Well, how long has she been sick?" Ah said, "Got 'er down now so she cain't walk." Ah said, "Ah have tuh he'p 'er up an' down jis' lak a baby. She lak a baby." He got sompin. It wus about as large a thing - about lak dat [demonstrates] an' he goes an' looks in it.
(What did it look like?)
It look lak a great big ole glass marble. Marble pichures. Look lak one of dese things yo' call 'roun' de worl'.
(The globe?)
Yes. An' he looked in dat an' he say, "Yeah."
(It was glass though Wasn't it?)
Yes. "Yes, " he [doctor] say, "he got 'er." Ah said ah didn't git 'im [didn't understand what he meant]. He said, "He got 'er through by a drink."
[Suppose we stop here to see what happened.]
[Informant's great big ole marble or round de worl' and my the globe show that the doctor now looks into his crystal ball. Seeing something in the glass he says, "Yeah, " meaning I now understand what happened. To my informant puzzled by the "Yeah, " he explains clearly that the woman had been tricked in a drink. Informant's marble pichures bothered me. I thought these were small pictures a doctor sometimes pasted on the ends of his fingers and held various places against his crystal ball, so that a client looking into the ball could see them! For an example of this tricky, as well as skillful work, see margin title CRYSTAL BALL, p.172. Actually, marble pictures were merely the pictures the doctor could see in the great big ole glass marble!]
[We now return to the doctor's, "He got 'er through by a drink."]
Ah said, "Drinkin' watah?" He said, "Drinkin' likkah." He said, "He [did not] give it tuh 'er - anothah woman give her." An' he said, "Ah'm goin' give yo' some medicine 'cuz it'll take a long time tuh git 'er well, 'cuz she's strong an' weak," say, "it take a long time tuh git 'er up." An' he give me a quart of sompin look lak shoe polish - slick looks to it. Tell me give her dat three times a day.
(Was it liquid?)
Yes. An' he got some - he went out in de hollah of a ole log an' he got nine snails, an' he sont [sent] - give me some money an' tole me go tuh de drug sto' an' git a nickel wuth of Epsom salt an' a bottle of Sloan linament an' a nickel wuth of camphor gum, an' ah come back. Den he put dat stuff on an' he heat it all up tuhgethah - ground it up an' put it in a li'le silver[!] pot an' boil it, an' boil it an' made a liquid outa it. An' he tolt [told] me tuh run 'er [What? See that she urinated?] evah night at nine a'clock when she wus ready tuh go tuh baid. An' take a saucah, a coffee saucah, an' fill it roun' half fulla salt an' slide it undah de baid.
(Why did he do that, did he say?)
Say dat salt would keep down de fevah. An' dat's de only thing got 'er up.
(That helped her?)
Yessuh, got 'er up.