Subject:Pokeberry
Entries
Entry 6865
Chip poke salad root fine, wear in shoes for arthritis. [This is my original transcription of informant's statement made soon after it was collected. I identify informant by the words woman sells roots. Here I am listening to a woman who had been selling roots in the public market for years, who had even appeared in a newspaper article, and I took down none of her story, only a few brief remarks about cures! One of the men interviewed was a professional root digger, the man who supplied her with roots! I still failed to realize that my mission should be life itself, not brief beliefs arranged and numbered neatly on a printed page. But soon New Orleans would improve my vision and purpose.
Entry 6866
(You do what?)
Well, yo' take it an' git chew some...
(This bluestone.)
[Informant had said bluestone before I turned on recording machine.]
Bluestone, & an' fish brine an' pork [poke] salad root.
(What kind of root?)
Pork salad root.
(Pork [poke] salad root.)
Pork [poke]... (The kibitzer offers P-O-L-K salad root).
[For this parenthesis see comment later.]
She said polk [poke] salad root.
(Polk salad root.)
An' put it all [in] de watah tuhgethah, an' bathe in it; an' if yo' hurt dat'll take a spell off yuh.
(I see.)
[The preceding parenthesis concerning the kibitzer a person breaking into the conversation with advice or correction is a comment by my transcriber as follows: The kibitzer offers P-O-L-K salad root. Before transcriber discovered word polk, she thought the word sounded like pork and she was not exactly wrong. Many of my informants would have called pork, pōk. Transcriber even transcribes me as saying pork salad root, and later polk salad root. I corrected this on the original transcription, then decided to let the mistake remain. The proof that I was familiar with pokeberry, pokeweed and poke-root-salad - before I interviewed at Mobile in 1938 - will be found in the INDEX of FACI, 1st ed., 1935. There under Poke (berry), so printed, p.707, vill be found 15 entries: Do not gather pokeberries in June...poisonous (1286, p.56); poke root salve for cow's cake bag (2165, p.100); same salve good for coman's caked breasts (2641, p.128); poke roots for warts (4202-4203, p.200), cook poke roots with greens as spring tonic (4585, p.221); poke root tea cures itch (4647, p.224); poke root tea for skin disease (5025, p.244); poke berries, leaves, stems and roots for rheumatism (5362-5367, p.263f.); and pokeberry tea for epilepsy (5731, p.285). This plant has been defined as "a coarse American perennial herb (Phytolacca americana) etc." Actually, under proper growing con- ditions, the racemose white flowers, then dark purple juicy berries, and finally the beautifully colored autumn leaves make this Weed a rare and beautiful sight! Berries and roots are emetic and purgative, the latter really poisonous, but the young shoots off the large main root, carrot-shaped and 4 or more inches wide at the top, were eaten by American pioneers and are still used.]