Subject:Tobacco/Brown mule
Entries
Entry 6830
Red peppah, hot red peppah an' chamber lye an' bathe yo' laig wit it an' that would give yo' ease. Ah have tried that mahself. (If somebody has put something down for you to walk over.) Yes sir, a fortuneteller tole me someone had put sompin down fo' me to walk ovah. [Here, either while'recording ma- chine is stopped or cylinder is changed, I ask for the whole story.] Well, mah laig kep' hurtin' me an' someone come along an' tole me, say, "Miss Carter," say, "ah knows a good man 'cross town. If yo' would go, he would tell yo' sompin tuh relieve yo' of dat pain in yore knee." It nevah would swell but it jis' hurt all de time. So ah went ovah dere an' he tole me someone had hurt me in mah knee. An' he got me some green moss an' tole me tuh boil dat an' bathe in de watah hot. Put some table salt in it. An' aftah dat, den rub it wit some of dis red peppah an' dis saltpetah mixed tuhgethah. Make a salve. Put some lard wit it or some oil or sompin an' make a salve an' rub wit dat, an' hit would relieve me. An' ah did dat an' it relieved me. An' a li'le latah it commence tuh hurtin' ag'in. Well, ah went tuh anothah lady an' she tole me - least she didn't tell me but she fixed de poultice huh- self; Brown Mule chewin' 'bacca an' earth worms whut chew dig up out de ground. An' she stewed it up tuhgethah an' give me dat tuh put some meal wit it, an' make a hot poultice an' put on mah knee. An' dat relieved me.
(That was the end of that?)
Yes sir, an' mah knee got bettah.
Entry 1536
I fell in my flower garden an' they taken me in de house an' by that night I couldn't walk on one of my legs an' I didn't seem to be sick any at all before. An' that night dere came some little black pimples, pizen places on it, three of 'em on my leg. An' another woman come dere an' tole 'em in de house whut to fix for me to cure it. She tole me to get a tablespoonful of salt an' a tablespoonful of sulphur an' three dimes an' ten cent worth of Brown Mule Tobacco, an' boil that together an' bathe in it. Take de tobacco when it get cool enough, that wus in it, an' jis bathe my leg from my hip on down and from my feet on out (see pp.369-377) fer three times. You bathe in de same water three times - you bathe tonight, well jis' sit it aside an' de next night heat de same thing up an' bathe in that the second time, [and] de third time do de same thing the nex' night. That's fer three nights. An' de las' night at twelve o'clock throw it - take de dimes out an' throw dis stuff, cup an' all in de middle of de street an' tell it, "From de devil you come from an' de devil you go back." That's whut they tole me to say an' so I did that. [To "take de dimes out" of the bathwater before throwing it into the street is unusual - cf. No. 997, p.384 and No. 1552, p.491 - but "de devil" may make this a rite of turning back spell on culprit rather than a rite of transference to a stranger.] Then I got nine dimes an' boiled them from a quart to a pint an' then drink de water off that. Made two drinks out of it, choo know - drink one half one time an' the other half another time. An' before I did that, the first thing they gave me was a pint of milk. I drank that, sweet milk.