#holler magic

I’m in a group for Appalachian Americans and recently asked other members to share stories of folk magic or folk healing from their own or their families’ experiences. I got a treasure trove of stories, some of which echoed and even built upon some of my own. Some of these you can find in Foxfire books, but it’s so good to get individual spins on the ones I know and hear about new ones! Here are a few:

Scourifying/Scarifying

1. “There were some folks in the community where I grew up who would ‘scourify’ a newborn baby. They took them to an old faith healer and he would take a razor blade, cut a little place on the baby’s shoulder blade, catch a thimbleful of its blood and feed it back to the baby. It was supposed to keep the baby from getting sick.”

2. “I remember my mother taking my younger siblings to an old lady who would use a razor blade and cut a small slit in the baby’s back, just over the spine. A few drops of the blood would be added to the baby’s bottle of formula.”

3. “My mother could do it by putting a small horn on the baby’s baby and drawing a drop of blood out. I still have the little horn. Never heard of giving the blood back.”

Stop a Bleed

* My Mama Jury wrote in her bible that this could be done with Ezekiel 16:5, but I think she meant verse 6, because every story I’ve heard about its use references that particular verse. As I’ve written before, a local woman known way back could stop a bleed by saying this verse. I’ve learned a lot more from people who’ve done it themselves and who have had close relatives who could.

* This ability can only be passed, according to some, from female to male or vice versa. Once the practitioner passes the ritual on, s/he can no longer perform it. From what I’ve heard, this is a closely guarded hereditary practice that seems straightforward but must be passed on from someone who can do it.

Here are some responses I got about this ability:

1. “The verse is passed from a man to woman or vice versa. I remember being little and one of my uncles called for my granny on the CB radio, he was having a nose bleed and it wouldn’t stop. She said that verse real fast, and in a couple of seconds my uncle said it was done bleeding!!”

2. “When I was about 6 or 7 I got my thumb caught in a motor that pumped water in the house. My papaw was working in the field. My uncle put me up in the truck and took me to him. Every time my heart beat I squirted blood. He rubbed and said [the verse] and it stopped bleeding.”

3. “My dad was a ‘free bleeder’ and he told us that a man that was the 7th son of a 7th son laid scissors between his shoulders and read a passage from the Bible and he never bled freely from his nose again. My little brother was born a free bleeder but Dad could never find another blessed 7th of a 7th.”

4. “Know of a lady that had nose bleeding from drug use. Mommy read Ezekiel 16:6 over the phone to her and it DID stop. Another where my nephew cut his ear badly and we read it and it stopped bleeding and healed in just a few days.”

5. “You have to say the verse 3 times.”

Talking the Fire Out

1. “We had a man in our neighborhood who could talk fire out. When I was little, about 2, I fell in a wood stove. They took me to him. I still have 2 little scars on 2 of my fingers.”

2. “My arm was burned. I got it against a wood stove, too. A man said a verse from the Bible and it healed. It wasn’t healing good until he did that. I still have a scar.”

3. “My grandpa could talk the fire out of a burn. He had to pass it on to a female not in his family for it to continue.”

4. “Isiah 43 verse 2 to take away a burn.”

5. “To draw out fire Proverbs 6:27-28. Say to the burn ‘Blow in frost,’ starting at the bottom of the burn and blow to the top. Say ‘Blow out fire’ from the top to the bottom of the burn. Repeat this 3 times. Be sure you have the words right when blowing! If not it will make the burn worse. You have to tell the opposite sex who isn’t kin to you.”

6. “My grandad on dad’s side of the family could take fire out. And my mother, when she was 11, knew a black lady who could do so. She told mama she could not pass the knowledge on to another woman but she could whisper it in a man’s ear. And he would receive the power, and he could pass it along to a woman. She healed a great-aunt that stuck her hand in a pot of boiling water, and she didn’t have to go to the doctor. Her name was Mamie Nowland, and everyone black or white called her Aint Mamie.”

Curing “Thrash”

* When I was a baby, my mamaw took me to a friend of hers named Berth. Berth had never met her daddy, and mamaw had her blow her breath into my mouth 3 times. According to my mama, it cured me and by the next day it was gone.

Here are some other responses:

1. “My grandma would say have an unmarried woman blow in the baby’s mouth 3 times.”

2. “A seventh son of a seventh son can cure thrush. There was a man in my mom’s congregation who could do it, and he cured all 3 of my sons of their thrush.”

3. “Worked on my kids! Seventh daughter of a seventh daughter!”

4. “Worked on me when I was a baby. Guy had never met his father!”

5. “My mom can cure thrush. She’s done it to my oldest son.”

6. “My sister-in-law can cure thrush, it’s almost like she takes it from the baby because she will get thrush for a few days after. She has never met her dad.”

7. “When I was a young girl I could cure the thrush. People would bring their kids for me to blow in their mouth 3 times, don’t look for 3 days and it will be all gone.”

8. “Also my husband cured my daughter’s thrush by blowing in her mouth. He has never met his father.”

9. “My great-uncle is a 7th son and can cure thrush by blowing in a baby’s mouth. Anyone who has these gifts is never to accept payment of any sort!”

10. “My mom would take a baby with the thrash and go to the creek and have the baby drink water from her shoe. The baby’s mouth would be well in 5 minutes.”

11. “My grandma took my sister to a granny woman up in the holler and had my sister drink creek water from her shoe and my sister’s thrash was gone by the next day.”

12. “An old family friend took my sister to the creek and rubbed some kind of leaf in her mouth. She had her drink creek water too, which got rid of her thrush. I don’t remember a shoe being involved, I was little though.”

13. “The man I knew who could cure thrash would ask for their full name and birth date before they were cured.”

14. “My great-grandmother had some people from another county come to her spring and they asked if they could give their baby some water from the spring. But they wanted her to take off one of her shoes and allow the baby to drink from her shoe. My great-grandmother said she could go to the house and get one of her good shies but they said it must be a shoe already worn so she let them and supposedly the cure took.”

Link to part 1: Holler Magic/Faith Healing Stories from Fellow Appalachians, Pt. 1: Scourifyin’, Stoppin’ a Bleed, Talkin’ the Fire Out, & Curing Thrash

One of the most fascinating things I discovered asking fellow Appalachians about folk remedies and magic was the sheer variety of cures for warts! Some are plumb magic-y.

Tryin’ or Buyin’ Warts (and some ways to sneak and pass them on to someone else!)

1. “I had warts all over my hands when I was a kid and my grandma had an old lady come and cut a potato and rub it on my hands. She took it out and buried it and told me when I forgot about them they would go away. Sure enough, I got busy and forgot about them and they were gone!”

2. “Take a chicken gizzard, cut it up and put it on the warts. In a few days, they’ll be gone.”

3. “I had warts really bad on my hand and my aunt did this thing where she would rub each one of her fingers on them and say a prayer to herself while doing it, and in about two weeks I was clear. Once you tell the prayer she used it won’t work anymore.”

4. “Hide a penny and when you’ve forgotten about it the wart will go away.”

5. “I had an old lady that rented a little house from us when I was about 6. I had a bunch of little warts on the top of my hand. She touched each one with the head of a straight pin, said some words, and the warts were gone the next morning! True!”

6. “When I was a young girl of 16 I went to live with my dad. We were hanging out in the yard one day and talking about the small wart on my hand that I acquired years earlier. My dad told me to give him my bandanna which was on my head, found a stick and rubbed over my wart. He then had me wrap it in the bandanna and bury it in the yard. I swear on everything I hold dear that the next morning the wart was gone. My dad was gifted with second sight.”

7. “Steal a warsh cloth from someone you know and rub it all over it, really worry about it and then you go to an intersection that you will not be traveling near in the future and toss it out. Forget about it and it will be gone. Seen it work many times!”

8. “To get rid of warts, cut the fingernails of a person with warts, bury them under an oak tree and the warts will go away.”

9. “Some people can buy your warts. You hand them a penny and tell them you buy their wart. It’s a penny a wart.”

10. “My great grandma treated warts. Cut a potato in half, bury one half under the light of a full moon and put the other half on the wart and wrap it. After a few days it should dry up. My great-grandma was well known for this.”

11. “My brother had warts on his hand, and an old farmer rubbed a half dollar on the warts, muttered something and in just a few days the warts were gone.”

12. “Rub the wart with a bean leaf and bury it. When the leaf rots the wart falls off.”

13. “I had warts on my leg, I was told to break a straw off a broom by an old man. He said, ‘Do you believe that the warts will go away?’ ‘Yes,’ I said, then he had me close my eyes I don’t know what he said but they went away in a couple weeks.”

14. “Put a penny over a door jam and leave it to remove warts.”

15. “My mom used to say, ‘Take a used dishrag and rub it on your wart and then bury it under the eave of the corner of your house and it will go away.’”

16. “To remove a wart go out under a full moon, dig a hole, take a fistful of dirt and rub it on the wart, turn against the earth 3 times and go to bed.”

17. “My father removed warts off us by lighting a match, blowing it out and giving it to us to bury it and when the match rotted away the wart would be gone. Worked every time.”

18. “I remember my grandad telling me how to get rid of warts. He said to take a rusty nail and cover it in bacon grease and rub it on the wart, then bury the nail and tell no one where it was buried.”

19. “My great-grandma would take away warts with 7 green leaves from 7 different kinds of trees. She’d rub them on the warts and buried them where no one would step on them. It worked for me and not my daughter. My grandma whispered something to me and it worked on me, so I think it was my faith that made it work.”

20. “When I was little, I had warts show up and my granny said to get a stranger to count them and give you a penny for every wart and take them and hide them away and don’t look for them, and the warts will go away and the pennies, too.”

21. “I had a wart on my finger when I was a child. My great aunt, who lived next door, took a very sharp knife and cut a cross into it then wrapped it in a wet cloth. I was told to keep the cloth on it for several hours and not look at it. When she took the cloth off, it was completely gone, like it was never there!”

22. “To get rid of warts, take a dirty rock, a different rock for each wart, and rub it on the wart and throw it where you will never see it again. This cured the 5 warts on my hand.”