Doctoring the Devil by Jake Richards

Author:Jake Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781633412088
Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser

WARD OFF DISEASE

Medical care in Appalachia hasn't been all that great, especially for poor folks who couldn't afford it from the start. Because of this, even with the advent of pills and other pharmaceutical medicines, the majority of folks refused to give up their herbs and roots. Many still drink spring tonics such as sassafras root tea to clean the blood. Likewise, methods were devised and old wives' tales followed to avoid getting ill during the season or coming year by warding off diseases, thought by some to be caused by spirits.

It's said if you catch the first leaf you see falling in autumn, you won't be sick all winter. Turn your pockets inside out at the hooting of an owl to prevent sickness. Another method of warding off illness reaches back to the Cherokee and probably further. They would hang the carcass of a vulture over the door based on the belief that the vulture was immune to every disease and could therefore protect them too. Today, we keep a small bundle of vulture feathers posted over the door. In a pinch, raven or crow feathers will work, but vulture feathers are best. A buzzard's dried head hung about the neck also warded off head colds and headaches.

If one is already sick, you may prevent it from worsening by doing the following: refrain from sweeping that room, especially under the bed, until they are well; don't change the bed sheets unless absolutely necessary, and don't cut their nails until they are well again. Otherwise, it's said it will take their strength away. You can also take a new bottle filled a third of the way with saltwater and hang it up by the head of the bed, to the left, and keep it closed tight to keep haints and witchcraft away. You may also powder the sheets with baby powder and place a Bible beneath the bed opened to John 11:1–45, which details the resurrection of Lazarus. Just as Lazarus was freed from the bonds of death, so will the person be freed from sickness.

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