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truth. The hillman is secretive and sensitive beyond anything that the average city dweller can imagine, but he isn’t simple. His mind moves in a tremendously involved system of signs and omens and esoteric auguries.
Vocab
Vocab
The general feeling is that the persistence of the old folklore is somehow discreditable to the whole region, and the less said about it the better.
Wherever railroads and highways penetrate, wherever newspapers and movies and radios are introduced, the people gradually lose their distinctive local traits and assume the drab color which characterizes conventional Americans elsewhere.
if cats sneeze or wash behind their ears or lick their fur against the grain,
might use
If a cock crows when he goes to bed, He’ll get up with a wet head.
Some old-timers near Farmington, Arkansas, think that the “ruling days” are the last six days in December plus the first six days in January.
There is an old story to the effect that when a farmer sees a cyclone coming he should run into a field and stick his knife into the ground, with the edge of the blade toward the approaching cloud. The knife is supposed to “split the wind,” so that his dwelling and barn will be spared. This notion is widely known in the Ozarks, and it is said that it is still practiced in Carroll county, Arkansas.
split the wind use for sure
“They must have been planted when the maid held the posies”—in Virgo, that is.
astrology as body part
Rail fences are subject to the same principle; if the rails are split and laid in the light of the moon they are sure to curl and twist, and decay much more rapidly than if they are cut when the moon is dark. Even seasoned planks, if laid on the ground in the light of the moon, invariably warp or cup, while in the dark of the moon there is no such difficulty.
When two roosters fight in the yard, it is said that two young men will soon arrive;
If one spills salt at the table it is said that there will be a violent family quarrel, ending
Other people take the cuss off
take the cuss off exlressjon
A mountain girl who wants a new dress has only to catch a butterfly of the desired color and crush it between her teeth; she mutters some sort of a charm, too, while the insect is in her mouth, but I have never been able to obtain the magic formula.
This shows that January 6, not December 25, is the real Christmas.
Old Christmas
The Ridgeways say that the name hoppinjohn originated when a guest named John was invited to “hop in” and help himself to the food.
2 Witch sticks thus equipped for treasure hunting are sometimes called “doodlebugs,” but I don’t know if this is an old backwoods term or a recent importation.
The yarb doctors are great believers in poultices, which are applied both hot and cold for all sorts of ailments.
what the hillfolk call flux.
The yarb doctor is brother to the witch and close cousin to the preacher, and not infrequently mixes a little religious hokum with his teas and plasters.
Uncle Jack Short of Galena, Missouri, says that he used to drink gallons of peach-bark tea every fall for his “ager”;
I have heard of Ozark yarb doctors who claim that they can cure epileptic fits, but I have never met one of these gentlemen. The old folks say, however, that a poultice of colts-tongue leaves, applied to the sufferer’s forehead, often affords a measure of relief. “Mirandy” Bauersfeld tells of an Ozark granny who chewed up fitweed leaves and then thrust them into the patient’s mouth, but I have not been able to find any plant called fitweed.2 A tea made of fresh parsley is supposed to be beneficial in epilepsy,
Ginseng or sang root is supposed to prolong life and to strengthen the sexual powers in aging men.
Cummins bought nearly a hundred dollars’ worth of this so-called bogue sang before he learned to distinguish the two.
Someone selling bogue sang to the kinfolk
They sometimes try to quiet the nerves of alcoholic patients by rubbing the head with a paste of sunflower seeds;
supposed to represent the human skull, and the meat is said to resemble the brain, therefore people who show signs of mental aberration are encouraged to eat walnuts.
I have often known men to complain of sharp pains here and there, which they explained by saying “the sign’s in the ————,” naming the part of the body which seemed to be affected.
Mrs. May Kennedy McCord, of Springfield, Missouri, knows how to “draw out fire” from a burn. She learned it from Harry N. Force, an old-time druggist who spent many years in Cotter, Arkansas. You just mutter: “Two little angels come from Heaven, one brought fire and the other brought frost, go out fire and come in frost.” As you say the last word you blow gently on the burn. This “sayin’ ” is supposed to be a great secret and must be learned from a member of the opposite sex.
This woman makes no charge for her services, but if somebody offers her a present, such as a new dress or a side of bacon, she seldom refuses the gift.
Another way to “pass” a wart is to spit on it, rub a bit of paper in the spittle, fold the paper, and drop it in the road; the wart is supposed to pass to the first person who picks up the paper and unfolds it. Children are always trying this, and one can find these little folded papers in the road near most any rural schoolhouse.
