My family loves that old time religion (serious Freewill Baptists on my dad’s side and holy-rollin’, tongues-speakin’ Pentecostals on mama’s) but that doesn’t mean they don’t indulge in good, creepy, magical stories and traditions well outside the realm of Christianity. Most of their cautionary tales revolve around pregnancy and reproduction for some reason, and my favorite by far is what they call markin’.
Pregnant women, according to both my mamaws, have special powers. They wouldn’t phrase it that way, it sounds too pagan, but that’s essentially what they mean. For example, if a pregnant woman becomes obsessed with something, if she loves it too much or reacts to it with any emotion too strong while she’s pregnant, she can mark her baby to have features or characteristics that reflect the impact that object, person, idea, etc. made on her.
I have two examples from my family.
First, my great-aunt Eleanor who married my mamaw’s brother Ron, moved with all the family to Chicago for work in the 60s. While there, she and my aunt Beatrice visited a zoo. Eleanor, who was pregnant, became obsessed with the pitiful plight of the monkeys at the zoo and would visit them often. She’d get so sad about how sad THEY were that she’d just cry and cry. When my cousin Chris was born, one of his arms was covered from shoulder to elbow in a patch of thick, dark, furry skin. It was a huge, unsightly birthmark, and to hear them tell it, the doctors were amazed at how thick the mark was when they tried to remove it. Mamaw says this is a testament to how obsessed Eleanor was with the monkeys, that she marked Chris so strong and deeply.
The second story is from mamaw herself. When she was pregnant with my dad she’d spend hours in her father-in-law’s wild strawberry patch. She loved those strawberries, had to have some everyday if she could. She said she distinctly remembers laying in the field where they grew, eating the sweet berries, and rubbing absently at a place behind her right ear. When my dad was born, he had a perfectly formed, small strawberry right behind his right ear, in the spot she clearly remembered favoring herself.
Do you know of similar tales/folk traditions? Have you heard of markin’? Please share!
