Holler Magic/Faith Healing Stories from Fellow Appalachians, Pt. 1: Scourifyin’, Stoppin’ a Bleed, Talkin’ the Fire Out, & Curing Thrash
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.”
15. “I have a brother and a sister that were born after their dads had died, one in the coal mines and the other in an accident with an electric wire that had fallen in a storm, trying to save his buddy. Both were in their twenties. People came from all over to get them to blow in the baby’s mouth. It worked.”
