The following curative charm was given by Mrs. Sayre, gathered from the Frank C. Brown North Carolina Collection of Folklore:
1. To “blow the fire out of a burn,” rub your forefinger about the edge of the burn three times.
2. At each rub, say:
(First time)
“Burn, oh burn,
I will blow you to God
[then blow hard on the burn]
in the name of the Father.”
(Second time)
“Burn, oh burn,
I will blow you to God [blow]
in the name of the Son.”
(Third time)
“Burn,
oh burn, I will blow you to God [blow]
in the name of the Holy Ghost.”
3. One should never run to the wind with a burn, or even the charm will not prevent it from blistering.
BLOOD STOPPERS
Much like the Burn Whisperers, these practitioners could teach three other people their magic formula and practice. These were folks who could stop bad wounds from bleeding, or persistent nosebleeds, sometimes at a distance just by being told the name of the patient. It is said the verse used is the “blood verse,” or the sixth verse of the sixteenth book of Ezekiel.
There are other verses used as well. Some call upon another verse of Ezekiel, “When I passed by thee and you were polluted in your blood, I said live!” Then the person’s name would be spoken and the whole incantation repeated nine times. There are no herbs used here: faith in the cure is the most important ingredient.
Mountain magic practitioners are difficult to quantify and qualify, for they are hard to see in plain sight. The ways that many of us today view magic and witchcraft would likely be abhorrent to someone of a Christian faith, and the lens through which we view magic and folk healing is important to how we choose to talk and share, or not share, about those practices. When someone has got the “knack,” or an innate ability to heal or charm, how do they share that information in their community? Most often, historically, we see people gaining a reputation by word of mouth for their skill in healing, or cursing, or finding water, or charming away warts. Self-identification and proclamation are often looked down upon in most folk healing and folk magical circles, yet of course, there are not any hard and fast rules when it comes to the wild nature of such things.
Today some people say that there are no more Blood Stoppers or Burn Whisperers. But everywhere I have ever taught a workshop on Appalachian folk medicine, I have met dozens and dozens of people who have a living or recently living relative who was gifted in these arts. I hear so many tales of distance healings of mortal wounds and men who could blow the thrush out of a baby’s mouth with a single breath. This magic lives on, and despite it being of a subtle variety, it is no less sophisticated or beautiful. Appalachia is a place rich with nuanced and complex systems of magic and history, built on blood, sweat, and tears.
II 
MOUNTAIN MEDICINE
THE UNIQUE LANDSCAPE OF AN AREA SHAPES ITS MEDICINE. The Southern Appalachian landscape is notoriously mountainous and damp. It is no surprise then that its folk medicine formed among the dense woodlands, humid air, and rocky terrain that harbored malaria, numerous parasites, and oft-broken bones. Aside from prayers, herbs (or yarbs, as they were often called in the old days) are the foundation of healing and health in Appalachian folk magic and medicine.
While folk medicine is defined as traditional healing knowledge passed down orally from one generation to the next, it is not just for recording and then placing up on the shelf as a curiosity. It is true some remedies are not effective, and a few are even downright dangerous, but many folk remedies in Appalachia are still useful, easy, affordable, and safe. Folk medicine does not stand still in time, and today, this living tradition continues to grow and change as the people who heal with their hands continue to make and use the medicines of the mountains.
THE LANDSCAPE
Appalachia is the highland region of the eastern Appalachian mountain chain, stretching from Pennsylvania to Alabama. Ethnobotanical knowledge is widespread in Appalachia because at one time, for survival, most people in the region relied upon a working understanding of the useful plants that surrounded them. Appalachians have a long history of eking out a living from the forests and fields. Wildcrafting plants, or root digging as it is more commonly known in the region, was once an important part of the rural Appalachian economy. Appalachia has 1,100 plants that have been identified as having medicinal uses, displaying the wide availability of useful botanicals in the region. The broad diversity of flora in Appalachia is one of its many treasures.
In ancient history, during the Paleozoic era, the Appalachians existed as a large mountain chain. Interestingly, they have been relatively geologically stable since that era, which provided the necessary time for complex evolutionary processes to proceed within the plant communities that came to reside here. As the Pleistocene glaciers advanced in subsequent epochs, these relatively stable mountains—with their mesic, or moist, forests—acted as refuges for plants fleeing colder, drier climatic conditions. The Appalachians harbored a wide variety of microclimates during this time, much like they do today. This allowed the mountains to act as refuges for cold-adapted plant species, such as bog plants like cranberries, as the glaciers retreated.
The varying terrain and elevational gradients of the Appalachian Mountains are usually regarded as separate ecosystems. The temperature, moisture, and soils of each elevational area offer unique challenges for each plant species to overcome for survival, limiting what types can thrive. These elevational changes allow for the large variety in the types of forest communities we find. The mixed oak forest is found at lower elevations, between 800 and 3,000 feet (244 to 914 m). Higher up, we find the old-growth cove forests at mid-elevations. This unique geographical history has allowed for some of the unparalleled topography and biota of this area.
THE ROOTS OF APPALACHIAN MEDICINE
Today’s mountain medicine has early roots in the 1500s, with the arrival of the Spanish and the African people they had enslaved. The Spanish arrived with a medicine system founded upon the concept of the four humors. These beliefs were further influenced by the largely West African enslaved peoples who also brought with them their own diverse healing traditions and worldviews.
The cultures from Europe which came to have the largest presence in these mountains, and perhaps the greatest influence on the folk beliefs here, were by number: the English, Scots-Irish, and the Scottish. Scots-Irish and British colonists and their contributions to Appalachian culture are therefore often the focus of conversations about the area’s medicine and music. However, it was not until later that they arrived in Appalachia and began the process of cultural exchange with their own healing methods, as with astrology, biblical prayer, and spiritual-medical actions.
There are many cultural components to the story of Appalachia. For example, Native American influence in Appalachian folk medicine is marked and distinct. There were numerous tribes present in the mountains throughout colonization, and some tribes believed that achieving health depended on one’s place within a natural system. There were ways to fall out of balance and find oneself trapped in sickness. Despite the racial tensions, the land was the great equalizer. There is much debate about how much plant and healing knowledge Indigenous people willingly shared with the colonists. There was certainly some exchange, but as time went on, the uses of plants and animals and even spiritual practices were forcibly extracted from the Indigenous peoples, just like coal from the mountainsides.
