Another for sprains is to rub downward or away from the heart while repeating this charm nine times. (Always mutter your charms, lest others hear you.)
Ronde Geronde
+ + +
Say “prestale” after each interval. Repeat three times for a total recitation of twenty-seven times.
To help alleviate pain, harvest garlic from the garden on Saint John the Baptist's Day (June 24). This was then applied either magically in a carried charm or in a home remedy.
Another charm I recommend often for pain is to get a bowl of foreign dirt, meaning dirt taken far from the person's home or property. (You'll need enough to fill a bowl three times.) Set the bowl on the floor by the person's bed, and each morning their feet should first land on the dirt. Turn over the dirt of their prints with a spoon three times, and toss it out at a crossroads. Do this for three mornings: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This dumps the pain into the dirt.
For headaches, a number of odd things were done. A piece of red flannel lathered with Vicks VapoRub and tied around the head would help. Or tie a red string around the head as the sun goes down and then take the string to an old tree, somewhere folks don't frequent often, and tie it to one of the tree's roots. Then leave it without looking back. (It's better if the ailing person never sees the tree.)
Another is a written charm, a story told using characters from the Bible, that may be carried always:
Peter sat on a rock holding his head. Jesus was passing by and asked, “Brother, what aileth thee?”
“My Lord, it is the pain in the head that torments me, both waking and sleeping.”
Christ laid his hand on Peter's head. “No more shall you be pained in the head, nor shall anyone who remembers these words and carries it upon him be pained.”
COLIC AND WHOOPING COUGH
For colic, the following may be written on paper and was usually sewed into the baby's bonnet. Today, you could sew it into the inside of every shirt of the child's, so when the shirt is worn it rests on their breast:
S + a + t + o + r, A + r + e + p + o +
T + e + n + e + t, O + p + e + r + a +
R + o + t + a + s3
For colic, repeat the following charm three times while running your hand in counterclockwise circles over the baby's belly:
Colic, I embrace thee, I surround thee, I denounce thee,
from this flesh and blood now flee!
Beware thee God, blood and flesh the heavenly host;
Save thee, [name], God the Holy Ghost!
For whooping cough, there are numerous remedies (much like for colic) that straddle the line between medicine and magic. An old-time remedy was to have the child drink water from a vessel that a solid white horse had just used. Another was to pass the child through a blackberry bush where one branch had reached the ground and rooted, creating an arch. The child was to crawl through it three times.
Fabric was also used, with many variations on what kind: a silk ribbon, a leather strap with five knots tied in it, or a strip of black velvet hung around the neck. Alternatively, a bag of asafoetida was worn around the neck.
A “tea” of white ants (termites) was used to cure whooping cough, with the reasoning that if there's something rattling in the chest, the termites would break it down like a log of wood.
Other remedies for whooping cough included drinking stolen milk, having a stallion breathe into the child's mouth, or eating butter kneaded by a woman whose maiden name is the same as her married name.
BLOOD-STOPPING
One of the gifts of the faith healer was the ability to stop the flow of blood, no matter how bad the wound. There are hundreds of stories of how these folks used this gift for their community. Like fire-talking, this was one of the more common gifts used in these hills. Every person had their own way of stopping the blood. Some would hold their hand over the place and go into a trace that ended with speaking in tongues, holy laughter, or treeing the Devil,4 while others would simply say a verbal charm, usually based on Scripture, while passing their hand over the place. My maternal grandfather was able to do this in person or from a distance via the telephone. He would pass his hand over the place three times—or, if over the phone, he'd hold his hand over the same part that was bleeding on the other person and begin whispering the charm.
Back in the day, a lot of charms could only be taught to the opposite sex and sometimes to only three other people. Papaw taught my mom and Nana some of these charms, which were then passed on to me. However, the famous blood verse (Ezekiel 16:6) has been taught and used so widely, it leads me to believe the following charm isn't held by those folk laws. It is always said three times and finished in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live;
yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.
When using this next verse, the word thee is replaced by the person's name and he/she.
For example,
And when I passed by John, and saw him polluted in his own blood,
I said unto John when he wast in his blood, Live;
yea, I said unto John when he wast in his blood, Live.
Another for stopping the flow of blood, done in the same manner with the passing of the hand or holding the place if the person is a long distance away:
Jesus was born in Bethlehem,
Baptized in the Jordan River.
When the water was wild in the woods,
