Animals also have their own medicine, so to speak: hog teeth and mouse teeth were used to help someone withstand and overcome a toothache because the animals' teeth are very strong and not easily broken.
The same applies to plants, based on a belief called the doctrine of signatures, which states that every plant has a physical characteristic that acts as a key or code to its use by man. So a plant with heart-shaped leaves may be medicine for troubles of the heart or used in love charms; kidney beans may help with kidney trouble or be used to filter bad stuff out, or clear a path of troubles.
The uses of a plant in folk medicine and folk magic are sometimes similar but are mostly drastically different. Dandelion root is taken as a tonic for general health but may also be carried for the same thing, especially for strength. Black cohosh root is used to ease symptoms of menopause in women, while in conjuring it is a great aid in curing conjure-sickness or tricks placed against you. The reasons behind a root's use, or the use of zoological curios, are numerous. It could be a root is part of an old superstition from a long-forgotten story, it played a part in a folk story handed down, or a connection is simply made in the mind of a mountaineer through observation. One prime example of this would be kudzu, an invasive vine that was brought here from overseas. It has no predators here, so it is able to grow freely and rather quickly, up to a foot a day, thus covering everything in its path and choking out any competition, including bushes and towering trees. Because of this, kudzu leaves are used to conquer enemies and prevent conjuring from getting to you, and the root is carried for success and strength.
There's a charm for strong working hands that's mole feet worn around the neck, because the mole is able to dig into the hard earth with ease. An old cure for colic was a tea made from the inner linings of chicken gizzards, the reason being the gizzards are hard and sturdy, using grit to break up food and would make the child strong enough to overcome the colic and crud by sympathetically breaking up the crud. It was also believed that eating cooked minnows helped cure alcoholism: the person will no longer drink like a fish, just like the fish won't once it's cooked.
Household items are also used in folk magic and medicine: knives or scissors for cutting or severing, nails for harming or securing something in place, and cleaning products such as vinegar, ammonia, or laundry bluing to clean both physically and spiritually. Even soda pop was used. Called “dope” back in the old days in smaller communities, it could be used to “sweeten” a person to you or, if left long enough, “eat them up” with worry and stress should it be used on an enemy. Light sodas were generally used for the former, while darker sodas were used for the latter.
FREEING THE SPIRIT
The ways in which the human spirit can be trapped or released by conjure are numerous. By the old saying, fight fire with fire, this is done to free the spirit. Just as the spirit has been caught by sympathetic means, it can also be released by sympathetic means. For example, say someone buried a root for you to walk over and ever since then you have been racked with pains, sleeplessness, moodiness, glazed eyes, or nightmares. The usual prescription back in the day would be to hire a witchdoctor to find the root, douse it in moonshine and vinegar or salt, and either burn it or throw it in running water, such as a creek or stream. Nowadays, yards are smaller, so if you don't find the root there, lord knows where it could be planted. With everybody going every which way—that way, this way, over there, over here—it would be hell to try to retrace all your steps in the past month. My family gets around this by burning the shoes and burying the ashes at a crossroads or throwing them in running water before cleansing or bathing.
Once trapped, the human spirit is broken or under confinement, inside the root put against you if it's a poke bag, doll, or jar. With powders, smoke, and oils (contagious roots), the trick is planted on you and is just along for the ride with its claws dug into your back. Freeing the spirit from the latter is quite easy with a few baths and washings, perhaps a change of clothes, and a haircut. The harder part is freeing the spirit from a bottle, doll, or bag. When the spirit is held hostage like this, under a curse or other working against the mind, behaviors change and so does the balance of the body. Illnesses develop that are only worsened by Western medicine. In many tales, the more medicine a person takes, the closer they come to dying unless a witchdoctor or conjurer is able to come cure them and restore their spirit.
There are several ways to determine if a root has been planted against you, what kind of root it is, and how to destroy it. Following are a few ways in which the spirit can be released. Generally, bottles and jars are broken and any personal concerns such as hair or nails are burned. Poke bags are burned, dismantled by opening and removing all the objects, or are thrown into a creek or river. It is common to see the latter done when not only is the spell reversed but the conjurer or witch is sent away, out of town, far away from the victim.
Candles that have been used against you can be “put out” in a number of ways:
Write your name on a piece of paper and put it in a plastic bag filled with your bathwater. Hang the bag from a branch above an upturned pot, on the bottom of which you have written the name of the witch or simply “All my enemy's works.” Prick the bag with a new sewing needle in a gentle manner to let a small bit of water drip out and into the pot. Let this continue until the bag is empty.
Get a plain white taper candle and on it write the witch's name or “All my enemy's works,” carving from top to bottom. Cut the tip of the candle off, snip the wick flush with the wax, and flatten the bottom so the candle has two bottoms now. Turn to the original bottom and cut through it about 1 centimeter from the end, avoiding the wick. You should now have a new top. Set this in a candle holder. Burn the candle as the sun goes down, and bury the remains at a crossroads far from your house. Return without looking back. (Note: When destroying bad roots, never look back. Folks report hearing the mimicked voices of family members calling them back, or the screams and wailing of some creature, or even laughter. Don't look back.)
If your spirit has been trapped in a doll baby, you'll need to disassociate from it as much as possible: cut your hair, color it, or change the style; change your shoes; keep your nails short; change your perfume or cologne; and change your eating habits. Do this for at least a month, and eventually the root will tire itself out trying to find you, trying to connect. Roots and tricks run on the account of predictability and patterns. They see you coming and they know where you're going.
You can also try going to church on Sunday with a quarter. Stand at the altar, place the quarter beneath your left shoe, and pray: “I am the only one, I am the only I that I am. I am the one knitted in my mother's womb by three hands: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” or something along those lines decreeing you are the only one of you that should be.
This all seems a bit cut and dry in our modern times, fanciful even. But these things posed a dire threat to the livelihood of many people and simultaneously were the bedrock of one's luck and success in just acquiring enough food for a month. These stories also show the conjurer at work as well as the faith healer and witchdoctor. Let's meet them.
3
RED ROOTS
In this chapter, we will see many fantastic things and meet people of this region. There were too many recorded tales of Appalachian workers to include here, so I chose those stories that demonstrate methods and practices of a similar manner as those employed and generally seen in the Appalachian regions both north and south. We will also see how the lines often cross between conjurer, yarb doctor, and faith healer in the tales that follow.
THE RED FOX OF THE MOUNTAINS
I think the most fitting one we should meet first is the well-known Marshall Benton Taylor of Wise County, Virginia: the dreaded “Red Fox” of the mountains. Before we get to his story, I want you to keep in mind that back in his day, law enforcement wasn't as strong as it is today; it didn't have the same reach or capability of physically and readily bringing someone to justice, so some folks took it upon themselves to search out wrongdoers and administer justice outside the formal system.
Marshall “Red Fox” Taylor was born in Scott County on May 8, 1836. Folks all around these parts were terrified of him because he was slicker than a fox and had many a man captured and brought to justice. He was a revenue agent, United States marshal, herb doctor, spiritualist, preacher, and faith healer. He has been described as having a kind, compassionate look on one side of his face and a snarl on the other side, with a twinkle in his eye that told you he was already ahead of you. Folks said that while tracking outlaws, he would hide in the woods on the mountain trails. He'd also cut off the soles of his shoes and reverse them so it appeared that wherever he went, his footprints showed him going the other way.
Some fellows would brag about seeing him and scaring him, trying to tear his name down. One man did so and was walking home one night when he saw out of the corner of his eye the Red Fox was walking beside him. He hadn't heard Red Fox come up, and he never said a word; just gave him a look as if to say, “Watch it.” Outlaws would run like hell if they ever found that Red Fox was on their trail because his success rate was basically 100 percent—either dead or alive, they were brought in.
Red Fox studied medicine with his uncle at a time when there weren't any colleges around, so he was book learned and a faith healer. He often prescribed charms along with herbs to enact a cure and would tell folks to sit and pray while he went outside, where he would stand with arms open to the sky, and if they felt a warm feeling taking over, to call his name. After this, they would be cured of whatever ailed them. It's said he always carried a bag on his saddle filled with herbs that he used to conjure and cure, right alongside his guns. He was also a preacher and spoke often of visions; it's said these aided him in his hunts. He would preach to just about any person or crowd that would have him. But, aside from preaching and curing, he is most famous as an assassin, his legendary name having been born at Killing Rock, where he killed an infamous moonshiner by the name of Ira Mullins due to a personal vendetta between the two.
For this Red Fox was set to be hung—but not before he preached at his own funeral to hundreds in attendance from all over southwestern Virginia. With the Red Fox, his faith was the closest thing to him. In his trial, the judge asked if he had anyone to testify on his behalf. His response was, “Jesus Christ!” He then proceeded to preach, a foreshadowing of sorts that he would also preach at his own hanging, to which he requested to be dressed in solid white. He also claimed that he would rise from the dead three days after burial. In the courtroom, he prayed verses showing his own innocence beneath the Just Judge and also preached damnation to his enemies, who seemingly all died shortly after his own “death.” Some rumors persist that he didn't die that day, but rather walked out in the company of some freemason brothers, after which he skipped out to Missouri, while others say he's buried in an unmarked grave in Wise County.
He was a mad man, to say the least, never admitting guilt for the massacre that resulted from his personal vengeance. His body never rose, but folks say the Red Fox of the Mountains is still out there, healing and tricking and praying in spirit.
MAMMY WISE
Mammy Wise (Weiss) saw many things. She resided along the Upper Tennessee–North Carolina border in the late 1800s near Washington and Carter counties in Tennessee, presently known as Unicoi county. She was tall and heavyset, with long, course black hair that looked and felt like hemp rope. She had small, dark eyes and “was dark as an Injun,” which may have been on account of melungeon heritage with Indian blood. She cured a multitude of things, including thrush and colic, and her abilities were attributed to the fact that her father died before she was born. While there are some theories that she may have also been a seventh daughter, it is this one fact that seems to be the reason she was able to cure or see: a person who never met their father could cure thrush or colic by blowing in the child's mouth, among other abilities, including the sight. But she not only healed and saw visions, she saw what caused the ailments as well.
She foretold the coming of the Civil War. She said this vision happened when she saw the night sky filled with stars, but a bright star in the north fell and clashed with a bright star in the south, which she interpreted as a war between the North and the South. Just before the war, an omen visited the heavens in 1861 known as a “hairy star” or war comet. Beyond everything she saw and told, this is the fuel of her southern fame to this day.
Aside from this, she also found out thieves. One story goes that a woman's prized jewel necklace had been stolen, so she traveled across the state to meet with Mammy. Mammy got the names of suspects, the usual troublemakers in the community the woman lived in, on a piece of paper and placed it snug at the bottom of a pot of boiling water into which she dropped three dead crawfish. After saying her enchantments over the boiling brew, the breasts of the crawfish opened up and whizzed a name on the list.
In another tale, a family by the name of Johnson took residence along the Davidson River and the man of the home soon sent for Mammy due to the gravel. (He had kidney stones.) When Mammy arrived, it came to her attention that they had hosted a man named Carson who was traveling around. However, Carson returned after finding a large sum of his money missing. Wise divined that Mr. Johnson was the thief and this was the cause of his ailment, an example of “sin” making you sick.
She was also the person folks would go to for “love potions” she would brew up in her kitchen. She'd send them on with a bottle of it and swear they shouldn't let it leave their hands until they got home—otherwise the spirits would fly back home to her.
WITCH MCGAHA
One of the prime examples of a moody, cursing witch in Appalachia is Witch McGaha of the Great Smoky Mountains. What is now Great Smoky Mountain National Park used to be a herd of small communities that no longer exist since the park was set and folks were made to move. Residing near here was Witch McGaha, also known as Squad McGaha, whom neighbors disliked because she was constantly asking to borrow things from everyone, yet she wouldn't let anyone borrow anything from her. Sound familiar? It's said she didn't do without, but for some mysterious reason she needed to borrow things.
One fall, her sister, Nance, asked to get some apples from her orchard but McGaha refused and shooed her away. Nance thought it wise to sneak through and get some apples, but Witch McGaha found her and cursed her, sending Devils in the form of squirrels after her. Nance noticed a pulling at her dress and saw it was a squirrel. Then another tug, and another. Each time she turned around, the number of squirrels had doubled. She began to run, but no matter how fast she ran the squirrels kept scratching and tormenting her until she was a bloody mess. She tried her best to get across the threshold of her doorway at her home, where a broom was laid across to keep out evil, but she died on her porch.
THE POWELL SISTERS
One of my favorite tales growing up was of Irene and Drusilla Powell of Scott County, Virginia, who lived between present-day Hiltons, Virginia, and Bloomingdale, Tennessee, some two hundred years ago. Growing up, they were always getting into trouble—but it wasn't until they were older that things got worse and bloody. Everyone was afraid of them—bootleggers, outlaws, everybody in town. Irene and Drusilla were inseparable; even after they both married and had children, they would go off together to somewhere nobody knew.
Before the bad things began happening everywhere they went, Irene and Drusilla were both trained and effective midwives. Besides their cures and aid, folks also went to them for charms to gain love or luck. After a while of this is when the bad things started happening. See, the Powell Sisters' magic seemed to be a paradox where something was given, but something was taken as well. A woman would gain the affections of her lover, but would become infertile or lose her hair; a man would win every game of chance, but the luckier he got, the worse his health became.
Everywhere the sisters went, folks argued, things fell or broke, and people got sick. Cows caught ill and crops withered. Soon, the few hours they stole away grew longer and longer, until they were gone for days and weeks at a time. It's said they abused their children and tormented their husbands' minds with all kinds of crazy until their folks got fed up and told them to just stay gone for good. So they did.
Isolated in the mountains far away from everyone, the only time the sisters came into town was when they needed something. But now twelve or thirteen stray dogs that they had taken in followed right on their heels. Hunters in town swore the animals were demons in disguise, and that the Powell sisters would sometimes have unnatural relations with them to keep the Devil's bidding up. One day, everything changed when Drusilla went to the well to get water while Irene was out. The dogs turned on her and tore her to shreds. Supposedly this was the “payment” for their powers, an end to their contract of sorts. When Irene came home and found her sister in pieces, she hung herself from a tree.
The folks who found them buried their corpses outside McMurray Cemetery, beyond the bounds of hallowed ground. Since then there have been stories that you can sometimes hear them screaming and beating at the tops of their coffins, with the occasional song of a stressed rope coming from a tree nearby. The dogs never returned.
