Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1875 — Absurd “Remedies.” [ARTICLE]

Absurd “Remedies.”

John George Hokman is not generally recognized as one of Berk* County'* authors and writers, yet he has published a work which found considerable sale throughout the country. It is a small I volume of seventy-two pages and is a J “ collection of mysterious and invaluablb arts and remedies for man as well as i beast, with many proofs of v their virtue and efficacy in healing diseases, etc., the i greater part of which was never seen until | 1820.” The book starts out with a remedy for ! hysterics. The hand is to be laid on the | heart and the following words spoken: ‘‘Matrix, patrix, lav tliyself right and ! safe, or thou or I shall on the third day I till the grave.” For hysteria and colds this remedy is j given. It must be strictly attended, to j every evening: “It is to put off your stockings and rub the flesh carefully between the tOC6.” To cure worms the following must be repeated three times. At the end of the first timb the patient must be tapped once in the back, twice for the second and three times for the third. The words are: “ Mary, God’s mother, traversed the land, holding three worms close in her hand; | one was white, the other was black and i the third was red!” —— If you are being slandered and want to \ < prevent it “ Take off your shirt and turn it wrong-side out, and then fun your two thumbs down to your thighs.” Following words repeated will cure colic: “I w arn ye colie fiends! There is one sifting in judgement who speaketh. Therefore beware, ye liends.” Following is said to be a good remedy for fever: “ Good morning, dear Thursday. Take away from (me) ‘the seventyseven gold fevers. Oh, Thou, dear Lord, lake them away! This must be used on Thursday for the first time, on Friday for the second time, and on Saturday for the third time, and each time thrice.” Asa precaution against injuries he advises a person to carry the right eye of a wolf fastened inside of his right sleeve. - “ If you call upon another to ask for a favor take care to carry a little of the fivefinger grass with” you and you shall certainly obtain what you want.” “ To catch plenty of fish take rose seed and mustard seed, ancl at the foot of the weasel, and hang these in a net, and the fish will certainly collect there.” The root of iron weed tied around the neck will cure running ulcers, and will cure the piles if the roots are boiled in honey and drank; it also clears the breath. Children who carry it are easily educated and grown up cheerily and very well. For wildfire repeat the words: “ Wildfire and the dragon flew over the wagon; the wildfire abated and the dragon skeuted.” To stop pains or smarting in a wound: “Cut three small twigs from a tree, all to be cut off in one cut, rub one end of each twig in the wound, and wrap them separately in a piece of white paper, and put them in a warm, dry place.” To destroy warts : “ Roast chicken feet and rub the warts with them, then bury the feet,under the caves.” To cure toothache “ Stir the tooth with a needle until blood flows; soak a thread in it; take flour and make a paste and spread it on a rag. Wrap this rag around the root of an apple tree, and tie it with a thread.” To banish whooping-cough cut three small bunches of hair from the crown of the head of a child that has never seen its father, sew this up in an unbleached rag and hang it around the person’s neck. “For burns, say ‘burn, I blow on thee;’ it must be blown on three times in the same breath, like the fire by the sun.” To stop bleeding, count fifty backward and when you arrive at three it will all be over. “If you burn a large frog to ashes, and mix the ashes with water, you will obtain an ointment that will, if put on any place • covered with hair, destroy }t and prevent it from growing again.” A pow-wow for sore mouth reads: “If you have the»scurvy or quinsy too, I breathe my breath three times on you.” For consumption, say; “ Consumption, I order thee out of the bones into the flesh, cut of the flesh upon the skin, out of the skin into the wilds of the forest.” Another cure for burn reads: “Three holy men went out walking. They did bless the heat and the burning; they blessed that it riJight not increase; they blessed that it might quickly cease.” To cure a snake bite say: “God has created all things, and they were good; thou only serpent are damned, cursed be thou and thy sting. Zing, zing, zing.” Mr. Hoh man goes on to give many more remedies of the above class. The words given are spoken over the patient, and if the ailment is a cut, bruise, burn, wound or sprain of any kind the operator blows upon it, at the same time repeating the words. The text of the book was first published in 1820 in this country, and it is something like the book written by Albertus Magnus in the seventeenth century. Since those early periods the beliefs of the people have gently changed.— Reading (Pa.) Eagle.