St. Paul daily globe., 1895-06-03
QUEER METHODS PURSUED BY
A PENNSYLVANIA
DOCTOR.
ENTIRELY WITHOUT PRICE,
AND WITHOUT MEDICINE OF ANY
KIND-HIs SERVICES FREE
LY GWEN
MUCH AKIN TO wITCHCRAFT.
Cases Which to the Superstitious
MOTntaineers Are Little Less
Than Miraculous.

A recent traveller afoot passed
through what is known as the dark
ground" of the Blue mountain dis
trict of Pennsylvania. The Blue
mountains separate the anthracite
coal country from the agricultural
districts of the eastern part of the
state. Along the base of these noun
| tains, where there are no railroads.
civilization is a half-century at least
behind the times. and yet the grist
mills and farm houses are substantial
| ly built of gray limestone. Many OF
| them are over a century and a half old
and in a most excellent state of pres
ervation, and, strange to say, hidden
away in many of them are books on
incarnation, divination, or. as the Ger
mans say, "HeXerei." The people
in this region are principally Penn
sylvania Germans, and the mystic
books they own, and scrupulously
guard under cover. are all in the Ger
man language. The books give full
details Of the black art-conjuring,
producing spells, discovering thieves,
and producing cures. The "poWwoW"
doctor is an interesting character
found here. This venerable type OF
magic healer is fast passing away.
What the medicine man was to the
Indians the powwow man is to the
people in the mountain country of
y1ryn IN fn
this exception. that the powwow man
uses no herbs or medicines.
Aged Peter Bausher lives in a rough
hewn log hut at the base of the
Blue mountains in northern Berke
county, some three miles beyond
StraustoWn. He is
FAMOUS POWWOW MAN
and his services have been freely given
for the last fifty years. When young
er it was nothing unusual for him to
go twenty miles away into the forest
to powWow for some afflicted sufferer.
Added to his excellent neighborly
qualities is the fact that he is sin
cere Christian. And yet he practices
magic healing. The mountaineers
say he has performed wonderful cures,
and for this reason his services were in
great demand. But he is too old now
to venture far from home, and the
long journeys are things of the past.
In his own way he told this story Of
his life:
"My father could powwow. So could
his father. For $50 years the Baushers
of my family knew the prayers for
various cures. Powwow healing is by
faith and prayers. We do it all in
the German language. For each affiic-
ton there is special prayer. None OF
my prayers heal so quick as the one
use for hemorrhage. I have frequently
stopped a serious flow of blood in a
minute after powwowing. Pains from
burns L cure the same way. Erysip-
elias, wild fire. felons, lameness,
sprains, poison. plague and many other
Affections, such as wasting away, fits
| ST. Anthony's dance, Affections of the
nerves quickly disappear with pow
wowing.
II use no medicine; only words said
| silently. Of course, l cannot tell you
| what the words are. The words /
know were handed down from father
| to son. They were never written. All
must be memoriZed. / think my great
| great-grandfather handed down the
| words l now use. What they were
! when he first used them L don't know,
| but they have changed, no doubt.
| Many words / use I don't know the
meaning of. No doubt they were all
| right when my forefatherS used them.
| Mistakes in pronunciation and mem
| orizing have been repeated, and by
| this time some of the words have been
| completely changed If my secret is
| not to die with me / must tell my eld-
est son, but he says he will have moth
| ing to do with it. Of course, l can tell
| a woman, but not man, except my
eldest son. Man tells woman and
| woman tells man. In this way these
powwow secrets or prayers or Biblical
| quotations are passed from one to an
other, but must not be written down.
You must know them by heart; you
must be near the person and see him
when you powwow for him or her.
Il never made any charge in my
life. 1 dare not. My gift must be
| given
ENTIRELY WITHOUT PRICE,
so that all may have 1t, free as water.
| But if anyone wants to give me any
| thing for present for my trouble he
| may do so of his own free will Then
| can take 1t. OF course you will un-
derstand in the olden days, century
| ago, in the backwoods, they had no
doctors. Some one had to attend to
the afflicted. There is plenty of Scrip
tural authority for healing by prayer
| or poWWow. In German we say
braucah. The Bible is full of evidence
| OF miraculous cures. Read of all the
wonderful miracles of our Lord, who
| used the simplest words, even ta rails
ing people from the dead
| while poWwowing is all right for
certain Affections, yet when a person
has typhoid fever, diphtheria, or any
dangerous disease like that, then my
advice is to send for reputable doc
tor at once, and don't bother with
powwowing. But there are some
things that doctors can't touch
Powwowing can heal and cure every
time. I have had thousands of proofs
| of the efficacy Of powwowing. I could
name hundreds of the best farmers of
Berks Lehigh or Lebanon counties
| who have unalterable faith In pow
wowing. The patient, of course, must
| have, first Of all, the strongest faith
in the powwow, or it won't do any
| good. Sometimes burns or injuries
| are blown upon when we powwow, or
the hand is passed over the injury
| lightly, during the operation of
I braucha-
'Hexerei is quite another matter. 1
| don't do anything of that kind. 1 only
| try to cure people and help the afflict-
| ed. Heaven knows there is enough
suffering in the world. 1t requires
some time to learn it and then to re-
member it. A person must go under
| instructions. But it is common
| thing to meet old women who can pow
| wow for burns or blood-letting. Their
husbands told them how to do it.
Their cures to the outside world
| would seem very curious, not to say
startling. People take the treatment
as naturally as they drink water and
think nothing Of it. You must remem-