The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-26
BELIEFS OF A NEGRO NANNY.
Virginia superstitiOns About Young
Children.
From the New York Sun.


Children.
From the New York Sun
'The new order of things in the
South" said a Virginia woman, has
brought about the disappearance of the
old-time nanny. The nanny of my
childhood was an institution, and 1
cannot imagine what it would be to
| be child with a more modern nurse.
she was an autocrat. Even my
mother, whom she had raised, never
| dared oppose her There was no ap-
| peal from her decisions. She was a
strict disciplinarian, with the most
| rigid idea of what was becoming to
quality children.
"Mammy's rule began the moment
we were born, and recall her distress
| when one of us was so indiscreet as
to make first appearance in an upper
room. 1t was quite impossible for her
/ to carry the child higher upstairs, and
| we all new that it's future depended
on its going up before it went down.
J so Nanny mounted a table and held
the newcomer as near the ceiling as
| she could, so that it should be assured
of rising in the world.
That particular baby arrived. too.
when the moon was on the wane, and
Nanny announced at once that it
! could not be raised. 1t would be sure
| to dwindle as the moon diminished
When she dressed a baby for the
! first time, and always, thereafter she
| took care that every garment should
be drawn on. over the feet first and
she was always convinced that the
| failure OF one of my cousins was due
to the fact that at his first dressing
his clothes were put on over his head.
| darkening, as she we'll knew, all his
! future.
When baby was a. fortnight old
and my mother used to oppose her in
valn-Mammy took steps to secure for
1t q. good complexion by putting a small
| fly blister back of one ear The re-
sulting sore was not allowed to heal.
but was made to run till nanny was
satisfied that all corruption had been
! drained from the blood
| Another belief of Mammy's which
worried my mother greatly, was that
a child would not be smart unless II
| fell out of bed before it cut a tooth,
and mother used to live in terror till
the fall was accomplished, for after
| that, Nanny tucked the baby in Sc
| curely
ITO lay the baby on a table was an
omen of its early death. II you meas
ured it, it would grow no more. If you
| let 1T see its face in a mirror before
1T was year old, it would die with
| in the twelve month. Teething was a
| very troublesome matter with me- /
was told, for my father once thought
lessly covered my head with his black
hat. If the hat had been of any other
color there would have been no harm.
My mother heartlessly refused to in
sure me set of fine permanent teeth
| by swallowing the first tooth l shed
so Nanny dropped it down a rat hole
so that 1 might have teeth as white
| and strong asa rats.
| Nanny never allowed us to have
| pockets in our frocks, for pockets be-
fore a child is years old tend to make
it 'rougish,' that is dishonest.
| Nanny treated our infantile all
| ments after fashion of her own. For
whooping cough, she gave us a tea
made of a hornets nest. Pounded
night shade mixed with old cream,
formed a salve for ivy poisoning. Three
weeds of different kinds--lt didn't mat
/ ter which kinds-were bruised and ap-
/ piled to bee stings.
For shingles, Nanny cut off the
tip of a black cats tail, and applied
the blood, mixed with gunpowder. She
| was in great fear that the eruption
| would belt the body. for when shingles
meet. the patient invariably dies She
| declared that she had known many peo-
| pie to die from that cause, and the
| family doctors assertion that the thing
could not possibly happen. only made
| her lose what little respect she had for
| his knowledge.
THE first snow that fell in March
a somewhat rare thing in our part of
| Virginia-she melted into an infallibly
| efficacious eyewater. l think she al
most regretted that none of us ever
had commissions, for she had once cured
1 - IL a.
| and well grown-child on a. neighboring
plantation by covering it's head, dur
| ing spasm, with a piece of
black silk. Immediately after
the silk was burned and the convul-
| sions disappeared with it.
| Green rue, bound to the soles of the
| feet, was her remedy for epilepsy. She
| recommended a pokeberry root poul-
! tice for cancer, and wild cherry bark
tea for all forms of heart disease.
| "She had removed a. wen from her
| neck by rubbing it with a dead mans
hand, and we used to thrill with deli
| cious horror when she shows us the
| place where it had been. The move
| ment of the sap in the trees had an in
! fluence on consumptives. according to
| Nanny. They never died when the
sap was stationary, but always when
| it was rising or sinking.
| 1--WE heard with apprehension the
first thunder of the year. for right well
| we know that 1t walked the snakes from
| their winter sleep. We knew that
the weather of the last Friday in a
| month was a sample Of what the next
months weather would be- Every Sat
urday night, Nanny sprinkled salt on
my fathers playing cards, and left 1t
on over Sunday, for on Sundays Sa-
/ tan has power to enter unsalted cards.
ION rare occasions Nanny conde-
| scended to cook. / remember that
once she threw out a mixing of bread.
| because the cook who had set the yeast
had gone away angry. and the anger
! of a cook fixes the yeast so that II Will
not rise for any one else.
| "Mammy's bread never rose unless
| the pan was turned toward the east.
When she made cake. she used always
to stir in some successful man. One of
my earliest recollections is of her beat
ing up the batter to the repetition of
/ Gen. Lees name. IL was In tine SEQ
\ ond year of the war. The cake was
a failure, and from that moment Mann
my predicted the fall OF the Confed-
| eracy."
"1 stirred him In, Miss Betty she
said to my mother. and the cake didn't
come. He's certainly going TO lose this
we're war. My cakes fallen as fat as II
/ had stirred In old Mr.. Tut Mayo
"Mr Tut Mayo was the conpicuous