The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-01-05

make II rOgulSh, that IS. QlSnOneSt.
Nanny treated our infantile all
ments after a fashion Of her OWL For
whoOping cough she gave US a tea
made OF hornets nest. Pounded night
shade mixed with old cream formed a
salye for ivy poisoning. Three weeds
Of different kinds-it didn't matter
which kinds-Were bruised and applied
to bee stings.
For shingles, Nanny cut of 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
people 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
eff1caciOus eyewater. I think she al
most regretted that none Of US ever
had commissions. for she had once
cured a 'nOble'-nOble in Virginia
means fat and well grOwn-child on a
neighbOring plantation by covering its
a %
black silk. Immediately after the silk
was burned and the convulsions dis
appeared with it.
Green rue, bound to the sOles of the
feet. was her remedy for epilepsy. She
recommended a pOkeberry root poul-
tlce 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 de-
hcious horror when she showed US the
place where it had been. The move
ment Of the sap in the trees had an
influence on consumptives, according
to Nanny. They never died when the
sap was stationary, but always when
it was rising or sinking.
I'VE heard with apprehension the
first thunder Of the year. for right well
we knew that it 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 it
on over Sunday. for on Sundays Satan
has power TO enter unSalted cards.
ON rare occasions Nanny conde-
4
she threw out a mixing of bread be-
cause the cook who had set the yeast
had gone away angry, and the anger
Of a cook fixes the yeast so that it
will not rise for anyone else.
Mammy's bread never rose unless
the pan was turned toEhrd the east.
When she made cake she used ALWAYS
to stir in some successful man. One
Of my earliest recollections is Of her
beating up the batter TO the repetition
Of General Lees name. It was in the
second year Of the war. The cake was
a failure, and from that moment Nam
my predicted the fall of the Confed-
eracy.
stirred him in, Miss Betty she
said to my mother, and the cake didn't
come. He's certainly going to lose this
yere war. My cakes fallen as fat as
If 1 had stirred in old Mr.. Tut Mayo.
Mr.. Tut Mayo was the conspicuous
bad example of our county. Later. I
heard her whispering, Mr.. Lincoln. Mr.
Lincoln as she stirred up another
cake, and to my childish horror the
name brought success. The cake was
perfect.
Nanny always burned all our old
shoes. If they had been thrown away
If we sat with hands clasped on top Of
our heads We were counting mischief
If Mammys apron fell off company
was coming.
When Mr.. Tut Mayo's funeral pro
cession was stopped by a broken trace
half way TO the graveyard Nanny
was prepared 10 hear of the second
death in the Mayo family, which fol-
lowed within the year. When my
brothers had to pass the cemetery aft
er dark they were always hidden to
walk with their pockets turned inside
out, for no 'ha'nt' can touch person
so protected.
-'Mammy's beliefs made me pass one
night of terror which 1 recall wildly.
One of oar distant kinsmen had died,
and was TO be buried in the family
burying ground on my fathers plan
tation. BY some accident the funeral
was delayed a day, and the grave,
already dug, remained open all night.
Nanny told me il would call till il
was filed, and all night I seemed to
hear that open grave calling. One of
the field hands died the next day and
Nanny declared the call had been an
sWered. To have expressed a doubt Of
any of her beliefs would have been to
appear in her eyes not 'hard'-feeble-
minded, in fact.
"Of her darker sGperstitions I knew
little, but I heard it whispered that
she had the power with cards, and
could read the future.
Nanny had a soma bright, or
-colored, scamp-whO was the ap-
pie of her eye. When he married a
freckled quadroon girl in the village
Nanny declared that the wench had
bewitched him.
- That Lucindy's trash she said.
She taken some John COnkly'-JOhn
COnkly being a magic herb 1 have
never been able TO identify-and put
it in cologne and sprinkled her hand
kerchief with it. 1 know she shaken
it at my Lucius. and that's how she
got him
And when Lucindy proved faithless
a few months later Nanny was IN
feignedly thankful.
Popular songs were an abominatiOn
to Nanny She sang nothing but
hymns, and one curious chant, which
ran:
White and bay, black and gray
All the four pretty horses,