The Folk Healer: Calling and Endowment

WAYLAND D. HAND

j HE fear of physical incapacitation and the dread of dis-

ease are so great in the human species that man, as part

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

of the folklore with which he invests his life, has created
a whole hierarchy of healers. These range in the so-
called civilized segments of society from unassuming
practitioners singled out by birth, physical characteris-
tics, virtue, occupation, name, and other qualifications—often seemingly
irrelevant to the healing function—to a more demonstrative professional-
ized healing caste in primitive societies. In this latter category, healers run
the gamut from simple root and herb doctors and other medical practi-
tioners, whose services are for hire, to shamans of great pretense and dis-

The healer's art in primitive societies has been widely treated in the lit-
erature,1 and shamanism itself boasts a rich bibliography.2 This survey,
therefore, will concentrate on retain more or less rare kinds of folk medi-
cal practitioners in Europe and America. These healers generally do not
operate as a class, but more often as lone functionaries. Even so, as Macken-
sen observes,3 there is some degree of confraternity, and there do exist
ways and means of transmitting medical knowledge and trade secrets. This
is true of herb doctors and dispensers of plant and animal simples and other
medicaments; it is also true of granny medicine, and particularly true of
midwifery,4 which, of course, has long been professionalized. It is gen-
i. Cf. 'Health and the godi of healing,' by various authon and in different part of the world, in
Hastings encyclopaedia of religion and ethics (Edinburgh, 1908-26), 13 vols., vi, 540-556. (Hereinafter
cited Hastings.)
a. J. A. MacCulloch, 'Shamanism' in Hastings, xi, 441-446. Siberian itiamjniim ij treated at some
length in V. Diouegi, ed., Glaubenswelt und Folklore da siberischen VSlker (Budapest, 1963).
3. Lutz Mackensen, 'Sitte und Brauch' in Adolf Spamer, ed., Die deutsche Volkshmde (Leipzig and
Berlin, 1934-35), a vol»., 1, n o .
4. For a good historical account of midwifery in folkloriitic terms, tee T. R. Forbes, The midwife
and the witch (New Haven, 1966), pp. na-155. Marie Campbell, Folks do get bom (New York and
Toronto, 1946), is a vademccum of knowledge concerning midwifery in present-day America (Geor-
gia principally).

This paper was read before the annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Los Angeles, 13 No-
vember 1970.
[263 1
264 Journal of the History of Medicine : July 1971
erally not true of practitioners in die field of folk medical magic, where
secrecy, mystery, and idiosyncrasy figure so importantly as part of the
curing experience and the psychological processes diat surround it.
The folk healer's art is acquired in several ways, but essentially the en-
dowment fans into three main categories, namely, a gift specially con-
ferred, one innate in the healer, or one resulting from some unique condi-
tion, a newly acquired status, or even happenstance. Religious healing of
all kinds, which I am not considering in diis paper, involves most often, in
one way or another, die investiture of the healer widi the divine gift, and
is a benison eidier claimed by die ministrant himself, or imputed to him by

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

his clients. In the case of many kinds of secular healers, particularly tihose
whose services are openly for hire, the healing virtue is often self-pro-
claimed, and is usually backed up by enough loyal followers to constitute
a kind of ongoing testimonial. The healers presented for review here,
however, are reasonably free of outward show and ostentation; some may
even be self-effacing. In dieir quiet way diey, too, may claim a loyal fol-
lowing, though it is likely to be somewhat smaller and perhaps more
select. In some cases, the virtues of die healer may be known to only a few.
Details are often scanty, and actual cases of haling are rarely reported.
Most often it is simply asserted diat for this, diat, and die odier reason, such
and such a person is a born healer, or diat for a variety of reasons, likewise,
he has become one.
The circumstances and accidents of birdi constitute a good point at
which to begin. Widely known in diis country as well as abroad is the sup-
posed ability of posdiumous children to cure diseases. Aldiough diey are
regarded as 'born healers,' so-called posdiumous children do not ordinarily
cultivate diis talent until aduldiood,5 and women as well as men are pressed
into service for die healing office.6 An item from Kentucky would indicate
that occasionally youngsters diemselves perform the cure. 'A baby stran-
gled with dirash can be cured quickly by having die breadi of a posdiu-
mous child blown down its diroat. The orphan must not, however, accept
pay for his services.'7 Thrash [thrush] is most often involved in cures by
those posdiumously bom, but they also treat hives and odier diseases. In
5. See the Frank C. Brown collation of North Carolina folklore (Durham, 1953H54), 7 vols., vi-vn,
Popular beliefs and superstitionsfrom North Carolina, W. D. Hand, ed. [1961-64], vi, 66, Nos. 413-414.
(Hereinafter cited Brown Coll.)
6. H. M. Hyatt, Folk-lore from Adams County Illinois (New York, 1935), p. 211, No. 4404; cf. also
No. 4403. Cf. alio T. J. Farr, Tennessee folk beliefs concerning children,',/. Amer. Folklore, 1939, 52,
114, No. 63. Cf. C. M. Wilson, 'Folk beliefs in the Ozark hills,' Fotksay (Norman, Okla., 1930), p.
162.
7. T. D. Clark, The Kentucky. The Riven of America. (New York, 1942), p. 118.
 Hand : The Folk Healer 265
Ohio, for example, whooping cough is prevented by taking the hair of a
girl who has never seen her father, putting it in a bag, and hanging it
around the neck of a boy. In this unpublished item it is specifically stated
that such a measure will prove ineffectual if performed on another girl.
Extensions are made from the true posthumous child to those who for
one reason or another have not seen their fathers,8 including those hapless
children whose fathers have disappeared.9 In an Indiana entry a person
who has never seen his father after reaching maturity is represented as be-
ing able to blow into a child's mouth and cure the 'thrash.'10 In North
Carolina the circumstance of a child's not having seen his father is assign-

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

able, among other reasons, to the fact that he was an illegitimate child.11
From these borderline cases involving thrush, the notion has been stretched
even further to include any person who has never seen the baby's father,12
and further still in Ohio, where anyone who has not seen the baby's parents
may be called upon.13 The healing power of a posthumous child in Scot-
land is thought to be so strong that such a person need only look at the
patient.14 This notion has evidently lingered on in some parts of America.
In Kentucky, for instance, a posthumous child need not breathe or blow
down the throat of a baby afflicted with thrush in the accepted way; he
need only look down the throat to effect the cure,15 or, according to some,
simply touch the victim.16
The unusual curing power attributed to seventh sons, or to seventh sons
of seventh sons is well known in European folk medical tradition.17 As in
8. J. Q. Anderson, Texas folk medicine: 1333 cures, remedies, preventives, & health practices (Austin,
Tex., 1970), p. 89; Hyatt (n. 6), p. 211, No. 4403; T. J. Fair, 'Riddles and superstitionj of Middle
Tennessee,'J. Amer. Folklore, 193 s, 48, 327, No. 30.
9. Gordon Wilson, Folklore of the Mammoth Cave region (Kentucky Folklore Series, No. 4, 1968),
p. 64.
10. W. E. Richmond and Elva Van Winkle, 'Is there a doctor in the house?' Indiana hist. Bull., 1958,
35, 133, No. 267.
11. J. D. Clark, 'North Carolina popular beliefs and superstitioni,' N. Carolina Folklore, 1970,18, 8.
12. N. N. Puckett, Folk beliefs of the Southern Negro (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1926), p. 341; Tressa Tur-
ner, The human comedy in folk superstitionj,' Pub. Texas Folklore Soc., 1937, 13, 168; Grace Part-
ridge Smith, 'Folklore from "Egypt," ' J. Amer. Folklore, 1941, 54, 58.
13. Unpublished item in the Newbell Niles Puckett Collection of Popular Beliefs and Superstitions,
Cleveland Public Library.
14. Walter Gregor, Notes on thefolk-lore of the North-Fast of Scotland. Publications of the Folk-Lore
Society, vn (London, 1881), 37.
15. Sadie F. Price, 'Kentucky folk-lore,'J. Amer. Folklore, 1901,14, 32.
16. John Hawkins, 'An old Mauma's folk-lore,'J. Amer. Folklore, 1896, 9, 130. A more elaborate
description is to be found in Julia Peterkin's Green Thursday, p. 91 (as quoted in Irene Yates, 'Conjures
and cures in the novels of Julia Peterkin,' Southern Folklore Quart., 1946, 10, 146).
17. See W. G. Black, Folk-medicine: A chapter in the history of culture. Publications of the Folk-Lore
Society, xn (London, 1883), 136-137; O. v. Hovorka und A. Kronfeld, Vergleichende Volksmedizin
(Stuttgart, 1908-09), 2 vob., 1, 391; Adolf Wuttke, Deutscher Volksabtrglaube der Cegenwart, 3rd ed.,
266 Journal of the History of Medicine : July 1971
other kinds of medical lore with which we are dealing, reasons are seldom
stated. Liebrecht, however, has called attention to the magical qualities of
the number seven in the context of healing,18 and Seemann has made ap-
plication to magical persons and creatures.19 For the belief in the gift of
healing of seventh sons in America, as summarized in the Brown Collec-
tion,20 I can now multiply references manyfold. Because of the widespread
belief in this endowment, I shall concentrate on less well known details.
Henderson, writing in the 1860s, reported that this tradition was so strong
that 'when seven sons were born in succession parents considered them-
selves bound, if possible, to bring up the seventh as a doctor.'21 In the

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

Ozark country, for example, a seventh son of a seventh son is thought to
be a physician in spite of himself, endowed with healing powers which
cannot be denied. Even if such a man does not study or practice medicine,
he is very often called 'Doc' or 'Doctor' by common consent.22 The well-
known folk singer Doc Hopkins was a seventh son, and was, likely in ac-
cordance with this tradition, given the first name of Doctor. Old Doc
Cassell, who lived in Somerset, Ohio, was the seventh son of a seventh son,
and was supposed to have 'electricity in his hands' and to be able to cure
scrofula.23 In upper Michigan it was thought that the seventh son of a
seventh son was able to draw the pain from his patient to his own body. In
so doing he was said to perspire freely, his body was reported to quiver,
and articles in the room to vibrate from his emotions.24 In this connection
Henderson in the 1860s, writing on the healing power of seventh sons, as
well as twins and children born with a caul, reported that this power was
'held to be so much subtracted from their own vital energy,' that if much
drawn upon 'they would pine away and die of exhaustion.'25 Both the

E. H. Meyer, ed. (Berlin, 1900), p. 323, par. 479; E. & M. A. Radford, Encyclopaedia of superstitions,
ed. and rev. by Christina Hole (London, 1961), pp. 301-302; Antonio Castillo de Lucas, Folkmedldna
(Madrid, 1958), p. 75; I~ C. Jones, Tractitionen of folk medicine,' Bull. Hist Med., 1949, 23, 489;
Madge E. Pickard and R. C. Buky, The Midwest pioneer, his His, cures, and doctors (Crawfordrville, Ind.,
1945), p. 75; Anderson (n. 8), pp. xiv, 88-89, passim.
18. FthxUebiecht,ZurVolkskunde:AlUundneueAufsatze(yia^Tonn, 1879), pp. 346-347, No. 11.
19. Erich Seemann, ' "Die zehnte Tochter": Eine Studie ru einer Gottscheer Ballade,' in G. O.
Ark and W. D. Hand, eds., Hunumiora: Essays in literature, folklore, bibliography, honoring Archer Taylor
on his seventieth birthday (New York, i960), pp. 106-109.
20. Brown ColL (n. 5), vi, 38, Nos. 223-224.
21. William Henderson, Notes on thefolk-lore of the northern counties and the borders. New ed., Publi-
cations of the Folk-Lore Society, n (London, 1879), 306.
22. Vance Randolph, Ozark superstitions (New York, 1947), p. 207.
23. Puckett Ohio Collection, unpublished (n. 13).
24. R. M. Donon, "Blood stoppers,' Southern Folklore Quart, 1947, 11, 109-110.
25. Henderson (n. 21), p. 306. On the debilitating efiect on the curer, Wintemberg reports hraring
a female conjurer say that if the patient's illrww was of a very serious nature and she attempted to cure
 Hand : The Folk Healer 267
Micmac and Penobscot Indians believed in seventh sons as powerful heal-
ers by virtue of their birth, a notion probably borrowed from white set-
tlers predominantly from parts of Europe where this belief was held.26 In
the airing of thrush, for example, seventh sons cured the disease in the tra-
ditional way, namely by blowing or breathing into the mouth of the vic-
tim, as in the case of healers posthumously born.27 Likewise, seventh
sons rub warts, one of the customary ways of ridding one of these ex-
crescences.28 In France, as well as in the British Isles, rubbing, stroking, or
simply touching were curative means ascribed to sevendi sons.29
Seventh daughters in an unbroken chain of female children were also

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

thought of in many countries as endowed with the gift of healing,30 and it
is not surprising that there should also be variations to include a seventh
daughter of a seventh daughter,31 as well as the inevitable seventh daughter
of a seventh son.32 The importance of numerology in healing is seen in the
attribution of healing power to children in an uninterrupted succession of
male or female births in denominations other than seven. As early as the
173 os, the twenty-first son born in wedlock, without a daughter interven-
ing, could perform prodigious cures of scrofula.33 The fifth or sixth con-
secutive sons or daughters of the same mother, in the Spanish and Spanish-
American tradition, often automatically become saludadores.34 The special
gift ofblood stopping, in parts of Michigan, fell to a ninth consecutive son.35
Children bom with a caul are supposed to have the gift of healing, as
well as enjoying the gift of second sight and immunity to drowning, but
the tradition is nowhere as widely believed as the two special benefits men-
tioned and several other beliefs associated with children born with the so-
it, it always had a debilitating effect upon her, even if ihe did not see or come into contact with the
sick penon (W. J. Wintemberg, Folklore of Waterloo County, Ontario [National Museum of Canada.
BulL, No. 116, Ottawa, 1950]), p. 23.
26. J. Amer. Folklore, 1869, a, 174 (Micmac); F. G. Speck, 'Penobscot tales and religious beliefs,'
{bid., 1935, 48, 31.
27. Brown ColL, (n. 5), vi, 66-67, No. 418.
28. Ibid., vi, 311, NOJ. 2420-2421; Anderson (n. 8), p. 89.
29. Henderson (n. 21), p. 305; Mrs. Gutch, Examples of the printedfolk-lore concerning Ihe North Rid-
ing of Yorkshire, York, and the Ainsty. Publications of the Folk-Lore Society, XLV (London, 1901
[1899]), 169; J. G. Dalyell, The darker superstitions of Scotland (Glasgow, 1835), p. 70.
30. Arnold Van Gennep, Manuel defolklorefrancais contemporaln (Paris, 1937-57), 9 parts in 3 volj.,
1, Pt 1, p. 124; I. M. Barriola, La medicine popular en el pais vasco (San Sebastian, 1952), p. 127; Jeanne
(Cooper) Foster, Ulster folklore (Belfast, 1951), p. 64.
31. Superstitions. A catalogue of make-believe (Tacoma, Wash., n.d.), p. 30.
32. F. W. Waugh, 'Canadian folk-lore from Ontario,'J. Amer. Folklore, 1918, 31, 39, No. 581.
33. Dalyell (n. 29), p. 396.
34. G. M. Foster, 'Relationship between Spanish and Spanish-American folk medicine,'J. Amer.
Folklore, 1953, 66, 213.
35. Dorson (n. 24), p. 115.
268 Journal of the History of Medicine : July
called veil. The healing gift is known, among other places, in parts of the
British Isles and in France and Holland. The belief has been brought to
America in the folklore of these countries but is apparently little known
here.36 The tradition persisted among the French in Louisiana,37 where
children born with a gif or veil, were thought to be destined to become
remede-workers.38 In Michigan anyone born with a caul can stop bleed-
ing.39 The gift is innate but does not become operative until the holder
attains a certain unstated age.40
Other unusual physical characteristics include the anomaly of a child
born by breech birth. In the British Isles such individuals were reputed to

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

have the gift of healing in their feet and were pressed into service to tram-
ple the trunks of those afflicted with rheumatism or lumbago and to tread
upon sprained members.41 In Scotland these healers also resorted to rub-
bing and were paid well for their services.42 By way of extension upon the
gift, rheumatism could also be treated by a woman newly delivered of a
child by breech birth.43 Although they doubtless exist, I can find no trace of
these folk medical practices in America, except as they may be practiced by
Americans of Japanese extraction who have brought the practice from
their homeland where the procedure is said to be common. That left-
handed people possess a medical talent in rubbing is not well known. Since
my files are not cross-referenced I can find only one instance of the mas-
sage by left-handers, namely, manipulation for the cure of stiff neck. This
item is from Louisiana.44 Children born with teeth, known as healers in
Europe,45 are unheard of as born healers in America, as nearly as I can dis-
cover, nor is the loss of teeth, apparently, thought to impede the healer's
art, as in Norway. 45
Relatively unknown in the Germanic and Anglo-Saxon folk medical
traditions is the special marking of a healer which is found in the folklore
36. Henderjon (n. ai), p. 306; Jonei (n. 17), p. 489; Hyatt (n. 6), p. 127, No. 2611.
37. Elisabeth Brandon, 'Les moeun de la Paroisse de Vermillion en Louisiane (unpub. din., Laval
Univenity, Quebec, 1955), p. 92.
38. H. T. Kane, Deep Delia country (New York, 1944), p. 227.
39. Donon (n. 24), p. 108.
40. Ibid., p. 109.
41. Black (n. 17), p. 137; Gregor (n. 14), pp. 4J-46; E. & M A. Radford, Encyclopaedia of supersti-
tions (London, n.d. [1947]), p. 118.
43. Gregor (n. 14), pp. 45-46.
43. Radford (n. 41), p. 199.
44. Hilda Roberts, 'Louisiana superstitions,' J. Amer. Folklore, 1927, 40, 168, No. 454.
4J. Black (n. 17), p. 138; C. Bakker, Volksgeneeskunde in Wataland. Eat vergclijkendc Studie met de
•Geneeskunde der Grieken en Romeinen (Amsterdam, 1928), p. 4.
46. J. T. Storakcr, Sygdom og Forgjerelse in den Norske FcVtetro. Norsk Folkeminnelag, No. 20 (Oslo,
1932), p. 9, No. 9.
 Hand : The Folk Healer 269
of the Romance-language countries. In France, for example, the seventh
son of a seventh son, with no female intervening, is a marcou. He has on
his body the mark of the fleur-de-lis, and, like the King of France, he has
the power to cure the king's evil.47 In the Spanish and Basque tradition the
healer was supposed to have a cross under the tongue or in the roof of the
mouth.48 This belief is also encountered in Latin-American folk tradition,
where a St. Catherine's wheel, as well as a cross, is the distinguishing
mark.49 Foster says that the Chilean perspicaz is clearly a lineal descendant
of the Spanish saludador because of this marking.50 Henderson speaks of
seventh sons being marked with seven stars as a badge of their healing of-

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

fice,51 but I am unable to trace this belief to America.
Twins enjoy a reputation as healers in both the Germanic and Romance-
language countries,52 and this tradition has been carried to the Americas,
where extensions have been made to the so-called 'left twin,' i.e., a surviv-
ing twin.53 Such a twin, by the laws of sympathy, was thought to gain the
vitality and other attributes of its dead sibling.54 Cures were not limited to
thrush, but involved other diseases also. The healing virtue of twins often
extended to the mother of twins as well, and involved skill in curing
sprains and strained ligaments.55 A mother of twin boys in the Midwest,
for example, was credited with being able to cure erysipelas, if she would
'strike fire' with flint and steel on the head of the afflicted one.56 For the
cure of rheumatism in New York state one was supposed to find a widow
who had twins57 and have her step on the back or the part affected. We
have already come across this kind of manipulation in connection with
healers who were breech born. In Germany twin brothers were favored
for pulling sick children through a split in cherry trees.58
The time of birth, and unusual circumstances surrounding it, are thought

47. Henderson (n. 21), p. 306. Liebrecht sayi that a pcnon wiihing to be healed need only touch the
fleur-de-lis marking (n. 18), pp. 346-347, No. 11.
48. Castillo de Lucas (n. 17), p. 75; Barriola (n. 30), p. 128.
49. Foster (n. 34), p. 213.
50. Ibid.
51. Henderson (n. 21), p. 306.
52. Revista de Dialcctologta y Tradirioncs Populares, 1947,3, 45; Foster (n. 34), p. 213.
53. P. G. Brewster, 'Folk cures and preventives from southern Indiana,' Southern Folklore Quart.,
1939. 3, 4°, No. 2. Cf. Henderson (n. 21), p. 307.
J4- Radford and Hole (n. 17), p. 345.
55. Revista (n. 52), 1949, j , 309-310, 504.
56. Pickard and Buley (n. 17), p. 79.
57. Janice C. Neal, 'Grandad—pioneer medicine man,' N. Y. Folklore Quart., 1955, 11, 284.
58. Jacob Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie. 4. Ausg., E. H. Meyer, ed. (Berlin, 1875-78), n, 976. For a
treatment of'pulling through1 see my article,' "Passing through": folk medical magic and symbol-
ism,' Proc. Amer. phil. Soc., 1968,112, 379-402.
270 Journal of the History of Medicine : July 1971
to endow the child with special gifts of healing.59 Children born on Christ-
mas,60 on Maundy Thursday,61 Good Friday, and other religious holidays,
are born healers.62 This tradition seems strongly represented in the Ro-
mance-language countries.63 Wholly without religious connection is a
Utah tradition that a person born in October has the power to cure a head-
ache by rubbing.64 In the Midwest a so-called 'seven-months' baby' was
credited with possessing the healer's gift.65 Of children born with the con-
genital grace of healing in the Romance tradition,66 no token was more
certain of the gift than the crying of the child in the mother's womb. 67 The

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

gift was vouchsafed only if the modier told no one. In Chile the perspicaz
was said to lose his gift if the mother revealed the happening.68
States of innocence, either in children or young people, moral excel-
lence, and continuing fidelity among married adults, or virtues of unmar-
ried adults, are considered part of the moral and spiritual gift of the healer.
In a beautifully symbolic way, a baby's first tear is diought to cure blind-
ness, as is seen in entries from Nebraska and Utah.69 One is immediately
reminded of the curing of the prince's blindness by the tears of his faithful
wife, and mother of twins, in the Grimm tale of 'Rapunzel' (Grimm, No.
12). The range of healers on a scale of innocence and virtue is seen in Ken-
tucky, where the saliva of a child under six months of age is used against
the bite of the deadly copperhead, die saliva of a virgin for snakebite in
general, and in Monroe county, the saliva of a minister for die same pur-
pose.70 In Germany, yarn spun by a girl under seven years of age is worn
to prevent gout and arthritic diseases,71 and sick children suffering from
various kinds of ailments are wrapped in die apron of a virgin bride to cure

59. Foster (n. 34), p. 2:3.

60. Ibid. A young woman in Los Angeles, of Italian parentage, claims that a child born on Christ-
mas can cure headaches.
(Si. Foster (n. 34), p. 213.
62. Ibid.
63. Castillo de Lucas (n. 17), p. 75; Barriola (n. 30), p. 127.
64. Unpublished Utah Collection, UCXA.
65. Pickard and Buley (n. 17), p. 75.
66. Barriola (n. 30), p. 127.
67. Foster (n. 34), p. 213; Barriola (n. 30), p. 127.
68. Foster (n. 34), p. 213.
69. Paulette Monette Black, Nebraska folk cures. University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Lit-
erature, and Criticism, No. 15 (Lincoln, 1935), p. 16, No. 27; R. L. Welsch, A treasury of Nebraska
pioneer folk-lore (Lincoln, 1966), p. 339. The Utah item, unpublished, was collected from an old
Indian witch doctor in the vicinity of Layton.
70. L. C. Thompson, 'A vanishing science,' Kentucky Folklore Rec, 1959, j , 101.
71. Handwdrterbuth des deutschen Aberglaubens (Berlin and Leipzig, 1927—42), 10 vols., m, 838.
 Hand : The Folk Healer 271
72
them. By the same token of innocence, in Utah, the urine of a faithful
wife is used for the treatment of sore eyes.73
By the vagaries of folklore, healing may be accomplished by people of
moral taint as well as by the innocent and virtuous. In Scotland, for exam-
ple, warts were removed by the patient's rubbing the growth against the
father of an adulterous child, but care had to be exercised that this contact
be made widiout the offender's knowledge.74 The situation is reversed in
Portugal, where the victim rubs his warts against the ribs of a cuckolded
husband without the latter's knowing it.75 Curing of this kind is noted
from Alabama around the 1880s, where the father of an illegitimate child

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

was specified.76 Less offensive than the word 'illegitimate,' perhaps, is the
designation, in North Carolina, of an 'unmarried father.'77 An illegitimate
child itself as a healer is rare indeed, but mention is made in the unpub-
lished Ohio Collection of having an illegitimate girl blow into a baby's
mouth to cure the thrush.78
The love relationship, as well as the marital bond itself, figures in the
kinds of curing we have just discussed. In Kentucky, for example, a jilted
lover is supposed to be able to cure the hives and thrush.79 On the other
hand, in ceremonies involving a child's parents working in concert, it is
generally assumed that a close bond between the parents exists. In the
Galician tradition in Spain, for example, it is expressly stated diat the
father and modier who pull a child through a split trunk of a young tree
for the cure of hernia must 'get along well together.'80
That marital status is involved in healing in one way or another is seen
in the power supposed to reside in die names of the spouses, but most com-
monly in the name, or new name, of the wife herself. As is very well
known, women who marry widiout changing their surname are thought
to become healers automatically.81 Whether ideas of double potency are
involved, as in die case of the so-called 'left,' or surviving, twin, I cannot

72. Wuttke (n. 17), p. 359.

73. Unpublijhed Utah Collection, UCLA.
74. Grcgor (n. 14), p. 49. Cf. Black (n. 17), p. 138.
75. Rodney Gallop, Portugal: A book of folk-ways (Cambridge, 1936), p. 62.
76. Unpublished Alabama Collection, UCLA.
77. J. D. Clark (n. u ) , 18, 8, No. 77.
78. Puckett Ohio Collection, unpublijhed (n. 13).
79. Wilson (n. 9), p. 64.
80. Revista (n. 52), 1944,1, 296; c£ Hand (n. 58), p. 382, passim; Paul SAillot, Lefolklore de France
(Paris, 1904-07), 4 vob., m, 417.
81. Radford and Hole (n. 17), p. 245; Brown ColL (n. 5), VI, 353, Noj. 2729-2730, passim. I do not
find reference to this belief in Germany, although onomastic magic is otherwise widely known in
German folk mrAirinr
272 Journal of the History of Medicine : July 1971
say. The strange thing about this belief is the fact that there is never any
mention of heating until the girl marries a man with the same family name
as her own. The belief in healers by virtue of name magic is well known in
the British Isles, especially for the treatment of whooping cough, and to
the instances cited by Radbill,82 many can be added for eastern Canada,
New England, and the eastern seaboard. Generally the victim of whoop-
ing cough—often a child—is given bread to eat baked by a woman whose
surname has not changed after marriage.83 Interesting variations, involv-
ing well-known principles of magic, are seen in a North Carolina ritual,
where the bread is not given to the victim directly by the baker, but by

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

another person, or, preferably, the bread is left in a place where the child
suffering from whooping cough can steal it.84 In Maryland, the woman
who baked the bread may spread it with butter. If the child takes it, with-
out thanking her, there will be no more whoop to the cough.85 In New
York state, after the bread is secured, the child is taken to another county
to consume the bread. He must remain there an hour.86 The patient occa-
sionally was supposed to secure various kinds of comestibles other than
bread, ranging from raisin and currant cake in the British Isles,87 to boiled
eggs in the midwestem part of the United States.88 Among the Pennsyl-
vania Germans it was specified that the eggs must be gathered by a woman
whose name had not been changed by marriage.89 In Illinois eggs were
bought from such a person.90 In Indiana, by way of extension upon medi-
cal services, wet nursing was considered best if performed by a woman
whose maiden and married names were the same.91 In parts of Europe
there was much greater latitude. Healing could be performed by anyone
of the same surname as the patient.92
In other connections we have already discussed parents as healers of their

82. S. X Radbill, 'Whooping cough in fact and fancy,' Bull. Hist. Med., 1943, 13, 47.
83. Wintemberg (n. 25), p. 15; Annie Weston Whitney and Caroline Canfield Bullock, 'Folk-lore
from Maryland,' Mem. Amer. Folklore Soc., 1925, lS, 83, No. 1709; Brown ColL (n. 5), VI, 353, No.
1729; Farr (n. 6), p. 114, No. 70; E. M. Fogel, 'Beliefs and superstitions of the Pennsylvania Germans,'
Americana Gemumka, 1915, 18, 339, No. 1803.
84. Haywood Parker, 'Folk-lore of the North Carolina mountaineers,'/. Amer. Folklore, 1907, 20,
249.
85. Whitney and Bullock (n. 83), p. 83, No. 1711.
8fi. C. M. Relihan, 'Folk remedies,' New York Folklore Quart., 1947, 3, 169.
87. Notes and Queries, 1852, 1st ser., 6, 71.
88. Pickard and Buley (n. 17), p. 77.
89. T. R. Brendle and C. W. Unger, 'Folk medicine of the Pennsylvania Germans. The non-occult
cures.' Proc. Pennsylvania German Soc., 1935, 4}, 133. Cf. Radbill (n. 82), p. 47.
90. J. W. Allen, Legends & lore of southern Illinois (Carbondale, 1963), p. 84.
91. Midwest Folklore, 1955, 5, 214.
92. Wuttke (n. 17), p. 323; Castillo de Lucas (n. 17), p. 466.
 Hand : The Folk Healer 273
own children. Now in consideration of name magic we must once more
think of husband and wife as healers working together. Here again, the
obtaining of food is part of the ritual. Bread and butter secured from a
man named Joseph whose wife is named Mary was thought to be effica-
cious for various kinds of cures in parts of England.93 In some places food
was not sought, simply the prescription from such a couple as to what one
should do for whooping cough.94 The names of the Holy Couple imme-
diately come to mind, and perhaps their merit and sanctity he at the root of
this supposed medical efficacy. However, the names of John and Joan in
married couples are connected with folk medical healing in the British

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

Isles.95 The Romance counterparts are Jean and Jeanne in France and Juan
and Juanita in Spain and the Spanish-speaking countries. John need not
necessarily work with his wife with a counterpart name. Three men
named Johannes, for example, conduct the exacting ritual of passing vic-
tims through trees in northwestern Germany.96 This ceremony was carried
out in France by a man named Jean.97 In Spain the name of Manuel is asso-
ciated with healing as well as Juan.98 In Chile even the hat of a man named
Juan was thought to be efficacious if used to cover the head of a woman in
difficult labor.99
Other than to clergymen, to whom the gift of healing would accrue as
part of the sacred office, the healing art is little attached to people in specific
trades and occupations not connected with the medical profession. Black-
smiths and shepherds, well known as healers in Europe,100 are as a class
little thought of as healers in America, although this tradition may have
lingered on somewhat in the Pennsylvania German country. Here, for ex-
ample, it was thought that a blacksmith had the ability to cure man and
horse alike.101 The elaborate rituals engaged in by blacksmiths of the sev-
enth generation of a family of blacksmiths, known in the north of Eng-
land, never found' lodgement, apparently, on our shores.102 Carpenters as

93. Black (n. 17), pp. 90-91; Radbill (n. 82), p. 47; Folk-Lore, 1943, 54, 305-306.
94. Henderson (n. 21), p. 143.
95. Notes and Queries, 1852, 1st ser., 5, 148.
96. J. G. Frazer, The golden bough. 3rd ed. (London, 1914-35), 12 vols., JO, 171-172.
97. Henri Gaidoz, Un vieux rite midkal (Paris, 1892), p. 17.
98. Castillo de Lucas (n. 17), p. 51.
99. Julio VicuBa Cifuentes, Mitos y superstkiones. (Studios del folklore chileno rtcogidos de la tradicidn
oral. 3. ed. (Santiago, 1947), p. 170.
100. Grimm (n. 58), n, 963; HDA, Nachtrag, DC, 124, 257; M. A. van Andel, Volksgeneeskunst in
Nederland (Utrecht, 1909), p. 94; Henderson (n. 21), p. 187; Gregor (n. 14), p. 45.
101. Pennsylvania Dutchman, 1951, 3, 2.
102. Henderson (n. 21), p. 187; J. Amer. Folklore, 1005, lS, 253.
274 Journal of the History of Medicine : July 1971
hereditary healers are unknown to me except in theRomance tradition.103
Total strangers and transients as healers are little known in America, and
I have not encountered them at all in European folk medical tradition. In a
recent paper I called attention to the ritual of divestment in Hollywood,
wherein an unknown itinerant counts the victim's warts, writes them (the
number?) on the inside of the hatband, and then magically takes the warts
with him as he leaves town.104 In another case involving a total stranger,
a lady with a goiter who had stopped for a red signal light in Canoga Park,
California, was accosted by a total stranger who prescribed the touch of a
dead man's hand.105 These unusual kinds of curers strongly remind one, of

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

course, of the stranger riding up on a white or piebald horse to inform a
sufferer from whooping cough how to rid himself of the malady. This un-
usual kind of advice is well known in the British Isles,106 and has also been
tolerably well preserved in this country, as references from such widely
scattered places as New Hampshire, Maryland, Indiana, and Utah attest.107
Cures were also prescribed by riders of grey horses as well as white and
piebald animals. The prescription for whooping cough, simply offered,
usually involved no other ministrations on the part of the rider, but in the
Midwest, an unknown rider on a grey horse was credited with being able
to take warts away with him.108 We have thus seen strangers, in both old-
time and modern settings, serve as actual ministrants and curers as well as
advisers.
Since the various kinds of healers discussed in this paper are healers by
virtue of unusual physical endowments, strange traits and abnormalities, as
well as by unusual relationships and circumstances of one kind and another,
one can little hope to find in these discussions the usual references to ways
and means of passing on the healing art. By the very fact that such healers
are specially marked and derive their power and virtue as healers from the
103. Revista (n. 52), 1949, 5, 503; Arnold Van Gennep, Lefolklore du Dauphini (Paris, 1932-33), a
voli., I, 60. Because of the rarity of this kind of ascription, I am citing an item which I turned up after
this article was submitted: 'A woman living near Clayton [Illinois] said that a house painter took her
son's warts off merely by looking at them. This, she heard, was a special gift accorded to most mem-
bers of the trade.' Hyatt (n. 6, 2 ed., New York, 1965), p. 390, No. 6336.
104. W. D. Hand, 'Folk medical magic and symbolism in the West,' in Austin Fife, Alta Fife, and
Henry Glauie, eds., Forms upon thefrontier.Utah State University, Monograph Series, xvi, No. 2
(Logan, 1969). P- 108.
105. Ibid.
106. T. J. Pettigrew, On superstitions connected with the history and practice of medicine and surgery (Lon-
don, 1844), p. 73; Radbill (n. 8a), p. 48; Henderson (n. 21), pp. 142-143.
107. Mrs. Moody P. Gore and Mrs. Guy E. Speare, New Hampshire folk tales (Plymouth, N.H.,
Federation of Women's Clubs, 1932), p. 216; Whitney and Bullock (n. 83), p. 83, No. 1712; Brown
Coll. (n. 5), vrr, 352, No. 2715. The Utah item is in the unpublished Utah Collection, UCLA.
108. Pickard and Buley (n. 17), pp. 79, 331.
 Hand : The Folk Healer 275
accidents of birth and station, it is clear that the usual means of perpetuat-
ing the gift are totally unavailing. The gift, in a sense, is automatic; hence
it is that one hears nothing at all of the transmission of the gift within
families, except as in the case of seventh sons. Nor does one hear of the
conferral of the healer's gift from one sex to another, or of any kind of
transmission, personal or otherwise.
It is likewise clear that there is little or no talk of rewards and other per-
quisites, as one is accustomed to find among a more or less professional
caste of healers. The wididrawal of the gift for the acceptance of pay, ac-

Downloaded from http://jhmas.oxfordjournals.org/ at Carleton University on June 12, 2014

cordingly, is completely unheard of in this connection. Despite my dis-
claimers, I am sure that there must be some grafting of accepted notions,
concerning various faith healers and other kinds of folk medical practi-
tioners on some of die special kinds of folk healers discussed in this paper-
University of California, Los Angeles