BS: Folk-Lore of Adams County, Illinois

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Lore of Adams County, Illinois
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 08:21 AM

You betcha it's a classic! Just like Vance Randolph's stuff or Stith-Thompson. And there's a new edition coming out next year, I think on CD-ROM.

I still wonder how much was leg-pulling and how much was actual belief.

2497. A birthmark can be removed by rubbing it with a duck's foot.
2672. If the brains of a black hen are rubbed over a baby's gums, it will teethe easily.
2704. To keep a baby from becoming liver-grown, every morning give it a good shaking, letting its head hand downward.
2732. You will make a baby cross, if you iron its diapers.
3276. Wipe your nose on a teatowel for luck.
3472. Burn an old shoe for luck.
3474. It causes bad luck to burn old shoes.
3489. Put sugar in your shoes to coax your shirt tail down.
3925. Let urine remain in a pot overnight and next morning remove the scum. Bathe your face in the clear liquid to get rid of blackheads.
3984. To remove a corn, sprinkle it with gunpowder; then light the gunpowder and let it burn up completely.
4250. Let a toad wet on your wart to cure it.
6886. Kissing a girl on the nose will cause trouble.
7763. Eat burnt bread and you will be able to whistle.
8955. If the first thing you see when entering the woods is an old sunken boat on land, you will catch a lot of opossums.
9070. You can take a black cat bone out of the rectum and wear it and become invisible.
10609. A girl that uses powder and paint is very poison.

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Lore of Adams County, Illinois
From: Nerd
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 02:48 AM

It's a classic, Rapaire!

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Lore of Adams County, Illinois
From: Cluin
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 12:50 AM

One we all knew as kids: Killing a spider brings rain.

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Lore of Adams County, Illinois
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 12:47 AM

The way I heard 2861 -2 &-3 is "Big man, big prick: little man, all prick."

My grandparents were from Pearl, Illinois. Ever hear of it?

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Lore of Adams County, Illinois
From: Amos
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 11:06 PM

I dunno, man. That 9491... if I found out my Missus was doing that to hold me I wouldn't be held much thereafter, you betcha. Kind of a "Horse, That's once!" kinda deal...

A

Subject: BS: Folk-Lore From Adams County, Illinois
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:32 PM

Well, a few weeks ago I decided that I'd delayed long enough. I went ahead and purchased Harry M. Hyatt's Folk-Lore From Adams County, Illinois (NY: Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, 1935).

Now this probably means damned little to anyone else except Nerd and perhaps three other people. But this book, published ten years before I was born, collects 10,949 beliefs, sayings, and things from within ten square miles of Quincy, Illinois -- where I grew up.

I figured that it was time to find out some of the things I believed, especially since I knew an awful lot of people of the generation from which these beliefs were collected.

Yes, I'd heard of a few of these -- and so have you ("Red sky at night," for instance). But I sort of suspect that in others the folks Hyatt talked too were pulling on one or both of his legs.

Here are some of the things in the book, rather randomly chosen, cited by entry number. Make of them what you will.

2861. A tall man has a large penis.
2862. A small man has a large penis.
2863. A large man has a small penis.
4270. A baby will not become sick, if during its first year a mole foot is kept around its neck.
4508. Cure a bee sting by covering it with earwax.
4573. For bad blood, drink burdock root tea.
4711. "...a man was very sick...with peritonitis. His wife...stood behind the horse and caught the fresh droppings in her apron, squeezed out the juice, and gave it to her husband to drink. He got well...." 5006. A little urine in the ear will cure earache.
5018. Put dog waste in a quart of fresh milk and stir and strain through a clothe. Drink this for erysipelas.
5077. If you stop in the road to defecate, you will have a sty.
5621. Turn a somersault to cure indigestion.
5652. Drink whiskey to cure a toothache.
6307. Dreaming of a naked woman means honor and joy.
6308. To dream of being naked is a death warning.
7411. Taking cod-liver oil will make a man passionate.
7466. Dragging a rake across the porch causes bad luck.
8283. Pinch someone for luck when you see a red automobile.
8533. Carry the head of a crow on your breast and all who deal with you will lose in the transactions.
9490. If you wash your front door every morning with your pee, it will draw men to your house.
9491. Take nine drops of your first urine in the morning, put into your husband's coffee, and you will hold him.
10708. It is unlucky for two persons to be in a water-closet together.