Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
WAYLAND D. HAND
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
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
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
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
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