puts a dime in de shoe to keep de voo-doo away, and some carries a
buckeye in de pocket to keep off cramp and colic. Dey say a bone dey
finds in de jawbone of a hog will make chillun teethe easy. When de
slaves got sick, de whitefolks looked after 'em. De medicines for
sickness was nearly all yerbs. Dey give boneset for colds, made tea out
of it, and acheing joints. Butterfly root and slippery elm bark was to
cool fever. Willow ashes is good for a corn, poke root for rheumatism,
and a syrup made of mullein, honey, and alum for colds. Dey use barks
from dogwood, wild cherry, and clack haws, for one thing and another.
I'll tell you what's good for pizen-oak, powdered alum and sweet cream.
Beat it if it's lump alum, and put it in sweet cream, not milk, it has
to be cream. Dere's lots of other remedies and things, but I'm getting
so sap-skulled and I'm so old I can't remember. Yes'm, I've got mighty
trifling 'bout my remembrance.

"Once some Indians camped on de river bottoms for three or four years,
and we'd go down; me, and Anne, and Genia, nearly every Saturday, to
hear 'em preach. We couldn't understand it. Dey didn't have no racket or
nothing like colored folks. Dey would sing, and it sounded all right. We
couldn't understand it, but dey enjoyed it. Dey worked and had crops.
Dey had ponies, pretty ponies. Nobody never did bother 'em. Dey made
baskets out of canes, de beautifulest baskets, and dey colored 'em wid
dyes, natchel dyes.

"Indian woman wore long dresses and beads. Deir hair was plaited and
hanging down de back, and deir babyes was tied on a blanket on de back.
Mens wore just breeches and feathers in deir hats. I wish you could have
seen 'em a cooking. Dey would take corn dough, and den dey'd boil birds,
make sort of long, not round dumplings, and drop 'em in a pot of hot
soup. We thought dat was terrible, putting dat in de pot wid de birds.