Actually the proper title of the work is “JOHN GEORGE HOHMAN’S POW-WOWS; OR, LONG LOST FRIEND A COLLECTION OF MYSTERIOUS AND INVALUABLE ARTS AND REMEDIES, FOR MAN AS WELL AS ANIMALS. WITH MANY PROOFS Of their virtue and efficacy in healing diseases, etc., the greatest part which was never published until they appeared in print for the first time in the U.S. in the year 1820.” I’ll tell you why I’m pointing you to this important volume of Appalachian folk magic later, I promise (it involves Manly Wade Wellman) but for now, just go read it.
You can read an online copy here. If you need to get a printed copy, Lulu will sell you one.
TO WIN EVERY GAME ONE ENGAGES IN.
Tie the heart of a bat with a red silken string to the right arm, and you will win every game at cards you play.
I wonder if I can find a bat before my next poker tournament.
ANOTHER STILL MORE CERTAIN WAY TO STOP BLEEDING.
If the bleeding will not stop, or if a vein has been cut, then lay the following on it, and it will stop that hour. Yet if any one does not believe this, let him write the letters upon a knife and stab an irrational animal, and he will not be able to draw blood. And whosoever carries this about him will be safe against all his enemies.
I. m. I. K. I. B. I. P. a. x. v. ss. Ss. vas,
I. P. O. unay Lit. Dom. mper vobism.
So, if I write the letters on a knife, I can’t draw blood with it? If that were true, wouldn’t I be better off testing that on a rational animal? I mean, an irrational animal is probably going to be pissed that I jabbed a knife at him, and if the knife can’t draw blood, I’m kind of defenseless…
TO BANISH THE WHOOPING COUGH.
Cut three small bunches of hair from the crown of the head of a child that has never seen its father; sew this hair up in an unbleached rag and hang it around the neck of the child having the whooping cough. The thread with which the rag is sewed must also be unbleached.
I love that “child that’s never seen its father bit” it sounds like deleted lyrics from Wrong Side Of The Road. You can see how that would fit in with this:
Take the buttons from a yellow jacket,
the feather from a buzzard,
and the blood from a bounty hunter’s cold black heart.
Catch the tears of a window
in a thimble made of glass…
