ALABAMAMY DISEASE STATE
OR How the condition Thrush in the mouth became “Thrash” in Alabama.
AND the only sure cure.
Folklore Studies: Popular Beliefs and Practices from Alabama
Page 28
386. For thrash stew persimmon bark, mix with honey, and wash the mouth
with the juice. (41) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 405.
387. For thrush take a small handful of the inside bark of the persimmon tree and
put it in a pint of water. Boil down to a syrup and add a small piece of alum while
cooking. (11) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 405.
388. For thrash make a tea of the second bark of a persimmon tree. Add a pinch
of alum, and swab the sore mouth a few times. (11) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 405.
389. For thrash put pine tops in the chimney, then make tea of them and give to
the baby. (56) (1)
390. For thrash put a pine top on the chimney and when it dries up in about three
days the thrash will be gone. (21) (1)
391. For thrash use ratsbane tea. (5) (1)
392. For thrash use sage tea. Wash the mouth with it. (13) (1)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 405-406.
393. For thrash use sage and syrup. (64) (1)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 405-406.
394. For thrash in a baby's mouth, wash the mouth with soda water and keep it very
clean. (5) (1)
395. For thrash rub sulphur on the mouth. (28) (1)
396. For thrash wash the child's mouth with a wet urine diaper. This also prevents
thrash. (15) (5)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 394-395.
397. For thrash use "pokeroot" and whiskey. Put the root in whiskey and give to the
child to drink. (5) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 400.
398. For thrash drink yellowroot tea. (9) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 404.
399. For thrash rub with yellowroot. (29) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 404.
CONJURING AND BLOWING INTO MOUTH
400. For yellow thrash, say three times: "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost." (62) (1)
401. For thrash blow breath into the mouth. (13) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 412.
402. The seventh boy born in the family can blow into a baby's mouth and cure
the baby's thrash. (49) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 418.
403. Thrash can be cured by finding a "red-headed" man who has never seen the
child's father. Get the man to blow into the affected baby's mouth. A sure cure.
(4) (1)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 413-415.
404. A child who has never seen his father can cure thrash in babies. (27) (1)
Cf. Brown , Nos. 413-415.
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405. For thrash blow in the baby's mouth before it has seen its own father. (17) (5)
406. When a baby has thrash or sore mouth, have a man who never saw the baby's
father blow his breath into the baby's mouth. It will get well. (12) (2)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 413-415.
407. To cure thrash, a grown person who has never seen the baby's father should
blow into the baby's mouth. (51) (8)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 413-415.
408. For thrash have someone who has never seen the baby's father blow into the
baby's mouth. (40) (1)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 413-415.
WATER AS A CURE
409. If you will give your baby a drink of water out of a stream it passes over, it will
never have the thrash, (31)(1)
Cf. Brown, No. 420.
410. Take the baby to a creek and wash his mouth to cure thrash. (40) (1)
Cf. Brown, No. 420.
411. For thrash give water to the child out of a shoe of a person who has never
seen his father. (25) (1)
Cf. Brown, Nos. 413-415.
412. To cure thrash in a baby, dip an old shoe in water and let the baby drink the
water, and it will be well in twenty-four hours. (65) (1)
413. To cure thrash, have someone who is no kin take the child to running water
and have the child drink three sips out of the heel of a shoe. (19) (1)
Indiana: Brewster, Cures, 40--Kentucky: Thomas, No. 1376 (to avert thrush,
drink water from a man's right shoe)--Ozarks: Randolph, 137 (drink rain water
out of shoe)--Tennessee: Fair, Children, No. 63 (let baby drink water from
shoe of man who has never seen his father)--South: Wiltse, Superstitions, 134
(let baby drink from shoe of first man that comes along).
414. For thrash, get nine white rags, wet them, and put them in the baby's mouth.
Then take the rags and throw them in a stream, one at a time, and the baby will
get well. (22) (1)
WETTING THE BED
415. For bed-wetting, let children eat garlic just as they would eat onions. (11) (1)
Illinois: Hyatt, No. 4325.
416. Make a tea from parched pigs' hooves, sweeten to taste, and give to the patient.
Excellent cure for bed-wetting, (11)(1)
417. Pipsissewa is good for bed-wetting. (11) (1)
418. Boil pumpkin seeds and drink the water to cure bed-wetting. (22) (1)
397. Pokeroot - Jim Duke in Handbook of Medicinal Herbs pg. 367, "I think
(Varo) Tyler's hyperbole might help spare another pokeweed incident.
'Pokeweed is not therapeutically useful for anything.' Tierra says, "Poke
root contains toxic mitogenic substances and therefore must be used in
small quantities, not to exceed about one gram per day." I think one gram
is too much! Hardin and Arena recall attending to a 5-year-old girl who
died from ingesting poke berries, crushed and added to water to simulate
grape juice. [or simulate gentian violet solution which is used to paint oral
thrush - apthrash] "(Tyler) Children have died and adults have been
hospitalized from the gastroenteritis, hypotension, and diminished
respiration caused by eating pokeroot or the berries or leaves."
apthrash: 9/15/02 5:33 PM
403. "red-headed" - The Thrashes of Alabama (circa 1830) were red-headed,
including Fielding and A.J. Thrash (Mississippi). One member of the family
heard A.J. say that his great-grandmother Stubblefield of Norway was
descended from Leif Ericson, son of Eric the Red.