| Letter #1 Most hill people are more intelligent than people realize. Hill people live closer to nature, and they see more of it than city people do. They've learned about the plants, and the wild vegetables and fruits. They have almost a college education without any formal education at all. They've learned to read and write by themselves. Some of the ones who have gone to college have gone on to become professors. I have known these people all my life. They're also more psychic than most people.
My grandfather was an herb doctor. He studied with the Indians to know what plants were useful for healing, like the plants he'd studied in Ireland. He found that much of them were the same as the Irish plants. He'd take the plants home and study them. He had one sister that suffered from a sore through her anklebone, and it was getting infected. So he took the plants there, and he used sheep manure to make a poultice. The hole was clear through her anklebone. He cleared it himself. People would send for him when they were sick. He'd get his little bag of medications and go to see them. If they had pneumonia, he used to build a tent over them and put steam in there. He used a lot of plants, and a lot of times he could cure them. Sometimes he couldn't. If he couldn't cure them, he'd say, "I don't know if I can do this or not, but we'll try to have faith in God." When I was a baby, he cured me of colitis. I used to pass blood, and they'd be saying, "If she lives to the morning, she'll live." I was eighteen months when my mother died, so I was maybe two years old at the time. My grandfather came to see us, and he told my father, Harvey, "Harv, I don't have the means here to do what I need to do for Cora. Will you let me take her home? I'll take care of her, and when she gets better, you can come get her." So he took me home with him, and didn't give me anything but clear water and about two teaspoons of pure whiskey. He made his own for medicinal purposes. He gave me that, and I began to clear up. He told my aunt to cook some rice and skim the water and give me the rice water, and I got even better. He baked some biscuits real hard, real brown inside. He gave me some rice with it, and I got well. © 2003 by Cora Anderson. All rights reserved. This document may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission of the author. |
