Notes on Rhymes and a Folk Cure for Hemorrhaging

Authors

Alfred L. Shoemaker

Document Type

Notes

Files

Date

1950

Keywords

Reading, axe, bed, bleeding, nursery rhymes, father, mother

Description

Handwritten notes transcribed by Alfred L. Shoemaker, dating from circa 1950. The notes cover a folk cure and rhymes related by three different informants: Caroline Stadtman, Butcher Henninger and Emma C. Jenkins.

Corresponds to:

Packet 177-4

Transcription

Mai Koiffer flieg,

Dei Vater ist im krieg.

Dei Mutter ist im Engeland

Engeland is abgebrant

Mai Koiffer flieg.

As told by my Grandmother many years ago

Mrs. Caroline Stadtman

Lady bug, lady bug fly away home

Your house is on fire, your children will burn

Related 20 years ago. 70 Butcher Henninger, of Reading - still living

Some years ago, a farmer selling his produce from door to door, told me his mother had been ill and had a hemorrhage and the only thing that stopped the bleeding was to put an ax with the sharp end up under the bed, and the bleeding stopped at once, then the fire wood gave out, and his father got the ax to chop more wood, and the bleeding started again, so the father replaced the ax under the bed and came to town and bought a new ax so the one under the bed should not be taken away. At least the mother lived for many years after that, and I don’t think any one could tell him that the ax did not do the curing.

Mrs. Emma C. Jenkins

Language

English and Pennsylvania German

Rights Statement

This item is available courtesy of the Ursinus College Library Special Collections Department. It is not to be copied or distributed for commercial use. For permissions which fall outside of educational use, please contact the Special Collections Department.

Recommended Citation

Shoemaker, Alfred L., "Notes on Rhymes and a Folk Cure for Hemorrhaging" (1950). Alfred L. Shoemaker Folk Cultural Documents. 134.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/134