13 - The Power of the Hex

A remarkable survival of witch beliefs dating from the Middle Ages is to be found in modern times among some Pennsylvania German communities, where practitioners known as "powwow doctors" continue to use long-tested charms and remedies to offset evil spells supposedly induced by witchcraft. Such practitioners are also known as "hex doctors,'" as opposed to a "hex," or witch, with the term "hex" also meaning "to bewitch."

This dates from the time of Alburtus Magnus, a great German philosopher of the thirteenth century, whose scientific knowledge was so far ahead of his time that much of his work was erroneously attributed to witchcraft. He was an author of many scientific works that were highly important in their day; and in later years, his name was falsely applied to various books on witchcraft to give them a distinction which they did not deserve.

Some of these books, or the remedies which they prescribed, were brought to America by early German settlers. Almost anything that promised relief from human ills or problems was included and often combined to give them double impact. Thus medicinal roots and herbs were recommended, but so were charms and spells, the latter to such degree that it was difficult to tell which was preferable. In fact, alternate measures were often used, allowing choice on a trial and error basis.

One big problem for the early settlers was finding the roots and herbs that would be the equivalents, or serve as substitutes for those they had used in Europe. They naturally asked the Indians to look for certain trees and plants; and they found, to their surprise and delight, that the Indians, too, had discovered medicinal uses for various herbs. So they began exchanging remedies and learned, even more amazingly, that the Indian medicine men used charms and incantations for curative purposes.

To drive out the devils of disease, the Indians held ceremonies that they called "powwows," so the term was adopted by the settlers and applied to their cure-alls as well. Then, in the year 1820, John George Hohman, a powwow doctor who lived near Reading, Pennsylvania, published a compact volume which he entitled, Powwows or Long Lost Friend. The book consisted of "a collection of mysterious and invaluable arts and remedies for man as well as animals" and to prove its efficacy, it made this bold announcement on the second page:

Whoever carries this book with him is safe from all his enemies, visible or invisible; and whoever has this book with him cannot die without the holy corpse of Jesus Christ, nor drown in any water, nor burn up in any fire, nor can any unjust sentence be passed upon him. So help me.

Following that promise came the remedies, or powwows - a few hundred in all. The following samples are in original form.

How To Make Cattle Return To The Same Place.

Take a handful of salt, go upon your fields and make your cattle walk three times around the same stump or stone, each time keeping the same direction; that is to say, you must three times arrive at the same end of the stump or stone at which you started from, then let your cattle lick the salt from the stump or stone.

A Good Method Of Destroying Rats And Mice.

Every time you bring grain into your barn, you must, in putting down the first three sheaves, repeat the following words: "Rats and mice, these three sheaves I give to you, in order that you may not destroy any of my wheat." The name of the kind of grain must also be mentioned.

To Cure Any Excrescence Or Wen On A Horse.

Take any bone which you accidentally find, for you dare not be looking for it, and rub the wen of the horse with it, always bearing in mind that it must be done in the decreasing moon, and the wen will certainly disappear. The bone however, must be replaced as it was lying before.

To Prevent Witches From Bewitching Cattle, To Be Written And Placed In The Stable; And Against Bad Men And Evil Spirits Which Nightly Torment Old And Young People, To Be Written And Placed On The Bedstead.

"Trotter Head, I forbid thee my house and premises; I forbid thee my horse and cow-stable; I forbid thee my bedstead, that thou mayest not breathe upon me; breathe into some other house, until thou hast ascended every hill, until thou hast counted every fence post, and until thou hast crossed every water. And thus dear day may come again into my house, in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen."

This will certainly protect and free all persons and animals from witchcraft.

In contrast to strictly rural remedies, Hohman offered some that should prove valuable for city folk as well, perhaps even more so today than back in Hohman's own time. These could be helpful under a variety of circumstances, including a trip to Las Vegas or an encounter with a holdup man. ...

For Gaining A Lawful Suit

It reads, if anyone has to settle any just claim by way of a law suit let him take some of the largest kind of sage and write the name of the twelve apostles on the leaves, and put them in his shoes before entering the courthouse, and he shall certainly gain the suit.

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.

To Stop Bleeding At Any Time

Write the name of the four principal waters of the whole world, flowing out of Paradise, on a paper, namely: Pison, Gihon, Hedekial and Pheat, and put it on the wound. In the first book of Moses, the second chapter, verses 11, 12, 13, you will find them. You will find this effective.

A Charm To Be Carried About The Person

Carry these words about you, and nothing can hit you: Ananiah, Azariah, and Misael, blessed be the Lord, for he has redeemed us from hell, and has saved us from death, and he has redeemed us out of the fiery furnace, and has preserved us from the fiery furnace, and has preserved us even in the midst of the fire; in the same manner may it please him the Lord that there be no fire.

A Charm To Gain Advantage Of A Man Of Superior Strength

I (John Doe) breathe upon thee. Three drops of blood I take from thee: the first out of thy heart, the other out of thy liver, and the third out of thy vital powers; and in this I deprive thee of thy strength and manliness.

To Prevent Anyone From Killing Game

Pronounce the name, as for instance, John Doe, shoot whatever you please; shoot but hair and feathers with and what you give to poor people.

Fire extinguishers hadn't been invented in Hohman's day, but he had his own way of handling such hazards. How they would help to lower insurance rates is a question. You might ask your insurance broker to make sure, for possibly Hohman's methods have been tried and proven. His formula for preventing theft or burglary, however, is badly outdated. It's hard to picture a modern thief standing still long enough to be spellbound. In fact, you might have trouble standing still that long yourself. Things evidently moved more slowly in the old days - if they moved at all.

To Extinguish Fire Without Water

Write the following words on each side of a plate, and throw it into the fire, and it will be extinguished forthwith:

S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S

Another Method Of Stopping Fire

Our dear Sarah journeyed through the land, having a fiery hot brand in her hand. The fiery brand heats; the fiery brand sweats. Fiery brand, stop your heat; fiery brand, stop your sweat.

To Spellbind Thieves

Ye thieves, I conjure you, to be obedient like Jesus Christ, who obeyed his Heavenly Father unto the cross, and to stand without moving out of my sight, in the name of the Trinity. I command you by the power of God and the incarnation of Jesus Christ, not to move out of my sight, like Jesus Christ was standing on Jordan's stormy banks to be baptized by John. And furthermore, I conjure you, horse and rider, to stand still and not to move out of my sight, like Jesus Christ did stand when he was about to be nailed to the cross to release the fathers of the church from the bonds of hell. Ye thieves, I bind you with the same bonds with which Jesus our Lord has bound hell; and thus ye shall be bound; and the same words that bind you shall also release you.

To Release Spellbound Persons

You horseman and footman, whom I here conjure at this time, you may pass on in the name of Jesus Christ, through the word of God and the will of Christ; ride ye now and pass.

Very nice of John George Hohman to tell you how to release those spellbound thieves, rather than have them stand around indefinitely. At least it was shorter than repeating the spellbinding formula used to stop them in their tracks. But don't think that any of his remedies worked too easily. In some instances, they had to be repeated thrice in order to work at all. Yet despite that, his Long Lost Friend is still selling after a century and a half. And why?

Remember that promise on page two of the original edition - that no harm would befall anyone who carried the Powwow Book? Lots of people have carried copies during these past 150 years, yet there is no recorded case where harm befell any of them. Maybe J. G. H. had something that is badly needed today. Or maybe he was just a smart opportunist, trading upon the gullibility of the people he met. Possibly, he could have been impressed by the famous Dady case of twenty-three years before the publication of his book, which we have taken almost verbatim from the York County records to show the hold that witchcraft then held.

Dr. Dady, who was a German by birth, came to this country with the Hessians during the American Revolution. Possessing a fascinating eloquence in the German language, and being very fluent in English, he was afterwards employed as a minister of the gospel by uninformed but honest Germans.

When the robe could no longer be subservient to his avaricious views, he laid it aside and assumed the character of a physician. As such he went to York County, and dwelt there among the poor inhabitants of a mountainous region where, in various artful ways, he preyed on the purses of the unwary.

Of all the numerous impositions with which his name is connected, we will mention but two. The scene of one of them is in what is now Adams County, where he dwelt; the other took place in the "barrens" of York County. The following is an account of the Adams County imposition:

Rice Williams, or rather Rainsford Rogers, a New Englander, and John Hall, a New Yorker, (both of whom had been plundering the inhabitants of the southern states by their wiles) came to the house of Clayton Chamberlain, a neighbor of Dady, in July, 1797.

On the following morning, Dady went to Chamberlain's and had a private conversation with Williams and Hall, before breakfast. After Dady had left them, Williams asked Chamberlain whether the place was not haunted. Chamberlain answered in the negative, whereupon Williams said that it was indeed haunted - that he had been born with a veil over his face - could see spirits, and had been conducted thither, sixty miles, by a spirit. Hall attested to the truth of this. In the evening of the same day, they had another interview with Dady.

Williams then told Chamberlain that if he would permit him to tarry overnight, he would show him a spirit. This being agreed to, they went into a field in the evening, and Williams drew a circle on the ground, around which he directed Hall and Chamberlain to walk in silence. A terrible screech was soon heard coming from a black ghost in the woods, at a little distance from the parties, in a direction opposite to the place where Williams stood. In a few minutes a white ghost appeared, which Williams addressed in a language those others present could not understand. The ghost replied in the same language! After his ghostship had gone away, Williams said that the spirit knew of a treasure which it was permitted to reveal to eleven men - they must be honest, religious and sensible, and neither horse jockeys nor Irishmen.

The intercourse between Williams and Dady now ceased to be apparent; but it was continued in private. Chamberlain, convinced of the existence of a ghost and a treasure, was easily induced to form a company, which was soon effected.

Each candidate was initiated by the receipt of a small sealed paper, containing a little yellow sand, called the "power." The candidate was to bury this "power" under the earth to the depth of one inch, and leave it there for three days and three nights, each night performing several absurd ceremonies, too obscene to be described here.

A circle, two inches in diameter, was formed in the field, and in the center was a hole six inches wide and as many deep. A captain, a lieutenant and three committee men were elected. Hall had the honor of the captaincy. The exercise was to take place around the circle. This, it was said, propitiated and strengthened the white ghost, who was opposed by the unfriendly black ghost who rejoiced in the appellation of Pompey. In the course of their nocturnal exercises they often saw the white ghost. They saw Mr. Pompey, too, but he appeared to have "his back up" - he bellowed loudly, and threw stones at them.

On the night of the 18th of August, 1797, Williams undertook to get instructions from the white ghost. It was done in the following manner: He took a sheet of clean white paper, and folded it in the form of a letter, each member breathing into it three times; this being repeated several times, and the paper laid over the hole in the center of the circle, the instructions of the ghost were obtained. The following is a short extract from the epistle written by the ghost.

Go on, and do right, and proper, and the treasure shall be yours. I am permitted to write this in the same hand I wrote in the flesh for your direction. Take care of your powers in the fear of God our protector - if not, leave the work. There is a great treasure - 4,000 pounds apiece for you. Don't trust the black one. Obey orders. Break the enchantment, which you will not do until you get an ounce of mineral dulcimer elixir; some German doctor has it. It is near, and dear, and scarce. Let the committee get it; but don't let the doctor know what you are about - he is wicked.

The above is but a small part of this precious communication. In consequence of these ghostly directions, a young man named Abraham Kephart waited, by order of the committee, on Dr. Dady. The doctor preserved his elixir in a bottle sealed with a large red seal, and buried in a heap of oats, and demanded fifteen dollars an ounce for it. Young Kephart could not afford to give so much, but gave him thirty-six dollars and three bushels of oats for three ounces of it. Yost Liner, another of these wise committee-men, gave the doctor $ 121 for eleven ounces of the stuff.

The company was soon increased to thirty persons, many of whom were wealthy. All these and many other men were, in the words of the indictment, "cheated and defrauded by means of certain false tokens and pretences, to wit: by means of pretended spirits, certain circles, certain brown powder, and certain compositions, called dulcimer elixir, and Deterick's mineral elixir."

But the wiles of these impostors were soon exerted in other parts. The following is an account of their proceedings in and about Shrewsbury township, in York County:

Williams intimated that he had received a call from a ghost resident in those parts, at the distance of forty miles from Dady's. Jacob Wister, one of the conspirators, was the agent of Williams on this occasion. He instituted a company of twenty-one persons, all of whom were, of course, ignorant people. The same and even more absurd ceremonies were performed by these people, and the communications of the ghost were obtained in an even more ridiculous manner than before. The communications mentioned Dr. Dady as the person from whom they should obtain the dulcimer elixir, and likewise a kind of sand which the ghost called "Asiatic sand" and which was necessary in order to give efficacy to the "powers." Ulrich Neaff, a committeeman of this company, paid Dr. Dady ninety dollars for seven-and-a-half ounces of the elixir. The elixir was put into vials, and each person who had one of them held it in his hand and shook it as he pranced round the circle; on certain occasions anointing his head with it, and afterwards, by order of the spirit, the phial was buried in the ground.

Paul Baliter, another of the committeemen, took one hundred dollars to Dr. Dady's to purchase "Asiatic sand," at three dollars an ounce. In the doctor's absence, Williams procured from the doctor's shop as much sand as the money would purchase. In this instance, Williams cheated the doctor, for he kept the spoil for himself, thereby breaking up the profitable fraternity.

Each of them now went into business for himself. Williams procured directions from his ghost, that each of the companies should despatch a committee to Lancaster to buy "Deterick's mineral elixir" from a physician in that place. In the meantime Williams and his wife went to Lancaster, where they prepared the elixir, which was nothing but a composition of copperas and cayenne pepper. Mrs. Williams, posing as the wife of John Huber, a German doctor, went to Dr. Rose, with a letter dated "13 miles from Newcastle, Delaware," which directed him how to sell the article. The enormity of the price aroused Dr. Rose. In a few days the delegates from the committee arrived, and purchased elixir to the amount of $740.33. When the lady came for the money, she was arrested, and the secret became known. Her husband, Williams, escaped.

A few days after the disclosures made by Mrs. Williams, an indictment was made in the Criminal Court of York County against Dr. Dady and some of his accomplices. Dr. Dady was sentenced to two years confinement in the penitentiary at Philadelphia.

That hardly seemed enough.