The Foxfire Book

The Foxfire Book is amazing. I recommend it to anyone.

In the late 1960s, Eliot Wigginton and his students created the magazine Foxfire in an effort to record and preserve the traditional folk culture of the Southern Appalachians. This is the original book compilation of Foxfire material which introduces Aunt Arie and her contemporaries and includes log cabin building, hog dressing, snake lore, mountain crafts and food, and "other affairs of plain living." - Amazon

About Coachwhip Snakes:
Theyre like a black snake, and the end of their tail looks just 'zactly like th' end of a whip plaited. They say they can get around a cow's leg and just run her t'death a'wuppin' her with th'end of their tail. I saw one. It looks just 'zactly like it was plaited on there. They're a flat land snake. Now these snakes ain't poison, but now they'll hurt y'just th'same as anything else bitin; blood out of y'will.

Some Common Cures:
Buttermilk and Lemon Juice mized together and put on freckles will remove them.
Take a small peice of lead and bore a hole in it. Put a string through the hole and wear it around your neck. Your nose wont bleed again.
Sore throat: Take a sock you have worn inside a boot and worked in for almost a week so that it has a bad odor. Tie around your neck.
Don't ever burn the cloth bandage from a sore; you must bury it for the sore to heal.
If you get punctured by a nail: Draw out the nail with a hammer, grease the nail and put it away somewhere to prevent lockjaw.

And To Forever Heal My Athsma:
Get a Chihuahua, or suck salty water up my nose, swallow spider webs rolled up in a ball, smoke strong tobacco until I choke, or, If I drill a hole in a black oak just above my head, and put a lock of my hair in the hole, when I pass that spot in height, I will be cured, but if I die, so will the tree.