Zauberspruch: Scraps of Old Dutch Fork Healing Magic

The Germans and Swiss who made their way to that part of the interior of South Carolina known as the Dutch Fork (Dutch being an Anglicization of Deutsch) brought with them a type of healing magic called "using" which employed incantations called Zauberspruch. What they practiced was a combination of old world paganism and Christianity. These "users" could only teach their skills to a member of the opposite sex and the rites involved must be kept secret or they would lose all their power.

The most famous of these users was Daniel Koon. The house that he lived in from his birth in 1810 until his death in 1876 can be visited at the Lexington County Museum and I will share his story at a later date.

"He could 'use' to stop the flow of blood, cure warts, heal burns. He could also walk around a forest fire or a field of burning broomsedge, and by repeating a formula, cause the fire to go out. He could change his form, and people saw him sometimes as a stump by the road where no stump had been.

Little Daniel Koon learned how to do all this by reading a book. All over the Fork, people know scraps of what was in it. They even know who wrote the book, but they won't tell you."

(The State Newspaper, July 15, 1962)

Not all are as successful though, one enchanter was trying to extinguish fire but when walking in front of the flames was "cut off from escape from the field, and was forced to run for his life and jump in Lake Murray".

The following "scraps" are taken from James Everett Kibler, Jr.'s book "A Carolina Dutch Fork Calendar". He published in it the following incantations from a using book in his possession written by a twenty-two year old Nancy Catherine Kinard Kibler of the Dutch Fork in 1847. Where you see "ABC" you insert the sufferer's name and where you see "XXX", that signifies that the incantation should be said in specific time intervals. This is explained in Lee Gandee of Lexington's book "Strange Experience, The Autobiography of a Hexenmeister":

"The first is said and the signs are made when the Hex undertakes treatment. The incantation is repeated and the signs are again made a half-hour later; the third repetition and third signs are made an hour after the second, making a total of of nine signs in the course of the treatment."

This art which has its roots in pre-Christian Germany survived, making its way to the Midlands of South Carolina. Is it extinct? Are there no more users? I don't know. It is said to have at least still been practiced by some into the 1970's.

Blood stoppage: 

Blood stand as still as the Water in the sea

ABC god the father, god the son, god the holy ghost

XXX
Grat god horred is the Buren through Christe XXX

for Burn:
Tow (two) angle cam from the north
1 was a fire and the outher
was frost  hear angle take
this fire out of my hand XXX

Colic:
I stand on wood I see wood for
one glass full of could read wine
rising of the Mother or colic   let
this gripping alone. A.B.C. may this helpe
you in the name of the father and in the son
and the name of the holy gost.

Fever:
O you hot burning flame you are so
hot and Dark with God the father
I hunt you with god the son I drive
you [with] God the holy gost
god the father
god the son
god the holy gost

Growfast:
Take the child to any three corners in the house and shake them

Growfast let go from the heart
Allso from the back and ribes as
Our saviour went away from the
Manger. ABC May this help
 you in the name of the father and in the
name of the Son and in the name of
the holy Ghost Amen Amen and Amen
XXX

Greedy worm:

The worm from the child's stomach will be banished to a well where it will be allowed to have its fill.

When the lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
was upon the land then he not a
greedy worm had and he saide
greedy worm wheare are you going
in the childe stumick oh no
you shall not do that  that I forebide
You by sulfer and pitch that I never see
eny more
Do you go in the good water
Theare is a well cool and coald
Out of that well you may drink
And of this childe no more think
in the name of the father and of the son
and in the [name] of the holy goste
amen amen amen

fore the head ache [or "Open Head"]:
I look in god's three gardenes brother
comfort and kind    XXX
head I squeeze you shutt so you
can get your rest   XXX

Misery:
Surely he hath born our grief and carried our sorrows
yet it did esteem him stricken smitten of god and
afflicted. May this help ABC in the name of the
father, son, holy gost.
Start at neck and rub downward

Sun paine:
Grate god hear i stand on woode, i see wod
come and take this paine out of ABC head XXX

Toothache:
As the Lord passed by he saw Peter and said
unto Peter what aileth thee Peter and Peter said
unto him my tooth acheth me and the Lord
said unto Peter believe and though shall be saved