This paper is the product of discovery, discussion, interview, and research. All the people interviewed are from the Kutztown and Boyertown areas and are over the age of sixty-five. Letters are used instead of names in respect to those who freely agreed to be interviewed but preferred not to be identified.
 
 

I became interested in the topic of powwowing after discovering that some of my older relatives used the services of a powwow doctor years ago. I started calling people to get any information about powwowing which would be helpful. I then began reading books and periodicals to get background information. After several tries, I was able to find a practicing powwow doctor who would consent to an interview. I also interviewed relatives and others who used the services of a powwower, three of whom are included in this paper. I then combined the first-hand accounts with the secondary sources and the results follow.
 
 

Powwowing (called by the Pennsylvania Dutch "braucha," from the German verb brauchen, to "use") was brought from the Rhineland and Switzerland in the seventeenth and eighteenth Centuries by the great wave of emigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and in other areas of the eastern United States and Canada (Yoder 1966: 38). Powwowing often employs folk cures but is primarily faith healing (Jordan 1978: 148). The word powwow is of Algonquin Indian origin; however, the Pennsylvania Dutch methods of faith healing were not at all derived or influenced by the Indian practices and techniques. The Dutch merely adapted a popular term to a long-established custom (Westkott 1969-70: 2). Although they too consulted powwow doctors to exorcise a hex which had been placed upon them by witches, they also sought the powwower's aid for curing a variety of purely physical diseases.

Most of powwowing is based on John George Hohman's Lang

Verborgne Freund (Long Lost Friend) which was originally published in German at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1820. Yoder calls this book not only the foremost powwow book, but also "the most influential German book ever published in Pennsylvania" (Yoder 1966: 39). It has since been translated and reissued many times. In it are ancient household remedies, incantations, and charms largely based upon a medieval work by Albertus Magnus entitled Egyptian Secrets of White and Black Magic. Hohman tells not only how to cure warts and snake bites, but how to treat various ailments of horses, cattle, and sheep (Mitchell 1947: 182). The book also contains prayers against evil taken from the Bible. In the preface Hohman states the Bible verse which he considers the basis for the practice of powwow: "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me." Psalm 50/15 (Hohman 1856: 2).
 
 

The following remedies are among many which are found in Long Lost Friend:
 
 

A GOOD REMEDY FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT KEEP THEIR WATER-

At the time of the Protestant Reformation four centuries ago, the Protestant Churches attempted to separate "religion" from "superstition." This drove folk healing underground, divorcing it from the official church organization (Yoder 1966: 39). Although outlawed by the Protestant church, powwowing nevertheless attributes its power to the Christian God. Powwowers claim to be practitioners of God's healing power, intermediaries through which God cures the faithful. Therefore, a person must believe not only in God but also in the ability of the powwower to be assured of a cure. The charms which the powwowers use, if not directly from the Bible, contain Christian references particularly to Jesus or Mary. The patient must be willing to repeat the Lord's Prayer and Apostle's Creed. Each charm concludes with "the three highest names" of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (Westkott 1969-70: 2).
 
 

One of the principles of powwow is a difficult concept called sympathetic theory. Healing in powwow often cures through the association of ideas and objects, or sympathy. Closely related to sympathy is the concept of transference of disease. When the two are combined, the logic of a common cure for warts can be seen (Burdan 1994-59: 22). Often a potato or another fruit or vegetable is rubbed on the affected area. The potato is then buried, sometimes at a specific location or during a particular phase of the moon. The belief is that as the potato rots, the warts will disappear. One could say the disease has been transferred to the potato.
 
 

There are several other common practices in powwow. One is the use of string. The belief is that if one measures the illness using a string, the illness becomes linked with the string. The idea is the same as with the potato. Instead of burying the string, it was worn around the neck or tied around a limb until the string fell off, indicating the cure was effective (Burdan 1994-95: 23). For erysipelas, which is inflammation of the skin, the powwower measured the patient with a red woolen string. The disease is collected into the string which is smoked above the stove and turned to ashes. As the string disappears, the disease disappears (Yoder 1966: 40).
 
 

"Passing through" involves the treatment of children and is done three times or in a multiple of three. The child was passed through a horse collar or around a table leg for any kind of sickness. Another physical manipulation is the laying on of hands. This seems to imply a transference of physical healing power (Burdan 1994-95: 23).
 
 

Sometimes the powwow doctor gave the patient an amulet in the form of a small bag with an inscription in German on a piece of paper inside. The writing was often inverted and was read in a mirror. Such an amulet was believed to be the most potent when it was prepared at midnight on St. John's Eve or Christmas Eve. The amulet was either attached to a string and worn around the neck or pinned to the underwear. Printed in the bag in red ink were the letters INRI, the well-known abbreviation of Iesus Nazarenus, or Jesus of Nazareth. Below the crosses was printed the Christian name of the patient and below that the surname. The charm inside the bag varied with the disease to be cured or the evil to be guarded (Klees 1964: 299).

In an interview, Mrs. G. told me that her mother prepared amulets of "Devil's Dreck" which were sewn into a bag and pinned to the undershirts of her twin babies. The body heat of the babies brought out the awful smell of the herbs but were thought to protect the children. New bags were prepared about once a month. The babies were premature and livergrown according to Mrs. G. "That meant that too much handling caused them to be very restless and to cry a lot. My husband and I took the children to a powwower and even had a different powwower come to the house to help stop the crying. We ended the session by passing the children around the table leg three times. I think the powwowing helped." For livergrown the charm is:
 
 

Powwowers are called upon to heal anything from skin cancer or glaucoma to the wart. The most common complaint used to be erysipelas or "wildfire," commonly known as rheumatism or arthritis (Jordan 1978: 149). In another interview, Mr. C. told me that after his five children would get their vaccinations from the medical doctor, he and his wife would take the boys to the powwow doctor to heal their red, swollen arms, which he referred to as wildfire.
 
 

The charm for erysipelas is as follows:
 
 

Another man interviewed, Mr. B., took his son to a powwower to try to remove a birthmark. The powwower was unsuccessful in doing this. Mr. B. said, "Powwowing is good for what you get in this world, not for what you bring. This is why it didn't work. I took my son to the medical doctor to get the mark removed."

Each disease had its own treatment. Powwowing was also used to stop bleeding and to ease the pain of burns, sprains, cuts, and bruises. Powwow doctors, like physicians today, specialized (Klees 1964: 301). One man was known for success with goiters and another for his luck with rheumatism. The powwow doctor may chat with the patient to put him at ease and appraise his way of thinking. Heat, prayer, and message are the basic essentials of treatment. Most ailments start with inflammation over which the doctor passes his hands, or lightly strokes, or blows. Some powwow doctors claim that fever passes from the patient through them (Jordan 1978: 148). The doctor can be weakened by the sickness of his patient. For this reason, powwow healers must have a strong constitution (Dugan 1988: 145).
 
 

In an interview with a powwow doctor, the idea of specialization was confirmed. Mr. K. told me he has been practicing powwow and helping people for over forty years. He said he has treated people with shingles and bad varicose veins but he specializes in warts. He too said that the moon is very important in the healing. He feels that powwowing is most effective when going into a full moon. He and his patient go outside where he does his chanting in Pennsylvania Dutch. "I do not advertise this service but I will help friends, relatives, and neighbors if they come to me. I believe but they have to believe too for this to work."
 
 

No fee might be charged by the doctor; yet it was commonly believed that the charm would not work unless the doctor was adequately paid, and several powwow doctors accumulated sizable fortunes (Klees 1964: 302). Mr. K. said that he never charged anyone for his services. He did however tell about the time he helped a lady with varicose veins. "She was so relieved of the pain that she returned the next day and left money in my driveway," he added.
 
 

Powwowing could be taught only "crossways," as the Dutch put it. That is, a man could impart the secrets only to a woman, and a woman only to a man (Klees 1964: 302). Mr. K. affirmed this opposite sex teaching process and said, "I was taught powwowing by my mother-in- law. It didn't take me a long time to pick it up. Everything is said in Dutch." He added, "I have taught another woman to powwow."
 
 

Those who broke the rules by teaching a person of the same sex would become weak and lose their powers. However, there were ways to avoid this. A man may explain to a desk how to powwow while another man may by coincidence be listening to the explanation. Likewise, if a woman tells a piano the practice of powwow, and listening nearby is another woman, she would learn simultaneously (Dugan 1988: 146).
 
 

The braucher may be a housewife or a man with a job whose power has been taught to him, traditionally by an older person. Some only "do for" people on a friendship basis while others expect contributions. Though they may hold regular office hours in a modest parlor, when a patient is too ill to come, they will make a house call. They have even cured bleeding at a distance if given the baptismal name of the injured (Jordan 1978: 148). Yoder tells the story of "Aunt Sophia" Bailer of Schuykill County, an adept powwower who used to tell how she stopped the bleeding of a man seriously hurt in a mine accident ten miles from her home. There was no time to take her to the accident, so the miner's friends phoned Sophia. She powwowed, using the patient's baptismal name, and the bleeding stopped (Yoder 1966: 40).
 
 

Many of the powwow doctors were skilled in herbs. They, and many a good housewife, grew herbs in their gardens, such as rosemary, rue, sage, thyme, wooly mint, and lemon balm. The herb doctors gathered herbs from woods and fields as well. Hanging from rafters in many a farmhouse attic were half a dozen or more bunches of these herbs from gardens, woods, and fields. Tea made from the bark, roots, flowers, and ripe berries of the dogwood was used as a tonic for fever. Bitters made from buds of balm of Gilead steeped in whiskey were thought excellent for pain in belly or bowels. Strong sage tea provided a gargle for sore throats. Tea from the bark of the wild cherry lowered the pulse and helped to quiet the nerves (Klees 1964: 302).

So common was powwowing in Pennsylvania that when a child skinned a knee, the mother would utter gibberish in imitation of the powwow doctor's spell. The quaintest of all powwowing took place when the child lost one of his baby teeth. Carefully placing the tooth in a mouse hole, the child addressed the mouse in these words:
 
 

Powwowing was also used to get back anything that had been stolen. A man who had chickens stolen would take three splinters from the doorsill over which the thief had passed and fasten them to the wagon wheel and say, "I pray thee, Holy Trinity, to constrain the thief who has stolen my chickens to be stung to remorse and return them to me" (Klees 1964: 303). When he put the wheel back on the wagon and the wheel made three revolutions, it was believed the thief would return with the chickens.

There is no doubt that powwowing effected many cures. Where mind could cure matter, powwowing was often useful. Where the illness lay beyond the reach of faith however, the result was often tragic (Klees 1964: 302). A three-month-old baby from Lebanon died of malnutrition because the mother did not consult a physician and persisted in employing a powwow doctor (Mitchell 1947: 183). Many people resorted to the powwow doctor and medical doctor simultaneously, although they would do their best to keep the regular physician in ignorance of this (Klees 1964: 302). The girl, whose baby died, believed implicitly in the power of the powwow doctor to help her baby (Mitchell 1947: 183). In such cases, parents have been charged with neglect of their children (Yoder 1966: 40).
 
 

Westkott reports that powwowing is adapting to the times. "For those who practice it, powwowing is still a thriving and exciting activity... The tradition of powwowing has declined in terms of numbers who practice it or use the services of the practitioner. However, it leads a vigorous existence among certain people" (Westkott 1969-70: 9). Thousands of Pennsylvanians, urban as well as rural, claim to have been "cured" by powwowing. Yoder claims, "Powwowing is still as important a feature of Pennsylvania folk-culture as it was in the nineteenth Century" (Yoder 1966: 38). As long as there are those who believe, there will be powwowing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bibliography
 
 

Burdan, Amanda C. "The Art of Powwow." Historical Review of Berks County 60.1 (1994-95): 21-25,37.
 
 

Dugan, Patrick James. "The Origin and Practition of Pow-wow Among the Pennsylvania Germans." Historical Review of Berks County 53 (1988): 134-147.
 
 

Hohman, John George. Long Lost Friend. Harrisburg, PA: T.F. Scheffer, 1856.
 
 

Jordan, Mildred. The Distelfink Country of the Pennsylvania Dutch. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1978.
 
 

Klees, Fredric. The Pennsylvania Dutch. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1964.
 
 

Mitchell, Edwin Valentine. It's an Old Pennsylvania Custom.

New York: The Vanguard Press, Inc., 1947.
 
 

Westkott, Marcia. "Powwowing in Berks County." Pennsylvania Folklife 19.2 (1969-70): 2-9.
 
 

Yoder, Don. "Twenty Questions on Powwowing." Pennsylvania

Folklife 15.4 (1966): 38-40.