Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Wednesday Wives Tales~Curing Warts


In researching through my books, as well as the Internet, there seems to be numerous cures for warts. Apparently, mountain people were plagued with them, as one book I own has three pages worth of cures!

When I was approximately nine years old, my dentist noticed a wart that I had on my hand. He told me that he knew of a way to get rid of it, if I was interested. Of course I was!

He said that I must steal a dish towel from my grandmother, bring it home with me, rub it on the wart, and bury the towel in the back yard. And no one must ever know that I stole it, or it wouldn't work. Well, I couldn't bring myself to steal a dish towel from my grandma, of course, so I have no idea if this method works or not!

One easy way to get rid of them is to tie as many knots in a string as you have warts and then, in secret, burn the string. Another is to cut an onion in half. Eat one half and rub the other half on the wart, then throw the other half over your right shoulder, walking away and never looking back at the onion.

Many of the methods seem to involve spitting on the wart, or using pennies in various ways to get rid of them.

Do you know any old wives tales of ways to get rid of warts?

11 comments:

  1. STEAL FROM GRANDMA???? Who could do that? LOL, I had one on the bottom of my foot once, none of the over the counter things worked, so I kept painting on clear nail polish, when the polish peels off, it takes a thin layer of skin with it. You do that for a month or so and it will be gone:)

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  2. Yes, I do. I'm surprised you didn't list this one, because it's one we always used as a child.:) Go out to the garden and get a bean leaf and rub it on your wart. Put it under a rock, as the leaf decays your wart will disappear.

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  3. My mom says she knew a lady who could "talk" warts off. I think she quoted scripture but no one could hear what she would say, but the warts would go away.

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  4. I've heard that duct tape stuck on for a while will lift them.

    I just love old wives tales...it is amazing the things people came up with because they did not have any real medical knowledge.

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  5. Carmen,I've never heard of using clear nail polish for warts (but it is good on chigger bites!), but I think it would work the same way as the duct tape Tammy mentioned~by cutting the air off from the wart. I can see either of them working.

    Janet, I'd never heard the bean leaf one, though I did read one about rubbing the inside of a bean pod on the wart.

    Penny, there were several mentions of 'wart witches', or 'wart doctors' that mumbled things over the warts. I wonder what Bible verse that woman quoted?

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  6. lol! I've heard of most of these. Never tried any of them tho.
    someone mentioned ducttape. It dos work. In fact a dr told me about it for my son. Something in it does take dissolve the wart. Weird!!
    Your country drive was beautiful!!
    Blessings
    Patty H.

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  7. When I was in Prague a friend kept some kind of plant and she rubbed the juice of the leaves on her warts. It tried it and it did not work, but she swore by it.

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  8. I don't know any wart rememdies, Rose Mary, but the one you told about was a hoot! I love hearing old wives' tales!

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  9. Lovin all the old tales Rosemary, keep them coming! I haven't had a wart since I was a kid!

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  10. Mary-I've read many of the old cures too. The most common one around here-was to go to a special person who would make them go away-by simply rubbing them.

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  11. when i was little a woman ( her father died when she was in the womb) she spoke to my warts tied strings around them and the warts were gone the next day

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