By Dr. Curtis Varnell
Don’t walk under a ladder! Beware of black cats! Don’t touch anything dead while pregnant! Carry a buckeye in your pocket for good luck! Receive good luck by eating black-eye peas on New Year! The list goes on and on, superstitions that are passed down from generation to generation.
One of the strangest superstitions or beliefs of the River Valley concerns the mad stone. The mad stone is a stony concretion taken from the stomach of an albino deer. The common description is that is slightly oval and measures about three or four inches in circumference. The mad stone was believed to have curative powers and was relied upon in times of dire need. The stones, when used correctly, are reported to cure rabies, rattlesnake and spider bites, and many other maladies. Several people, including the Cox family (Cox Valley), have owned and used mad stones in this region. The stones are passed from generation to generation and, for them to work, must follow a strict regimen of rules. These included that the service must be provided by the owner free of charge, must be used only in very serious situations, and must be applied directly to the afflicted area only after being boiled in warm milk.
Velma Ezell, formally of the Mount Salem community, once described the process as follows: after being boiled in milk, the stone is placed directly upon the wound or bite. The wound must be fresh and bleeding; if not the skin is scraped until blood flows. Placed on the wound, the stone will adhere to the flesh and not fall off until the poison or affliction has been “pulled” from the body. When the mad stone has done its’ job, it falls off naturally and then is again placed in warm milk and boiled until the milk turns green. The procedure is repeated until the stone will no longer attach to the raw flesh, indicating that all the poison is gone. People throughout the region swore to its effectiveness and, in a period when rabies and snakebites more often than not lead to death, mad stones and their owners were much in demand.
Some of the stories from the Logan County Historical Society include one from 1922 in which Artis Carter was visiting at the home of Buford Redding near Greasy Valley. While there, he was bitten by a rabid dog. His father Otis Carter had heard about a stone owned by Mr. Arch Aydellot of Havana. In a panic and worried for the life of his son, he travelled the twenty-five miles over the mountain to get help. The Aydellot family had three of the stones that had been handed down in the family for generations. The stone was immediately attached to the boy and clung to the opening left by the dog bite. After cleaning, he attempted to attach it again but it failed to attach meaning the poison was gone. The young man survived without any other problem.
On another occasion, a resident of Harkey Valley was bitten by a rabid dog and was not treated for 13 days. Having no other recourse, Dr. Heffington brought the man to Mr. Aydellot who applied the stone to the afflicted area. The stone clung to the wound for 16 hours. After cleaning, it clung for 12 more house, was cleaned, and failed to reattach. Again the man survived.
Stories of the ability of the mad stone ability to cure snake bits, spider bites, and other maladies abound across America yet doctors and scientists say there is no good reason for them to work and they are grounded in useless superstition. Myself, I am not sure but if bitten by one of those huge Magazine Mountain timber-rattlers or an area rabid dog, I personally grant you permission to apply it to the wound should I be comatose and dying of fright.
