Catfish Story:
Catfish claims that several of his ancestors were practicing herb doctors. Knowledge
about herbs and their curative value has been in his family for generations:
Catfish: [It was] handed down to me from
my great-great-grandaddy, to my great-grandad, to my grandad, to my mother and then to me...And my grandmother (who also taught
Catfish much of his lore) lived to be 99 years old... She died doing house-work when she was 99, living by herself. At 70
years old, she married her third husband, and she married another at 98 and wore hm out in half a year.
Catfish relates
that his ancestors learned much of their herbal medicine from local Indians. And it was an Indian from North Carolina that
gave Catfish real faith in the curative value of herbs when Catfish was seriously ill in the 1950s. He was not careful about
his health until he was in middle-age; although knowledgeable about herbs and disease prevention, he was very careless about
his diet. Between 1954-1961, he had a series of heart attacks and was "told by doctors" that he was "near death." Then one
day:
Catfish: Here come an Indian walkin' out of the woods...carryin' green things in his hand. Had a feather in his
hat... brand new moccasins, ole deerskin coat...So he come over to me and said, "You sick, you get well. Friends send me.
You sick. You get well in six months. Mind me." (He then gave Catfish some herbs and told him the name of one: pipsissewa.)
He told me to boil the herbs down in two quarts of water until it's one quart and take a teaspoon three times a day. "Keep
in the ice box," he said. "You'll be in the woods huntin' for it soon." I said, "Now, where you from?" He said, "Durham, North
Carolina, in a reservation," and then he said, I go."
So he went and never came back. And I can feel blessing! I was
in the woods five months later gettin' pipsissewa. Never had no more heart trouble, in fact wasn't anything wrong with me
after that.
This experience set the stage for Catfish's career as a healer. He believes that the Indian was an angel
sent by Yahweh to save and restore him to Yahweh's service.
It was also during this period that while helping install
an elevator at a construction site he injured both his arms in an accident. Unable to work or to get welfare, he supported
his family by selling wildflowers at the farmers' market in Huntington, West Virginia. Catfish looks back on the accident
as Yahweh's way of forcing him to carry on his family's herbal tradition. Catfish relates that when he first started selling
wildflowers, he had no intention of "doctoring" people; he was simply providing flowers for people's gardens or for their
dining room tables. However, his experience with the Indian/angel made him want to help others. Moreover, fellow vendors at
the farmers market began to ask Catfish for herbs to treat their various conditions and they discovered that he was very knowledgeable
about herbal medicine. His reputation began to spread by word of mouth and requests for herbs and for advice on health matters
soon multiplied. Then the media began to discover Catfish: he made an appearance on local television; and there have been
several newspaper articles about him. Catfish got to visit schools, colleges, museums, and various types of civic groups to
give talks on herbs and health.
Catfish
Diagnosis:
As is common with other folk healers, Catfish's diagnostic techniques are minimal; he recongnizes general
conditions rather than specific ailments. He may get information from the client himself, look for external signs of certain
conditions, and / or use intuition. Catfish identifies conditions such as bad blood, bad circulation, or "gummed up" kidneys,
conditions he believes lead to a variety of ailments.
Whatever the diagnosis, Catfish usually identifies a single
cause and a single remedy which are interrelated. The remedy usually involves dietary changes and use of herbal tonics. People
seem to contact Catfish with either commonplace problems of the sort traditionally treated by home remedies (warts, obesity,
worms) or with chronic or hard-to-treat problems such as cancer, arthritis, sterility, impotence, or diabetes. Most of his
time was spent treating degenerative conditions;
Catfish: Pretty near every letter I get from anybody around 40 or
50 years old--rheumatism, arthritis, high blood pressure, and heart trouble, that's what they got. And some of them overweight.
Right there's your whole thing. Now they're a few that have warts, but the better part...Listen [they] sent me about 250 letters
a few days after I was on...[the local TV show]---would you believe that every one of them letters had overweight in them?
Some had arthritis and some had rheumatism, but every letter that I got had overweight!
Astrology And Immunity:
A folk theory of astrology helps
Catfish understand certain kinds of illnesses. This comes largely from oral rather than written sources: one of his grandfathers
taught him about astrology, as have several local Indians. Basically the astrology theory tells us that people are susceptible
to "two-way viruses" (colds, flues, measles, mumps, chickenpox) in cycles. Every 28 days a person's astrological sign "comes
due" and that person will be particularly susceptible to an infection disease for a period of about two days. For example,
if a group of people is exposed to measles at the same time:
Catfish: When the sign is in Aries in the almanac (the
zodiac), Aries breaks out with his measles first. Later on when Gemini comes around in the almanac, Gemini people in that
family is gonna get the measles. But you ain't gonna break down with that thing until your sign comes due.
Moreover,
different parts of the body are especially vulnerable to viruses, depending on one's sign. Associated with each sign of the
zodiac is a corresponding part of the body which is particularly susceptible to a two-way virus. For example, a person born
under Aries, which is considered a head sign, will most likely catch a cold in his head. A person with a thigh sign (Saggitarius)
will catch a cold in his thighs, and he will feel the symptoms as "aching, cramps, charley horses...."
Catfish believes
diet is a factor in susceptibility and immunity to infectious diseases. With correct diet, which for Catfish means avoiding
certain dangerous foods people stand a very good chance of resisting whatever is going around.
Catfish: You ain't
gonna catch a two-way virus from nobody and you ain't gonna catch it from the weather. You catch it when a cloud come over...then
everybody in the whole United States gonna get exposed.
Catfish observes that peoples health seems to have declined
over the past fifty years. One reason, he believes, is that people have come to rely too much on doctors. Another is that
in the past baking soda was used in cooking a wide variety of foods. And baking soda , he would have told you, can fix almost
anything except cancer:
Catfish: Now back when I was a kid, this was when I was eight years old, here's what the people
did. They had sodey in beans, sodey in biscuits, sodey in groundhog, sodey in the chicken; wasn't no rheumatism, neuritis,
arthritis, bursitis, high blood pressure, dropsy, gall stones, kidney stones, fat, overweight, any of that stuff--there wasn't
none of that. Just think of it. What people did, just put a little bit of sodey in everything they cook; sodey take care of
everything you eat.
Catfish
On Diet:
Catfish believes there is a direct relationship between eating tomatoes and getting cancer, therefore
tomatoes top his list of foods to avoid. Catfish believes strict avoidance of tomatoes for up to six months can, in conjunction
with his herbal tonic (Called Bitters) can help with cancer. He cites his empirical observations of common animals to support
his ideas: "Cows, horses, sheep, goats, and deer don't eat tomatoes. They don't get cancer. Now rats, mice, pigs, and chickens
do eat tomatoes. They get cancer."
Other foods to avoid include pork, cabbage, instant coffee, soft drinks, "store
tea", fish without scales, web-footed fowel, the flesh of round-hoofed animals, all artificial sweetners. Catfish justifies
inclusion of various foods on this list either by scriptural reference or by noting some intrinsic property of the food that
"gums up" the kidneys (pork is "greasy" ; cabbage has "sticky juice").
Eating the wrong foods leads to the presence
of waste material ("corruption") in the body, according to Catfish. These waste materials "gun up your kidneys" and this leads
to waste building up in the joints of the body, resulting in "rheumatism, arthritis, sugar diabetes, gall-stones, kidney stones,
cataracts, gas, everything." Almost any condition of the body can be eliminated by "ungumming" the kidneys and allowing the
body to eliminate its waste. This is done by avoiding the foods listed above and taking the baking soda cure.
On the
positive side, Catfish recommends fresh goats milk, honey, rice, fresh-squeezed lemonade, carrots, celery, beets, peas, green
beans, asparagus, leaf lettuce, dill (not sweet) pickles, olives, olive oil (cold pressed), apples, and applesauce. Fresh
orange juice is beneficial if it is diluted to make orangeade. Actually, almost any food not listed as a bad food is considered
all right.
People ask Catfish where he got his nickname:
Catfish: "I had sixty-seven nicknames, up 'til
1936; then my name was changed to Sassafrass King, went nationwide, Sassafrass King. In 1942 it was changed to, by Dupont
Company, to Catish Man Of The Woods, from catchin' twenty-one wash-tubs full of catfish. Five hundred people was tryin' to
get'em, and didn't get'em, and I got'em all. So I sold these here fish at a Dupont plant for 25c a pound, dressed, and that's
why the Dupont Company named me Catfish".
Catfish Reads Some Mail:
Catfish: "Uh, boy oh boy. Okay, I got a letter here from West Virginia,
and this 'un's from, uh... Gaulley Bridge; that's out where I go get my herbs in the mountains at "Dear Mr. Gray, I am out
of herbs." Uh-oh, now I gotta send him some more herbs. Phew! Another, "Send me another order mixed herbs like you sent me
before and two bags of 'Queen of the Meadow'." He's wantin' somethin' to pep his sex up, that's what's the matter with that
guy. "An' sassafrass," yeah, Oh, that guy's wantin' uh, oh yeah, "I am getting slow in sex." Okay. I'll take care of that
deal for you. "Thank you. I will send you a check, just as soon as I get the herbs."
Catfish: And here's a letter
from Oakfield, New York, where two different ladies that's sisters, one of 'em feels real good and lost weight, and the other
one feels real good and lost weight too, after taking my bitters.
I get mail from all over the whole world. I've been
getting some of it from over at Italy, and from India and Germany and Spain and France and England. And uh, and had people
visit me from all them places too. Now, the mail, get an awful lot of it from Washington, D.C. and California and Florida
and Virginia Beach, get a lot of it from Virginia Beach.
The Herb Collector:
Catfish collected all of the herbs he used, mostly in the woods near his
home. He was regared by many as a master of plant lore. For example, he knew where he would find particular herbs growing
in an area where he had never been before, and he knew exactly the best time of the year and month to collect different herbs.
He would explain that plants growing on one side of a hill will have more potent properties than those growing on another
side of the hill. After collecting and drying the herbs for his bitters, he prepared the herbs by boiling one bag of bitters
in two quarts of water until evaporation has left only one quart. He then would strain the solution while it's still hot and
refrigerates it in a quart bottle. As a general rule, he recommends one teaspoon of bitters three times a day, and for serious
conditions, three tablespoons three times a day. However, the tonic is strong and because people react differently to the
herbs contained in it, Catfish notes:"What you should do with the bitters is take them until your bowel is workin' just perfect.
Then if your bowels get a little constipated take a little more bitters; if they get runny, take a little less." Catfish himself
took his bitters for years and his strength and stamina seem remarkable for a man his age; men in their twenties had found
it difficult or impossible to keep up with Catfish on herb-collecting jaunts in the woods.
Catfish The Person:
No account of Catfish would be complete without due note of the effect of his personality on his clients. He was somewhat
charismatic; he had an unusual knack for persuading, charming, and gaining the confidence of most people he come in contact
with. His clients include fundamentalist christians, urban blacks, county police officers, public officials, and young people,
some with middle-class, urban, college backgrounds. Part of Catfish's charm was due to his divine mission to help people and
it seems equally evident to his clients that he was not out to make money. Catfish lived in what can only be described as
a humble shack. He charged nothing for diagnosis or advice. People where welcome to accompany him to the woods or spend the
night, during which times he shared his food with them. It is noteworthy that Catfish was not at all secretive about his folk
medicine kowledge; he was only doing Yahweh's work by curing people and by spreading his knowledge to others.
Catfish
had developed a style with clients that may evoke total confidence, bemused skepticism, awe, or even fear. He spoke very rapidly,
using rehearsed phrases and animated gestures. He would rattle off names of herbs and diseases in such rapid staccato as to
have an almost hypnotic effect. He was fond of substantiating his claims of remarkable cures by placing a letter from a satisfied
client in the hands of a prospective client. Then while the visitor is reading the letter (which may be two or three pages
long), Catfish would stand out of view of the letter and recite it word for word (or very nearly so) by memory---again in
rapid-fire stacatto. This impressive feat, along with the glowing content of the letters, seem to help convince some people
that Catfish was a genius or something of a holy man.
Catfish, for his part, was not unaware of the effect on his
clients of these and similar techniques. He had confided that much of every illness "is all in folks minds," and that guilt
ar anxiety from leading sinful lives contributes to many sicknesses.
Accordingly, Catfish did anything he could to foster
positive thinking in his clients and to lead them to believe they where receiving the right treatment and are getting well.
The confidence Catfish inspired in many, along with his powerful spiritual faith and his disparaging views of the medical
establishment, have led many people to find new hope of cure after they had been told that they have chronic or untreatable
conditions. Other people may be reluctant actually to expect cures, but they where willing to give Catfish and his advice
a try.
Catfish "Man Of The Woods: (Bitters Formula) is back!
This is Catfish's formula that he used for many
years of his healing. The formula has 18 powerful healing herbs.
(6) Blood Tonics:
(4) Digestive & Colon Tonics:
(3) Lung Tonics:
(3) Nerve Tonics:
(1) Heart Tonic:
(1) Kidney & Bladder Tonic:
It comes ready to use mix the formula in 2 quarts
of water and boil down to 1 quart strain and refrig. Dosage 1 teaspoon 3 times a day, or for terminal illness 1 tablespoon
3 times a day.
Write me at Yahwist@webtv.net for price.
Catfish's Baking Soda Formula:
Take 1/4 teaspoon (Arm & Hammer) baking soda,
mix in 8 ozs glass of water after each meal (for remainder of your life).
To treat a illness Catfish recommends increasing the soda level to one teaspoon, taken with eight ounces
of water three times a day for one week, then reducing this to once a day at bedtime for two weeks.
*Note: This is only information and is not to treat or cure.
