I asked for things people wanted to learn about and one person brought up Traiteurs. I have had some personal experience with them in my younger years. My grandmother really believed in them and I had the experience of visiting them on two occasions that I can remember.
My first remembrance of a visit to a traiteur was when my sister was really young. She was born with a "strawberry" on her head. It was like a huge blood blister about a third of an inch in diameter and not raised up too high. My momma had tried a few different things to get it to go away. My grandma, Oliviette Serigny, who was my daddy's mother insisted she take my sister to the traiteur. I went with her. I was really scared. I am from Golden Meadow. If you know Golden Meadow well at all, Hwy 308 ends right there by the bridge. You can go about a little bit further, but the road stops and then there is nothing but marsh land. Well, the traiteur lived past that. We had to get into a boat and go to her house. I was 10 years old. I already thought we were going to see a witch or something. I remember shaking from fear. I had never heard of somebody who can make something on your body go away. I didn't know what she was going to do to my baby sister. So, we get there. She took my sister and started making a cross over her head. She was mumbling something. I didn't know what she was saying. We left that place and went back home. Boy was I glad to leave! A few weeks later the "strawberry" on my sisters head was gone. It was a miracle. I never knew if the traiteur was to thank for it. I went and did some research on the subject. In Wikipedia I found that "In Louisiana, the term traiteur (sometimes spelled treateur) describes a man or woman (a traiteuse) who practises what is sometimes called faith healing. A traiteur is Native Creole healer or a traditional healer of the French-speaking Houma Tribe, whose primary method of treatment involves using the laying on of hands. An important part of Creole folk religion, the traiteur combines Catholic prayer and medicinal remedies. They are called to treat a variety of ailments, including: earaches, toothaches, warts, tumors, angina, and bleeding. In the past, they substituted for trained physicians in remote rural areas of Acadiana. Most traiteurs consider their healing abilities a gift from God, and therefore refuse to accept payment in exchange for their services." I also learned from my reading that if a man is a traituer he passes his gift to a daughter and if a woman is a traitues, she passes the gift to a son. Please leave a comment, opinion, or experience.
3 Comments
Bonnie LaBorde Braud
9/10/2015 05:37:10 pm
My husband and I live in Gonzales. He was told by his parents many years ago that at age 2 or 3 he had a very very high fever. His parents could not get to Baton Rouge for a doctor so they went to a traiteur in Gonzales. She laid hands on him and they told him that on the way home from the visit his fever went away and he began singing Jambalaya and a Crawfish Pie. He also tells me that his grandmother, Maw Maw Prevot, was also considered a traiteur.
Reply
Cynthia
9/10/2015 08:51:13 pm
I had another experience that was not so good. I was in 6th grade then. My siblings and I were playing with chunks of mud. The ground had been freshly dug up when the "Town of Golden Meadow" was installing some drainage pipes in my Ma Mere's yard. We were turning the chunks of mud into sculptures. We were working on a walkway made of planks and had mud all over the place. My momma said it was time to go so I got up and started running. Well, I slipped on the muddy plank right away. It hurt really bad! My momma put all kinds of stuff on my foot. She tried vinegar and salt wrap, iced water soak, hot water soak, nothing worked. Finally after a week or so, she took me to Doctor Ford. This was when his office was still on the bayou side. It was built over the water as I recall. He took an x-ray and he said that nothing was broken. So, now what?? My momma takes me to a traiture cause my foot was still hurting. So, he starts to pray and elbows my foot as hard as he could! I SAW STARS! It was terrible! Come to find out I did have a bone that was broken. I have a huge calcium bump on my bone today.
Reply
Maggie Collins
9/14/2015 12:06:35 pm
My Mama (who passed away last year at 87) was from Golden Meadow. She used to tell me about the Traiture who would come and heal her sun stroke by placing a pan of water on her head and taking a glass, putting cotton in the glass and lighting it. She then quickly upended the glass into the pan of water drawing the water up into the glass. When the water was gone, the sun stroke was gone.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
|