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IIinseauin a short peasant jacket made
from heavy material and pants tied with a ropebelt,
wearing this outfit summer and winter. He
had a short scarf around his neck, with its ends
stuck into his jacketthus he stood while waiting
for a sale.
Almost every Libivner storekeeper had to use
either Itche, one of his brothers, or the other
carters to bring the grain, herring, or salt to their
stores.
Besides the carters there were also drozhkes
[horse-cabs] for passengers for hire. The drivers
of the drozhkes also owned big wagons for transferring
goods or taking them to the cities.
Itche Shtiner
There was a "doctor" in the shtetl whose name
was Itche Shtiner, because he came from the
village of Shtin, which was not far from Libivne.
Young people would sometimes take a walk there
after their Sabbath meal of cholent [a meat, barley,
and carrot dish, kept on the stove through the
night]. There was a fine harvest of small, wild
pears called gen.ilkes. When green they were not
fit to eat, but when they became soft and a bit
overripe, they could be enjoyed.
There were few houses in Shtin; they could
be counted on the fingers of both hands. And
there were only a couple of Jewish families.
Shtin was on the borderline of the village of
Vishnyeve.
I see Itche before my eyes as if he were alive,
just as he looked many years ago.
He was of middling height, with a blond beard
cut in a square shape, with blue, smiling eyes. A
short, padded three-quarter coatnot long enough
to be a Chasidic coat and not short enough to be
heretical. And the hat matched the outfit. In
winter he also wore a fur-lined coat with a black
Persian collar.
I remember him mostly during the winter
months, because that was the season of getting
colds and headaches. The children came home
from cheder [Jewish school] with sore throats
from sweating and from the water that leaked into
their boots. The child would start coughing and
develop a fever. Malnutrition was also a contributor.
The child then became a candidate for
Itche Shtiner the medic.
CHARACTERS AND PERSONALITIES 191
Thursday was the main shopping day for the
Sabbath. On such days during the winter, the
women were vulnerable to catch colds and they
too became candidates for Itche Shtiner's services.
On Fridays the men would go to the public
bath. They would give the caretaker a tip, and in
return he would provide them with a wooden
pail and with a broom made from birch twigs to
help them have a good sweat. When they left the
bath and their beards were still wet as they headed
out into the cold streets, the beards formed icicles
on their faces. By the time they reached home, they
would be sick. Their wives would cover the men
with feather quilts, and if this did not help, they
would call Itche Shtiner.
Itche came in with all the paraphernalia that
doctors carry with them. In one box he had a
dozen glass cups, a bottle of turpentine, a package
of cotton, and a bottle of a certain colored
fluid to swab the throat. He would check the
fever and would tell the housewife to boil a pot
of water.
After the examination he would wrap cotton
around a wick and would dip it in turpentine,
and he would light it. He would then take a cup
from the basin, stick the wick in the cup, and
quickly would affix the cup to the back of the
patient. This procedure was repeated until all the
cups were affixed on the patient's back. After
about 20 minutes he would remove the cups with
a loud pop. He would then rub alcohol on the
patient's lumpy brown-blue back. The patient
was instructed to cover up and sweat it out. Itche
would then go to another patient.
If Itche felt that the sickness was serious,
maybe pneumon ia, he would tell the patient to
call a doctor.
With children he was an expert. He would
smile and be very friendly to gain their confidence.
He would dip a swab of cotton in a
medicine and would swirl it in the throat, after
asking him to say "ah, ah."
Itche never competed with doctors. Just the
opposite, he always collaborated with the doctors
to help the sick. When the Jewish doctor, Meisner,
left Luboml, only the Polish doctor remained in
town. This doctor was drunk most of the time,
day and night. He had to be assisted and sup-