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balm of Gilead

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balm of Gilead (also ballygilly, bammagilly) noun A small poplar tree (usually Populus gileadensis/balsamifera) from whose buds is derived a medicinal salve of the same name.

1939 Hall Coll (Catons Grove TN) Ballygilly buds is good for to make salves, the best salve I ever used was made out of bammygilly buds. 1967 Jones Peculiarities Mtneers 66 Balm of Gilead (pronounced “bam-be-gilly” by the mountaineers) buds stepped in whiskey was used as a remedy for colds. 1971 AOHP/ALC-147 If we got burnt, why she would take bam-a-gilly buds and fry it in taller, and she would use that then to cure the burns. 1978 Montgomery White Pine Coll IX-1 He said, “You get some of those balm of Gilead buds and beat them up and put them ina bottle and put some whiskey on them and bathe that.”

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