this is what i learned in class tonight...
by and so it is...
this is joe...he is in my class...and we both learned the following tonight:
Spunk-water (sometimes referred to as "stump water") is rainwater found lying in the open woods within the wood hollow of a rotten tree trunk, stump, or root cradle. It was made more or less famous in the writings of Mark Twain - "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Chapter #6; whereas, Tom's favorite mystical superstition tapped into old folkloric remedies for curing warts as the application of "stump-water" and that was better than Huck's remedy of flinging a "dead cat" in a graveyard at midnight, to rid oneself of this common viral affliction.
...Jam your hand in and say...Spunk-water, spunk-water, swaller these warts!" [1]
The occult-ish natural potion is also somewhat featured in the Natalie Babbitt children's novel; Tuck Everlasting, when the Tuck family drank the standing water from a "magic spring" welling up through the roots of certain secret tree, thus enjoying immortality in the process.
Additionally, "Skunk water" and "Stump water" is often misconstrued to describe a nasty tasting beer or any other drink or beverage smelling foul, or tasting somewhat rotten, or is described as such. To protract the mysteries of the off-ish brew it thus has sometimes been tagged as the subject and titles of blues and boogy music, such as the "Louisiana Stump Water Blues", by recording artist Johnny Bullock.
The term "spunk" originates from a historical reference to describe courage, or nerve, or having heart; translating also, as possessing the qualities of a material for starting a fire, i.e.; kindling, touchwood, or punk. These are known colloquially to speak to a certain ignition property of "spunk", which in Southern parlance borrows more to the spirit or essence of a person or thing—something possessing an imbued energy.
