Browse:"CHANNEL DE WORLD" (Volume 5, entries 10604–13458)/Part 12
"CHANNEL DE WORLD"
Volume 5, entries 10604–13458. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
1 listed entry is unavailable here.
Entries
Entry 11484
"Take your foot track...put a little salt with that...shut that up tight in a bottle...make you come back." [Charleston 640:3.]
Entry 11485
Lift up hollow of track, carry back to house, lay with seat of under- wear, bury, 'makes you weak in de limbs." [Washington, D. C. 805:10.]
The short account describes lifting the hollow of a track; the later weakness claim remains attributed.
Entry 11486
"Git 3 pinches out de pam [pam or pam = bottom] of de foot...put 3 pinches of red peppah with it an' a little drop of quicksilver [stopped up] and a raven feather, put it in running water...put 'em to wondering [wandering, make a wanderer or tramp out of you]. [Charleston 606:12.]
Entry 11487
"Ketch your [left] foot track up...without breaking it, and put it in a rag, carry it down to the running water and throw it overboard...you'll start to running [like the water]." [Wilmington 219:2+85.]
Entry 11488
If the visitor is unwanted, pick up her foot track [probably either one] after she leaves and burn it in the stove. She will never return. [Eliza- beth City, N. Car.,398:11.]
Entry 11489
You kin take, if you kin get somepin like their foot track, the right foot track and take - mix it with some sulphur and some salt or some pepper, and just fix it anyway. You kin burn it [outside the house] or if you kin slip it in the stove, or heat it - anyway like that - around where they are at, the people [will become] so rowing [rou-ing = noisy quarrel] in there that they can't get along [this will break up a family]. [Norfolk 482:4.]
Entry 11490
Well, tuh make dem quarrel and git apart, if yo' kin git a woman track - de least bit out of her track, eithah one - an' go an' buy dis ground up peppah. Go in de henhouse and git de dried-hard-up [dried up hard] hen turd [dung]. Pound it all up tuhgethah. Git some of yore friends, if yo' can't do it yo'self, tuh go dere an' sprinkle some of dat in dey stove, an' if yo' go dere dey be quarrellin' - send 'em tuh jail tuh settle it. She git so outright mad until she hardly will fix dat dinnah or breakfas'. She's ready tuh leave yo'.
(That is to cause confusion in the home?)
Yes.
Entry 11491
"They kin take a pinch of dirt out from under your foot track...carry it home and put it in a bottle, take that and bury it...stops you from walking
[to keep home]." [Norfolk 530:14.]
Entry 11492
[This is the very first rite given by a young woman who came into the interviewing room without saying a word, not even answering my greeting, pulled out a deck of cards, and standing opposite the table in front of me began to run the cards - tell my fortune. I no longer remember ghat she said but I am certain it was something favorable or flattering. The rite given here is page or rite No.l of her interview. On this sheet I wrote soon after the interview: Memphis, second trip, 1518 [informant's number],43 Sages [this does not mean full pages but rites, some of them very short like the present one]. My comment at the close of 1519 [presumably on page 43] reads, ne girl, 1518, when she first came in, took out a deck of cards and ran through them. Will break up [interview later]. Several removed for cures and protectior To be guoted in part in Interview Section. This I never did.] Dey say dey kin git de dust from yore foot track an' use it, an' bury it some place an' cause yo' tuh lose yore eyesight, yore hearin's - accordin' tuh whut dey wanta do - yo' know, jes' 'fect any part of yore body. Dey kin cause it tuh be yore death or sompin lak dat. [As I have said somewhere in this section, in- tention is everything.] [Memphis 2685:1.]
Entry 11493
(That's to keep him. Now, if you want to run him away, what do you do?) Well, if you wanta run him away, you get his left track and take dat and bury it underneath de doorstep, and go dere every morning for nine mornings and say somepin to it, and he will never come back any more.
(What do you say to it?) Yo' jes' say, "I hope he'll never come back any more." (That is if you run him away.)
Entry 11494
If you get boss's foot tracks, take home, keep them in a cigar box, he is coming to your house next to call for you. [Foot tracks of the boss deserve style, the reason for the cigar box, and the style the reason for the boss calling.] [Memphis 1556:2.]
Entry 11495
At forks of roads pick up left foot track, mix with dirt dauber nest, and drop into a gray horse track to "put you to traveling." [Notice the 4 travel agencies!] [Mobile, Ala., 971:3.]
Entry 11496
Like dis is de fork of de road disaway [demonstrates] an' yo' cross here. Dey [your enemy] goes dere. Dey goes dere and you cross de other way. Dey kin take up your tracks, see. An' dey cross [put a cross mark in] your track. Ten [tracks]. Cross 'em like dat [demonstrates]. Here's yore track, and jes' pick up some of your track dis way, and take de other one and do dataway. Den dey keeps dat and if it's someone dat yo' really don't scared of, he will call you - come to yore home and call yo', an' den he call yo' an' take dat track - take dat bottle an' (slap, slap) wit de chamber lye in it. Take dat whatchahcall 'em cloth an' tie 'em round yore waist and dey couldn't do yo' no harm to save dere [their] dying life. (How do they cross those tracks out there at the crossroads? Tell me that again. How do they cross them?) Dere's yo' track, meanin' de foot track. How de' [dey] cross it if dey wanta harm yuh? Dere's yore track. Dere's de track one way, dey come dere. Take a stick from dere [demonstrates with an imaginary stick]. (Oh! they put a cross in each of your tracks, a cross mark. I see, make an "x", cross mark. I see.) Dat's de way dey do. Dat's de way it's done. (That's the way you cross the tracks, I see. And then after they cross these tracks, what do they do with them?) Dey takes dat and keep it, you understand. Dey keep dat and don't keer what- somever you - even yo' could be rid of de boss [person crossing your tracks] and he keep dat until he's dead.
Entry 11497
Den yo' kin [take] dey foot track an' put up ovah de do' an' dey'll nevah leave dat house. Dey'll stay in dat house. Dey'll nevah leave dat house.
[Sumter 2413:6b.]
The account repeatedly predicts that they will never leave the house; the negative relation is retained without establishing an effect.
Entry 11498
Bury under your door dirt from his foot track; he'll come to your house. [Wilmington 167:6+85.]
The source prints this as a short instruction. Its opening notes assign unbracketed text to informants; a verbatim recording is not established.
Entry 11499
Take up dey foot track and put it in a bottle or a sack, bury under steps, "will hold you around the house or job." [Vicksburg 990:12.]
Entry 11500
"Take your track and put it in a snuffbox and put it under your door- step and you'd have to leave." [Vicksburg, 1002:11.]
Entry 11501
Man's right foot track in right stocking, put over door, let it stay there 9 mornings, make him do like you [a woman] want.
Entry 11502
"Put it [foot track] in a piece of cloth and put it in de fire [or fireplace], and dat will cause you to be tuh dis place all de time, and you wan'a go an' can't go 'cause yore track is here." [Charleston 555:5.]
Entry 11503
"Take that [barefoot] track...some cooking salt, some sulphur, and some gunpowder, and mix dem together in a little bottle and set 'em afire and you'll be gone, drive you away." [Charleston 572:1.]
Entry 11504
"Gunpowder and bluestone and de track too, dat fer de roamin'...put it in de chimley, let de smoke go over dat fer 9 days." [Charleston 611:1.]
Entry 11505
"Pick up his track and puts some salt in it, gunpowder, red pepper. You tie it up [in a piece of cloth] and put it on a string and set it afire... [swing it at least once about head and let loose] turn it loose in de air where that it busts and scatter it. He goin' leave here." [Charleston 548:2.]
Entry 11506
"When a person comes to your house and you don't want them to return, you take the dirt up out of their track and put it on the stove [to burn or parch it] and the person won't come back." [Snowhill 1:3.]
Entry 11507
"If you wanted a person to move from a place [they say] that you get their shoes and put 'em to the back of the chimney - just put the whole track of the shoe on de back of de chimney...make a track in de back of de chimney... [and after the fire has burned away these impressions] that person will disappear from that place, they couldn't stay there." [Elizabeth City 411:1.]
Entry 11508
"If she knowed he's goin' an' when that he walk out de door, all she have to do is to sweep from the front door clear back up into de chimley [chim- ney, i.e. the fireplace] his track, an' he'll bound to come back." [Wilmington 231:5+85.]
Entry 11509
"I'm goin' to take it [foot track] an' put it in a glass jar an' con- ceal it...dry you up an' carry you away." [New Orleans 1133:2.]
Entry 11510
Choose a coming-to-you left foot track, bury at door to bring a per- son; if you select a going-away-from-you left foot track, add graveyard dirt and throw into running water to send away. [Mobile 886:6.]
Entry 11511
Take person's left foot track, coming-in track, tie it up in a new handkerchief, bury at doorsteps, to left side as you enter house. This will keep the person there. [Mobile 977:2.]
Entry 11512
"If they want choo to be with them, why they bury it under the door- step. Like if they want chew to come...to my home, see, I bury it under the doorstep. And if they want to run you away, why put that in running Water and make a wish.
(Which tracks do they use?)
They use the right track.
(How do you mean?)
Get the dirt from under the right foot. Like, just, if you want 'em to come to your home, see, you take it when they're coming to the home. If you want 'em to leave, you get it out of that track when they leave home."
Entry 11513
"Take his tracks away from [departing from] the house...bury it under de doorstep; it'll bring him right back to you." [Wilmington 202:4+85.]
Entry 11514
Woman takes up right foot track man makes coming to house, from toe to heel, ties it up with salt, pepper and sulphur, in new piece of yellow cotton [usually called homespun], makes her wishes, buries under door, to bring back.
[Elizabeth City 493:5+85.]
Entry 11515
A woman picks up a man's departing foot track, puts it under her steps, wishes, and he will come back. [Petersburg 417:5.]
Entry 11516
Pick up person's going-east foot track, sew up in a bag, bury it, "cause you to run away." [EARLY NOTATION OF MINE READS: "PURPOSE UNUSUAL, PROB- ABLY NOT USE." HOW COULD A PERSON BURIED, RUN AWAY? IT TOOK ME A LONG TIME TO REALIZE THAT SYMBOLISM IS ALMOST EVERYTHING, BUT INTENTION IS THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS, THE BE ALL AND END ALL. THERE ARE MANY EXAMPLES OF BURIAL TO RUN PER- SON AWAY, THE VERY NEXT RITE FOR EXAMPLE.] [Mobile 890:5.]
Entry 11517
They could pick the whole track up just like you walking easy, but just after you have gone by not too long, you see, when you put your feet down, 'cause the heat from your [bare] feet will go in the dirt. And just after you put your feet down, they can pick up that track and go bury it in the graveyard and that will cause you to drift.
Entry 11518
"You take the measure of the foot track and carry it to the grave- yard...bury it; you bound to Zinger, to perish." [New Orleans 1346:4.]
Entry 11519
Man's foot tracks measured and buried so many feet from his door - buried with graveyard dirt. He died. Happened in Arundal Co., Md. [My original transcription soon after belief collected, H. M. H., this note Nov. 23, 1976.]
[Baltimore, Md. 45:3.]
Entry 11520
"Took up de foot track and put it in a bottle...git graveyard dirt from de foot of de grave...cork it tight...put it in de rivah. Dat's for like yo' goin' [= to send you away]." [Charleston 633:1.]
Entry 11521
"Take it, foot track, up on a shovel...throw it in dis graveyard an' that person of course will die. [Charleston 538:4.]
Entry 11522
"Dey gits it [left foot track] and dey put about 9 pinches of peppah with it and 9 pinches of graveyard dirt, you know, and 9 matches, and put de stuff airtight and throw in de water, runnin' water...that is goin' drive 'em away." [Charleston 606:11.]
Entry 11523
"They take that out of you right track...git some graveyard dust and a little sulphur and a little salt and a little pepper, put it in a bag...and if they want to run you crazy, they take and throw it in running water." [Wil- mington 148:3+85.]
Entry 11524
Pick up person's right track toward you, bury with graveyard dirt under your steps. [Wilmington 87:3.]
Entry 11525
"I knowed a man, he got mad and measured a person's track, and he wrapped it up in paper, burnt it up, then took the ashes and put it in a gun, put on a cap, fired that gun and said, I hope that you is a thousand miles from home. He never came back no more. THAT'S WHAT I USED TO HEAR THESE OLD CUN- JURES SAY - WE [AS CHILDREN IN CIVIL WAR TIMES] SIT BACK IN THE CORNER, WE WASN'T ALLOWED TO ASK NO QUESTIONS." [Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11526
" 'You git de track like that [going from you] and you say, Go... Git choo a breechloader shell...take all dat shots outa dere an' pō' dat dirt into dat shell...put choo a little cayenne peppah in dere...twelve o'clock dat night... on de way you want de party to go, you shoot dat shell.π [Mobile 937:1.]
Entry 11527
"Take 3 pinches out of de pam [palm = hollow] of de foot [track]... mix dat gunpowder with it and put it in a shell what you shoot in de gun...take dat and shoot it toward de sundown side [towards the west] an' do it when de horizon an' de sun meets, when de sun goin' down...won't be long 'fore dat fel- lah pick up an' go." [Charleston 610:13.]
Entry 11528
"Take that sand from under the hollah [of] your feet...take the shells [shot] out of a shotgun [shell], an' put that sand between the shell an' the pow- der [put the sand in front of the powder in the shell] an' whichever [way] dey wan' choo to go. dey shoot it [in that directionl." [Wilmington 264:2.]
Entry 11529
If you know de name of de person, you kin bring dem back.
(Well, what would you do with that [name]?)
Well, yOu COuld - AH TELL YOU, BUT AH HOPE YOU AIN'T COMING BACK ON ME.
(NO! I'M NOT COMING BACK ON YOU AT ALL. NO! NO!)
Well, you see, you are sure you knows de fellah - we [let us] say dat I'm de person do's it - see. You kin jest git to my step lak late in de night, and git a little dust right from under my step and mixes that in some gunpowder and put it - don't put it in no shot [shot gun gunpowder without the shot]. Put it in your gun. You have to use, you know, one of dese ole-time muskets. Jest put dat in dat gun and come right to de door, and shoot right directs towards my home - in the direction of my home. And in three days dat would be back dere. Get 'em [not foot tracks, see later] right from de center part of my [door] step as I go in my home.
(Both tracks?)
No, jest git de dirt from under de step, not de track, jest de dirt from under dere where I goes in and out. [In many of these small houses the treads of out- side steps are not enclosed; it being easy to reach under or from the side to pick up dirt from under the steps. Both wind and rain forced foot track dirt under open steps.]
(of, you mean the doorstep?)
Yeah. Jest take and go on a' [and] mix dat in some powder and put dat in your gun. And in de morning jest about day you shoot right in the direct [direction] of his step [whether] towards de east, north, south or West. You shoot right dat way. Two or three days I'll be back to you. (You'll bring back the things you stole.) [On the original transcription, nade within year or two after collection of rite, is the word doubtful in red ink!]
Entry 11530
"Take the right-foot track an' git you some sulphur an' some gunpowder, put it on a shingle, stick a match to it, that's if you wan'a run 'em away from bome." [Wilmington 204:1+85.]
Entry 11531
"If you was going with someone and they wan'a break you up, well they take your track, they take theirs [the person you are going with] and put those with that gunpowder and mix it and it [is] exploded." [Norfolk 480:4.]
The conditional break-up account says 'take your track, they take theirs'; the bracketed partner identification remains editorial.
Entry 11532
"Git the right track...some of his hair - either place, down their or up here - and put that in a bottle and stop it up real tight, where it'll never leak, and put it in running water, and he'll forever travel." [Wilmington 189:4+85.]
Entry 11533
Pick up track from heel to toe when he leaves and throw iato running gater; he'll keep going. [Wilmlngton 273:3+85.]
Entry 11534
Pick up foot track heel to toe, put in box, and throw into running water; that keeps that person running. [Wilmington 83:6+85.]
Entry 11535
Take track from heel to toe, wrap in paper, throw in running water, "will run you away." [Mobile 963:7.]
Entry 11536
"Git de foot track and measure it from de foot [toe] to de heel of it and scrape dirt backwards and make you run away with that. Now, dey have to read the 23 Psalms of David before de sunrise. Take an' throw 'em [dirt and victim] no' thwards. [Mobile 962:2.]
Entry 11537
"Yo' kin take a person's foot track. Start to de heel an' take it up to de toe an' put it into a dry place an' don't let it be where it kin git wet, an' den dey can't stay nowhere." [Sumter 2413:6.]
Entry 11538
"To run you away, [they] take track from heel to toe and bury under doorstep." [Wilmington 832+85.]
Entry 11539
Scoop up the going track from toe to heel, empty it into a snuffbox and bury under the middle of doorsteps to "make 'em not run around so much an' stay home." [For snuffbox under steps, see No.11564.] [Mobile 968:2.]
The account specifies a going track collected from toe to heel; the staying-home claim and later cross-reference remain distinct.
Entry 11540
Pick up foot track from toe to heel, throw into running water, you can't stay home. [Richmond, "no reference, informant good, try to chedk."]
Entry 11541
"Jis' take up their track, dirt and all together, and take an' put a hot iron in it - heat it with hot irons...you have a burnin' in your foot.
[Wilmington 269:5+85.]
Entry 11542
"The left foot track in the sand, get that track and put it in a bottle and stop it up, and throw it into running water, and it'll run 'em per- fect crazy." [Wilmington 212:1+85.]
The bottle is explicit in the quoted instruction; the claimed 'crazy' result is source wording, not a clinical finding or verified effect.
Entry 11543
Tie up left foot track and throw into running water to run person out of town. [Wilmington 78:2+85.]
The printed instruction places a tied left foot track in running water with the stated aim of running a person out of town.
Entry 11544
To throw your left foot track into running water runs you away.
[Wilmington 116:6.]
A short printed statement connects throwing a left foot track into running water with running 'you' away.
Entry 11545
Right foot track sewed in bag with lodestone, pepper, hair, in run- ning water, runs you crazy. [Vicksburg 1003:2.]
Entry 11546
Take left-foot track, put in can with red pepper and name, throw in- to running water, "put you to going." [Mobile 943:4.]
Entry 11547
"Take de dirt from undah yore left foot an' take hit an' den carry it tuh runnin' watah an' [throw it in and] dat will run yo' crazy..*.
(The dirt from your left-foot track?)
Yes."
Entry 11548
Pick up dirt from [left?] foot track, put in bottle, urinate into, throw into running water, and victim will follow the bottle and travel. [Rich- mond 317:1.]
Entry 11549
"Dey takes [measures] your [right] track...wit a cord...dey'll take dat cord and dey roll it up with 6 new needles and six new nails, an' dey goes to de rivah, tide's [tide is] goin' down...dey throws dat overboard. Your mind goes wit dat [out with the tide]." [Charleston 556:14.]
Entry 11550
"Jes' lak yo' walking, dey kin take yuh [left] foot track, de length an' de wide of it. Well, now, right in your instep dey take a grain of sand, jes' pick up jes' what yo' kin git in your fingah. An' dey put it in a bottle an' git, well, I would say around about 10 or 15 drops of Hearts Cologne. Dey'll put dat in dere. An' dey will jis' keep adding dis powdahs in dere with it. Some kinda powdah. I forgit de name. Jis' feed it with powdahs. Well, dey claim den, if dey do dat, why you can't walk." [Richmond 462:8.]
Entry 11551
"Get a piece of paper and measure their footprint and take that up in a dark place - in a dark closet, and spit 3 times at this in the dark and walk away. They claim that makes a person foolish, he won't stay no place at all."
[Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11552
"Take a person's footprint and measure it, and plant it in the ground, and they would be cripple from it." [Baltimore 59:1.]
Entry 11553
"Get a piece of dogwood...measure the [foot] track...take that dogwood and carry it to your house and bury it under de step...will bring 'em to you."
[Petersburg 421:8.]
Entry 11554
"If a person goes away, you wan' to keep 'em home, you get their foot track an' yo'll measure it...take the [measuring] stick an' stick it down in the groun' under de step...or a dog [can be kept home that way] or anything." [Snow Hill 12:6.]
The conditional account names getting and measuring a foot track for a staying-home aim; bracketed clarifications remain editorial.
Entry 11556
Woman measures man's foot track with string or root and carries the one used. [Hampton, Va., by Ediphone.]
Entry 11557
Measure person's foot track and put measure under doorstep. [Girdle- tree, Md., by hand.]
Entry 11559
Take one of dese big tenpenny nails and drive it in de [left] track coming to the house and they'll certainly bring it [what they stole] back to you." [Norfolk 493:6.]
Entry 11560
"Take a twentypenny nail an' drive it down in your [right] track an' that'll worry you, that'll run you crazy. Your necked [naked] feet [barefoot]. An' kiver [cover] a little bit of dirt over it." [Wilmington 257:2+85.]
Entry 11561
Measure left foot track and bury under doorstep with rusty nail to bring him back. [Petersburg 422:11.]
Entry 11562
"I could put dat track in a pocket han'ke'chef and I could take it and put it in a bottle...call your name, stop it up tight, an' take that bottle and carry it to some rivah...throw it ovahboard...keep you wavering and wavering and roaming all your life." [Charleston 642:4.]
Entry 11563
"Write person's name on a piece of paper, put it with his foot track into an old sock, throw overboard, "put him to travelin'." [Norfolk 459:1 from Doctor Paul Bowes, who said it was from the 6th and 7th Books of Moses. This or these latter books do not always include the same material and sometimes they are not called Books of Moses. So I have been told. These witchcraft books loose their power if they are shown to anyone.]