Browse:"CHANNEL DE WORLD" (Volume 5, entries 10604–13458)/Part 9
"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 11244
This root doctor said, "Nobody kin do this but me." Root doctor takes snake out of woman but she dies. People said she had tuberculosis.
Entry 11245
When the doctor came he looked at it [something vomited] and told my mother she had to move out of the house she was in; if she didn't, she would remain sick. She finally moved. And when she moved she began to get better. [The fact that the woman improved makes this a piece of good psychotherapy. Notice the analysis based not upon urine or feces but upon vomit!] [Fredericks- burg, Va., Ediphone, 49.1
The informant reports a doctor's warning that the mother would remain sick if she did not move; a move and later improvement are reported separately.
Entry 11246
Story of girl cunjured to bark like a dog: She got down on her knees and crawled while barking. Old root doctor called in asks for a specimen of her urine. Naturally one glance at the urine told her she was cunjured. Story lack- ed details, I did not transcribe.
Entry 11247
"Man gave woman some candy to eat but her daughter ate it and took sick. [Mother then took daughter to a root doctor.] Root doctor says, I saw you ever since yester- day comin' [see also p.8, line 44, for doctor for- seeing patient on the road to him]. You jis' been three days later, he says, you would lose [have lost] your daugh- ter. She's hurt. He put the scorpion in a bottle after it was taken out. It wasn't for her but for you. This scorpion, had it stayed three days longer, it would have hatched and killed the girl. [This whole statement violates the nor- mal belief that you cannot be harmed by hoodoo not intended for you. A few other violations will be found in HOODOO, but normally the old rule was generally held.
Entry 11248
(Suppose a person puts a spell on me and that person dies. Can I have that spell taken off any way?) No sir, yo' will die too.
(If that person dies, I will die too?)
You will die. Yo' won't nevah git rid of it.
(The only chance of getting it off is if the person still lives?)
"Less he lives. (What do you call these people around this part of the country that take the spells off you? What do you call them?) Call dem hoodoo.
(Don't they have any root doctors down here?)
Oh, yes, we have root doctors. One right up de street heah.
(Well, now, do they get anything from the root doctors?)
Oh, yes, he kin tell yo' [if you are hurt]. An' dem somethings [he can do for you]. He have medicine in roots. (Oh, he just makes medicine.) [He usually does more than that.]
Entry 11249
He roomed with me.
(This man that was ill.)
He roomed with me an' he tole me that ah had mah - mah luck wuz crossed. An' be tole me, "Ah kin fix it so de rentman won't come heah an' git yore rent, he'll fo'git about yo'." An' so now whut he had did ah don't know, but anyhow ah paid him. [My question lost by turning off machine.] No. he didn't tell me whut he goin' do.
Entry 11250
[Only later did I realize the humorous and ghastly implication of those words: a prescription to go to the graveyard! Only once in HooDoO is this sort of thing called a prescription!] Name of Magee... (Who was?)....name of Magee.
(Who was he, your granddad?)
My granddad.
(All right.)
[Informant before recording started had identified our doctor as his granddad (a word I would not have used) as a man who knew tricks. To make informant re- peat this information to recording machine was the purpose of my questions.] And he was sort of a fellow that knew somepin about tricks, you know. Well, in fact, he used to get - earn part of his living like that.... [in other words he was a doctor.] (I see. Where did he live?) He lived in New Orleans. (Oh, he lived in New Orleans.) Yeah. (All right.) And my father always did tell me - leastways he would be talking and I would be 'round the house, you know, and he said once that granddaddy had - his father had given a lady a prescription to go to the graveyard and get some graveyard dust. Well, anyway, her husband - this lady was going with another lady's husband and she Wanted to fix this lady so that she wouldn't be bothered with him...put her on a sickbed, and so... [cylinder changes] and so he tells her to go to the graveyard and get some graveyard dust. She had to go before sunrise in the morning and get this dust. And she brings it back and she gets some spiderwebs and spiders and she mixed all this up in a little bag...
(Did she get the spiders or the spiderweb?)
She got the spiderwebs and the spiders too, and this graveyard dust, and she put this in a bag and at that time, you know, people used these cotton ticks - you know, you could open... [I interrupt.]
(Cotton ticks?)
Ticks, yes, and she had slipped this in this woman's bed [by cutting the bed- tick cover and slipping bag into the cotton]. Well, this woman was sleeping in this bed and she - well, it gave her a backset [a relapse in whatever ailment she hadl, you might say. And this woman stayed in the bed for about three months and no doctor [M.D.] or nothing could do her any good. That's - that was back trouble. And so, well this woman - well, her husband didn't know what was the matter with her, either. And so she had him to come to my granddaddy and he did and stated her case and everything, axed him could he help out any. Well, he found out actually how it was, you see - he knew all about it, see. Well, and he told her he would cure her - i t [culprit] was a friend of my mother's. And so he told her exactly what to do, and where she would find this here [cunjure]; right up about, nearly by the pillow. And so she goes there and looks in there and there was this dust and stuff right in up there [4 theres!].
(What did she do with that?)
Well, she took this out of there and he told her to take this stuff and empty it out in [the toilet under another name] and it would be all gone away. She did that and well, there was nothing more about it... [she recovered].
Entry 11251
It's a woman heah from Florida an' she claim dat she kin do all dese things, yo' know. An' she say if yo' be goin' with a man an' he don' love yo', say she kin make this man love yo'; an' said she'll fix it so dat chew kin git every penny he makes.
Entry 11252
( Go home and read the 109th Psalms, a few words from dat every morning. You know how it read, I guess: Hold not, thy peace, O God [these 7 words correct; from King James Version] thy prayers, etc. The 109th anyhow. And in a few moments, just a few moments after that, we had a letter from [about] her [their sister] from the doctors in Goldsboro [N. Car., from the state mental institution]. We wrote my mother a letter that she was getting better, but what did the lady [root doctor] do, I can't say.
(She wouldn't tell you what she did.)
No. [The arrival of a letter soon after a root doctor was employed may have been a coincidence, or a matter of routine, or perhaps root doctor knew a poli- tician who wrote to the state asylum for insane at Goldsboro (whatever its name) asking for a report. At least we have here another good piece of therapeutic work - Psalm 109: stop worrying, I'll take care of everything.]
Entry 11253
But dis was a neighbor of mine telling me about it. See, I didn't know anything about it. And she said she would clean my feet up. Well, like children are out playin', well they raised some excitement, and she goes out to quiet these children and while she was out, why this woman had taken some of this stuff you speak of from her nails. She didn't take enough for her to notice that it had been gone. Then she was taken sick and stayed sick so long, they said, "Get a conjure doctor." And this man told her, afterwards, says, "Didn't you trim your nails or scrape your feet sometime ago and a woman was in dere?" So she said, "Yes." So he says that woman had taken the stuff that come off your feet and your nails, have taken it in the woods and nailed it up in a hollow tree. And he say it left you in trouble but you got me too late, say I can't do you any good. So she said the woman died. [There are a number of these hopeless cases scattered through HOODOO in which the doctor seeing the hopelessness of the ill- ness, has to provide an excuse why he cannot help patient.]
Entry 11254
[Part 1:] Dere's a rule dat dey work best - if yo' take de young Doon - dere's a time when we say de [new] moon's in de bed [there is another example of this in HOODOO] a growing moon, dat's is yo' work dese different arts to grow stronger as de moon [grows]. [While machine is stopped I ask how he learned this work.] Well, yo' learn lots of it from master craftsmen - people, older time people who have been following it fo' years, done made experiment on dose things an' know de ones which will work.
(Are you from Georgia or South Carolina?)
Mah home in Georgia. (Well, were you initiated into the work or did you learn it? Is there some sort of an initiation?) Well, dere's some certain rules that yo' should follow an' shouldn't follow, some certain things that, as they say: if you play with fire, yo' git burned. That is, after yo' go so far it's some things that chew wouldn't wanta do fo' da reason dat dere certain things dat worry yo'. Yo' would have to carry a cer- tain burden dat chew wouldn't wanta carry; more so a burden den yo' would like tuh carry.
(I mean there is no initiation ceremony?)
Well it is a ceremony dat chew kin carry on when yo' fixin' tuh perform yore work; certain classes of work, dat is, whatever yo' goin' in tuh do, dat chew kin carry on a ceremony. Dat's right. (Well, now, the reason I ask is that someone said over in New Orleans, over there, that if you wanted to learn to do this kind of work, they Would go through some sort of a ceremony; initiate you and you, you know, learn your work.) Well, ah don't know anything 'bout de 'nitiation. It isn't anything about dat, but it's jest a ceremony. Yo' go through sompin jest lak yo' consecratin' yo'- self, for say, a certain thing whut chew goin' after. Dere's ways an' things as dat. Now yo' kin - yo' say yo' fast, an' yo' take a glass of water, an'yo lie down or sit up in de room wit chure arm folded to yo'self so many hours or sompin lak dat. Well, yo' kin do dat, jes' consecrate. Dat is if yo' have some particular work dat yo' care to go into.
(But you don't have anyone else working that with you?)
No, not necessariZy so. Yo' kin do de work fo' de person yo'self. (No, I mean, when you consecrate yourself, sometimes over in New Orleans when they do it - sometimes they will have a little ceremony and an altar and burn candles and things.) Well, yo' can do dat, if yo' wish tuh, yo' kin burn candles. [Waycross, Ga.,
(1086), 1756:1.]
[Part 2 of 11254: The following rite in the interview preceded the discussion in. Part 1.] A curse on dat house. Well, now, some of dose things - dis has been true. Ah know dis to be true dat yo' kin do it dis way. Put it in fo' de Lord. Well, yo' say, yo' send out dat. You say, "Well, In de Name of Jesus Christ, dat sech an' sech a thing would be. Well, dey [denl say, "In de Name of Jesus Christ, dis house, dat nobody kin stay in, an' it will not prosper." Well, yo' continue. Yo' concentrate on dat, but choo say dat, In de Name of Jesus Christ dat sech an sech a thing shall not be or shall be. All right. Well in using dat word, den about every three verses yo' use, den yo' say, "Rescue! Rescue! Rescue!" Dat's a shore shot fo' dat. Dat's very easy.
Entry 11255
An' when ah wuz gittin' roun', 'fore ah wuz married, ah messed up a young girl an' dey had me in co't an' mah daddy got me out of it. Well, dis girl's daddy met mah fathah one day, he says, "Well, yo' beat me outa dat case but, " he say, "ah've got anothah case yo' won't beat me outa." Mah dad say, "Whut chew talkin' 'bout?" He say, "Dat's all right, you'll see one day." Mah ole man say, "Yo' do somepin tuh mah boy, "' say, "ah'm goin' kill yo'." He say, "Ah won' do nuthin tuh him." He say, "Yo'll see it an' yo'll regret it." An' ah wuz sleepin' by mahself. Ah wuz in a room an' mah mothah an' father wuz 'cross from dere, an' ah wuz on de bed wit de covah pulled up, up on me 'bout so long up heah [demon- strates]. (How old were you then?) "Bout fo'teen. An' sompin pulled de covah offa me an' ah taken an' pull it back. Ah thought it wuz some of de chillen in dere tryin' tuh scare me. Pulled de covah offa me several time - pulled de covah offa de third time an' ah say, "Heah, quit pullin' dat covah offa me." Pulled it offa me ag'in an' laid me out. Ah said, "Yo' git a whippin' if yo' don' git 'way from me." An' de time ah says dat, dere sompin struck me resemblin' a pin, an' when it struck me, ah jumped an turn ovah. An' when ah jumped an' turn ovah, dere it wuz, de shape of sompin in de cornah lean ovah me jes' lak dis, but ah couldn't discovah whut it wuz, but it was shape lak a man. An' den ah hollahed an' de ole man come aroun' wit de lamp. Dere nuthin dere. An' in five minutes ah wuzn't normal mah size. Mah arm jes' roun' as [demonstrates] dis heah [shows me his bare arm].
(Right there, oh yes.)
[I failed to describe what I saw. Was it worth describing?)
Well, he took me and carried me down in Georgia, tuh Augusta, Ga. Went tuh a lady down dere, a ole lady. She tole him, said, "Yes, dey git him." She said, "Ah kin he'p him." She said, "But it will cost yo' $50." Mah ole [man] said, "All right, yo' straighten him out." She tole him - she gave him some stuff - it was real black. Look lak shoe polish in a box. She tole him... [I interrupt.]
(Was it a salve?)
Yeah, a salve-lak. But it felt lak it wuz grit in it. She said, "Rub him nine mawnin's wit dat salve." An' she give him some white stuff look lak milk in a bottle. She tole him, ah wuz jes' tuh drink dat nine mawnin's. An' de ninth mawnin' tuh carry me tuh three fo'ks of de road an' walk three fo'ks of de road backwards, in every fo'k, an' walk three straight farwards, an' when ah started out de way ah come, throw it cross mah left shoulder an' don' look back.
(What would you throw across your shoulder?)
She give me a lil' ball - a lil' round ball an' tolt me tuh carry dat, an' throw dat 'cross mah left shoulder. Ah did dat an' so ah [the lump on him] went don tuh dere, see [demonstrates].
(The lump did go down?)
Yessuh, de lump went down.
(That was when you were fourteen years old?)
Yes.
(How long ago was that - ten years ago?)
Yessuh, about ten yeahs ago. Ah wuz married in 1930.
Entry 11256
Now dis was a hurt. An' she was taken sick with her stomach and her stoach swole up, and we had a medicine doctor at first, and he didn't seem to do her no good, and she stayed sick about three months. My mother, she - another old lady, you know, come dere, and told her, "Ah know a lady could do your girl good." And she asked her who it was and she told her, a lady named Mary Groom [or] Grun. (What was the name?) Mary Groom. (Here in Newport?) No, in North Ca'lina. (Oh, you are from North Carolina.) Uh-huh. (Where did this happen in North Carolina, what town?) In Tarville. (Oh, in Tarville.) [If Tarville still exists, it dows not have a post- office. There is a Tar Heel in the Dennison ZIP CODE DIRECTORY, copyright 1968.] And she went and got de old lady and she come dere and she examined de girl, my sister. And she went on dere and she seed, you know, what was de matter with her. And she told my mother, says somebody had hurt her. She said she been desired by a boy and de boy was going with another girl, and de girl give de boy some whiskey and told de boy to give it to my sister. Well my sister had taken de whiskey and she drank it, dranken de whiskey. Well, ever what it was dat was in de whiskey, got all in her flesh and she lay in de bed. And de doc- tor [M.D.] say her eyes was bad and [they] bought her glasses and [he] did every- thing, you know, he could for us. De old lady told my pappa, she says, "You give me $25 and I will cure dis girl." He went and got de $25 and give de lady and she went to work. And she went in de woods and got some roots, dug 'em up. And she told we all 'twas King of de World, and told him [father] to get a half pint of whiskey and break it [roots] up in dat whiskey. It was jes' about lak dat stem dataway, about like dis - about dat size [demonstrates].
(About a quarter of an inch thick.)
Uh-huh and he broken it up in little pieces about like dis and put it in de whiskey, and taken de whiskey, a small whiskey glass, and give her a whiskey glassful every morning. Well, [after] she been given dat, you could see dese things jes' runnin' all up an' down her flesh. An' yo' could take a pin an' stick in her, right down in her, an' she wouldn't flinch - jes' like she was dead. An' she lie dere den a long time. Ah'm goin' tell how it was, good or bad. I am goin' to tell yo' all of it.
(Oh, yes, tell me the whole thing - anything you want to say - go the limit.)
An' she'd taken it an' about Thanksgiving morning de lady come back again an' ask how she feels. She told her she was not feelin' so good. She tell her, "Well you keep atakin' dat medicine." She says, "What's in you goin' come out." She tell mamma, "Don't you let [her] go to no lavatory. You let [her] use de pot." And she let her use de pot and she use de pot and she would vomit. She would vomit things jes' like maggots. De lady told her it was maggots. Dat's what she told her. She told her dere was nests of 'em an' she was goin' to get dat out of her, too. And after while one morning she got up to de pot, and she use, and she come to straining and straining, jes' astraining. And she got up an' she take de stuff back out - de girl couldn't [could scarcely] carry de pot out [of the house]. Well, all of us got excited you know soon as she told us what was in dere. Well she'd taken de pot and carried it out and in it was a piece of white stuff, sompin like a piece of fat meat. An' my mother says before ah put my hand on it ah should pour it [piece of fat meat] on de ground, an' clean it with water an' wash it off an' take it up, an' you know, give it to de lady. She, we [went] along, an' poured it out and [the liquid] sank in de eart', it went down in it - in de eart'. After dat come out of her, well she got up den and could walk around. She couldn't even walk with it [before]. And she got well and now weighs about 200 pounds.
(She actually got well.)
Certainly she got well and she really was dat way. [510:1.] Well, ah tell you about my spell. It was about two years ago. Ah went to a party, a girl's, and de [they] passed wine, and she give me de wine an' ah drank it. Ah went back home and ah was taken sick an' ah stayed sick about three months, wasn't able to do nothing. Doctor [M.D.] was 'tendin' me every day and everything. Seemed like everything he give me was against me. Ah'd get worse and worse. He tole me to go to de hospital and ah wouldn't decide to go to de hospital because ah didn't believe ah was naturally sick. And ah stayed roun' home and stayed, and everybody told me, said, "Lady, you ought to go to de hos- pital and be operated on. Maybe you got 'pendicitis.' Ah said, "No, ah don't believe ah got no 'pendicitis." Well, ah worried and worried and worried and worried [these 4 worrieds are Shakespearian!]. And ah was staying with a lady named - de same lady we was talking about - and she says, "Mary, ah wish you'd go to de hospital." Ah said, "No, Jiss Jenkins ah'm goin' try another doctor." And ah said, "My sister was sick one time and we had a medicine doctor and he didn't do her no good." Ah said, "Now it seems ah got somepin someone want me to have" [someone had put a spell on her]. She said, "Oh no, maybe not de same thing. Maybe you got 'pendicitis." Ah said, "No I ain't." Well, ah got me some money, and wrote home to my people to send me some money, and ah took it to a ole lady named - ah forget her name, but she stayed dere - ah forget where she stayed [here in Newport News] but she is not here now. And she gave me - de woman got some [herb called] "lone worker" [my only example of this root!]. Well, it grows in de wood, a little low bush, and she dug it up and made me some medicine out of it. And I'd taken dat. I'd taken it for awhile and she [told] me to get me a silver dime and a file and grate dat dime, and take it [gratings] in a pint of sweet milk. And after I'd taken it, to get me some Red Cloud peas [Red Cloud a brand name?] and get me some [kind of] poultice. It [poultice] come in a little flat can box about dat high [demonstrates]. You buy it in de drug store - 18c. And I'd got dat and taken dat and taken de other medicine too. Well, when I'd taken de dime, I could feel, you know, sompin jes' going backwards and forwards, all jes' in me. And she told me, you jes' keep on takin' it and wait awhile and nature will take care of it. Ah think [to] myself. "Dat old lady don't know what she doin'. She can't cure nobody. Ah'm jes' goin' to die anyhow." When she come back to see me, she told me what I sayed about her. She said, "You don't think I'm going to cure you, do you?" Ah said, "Ah don't kow, don't seem like to me dat it done me any good." (What did she say to you then, when you told her that you didn't believe in her?) She tell me, "You don't believe me because de medicine is so slow; but what's in you, you have to go slow to get it out of you. I've had to go slow." Ah said, "I want to get well right away." She say, "Well it be sometime before you get well, 'cause you got some poison, in some whiskey or wine it was." Ah said, "Ah haven't got no wine." She said, "Did you go to a party on Wash Avenue?" Ah said, "Yeah, ah certainly did." She said, "Didn't somebody look in de Wardrobe and get you some wine?" Ah said, "Yeah, dat's what dey did." Well, I know she vasn't dere. She didn't know nobody or didn't see nobody to tell her. [There are many examples in HooDOO of doctors who kept their ears to the ground for all news floating about in the air.] Ah say, "Yeah dey did." [She said] "Dat's when you got dis poison in you. It's gona kill you if it don't come outa you, " she said, "but you don't believe in dat." She said, "Ah'm goin' to tell you somepin. You can't get up, can you?" Ah told her no, ah couldn't. Ah thought ah could. Well, she told me to get up. Ah got up and went in de dining room and got me some water and come back in de bed. She said, "Jes' like you got up, jis' like something goin' come out of you." Ah said, "Dere ain't nothin' in me. She said, "What's dat moving in yuh?" Ah said, "Ah don't know." She said, "Thursday morning you get up and get de pot and use it, and don't you look in de pot. Get someone else to look because it may scare you." Well, you know, ah wanta see anything come out of me myself so ah knows. And ah looked in de pot and dere was a frog in dere. Looked like a frog. And she told me it was a frog, and a scorpion about dat long with a red head to it. She got dat out me. But ah know dat somepin can be done to people. Dat was about three years ago [1934].
Entry 11257
[The following document and the one preceding it, mentioned later, are of social significance, the effect of hoodoo on mornings and family relationships. This woman was merely one of many informants who could express herself fluently and idiomatically.1 The next experience that I had, I had a visitor to come to see me; a daughter [husband's] from Detroit and a daughter [husband's] from New Orleans, and a new- phew [husband's] and a [his] girl friend. After they left, they made the remark, "If it's the last thing we could do, we goin' to see her losing her home and not living with our father." Mah husband - ah am his fo'th wife - he has three sets of children. They gets their youngest sis- ter - they would get the ingredients of what dey call go powder or get away powder. This go powder would be placed on mah front porch and burned. It would leave a white acid spot on de floor. Dat didn't seem to make me go. They went an' got a oil an' po'd it at mah front gate - ah kept in touch with all of this work as they were going along.
(What did they call this oil, did they have a name for that?)
Well, the oil, as the get away powder didn't work, they got what they call de get away oil - a liquid oil so that they could pour it and it would git on de ground so I would walk on it. Don't chew see, that carried it in de house, and to be confused with it in there to git it on mah feet when ah'd pull mah shoes off. Well, that didn't seem to work very much. They got a ole white woman [hoodoo doctor] to come to mah house at the absence of me in the presence of mah husband. She poured a liquid - something looks like lead melted - ah don't know the name of it [quicksilver?], but she poured that on de floor. And that was poured on de floor that I would have five years of hard luck there - that I would be defeated finishing paying for that home - that everything, every effort I made I would be defeated in it, because I was determined to pay for it. Well, after doing that they found I had begin to drift, begin to lose interest in the home - begin to lose interest in everything. Then the person of itself and the daughter had got in a conversation together, from whom I had bought - bargained to buy de place. She gave me a warranted deed, and this warranted deed stated that there was no lien, no incumberance on the said property that's locat- ed at the corner of St. Peter Street and Plum Street. I paid on that warranted deed, believed the statement after having two lawyers to examine the papers. They stated that it was all right. Going on through this daughter and the individual that I bought from, they did something, ah don't know what it was, but ah became confused and left home and went to New York. Jest picked right up and taken mah jewelry and went on up to New York. Ah stayed up there three months and three days. On the 27th day of June ah had a job working fo' Dr. Friedman on 9Oth and Broadway. Ah was lying on de bed an' - it was a Friday.
(What year was this?)
That was last year.
(1937.)
1937. Ah got up and ah said to the madam of the house, ah said, "Ah'm going home, mah mind leads me tuh go home." I had got a letter that day and that letter, it jes' looked like to me - it worked me up jes' in de mood to leave. I couldn't understand why it was. It was nuthin wrote on the letter that was confused but only the letter said like this: Dear Elsie: When I sit on the front porch each day ah think of you and the children - it makes me feel so blue, until I feel like screaming. Well dat letter jest worked me all up.
(Who wrote this letter?)
Mah husband wrote the letter but the daughter done de fixing to the letter. Whatever they done to that letter confused me so that I had to come home. My money that I made [author interrupts].
(That was your stepdaughter?)
That was mah stepchild. The money that ah made - ah bought mahself $1.27 dress - ah made $347.80. Ah had that much besides paying mah bus fare and mah two other children's bus fare. I come back home and turned that money over to mah husband. Instead of him paying the money on that place - yo' see that how ah was hardtimed all de way through. It was understooden between the daughter, the person that ah bought it from, and the husband - to overthrow me in mah way, to defeat me of the home. He didn't pay it, he jest done away with it. When ah ast him about it, he jest put me off and ah never could get any information. So ah became grevious. Ah goes back to this same person [black doctor] that ah carried these first things to [in rite 975, pp.369-372]. Ah said to her, ah said, "Please mam, tell me what is the trouble with me that I am defeated in everything that I put forth efforts to try to exist to make a living." She says, "You have fought a good fight." She says, "Yo' goin tuh be defeat- ed, yo' goin' tuh be put out of doors. That's the very best you can do because the things that they have done is to turn everybody against chew, not to believe your statements of whut chew say; whut yo' would tell 'em when you would go to 'en, that chew can't keep a job an' yo' can't keep any money.' Ah could have. Ah have had as much as $25. It would go away from me, and in three days. Ah couldn't tell whut that money was spent for. She said, "Yo' are fixed so that everything, all de money an' everything yo' git will go away from yo' an' yo' can't tell what it's goin' fo'." Part of it ah'd give it to him - give it to mah sisters. Ah would buy things with it. Ah jest destroy it. Through the year until November, that same trouble of last year that I was having - I go to the party that I had bought from and ah said to her, I says, "I can't continue - couldn't no longer continue to pay yo' on this property until yo' go an' straighten yore taxes up. Ah have been smart enough to find by the Home Owners Loan that chew had a mortgage on it." And ah said, "You have got the biggest po'tion of the money, which leaves me a small sum." Ah say, "You owes $276.67." Ah says, "Ah owes yo' $325." Ah said, "When ah'd gone today to the tax office, de man down there refuses to take mah money." Ah said, "Now, let us get together as friends, go down and pay those taxes off, ' and ah says, "an yo' turn the Home Owners Loan over to me that ah kin continue mah payments, that I would have a clear title according to yore warranty deed dat yo' gave me." Ah said, "Then ah kin proceed to pay yo'." She says, "Well, all right ah'll go." She went off and she brought me back a verbally statement. You see, mah hus- band, the stepdaughter and de woman all understood each other. So she came back and brought me a verbally statement. The statement was this: "Mr. Tooart said that the County and State taxes was mo' important to pay then the city tax." Ah said, "Well, ah don't keer whut Mr. Tuart says."
(Truehart?)
Tooart - ah don't know how to spell it. He's a tax man. So she said to me - ah said, "Ah don't care what Mr. Tooart says to you, " ah says, "it is necessary for all taxes to be paid to be a loyal citizen." Ah says, "And that's why we pay our taxes - that our city kin be properly cared fo' and our school funds can be raised for our children to go to school, " and ah says, "ah believe in doing the things that's right." 'Now, " I say, "if he tells you that it's more - one tax is more valuable to pay than the other - they all are valuable the same way." Ah said, "Now, ah can't pay you any money until you do this - until you turn this Home Owners Loan over to me and let us go and pay the taxes. I have the money to pay you." So she shut her mouth and talked with mah husband and this [step]daughter. They let it rot on from November up until the 5th of February. She never said anything at all to me whut was her intention. She then, when ah came in on Sat'day afternoon which was the 5th day of February - a neighbor called me as I was pass'n by, she called me by name, she said, "Do you know you are write up in de papers in Mobile [newspaper]?" [I] tole her, "No, " I says, "it's good thing, " I says, "that ah am." She says, "Yore place is to be sold on the 28th day of this month for cash to the highest bidder." Ah said, "Where is it?" She said, "Do you take The Press?" Ah say, "Ah do." Ah goes on home and I look in it and ah found it and ah read it. Ah goes to her and ah says, "Belle, " I says, "ah don't feel that you have treated me right." Ah said, "Ah give you mah money three months in advance," said, "me and mah chillun didn't even have their gruel cooked on Friday - didn't even have wood [to cook it] - to pay yo', an' ah advanced yo' three months at de time." And ah says, "However, if you feel that chew dealt square with me by treating me that way, it's all right." I then leaves her and ah goes downtown. To show you how ah have been actually defeated every way. Ah come back home. When ah come back home, it was something spreaded - ah didn't git back home till late. When ah got back there ah felt dubious about something, and it looked like to me it was a lotta white beach sand - sand that come off near a creek where it was real clean - spreaded all over de gallery [porch]. And as I walked up on the gallery ah begin to do mah feet that way [scrapes her feet] - it was so thick on mah feet - scrape mah feet and ah went on in de house. And ah said to mah husband, ah says, "There's some- thing goin' on wrong since ah left here and went to town - ah'm jest confused to death." So ah didn't say anything else to him. He said, "What did you learn when you went down town?" Ah said, "Ah went down there to Lawyer Gaston[?] and Gostrom[?], an' they told me that they had come in touch with Mr. Vickers, the Home Owners laywer, and he had stated to them that ah would have to pay $407.25 or else the fore- closure would be offered on the 28th day of this month." He [husband] said, "That's funny." He said, "Well, ah guess you have got yore just desserts. You've been defeated in everything. Ah'm goin' take mah clothes and ah'm goin' ovah there."
(Going where?)
He's going over the bay - over to Locksley, over at Dafney - 'I'm goin' ovah the bay." So he did. So this morning - after they had treated me like they did, and ah was defeated and all of mah lawyers and everything with the disadvantages that they had on me, that they had turned their backs against me - this morning, ah had a barn in de back yard was lOxl5 feet. Ah sent mah brother word, tole him to come an' tear the barn down, take it off. So he came to tear the barn down to take it off. To prove all the statements of the advantages she had been taking, she came out this morning and emptied it all open to me - tole me right to mah face. She walked out to him and she said, "Have the law give yo' permission to tear dat barn down?" He say, "What chew talking about?" An' ah was looking out of the window, the kitchen window and ah could see her out there. So ah walked out and ah said, "Good morning, " ah said, "what is it all about?" She 'lowed [allowed = declared her opinion or intention], "Heah yo' come to interfere. You cannot take anything out of that house. You cannot take anything offa this property. It's orders by the law. And if you do, you'll be dead, " she says, "damned and will live less than 24 hours, because whom ah got working fo' me determined to kill yo', if ah can't git chew outa dis house by law." Ah looked at her and ah says to her, I says, "Now, ah'll tell you one thing, " ah said, "for the respect that ah have for mah brother and mah children, " ah said, "ah'll see you an' all yo' cohorts in hell an' me pissin' on top of yo', " ah says, "befo' ah'm goin' be actually defeated in everythin' ah do." Ah says, "Ah still have a chance." I says, "Ah'ms not a tramp, ah'ms a citizen." An' ah says, "Now yo' have come out verbally an' told me whut yo' intends to do and whut yo' has tole me an' all of yore advantages." Ah says, "Tear de barn down, '' Ah says, "ah'll stand de conseguences. So he toe [tore] de barn down and when he left, she commence takin' somethin' in her hand [demonstrates] that way throwing at him. She says, "Well, if yo don't die, he will." Ah says, "By God, ah come from a family of folks that lives from 75 to 115 an'," ah said, "ah'll live that long too." So ah've been defeated in everything through the advantages that they have taken of me. Ah can't git nuthin. Today I hasn't got one penny in de vorld.
(What is the outcome of that story - what happened to the property, then?)
The property - they supposed to put me out doors Monday morning.
(This happened recently?)
This jes' happened today - happening today - working up to Monday - ah'm sup- posed to put out Monday. (Then your story about your husband leaving goes on to this story?) [Her husband's leaving is a separate story. Where is it?] Goes right on to the same thing. Yo' see, his advantage was to make me leave.
(He was also trying to make you leave.)
He was the real object [instigator] of it all. He was to make me leave, don' yo' see; den before de foreclosure was, that he could have it to say that ah walked off an' left him.
Entry 11258
[The beginning of this interview has already been published in pages 1515-1517, volume 2. Since that selection contained only 1 1/2 pages of text, I have decided to reprint it here as its proper place, thus giving the complete interview, even its former introductory paragraph.] [Here is one of those little black Buz- zards pretending to be the fabulous Doctor Buzzard himself (p.1417, line 2). He, informant 464, also makes one of those great entrances mentioned in the INTRoDUCTIoN - enters, says nothing, walks up to his side of the interviewing table, and then blows flames of fire out of his mouth at me. A note of mine reads, "Wore a beret - a queer bird!" Another note of mine reports: 'Thursdav. June 10, 1937 - No.464 - Doctor J. D. Buzzard [or] Doctor Alayoon Buzzard - 800 Lincoln St., Norfolk" - Numbers Book 442-621. Doctor Buzzard's consultation technique will be found on pp.307-321, especially margin title, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME, p.316f. Since office hours kept him from staying very long (!), his material is on cylinders 453:6-456:12.]
(My man [contact man Carter] was telling me that you have a very nice office.)
I have. (Well, when these people come in - go to you - do they tell you their diffi- culties and you help them?) No, I tell them.
(Oh, you tell them. I see, they just come in and they don't say anything.)
Don't say anything. I just tell them what they want when they come in. (And then you know just how to take care of each case, what to give in each particular case.) Absolutely.
(Do you have special office hours or?)
Nine to eleven - two to five. But today, on account of it being Thursday, the [Something] Street offices are closed after twelve o'clock, so I got to get there and tell the people 'fore twelve o'clock.
(Do you make any medicines?)
I do. I make a tonic for the body functions - digestion, digest all into the body. Goes to the liver, the kidneys, the bladder, you stomach, your blood and your bowels - to eradicate constipation. And also make a wine tonic medicine - a very good medicine to bring you vitality. You know, medicine is on the form of vitamin A and vitamin B - registered in New York City under seal No.7393, passed the Pure Food and Drug Law of June 6, 1906. Course there are three better, three greater than I am - that Aunt Carolina Dyer.
[For Caroline Dyer, see MADAM COLLINS of Memphis, p.1023, lines 3lf.]
(Where does she live? Dial?)
Dayer. She's in Algiers - the ruling queen of our class.
(Where does she live?)
Algiers. That's where we will hold our convention. (Suppose a fellow is going out to get a job. Is there anything he can do especially to get a job?) Lodestone is one of the best things - and Adam-and-Eve. He can carry it in his pocket.
(When you make gambling hands?)
[You take] lodestone, one silver dime, High John the Conquer, Adam-and-Eve, anvil dust and nine Victrola needles. Then keep it soaked in Hearts Cologne and don't let nobody touch it. Keep it in your own pocket where you have your money you gamble with. You don't ever use quicksilver [tin foil or scrapings from mirror back] in there. Carry the right hand little finger in their pocket.
(Oh, the little finger of the right hand.)
Little finger bone.
(Well, what can you do with that particular bone?)
That bone is a bone to keep evil spirits away - so they claim. Now get this, I'm making it plain now - so they claim. Now, I've had contact with different places and I - I'll make it, "So the rest claim, not me." Because if I can't be right, understand, I don't want to talk with you at all. What they claim, not me.
(Well, what do they claim? What about it?)
Claim it will keep evil spirits away, remove your enemies and bring better conditions to you environment. When a baby is coming up in a lot of these countries, there's a snake will always come where that baby at. And as long as that baby plays with that snake that snake will not unharm [harm] the baby, you either. But if anything kill that snake, he's liable to call the undertaker for the baby.
(The baby will die, too.)
[This snake and baby superstition is usually connected with food, especially milk - see FACI, 2ed., Pp.62-63, Nos.1571-1572.]
[How do you] (keep the law from the house?)
That's easy - 35 cents, that what it cost. It's easy to collect $50 for that. Go to the drug store and get a bottle of rhubarb [liquid preparation]. Go to your kitchen and get bicarbonate of soda, which is nothing but plain baking soda. Take the bottle of rhubarb and plain baking soda and ten dimes and cuss God with them and read John 3:16 ["For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son...."]. And just take the [blessed] water and sprinkle it in your front door and back door, and the law can't come in.
(That actually will work.)
Actually works.
(That you'd get a small fine, or get off, anything of that sort?)
Ain't no fines in anything what I use - walk in and walk out. I use Adam- and-Eve - Husom and Bousum.
(What?)
Husom and Bousum - hang 'em and strangle 'em and master 'em - put 'em in a Pouch with nine needles and nine pins and Black Eagle - that's lodestone. Keep it in your pocket and no judge can sentence you. (Well, now, suppose you tell me some ways people say, or that they can harm you in some ways. Suppose someone was trying to harm you, what would you say?) In speaking of harming me, through my natural experience of 51 years work, born in Abbadaba [Addis Ababa], Ethiopia, reared in South Carolina, KNOWN AS ONE OF THE MOST NOTORIOUS ROOT DOCTORS OF THE WORLD TODAY, in Other wOrds, lMOWn as Dr. Buzzard.... I was in Charleston when [I stop machine. Twice I stopped machine to bring him back to the point. I had not yet learned, perhaps never learned, tat the "doctor" himself is as important as his rites!] There's several ways that a person can harm you. Then, in other words, there's several ways that people say they can harm you, you cannot be harmed. The foot- track [I had probably mentioned it as a possible source of harm] you cannot be harmed by it. Must be something in the personal body, sweat on the arm of the shirt [armpit], the crotch of the underwear, the sole of the sock, hair from the head [these] can be used in a way to harm, which has been proven. Why? Because in the natural experience of my ownself, I know. Just now, I'm going to [some- where - his office?]. See, like I tole you [before recording began] I had to be [somewhere]. [To say that he was on his way to see a patient at home or in his office was an occasional safety valve for some of the doctors. It provided an excuse to depart quickly, if he became suspicious about my intentions. In the present case I think he was on his way to his office and then to the case that follows.] I'm going out there on a case this afternoon. The mother 35 years old, the daughter 18, [the mother] married to a husband 21 years old. The daughter is puttin' the mother out of the way in order to get the stepfather, and she is using the hair from the mother's head.
(What is she doing with it?)
By using it in a sap tree - in other words, each and everybody knows what a sap tree is - placing it in there with a peg, nine mornings straight hitting it, the ninth morning she runs the mother crazy - not dead, crazy.
(Well, now, how would you handle a case of that kind?)
Take a case of that kind, it's only one thing you kin do, that's go into the Woods and get: mandrakes, Indian turnip, olive leaf, Sampson root snakeroot [Sampson snakeroot?] and rattlesnake [root]. Taking those roots and combining them together and taking what is called the magic crystal, locating the tree, removing the stop [plug] and replacing that in there. That eradicated the cause that has been placing it upon her.
(You say, a magic crystal?)
A magic crystal. I have one.
(What do you do, look into it?)
It is used with salt and water - not the crystal - it's the magic crystal and there's only 26 of 'em made. As I told you, we hold our Convention in June.
(Where is that convention going to be?)
Algiers, La., right across from New Orleans.
(I might go down to it. Figure I could talk to anybody down there?)
Do you want to go? I'll give you a letter of recommendation.
(All right.)
And by me being the president of it, see...they once tried...there was 72 [of us] but by me being the president and one of the oldest ones in existence today, understand me, you would be able to get in there with a letter of recom- mendation. All you gotta do there, ask for Carolina Dyer. [I mention Carolina Dyer somewhere in HOODOO, she was supposed to be up in Arkansas.] You go to New Orleans and you cross over to Algiers. That's an island. [I doubt Algiers being an island!] And then you kin get in there and come in contact - you may derive some benefit from it, but they are very peculiar. (I know, everybody's different; you know what I mean.) [They could not have been more peculiar than the man talking to me! He may have thought the same thing about me!] Because we hold our convention - we hold a gathering. Our convention will cost pretty near around eight or nine thousand dollars.
(What's the name? What do you call the convention, is there any name?)
It's a legal - I mean gathering of the workers of black art. (I mean, has it any legal [title] - the Convention of So-And-So - something of that sort? Call it any name?) Yep! It is the Convention of the Workers of Ahechey [? alchemy?] IN OTHER WORDS, BEING WITCHCRAFT. Some call it black art. (Well, now, suppose a man left home and his wife wanted to bring him back. What could you do to bring that man back?) Well, I got - only thing, I'm sorry, you say you didn't want the witness.
(I see. Well, you tell me what you did to her, I'll believe you.)
Well, I have a case now that just on this same case here; see, where you talked with the girl. Well, she was back here, now. I use graveyard dirt, red pepper - I use mandrakes, High John de Conquer, and blueveins....taking those and placing 'em into a combination together, placing them into a box twelve inches high, sinking it below the surface, and placing it on the side of the bed where she sleeps upon. Taking that stocking and tying nine knots in it and making nine wishes...in nine days time he'll be back... (Well, is there anything to that question of getting hold of your fingernails or toenails?) (That's a personal part of the body, yeah.
(What do they do with those?)
Can take fingernails, take them to the graveyard at the hour of midnight at twelve o'clock at night, and pray to Atomaha. And you pray to Atomaha, and then after you pray to Atomaha, you take three grams of ginseng to....blackroot - some people call it High John. Some of this flagroot that grows in the woods, some calls it calomel, which it is calomel. (Well, then, what do you do to make that, what you were going to tell me, with those roots?) Then you take a ounce elanda[?] and after, you take the balmeter of mandrakes, and you place it in a jar. You get nine rusty nails, ketch the first rain of that month, and place those nails and that balmeter in the jar. Then you cast it in running water, and there's your result.
[While machine is turned off I returned to the magic crystals.]
Everybody can't get those magic crystals.
(Well, how are you supposed to get them, I mean...)
You got to go through the clan [plan?l. Those crystals are made by one special person, one special corporation. They cost all the way from $135 to $400, and you gotta have 'em ordered special.
(Well, now, on this "plan" do you pay dues or anything of that sort?)
They pay $128 a year.
(You have officers and....)
We have officers, sergeants at arms, lieutenants, secretary, treasurer and president, and vice-president.
(You what? You do what?)
Providing she kin get her hands on 'em.
(I see. What would she do?)
With different little complication [combination] of herbs, such as I mention- ed, she kin go ahead and use that. Pat him on his shoulder, put some on his head, and the third day he'll be crying for her. (Well, where does she have to get that from? From somebody that knew how to do it?) Yeah. (Well, what sort of a combination of herbs would they use on a case like that? Or what would you do, what would be the routine?) The procedure to produce productive effects of that would be this: Go to your drug store and get you a Solomon seal - only cost you a dime. Then go to an herb store and get King John [that can be anything]. Also after you get King John get what we call rabbit tobacco.
(You call that rabbit tobacco?)
Rabbit tobacco, that's life everlasting. [Rabbit tobacco - the balsam weed
(Gnaphalium obtusifoliwn). Life everlasting can be any species of Gnaphaliwm.]
Take the herb, the roots of life everlasting and boil it until the water becomes a half a pint, and then add one ounce of Hearts Cologne perfume to it, and sprinkle it on the party. Have it in your hand and pet him on the head and shoulder...
[I turn off machine too quickly and must repeat his words.]
(That works in three days.)
I'll guarantee to bring any man's woman back in 72 hours. [Here again we have the numeral 72, first used as the number of members be- longing to the black art convention, formerly meeting annually at Algiers, La., according to our informant. The number here probably means the 72 disciples mentioned by the Gospel of Luke in Chapter lO. But even here there was a little hocuspocus: 6 days of Creation multiplying the 12 tribes of Israel, etc.]
(Someone told me that lodestone - the hairs grow on it. Do they, naturally?)
It does. No, hairs don't grow on it. They form and then you git anvil dust. They call it lodestone, you kin see it breathe. You kin even see it breathe. (Do you manufacture - do you make hands for people? Sell hands? What they call hands?) Yeah, I make gambling hands, luck charms, mojos. Use the blood from a chicken. Take nine chickens and use the blood form. Take it and find a sinner's grave in de graveyard and bury the blood from those nine chickens after they have bled three minutes each - not under three or over three. And bury it in the sinner's grave in the graveyard. It will bring destruction to a home.
(Three pieces of silver?)
Boil it in quart of water, using High John the Conquer, pine tar, birch, mandrakes, snakeroot. Bath [scrub] your floor and the person will be back in less time than nine days. I'll guarantee you they bring your property [back] promptly.
(You don't have to go to go to law about it at all.)
1453 South Street, Philadelphia, name's Bramberg. Look like he's crying. Wears a turban all the time. Well, he' s one of the clairvoyants. I can name all the clairvoyants: King, High John, High Cock [top], Red Onion, Beetum, Jabacadaba, P.... Hawk, Singe, Placomb is dead, Dr. Harris is dead, Dr. Bayham is dead. There's one more that's dead, Aunt Carolina, she's living. [Is this Carolina Dyer?] Aunt Silver. I can name the clairvoyants down: Miss Alrich, she's all that's left.
(Well, how could a woman make a man give her his money?)
By using the sweat from the hankerchief. She wipes her face on it and boil it and give it to him in his coffee.
(And he'll have to hand over all his money?)
Not all. I wouldn't say all, but the biggest portion of it.
[I think I was to meet him again.]
And I'll show you things that I done done. You'll see...because in my re- search work I want to help a person. Only thing I ask you, if you want to go there, ask for Alayogi [Allah Yogi?]. It's no use talking about it.
(Alayogi.)
Jes' don't use Doctor Buzzard, because we under our secret oath.
(You can trust me absolutely.)
Alayogi.
Entry 11259
What happened to me, what I did is true. God in heaven.... [is my wit- ness]. So a fellow came to me one day and he said, "Bo" - his name was Willy Webb, Worked at de Wharf Hotel, chief engineer over there. He said, "Bo," said, "my wife is gone." He said, "We never had a cross word." I said, "What?" He say, "Yeah." He say, "They tells me you know so much." Ah don't know nothing [says Bowes]. "Course I'm 71 all right, but I don't know nothing.
(You're 71?) [Author's comment.]
Yeah, I'm 70 something....
(Oh, you are 75!) [Author's comment.]
And I said, "Ah don't know nothing. He says, "Yes, and I dreamed it - some- thing, someone told me to go to you." I said, "Now, what you. want?" He said, "Ah wants you to do something for me." I said, "Ah don't know what to do for you." He say, "Do something." I said, "Well, all right, give me until tomor- row and I'll do something for you." He said, "What you goin' do?" I said, "I'm goin' t' [going to] fast." He said, "Fast for what?" Ah said, "Don't eat no meat and don't eat nothing. I said, "Tomorrow I'll tell you." [Bowes] said, "I'm going to have a dream. So, de next day morning I got up out of de bed and someone knocked at the door; knocked at the door and was crying just like they was crazy. It was Webb. So Webb told me to do something for him, say, "Lord have mercy, I'm near crazy." I said, "What's all de trouble." He say, "Well, a lady and her daughter used to stay at my house 'fore I was married. And I went to work and married another girl up de country. And then we were on vacation, but I had confidence and let them stay at the house till we come back. So when I come back, in two or three weeks the trouble started." I said, "Oh, I see, now." I SAID, "DO YOU BELIEVE IN WITCHCRAFT AND CONJURATION AND SUCH?" HE SAID, "SURE.″ I SAID, "WELL, DE BIBLE SPEAKS OF IT." He said, "All right, what's does that mean?" I said, "I SEE A COUPLE OF BOTTLES." 'God in heaven, '' he said, "there's a couple of bot- tles!" I said, "There's a couple of bottles buried at your back steps and," I said, "the way you gotta do now to get - is to get them bottles. If you kin get dem bottles, you kin solve your trouble." You understand me [addressed to author]? So I went dere - [I'll] never forget. Dey was knee-high bottles and we dug at de back steps and dug 'em up.
(Well, how did they get there?)
Ah don't - after I looked, I figured they [mother and daughter] put 'em there. And there was some things working up in 'em like maggots - working stuff in 'em just like maggots. So he said, "What you goin' do?" I said, "Take 'em out in the back yard." So after We dug 'em uP, WE TOOK THEM OUT IN THE BACK YARD AND A BLACK CAT WAS JUMPING ALL OVER DE FENCE AT TWO O'CLOCK IN DE DAY! A BLACK CAT WAS FOLLOWING US DERE! AND WE FOUND SOMETHING SHINING! That black cat Was jumping all over de fence. So I looked and I said, "What is dis here, Webb?" He said, "When will my wife be back?" I said, "The third day. She'll be back the third day." I said, "Now you take that and carry it over town to the Warwick Hotel and throw them things in the furnace and you enemies, they will feel it and come over there." LOOK LIKE SOMETHING WAS DEALING IT TO ME WHAT TO TELL HIM. And SO then, I went and carried it over there and there was a big stout woman came over dere hunting for a job; claimed she was hungry, didn't have nothing to eat and asking for a job. So, I told him, be careful now. Well. [Here is the historic witchcraft theme, burn the witchcraft and the witch will appear usually to bor- row something, medicine for her pains, etc.: but here the theme is almost con- cealed, unrecognizable.] So that night, his wife hadn't come back. So then he went home. That lady and her daughter come there that night and when they come there that night, they took a fountain pen and put poison [hoodoo rather than actual] in it and opened it like that I reckon [he evidently demonstrates how. the pen was prepared], and stuck it in the door. After while - it was eleven o'clock in the night and he went to open the door and from the door rising -he struck a match and opened the door and that fountain pen was in there [door ris- ing or saddle of door] with them little prongs [divided pen points] like that. And there was snake blood [the poison] in there: snake blood and acid and some- thing else [3 ingredients!]. I reckon that acid was there so that [snake] blood would go in quick, you know. And so then on the third day, his wife come back as I done said. So, from this story, sometime I says I believe it and sometime I says [end of comment]. So Webb's wife died. Just like I told him, I said, "If you all letting people coming in your house eating and drinking" - and after while she swole up. No- body, the doctors [M.D.'s] didn't know what de trouble was. And they sent her everywhere.
(Something killed her.)
Entry 11260
They kin get your socks and they get your toenails and any kind of little dirt from under your fingernails or toenails. When they get that, if they be around your house, they kin get your clothes. And they take a little piece of your underwear and cut a little piece where you sweats. Well, they take all of that and put it in a bottle. They goes to work and they gets vinegar, and then they go to work and takes your nature [surely means urine here] you know, if they can get your nature; but if they can't get your nature, they'll go to work and get someone to get it for 'em. They will put all that in a bottle and take it and stop it up. So when they stop it up, they'll put pins and needles and all in there. And when they stop it up, you see, well they uses psychology on you.
(I see.)
They'll go to work, some people, and get someone to go round to see you. See. That's the people is on [know what's going on] you know. And then when he [helper] goes to work and gets that stuff, then he'll go to work and start boostin' this fellow [professional hoodoo man]. You know, when they standing around, he say, "I know a man will do so-and-so and so-and-so." See. Well, dey done got you den. Well, if you are weak-minded, you believe that. See. Then they go to work then and you get all upset. You know, by being weak-minded they kin do so-and-so. Then they turn right around up on top of dat and say, "Well, I charge $25 or $30." Well, you know they are right, but someone went around and talked to you. I know a man that will do it. See, a strange man in town. Then, if you is weak-minded, you believe, you'll have confidence in 'em. Well, that's the people.
Entry 11261
[Most of the material from Doctor Paul Bowes, my contact man at Norfolk, Va., is on pages 1733-1738, cyl- inders 458-463, given in volume 2. Not included in this collection are the following separate rites, all in volume 1: Nos.300,337, 410, 455, 475 and 614. As I said, a few pages ago, this man was a cousin of the preceding Doctor Bowes of Newport, Va.] If you can't read cards, well, you might go to a fortuneteller and he'll read for you and tell you where to locate it. (You're speaking about reading those cards. Well, how would you read those cards in order to discover whether a person is hurt or not. Is there any special way?) Oh, yes, a special way to do dat. You have no cards wit you, have yuh? Well, you might not be able to read 'em, even if I tell you. If I start you off... [Several times I was asked whether I had a deck of cards. I never carried anything that could suggest my selling products, telling fortunes, healing, etc. Always I hoped to complete a small book of cunjure and root doctor stories and rites.] You must deal three rows of cards, three cards in a row. Then you begin to start to read. But if you haven't never studied, it will be right hard for you to locate it then; but if I could be seein' you from now on, I could sort of give you ideas. (Yes, you just give me an idea. Here, you put down three cards in a row, and you have three rows of three cards in each row.) That's right. Well, you might pluck up, say for instance, an ace of spades might come in next. That's a bad card, it mean's death. Well, suppose dat head is standing down. That means someone is got de girl upside down. Reach over dis hand and you might turn up a deuce. Dat means the deuce for truth. All right, and here's the heart's over here. They's good, hearts, won't harm or nothin'. Dat's the way you read dose cards, locate dose cards, understand? Well, you low, cards is a real - true book. In other words, they are made from the Scripture. You realize dat, don't you?
(Yes.)
And you shuffle them ole cards right and they'll tell you anything that you want to know in the HOODOO LINE. (I see. These cards when you put them down - these rows of cards - are turned dorn, and you turn them up one at a time. Where do you begin to turn up these cards? Where do you begin to turn them up?) You first start from the left and go to the right. From the first left-hand card read to the right all the time.
(This way? That way?)
Yes, that's it. And they'll spell you out most anything you want to know.
Entry 11262
The candles ain't much good, but it is an incense that you kin get and burn it, and talk to dis incense and whatever you want to happen, well, if you handle it right, it will sure do what you want it to do. If you want to drau de person or you want to send 'em. Either come or go. But you must have that HOODOO DUST along with it. It ain't no good to draw along by itself, but it has power. But it takes more than that, you know, to make it act.
(Has that any special name?)
Odor of Bangum.
(Odor of Bengum?)
That's it.
(Incense? And you put this hoodoo powder with it?)
That's the idea. (Is that hoodoo powder made specially, or do you buy that from somebody, mix it or what?) Well, yes, there's people that makes this hoodoo powder and something that you kin buy from the drug store is used for other purposes, but you kin mix it together. Why it's all right just the same. (What would you buy in the drug store? What sort of stuff would you buy there?) Well, you might go dere and get you a little High John de Conquah. You kin get that in a powders, too; most any way you want it. Mix it up dere together with the perfume and so on. Dere's other little stuff that you mix in it. Get it lined up right and whatever you want to happen, it'll happen.
Entry 11263
They tell me you git two rocks and you begin to work dat stuff. If you git this gold-finding hand that I spoke of, begin to walk backward and for- Ward from de front to the back door, and TALK TO DIS POT AND DEM ROCS WILL BOIL DE WATER IN DAT POT.
(You do what?)
You kin walk backwards from de front door to the back door, after you git dis gold-finding hand, and you kin boil water in de pot without a fire.
(Boil water in the pot without a fire?)
Boil it over. [Norfolk, Va., (Doctor Paul Bowes) 460:5; 462:2; 464:2.]
Entry 11264
[As I said in No.7228, p.3216, v.4, "I met a galaxy of doctors in Charleston, S. Car., before I had sufficient experience to handle them. Two years later I would have been better prepared." This man has also appeared in the preceding text as follows: No.1221, P.434; No.1417, P.464; No.1638, p.507; and No.2209, p.629. Here follow other parts of the interview:] Dey take de watah yo' take a bath in, tuh do anythin' tuh harm yuh. Dat's only de occasion of if a man wanta woman, don't want nobody else tuh be wid'er. (How would you do that?) Well, dey take de [bath] water and put it in a bottle, nine needles, and de sill of yo' doorway - cut a piece of [a splinter from] de sill of yo' doorway, [dat] piece of stick dere [points to the saddle], de sill of yo' door - and dey put dat in de bottle. And you call her names and [informant shakes imaginary bottle].
(While you shake it up.)
While you shake it up. And den maybe she wanta go. Yo' turn 'em [bottle] back [to you] and she come dere - towards yo' place [demonstrates].
(You turn the head of the bottle back to you and she will come back?)
Dat's right. If he know de person and he steal it - if de person [from whom it was stolen] know him, know his [thief'sl name - if he haven't git rid of it, you kin make dis person, dis other person, and he will give it up, because he figured on it and he'd be in trouble. And in doing dat you'd have to have de root chew call Indian Conker [Conquerer].
(Indian Conquerer? What do you do with that root then?)
You take dat root, de Indian Conker and Devil's shoestring and put it toget- her [in a bag with string?] and tote it in yore pocket, and she [bag] spin around jest like a top and tell yo' who in dis section, who got it.
(You spin this around?)
You spins it around and until you asks it any question you wanta, according to how you feel it. [Here we have ubiquitus Jack - an individual, companion, fetish - who answers questions by swinging out the answers. Our great example of this device I have mentioned several times, the Jack-ball (ball hanging from a string) of informant No.1534, the doctor I interviewed in Memphis, who gave us that great page 1254 in volume 2.1
(Then after you have found out who has it, then what do you do?)
You go to the person and he'll give it up. [Yes, at the time of this interview, the average thief would restore the article if a doctor was working on the case.]
(That's when you found out who stole it?)
Yes.
(Where did you learn? Who taught you how to cure? From whom did you learn?)
My grandma Was a West Indies.
(Oh, your grandmother was a West Indian. I see. What part did she come from?)
Kingston, Jamaica.
(Where did she live when she came to this country?)
Why she came down here in slavery time....she died 1909 - see - in dis part of de country - to Meggetts [Meggett], South Carolina, Posting Line [postal ad- dress].
(Where did she live during her life in South Carolina?)
Over to....[?] South Carolina.
(What was her name?)
Flora Linton, Milton....
[I must have turned off machine accidentally.]
(Flora Milton. And she could heal people. She knew all this work. And you learned from your grandmother?)
(And she came over here in slavery time.)
Slavery time.
(Did you ever hear of Doctor Buzzard?)
I have known Doctor Buzzard.
(Was he good?)
Aw, his method all right. Some things was all right and some was not. Any man is good to kilt. Any man kin take a shotgun and write a man name and blow his brains out twelve clock at any time.
(How did he do that?)
With powder!
(And he boosted that kind of work?)
That's his daily occupation.
(I see. How long has he been dead?)
It's round about seven - eight years. A root doctor meet a root doctor dey kin tell one anothah. Why? Because de' use a stick dey calls de gum-bush sticks.
(What?)
Sweet gum.
(They call it gum?)
Gum-bush stick and that come to crossing their mind. You don't tote dat stick, but you cut dat off when yo' first start out and bury it in de ground. Hell, dey may have it buried in New York and may not go dere no more through life, and if I'd meet chew and you do mine [my line], well I kin tell if you outen my line [of work]. I kin tell.
(Well, how can you tell, then?)
By de spirit, using different points.
(You wouldn't question me or anything? You just let the spirit tell?)
That's right. See, I'd git mad wit chew; jest like two dog would meet one another an' git mad. Know then you was out of my line. You ain't not in my line. But I'm better 'em you but you ain't got to won yo' point. Yo' can't hurt me, but I kin hurt chew, but then I don't want you to be long wit me be- cause the other fella think I'm doing the same work you doing. That's how we tell one another. (You bury this stick when you first begin your work before you take your first case up?) That's right. (And always leave it buried the rest of your life, you never go back there again.) No mo'.
(Who cuts this stick?)
You cut it yo'self.
(And you bury it yourself?)
That's right. Cut it with your left hand? (You cut it with your left hand. And where do you bury it? How do you bury it?) At sundown.
(What do you mean by that?)
Jest like you stick a stick in de ground when de sun go down. See, it be dat tall [demonstrates] maybe dat tall, and you beat it down dere until you git it down to the ground. (And then you beat it down to the ground in the sunset - sundown - all the way into the ground, and then what do you do?) Well, then you jest throw a penny in the hole and yo' tole 'em what chew wanta do....whether you want to be de master king or such and such a thing, or you wanta be de master king of....of all roots, and don't want chures root to sour on hand - that's why yo' bury yo' stick. See, if yo' medicine sour and a person bring it back to you next Monday, "This medicine ain't no good - it sour." And you take it back and cure it again. Give dem the same medicine back and ther carry it back there. (You never go back to that stick again, and you drive down all the way into the ground.) That's right.
(Do you do anything before you leave this stick?)
No, jest pay it and then go on about chure business. [No other person men- tioned such a gum stick.]
Entry 11265
[Here is one of three interviews from Memphis, lost because my tran- scriber missed them and I failed to return to them. I did transcribe a few rites and made abstracts of a number of others. My original sheet, attached to this selection, reads: "960 - will use the best of her material beginning with her: I works with water. Use all her candles. Pencil transcriptions attached."] I works with watah. I blesses mah watah... I works with watah. (In what way do you use this water?) This watah. All right, now. Jis' like if you were in a place of business [usually your own house] an you wan'a keep down evil spirits - in your home or anything like dat - yo' take a glass of watah. Yo' say the Lord's Prayer ovah it an' yo' set dat watah up. You understand? Yo' change that watah ev'ry 3 days. Yo' throw it [the water changed] out of a side windah [this is new in HOODOO] a side windah, you see, that ketches all the evil spirits an' things. An' then, jis' like if yo' wan'a favor - yo' know, understand, like dat, dat yo' wan'a favor - yo' git a glass of watah, yo' pray ovah it. Yo' pray ovah this glass of watah. Yo' say, "In the Name of the Fathah an' the Son an' the Holy Spirit, " please let me obtain sich- an'-sich thing, that I wan'a do. Please let me be successful all my route or what I gon'a undertake to do. See, you understand. An' then you drink that watah down. Well, all right. Then yo' kin use the watah in this way. At 12 a'clock at night, jis' like if yo' got some people you're workin' for. Your people, yo' know, in business. You write all of those people's names down on a piece of papah. An' yo' take the glass of watah, fill it up, an' put it on the 23rd Psalm, open your Bible. An' say the Lord's Prayer. You understand? You say, Lord, please enlighten these people's brain. Let them be lucky, successful. Let dem have their wishes. Take care of 'em, jis' whatever you want done. An' Dlease let me be successful. Don't let nothin' overthrow me. Please show me so- an'-so. An' then you drink [a little of] that watah down. You do that 12 a'clock at night, but you keep this watah settin' up [there]. That [trouble] goes away as that watah go [evaporates] away. Yo' see, that drives them things [enemies, evil spirits, etc. away]. A person may come in the house to try to do somepin to you and that ketches all the evil spirits. That water ketches all the evil spirits. [Repeats] That watah ketches all the evil spirits. Then you kin sprinkle it over your place [house or place of business] an' say the Lord's Prayer [walking] from the front to the back, jest as you sprinkle that [water] that draws you in trade, if you're in business; an' keeps peace in the home, too; to keep peace, you understand.
Entry 11266
An' they kin burn you - they kin take a dark-green candle, that's if they have your name - they write chore name 9 times an' they write across that [the name] [that] they move in 48 hours [my only example of request written across names making sign of cross]. An' they light it exactly at twelve a'clock at night. An' then they say, I wish you would move, see, call yore name, an' then you repeats that ev'ry 7 days until - if you're a little hard to make 'em pove, you repeat it for 7 days; you know, if someone try to fight against you [by using rites to put out a candle being burned against him or her]. [See v.l, PP.851-862, Nos.2943-2989; several under MORE CANDLE RITES in v.5; and rites scattered through interviews in vols. 2 and 4.] You repeat that for 7 days an' you throw that around. They'll certainly move. [Here I either stopped record- ing to ask questions or informant herself decided to add a few details.] You write these names down 9 times on a piece of paper [usually these are written in a column one under the other]. Then you write across these names move in 48 hours. [In similar rites a woman writes down a man's name 9 times in a column, then turns the paper upside down and writes her name 9 times across his. This is called writing backwards, or upside down. Here I am assuming move in 48 hours is writ- ten 9 times. If it is written only once, then the sheet is turned sideways and the words written at a right angle across victim's name. Also possible here the order move in 48 hours is written on a separate piece of paper under the 9 naes.] You put this [9 names] undah that [slip of paper move in 48 hours] right in the saucer. An' [into the saucer] you puts a little water in there, an' syone salt. You set all of that together, see, at 12 o'clock at night. See, at 12 o'clock at night that'll make you move. [All this sounded easy at the time, but I failed to ask an obvious question. If that candle is to be set in the center of the saucer, so that it rests on the two slips of paper, how can it stand up without falling over? Among possible methods: (l) a very small (birth- day cake) candle can be used: waxed to the upper paper and lowered into the small amount of water in the saucer; (2) a round-shape tin can, opened, can have a hole punched in its bottom, inverted over the candles, and the can holds up the candle. Moreover, the candle can be placed in a holder and set near the saucer.] [(960), 1544:5.]
Entry 11267
Like if you running rooming house, anything like that. Well, you take, get you some brimstone, put sugar on it, and you burn that brimstone every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and make a wish. An' yo' get choo some oil of bergamine [essence of bergamot, (Citrus Bergamia)], saltpeter an' alum, and Red Seal Lye [trade name] and sugar. And you mop from the front on back and you make your wishes. You mop exactly at 6 o'clock in the morning or either 6 o'clock at night. An' yo' burn this brimstone, you throw it in the fire an' you make your wish. [(960), 1544:6.]
Entry 11268
You kin take up their foot track an' put it in a snuffbox, an' you puts some salt an' peppah in there an' make a wish, an' throw it in the runnin' watah an' then you kin do this [I interrupt].
(What do you do when you reach the water?)
You make a wish for them to leave town [(960), 1544:7].
Entry 11269
[Here are several rites that dropped out of my Doctor England inter- view, when I broke it up years ago, expecting at that time to print only one volume about hoodoo! The former interview is on pages 1386-1401, v.2, cylin- ders 432-445. Here are unprinted sections:] It is so simple and easy to bring a person back. Now, you may take the same thing what we call the devil's-shoestring, the devil's-shoestring and what they call the heartsleaf root.
(The heartsleaf root.)
[A plant with a cordate leaf would be common. Is this a root-store name?]
They take 'em ans sulphur at zactly twelve o'clock at night. A person kin burn that, that is one of the items. See, at exactly twelve, and concentrate on the person who by - you want them to return. [434:3.]
Entry 11270
You see, I'm like Doctor Eddie Murphy. I guess you may have saw his record, haven't you?
(No, I haven't.)
Doctor Eddie Murphy?
(No.)
Well, you may come cross him if you go to Columbus, Miss., if he's not dead.
(I see.)
Now, I tell you. Eddie Murphy, he taught me.
(Let me see, I'll put that doen.)
Columbus, Miss.
(Colored or white?)
Colored. I met him at the Convention in 1931 when I was down in Algiers, La. Er he sold hisself to the devil and he gived lots of instructions on different things.
Entry 11271
(By the way, did you ever meet Indian Joe? A man named Indian Joe? I met him up in Richmond a couple of weeks ago. He had some very fine things.) No. Well, the most I was, I travelled with Princess of Mystery. I was wit her fer ten years. That Was Princess of Mystery who died in Chicago in 1930, March 14th. [Would Chicago newspapers have anything about this; at least the black press?]
(Where did she come from, by the way?)
She came from Asia. She came from Bombay, Asia. [That I doubt.]
(I see, she came from Bombay.) [435:1.]
Entry 11272
(Well, now, is Algiers a good place or not? I've never been down there. Is it so good or not, or is it just a lot of talk?) They really kin do what they say.
(They really can?)
Well, those people who have gone to work and have sold theirself to the devil.
[435:2.]
Entry 11273
(How have you heard? What are some of these ways? Do you suppose some fellows sell themselves to the devil in different ways? What have you heard about selling yourself to the devil?) What have I heard? (Some of the ways that some of these fellows might have told you that. How they have done?) Well, they seldom told me because that is to their secret.
(That's their own secret, how they did it?)
Secret. But they tole me, "I deals with the devil." See, that's what they say. [435:3.]
Entry 11274
And I, my ownself, I don't believe in that part of it. But I cures people and I make....
(It's part of your business.)
It's part of my business. I cures people and then I will better their con- ditions.[435:5.]
Entry 11275
(You were speaking a little while ago about that convention. How could they hold a convention?) Well, they generally keeps it two and three months.
(What, every year or?)
Every five years, every five years.
(Do they give it any special name?)
What they call it, Magicians Convention.
(I see, just Magicians Convention.)
But you see, they from every part. (All over the country. Well, what do they usually do at conventions of that sort?) They give you ideas on all different methods how they usually do's.
(Some fellows invent a new cure or something of that sort?)
New cures and then they outline it and then they give you practice fer it. Each day so many come in and practice on that. [440:4.]
Entry 11276
Now, in some of them, they goes in the woods. I have an old friend of mine, it is most good for those people when they get ready to sell theirselves [to the devil] to go on by another person. He will make him lay down. Then, uty when he lay down, he will call all the different insect[s], and if he kin stand fer them to go over him, he's all right. Back in 1927 I was called down here to a place what they call Cole Coran, H. Car. [Not in Dennison U. S. Postal Zip Code Directory, 1968.] While I vas there, there was young girl who had just returned from school. Well, they put ber under an evil influence: she was pulling her hair out, screaming, wanted to jp i the gell. So the gentlemen sent fer me. I goes right out and looks aromd. Sbortly after I find a piece of beef stuck on one side of the wall and the last piece vas a piece of liver. So I'd taken it all out. Somebody had taken some [of.this geat?] and dropped it in this water and [one of] them board caskets made it be- One these insects [maggots] into this meat. They were after putting ["after putting comes from Irish transcriber; leave out "after'] insects into the water what they was drinking, become as though they had little snakes, but by pitching [throwing instead of rubbing] it stuck on the sides of the wall, and on the top of the well, and didn't get in the well.
(I see.)
The arrangement [ruse] of making the person who do's all that to return to the well to show theirself up, you look to find two large oyster shells. The oyster shells may be placed into fire and burned slowly and gradually and burn 'em halfway - just about halfway. At exactly twelve o'clock at night, you takes them and pitch them in the well. The next morning you'll go out there and the person who did that will be standing up out there where you kin see them.
[441:3.]
Entry 11277
Then they kin - you may take the same skull and scrape a little of the dust out of it, send into a letter and make a person either come to you at once or see you. [444:2.]
Entry 11278
Now, here's another black art method. This black art method was by this old - this here William Rogers. This is one of his authors.
(Down in Columbus.)
Right here in Berkeley, Va., adjoining Norfolk. [His method] was to go to a ant's hill and look for the large size red antses. He gets nine of them out of there and kill them. Then he would go and look for a snail. Take him and shove him in the stove and let him parch up. Mix this together with lard, give it to a man or woman. Give that to a man and he rub that on his wife, the next man what have intercourse with his wife, his testicle bag Will burst open.
(Burst open.)
Burst wide open and kill him in three days time. [444:5.]
Entry 11279
Well, heah in '37 me an' a fellah got in a lil' tangle an' ah went tuh a fellah an' tole him. Dat mawnin' when ah got dere, he had two or three pa- tients. Tole me tuh sit down in de cornah, said, "Ah know whut it's all about," said, "yo' sit down dere." Ah wuz scared. (Scared of what?) Scared of de law 'cause dey run me 'way from de house, an' ah went tuh him. He says, "Sit down, ah knows. Dere ain't nobody goin' bothah yo'." Ah says, "Man, lemme see yo' a minute." "Well," he says, "jes' sit down, don't worry. He says, "Ah know whut's wrong wit yo'." He reached ovah on de trunk an' got sompin in a jar looked lak cleah oil. He says, "Heah, take a drink of dat." Ah took a drink of dat, an' all mah burden jes' went off. Ah sot down dere, ah reckon, all day, waitin' on him tuh git rid of his customers. Got rid of dem an' he say, "Now, ah'm ready fo' yo'." He says, "Yo's a lil' warm, ain't chew?" Ah says, "Yessuh." He said, "Why'd yo' hit dat man?" Ah said, "Hit whut man?" Ah make out lak ah didn't know whut he wuz talkin' 'bout.'Hit whut man?" He said, "Yo' know yo' hit dat man on a certain night wit a piece of heatah - piece of de heatah off a stove." He said, "Yo' busted dat man's haid." Ah said, "Not me." He said, "Yes, yo' did." Said, "Yo' might as well come on an' tell me." Well, ah seed dat he know whut he's talkin' 'bout den, an' ah said, "Yessuh, de reason ah hit dat man, he started on me wit a pocketknife." He said, "Yo' win no money in dere? Yo' know how far dey come from?" "Shure, far off - come from New Orleans." He said, "Well, ah tell yo', ah fix yo' up. Ah'm goin' show yo' whut ah'm goin' do." He say, "Ah ain't goin' charge yo' much but ah'm goin' jes' show yo' whut ah'm goin' do so if anything else come up, ah'm goin' charge yo' mo' de next time." So he said, "Yo' stay roun' heah wit me tuhday, where dere ain't nobody." Say, "Where yo' wife?" Ah say, "She home." He say, "Anybody roun' near Henry Street know?" Ah said, "Yes." He said, "Well, yo' send fo' her. Ah wanta talk wit her some." We sont fo' her tuh come an' she come up at eight a'clock. He give me anothah drink out dat jar an' he give her one. He said, "Now, don't be scared. When de law come an' ast yo' anything, yo' got nerve enough tuh tell 'em." We sot up dere, an' he said, "Yo' want chure husban' tuh go home?" She said, "Yes." He said, "Yo' shure yo' want him tuh go?" Say, "Yessuh, ah want him tuh go." He say, "Yo' want him tuh try it. Git three straight pins." An' he got a piece of bluestone jes' about dat long [demonstrates]. He got dat bluestone an' he beat it up right fine. An' he laid one of dem straight pins lak dis an' one across de othah one lak dat, an' put de othah point - de prong stuck an' de haid out dat way. (You mean along - the two pins were in a row, and one was across them?)[A letter "H" - here 2 crosses together, a doublecross.] Cross de othahs, yes.
(Like a long cross?)
Yes. An' he got some mo' stuff outa dere looked lak powders an' put it wit dat bluestone an' stuff. Ah don' know whut dat wuz, he didn't tell me de name of it. He said, "Well, " he took mah han' an' shook it three times, an' said, "Now, yo' take dis ball ah'm givin' yo'" - it wuz a ball about dat large [indicates] - "an' put it in yore watch pocket." Say, "Yo' carry it every day wit yo'. An' if yo' meet de law or see 'em, yo' take dis stuff - git dis lil' ball an' rub it in yore han' three times [demonstrates], jes' lak dat, an' rub it on yore face. Rub yore face down twice lak dat [demonstrates], an' twice dat way [demonstrates] lak dat." (Twice down over your face and then twice back over your hair? Over your head with your hands?) Yes. "An', " he said, "ah'll guarantee yo' dere won' de police say nuthin tuh yo'." Ee say, "If dey do, yo' come an' tell me an' ah'll do somepin else." He say, "Now when yo' go on home, ' he say, "yo' goin' meet de patrol right in front of yore house." When ah got tuh mah do'step neah de front of de house, de patrolman comes right by an' slowed up lak he wuz goin' stop. Dat wuz in '37 an' dey ain't been dere yet.
Entry 11280
Yo' kin take a pusson's shoe an' yo' kin measure de length of dey track an' yo' kin go tuh a spring. De spring yo' know is 16 inches wide or 20; de 20 is de length. If it ain't ovah 20 inches wide, yo'd measure dat shoe an' measure dat spring fo' ways, on dat shoe track. An' dem people come tuh yo' an' dey borrow an' borrow an' borrow. Well, yo' got 'em steppin' den, 'cause yo' done took advantage of 'em. Dey come tuh yo' tuh bor- row a match or sompin all de time. Well, de way fo' yo' tuh do den, yo' go ahead an' yo' git chew some bear roots, lak it [root] be's on [in] de swamps. [Bear root I am unable to identify. It may be the bearberry (Ilex deidua) of southern U. S. A., or less likely the inkberry, a holly (Ilex glabra) of eastern North Am- erica.] Yo' boil dat bear root good till it turn yallah. Bear roots are sorta black-yallah root-lak. An' yo' boil it an' boil it an' boil it, until it git feelin' right soft-lak. Den yo' take dat out an' clip 'bout dat much off of it [demonstrates], an' de fust chance yo' git yo' pit [put] it on anythin' fo' 'em tuh drink - anythin'. Well, yo' gotta git some on anythin' yo' give to 'em, or eithah yo' git a chance tuh put a piece in his pocket. He'll wandah away an' yo'll nevah see him. If yo' git ary a piece of it in his pocket.
(The spring you measure. You mean that has got water in it, a spring?)
Yeah, a spring dat have watah in it. Yo' measure it fo' ways, with his foot- track - have de length of his track. But a silk string. Don' have no othah kind of string, any kinda silk string. Don' care if it's offen a woman's stock- in' laig. An' measure it [spring] fo' ways. If his track will measure eight inches, measure it, an' if it's a sixteen inches spring, measure it twice fol ways [measure it twice on each of its 4 sides] an' yo' can't be wrong. Fo' ways. An' if yo' hit it jes' right, he'll come to yore house de same time de next time. Don't care if it's ten a'clock in de day, yo' done it, he'll be in yore house at ten a'clock tonight tuh borrow sompin. He gotta know sompin it... [he must know what you are doing to him].
(What does he come to borrow for?)
Well, yo' gittin' - worryin' him yo' know. See, dat's buryin' his track yo' know. Dat's drawin' him to yo', yo' know, by doin' dat.
(What do you draw him to you for?)
[Here is the secret of the rite.]
Draw him to yo' fo'? Well, jes' lak if yo's mad wit him or sompin, yo' know, an' yo' wanta aggravate him or somethin' othah, yo'd do dat. [My informant's reason for drawing the borrower to him just to annoy him does not make sense. A constant borrower you would want to keep away. Surely this is the remmant of a rite on how to bring a witch bewitching you to your house so that you could refuse to loan anything and free yourself from his or her spell. See "Never Lend to a Witch, " No.16338, p.875 and elsewhere in that witch- craft section, FOLKLORE FROM ADAMS COUNTY ILLINOIS, 2nd ed.]
Entry 11281
An experience of my own self. I tell you about it. Few years ago - a few years ago, just I came to Virginia. Well, I came here with some kind of spell or something on me, and I would suffer so in a way, you know, would break out with those fine spots [bumps?] and then they would dry up and when they would dry, I could peel it. I had days at a time when it would turn right rough- like and peel it out to my fingers - both arms. And usually my hands, anywhere about my face, it would turn dark. Well, I never had been my natural color since, and I come to be all splotchy and everything like I am. But after my husband came here, there was a man told him, say, "you take her to Berkley [the hoodoo cen- ter near Norfolk] and she can get cured." Say, "There is a woman there." Her name was Jenny Bridge and she died four years ago in Ber- ley, Virginia, on Berkley Avenut. And she gave me some medicine. I seen her making something. I didn't know the odor, but I knowed the [something] cuttlebone and I knowed the [some- thing].
(What was the first part of that medicine you mentioned?)
Cuttleburr [Cocklebur]. You know in the field it's sticky, stick in you. And King of the World [this the second preceding "Something"] - it's a wood, and she had some black [surely black draft or draught, a laxative]. I knew that. And she say that would kill effect [of] the poison. And she had green [something]. And she boiled that all together and she had some kind of other powders, but she wouldn't say what that was and I didn't know what it was, but it seems some kind- like alum. It must have been alum, the way it would [feel?] on my flesh, you know, kind of sharp. And then she gave me one big old halfa gallon glass jug full of it. And it make me awfully sick when I take it, but I'd taken it because I wanted to get well, because I was just a walking skeleton. I whar in a bad fix, but she told me, she say, "Well, you take this now, but what pass from you," she say, "don't you empty your bucket or slop jar." She say, "Let your husband empty it because it be's about him." And I use it and he tell me to leave it. He was running a store you see, a grocery business, and I leave it fer him to come in. And one morning he got up, he said, "Now I will empty the slop jar before ah leave." And he opened this jar and he just cried like a baby. He say, "Oh, you, just come look." And all that, you know, was big-like, bloated. And on top of it it was like skipples [skippers]. You see skipples come out of meat? [Yes! Out of country-cured hams. Skippers in Southern U. S. A., any maggot in- festing meat. Those in ham can jump 50 times own length upward into air! Some- where in HOODOO I describe my experience with them.] It was just as full of skipples as it could be. The skipples just branching out. They coming from worrying. They come from me. And you see I ask her the next time I went for another jug of medicine, I say, "Miss Bridge, what is the trouble with me?" She say, "Why you was hurt with a blacksnake in a stale melon." She say, "That's why my body would get st........ [steaming = fever?]." You know I was terrified all the time. [Our doctor, saying patient's ailment had been caused by a black snake, may have had herpes [snake] or shingles, in mind; but surely much of the skin trouble in HOODOO came from pellagra, disease caused by deficient diet.]
Entry 11282
Yo's gwine down de street an' yo' jest pass an' measure up on him. Yo' got a good strong han' [hand for protection] see. Well, he goin' meet chew; yo' goin' meet him - gwine right on down to meet him. He's got a pistol and yo ain't got any. All right. An' he ain't goin' follow yo'! Why? Yo' done went off some- where and got chew some root - yo' know what chew call roots - got chew some stuff from some rootmaker.
Entry 11283
Now, I was in Beaufort, South Carolina [pronounce Bū'fert, but for Beaufort, North Carolina pronounce Bo'fort] where de real herbsman is. Dat's where I leanred it [from the] leading herbsman [he means Doctor Buzzard] of the country [lived]... [later I asked about any initiation ceremony]: (When Doctor Buzzard taught people, did he initiate them in any way?) Oh, yes. (Did he have some sort of initiation when they became doctors? Or something of that sort? Some sort of a ceremony or something of that sort? What did he do to make a person a root doctor?) You don't supposed to give them initiation signs away, but ah kin show you.
(Well, suppose you show it to me. If you can't give it away, show it to me.)
[Informant gives a worthless demonstration, faintly whispering while I coml ment:] (put two hands back of your neck. Wash your hands in the wine, in the water, and then stand back to back. Turn back, glass over hand. What kind of glass? Mirror? Spyglass? Just pick a glass. And take and spell root, spell it three times. What do you mean by getting black?) The hands will turn dark. The inside of your hands, after he has examined them. (After he examines you in your work, the hands will turn dark, if they are or if you are not pure.) He's got a glass that he hold up like that, see. Big old glass. Then you go to the mirror. You put that stuff in your hands.
[Informant is demonstrating.]
(You put your hands against the mirror, one, two, three times.)
If that hand turn black, why you are no good! [You will never be a root doctor.] (Well, now, do you mean that if you should meet somebody in a different city, that you'd have any password so you could identify each other or something of that sort, or do you know each other?) No, ah got something to tell you. Every herb doctor knows dere but one special one any part de city dey go. Give me de book and I'll tell you that.
[Is he asking for my Numbers Book so that he can write it down?]
(When you meet this fellow, what do you say to him?)
Them same words.
[Informant makes some noises!]
(Momentary Rrr? Momentary Ah, ah.)
An' you say this to me.
[He says something I repeat.]
(I N T E. Then he knows you are a root doctor?)
Oh, yes. Suppose dey [a doctor] come in here to you, jes' say momentary, "Ah-ah, " and he tell you, "I love P. D."
Entry 11284
Ah went to a hoodoo an' he tole me to git a silver dollar. Ah don't know why ah should 'splain diz or not. Whut [ah] am goin' say now, yo' know it's kinda bad thing to explain. He tole me say, "Yo' git on a woman an' while yo' on dat woman, yo' have her to tie dat knot into yore shirttail on yore back. An' dat's de best experience ah evah had in mah life.
(Tie what knot?)
Tie a knot into my shirttail - dat silver dollar tied up into mah shirttail in dat knot. Dat's de best experience ah evah had. She did it. Ah did dat.
(What kind of luck did that give you?)
Well, ah wus lucky all de time.
(In all sorts of ways?)
Yes suh.
(You mean you had to be actually on her while she tied that?)
While she tied dat knot ah'd have to be on her. An' ah tole her whut ah want to do, a silver dollar. [For a man to tie 9 knots in a string and to tie it on woman's back while loving her, compare 10678, p.4044, v.5.]
Entry 11285
Yeah, a goiture [goitre]. You kin go to a spring [running water] an' if it's [goitre] is bad, it might care [carry] you away [you could die]. You kin take - now, you go to a spring an' get choo some watah an' ever' momin', well, you'll jes' take that spring watah an' put it in a pan. Well, when you put it in a pan, you put a piece of ice about so big [demonstrates] in this watah an' wait till it git real col'. You kin put it on ice that night, if you wan'ta. Then in the mornin' pour it in a pan, then put a piece of ice on it an' you know it be plenty col'. Well, then you jes' take that like this here, look [demonstrates] put it right on that goijure [goitre]. Well, put it on there as the moon hit [it] waste away. But choo got ta do it when it [goitre] first begins. You can't let it git large on you. If you do, tain't no cure for you.
Entry 11286
On 7lst Psalm of David. See: Oh, Lord God in thee I put my trust. Never let me be put confusion in [be put in confusion]. Thy have beholdth from the womb. Thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels and my praise shall be contained in thee. [More or less like the King James Version.] This is the only Zuization, [Does he mean Utilization? In any case translate word remedy.] that I know of to keep your sexual force, you understand, away from you in that respect, and that don't he'p you very much, but the still of that is to keep down - the enemy's force down. Says, Cast me not off in the time of old age, and forsake not my strength, for my enemies speaks against me. And they that lay waste my soul take counsel to- gether. [Also from Psalm 71.] That's the second chapter Proverb. There's the 9th, 10th and 24th verse, yeah of the 7lst Psalm of David. Now, that's a very good portion of Scripture that I know dey use in that respect.
(In what respect?)
I say in that respect what you asked me just now about.
(About what?)
About the bootlegging proposition, yeah.
(Oh, bootlegging, yes, if you want to keep the law away from there.)
I mean, that's a very good chapter, I mean for to keep you successful in
[your] own undertaking there.
Entry 11287
You go kill a deer.
(A deer?)
Oh, yeah! Kill a deer. It's a very tame animal. You kill a female deer, save the blood and save the fat out of the side for a salve. I get that. You know the female, what they call in the east you know, is a lamb and the buck's a man. Get that fat and fry it out. That fat, I don't mind giving that fat for that. That will bring it. That will fix him so that he kin have some woman about once or twice a month. That other thing, [whatever it Was], I could not give. It's too deadly.
Entry 11288
They takes it [hair] from de mole [mold of your head] and after tak- ing it from de mole, they tie it up with pepper or salt, and then they kin put it with some one of your soiled napkins. (The woman?) Shore. And they practi- cally will come to be what you would say dizzy in de head. Then, again, it will cause them probably to lose a portion of their hair for a time, then he begins to work.
Entry 11289
[Margin title STATIONARY ROOT OF DOCTOR KING IN RICHMOND gaVe us a rare root indeed (No.7254, Pp.3235-3237, v.4), but now the doctor will describe for us an even rarer root:] [In answer to my question about a man attracting women, the doctor answered:] Well, in that instance you have to ob- tain them Four Brothers. Yo' got to git a High John, Low John, Long John, and Short John [all together called] the Conkah [= Conqueror]. Yo' got to get all four of 'em, cuz one ain't gon'a do you no good. Yo' kin git that in Beaufort, [S. Car.]. An' they grows together but ever' one of 'em got a diff'rent leaf. (They grow detached but near each other.) [Doctor ignores or did not under- stand my comment to the microphone.] Yo' don't have to do nothin' with it when you git de Four Brothers but jis' care [carry] it with yo'. Yo' kin do anything yo' want. Anything yo' do is in yuh favor. An' specially if yo' kin git close to a person to rub dat on 'em. Another thing, them Four Brothers is suppose to protect chuh. [The Four Broth- ers of course represent the four corners of the earth (The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 7:1) which appear so frequently in HOODOO. A final comment of mine reads "not so sure, may wait for par(allel)!" I still had to learn that each real doctor had things specially his or her own. This, my transcription made in pencil a few months after the recording, is attached here.]
Entry 11290
Doctor King's account of himself begins: from Columbia, S. Car. When 8 years old to Beaufort, S. Car. Not much in this for an extract. Of course he Worked or studied with Doctor Buzzard (341:9). Next comes the stationary root previously mentioned (342:1). Put black cat bone scrapings on a photograph, if you are looking for a man [a criminal, etc]. The picture turns light or dark, etc. [according to your question]. A year later I would have learned more from Doctor King about this. Later I added, "Be careful in using this unless a par(allel) secured!" Nonsense: This was the doctor's own method (344:1). A rite about snake eggs used to kill person (344:3). To take out frogs caused by frog eggs. Black seeds from a watermelon, horse hoof dust, a tea made from. I comment doubtful. Nonsense! (345:1). "Yo' kin take a woman or yourself, either one, an' if yo' git some hair from down there an' stop it up in a bottle with kerosene on that. Take away all your courage - away from you (347:1). Rub kerosene on woman's privates, takes her courage (347:2). Doctor King also appears in No.830, p.288, v.1. If I failed, remember that Doctor King was in a hurry, on his way to see a patient, but would meet me again the following day. He took a disappearing root!
Entry 11291
[In addition to the following material, there are other dog rites scattered throughout HOODOO, especially in that long group of cats-and-dogs together, 49 rites: No.10881, P.4087 to No.10930, p.4096, v.5.] Git chew a stick, cut off de length of dog; nose, tail an' all - de measure of his body. Dis little bunch [of hair] de end of his tail, cut dis end of hair, tail [hair] off altogether an' take it an' bury it undah de do'steps. An' dey say yo' take de dog an' lead him outa town, give him 'way tuh somebody or tie him off [away somewhere]. Dem peoples will leave [town].
(That will make that person leave - out of town.)
(If I wanted you to leave town, I would get a stick. Any kind of a stick?)
A hickory stick, a green one. (A green hickory stick and I would measure that dog - any dog, no matter who it belonged to. I would measure this dog from the tip of it's nose, down to the tip of it's tail, and would cut the stick off just that length. I would cut off the hairs of the tail. Then I would take this dog out of town and tie it some place. Then I would bury this stick and this hair under your doorstep, and that Would make you leave town?) Yessuh.
Entry 11292
Take a piece outa black dog's tail an' yo'll take some dirt [including soot] outa de back of de chimley where yo' find dese ole clay chimleys. Take some dirt outa de back of a chimley an' den yo' put dat. If yo' be fortunate enough to git some of dey watah an' put it wit dat dog tail an' dat clay outa de backa dat chimley, an' bury at dey's do'step - at dey do'step. Den, ah don't care how bittah enemies dey been to yo' or whatsomevah dey've been like dat tryin' to up [to be upish, superior], yo' kin bring dem down to yuh command. Dat makes dem make friends wit yo', make any kinda bad enemies friends. Ah've heard dat 'bout de black dog tail an' dat chimley dirt an' a little bit of [their] urine [sometimes ureene but chamber lye vas still the usual word]. It'll make a friend. Put at dey do'step.
Entry 11293
Ah heard dat dey take de dog, if a woman wanted tuh git somebody outa her way - no doubt if, it jes' a friend of hers [get rid of a rival]. Den, if she Would take de dog, prob'ly kill de dog an' take de dog's heart - it wasn't de livah - it was de heart of a dog, an' den take de heart [center] out from undah his hoof [pawl. Jes' take dat piece of meat out from undah his foot dere, an' take de heart of a dog. An' yo' takes dat an' yo' cooks it an' yo' makes a salve out of it, jes' cook it down tuh a salve. Take de watah off or de grease or whatevah it is. If yo' jes' git dis on her any place - jes' git some of it on her any place, fo' five [4 or 5] diff'ren' times, den yo' could cause dis wo- man jes' tuh run an' huffer jes' lak de dog does. Jes' run jes' lak yo' see a dog run 'long wit his tongue hangin' out. Well, dis woman she would git jes' lak de dog [less attractive to man both were after].
Entry 11294
Ketch a dog and git his - see, de place in a dog's face right heah where [demonstrates]. Pull dat hair out. An' jes' in de middle of his back, de same amount of hair dat yo' pull out of his face. An' put it into a rag, a spotless white cloth er rag. An' yo' put chew some sulphur an' yo' put chew some gunpowder in dere - gunpowder and sulphur. Yo' tie dat up in dere and make out lak yo' workin' in de yard. As yo' workin' roun' de yard, take a look an' see if yo' see either one of dem would have yore - ef yo' worried about yore husband. If yo' see either one of dem comin' past yore house, yo' jest take it up an' take it ovah to heah an' throw it dis way [demon- strates]. Jest drop dat thing down.. "Co'se it got a little gunpowder an' it will pop an' it will break 'em up. Dat will break dem up, ah know dat. (That is if this woman is fooling around with your husband, you do that to break them up.)
Entry 11295
Ef yo' want a person to act like a dog, cut off de end of a she dog and let it dry up and ground it into powder...
(The end of what?)
Oh her, herself, de she dog...
(Her private, cut off the end?)
Cut off a end of it an' put it up an' let it dry...
(A piece of flesh?)
Yassuh and let it dry, an' when it dry jes' sprinkle it all over 'em an' yo' have de nature of a dog... (You have the nature of a dog! How do you mean that?) Of a whelp dog - yo' howl - yo' have nature jes' lak a whelp dog.
(Makes you howl - they rub that over you some way?)
Yassuh, have to rub it ovah yo'.
Entry 11296
You wanta man stay away from your house, sompin like dat, why you git a hair from one dese man [male] dogs. See. And jest - I'm making reference [giving an illustration] now - jest like you wants a man, you figure dat a man worryin' you, wit you and your family. Why you'd git some hair from a dog. You git it right off de - you know where his tether at, you git some hair right from de end of dat. All right, you git dat hair and you take a knife and you cut it up, cut it up fine. All right, after you cut dat hair up fine you carry it and you put it to dis.fellah door, right under de step. See, and bury it about three or four inches. See. After you bury it about three or four inches, you walk away from de house about ten steps. After walking away from de house about ten steps all right, you walk backward about five steps - backwards. See. You walk five steps backwards. All right, don't walk de way you walked de first time, dose ten feet. [Walk backwards at an angle.] All right, after you walk backward now, gotta walk side- Ways about 20 feet - sideways. And then you keep on about chure business and go on home. That'll keep him away from your house. See, he'll never come back. [Those preceding words hair right from de end of dat I understood at the time but failed to annotate their meaning to the cylinder. They could signify the end of the rope and hair from around the male dog's neck. These hairs then would have tied the victim down to his own home, kept him away. If so, surely the hairs would not have been cut up. Or would they? I still think these are phallic dog hairs cut up and buried at the victim's door. That leaving, the steps forwards, walking backwards at an angle, and finally sideways at a right angle, is my only example in HOODOO, though there are many examples of magic walking away.]
Entry 11297
If someone done any harm to yo', yo' ketch yo' a dog - not chure dog, neither yore cat - an' yo' take dis dog an' shave de hair from right underneath his tail, right dead up close to his tail as pos- sible. Shave it off an' take dat an' take an aig, an' break dis aig an' take de yellah out of it an' leave de white, an' den yo' put dis hair in dat shell. Den yo' set it in de stove wit a little sulphur in it an' parch it. Jes' set it in dere lak yo' bake a apple an' set it in dere till it's parched till it crumble down de center. Don't yo' have to mash it - jes' crumble down in de pan. Den yo' take it out an' bury it at de front step. Dis individual who have done somepin to yo' will come back - come back to yo' an' beg yore pardon - either [or] he will go so far away till yo'll nevah have no contact wit him any mo'. Dat's whut dat'111 do. (That is all you have to do - use that dog hair and that eggshell and the sulphur?) An' de sulphur.
Entry 11298
Certain kind of things about de bristle of a dog. Git de bristle of a dog, nine strands [hairs] of it. An' yo' git dat bristle an' yo' know, yo' kin take it an' wrap it up. Ball de clothes up in it an' he be mad all de time. No satis- faction no way atall. Mad all de time an' den he'll jest naturally go crazy.
(You just get these bristles from the dog.)
People say dey know dat shore to be done.
Entry 11299
If yo' have a little dog of some sort, cut dis dog tail off [hair from tail?] an' burn it. An' git chew some gunpowder an' some gasoline an' burn it [hair up. An' take de ashes an' carry it dere. Set it dere - don't let no one see - by night. Throw it in dere front do' an' go off on by. Dey never will wanta live dere any mo'.
(What do you do that for?)
Dat's to run 'em out from dere. (Run them out of the house, to cause confusion in the home, chase them out so they finally break up.
Entry 11300
Got de hair from a dog - git it from right off his right hip - an' yo' take dat hair an' put it in some coffee. An' if yo' got anybody dat chew, chew dislike around yore house, yo' jes' give 'em dat an' let 'em drink de coffee up, off dat dog hair. Well, yo' won't have no trouble. (The right hip you say. The front or back?) De back one [the leg a dog lifts?].
Entry 11301
Ah heard dat chew could git de blood from a dog, a black dog. Jes' git his blood from him an' put it into - jes' lak ah git de dog's blood, see, an' put it into yore coffee whut chew drink, or water, anything yo' drink. Let yo' drink it an', well, yo' have a dog in yo'. Most everything yo' eat will make yo' sick on de stomic.
Entry 11302
[There are a number of these dog-in-you beliefs and rites in HOODO0:]
I have heard about people putting a spell on a person and that spell killed them, and while they are dying they bark like a dog. [New York City, by hand, inform- ant No.1, Julia, from N. Car.1
Entry 11303
They say you can put something on them and they will howl like a dog.
[Newport News, Va., Ediphone, informant No.28.]
The report says unnamed targets will 'howl like a dog.' Dog is a comparison, and no actual animal or demonstrated effect is established.
Entry 11304
Dey use hair offa a dog fo' whut ah heard. Ah heard that if a person git a nail stuck in dey feet an' yo' shave de dog an' put de hair on dere, it's good fo' de poison. But fo' anything else ah haven't heard. [Read poison or hoodoo poison? The problem here is did you step on the nail accidentally or did someone cunjure the wound upon you - make you step on nail?]
Entry 11305
Take some red pepper - nine balls [pods?] of red pep- per [finger peppers?] and put it in meal [cornmeal = maize meal] and make it into a cake. An' don't cook it but put it raw under the door- step and bury it deep, and the dog would stay home.
(Where do you get this hair from the dog?)
Right in back of his neck, get the hair from the back of his neck.
Entry 11306
Yes, sir, ah heah 'em say if yo' got a dog. Ah hear'd 'em say if yo' have a dog at yuh house an' dat dog keep goin' in somebody's house, or won't stay away, yo' kin take some of de hair out 'is tail, an' take it an' put some salt wit it, an' take it an' bury it at yuh steps, undah yuh steps. Dey say dat dog'll nevah leave dere no more. (I see, that keeps the dog at home.) [The addition of salt to this rite is not common.]
Entry 11307
Take cat or dog hair an' take a piece of wood an' split de Wood. Stick de hair in dis wood an' nail it down at chure back steps, an' de dog will nevah leave home 'lessen someone taken dat away.
Entry 11308
Take a cat, or either a dog, an' if he won't stay home.... Yo' let de dog in de do' - lak dat do' dere - an' den pull de do' to an' den pull him out, jes' enough to git some of dat hair in dat do'. An' den he won't go off nowhere, Won' stay off.
Entry 11309
Hair from top of dog's head and from top of tail [from head to tail] put in forked stick, buried under steps, keeps him home.
Entry 11310
Lak ah'd give yo' a houn' dog an' yo' want him tuh stay home, jes' take an' cut off about dat much of his - de tip end of his tail. Ah've done dis. An' cut a little of his bristles right between his shoulders an' carry it back home an' bury it under de steps. He'll stay home.
Entry 11311
Yo' kin take de dog hair - jes' lak if yo' want de dog to stay home. Yo' takes de hair off his - clip de hair off his tail an' yo' puts it undah de do'step, an' that would make the dog stay home or de cat.
Entry 11312
Cut some hair outa a dog's tail an' make him stay at home. Bury it undah de do'steps jes' lak yo' do [hair of] a person.
Entry 11313
[Take] de hair from undah a dog's left laig, left hind laig, an' bury it down at de front do'step. He nevah will leave home. He'll stay right dere. Don't care if somebody steal him an' carry him off, he'll come back.
Entry 11314
Take a dog's hair if he's bad - mean, cut off de end of his tail an' bury it right down to de do'step, an' he'll be all right.
Entry 11315
They take a white dog's...
(A white dog's what?)
A white dog's nurine and mix it with black pepper.
(Wait, the urine from the dog or the manure?)
The manure from the dog.
(And mix it with what?)
With black pepper.
(With pepper?)
Yes, sir, and sprinkle it up underneath the steps.
(What will that do?)
That will make you move out in nine days. That's what they told me. [For vhite dog manure see also No.1840, p.548, v.1.]
Entry 11316
( Git holt of yore track - ah think it's yo' right feet track - and go to de graveyard and get some dirt off de head of a grave, a white man's grave. An' of co'se an' git some dog, yo' know, action; and write chure name three [changed to 9 later] time on a piece of paper.
(Whose name do you write?)
You writes de one dat yo' want 'em to leave - to run 'em away, see. If it was eah husband, yo' see, ah could write his name nine times on a piece of paper, [of] 'co'se [course] an' den cross it up. An' take dat graveyard dirt an' dat dog's action an' pound it all up together, an' carry it to de river or some run- ning stream of water and throw it overbo'd and of co'se he'll leave. (How do you cross that up? You say you write his name on that paper and you cross the paper up?) You write his name nine times this way [demonstrates] and then when yo' git it writ across, yo' jes' come back this way - cross it up. Come back backwards, cross up.
(You turn the paper around, write the name across the other way.)
An' jes' cross it - cross it an' cross it an' cross it...
(Making marks across it like an "x".)
Yah. [I was mistaken, but would learn with more experience. The real type of crossing is given in margin title.l
Entry 11317
(What's that?)
Bull dog manure.
(Bull dog manure?)
Bull dog manure. They'll take bull dog manure and wasp nest. Parch them down to a powder. It'll 'come pulverized like powder. Put them together and mix them. Come to your home where you and your wife been getting along nice and smooth Walk right in that home and talk with your old woman, just come right in the house and throw it around.
(Just sprinkle it around?)
Yes. You begin to squabble and fight and the next thing you know, why one of you is gone away from there.
(I see.) I see.)
Entry 11318
Lak de manure from a dog, why yo' take dat manure an' yo' git chew a nickel's wuth [worth] of peanuts an' git chew a box of salt. An' yo' take dose peanuts an' hull all of 'em an' mix de peanuts up an' yo' take dat whole box of salt an' put in dere an' yo' take de dog manure an' mash it all up in dere together - lak yo' got a jar with a cover on it.... Lak yo' see a dog do his business out dere, de hah'd [hard] hah'd, yo don't git dat soft. Yo' git de hah'd one, an' yo' take dat an' yo' git chew a bag of peanuts. Yo' git chew a box of salt ain't nevah been used out of. Yo' take dose peanuts an' de dog manure an' yo' have yo' somepin yo' kin beat it up in real fine tuhgethah - hammah [hammer] it up tuhgethah.
(What do you beat up, the peanut shell or the nuts?)
No, de nuts. De peanuts an' de dog manure, yo' put dat salt in dere. Yo' git chew a box of red peppah an' yo' put dat whole box of red peppah in dere. An' if yo' don't use it all, yo' take it an' po' it in de toilet: an' turn [flush] de watah on it. Well, yo' mix all of dat up tuhgethah. Well, yo' have sompin dat yo' kin.always keep it in. Yo' have dat, dat's tuh mun a person. Yo' kin take dat if anybody come in an' yo' kin use a little pile of dat. Put some quicksilvah in it an' mash all dar tuhgethah. Dat makes yo' go. Yo' gotta go.
(You take that mixture and scatter it around in there?)
Yo' cain't stay. [For peanuts and bad luck see Nos.2574, p.710, v.l, etc.]
Entry 11319
(What do you do with that?)
Well, you can take that and let it get hard, get it hard. And roll it, make it fine. Mash it with something and sprinkle that around, make people move, dog dirt. (Why does it make them move, I wonder?) "Cause you done did 'em a dirty trick and they wants to get out.
Entry 11320
Take de dog manure an' bury it under yore house. Dat keep anybody from interferin' with yore busines [also a witchcraft deterrent].
Entry 11321
Parch dog manure with graveyard dirt, red pepper, dirt dauber nest; put in your room anywhere you walk; causes you to travel, drift about, unsettled mind.
Entry 11322
Yo' kin take a knife an' go tuh a forked dogwood tree [a dogwood tree having a small branch with a fork]. Go out in de woods an' cuts yo' off a piece of dogwood, kinda lak a bow an' arrow what chew pulls back [what we used to call a rubber shooter = slingshot]. Yo' take an' puts some lye in dat an' yo' goes - dere two things yo' kin do with dat, too. Dat will bring a person tuh yo'. Yo' kin take an' put some lye right in de fo'k of dat an' put it at de right han' cornah of yore steps, stick it in dere, an' put de dirt ovah it, an' let jes' 'bout dat much of it be stickin' out. Dat is if yo' wanta bring a person back, yo' kin do dat. Now, jes' lak if sompin wuz stole from me. Ah had some money stole from me, an' ah don' know who stole it. Jes' lak if yo' lock up dis place heah an' some- body comes 'long an' steals yore money an' yo' don't know who 'tis. Why, yo' Lin take dat lye in de forked piece of dogwood an' put it at de right-han' cornah step an' covah it up, an' in three day's time dis person is goin' come up. He's not goin' tell yo' he got it, but yo' kin see he did it no quickah yo' look at him - he drop his haid. An' den yo' commence tuh askin' him questions an' he won't deny it.
Entry 11323
Ah heard dat yo' could go tuh a dogwood tree an' cut de no'th side of it, an' de s'uth side of it; see, if somebody comin' tuh yore house dat chew want tuh stay 'way from dere. If yo' cut dat tree tuh de no'th side an' de s'uth side, dwy would sta y'way. Ah've heard dat. (How do you mean cut it?) Jes' cut it wit a knife, split it up. Stick it down an' split it up. Yo' know, jes' be cuttin' it, de bark off upon each side of de tree. [Wilson, N. Car.,. (1479), 2658:15.]