Browse:(2) CANDLES (Volume 1, entries 2776–2991)/Part 2
(2) CANDLES
Volume 1, entries 2776–2991. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2856
You see when a man is fooling around with another woman, a woman she'll take - she double-cross him. She'll get three candles. (Three candles.) Three candles. She'll get a yellow candle, a white candle and she'll get a blue candle. She'll take these three candles and she's got a bowl on her dresser or vanity, whatever she got. Now, she'll light these candles in this bowl. She'll get her five cents of ice, which is 25 pounds of ice. She'll take your name and this woman's name and write it 18 times [each 9 times]. Now, she'll put this name [these names] under this ice upside down and burn these candles on it for nine days. She got you.
(That will separate me and the other woman, and I go back to my wife?)
You gotta go back. If you don't go back to her, you going to go back to some other one; but she's going to break you and this other woman up - you and her can't stay together.
Entry 2857
You take dat black candle an' who's'evah yo' burning it on, yo' write it [person's name] all ovah that papah - right cross de papah. An' den yo' take de black candle an' yo' put it in a white saucer - jis' a deep white saucer. An' yo' put lye an' yo' put peppah an' white onion, an' put it down in dat candle an' burn it - underneath [is] his [name].
(What kind of a page? You write that name on that page you say?)
Jis' a plain tablet. Yo' take that piece of papah [with name] an' put it down undah dat saucer. (When you speak about burning these things, you mean you set the candle down into them?) It's dis - yo' see [demonstrates], yo' set de papah heah [on table holding my machine], an' den yo' set de white saucer heah [on top of the paper], an' den whatevah yo' goin' burn [in this case lye, onion and pepper], yo' set it down in de saucer, an' den yo' set de candle down in it.
Entry 2858
Nine black candles in a can - old rusty can - burn it in the hot stuff what you use on your food, [with] lemons, vinegar and cayenne pepper [in the can] and keep it burning, and have somebody at the house to keep the hydrant running an' you get discharged. Some- one has to be where you live to keep that going [while you are on trial] for you to get discharged. Yes sir.
Entry 2859
They burn a candle on it and turn it down. Do you know why ah knows this? (Now wait a minute. [I demonstrate.] Here's the photograph. The face is up. Now what do you do? How do you put the candle on there? This is the candle. You set the candle on the face like that?) You turn de bottom up. (You turn the face down and the bottom is up, and you put the candle right on top of it - right in the center like that., [This makes a quincunx - p.710 and Index.] What kind of candle do you use?) You use a black candle.
(Just one. And do you say anything or do anything when you do this?)
Yes, you say something, "I want her to sink to the bowels [of the earth]." That means to die. You burn it nine times dere, nine mornings.
(Then what happens?)
Well, if someone don't hurry an' do something, dey be sure gone. Well, you know why ah know that. You see ah had a sister, she was almost dead and she went to - she had to get her photo made, see. I say, "Maybe somebody got chure photo." She say, "Oh, ah suffer wit mah haid." She looked like she was going crazy. Well, ah took a new needle - new needles and pins and crossed 'em.
(Where did you cross them?)
Fo' to make de headache go off, put de pin right dere - brand-new - in her hair, right in de mole [mold of her head]. Den you cross it, you see. An'den after you cross it, you take some Hearts Perfume, dampen it all together and den take some camphor and put it right dere - on chere [demonstrates]. (Put it right on there on that hair at the ears. And then did her headache stop?) It sure did. And then when it stopped I say to her, say, "Now, you go and get your photo." And she went to get her photo. Dey have a - [a privy] in de back yard, a fren' girl of her. She was kind of mad with her about her husband. You see, she had mah sister's husband and mah sister liked tuh die. An' sure 'nuff, when she went in there [the privy], she had her photo behind the door with that candle on it.
[See margin-title IN THE ToILET, p.826 and Scatologic rites in Index.]
(That black candle on it.)
Mah sister took dat candle and took it and throw it in de river. And her and dat woman had a fight about it, but she got her photo and dat candle. She liked tuh been dead. Well, your picture, they can bury your picture. They can bury your picture bottom down. That'll make you drag: Your head'll be hurtin' you all the time, pain, and your head ache.
(How do they burn that on you?)
They say they light a candle, burn a candle to put you down - with the picture down, you see. With the picture down - they can't do nothing with it up, you see. They have the face down, you see. (What kind of a candle do they burn? How do they fix that candle up? What do they do?) Well, that candle, you see. They put the candle in a saucer, you see, and as for the saucer, they lay it right on top of the picture, you see, and they let it burn, you see. And you burn that candle for nine days, see.
(What times? Right on through?)
Right on through.
(Never let it go out?)
Never let it go out atall - nine days, right in that dark corner - right up in the corner, you see. Nine days.
(What color candle do they use? A white candle for that?)
Well, they generally use a black candle when they want to do evil.
(I see.)
A white candle - it's for goodness, see. Evil is a black candle.
Entry 2860
From my understanding, like if a man's wife is gone, or a woman's hus- band gone, she takes a blue and a pink candle. She writes his name upon there three times or seven times or nine times - always got to be odd, you understand. They writes it upon this candle and anything that they likes to drink, such as whiskey, wine - whiskey or wine or anything to drink thataway - well, they sets this candle in there. You understand, after writing the name upon there. But they don't light the end what supposed to be burned; they change ends with it and they sharpen the other end, and after [that] they write the name, see. They write the name like this [demonstrates] - to 'em, not from 'em. They writes it to 'em thataway, see. Then they sets it in this. And even if they drink coffee, well, they make that coffee sweet, sweet, sweet, see, just the same as syrup, and they puts it in there and they burns that [candle in it]. Then they write the name upon this Vinrick [or Venrick] parchment and put it underneath this cup or glass what they have it in. But it's got to be a new cup or either a new glass, and they sets it right in there and they burn it for nine days.
[Is this Vinrick (= virgin or genuine parchment?) or is Venrick a trade name?]
(Do they do that with just one candle or two?)
Use two.
(Use two? How do they put them?)
Just sets 'em up in the tin cup or glass, whatever you have.
(I see, you put them [I demonstrate] like this?)
Yes, sir - straight up.
(You put two candles [I demonstrate again] - one here and one there?)
Yes sir, fust like that.
(Now where do you put these candles?)
You takes 'em and you hides 'em.
(Where?)
Just hides 'em. Stick 'em underneath of your bed or have a place, a secret place to put 'em in.
Entry 2861
"The black candle, that's tuh bring back. But chew must put de party name on de candle an' turn it upside down. See [demonstrates], writin' de name on de candle dataway, an' cuttin' de end off an' settin' it upside down, an' burnin' dat candle in - if de party like coffee, yo' burn it in coffee; if dey like whiskey, burn it in whiskey; if dey like gin, burn it in gin. Yo' burn dat fo' nine days. If de party don't come back in nine days, yo' git a round candle. Light it once all day - all de time. Dey guaranteed tuh come back. Dat will bring 'em back.
(You burn this candle all the time.)
Jes' be sure dey upside down, because if yo' burn dem straight dat'll keep den on away.
Entry 2862
People have used wide-headed tacks. People have taken tacks - like you would take and nail 'em down, or like you hang up wall paper. Some people, you know, tack paper up. They'd take nine tacks and driven 'em down in their floor right under their mat right at the entrance of the door - where you come in the door.
(Under the mat?)
Yeah, under the mat. They's taken nine tacks and driven them down there and give 'em a person name. If a person was - that they didn't like or disliked or something or didn't want around that house, they'd take them nine tacks and drive down under there with that person name under that, burn a candle over that nine days, and they won't have no trouble with that person in their house.
(Well, what kind of a candle would they burn over that?)
Burn a blue candle or a white candle. Either one can be used.
Entry 2863
Take five of 'em. Dey put 'em in a room, in a north room of a build- ing, and dey burn all five of 'em together on dis side of de room, and while dese candles are being burned, dey oughta read the 18th chapter of Luke. Dey will do dat fo' nine mornings befo' de sun rise, an' dose folks will make their wishes to dose candles, an' dose folks is coming back. (If someone has left and they want them back. What color would those candles be? Any particular color?) No sir.
Entry 2864
To burn a black candle, you use the toilets - you know, like they build the sanitary toliet. You know a long time it used to be the old ones, you know; but now there's the sanitary toilets like they havin' now. Well, you set the candle right on the top of the water fount [flush tank] - you see, where the water flushes out, and you let it burn down, and when it burns out, you just take that and knock it over into the toilet and flush it three times a day. Well, they say it run him away, kill him.
[She repeats, adding several details.]
Take a black candle and write the name all around it, around 'at candle nine times, and just set it on top of the water - you know, where the water comes through, and when dat burn down you blow it out. Instead of pinching it out, you blow it out. And just rake it off about that much; rake it off and flush it into the toilet. Burn just about [demonstrates] that much of the candle each day and flush it down the toilet.
(Burn it down to about a half inch high.) [Burn one half inch each day.]
Yeah, and you blow it out and scrape it off and flush it down the toilet.
Entry 2865
How they burn the black candles? That's for death - that's to kill you.
(How would they do that?)
You take that black candle and you put the person's name - you see, the name or names means a whole lot. You could ruin a person with their name. And you burn it - you burns it in the toilet.
(In the toilet?)
In the toilet.
(How do you do that?)
You burn it every day completely and that name in the toilet, and - all right, for nine days, that's it. For nine days you get nine black candles and you name 'em and you burn 'em in the toilet. But you puts it in a tin can, you see. And that dripping - after it done dissolve and things, you supposed to flush it in the toilet. You see. That's all. And that kills them.
(What will it do to them?)
Yeah, they just be sick, they don't know what. Like they waste away to death, as the candle burn - they be sick and not knowing their condition or what's the matter with 'em. [AZs0 see 2859, p.823.]
Entry 2866
Put it in a dark corner. (Light a black candle and put it in a dark corner.) And let it continue to burn - 'fore that candle goin' burn down, why that person that candle's burning on, why that person will be dead.
Entry 2867
Burn that stuff - take it an' burn that candle - take three an' burn 'em in three corners of de house, de east, north and west - jest three corners, special. Set it on somepin dat it don't ketch fire, an' burn it till it burn out an' make yore wish whatsomever yo' wish, "Ah wish ah won't be worried wit anyone or "Ah wish dat ah would git so-an'-so" - whatsomever yo' wish.
(That will keep the officers away. What do you burn now?)
Those candles.
(What color are they?)
Red - some red, some blue.
(You send away to buy those?)
Yo' sends away an' git them. Cost $l for a half dozen. [Here candles are uninfluenced by normal candle rites of New Orleans.]
Entry 2868
(How do they do that - cross up a house after they move out?)
After they move out - to keep it from getting rented?
(Yes - how do they do that?)
They go and get guinea pepper seeds, they gets black candles and burn them in the whole four corners of the house, and they will cross the house to keep it from getting rented right away - it will stay empty a long time then.
Entry 2869
Ah'd light a white candle an' put salt in each corner of yore house, an' write on de candle whomevah it would be [to] bring whatsomevah dey got away from me back. (When would you burn this candle?) Ah would burn this candle from ten to twelve - from ten in de day to twelve, jis' one day only.
Entry 2870
Now the second way for to get your photograph and do something to it. They can take and burn lights against your photograph and have it right in the house and you don't know it. And have it, your back - see, you know your back to the out[side] and your face to the wall, like nailed to the wall. And have everything dark around there. And you'll die from that bed, right in that bed there. (Do you burn candles to that?) Yes, sir, you burn you a black candle to hit.
(Just one candle did you say?)
Just once - that's to the picture, if you want to harm anybody.
(Where do you put that picture? Against the wall?)
You put 'em in the four corners of your house - just like you got the four corners right here, you got four cormers here.
(Yes.)
Well, you see, you can take and set your bed like this here, cater-corner, and make that be the four corners right here and nail it right in that four corners, but right down where no one can't see it, see. And burn you a black light and never let that light go out. As fast as that light - when you see that light getting smaller, have you another candle ready and light it. I'll guarantee you in nine days' time, if you don't be out of that bed [and be] in the hospital, you be in the morgue.
(You'd be where?)
You'd be in the morgue - be dead. [The preceding four corners are sacred in hoodoo because they came from the Bible and are guarded by four angels controlling the four winds (Rev. 7:1). The diagonal is also sacred, the altar often being so placed in a room (p.129, line 45). The reason? The diagonal, as the longest distance in the flat square world of ancient magic, permits the altar to bestride and manage all existence. More- over the diagonal itself is a cross, a fortifed one - its two ends with equal short portions of the adjacent sides forming two tau crosses, joined at the feet at the center of the square, and thrusting outward two "T-crossings" barbed like a double-pointed spear >. Perhaps I should add, one diagonal equals one stroke of the cross; two diagonals complete the cross, Greek or St. Andrews - the structure of the flat square world.] [Our informant, by pushing back the diagonal of the room into one corner of the room, makes the corner the four corners or the complete room (PART EQUALS WHOLE, p.21). Actually the enclosed space is triangular and three-cornered, but magically the bed becomes both a diagonal and an altar. Despite the fact that neither you nor your picture is in that bed, "you'll die from that bed, right in that bed there."]
[For another diagonal, see 2843, p.819; for bed as altar, see 2874, p.829.]
Entry 2871
Dey say if anyone steal anything from you, take dis black candle and write dere name on it nine times and burn it fifteen minutes. Set it in a dark corner in de no'th corner - one in de no'th corner and one in de southeast corner of yere house. An' stick nine pins in it an' nine needles. When you light dis candle call dere name nine times, and burn 'em fifteen minutes six, twelve and six in de evening. An' when you put it out - jest wet it an' put it out like dat [demonstrates].
(Pinch it out.)
Yes.
(And what is that supposed to do then?)
That will make 'em bring those things back if they stole them.
(How many candles do you use?)
Two.
(And you put one in one corner of the house - what corners are those?)
De no'th corner and de southeast jest like heah now [demonstrates].
(Opposite corners. One in the northwest or northeast?)
[Wanting to know whether this was the magic of the diagonal, I purposely avoided the question opposite corners.] Northwest - dat's whut ah would call it.
Entry 2872
Tuh keep de law away yo' burn de black candle an' mop with van-van Oil- mop with it an' dat's tuh keep de law from yo'. Yo' supposed to light dat black candle at twelve a'clock in de night tuh keep de law from yo'. Yo' light dat black candle at twelve a'clock in de night an' burn dat candle till about two.
(The second night you said you light it about twelve-thirty?)
About twelve till about twelve-thirty. See, every night yo' supposed tuh slacken back de candle - some minutes offen de candle or bout half an hour offa de candle. Burn it three nights in de week - Sunday night, Monday night an Tuesday night. Den don't burn it no mo'.
Entry 2873
Black candles - you set nine of 'em. You burn dem nine candles on a person and when dat ninth candle burned, that person'll get sick at de first day and they'll keep agetting sicker and sicker for nine days, and when that ninth candle burns out, that person'll leave the world. You see, he's gone. (When do you burn these candles?) Burn 'em at night. You take 'em and put 'em in a place - in a dark room some- where where there ain't nobody kin see 'em or nothin', where they won't be dis- turbed. Jest set 'em in something other where dey won't [set anything afire].
Entry 2874
Yo' kin kill a person with a black candle. Write his name on dat black candle an' kill him. Burn it. Yo' gotta burn nine of dose black candle till it jes' burns all away, an' yo' gotta burn 'em nine days straight. Set it ovah be- hin' de bed where it cain't be seen. [For bed becoming altar, see 2870, p.827.]
Entry 2875
If de' burning on you for bad luck or to kill you, dey burns black can- dles. And if dey burning for good luck, you burns white candles or blue candles or yellow. But dark blue is bad luck and black ones kill you. [Dark blue is sometimes called dark purple - it is almost black and somewhat rare.] (Well now, suppose I was trying to kill someone. What would - what have you heard I would do? Just how would I burn that black candle? How would I go about it?) Well, if in a certain length of time you wanted to kill a person, you set it for nine days, and you fix dat candle and put dese folks' name under it, and course you put nine new straight pins in it, and you burn dat candle for about five minutes for nine days.
(What time of day would I burn it for five minutes?)
Well, just the time you'd have to set it for. Whatever hour you have it set for.
Entry 2876
Well, den yo' go an' git chew nine candles, nine candles, an' yo' cut dere name on dem candles nine times. Well, an' yo' light dose candles, bum 'em fifteen minutes. In 24 hours dey come back dere and put dose [stolen] things back on de gallery where he got 'em from, or come back dere an' put 'em in de yard.
(What kind of candles do you burn?)
Black candles. See, black candles is fo' death an' make yo' return - anything yo' want it tuh do it will do it, except luck. It ain't goin' give you no luck, but it'll run and make you bring things back.
Entry 2877
If yo' have confusion in yore home and want peace, yo' burn a red candle. Yo' set it at six in de morning and burn one hour, and yo' set it at twelve and burn one hour, and at six at night and burn one hour, and make a wish.
Entry 2878
Ah burns white candles on Monday, ah burns pink candles on Wednesday, an' ah burns red candles on Friday. Ah burm 'em fo' luck an' success in mah hou e an' keep mah roomers an' all.
Entry 2879
Yo' gits a pink candle an' write de boss name on it all crossways an' all down - jis' write all ovah dat. An' burn it in sugah fo' eight days or eithah eight weeks, an' yo'll find luck on yo'. Yo' burn it at six in de mawnin' an' twelve at noon an den yo' burn it at nine a'clock at night.
Entry 2880
(Did you ever hear of them using black candles for anything?)
De black candles?. Yeah, ah've heard dey use black candles. First of all, yo' use these black candles fo' yo' - now, yo' wouldn't use 'em fo' yo'self. Well, if ah was envy against yo', wal ah would git a black candle an' put your name on it five times and burn it till it go out. Well, wherever yo' are in de world, yo always be worried an' no matter how much money yo' get yo' cannot keep it. Dat's wit dat black candle.
[After turning off machine, I evidently ask, "Burn them any time?"]
Oh, no - yo' only burn dat on Friday: But mostly dey burns 'em on Thursday
[night].
Entry 2881
Well, yo' take an' burn nine candles - lak yo' know somebody dat yo wanta move [to live] with yo'. Yo' take an' write dere names on each one of those nine candles an' burn 'em with a nickel's wuth of sugah. (What kind of candles do you burn?) Well, ah burn diff'rent kind fo' diff'rent things.
(What do you burn for this particular case?)
Well, ah burn white candles.
(What do you write the names on the candles with?)
Wit a pen - pin.
(When do you burn those candles?)
Well, ah would burn 'em on a Monday, Wednesday an' Friday. Ah burn 'em from six tuh twelve an' six in de evening. Ah would burn de white candles fo' good six days.
Entry 2882
(What do you do with that red candle did you say?) A red candle is fo' love - a white candle is love. Well, yo' burns two candles, yo' burns a white one an' a red one, yo' burn 'em jes' befo' sunup every mawnin' an' jes' at sundown. That is fo' love an' success.
Entry 2883
If ah wanted yo' tuh move, ah'd burn a black candle on yo fo' nine days an' ah'd write yore name on a black candle with a needle - dat's whut ah'd do tuh make yo' move. (You mean you would burn just one black candle?) No, ah'd burn nine black candles. Ah'd burn a candle a day, see, an' write chure name on dat with a needle. Dat's tuh make yo' move.
(When do you light that black candle?)
Ah light dat black candle at five a'clock in de mawnin' an' burn it till it burns out. -
Entry 2884
You kin burn candles for luck and you kin burn 'em fo' peace. Jes' like if you wanta see somebody, some special somebody whut chew care fo'; if you want 'em to come, you kin burn candles fo' dat. (How would they do that?) Well, de white candle and de pink candle is for luck and you burn 'em both together. Burn at night - in de morning at six 'clock and at night at six 'clock. Dat's fo' luck. (Now that white and pink candle you say you burn for luck. How long do you burn that or when?) Wal yo' burn it ten minutes de two candles. You burn 'em ten minutes six 'clock in de morning and six 'clock at night. If you happen to miss six 'clock in de morning, you burn it twelve 'clock at noon. But just burn it twice a day. (And these candles they burn to bring somebody back, this white candle. How long do you burn that?) You burn it five minutes.
Entry 2885
You get you those wax candles to sweeten the man's mind. You take a white wax candle, you take a ten-cent bottle of honey, you take nine loaves of loaf sugar, and you burn that in a white bowl. When one go out, you set another one - white wax candle. That sweetens the mind of the man for his position you know.
(Here's your bowl and you have those lumps of sugar around in there.)
Nine of them and pour the honey all around it and set the candle up in the center. No [informant left out something], it round you know [in a circle]. You put de loaf sugar [in a circle]. You know those loaf sugar you use for tea or coffee. Put nine around [in a circle] into the bowl. You stick the candle first and make it stick good to spurmge [sponge = melted wax from candle]. And then you take the bottle of honey and pour it all around there [the candle] - a ten- cent bottle around that. And you burn the candle three times a day - a white wax candle. Well, you see you can start it at six - the best hour for anything like that - six in the morning, either twelve in the day and when that go out, you Wait till six in the evening and light another one.
(How long do you burn it at a time?)
Well, you see if it goes out before six in the evening, well you light another one. If you light one at six in the morning, well it will last to about twelve in the day or after twelve.
(How many candles do you burn all together? As many as you want to?)
As many as you want to, if you are able, you see. Probably four. [Two candles only are burned. Formula 6-12-6 is the most used of all time formulas for burning candles.]
Entry 2886
An' for - jest for a big time - have a big crowd an' a good time, you burn a pink candle. Burn it every Wednesday from nine until twelve, and every Monday from nine until twelve - make a good time, big-house good time.
Entry 2887
When you go before the judge - just before you go before the judge, burn you a white candle. You try to find out the judge's name. Write his name down on the candle nine times, and burn that candle clean down until it's all gone. Then you say your prayers over that candle, "Hail Mary, Hail Mary, Mother of Jesus." Say it nine times. Then you turn your underwear and your undershirt and your socks - turn them wrongside out - and then you go before him. He'll decide - his mind will be changed.
Entry 2888
(Now, how would they burn a black candle?)
A black candle? You take a person's name on a piece of paper, you write it nine times thisaway [demonstrates]. Nine, like you make a cross - nine times thataway, nine times thataway. And you - every time you light that candle, you go there, you curse, you say, "You son-of-a-bitch, you ought to be dead." You see? Well, the candle'll start to popping - you see, the candle'll start to popping. When the candle start to popping, well, you go over there and you - you sell yourself to the devil, you don't say anything about the Lord at all, you saying that to the devil. Say, "You son-of-a-bitch, you ought to be dead, the way you treat me." Well, the candle'll pop - pop like that. Now, when that black candle go out, and you have your house dark, nobody pass through, nobody go you see. You have that. You don't - nobody goes there but yourself. You don't want nobody to see what you doing, because its a lot of people know what those black - know the black candle is no good. It's bad, you see. Well, so you takes it and go ahead on and lights it, and when it gets most out, he can't go nowhere. He'll have to stay there to watch it. And when it get down low, low - well you burn it three days, you see. Now in the morning you burn that. You light it at six o'clock in the morning, twelve o'clock you light one, and three o'clock you light the other one, you see. That's what you do. And then that's for - that make's he be going - starting to getting sick and droopy - and after that he'll pine jis' away. And he'll stop and say, "Ooh, my head hurt."
Entry 2889
If you out of a job and you want a job, you have to take and burn your candle for so many days. If you couldn't get a job and it's real like times are now - you can't get a job [this is during the Great Depression of 1930's] - you really have to burn candles if you want a real good job. Of course, you can get jobs but they ain't paying nothing. But if a man want a job that's going to pay him something, he'll get him a candle. And you burn your candle, you burn your candle three times a day - keep a candle burning if you can. If you can keep it burning all day, it'd be better. Every morning you get to that candle and you say your prayers. You can light it or keep it lit.
(Oh, you keep it lit?)
You can keep it lit all day. It'd be best to keep it lit. But whichever you do at a particular time, you get to the candle and you pray. All right, when you pray at that candle, you pray like you got - you just say - well, you say th 35th [23rd] Psalm of David: The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want. Make me lie down in green pas- tures and stir up my soul. Lead me in the path of rightness for his name's sake. Either I walks in the valley in the shadow of death - I'll fear no evil. Should I weakeneth, thou rod and staff comforth me. Prepare... (etc. etc. etc.) [Comment by transcriber]...and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. See. Well, all right, you says that. Now, when you say that, don't make the sign of the cross, see. Don't make no sign of the cross at all, cause you be crossing your ownself, see. Now, you say it maybe at six in the morning, twelve O'clock you do the same thing again. Three o'clock you do it, and at six in the evening you do it, see. All right. Now, for an instance, you do that at six o'clock in the morning - five or ten minutes after six, when you get up, see. Or if you need, you go on about your daily occupation or wheresomever you going. Or [if] you're looking for a job - you're seeking for a job - well, you go along, and if there's any jobs to be gotten anywhere, you'll get one. If it ain't but for the day, you'll get you one. That's the end of it. See, now you can demand your money. If a man wants to pay you $1.50, you can get $2.00, see. You'll get a job on that [candle and prayer].
(You burn a white candle for that?)
A white candle.
Entry 2890
Get the rose incense, you know, and smoke your house up for luck and use dragon's blood. Have you ever heard talk of dragon's blood? [I must have nodded yes, because I mention dragon's blood in FACI, 1st ed.,1935, No.9379, p.501.] You take that [demonstrates] and scratch it like that on the stove, and like you Wanta wish for something at the time, you set your purple light and you know, use the dragon's blood. Like you got a stove or any hot oven, you know, just scratch it on the stove just like that - it smokes at the time, you know, and that's very, very lucky.
Entry 2891
Now, jes' say now for an instance if a man is gone and left his wife, yo' might say or sweetheart, and he's away off in another country probably and she want him back. She care fo' him but he's gone off and done 'tract his 'tention with somebody else, and his mind is offa de one that he left. If she got his photograph, she kin jes' take it and jes' turn it upside down on his haid, see. And den take a green candle and a yellah candle and put de photograph right - put it down, set de candles in some kin'a little [tin] top of something, put dis heah photograph behin' de light [candles], and light chure candles and make yore wush. See. Put de photograph upside down and put some sugar, some brown sugar in de saucer [or tin top] wheresomevah dose candles is; some brown sugar and some honey, and put de two candles in dere - de yellah candle and de green one.
[Brown sugar is often used for colored person; white for white person.]
And set 'em in dat saucer with dat sugar and dat honey and put de photograph right by dose, upside down. Well dat will make dat individual git on his head to come back, see, to where he left from. Jes' in a few days he'll git all upset, wanta come back, and ain't nuthin going to keep him away from dat individual. (Now here are the two candles sitting up in this can. You put the photograph upside down, head down, leaning against one of those candles - jest leaning against one of those candles.) Leaning against whatsomevah de candles is in. And den de person - lak ah'm doing dis, jes' lak if ah was going to light de candles for mah husband and tell him to come home, and [demonstrates] ah jes' put de photograph down dere, and ah tell him, "Now, ah mean fo' you to come home to me now. Ah mean fo' you to come home and don't you stay away no longer. Ah mean fo' you to come home." [Three times.] And in about five or seven days [odd numbers] he will be back.
Entry 2892
Git a white an' a black candle an' burn that. Jis' burn it soon every mawnin' 'bout five or six a'clock an' de same time at night. See. An' yo' hol yore han' ovah dat smoke an' make a wish, an' prob'bly no doubt yo' li'ble tuh be lucky an' den yo may not. Dat's in gamblin (You burn both these candles together?) Uh ah - yo' burn one at de time. If yo' burn a white one dis mawnin', yo' burn a black one dis evenin' [alternate magic]. See. Burn a black one now an' de white nex'.
(You just simply reach your hands over the smoke?)
Yeah. Jis' make a wish. [See margin-title Smoke 'Em, p.723f.] [Memphis, Tenn., (930), 1512:1.] '
Entry 2893
On de job where ah am now, some of de girls burn candles in de service where dey change dere clothes and they say they do that to hold their jobs - to keep luck with the bossman dat dey working with. (What kind of candles do they burn? Have you seen them burn them? They burn them where they change their clothes on the job. In a factory or something of that sort where they work?) A hotel. (And they burn these in the room where they change their clothing. What kind of candles do they burn?) Ordinary candles. (Do they burn them at any special time? Or say anything while they are doing it like that?) They burn de candle and jes' befo' they begin to burn - jes' befo' they light the candle [demonstrates] they carry they han' ovah their head like this and say, "Lord, help me tuh keep luck," an' then they light the candle.
(They make a circle over their head just like a halo.)
That's right. [For a halo rite three times clockwise and three times anti-clockwise with three waters, see p.16, line 1.]
(How long do they burn that candle? Have you any idea?)
Jest about an hour.
(Do they burn these right in the hotel?)
Right in the hotel.
Entry 2894
You can go to people and they can tell you what to do. Well, just like if you go to people and they tell you what to do. I know a fellow [a hoodoo or shrine-keeper] - well, if somebody have stole something from you - well, all he'd do is to say this prayer at nine, twelve and three, and tell the Lord, say, "Now, Lord, such-and-such-a one done stole something from me and I really need it." But you mean that from your heart and you sets that candle - a 25c candle - which is to burn eight days - and in eight days it is supposed to bring it back to you.
(Just an ordinary white candle?)
An ordinary white candle, cause I know a lady had a graphaphone stole from her and that's the way she got it back.
Entry 2895
Tuh burn candles. Well, yo' take those candles an' yo' kin take the Bible an' read the Bible - jis' lak some- one have mistreat you. Well, yo' take those candles an yo' take the Bible an' yo' read it an' yo' prays, an' Pray ovah that candle while it's burnin', see, an' yo'll do that ah think fo' 'bout nine days an' nights, an' yo'll gain friendship wit de party that mistreats you.
(What color candle do you burn for that?)
Dat's white.
Entry 2896
If you wanta do some dirty work with a black candle, you do the same as you would the green candle - cut the top of it off. And always turn it bottom up - don't take the little tail [wick] that lights and set it straight, but cut that off and turn it bottom up with that name on it. And they'll always suffer with a pain in the head at certain times - like you light it fer six, that misery'll start at six; if you light it at nine, that misery'll start at nine; if you light it at twelve or three in the evening, [that misery'll start at twelve or three]. That misery will last at least a hour.
Entry 2897
The black candle is fo' evil. That black candle does all the harm in the world. Well, yo' jest - say, if yo' wanted to do someone harm, in the day at twelve a'clock, make it no later, yo' go into yore room, pull yore blinds down, set chew a dark candle behin' yo'. An' yo' set wit chure face pointin', say to the east an' yo' set there. Yo' set there until - if yo' haven't got their picture, yo' set there until yore mind jest kinda picture them. An' yo' take that picture, say if yo' wanta cause them to git killed some way - by running into a car, by running into a train, or land somewhere where de train kin run ovah them. Well, jest whut chew want, that one particular thing to do, why yo' jest call dat an' dat black candle will be burning behind yo', see. All right, chew call dat persons name nine times. Den yo' crosses - take yore fingers an' cross it like dat. Pull it, see like dat - pull the fingers together. (Pull your fingers together like that - these big index fingers.) [Crook index fingers and pull.] Uhmm. Say, "To hell, to hell, yo go. Drift forever. No content. There's no rest for the weary." And then turn, blow the candle out an' then kneel in front of the candle an' say, ask for six feet. Then that gives that candle time to cool off. See, ask for it slowly - s i x f e e t. Why den all de smoke from dat candle an' everything will go off. Take yore candle an' go on back about yore business.
Entry 2898
Now, you take that [hat] bow and you puts it in a enve- lope, you see. And after you puts it in an envelope, you takes a black candle and you light that candle and you write your name, you see, and lay your name in there, you see, with that bow, and you burn that candle on it, you see. When you burn the candle on it, well, that'll get you - it don't do you no harm, but it get you the headache. You always suffering with the headache all the time - misery of the head.
(Do you mean if I were burning it to someone I would write my name on it?)
No, nol What the person name.
(Oh, that person you are trying to harm?)
Yeah, the one you going to harm, you see. Not your name, the one you are going to harm, you see.
Entry 2899
Now, a black candle is fer enemies, a white candle is fo' luck. Yo' kin buy a 25c candle. Anything yo' want, yo' kin git down on yo' knees and pray and ask de Lord fo' it. Ah be's in de habit fo' sometime to fast and pray, an' you'll really git it. An' if you have enemies removed, you could get a black candle and put it in a dark place and burn it. Burn it fo' nine nights and ask de Lord to move them, and he'll move them.
Entry 2900
My husband left me and stayed five months. But I didn't burn the can- dle myself, but his cousin burnt the candle. I never saw that before. She take a pink candle and instead of burning the candle as it is sup- posed to [burn] like, she cut that top off there and she turned it upside down and burn the bottom of the candle first, you understand, and when that candle burnt out - he went away from home, hadn't had no fuss or nothing, and stayed five months. Well, I tell you what I did - and not knowin' that she [cousin] suppose to do me no harm - I wanted to be sure there was nobody wanted to do me no harm. I went and got three white candles. [Demonstrates.] I burnt his name under the candles nine times, as I showed you just then on that piece of paper. And I would light the candle at night to burn while he was sleeping - of course, he wasn't with me, and when I would light the candle, I would knock on the wall three times and I would call his name. And when I burnt nine candles he came back, and he been back ever since.
Entry 2901
If yore loved one gone, yore man or yore husban' or whosomevah an' yo' want him back. Yo' git chew nine pink candles. First git chure parchment papah, yo' know dat white parchment papah, an' yo' write his name nine times on dis papah an' git chew nine wax candle. Dey say wax. Ah tried dat mahself. Whut ah'm tellin' yo' ah did dat mahself. So ah knows. An' set de candle on dis table an' every candle yo' sets, yo' moves it up a little. Yo' jis' move it up jisa speck. [This is the magic rite of diminishing distance similar to diminishing time, quantity, etc.]
(The first one you put down at the bottom of the paper?)
Yeah. Yo' see, yo' put it lak dat [demonstrates]. "Dat's de name, see - right there. See, dat's de name. Now, yo' done burned that one [candle], see. Now yo' moves it [next candle] up agin. [These candles are successively moved nearer to you.] Sometime it won't set if yo' put it at de end. Sometime yo' have tuh put it right direct in de center. [This candle in the center of a sheet of paper makes the magic quincunx - see No. 2799, p.802.] See, right in de center, fo' it tuh hold, cause sometime it'll creel ovah [probably means keel over]; but now when yo' light de candle, Wash it - yo' wash yore candle first. But chah turn it bottom upward so dat de wick won't git wet, an' yo' wash it off wit clean watah - jis' let de watah drip off it, lak that. Den yo' light chure candle. An' then yo' git that incense temple [temple incense] - dat goes wit dem can- dles. Yo' burn dat. Yo' put a little dribble - well, say it's a dram in anothah saucer. Den yo' put de candle ovah in dis saucer an' yo' burn dat light. See, dat makes de smoke dat goes with dis name an' dis candle. Now, sometime in burnin' dis candle it'll bring back 'fore nine days. An' he'll come unexpected. Yo' [when he appears at the door] gotta rush back an' pinch it out. Don't blow it out. Yo'll have tuh wet chure fingers an' pinch de light out. An' burn it in a tub lak a zinc, cause yo' know candles is somepin dat ketch fiah sometime when it fall ovah. An' yo' put it [candle saucer and perhaps incense saucer] in a tub an' yo' burn it in yore private room where yo' sleep. Dat means in yore bedroom - not in yore front [room], neight [right] in yore back [room]; neither in de sides [hall or side room if any]. Yo' gotta burn it right where yo' sleeps in yore bedroom tuh bring back yore loved one. It gotta be right dere where yo' at.
Entry 2902
You take the dead bones of somebody they's related to. You take nine candles [demonstrates]. Like that a candle like that, you turn that candle up- side down. You write the name of that person on that candle that way. From the bottom to the top. Then you burn that candle thataway [demonstrates]. (Wait a minute! Put that candle upright now, the way it belongs. Do you write the name on it now?) No, no. [Demonstrates.] (Then, all right - you turn the candle upside down, then you write the name from the top down to the bottom. All right. How many times did you say?)
[He did not say. This questioning device I use frequently.]
Nine times.
(Nine times. All right.)
Then you burn this candle - leave it stay down there. At the flicker of that candle thataway, things is going bad; but when the candle burn calm and straight, well then it's all right.
(But you said you burned down that candle, didn't you?)
No, write their name nine times, but you burns just three of the candles.
(Oh, just three of the candles. I see. What color do you burn there?)
Any color.
(I see.)
Wax.
(Just wax candles. You don't burn anything else with - that's all you do?)
Just the candles. (Well, what will that do? Make you [I turned off machine].) [The dead bones did not impress me, I asking no question about them. The important thing here is the flickering candle.]
Entry 2903
If you want someone dat's away from yo', you git chew a blue candle - git up at six 'clock in de mornin' and git chure blue candle and make yore wish, and write dere name on a piece of paper. Jest write dere name seven times on a piece of paper and fold it towards yo' [demonstrates] - dis way, to yuh and burn yore candle. When yo' burn it one hour yo' calls 'em; when you burn it another hour you calls em. You burn it three hours and call em. They will certainly come to that call - don't care how far they is, they will come.
Entry 2904
If a person leave an' yo' want 'em back, yo' burn dat candle and yo' burn sulphur. Yo' take a bran'-new box, jes' a five-cent box of sulphur, and yo' take a little piece of newspaper and yo' light dat piece of newspaper. And yo' call de person name and jes' dip yore hand in dere [the box] three times; and call dere name and while de paper be burning, yo' put dat sulphur in dere [burning paper]. Yo' know sulphur flames up like yellah, makes a different color. Drop it down dere three times and call dere name. Make a wish and burn dat sulphur three time a day. An' when dat sulphur be burning on and dose candles continously burning, dat 11 bring 'em back toward yo'.
Entry 2905
A pink can'le is lucky - a pink can'le will bring yo' prosperity. A blue candle is fo' health an' prosperity in de home. Black candle is death. Dat's bad - a black candle is bad. An' a white can'le brings a beautiful life - all de way down yo' past life, happy times. (Do you know how people burn these? Any special way?) Yassuh. Now yo' kin burn de can'les and after - when yo' start tuh burn 'em, say, "Name of de Father, Son and Holy Ghost." [Informant makes sign of cross.]
(Cross yourself?)
Yassuh, and after you say that you git down [on your knees] and ask fo' jest whatever yo' want - makes yore wishes, yo' know fo' whatever yo' want and that will sho' bring it tuh yo'. Burning de candle will sho' bring it to yo'. An' then yo' burn on Thursday. Always yo' burns a green candle fo' money, understand. But you always have to make the sign of the cross.
Entry 2906
Now, yo' kin take the black candle an' yo' kin burn it an' yo' kin kill 'em. Jis' burn that black candle an' pray lak dat [pray for that purpose].
Entry 2907
Ah would buy me a green candle an' burn de green candle an' put mah face to de east an' mah face in de west an' use de holy name Vah seven times - look to de east and look to de west an' use de holy name Vah seven times. [See how she changes 'put mah face to ''look."]
(How do you spell that?)
V-a-h. (vah.) Uh-huh. (When do you burn these green candles - how long?) Now, de ways of burnin' de green candles - ah lights 'em twelve a'clock in de day. See, if ah'm goin' tomorrah tuh git hired, ah'll burn it twelve a'clock - light it twelve a'clock today an' burn it smack up an' go up an' ask fo' me a job. Jis' burn one candle. Jis' lak ah'm goin' tuh work today an' ah want me a job an' ah know where ah'm goin' to, ah jis' burn dat one candle an' go on up an' ast me a job. Use de holy name Vah.
Entry 2908
(Let me get this straight now.) You wet your fingers with saliva and just pull the flame to you. You don't touch the flame or anything at first, just keep pulling it to you nine times.) That's right. (What did you say about a drinking man?) If he's drinking, put a teaspoonful of whiskey in there. (In the saucer?) Right around that candle whilst its burning. You see, you burn it up in three fifteen minutes. Well, this fifteen minutes you burn it, you see, and tell him what you want him to do and pull that light to you. Blow it out in the next fif- teen minutes when you get ready. You kin wait until the night or tomorrow - just be sure you burn it them three fifteen minutes. But burn it up and when you get that candle burn, that whiskey will be gone. About time it get down to about like that, the whiskey will be gone. And he'll be back in three days - inside of three days he'll be back to you. Ah'm telling you whut ah know.
(But in order to bring him back, you must have that whiskey in that saucer.)
Yes, sir, have that whiskey around that candle.
Entry 2909
Take a white candle to make a man love you and stay with you, don't get. away from you. If he go, he can't stay.
(Well, how do you do that?)
You take a white candle and roll it in sugar, sugar and salt - salt that's not never been used out of. Just roll it, roll it good, roll it good about fifteen minutes - see, you roll it on a paper. And then you take a match.
(A match?)
Take a match and you hold that candle right on there and light it, and you know, smoke it enough for it to melt for the paste [melted wax, sometimes called sponge] to come out, you know, and then you place it right in the middle of a saucer.
(Wait! You stick this candle down on the saucer?)
Yes. [The candle is set in the melted wax at the center of the saucer.] And if he is a drinker, you know, and likes to drink, well, you put you about a tea- spoonful of whiskey around that candle, and then you light that candle and you burn that candle fifteen minutes and all the whilst you burn that candle, well [demonstrates], you be doing just like this, you know - like this with the flame, you see, from the candle. (You wet your two fingers in your mouth, and then you go to the candle and pretend that you are sort of pulling this flame towards you - keep pulling it towards you.) Yes, that's it. And make your wishes what you want him to come back and do and what you don't want him to do - just like - you burn it fifteen minutes.
(At what time do you burn that?)
Any time, any time. Burn it any time, but in the three fifteen minutes you burns the candle up - in the three fifteen minutes. And when that candle is burnt up, and all that whiskey's gone, and [then] inside of five or nine days, he'll be back - he'll be back to you. [The two preceding versions of flame pulling and whiskey are from the same informant but separated by 70 cylinders. I had her brought back because some of her material was badly recorded.1
Entry 2910
Take nine broomstraws - in fac' yo' kin take one straw an' break it up into nine pieces, an' yo' kin take dat straw an' lay it on a plate. An' lay dat straw on de bottom of a plate an' yo' set a candle light, an' yo' burn dat candle light eve'y mawnin' fo' 'bout twenty or thirty minutes. An' have it set right in de midst of those straws, an' yo' burn it eve'y mawnin' fo' 'bout nine mawnin's. Den yo' put it out. When yo' put it out yo' put dat name in de bottom of it, an' dat's fo' food. Yo' always keep plenty food in de home.
(What color candle do you use?)
Yo' use a white candle. Yo' could use a green candle - it's mo' faster, but yo' use a white candle.
Entry 2911
Well, if for instant, say, you got a husband - a man, and he's done left you, you take a white candle and you burn it. That's to draw him back to you. All right, then when you get him back to you, you get a blue candle - that's for true love. A pink candle is for success, see. All right, that's what you do. (Well, how would you burn that blue candle? Or that white candle to bring him back, for example?) With his name.
(Explain the whole thing to me.)
Oh, explain the whole thing?
(Yes.)
You write his name three times and you put it under a saucer. You take a saucer and turn it upside down and you put the candle on top of that, burn it.
(Burn the candle - the white candle?)
The white candle - that's to draw him.
(Back?)
Yes. (Well, do you burn that any particular time, or day, any particular length of time, or what?) See, this is burned completely out.
(Oh, burn it completely out?)
Completely burn it until hit makes a - takes effect on him to bring him back. See. It's according to the person's constitution. You see, sometime you don't have to burn them long - about two or three weeks. It's according to the con- stitution. Some people is [more resistant to candles]. (I see. Now, suppose he comes back, then what do you do with that blue candle there?) All right, you burn the blue candle - that's for true love.
(And how would you burn it?)
The same way. The same way - to keep his name completely under there. You see, you conquer him - you conquer anybody with their name.
(And then what was the other candle?)
The pink - that's for success. You'll be successful. You see, you burn the three candles - the white is to draw, blue is for true love, and pink is for success.
Entry 2912
(What have you heard about that?)
Well, if you have a fellow and he will leave home and you wanted him back, why you get you a candle - and you go out to the Crackerjack Drug Store some place. (To what drug store?) It's a drug store in New Orleans called the Crackerjack Drug Store on Rampart Street. And you kin get you some candles for a quarter - just pink-looking candles, not white. You'd get you some lump sugar. And you write his name down nine times and you take that - you know, put that candle on top of that name.
(What do you write the name on?)
A piece of writing paper.
(All right.)
You take that writing paper and you write the name nine times, and then you see, you have that candle up there and you set the nome to it. And you put those nine lumps of sugar around them then, makes your wish, and light that candle, and then he'll know the woman is - and he'll have to come back.
(Do you light those candles at any certain time?)
Yes, sir.
(What time?)
Well, about nine - about nine till eleven.
(In the night or morning?)
Well, you kin do it in the morning or you kin do it at night.
(And you burn it until he comes back? Or do you burn it for a certain time?)
No, you just burn - see, burn it from nine till eleven just for a couple of days and nat'rally, why he'll come back. (You take a piece of paper and you put it on something [not flammable], and then you melt some wax, and then you stick this candle on top of that paper.) Yes, sir - piece of writing paper. (And you put this paper down under the candle and you put these nine lumps of sugar in front of the candle in a circle.) But you have to write his name on that paper.
(I understand - nine times.)
Yes.
(Do you write the name, one right under each other? Or any way?)
No, just write it under each other.
(One right under each other in a line?)
In a line.
Entry 2913
They takes a cord string and they measure [foottrack] from the toe - thisaway [demonstrates].
(Back to the heel?)
Yes. Put a knot in the head at the toe, and one in the middle, and one exact on the heel. You take that cord - you measure it. You take that cord, see, and you take a black candle and you make nine notches in the black candle, and you stick that [knotted string] in the candle and burn it upside down. (How would you stick that string in the candle?) You put the string on the side of candle and you stick it in there - pins in it.
(You hold that string onto the candle while sticking pins in it.)
You hold the candle [demonstrates] and just stick a pin in the candle and the string here - right at the toe and you stick it like that. And then you burn it upside down. (You put three pins in there [for toe, middle and heel] - and you burn the candle upside down.) [See margin-titles with pins.] Yes, sir.
(How long do you burn that candle?)
You burn it - one hour Monday, one hour Wednesday and one hour Friday, until you make, burns up those nine notches. You got your candle and you put your notches in it - nine notches. And after the nine days, then you got the case, you see.
(What would they do that for?)
To make you move. (What would the burning of this candle do to me? And that string, what will that do to me?) Oh, that make you travel far away - go on about your business. Travel away off.
Entry 2914
That'll kill you. (Do you know how they are supposed to burn those?) Well, you take nine. (Black candles. Take nine black candles.) And you set five, you know, straight up like that [demonstrates]. And you get some little cups and you put four in them so they wouldn't touch the floor [and start a fire], and you burn the other four bottom upwards, and in nine days time you are supposed to die. (I see." Well, what do you do with that ninth candle? What about that?) [Why I do not understand will be explained later.] Ninth? You got to have a odd one.
(Oh, I see. You set that in a cup there?)
Yeah, you put it in there. There was a lady burned 'em on my aunt.
(I see. Well now, please explain that again. I can't hear with the noise.)
You see you take nine black candles - they are about this high [demonstrates].
(From the floor you mean?)
From the floor.
(About four feet high?)
Yes. They black - they are $1.50 apiece. And you take five of them and you know, you burn 'em like that. You light it right there [demonstrates].
(I see, so - standing straight up.)
Yes, and you take the other four, but you take a little tin [can] and, you know, so it wouldn't touch the floor, and you put 'em in there and you burn the other four bottom upwards. [The wick is cut off and a new wick is made at bottom of candle.] But you have your name [on paper] up under them candles, burning, you see, and by them being so high, when they burn down, you see, in the ninth day, if they be done burnt down, you know, before the ninth day, well, you die.
(You die, I see. What do you do with that ninth candle - that odd candle?)
[This shows how carefully I listen to an informant. What happened to the ninth candle?] Well, you see that have to be a odd candle for to make you pass out. It can't be even, it had to be odd.
(Well, don't they burn that ninth candle?)
Burns the ninth candle.
(Well, how do they burn that?)
Well, you see you got five up.
(Oh, I see. And four down?)
And four down.
(I see. I understand now.)
[I understand because my informant has said, "You got five up." At the begin- ning of her rite she says, "You set five...get some little cups and you put four in them." She says four when she means five; the four upside-down candles al- ready being in her mind. Many times I immediately pick up this sort of thing but in the usual noise and uncertainties of collecting an occasional unexplained action does occur. It is one of the reasons why I am inclined to over-question, sometimes beating a dead horse.]
Entry 2915
Get you a John Ruskin cigar.
(A John Ruskin cigar.)
Cigar, and put it in a glass. Get a lump of ice and put it in a tub. And when you gon'a go before the judge, you have glasses round in there and have a candle, nine candles, and let somebody - when you going down to the court - light those candles and have that glass setting in the center with them two John Ruskin cigar in it, and light them and let them be smoking. And have them candles burning. The judge will discharge you. (And you get a cake of ice - here's your cake of ice - and you put this glass on top of the ice with the two cigars in it?) Set it on top of the ice with the two cigars in it and all the glasses around, but you got to buy new glasses what ain't been used.
(And how many glasses do you use around that cake of ice?)
Nine.
(And what color candles do you put in those nine glasses?)
White. (Oh, white. I see. And these candles and the cigars are burning at the same time?)[See comment.] Burning while your case is going on - while you go into court.
(But they must be John Ruskin cigars?)
John Ruskin cigars.
(I see.)
[An ordinary water glass is put in the center of the cake of ice and into it are set two John Ruskin cigars. Circled about this glass with cigars stand nine white candles in glasses. The candles are lighted and apparently the cigars also; but the latter will not "be smoking." On this cake-of-ice altar, a cigar- smoking judge is confined by the magic circle of pure white candles - See Magic Circle, p.123, and the circular candle-rites of Doctor Yousee's interview. The glass with cigars in the center of four icy corners also completes a magic quin- cunx (p.710), giving us an unusual quincuncial altar.]
Entry 2916
You could take holy water and sprinkle it around - just like there any- thing that you had that you thought somebody was going to steal it. You take holy water and make nine steps round your article - whatever it was - like it was this here [my record- ing machine on the table between usl and you had an idea that somebody was going to steal it. Just make a circle round that nine times and set a black candle.
(I see. And what do you do? You take nine steps around that?)
Nine circles around that.
(Oh, you make nine circles around it? I see. And then what will that do?)
After you takes your ninth circle, then you light it.
(Light the candle. What will that do?)
That will - they'll be afraid, they won't even come around your house. [For circle or ring as protective device, see Magic Circle, p.123f., Nos. 2197-2198, p.626.]
Entry 2917
(Well, did you tell me something about doing something with the sub- poena?) [Among other things while machine turned off.] Yassuh, yo' take de subpoena an' yo' git chew some ice, an' git chew a black candle an' yo' take dat an' yo' put it on dat ice, an' take dat black candle an' set it up ovah there. Dat's fo' if yo' got de subpoena from de co't. Dat's tuh keep dem from talkin' on yo' [testifying against you]. [The problem of the shut-off machine I have discussed in the Introduction. Here I choose an awkward way to ask for a repetition of the subpoena material.]
Entry 2918
See, heah, yo' git his subpoena, when he supposed tuh meet co't, an' yo' git chew a white wax candle. Yo' take dat wax candle an' yo' cut it - not de part whut yo' burn, it's de bottom part, an' yo' cut it till yo' cut to de wick. [Make a new wick at bottom.] Yo' git chew a piece of ice big enough tuh burn [last] as long as co't lasts. Yo' light dat candle an' yo' git chew some sugah an' yo' - a whole nickel wuth of sugah dat's nevah been used, an' take it an' po' all around on dat ice an' on top of dat candle, an' set subpoena on dat ice an' set de candle on top of it an' light it, an' keep it a'burnin' an' when he go tuh co't de judge will feel his sympathy. If he don't git clear, he wouldn't git much time - he would git a light sentence.
[A light for a light sentencel]
Entry 2919
If they stole somepin from you and you want to get it back, if you know the person. If you didn't know 'em, you could get it back. If you wanted to know who the party Was, you could get the Bible and you could find out who the party Was and then you could get to 'em more so. But now, if a person would steal somepin from you and you want to get it back; if you could get a key - see, if you could get a key and get that party's name. See. You get that key and put it on a string. You get this party's name and you get you one of these dark candles - it's not a black one, it's a lavender-looking candle but it looks like its black. You get you one of them and you get these people's name and you write that name on that candle, but you take this candle and you burn the candle upside down in- stead of burning his name upside down. You turn your candle over and you trim the ends - the opposite end of it - you trim it and light that part of the can- dle. You got his name and you write his name on that candle, see. But the deeper it is - you write his name as deep in the candle as you can get it. If you can get his name, write it as deep in there as you can get it. You take that key and you put that key just like this [demonstrates]. Here's your candle here and you lay that key right across by that candle in this manner - just like that.
(Sort of like a cross.)
Yes, sir. Just like [demonstrates] I got my finger - see, on that angle just like that. That's the candle here, and lay that key just like that.
(It isn't a right angle, but it's about a 45 degree angle.)
A 45 degree angle, yes sir. Just a cross. [Candle and key are crossed. The key is laid flat on the surface of the candle-container so that it touches the bottom of the candle. As you look at the candle, the key is not horizontal or at right angles to your vision; it is at a 45 degree angle. If you mentally prolong the bottom of the candle, key and candle would form a flat letter 'X' cross or a flattened St. Andrew cross. As a matter of fact this is an upside-down (reversed) tau cross or "T" cross, also called St. Anthony cross. If we include the circular bottom of the candle or circular hole through the key, we have the crux ansata or Egyptian ankh, symbol of life and prosperity.] And he going to come back and he come back with a piece of yours that he's done taken from you. He might - he ain't going to come back to you but he going to come close around wheresomever you are at, trying to sell it. See, he may not know it's yours. He going to try to be selling it or something of that sort, or maybe have it on, and you going to recognize it and you can catch him thataway. That'll bring him back.
Entry 2920
A green candle's for money, see. (How would you burn that?) You take three green candles, just like this [demonstrates]. Fix 'em just like the - you know, kind of a round.
(You fix the three together? Tie in a circle?) [Tie into a triangle.]
Yes, into a shape. You cut the top of 'um off. You write the person's name nine times - whose ever name you wanta be on that candle, nine times. You put it in a saucer with some cinnamon, sugar, steel dust and quicksilver, and you let it burn out there. And whatever you want 'em to do, they come and do that, after that, after that candle's burned out.
Entry 2921
Dey said tuh take a black candle an' de person's name dat chew want out of de way, write it on dat candle and burn it down; but place a mirror behin' dat candle and when it burns out it wouldn't be long befo' de person dies.
Entry 2922
Say, when you giving a party and you wanta have luck and success in your party, say, just 'fore your party starts, you get you seven candles. (What kind? What color candles did you say?) Red, and set 'em on your table in a round row [circle] and you light those seven candles. Well, you let 'em stay lit, say about twenty or thirty minutes. Well, you blows 'em out. Well, all right, after the crowd is gone - well, say the party break up at eleven o'clock; just about nine-thirty, well you start 'em burning again and burn 'em about thirty minutes. Say that brings luck and success to you.
Entry 2923
(How do you do that?)
Say you cut it - take a piece of brown paper or piece of paper, but if the person is colored you use brown paper and if they white you use white paper. You take an indelible pencil and you write the name across it just like you Want it, you understand. Then you set the black candle on there and burn it for nine days.
(What is that shape you cut out there, you say?)
[Informant with imaginary scissors and paper had cut out something.]
In the shape of a coffin. Then you write it all kind of ways across and so on and then you set it [candle] right in the middle of it [coffin] and burn it for nine days, the black candle, and they sure will die - they sure will.
Entry 2924
If the pitchure is on a tintype - from my experience, not no paper, on tintype - they can kill you with that. Take and bury it bottom up and [or] then they can take and set it in ink, put nine black candles around it in the shape of a coffin and burn it for nine days. The best time to burn it is at night, whilst you sleep so it gets the spirits on them.
(That's your photograph?)
Yes, on tintype.
(Now, what else do they - for what other purpose do they burn candles?)
To evil?
(Yes.)
To kill a person and put 'em on a drift, you know, have 'em sleepyfied?
(Yes, how would they do that?)
Well, you just takes a red candle.
(A red candle.)
And [or] a black candle. And they burns that candle in ink for nine days, you'll just drift, just drift away, and you don't know what - you don't feel sick or nothing, only just drowsy and sleepy all the time. See. [New Orleans, La., (822), 1187:1+5.].
Entry 2925
(She gets the photograph and what does she do then?)
She takes and she lays it out in ink.
(In ink? What do you mean in ink?)
Ink that you write with - black ink, and she lays it out in there. (You mean she puts the ink down there and then she puts the photograph on top of the ink?) She puts it in the ink.
(Oh, this saucer or something - puts it in there?)
Yes.
(All right.)
And she puts these brass tacks around it, nine brass tacks, and nine candles.
(What do you mean the brass tacks? Just lay them around there?)
No, just lay - they's real coffin tacks.
(And she just lays them around the saucer?)
No, she sticks them in the wood, what she got laying out there. See, she have a special desk [altar] for that.
(I see.)
That's when you go to somebody that do that kind of work for you, you see. They got a special desk [altar] for that, you understand. She put these nine brass tacks down [round] in there and set your picture in it, and she speak to hit, just like as if I was, "I'm going to kill you." Well, that's the way she talk to this photograph. And she light these nine [black] candles there and in nine days wheresomever you at, it'll kill you.
(The photograph has to be a tintype, I see.)
No, paper.
Entry 2926
(Tell me the whole thing all over again about that doll baby. What did they do with that?) You see, you takes a doll - you make it like in the shape of a person. Then you put my name - put the name there. Write your name all along there. Well, I name this person such-and-such a name - that's the person. Well, you'll take that doll and you'll put it in a box. Well, every morning you take that and you'll take a black candle and you'll set that doll, set that down there, put it on top of the box, but with the person's name who you want to do that to. Then you do that for nine mornings, and after that, you'll take that doll and you'll put - make a little coffin and you'll put that doll in a coffin, and you get you nine red beans and you put 'em in there, and then you'll take that person's name and then with that doll, and you'll take and take a lemon and you'll bury that doll. But you see, the doll don't get in the lemon, but you'll put their name and put that doll in the ground, and then put their name and the lemon on top of it and bury it.
(What will that do?)
Well, that make 'em all upset - that will make 'em wander, see.
Entry 2927
Yo' git up every mawnin' at 'fore six a'clock an' scrub an' den yo' burn yore candles. Yo' scrub wit chamber lye an' oil of anise, sugah an' lye an' saltpetah, an' garlic an' cinnamon. Yo' do dat aroun' six 'clock in de mawnin'. Yo' buy all dese things. It'll bring luck to yore place. [Many examples of scrubbing for business, as well as the ingredients used here, will be found in subsection BUSI- NESS AND CUSTOMERS, pp.669-744. Candles are usually not added to the scrubbing.]
Entry 2928
Go to the railroad track for spikes. (For what?) For spikes.
(What do you mean? Those big iron spikes that hold the rails down?)
Yes.
(What do they do with those?)
They take one of those spikes - like if you go out on the railroad track and say - you ain't got no - you haven't had no prosperity in your crop probably.
(Your what?)
Your crops and all that - like you make corn.
(Oh, your crop - the things you grow.)
The things you grow. You go to the railroad track and get a big spike and bring this spike back and burn you a candle over that spike, and when that, re- gardless of what length of time - you take that candle when that candle goes out, burns out there - you take that spike that was burning under that candle and was laying in your house, and bury that spike under your steps and let it stay under your steps for nine days. Bury it with the head up and the straight [side] down. Take it as near as you can to the center of your field and dig a deep, deep hole and bury it, after you take it up after the nine days under your steps where you walked over it. Take it in the center of your field, as near as you can and bury it in your field, deep, deep so you won't plow it or cultivation won't bring it up. And let it stay in the middle of your field, and you'll have better crops, bigger corn, better cotton - higher cotton and all that. (You say you burn this candle and say a novena?) [Novena shows machine had been stopped.] Yeah.
(I see. What sort of a candle do you burn for that?)
A white candle.
(Why white?)
A white candle is best to use unless you using something against some person. A white candle is the best always. [This is one of my few farming rites. As a matter of fact I never asked about them, considering them general folklore.]
Entry 2929
Yo' take some of dis same solution yo' know, salt watah, an' put it all in de room yo' know, all aroun', an' then yo' burn those little [white] tapers, too. Burn that all aroun' an' yo' git this bergamot an perfume de room with that, yo' understan', an' that's good luck.
(That will rent the room for you.)
Ah've had experience in that mahself.
Entry 2930
Well, say for n'instance if you are in trouble - anything of that sort.
(Anything.)
If you in trouble, you take a red candle - for n'instance, you take a red candle and you get the judge's name. You get the judge's name and you write his name like I 'fore told you, but it's a diff'rent candle - you write on the red candle. You burn that candle. (You write the name down?) Yes, sir. Down. Now, say for n'instance that you goin' to go to trial - today's the day which is the 13th. All right, you goin' to go to trial, say the 20th. Well, you might get you a subpoena to go to trial - maybe today and get that sub- poena. You got the judge's name. Well, you start from today. You get you a red candle and you burn that candle daily. See, you write that judge's name down on that candle. Now, as you writing his name down on that candle and you burnin' his name, you take and you write the judge's name down nine times on one piece of paper, and you keep that in your right shoe. You wear your underwears on the wrong side until the day of trial. And on the day of trial you still got your paper in the shoe. If that paper should happen to wear out, which some people sweats in the feet aplenty - that wears out, well, then, you write that name over nine times and put it in the right shoe again and keep your underwears on the wrong side. When you leave on the morning of court to go to trial, you turn your bed upside down. You leave the whole house in fact in - you know, the whole house upset. See. And you go ahead on to trial. When you go to trial, it won't be nothing to that. That'll be over with - without lawyer, no money or nothing.
Entry 2931
Lak if ah wus goin' tuh co't today, ah'd go tuh de rivah an' ah'd git me - lak if ah had tuh go tuh co't tomorrow, ah'd go tuh de rivah tonight, see. Well de watah's muddy. Ah'd git me a quart bottle of watah. An' ah'd take me about a nickel of sugah, white sugah, an' ah'd put in dere. Ah'd take a lemon an' ah'd open it an' ah'd squeeze de juice of dat lemon in dere. Ah would take de judge's name, see. Lak if his name is Judge Andrews, ah'd take his name. See, dat'd be fo' mahself, an' some honey an' some sugah. Write his name an' git me a white candle.
(Would you write his name just once?)
Well, dat's all jis' in a co't case. Er, no, yo' write his name nine times on de piece of papah.
(How would you write it?)
Well, yo' kin write - fo' de judge, yo' write it [demonstrates] disaway an', write it disaway an' that way an' come back an' write it that way.
(Cross it.)
Yes. An' yo' leave that burn at night, an' leave dat lemon - dat watah from de rivah set there to that lemon. Tomorrah mawnin' when yo' git up tuh git ready tuh go tuh co't, yo' take some of dat watah an' yo' drink it, a glassful, of dose little glasses - take one lak dat full [demonstrates] an' drink dat. An' when yo' be goin' out, yo' leave from de house, yo' take de rest of de watah an' throw it behin' yo', but don't nevah look aroun' - jis' throw dat behin' yore back, see. An' when yore case come up, well, he'll keep on settin' it back. He'll nevah call yo', jis' keep on settin' it back until yore case nevah be called again. Dat makes yo' win de case - it nevah be's called. (Now when you burn that candle, do you burn it just a little bit or burn it all night long?) Yo' let it burn all night long till, yo' know until it burns down.
Entry 2932
(How do they burn a candle on your photograph?)
Well now, a photograph, if I want - you mean that if I want to harm you or.
(Yes, either harm you or do any good or any way.)
Well now, if it's to harm you - I tell you if it's to harm you. I tell you what they do to your photograph. I use a candle again, but I use a black candle. You see, you get a black candle. You gets a black candle and instead of writing the name down thisa- way, you write it around the candle. See, you write that name [demonstrates], like you start here, you write it here - every, about every inch, you write the name. You take the photograph and you turn it upside down, what I mean, turn it on the head, and you burns it by that black candle. You take one of - if you can get two of 'em, you get two [photographs]. It would be better. You got one there by the black candle and you [get] the other one and you pin it or shove it up under your fire- hearth, you see. It's not going to burn up under there. Just put it in that fire-hearth, you make all the fire you want. You put it up under that fire- hearth, but you put it on the left-hand corner of your fire-hearth and put it as high as you can get it. And you can make fire and everything else, it's not going to burn at all. It's going to do more harm than anything else, it's not going to do no good; if it burns, it ain't going to do no good. See. But it's best not to let it burn. And, if I was going to do that to you - see, if I was going to do that to you, I would put the photograph, the second one, on the left- hand side of my fire-hearth. And I'm got one on the mantelpiece, upside down, burning by the candle. I'm got your name and I get me what you call a melt.
(A what?)
A melt.
(What's that?)
[I wanted to be certain he is not talking about melted wax - see CANDLE SPONGE BURIED, p.848f.] That's something that looks like a - it comes from a cow, looks like a cow's tongue almost, but it's called the melt.
(The melt.)
[Melt of course is milt or spleen. For example: "If hogs are slaughtered in autumn and the small part of the milt lies toward the head...sign of an open winter; if the large part...a severe winter. At times...belief differently ex- pressed...if the milt...ends in a blunt point...a cold winter...tapers to a point, a warm winter. Milt is usually called melt are rarely spleen." (FACI, 2ed.,1965, p.28.) With the original belief, I debated some time whether to use melt or milt. Moreover, I broke it up into two parts; using milt for the first
(No. 307) and spleen for the second (No.308) - FACI, 1st ed.,1935, p.12.]
I'd get me one of those melts, see. I'd get that melt, you see. I'd get that and I'm going to spread it. I spread it. I get your name and if I can get any of your filth at all, I'll cut that [melt] open and I'm going put it into this melt. I'll put this in your [my] melt and I'll keep it hung up there for three days in that fire-hearth where your picture is. Then from there I take and I goes bury that melt. I bury that melt and when I bury that melt, I take this picture from there and I buries it alongside of that melt. And after burying that picture with that melt, I cover it and I lights me another candle, but I move that candle. The first candle I got, I won't light it there [in the fire- hearth], I'll light it in a dark place. See, I'll [put] this candle in a dark place for nine days. I'll limit it to nine days and in nine days I'll have you just where I want you. Yes, sir.
(Do you light that black candle at any particular time?)
Well, I got - I light my black candle. See, if I light a candle, I light it at nine o'clock in the morning, I light it at three, and I light it at six - that's three times a day, that's all.
Entry 2933
Take de scissors - lak if yore place is haunted, yo' kin take a pair of scissors an' open dem see, an' set chew a light yo' see, an' anything come round dere dat's a evil spirit, dey go away. (You set any particular kind of light?) A candle, a pink candle - eithah a white candle.
Entry 2934
When yore ole man is gone away an' yo' wanta bring him back, if he left any ole dirty socks - if yo' kin git any of his ole socks, git de left sock. It Wants tuh be dirty though, not clean. An' yo' take it an' yo' go out in front of yore do'. Well, yo' do it 'bout between three an' fo' a'clock in de mawnin'. Go out in front of yo' do' an' dig a hole an' bury dat sock an' cover it up. Yo' go in de house an' yo' git chew a piece of tablet an' yo' write his name nine times on dat tablet. Den yo' git chew a black candle, put dat piece of papah down an' set de candle on it.
(Just a moment. Do you put the names up or down?)
Put the names right across.
(No. Do you put the names up so that you can see them, or down?)
Put the names [face] down. Then set the candle on it an' burn that candle, an' in three days dey'll return. Dat's whut ah know 'bout dat.
(But you must leave that sock out there?)
Yo' leave that sock out there until dey return. Ah've heard of men takin' a woman's stockin's an' makin' her come back. Ah've heard of men takin' 'em an' do em in de same manner.
Entry 2935
Now de black candle - take a black candle and write a person's name on it right straight up and down, jest all up and down and burn it. An' if you don't want them to come to yore place any more, after you burn it you take a sponge and name it after them and bury it in the back. They will never come to that place any more.
(Take a sponge you say?)
Yassuh, take de candle sponge after it's [wax is] melted - de candle sponge after it's burnt.
(Oh, you mean that melted candle - you call that the sponge?)
Yes.
(What do you mean, put it in the back?)
In the back yard. They'll not come back to that place any more.