Browse:All is Spirit (Volume 1, entries 35–37)
All is Spirit
Volume 1, entries 35–37. Source context: SPIRITS → GHOSTLORE. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 35
De woman kin take or either a man, ah guess - but chew kin take a dozen needles an' put 'em in watah an' let 'em stay in dere ten days an' give someone de water to drink off. Dey say it's a deadly poison - say it jes' de same as yo' drink a needle - feel like some pins is sticking yo' in de inside - somepin like, jes' like if a person wanted to put a spell of some kind on - yo'd have dat pain jes' lak yo'd swallowed some needles yo' know. It take effect on yo' dat-a-way. Whut dey would do to stop it ah don't know.
[Just as the person's essential qualities were in the bath water (see No. 29)
so also the essential qualities of the needle absorbed by a bath are transferred to a person drinking needle-water.]
Entry 36
Don't leave de daid sticks of a match in yore house, cuz it gives yo' bad luck.
(What do you do with them?)
Yo' burn 'em up in de fiah, burn 'em up.
(Why do they give you bad luck, have you any idea?)
Cuz dey ain't good tuh be in de house, dey same as de daid - dey's not live matches, dere daid matches.
Entry 37
[Talking to so-called inanimate objects is a common practice.]
Why, if yo' wanta make people come in a place, yo' jes' take de pot salt an' carry it all round de place an' talk to it, "Ah want chew tuh draw a crowd at mah place." Why, de nex' day or two yo' be successful - be a crowd at dat place.