Browse:Arrestation and Paralysis (Volume 1, entries 749–753)
Arrestation and Paralysis
Volume 1, entries 749–753. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DOCTOR AND DOCTOR: TWO OPPOSING SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 749
" [Arrestation is a stoppage, a suspension of action caused by magic - the Sleeping Beauty theme being a famous example.] It was a man in Newport News that was giving a show. During the show the cop says, "You are raising too much excitement" - because the people was hollering and laughing. The cop walked up there to arrest him and he pointed his finger to him and says, "I'm not doing any harm. I'm working for an honest living like you are." 'I'm going to arrest you." He says, "You cannot." He pointed his finger at him and the cop stopped. He went right on selling his medicine. The cop remained right there. After awhile he took his finger and said, "You pass on." And the cop went on about his business. And he wasn't arrested neither. [Old Point, Comfort, Va., (32), Ed.; Newport News, Va.,1924, informant not realizing cop a part of show.]
The editor says the policeman was part of the show; finger-pointing remains narrated action.
Entry 750
(All right - what about that broom?)
Ah say ah knowed a woman that she was tricked with de broom. She was sweeping her house, grabbed that broom one morning - she left it out on the porch. You see, somebody had angry in 'em against her and come along and dressed her broom some way or 'nother. And one morning she went and grabbed that broom, and when she grabbed that broom she couldn't turn it loose - she was just taken with pains all in her hand, couldn't turn that broom loose.
(Both hands?)
Yes, sir. Well, they had sent and get the hoodoo doctor. When the hoodoo doctor come he just walked in and tole 'er to, "turn that broom loose - what's de matter wit you." And her hands flew open. It could have been the same man that did that, you see [but see No. 641, p.217]. Well, he dressed her hands an' an'int [anoint] them around here and wrapped them up and she got all right.
Entry 751
My grandmother had a very dear friend, it was a woman, and she came to see her. Sitting, talking, while she Was doing her sewing, she began to spit around on the floor. The conversation continued on. And when she got ready to go, my grandmother started to rise to go with her, and she entreated her to sit still and not to get up. She insisted on her setting down and so she didn't get up. And after she had gone quite awhile, when she started to get up she couldn't even move. She remained that way for a long while. They worked on her so she could get up, but she never did straighten up. [Fredericksburg, Va., (74), Ed.; in Orange Co., Va.,1886.]
Entry 752
My husband rented a house in Staunton, Virginia, and went to Pittsburg to make money to buy a home. While he Was in Pittsburg, this man he rented the house from, I used to go around with his wife and I was very nice to her. I used to give her lunch every Sunday night when we came from church. My husband had written to me to ask Mr. Dodd to look after the hogs being butchered. Of course I told Mrs. Dodd about it and she told me, "Don't bother Mr. Dodd. Mr. Dodd says that he don't kill his own hogs and he ain't going to kill anybody else's." So I said, "All right, then." So when he seen me having the men kill the hogs he said to his wife, "I wonder how it comes Mrs. Baker didn't have me look over it?" She said, "I don't know but I told you that's the way some colored people does." So he asked me and I said, "Your wife told me not to ask you to help about the hogs." Of course that was his wife and I wasn't going to bother. I said, "My husband has sent money to pay you." After that then she wanted me to go to church with her. They had a revival. I didn't want to go with her because she was going with another man. My husband was working and taking care of me and I didn't want to do nothing wrong. So I told her, "You know they say that church is condemned. You know my husband ain't here and I'm afraid something might happen and there would be nobody here to take care of the children." So that was my get-off to keep from going with her. So her daughter, she was a young woman, used to come down there and set with me. And she said, "Mrs. Baker, my mother has fixed something for you. It's in a bottle and I found it and took it and put it over in the orchard. And don't you eat nothing she brings you." They had an old-home week there. They decorate the wagons and show what they have to sell. Her and I went down to see the parade, me and the young girl. So she says to me, "There's that bottle" - when we was coming back. And I tried to get it but I couldn't get it. Even my hand was right on it and I couldn't pick it up. And I asked her to get it. So she got it and I come on home with it and put it under lock and key. And that very day then, the old woman didn't miss the bottle, she brought me beets and potatoes and beans and a lot of nice things and corn bread. I didn't eat it because the girl had told me not too. It look very tempting. So I said to the kids, "Don't you all want some of this, things that Mrs. Dodd brought me?" And they said, "No, mama. What you don't eat, we don't want none." So I took the food she brought me and scraped it out to the chickens. The chickens what was on the outside of my wire fence, they ete it and they all went blind. So when I go upstairs, I did - and look at this bottle and take it down to the doctor. Yes, he was a real doctor. Doctor [Somebody] of Staunton. I asked if he knew what was in the bottle. Well, he named all the things that he knowed was in the bottle, but he said he would have to send the bottle away to have it ana- lyzed to see what was in it. But she had new nails, new tacks, new needles, and my hair I guess, and night water. So he says, "Don't get none of that in you." So I saves the bottle and carried it to Pittsburg to show it to my husband. And I had this daughter along with me. She and her mother didn't get along. She said to me one day, 'Mrs. Baker, why don't you do away with that. Why do you keep on keeping it?" So I says to myself, "I don't know what to do with it. I'm afraid to put it in running water because it might run me away. Then I put it in the fire and burnt it. I got the girl to burn it. All the different colors you ever saw came off that stuff while burning!
Entry 753
Yo' kin go out to de fo'ks of de road an' if yo' got anything tuh use, why yo' kin turn either way - dis fo'k of de road run dat-a-way and de othah fo'k go dat-a-way. Yo' turn each fo'k an' throw fo' whosomevah yo' got backwards. Go ahead an' tell de Lord dat he go.
(What would you throw down in that road backwards? What would you throw?)
Well, ah had a fellah heah some yeahs ago dat ah went tuh when ah first got dis stroke, an' he said dat somebody had fixed me dat way - dat had some aigs, and he tole me tuh git nine aigs. Ever' night roun' midnight ah was tuh take mah car an' go down to dat fo'k of de road an' turn backwards an' throw one of de aigs 'ginst it, an' say to de Lord aftah ah throw de aig, "He's [You're] able tuh do all things," an' throw de aig away.
(Do you throw that down in both forks of the road?)
Yeah, but not de same night. Yo' got'a ketch all fo' of de fo'ks, yo' see, at diff'rent nights de same hour.
(Suppose you tell me the whole story of how it happened to you - it began.)
Well, some yeahs ago ah used tuh be with a woman sometime an' ah got married agin - ah didn't marry her. An' she got mad at me an' she wanta hurt me. So she went to a man up heah an' ask him tuh kill me. Dis man came [to my] home an' he gave some medicine tuh rub me. Ah got up outa de bed an' took hol' him an' said, "Captain, yo' cain't kill me - yo' cain't kill me." So he went away an' tole de woman dat he couldn't do anything to me. She went den - paid a transfer - paid seven dollars tuh go tuh Beaufort [South Carolina] - ovah heah to dis man, an' de man all he done was dis - fes' take [the use of] dis han' away. Ah don't know whut he did now, but he's a fellah - whatsomevah he did [in Beaufort] it come ovah heah [to Sumter - ninety-nine miles by crow-flight]. De woman, she sent me five dollahs by another fellah an' prob'bly dat might be how de way dey do it, too - when ah took de money put dis fellah han', dat might cause dis han' tuh git 'flicted.
(What happened to your hand?)
It kinda lak a stroke - paralyzed - de left hand.
(What did you do then? Tell me the whole story of what you have done.)
Well, ah begin workin' on mahself then. Ah went to a woman ovah heah - little burg, Holly Hill, near Columbia. An' aftah ah gotten dere, dis woman says to me, says - after she look ovah her cards, she says, "A woman hurt chew - she's got yo' so dat chew can't make an intercourse wit chure wife." So she tole me, says, ah must go back home an' take a aig - de white of an aig ev'ry mawning in a tea- spoonful of whiskey. Ah did that. Well, ah found that come straight. Then she work on me till she dies and after de death of her then ah had to went to anothah man. So ah went to anothah fellah back ovah heah an' he tole me 'bout dem nine aigs.
(What did he say to do? Tell me the whole story?)
He said tuh git mah nerves back in dis han's, ah'd have to carry those aigs back ovah there each night - nine nights he said. Aftah ah'd work them fo' fo'k [crossroad] ovah there, ah had tuh hunt anothah fo'k - fo' nine nights. Aftah ah'd pitch de aig yo' see, an' turn backward an' say, "Nuthin' could [can] ovah- power God," and throw de aig backwards in dat road, an' come back de next night an' throw it dat-a-way, an' come back de nex' night an' throw it dat-a-way, an' come back de nex' night an', when ah git through wit dat, ah'd hunt anothah fo'k till ah work up tuh nine aigs.
(What happened then?)
Well, ah got 'long purtty good. Ah kin use de han' where ah couldn't use it 'tall. Ah couldn't pick up nuthin' in dis han' but ah kin pick up dis penny [demonstrates] - ah kin plow wit dis han' an' shovel wit mah han' all right now - purtty good.
The informant recounts a paralysis experience and later instructions involving nine eggs thrown backwards at road forks around midnight, rotating forks across nights with spoken religious formulas. The account includes unknown cause, other treatment and reported improvement; it does not establish the eggs as a medical cause of recovery. Quoted voices and Hyatt's corrections remain distinct.