Browse:BACKWARDS 9 STEPS (Volume 4, entries 7283)
BACKWARDS 9 STEPS
Volume 4, entries 7283. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → MURDER → HOW MURDERER CAN ESCAPE. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 7283
After, if a man kilt a [man], dey walk backwards nine steps, see, and den step across [the corpse]. Co'se if he can't go away [author interrupts]...
(He steps nine steps backwards and then waht do they do?)
Den dey'll step across - yeah, to de right [demonstrates].
(I see, make a cross.)
Yes, an' cross 'im an' he can git away. [Any stepping backwards across a corpse on the ground makes the sign of the cross: the stepping being one arm of the cross, the corpse the other. The step- per or killer is crossing or crossing up the ghost of his victim rather than trying to evade the police. The cross of our present rite is more complicated. Lay a broom on the floor to represent the dead body. Stand with your back to the broom and feet to- gether so that they touch the handle. Lift your right foot back to the right, diagonally, over the handle (body) so that it comes to rest solidly on the floor (ground). Then steady yourself on right foot while you move left foot to right until it, on other side of handle (body), is almost opposite right foot. Final- ly, lift up left foot, bringing it backwards to the left, diagonally, across handle (body). Your feet have made a cross as diagrammed: BROOM L-R Ｌ Ｌ