Browse:Black Bottle (Volume 1, entries 1722–1728)
Black Bottle
Volume 1, entries 1722–1728. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1722
[The Black Bottle rite appears to have been confined to the New Orleans area. As the dark greenish-black bottle disappeared, any dark bottle was used - beer bottle or even a bottle blackened with tar as in the following:] I said you kin take, after a man go outside - you know they have a action and you kin watch him and get that and put it in a black bottle, and carry it to the cemetery and bury it de way the dead is buried in the cemetery. Ah knowed that to be true - a man died from that, after that buried in the graveyard dirt. (I see. They get his dung and they put it in this black bottle and they took the bottle out to the graveyard. And they buried this bottle on the grave or buried it like a grave?) Buried it like a grave. Dig a grave for the bottle and buried it jest head and tail, the way the body is laying in the cemetery, and he will die. I've seen that done.
(I see. Must they use a black bottle? Couldn't they use a white bottle?)
No sir, it's to be a black one - you see, jest something like you get a bottle that have tar in it; dey black bottles, just black.
Entry 1723
[Several of the following examples illustrate aspects of preceding rite though a black bottle is not always used.] I see a hoodoo woman did that to a man [man's wife] - a woman that went off from her husband - didn't stay [with him] - he was staying right where I was. She [hoodoo woman] taken her [wife's] mess out of the bucket and put it in a bottle and stopped it up [in a tree]. I went my own self and I knocked it down. And I say, "Do you know you can kill this woman? You oughtn't to do that." I say, "Me my own self, I knows a plenty - I'm my mother's seventh child." And I say, "I'se born with luck." I say, "I can tell you a plenty." And I say, "Don't do that." And I say, "In nine or ten days that woman'll be dead. Don't do it." So she [wife] told me, she say, "I suffer very often with my head." Well, because her bowels didn't move, you see. So he had the mess stopped up and I went and broked it down from the tree and that made herself all right. And I went back the next day and she say to me - that was in the country, she say to me, "Dinah [informant], you know, I sure do feel good." I say, "Do you?" And she say, "Yes." She say, "My bowels is all right." All the medicine the doctor gave didn't do no good, although she did have a little - they give her enema. That's the only way she could have her passing. Otherwise, he wanted to kill her 'cause she had run off from him. I said, "Well, why don't you go to some hoodoo, if you believe in good - try to get her back?" Well, he say, "I will - I'm going to burn those little candles." I say, "Well, go ahead and go to church, else make you a novena." He say, "And then I'll try to get her back." I say, "That's right - don't kill her." I say, "She don't want - or if you don't want her, maybe you can get somebody else. Don't take the woman's life.` He say, "Yeah, I'd rather see her dead than have somebody else." I say, "Well, you go ahead and have somebody else." He say, "Oh, no, I want her." I told him though, I say, "Don't kill her."
A man in the reported dialogue plans to burn little candles; neither the burning nor its intended result is verified.
Entry 1724
Well, you've heard of people being stopped from having their real actions. Have you ever heard about it? Well, now it is very true about that. Jest say for n'instance chew know someone - course it is not always you can get things like that unless it's in a country home, but if you know someone who uses that spot or go some place where you can get their actions. You go and bore a hole in a green tree - some tree that's not dead - it's gotta be green, and you get some of this and wrap it up, jest a small amount of this, and wrap it up in some new cloth and stuff it into a tree and jest force it back in dis tree. Get chew a piece of new tin and nine tacks, new brass tacks, and nail dis down and then paint over this tree - after you got, jest say a piece of bark or something of this tree - paint over that. That stays in this tree, which it will. This person's bowels will never move. Now, I know a lady right here in this town now - her bowels won't move, it moves out of her side. It is said that that caused this woman to be like that. Well, ah know 14 years ago that she was just as well as I am now, and no doctor that have ever diagnosed her case have been able to tell her whut's wrong. But they say for a fact that she was treated that way.
Entry 1725
I talk about doing it the other day down here at my toilet. And dey'll go in dere and dey'll mess it up. I told 'em if dey didn't stop, I'd tie it up in dey belly; cause I could take some of that and put it in a bottle and stop it up and bury it, and dey'll get bound up in dere belly.
(Why did they do that?)
Do for meanness - to be mean to me. I tol' dem de other day dat I would do it to some of 'em, if dey didn't stop messin' my seat up; that I'd take it off the seat, don't care who 'tis. I'll take off that seat and I'll put it in a bottle and stop it up; and if I do that, they know their bowels will stop up.
(Did they stop?)
Certainly they stopped; stopped because dey scared of me.
Entry 1726
Could take your chamber lye and stop it up in a black bottle and put cayenne pepper, red pepper, in it and go to an old bridge.
(An old what?)
An old bridge where automobiles run across.
(An old bridge?)
Yeah, and take it and shoot it up under there and it has a tendency to.
(Just throw this bottle up under the old bridge?)
Throw it up under an old bridge.
(Just leave it there?)
Leave it right there - an old sloppy place where sewage and silt stops under there. Just leave it up under there - it's already in the slush and why.
(What did you say that does to you then?)
Well, it has a tendency to make you lose your nature.
Entry 1727
Well, ah tole him [my contact man] that if yo' wanted tuh break up any- one - yo' understan', separate anyone, yo' git some graveyard dirt an' yo' git dirt dauber with the holes in it, yo' understan'. Yo' roll that dirt dauber an' yo' git nine pods of red peppah an'.yo' git cayenne peppah an' yo' git vinegar an' yo' put it in a black bottle an' turn it upside down, an' in any corner of their yard. Ah guarantee it'll break anybody up dat chew Wanta break up.
(You put this bottle in the yard of the people you want to break up?)
No, in yore yard, right where yo' workin yore - yo' put that bottle. Dat'll separate anybody.
(Well, how would I know that I am separating the right people?)
Well, suppose yo' workin' fo' a person - tuh separate a party. Yo' know whut party yo' workin' fo'. Well, yo' know when dey separate. [You will know by your intention.]
Entry 1728
Say fo' instance now, yo' an' a fellah's had a little run into 'bout a girl an' yo' is scared of him an' yo' know he's a guy dat'll hurt chew. Yo' say, "Well, ah don't wanta git in no trouble. Ah'll git him outa town quick." Yo' git chew one those black quart bottles - dose brown ones, yo' know. All right, yo' git chew de indelibin [indelible] pencil an' write his name thirteen ways that way, an' nine thisaway [demonstrates].
(That is nine across the thirteen - make it like an' "x", a cross?)
Yassuh. It matters [not] which way yo' put 'em. Yo' kin put nine one way an' thirteen de othah, an' thirteen one way an' nine de othah - jes' so yo' make it lak a cross dat way. Yo' fold it. Yo' take dat on a piece of papah an' roll it from yo'. See, roll it from yo' an' put it in dis bottle an' git on a boat an carry it de center of a rivah that's where de watah is swift, de current, an' jes' drap it ovahbo'd. Stop it up tight wit de name in it an' drap it ovahbo'd. In twelve hours he's gone.