Browse:Blow Your Breath (Volume 1, entries 1742–1743)
Blow Your Breath
Volume 1, entries 1742–1743. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1742
Yeah, yo' git a bluestone [see later] - a little stone about lak dat an' yo' take that an' yo' blow yore breath on it and put a little yore chamber lye on it, an' rub it in yore han's an' blow in de cards an' wrestZe 'em, an' yo' don't fall aftah dat. (What do you mean by bluestone? Do you mean the ordinary bluestone that you buy at the drug store?) No suh, ah mean de main bluestone - ah mean lodestone, [de] lodestone lak dat.
[For bZowing and breath, see p.400.]
Entry 1743
It's a practice dat most of de women in dis part of the world, if dey can get a man to cut his fingernails or his toenails anywhere in dere presence, or clip his hair, dere [they are] going to save dat for dat purpose. I've seen dat practiced, too, right down here in de South - in Florida dere. I had it proved right out and out. A woman told me she could make any man come dere dat had ever been dere, and she could make him call her name at any time - dat she pluck a hair out of her head, if she know de direction de man is, and by her calling his name three diff'rent times and turning around, wherever he's at, he'll call her name. (What did she do? She pulled this hair out of her head, then what did she dc with that hair?) Just take de hair and hold it up and blow it in de direction she know dat he's gone, and by calling his name, regardless of what he's doing at de moment, he'll call her name. From then, he begins to get restless. He might be aboard of a steamship or train, or whatever, but when he gets off he will make his way right on back. Because anything she's got belonging to him dat ways, she believes she can wish him back and will do it.