Browse:Bravado (Volume 1, entries 17–19)
Bravado
Volume 1, entries 17–19. Source context: SPIRITS → GHOSTLORE. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 17
Mah brother had a way of goin' way out in de woods to see a girl an' mah mother had tole him 'bout goin' by de graveyard. So he said he wasn't afraid. So mah father tole him, say, "One dese nights one dem ghost is gon'a run yo'." He says, "Well, it'll jes' be two runnin'." So he went on dere by hisself an' he kep' continyin' to go out dere. So one night - it was 'bout two miles from de house - a ghost got after him. He knew it was a ghost because usually when a ghost gits in behin' yo' yore hair stand on yore haid - but it don't stand, it feel lak it standin'. An' so, jes' as he stepped out, dis ghost got behin' 'im. He said it was first large and then it was small. An' he say he looked at it - he say, "Ah knowed that was nuthin' nachur'l." He says, "Hit's no need tuh run 'cause if ah run it would run too." So he thought dat once [he] hear our grandfather say whenever anything gits after yo' lak dat, always make it tuh de fork of de road. So he turn roun' an' he let it follow him till he got tuh de fork of de road. When he got to de fork of de road, he said hit couldn't go any further 'cause he missed it. An' so ever since then always, when ah'm out anywhere an' ah see any- thing that ah knows not nachur'l, ah will always make it tuh de fork of de road an' dey can't follow me any further.
The informant narrates a reported ghost pursuit; the account does not establish a verified encounter or protective effect.
Entry 18
I know of a man one time, he was not scared of spirits, and he said one night that he was going through the woods and he saw a ghost and he stopped. And after stopping he went around and sit on a [fallen] tree. And he made believe that he was asleep. And in the meantime this ghost came and sit on the same tree with him, and the ghost re'lly went to sleep according to his belief because he was snoring. And this man said that he got up and walked to this ghost - he did not put his hand on him though - he jumped at him and yelled hard and s'aid, 'What are you doing sleeping here!" And that ghost jumped up then and outrun the Word of God.
Entry 19
My brother-in-law told me the old story. And he said they were in the bed one night and they heard something coming in the house, and when they looked up to see what it was, it was an evil spirit, and it come to the fireplace and sat at the fire. While the spirit was sitting there he broke wind. The old man that was in the bed with my brother-in-law, he said, "Git up and go out of here. You done farted." The spirit got up and went away.