Browse:Buzzard (Volume 1, entries 2443–2445)
Buzzard
Volume 1, entries 2443–2445. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → BUSINESS AND CUSTOMERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2443
Now buzzard feathers is de luckiest kind of feathers - dat's something dat's very prosperous to a person tuh do, jest to burn de buzzard feathers. Git a buzzard, or either he kin burn de whole buzzard if he could, fo' luck. (Where would he burn that?) He kin burn it - if it's in a business place, he could jest burn it late at night in some kind of a pan or somethin', jest de feathers. If he had a place where he could burn de whole buzzard - if it be in a heater or somethin' he could burn it dere. But it don't make any diff'rent, jes' since he burn it around his dwelling place or business - place of business.
Entry 2444
Go out in de woods some place out of town where yo' kin kill you a buzzard, an' git de buzzard feathers an' bring 'em back an' burn 'em. An' take dem buzzard feathers an' sulphur, saltpeter, alum an' cologne, jest any kind of cologne, common perfume yo' know, an' burn dat in yore fireplace jest lak dat wood done burning dere. [Informant refers to fire in fireplace - for cold damp weather at Waycross, See in Introduction my comments to Telediphone at the time of collecting.] An' yo' take dat, after it's burned - dem feathers in de ashes an' yo' jest throw it all round yore house, front an' back, an' yo' git jest as many customers as yo' wanta git or more.
Entry 2445
[Two informants now tell a similar story about the same person. I have a number of these stories told by two different persons - Nos. 73-74, pp.30-31, and Nos. 1259-1269, p.440.]
[First version of Lizzie Smith story:]
Ole lady Lizzie Smith she run a roomin' house an' she tole me tuh git her a dead buzzard, she'd give me 5Oc fo' it. Ah says, "Whut chew gon'a do wit de buzzard?" Ah says, "Ah gotta git some- body tuh kill 'im or somepin." [She] says, "Well, yo'" look up one." Ah went fishing dat same day - next day [day after] she tole me. Next day ah found one on de trustle [railroad trestle] down heah about a mile and a half from heah - a dead buzzard, yeah, under de trustle, not on it, yeah. Ah reckon he musta struck hisself wit de [telegraph] wire. Ah fetched de ole buzzard to her an' she says, "Now, Cal," she says, "yo' talk about a place bein' full," she says, "ah'm gon'a full up mah rooms." Ah says, "In whut way?" [She] says, "Ah'm gon'a burn these buzzard feathers in kerosene," says, "ah'm gon'a pull 'em, ever one offa de buzzard an' set kerosene on 'em at night, '' an' says, "ah'll git plenty roomers." An' ah see - she didn't stay so fah from me - ah see she shore did full up her house wit dem buzzard feathers - de long feathers. She didn't want de little ole feathers - dat's de long ones offa de buzzard's wing. [Waycross, Ga., (1120), 1798:1.]
[SeQond version of Lizzie Smith story.]
A lady now about ten years [ago] she was running a bo'din' house.
(A woman living in your town?)
A lady, Lizzie Smith, an' she didn't 'low none of us - ah'd roomed theah wit her - she didn't 'low nobody to sweep her house an' sweep de trash out do's. An' ever' Monday night two 'clock - from one tuh two a'clock, she was burnin' dem buzzard feathers. She'd give a dollar an' a half fo' a buzzard jest to git his feathers, an' she'd burn dem buzzard feathers an' brimstone an' chip up de little splinters an' tar an' put in there together an' burn it all 'round under her house - all 'round her place an' ever'where like that. An' she kept a-plenty roomers. No polices, nobody, never did come there an' bother her. [Waycross, Ga., (1066), 1724:10.]