Browse:Chastity Hand (Volume 1, entries 1765–1770)
Chastity Hand
Volume 1, entries 1765–1770. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1765
When I went to the army [World War I] this blacksmith [a root doctor] gave me a little bottle, he told me, for to keep men away from the home. Before I got to the camp there was more men there than when I was in town. He sold her a bottle of medicine to keep me away from her when I came back. He hung around her himself. He charged me six dollars.
Entry 1766
[The idea of the chastity belt lives on.]
A man kin take - say for an instance he has a woman dat's goin' out an' he don't want her goin' out with other men - git him a lock.
(An ordinary lock?)
A padlock - an' ketch some of her discharge an' lets de lock open an' put it down in dat lock an' lock it up.
(That locks her up then.)
Entry 1767
[Here is a device used by George Jackson, a well-known doctor on the Eastern Shore before his death about 1900. This rite was told me by an old man who met prospective clients at the railroad station and drove them out into the country to interview the doctor. For some interesting information about this remarkable doctor, see margin-title George Jackson.] Now, if a man want to break his wife from some man, he steals this dishcloth an' when that he fools with 'er he ketches her nachure in this dishcloth. After he ketches this nachure in a dishcloth, he takes it home an' wraps it up tight an' buries it at his doah - right down under his doah. Fer nine mornin's he must git up an' walk over it an' make his wish whut he wants - never man can't enter. That's [a remedy of] Uncle George's. [Many persons called Jackson Uncle George.] That's called, understand, put a man down that he can't raise up courage fer that Woman, don' care how hard or whut he do. An' he can't. He made all the married, single, go to him, [even] captuns - go off, you know, on drudgin' [dredging for oysters in the Chesapeake Bayl an' leave their wives home. Of course, no man wanted a man to bother his wife while he's gone. He'd have her crossed before he left. [Princess Anne, Md., (130), 34: l; informant Joshua Wilson, age 65.]
Entry 1768
He'd [George Jackson would] tell you, you understand, "Bring me some of his watah, if you can, '' when a fellah finds anothah man gettin' purtty tight with his woman - you understan', although they may be good friends, an' she'd git to like 'im. Now then, he'll go to work, you understan', "You git some of his watah." He gits some of his watah, takes it to 'im. He'll take a bottle an' a cork, an' he goes to work an' he corks this water of his up in the bottle; an' he leaves a little place fer it to drip, fer it to drip out. You understan', take a nail an' make a hole in the top of it, so that it would drip out in the groun'. And you take this an' bear [bury] it right to his doah, right at this fellah's doah, an' this is called crossin' a man from a woman.
Entry 1769
(What do you do with that wasps nest now?)
Nail it up ovah de do' right up heah - lak if yo' wanta go away an' want, chew know, yore [wife or girl] gotta be true to yo'. Yo' wanta go 'way an' stay fo' or five yeahs, somepin lak dat. She won't have no othah man - she'll wait fo yo tuh come back.
Entry 1770
Wit sticks - you write de name of de person you wanta keep away.
(Well, now would you take two sticks?)
Yes, you jes' make a cross like that [X-crosses the two sticks] and then you write the name of the party [demonstrates].
(Down one stick.)
Yes, and de name of it on de next.
(On the other stick.)
Yes, on de fo' pieces [radiating from the crossing of the two sticks] - coming to each other Teach name is written towards the crossing] and drive dem somewhere by de front door where dey gotta come in de door, and they may come to the front and won't bother coming in. They'll look around and pass on. [Each stick is driven on a slant into the ground so that touching they form the letter X.] (That is, if this man is going away and this particular man doesn't want them
[other men] near his wife while he's gone, that will keep them away.)
Keep them from coming in.