Browse:Coffin (Volume 1, entries 1778–1805)
Coffin
Volume 1, entries 1778–1805. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1778
Somebody wus livin' in yore neighborhood an' yo' didn't like 'em or somepin lak dat an' yo' wanted 'em tuh move, yo' know, yo'd write somepin an' put inside of it - make a little coffin an' set it at his do'. An' he'll git uneasy yo' know, upset - he'll move.
Entry 1779
Making a little box lak a coffin, to do evil with. Well, yo' make a little box lak a coffin an' yo' call yoreself buryin' a person. Yo' would git some of de hair or git dat [foot] track an' go an' git some things that belong to them an' put it in dis little box an' yo'd bury it. Dat buryin' dere luck an' everything. Yo' done bury it. Lak if ah'm goin' well an' yo' wanta bury me, "Well, ah'm gonna bury her." Well, yo'd git somethin' of mine - if yo' could git a piece outa mah underclothes an' put it into dat, dat would bury mah luck.
Entry 1780
All right. You take and you make a real coffin, but a small one - you know, a small coffin. You can make a big one too, but it would be unnecessary if it was big. Say, for instance, they really want to harm you. They can make a Coffin, well, say, about the size of this here - the top of this thing here [my recording machine]. Make a coffin fust about that size. They could bury you in that coffin.
(How would they do that?)
Now, they take that and they'll go to the graveyard, see. They get what we call graveyard dust, you know. They get this dirt, see, off of the tomb. They come back and they spread that into this coffin that I've made - I spread it into that. If I can get anything that you sweated in - if it's your socks, the band of your hat, your underwear, anything that you sweat into - I gets that and I put that in there, now, and when I put that in this thing, I'm going to put a cross in there and I put that cross in there.
(What kind of a cross?)
A cross - a real cross.
(A wooden cross?)
I can buy one. You see, I can buy crosses to put there - if it's a brass one, I'll put it in there, I'll put it into this coffin.
(What will that do?)
I'm going to put more dirt in there, you see. Now, I'm got that hatband or your socks or underwear in there, and I'm got that laying on top of that dirt, and I'm got the cross in there. I'm going to put more dirt on top of that. Now, I'll put that dirt on top of that and I'm going to take and I'm going to get salt and I'm going to sprinkle that salt in the four corners of the coffin. Then I'm going to carry this coffin and bury this coffin. I bury this coffin and if I know your name, I'm going to bury this coffin and put your name on top of it. But I'm going to put your name down on this coffin in red letters, but I'm going to put 'em, put your name down just about that big - just about that big, so it'll take a little time for it to come off, you see. And as your name wears out and that sweat is drying up - that sweat ain't going to dry right away because - your clothes I mean that's in there, they ain't going to dry right away because that dust going to keep 'em damp. But as this name be wearing out, that piece - well, I take [took] it from you - it's drying. Now as that's drying, you drying too. And now when that dries, if you don't die that day, you'll die sure that next day, because if that paint dry today, if you don't die today, you'll be dead in the morning.
Entry 1781
Dat's easy. You kin take an' make a little box. You know you kin git dese, any kind of little box you understand and make it - you know, shape it like a coffin. But co'se you have to have it shaped like a coffin, don't you. Got'a carry it to somebody if you can't do it yourself - got'a carry it to somebody an' have dem fix it jis' like a coffin. You gits some new linen cloth and you tack it around in there with shoe tacks never been used - git chew a nickel box of shoe tacks and you tack dat cloth around in dere, see. After you tack that cloth in there, you git some black dirt and put into it; git some pot salt and sprinkle onto dat dirt. Well, after you have sprinkle de salt, you git chew some clear sand. You know dese sand and gravel whut you mix concrete wit; git some clear sand like dat and put on top of dat salt, see. All right, and you git chew some chamber lye from somebody else - you understand, not yours. You have to git it from somebody else and you pour that onto that you understand and you carry dat [coffin] and bury it into de graveyard. And that will be the end of dem.
(Well, whose end would that be? Whom would you kill that way?)
Kill de person you want, see. (Well, how would you say that? "This is the person I want?" How would you do that?) You would jest have to call dere name - see, at de time when you buryin' it.
Entry 1782
A woman called Hester, she used to live aroun' there, but she don't live there no more. An' she said this man get a piece of pas'eboard, jis' shape it you know - looked like a coffin. [Look] like that he was mad with her. An' he tacked on this board an' put it down in the groun' at her steps. An' they say in nine days time she'd be gone. An' she said somehow or nother she went out an foun' it before them nine days. [Wilmington, N. Car. (309), 235:6+85.]
Entry 1783
You git a shingle and git de hair and put it in water and let it float away and then dey'll git so dey can't stay anywhere. That's for to git a man away from where he's livin'. Dey cut the shingle in the shape of a coffin, dey put it in water and let it float away.
Entry 1784
Ah heard dat chew could take a person - jes' lak if a person slept in a room an' yo' wanted tuh do 'em some harm. Jes' like yo' wanted tuh hurt 'em up, don't want 'em to die, jes' fixed - yo' know, jes' linger an' linger. Yo' take a shingle offa dere house an' take dat shingle an' cut it into fo' diff'rent pieces. A shingle offa de top of dere room wheresomevah dey sleep in, yo' git it offa dere, an' cut it into fo' diff'rent pieces an' fix it jes' like a casket [coffin] in de ground - jes' like a casket.
(What do you do with that, then?)
Yo' buries it in de ground.
(Where do you bury it?)
Yo' bury it under dere house somewhere - somewhere where dey have tuh come out ovah it or somepin othah.
Entry 1785
They can cross you. They can take matches and take a match and make a coffin out of it. They take and the way they set down, they shape them - they can make a coffin right up under your step, if there is any way for them to get up under the step - just like they do under the table. And then they take the other part of them matches and they make it just like they make me or you, with them matches and bury you there.
(Make the shape of a coffin with these matches.)
With these matches. (And then they put some other matches in there and make them in the form of a person.) Just make a shape just like a person.
(And they bury them.)
And they bury you there under the steps.
Entry 1786
They take your underpiece. Take a little piece of board and cut out a Strip like a coffin and take that piece. And if they got a pitchure, they take that, too. And place all them in that little coffin and carry it to a cemetery, and git right on top of a grave where somebody was buried, and then call your name and bury that in the top of that grave. And when that piece of board rot away, the persons who they named it after, they'll commence dryin' up and gettin' littler and smaller until that board rot; and when that board rot they'll die.
Entry 1787
I knew a woman once, she'd taken her landlord - she stayed in his house and she didn't want to pay rent. And she got his picture cut out of a paper. She taken a cigar box and she made a little coffin. She cut a hole in the corner behind her piano and she had - she cut a hole in the floor and put a [?] plant on there to hold this little box and had him buried there. And she stayed in that house until she finished paying for her house uptown. Stayed in there and didn't pay no rent. Every time they come there, it was something, and the house was $16 a month. She didn't pay no rent, she stayed there over a year. She got rid of - she paid 'bout - well, she didn't pay $20 in that time.
(Well, now what do you mean by cutting his picture out of a paper?)
She'd taken his photograph, you know. He was in the picture - he Was a big landlord.
(Oh, I see.)
And she'd taken his picture out of the newspaper.
(I see, out of the newspaper.)
Yes, the Picayune. She made that little coffin and put it down in the bottom - plastered it down in there in that little coffin and just buried it - put it behind the piano.
Entry 1788
Jes' lak yo' or I has our picture made, see, an' folks don't like yo'. Dey has a way to git up to yo' with this. Well a person dies heah, yo' jes' put dat in de casket with dem, an' as de body molt away, see yo' does too. I really know that cause ah've see it tried.
Entry 1789
You take it and git holt of a person's photograph and jes' like if some one dies, you put in that casket on de face - de picture on de face, and dis person will jest pine away of dat picture.
Entry 1790
An' old fashioned coffin, dey befo' yo' wus bo'n ah suppose, too; but lay it in dere dataway. Yo' cut it.
(Cut what?)
Take that photograph an' cut it in three P'ints jes' lak that old-fashioned coffin dey made. Yo' take it to the grave an' yo' bury it, an' yo' bury it on its face In de Name of Jesus. Yo' don't put it no way but on its face, bury him in dat grave on his face, a new grave, not a old one, an' yo' bury it in a new grave that's not been there long. He'll jes' pass on away. [My note on final transcription reads, "This elderly woman supposed to be good - was forgetful - probably a little scared."]
Entry 1791
A man would take a girl's pitchure and cut it out de size [shape] of a coffin and had pins rowed up in there in some rotation, I don't know what way. He knowed what way it was put in by himself, but I've seen de pitchure atchly [actually]. He had it cut out just in de shape of a coffin, and pins straight up and down of de pitchure, den crost de bottom de pitchure. He was supposed to [control] de girl he was likin', dat he was prackly livin' with at dat time, he doin' that in order to keep her from anyone else. He cuts de corners, cut it de long way just in de shape of a coffin, cut de corners off, narrows it at de foot just as, you see, one of those old-fashioned coffins. He had it [the pins] right straight down through de center from de breast down, den right object [opposite?] with de shoulders across - like it just in de form of a cross. He seem to have this pitchure hid away some place in de house.
Entry 1792
They can take that photograph and they can take nine red beans, nine brass tacks, nine new needles - nine [new] needles and nine pins, and they can put a weight to that and just like that water - you got to throw that - you goes you know on de ferry in the middle of the river and sink it; and just like that pitchure will mope [molt] away, you'll mope away the same way; cause see, that's your pitchure and you can't get it. (Well, how do you put these things in the photograph? How do they put them in there?) [Informant did not mention a container.] Put 'em in the box. [Box in cases of this sort always symbolizes coffin.]
(Oh, this all goes into the box.)
Yes, and they nail the photograph down in there. They bend it - stick a tack here, a tack there, a tack there, a tack there, till they stick the nine in there all around. They put 'em nine beans down in there and they take 'em nine needles and cross 'em all about in that pitchure - then the tacks and all be in there - and throw it in the river.
Entry 1793
A person will draw your coffin and draw your pitchure and put it in dat coffin and bury dat little coffin up under your doorstep, if dey kin git dere. Dey kin put it somewhere round your house and dey'll put dat - draw dat and put dat in dere. And den you'll start to gwine right on down - you'll start to get sick, start to gittin' sick, start to gittin' sick, and den you go.
Entry 1794
I saw is in a matchbox. Dey got a matchbox an' dey cut a pitchure - drawed a pitchure and named it de person dey was drawin' an' put it into dis matchbox an' buried it with de face down. Before dey buried it dey whipped it nine mornin's, an' den de ninth mornin' dey buried it with de face down.
(What is that supposed to do?)
Well, when you buried with your face down, you know you bound to die - you can't live.
Entry 1795
Now, yo' take a person - I've heard talk of 'em taking a piece of wood, making de shape of a coffin. Well now, yo' take dat wood, see, an' make de shape of a coffin. When dey do dat, now yo' take a piece of paper an' cut it jest like de shape of a person. Well now, when dey cut dat paper de shape of a person an' put in dere, yo'll tack it down. Well, whosomevah it be, if dey's got anything in appearance [any hoodoo started against the operator], 'twon't be but three or fo' days 'fore dey are daid.
[This is a conditional death hand.]
(What do you do with that little box?)
Yo' take de box, yo' see, an' dey cut a piece of paper.
(What do you do with the box after the paper is in it?)
After yo' put de paper in it, yo' take dat box an' yo'll carry it an' bury it jes' lak yo' buryin' a person in a grave.
Entry 1796
Makin' or drawin' a coffin an' writin' a person name in it. Den yo' kin draw a coffin an' write dere name an' carry it to de fo'k of a road wit de person name an' whut chew want done to it, an' bury it an' curse an' walk on off. Dey say dey will die.
Entry 1797
Yo' kin draw a coffin an' put a heart right in de middle of it an' name it, an' carry it to a person's place an' put dat undah de house on de sill right by dere bed. It won't be long befo' dat coffin will go in dere - won't be long 'fore one go in dere.
Entry 1798
Well, yo' take a aig an' draw a casket [coffin] on de aig.
(Any kind of an egg?)
A hen aig.
(And you draw what on it?)
Draw a pitchure of a casket on de aig, an' yo' take dat aig an' yo' bury it fo' nine days in a woolen rag, an' yo' take dat egg after yo've buried it - on de eighth day yo' go to where dat aig is an' put chew about a teaspoon of salt, tea- spoon of sulphur an' teaspoon of black pepper, an' in de nine days [on the ninth day] it will bust. He'll be a daid man.
(Where do you bury this egg?)
Right at de middle of de doorstep.
(Whose doorstep?)
De fellah dat yo' an' him livin' disagreeable.
(The fellow you want to kill?)
Dat's right - yeah.
Entry 1799
In yore yard, fix 'em right at yore steps in de shape of a coffin. Dey puts nails - drive 'em right down in de ground in de shape of a casket. Put six nails, ah think it's six - one in de corner an' one in de end. [Divide six nails into two parallel rows of three nails each, these rows being vertical, and then bring the two top nails closer together. This makes a pointed - Hoodo.o or three-sided head of the old-fashioned coffin.]
(What will that do?)
Dey tell me that will cause 'em tuh grow sickly.
(They won't die?)
No, jes' commence goin' down.
Entry 1800
Well, ah heard of 'em. They could make de shape of a coffin for you to kill you and put it right up over your door - be nailed with seven nails. They would make that in the shape of a coffin and if you go under them nails - some way they would fix those nails, see - you would die, if it's for you. Heard of that plenty of times.
Entry 1801
You take nine penny nails and nail dat - like you would make a coffin. Understand. That, if you wanted to kill someone. (Well, how do you mean nail them? I mean fix [arrange] them? What do you dc with them then?) Well, if you wanted to kill someone, destroy someone, you'll take those nine penny nails and you nail 'em in de shape of a coffin.
(Oh, I see. You nail them in the shape of a coffin.)
In your floor, anywhere that you choose to nail 'em, you understand, and if you can, you try to get a piece of their shoe off the right foot on de inside of the ankle up at the top. And you'll take and then nail that down when you make de coffin and de last nail you drive you suppose that'll be through the center, which will be your heart, and you drive that there and they will pine away. I have known that doctors pronounced some had T. B., and everything, but no doctors can cure 'em. They just simply pines away.
Entry 1802
Bore a hole in de tree - and I have seen it done. Just like I had a wife, see, and she runs off. If I want to keep her at my house, like dis here my - dis house mine. Well, if I want keep her at home. See, I'll take her left- foot shoe and take nine nails. See, fix it just like you fix a coffin, and you put one in de heel, and two in the middle, and two here and two here and two here - just like you make a coffin. And put dat in her shoe thataway and dig a hole right under those steps, under your bottom step and put dat shoe in dere, and den put dem nine nails in dere in de shape of a coffin. And I'll betcha she'll never run off from dat house no more.
(I see. Do you drive these nails through the shoe?)
Through the shoe - turn the shoe bottomside up.
Entry 1803
Ah've heard a lady say yo' kin take matches, or so many pins - ah don't know how many now exactly but ah'm goin' git all dis together, ah think ah'll have to come back again - and perform a casket or coffin under de side of de house, and nail nine nails around. Yo' know, make it jes' lak a person's grave an' nail nine nails around de heart. And dey say you'll drap dead off yore feet.
[The coffin is outlined with matches see No. 1785, p.538.]
Entry 1804
I've heard tell, make an image of a coffin. Dat wus done heah not so many yeahs ago - made de coffin. An' den yo' go an' murder somepin like a bird or rabbit or somepin an' put it in dat coffin, an' write chure name on it an' go an' bury it. An' dey say yo' can't live long - yo'll soon have tuh go to de Judgment.
Entry 1805
[There are many animal-substitution rites like the preceding one. Here is another:] If yo' git mad at somebody ah guess, an' yo' draw a person, yo' know. Yo' draw the person. Yo' draw a little box an' yo' write the person's name on his haid. That's fo' him tuh go in when he die. An' yo' ketch a frog an' yo' name that frog such a person yo' made. Chew hate de person an' [therefore] yo' 'buse dat frog nine times fo' nine mawnin's, yo' whippin' him lightly - he's very soft flesh yo' see. An'whenevah dat frog die, yo' buries him [both frog and person]. Now, dat dere now, dat's good.
(Now, what do you do with that box?)
Draw de box lak it wus a coffin. Well, he'll die, an' aftah he dies.
(Well, what do you do with that paper after you draw on it?)
Yo' don't do nuthin with it - yo' keep it long as yo' want to. Yo' ain't have to do nuthin with it 'tall. It works good 'nuff.