Browse:DIAGNOSIS (Volume 1, entries 545–642)/Part 2
DIAGNOSIS
Volume 1, entries 545–642. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 625
Well, ah had a sister an' ah know that was true. An' a rootman told her he [her sister's husband] had a sweetheart woman he was living with befo' he married mah sister. An' he told her, said that he would nevah live with mah sister, which he didn't live with her no longer den but about a month or little better. An' she [sweetheart woman] had some of her friends to slip in dere some Way or 'nother an' she had seven ole rusty keys an' seven pods of peppah an' seven needles - well, she had 'em ovah each do', one ovah de back do' an' one ovah de front. Dey nevah woulda found it unless [as] ah said, de spirit brought it to her mind. At last one day she spoke, said, "Ah believe ah'll look up ovah dis do' an' see whut's heah." She looked up dere an' dat's where she found it. Well, mah mother, she'd taken these to a man in [name of town not clear] an' this man tole her, said, "That was to keep her out all dem many years - keep her out de house, dat she nevah would live dere any mo'." But after she had found these things why he could turn it back on de woman, an' so mah mother tole him, why she didn't care fo' it to be turned back, an' so she left de keys an' thing dere with him. Say, she nevah would live with him. An' then, too, after she did that - we had been doin' some washing yo' know, an' her ministratin' clothes, yo' know, we didn't git through washin' dat - at least dat day, an' we jest left 'em out do's in de tub. She went dere an' stole dem an' taken 'em off an' buried 'em fo' 'em to kill her. An' so dis cunjureman tole mah mother, say, after them things rot, why yo' could jest pick 'em up an' dey fall, yo' know, to pieces jest lak a ole rotten rag or somepin lak dat. See, an' she would fin'lly die. Well, she did suffer, yo' know, a long time till mama got her cured by diff'rent mens yo' know. When- evah she'd go to ministrate oncest a month, why she looked like she was gon'a soon go to bed - git confined an' knots would come in her stomach as large as yore fist, an' when dat passed through - it passed through in knots like dat.
(Do you know anything - what they did to cure her?)
Yes sir. Well, a man by de name of Mr. Oleberry, he cured her - he cured her wit jest an ole green gourd. She had to make teas oncest a month outa green gourd. An' when she couldn't git de green gourd why he tole her jest to save up some dry gourds an' jest put a little turpentine in it, an' dat got her well.
(That's all that cured her?)
Dat's de only thing dat cured her. An' we had taken her to medical doctors an' all - an' all kinds of doctors an' dis man wus de only man dat reached her case. An' then sometime ago ah had a brother - he wus out in Tennessee, ah believe where he got hurt. Some wimmins hurt him. Ah don't know jest how it wus done, but anyway they had him dead from heah on down to his feet.
(From his stomach on down to his feet?)
Yes sir, an' dis same man cured him with jest de simplest thing. Yo' could jest stick a pin in him an' he couldn't feel it from his stomach on down. An' he said two wimmins an' one man fixed him lak dat out in Tennessee. An' he didn't do anything but jest had us tuh git green pine tops an' give him - bathe him, yo' know, from there on down an' give him some to drink. An' he tole him everything he do from de first day he started taking it. He hadn't walked none in twelve months, not nary a step had he walked. Yes sir, he tole him dat after de first day he'd sit up - he'd have to lay down most of de time after he had taken his bath in dis green pine-top tea an' given him some to drink an' tole him on de second day he would stand up, an' say, an' de third day, he said, "Yo' gon'a walk wit a stick out to de toilet" - de toilet wus out do's yo' know. An' really he did it. An' so we kept dat up fo' about two months, an' now he's in Florida, married an' got three children.
Entry 626
Some girls wanted to get this boy she was going with. There were two sisters. He went with Rebecca. Rebecca got so she couldn't walk. Her sister, who was almost white, she believed in hoodooing; but Rebecca was a brown-skin girl and she didn't believe in it. So she went down to a lady's house to a party one night and set down and she tore a square piece out of her dress. So when she came home, she was working for some very wealthy white people, she got so then she couldn't hardly walk. And she said she felt like there was a mouse crawling on her leg: She had to go down to get sugar and things to this little town and she rode down. And when she came back home she had a big black blister on her foot. She hadn't walked nowhere. So she stayed home a few days and she got so bad she had to tell her sister what had happened. Her sister said, "Oh! Well, they got you but didn't get me." So the young man, who went to see Rebecca, asked his mother for a wagon and his nephew to drive her to a woman's house what could do something for you. I guess she was what you call a two-header. It was about twenty miles. When she came in the door she [the two-header] took a bottle like that and shake it. Rebecca hollered and said, "Oh! Oh! Don't you do that any more." She did that to try to see what was wrong with her. She come on in and set down. She [the two-header] called all the people [their spirits] to her that were doing something to her. She said, "Now Rebecca you are going home, and the bright woman [the innocent one] is going to go away and isn't going to speak to you; the one that did it is going to whip you, if you let her." [Since the spirit of the innocent woman called before the two-header possessed a bright countenance, we must assume a dark one for the spirit of the culprit - see No. 627.1 So Rebecca came back and stop in front of this store and de young boy [nephew] went in to get some things. I heard such a fuss outside, myself, I goes out to see what is happening. This girl that done something to Rebecca, she lived just across the road, says to her, "There comes your partner [the young man returning from the store]. Yes, you're cunjured. And God Almighty cunjured you. If I get close enough to you, I'll take you out of that wagon and give you a good Wooping [whipping]." But she didn't touch her. And Rebecca went on up home and done what the woman told her to do. She told her how to use [the medicine] what she give her. That would do away with that causing her leg. I don't know what Was in it. Rebecca got so then she could run and jump and ride good. It shows that something had been done to her. [New York City, (7), Ed.; Rappahannock Co. Va.,1896.]
Entry 627
I can tell you something my father did when my little brother was sick. You know that hoodoo doctor I told you about? My father sent for him to see whether my brother was going to get well. He looked at the baby and said, "Come on outside." So when my father went outside. He [doctor] said, "A city lies over there." My father said, "Yes, it's Charlotte." He said, "I don't mean that, I mean the city of the dead." My father said, "Yes, that is the cemetery over there." And he said, "Well, call someone that you know from the cemetery." And the first name that came to my father's mind was that Millie woman [witch in No. l], and my father called this woman Millie's name. And the man put his hands up to his eyes and said, "No, don't call Millie." And he turned his head away. My father said, "Yes, I know someone else, I know sister Easter." And my father called her. And he said, "Yes," and smiled and turned and said to my father, "your son will get better." My father asked why he turned his head away, and he said he saw this Millie woman coming towards them - she wasn't looking at them - [and] he said she had the most horrible face he ever saw. So he said when the Easter woman came she was dressed in white and smiling, and he knew the baby was going to get better. And my brother got better. [New York City, (1), by hand; Gaston Co., N. Car.,1900.]
Entry 628
He'd take a stick about that long [demonstrates].
(About two feet.)
Yes sir. And take a certain number [two] wires and set it on this stick, and then this man would say something to that piece of wire there, and he could say things to this one. (How did he get these wires on that stick?) He just had them bent [demonstrates].
(Around the stick in one loop with the two ends pointing down.)
Laid right over that stick.
(Like a staple?)
Yes sir.
(He held the stick in his hand.) [Informant is holding imaginary stick.]
Yes sir. And he'd say, "Now" - for instance - "which way should I go to look for this [conjuration] stuff?" And this piece of wire would walk just the same as you walk. ["In other words, the stick and wire held in the conjurer's hand worked on the principle of the planchette or ouiji board." This - preceding words - is a note of mine when I transcribed cylinder a few days after recording. The stick and wires could be called a type of Jack.] He'd say, "Now, don't fool me, I don't want you to fool me," and say, "I want you to stop when you git near the place." Then that piece of wire would stop and he'd say, "Listen, now, which way shall I go?" The piece of wire commence stepping and it walked and got near the place - and he let you set there and watch it - and when it got near the place where he had put this stuff, I say put
[hid 'this stuff'"], it would stop.
The editor supplies the word conjuration for the sought stuff; it is not presented as the informant's own term.
Entry 629
[The following root doctor used a simple and inexpensive method for finding the buried article of conjuration:] He had him a little stick you know, and he goes aroun' and he sticks it, jahbs down in ground, and he says, "There it is."
The editor identifies the buried article as conjuration; the following informant account does not itself supply that word.
Entry 630
About de bee - well, he did dat. He say dat he believed dat de woman loved him - he wusn't married to her, an' he say dat a fellah tole him, say, "Now, if she love yo', yo' go to a bee nest an' yo' put chure hand in dis bee nest; an' if she loves yo' de bee won't sting yo', but if she don't den it's up to yo'." An' he went an' he tried it, an' de bees didn't sting him. So he believe dat she loved him.
Entry 631
Take a girl an' a boy, yo' mo' den apt tuh find a pair of 'em together an' dey be seein' which one of 'em love each other - dey pulls knots in strings to see which one of 'em kin hold de longest. (How do they do that?) Dey'll, yo' know, jes' take a piece of a string an' tie whole knots an' she pull on it an' he pull on it. Well, if de knot that she pull on don't come out, her love is still sticking; an' if he pull on it an' it jump out, why dere ain't nuthin' dere fo' him atall. Ah've done dat mahself.
Entry 632
This fellow [root doctor] you're going to see now, said my brother-in- law was hurt - he gave him a root to put in his hand and hold it right tight, and when he opened his hand his hand was sweated, and he said, "You're hurt." He got some mullein roots, pine tops, cedar berries and put them in a pot and a pint of water and kept adding to it as it boiled down [magic rite of increasing amount]. He put in a ten-cent piece and boiled it with it. "Now," he said, "you take that drink and you'll get well." He never got well. What really was his trouble, he had bladder trouble inwardly. He couldn't urine because something went right to the tube of his bladder and stopped it and caused agony all over his system. When he would go to make water his feet would dance up and down on the floor, just like that. This fellow was working on him but he was never able to cure him. His father Was good [a good root doctor] but he's dead. He [the so-called root doctor I was going to see] don't know anything about it. They had to operate on him [the brother-in-law]. The root they principally use is called the black pip- pip-away[?]. They take that root and hold it in their hand and the hand would sweat. That's an evidence something has effected you, somebody has done some- thing to you. If your hand didn't sweat, you wasn't effected then. It looks more like a piece of snakeroot than anything else.
Entry 633
[Doctor J. D. Buzzard of Norfolk (see Index), whom I interviewed, has patient hold a magic crystal in the palm of his hand; if the hand sweats, he has been tricked. The Crystal Ball rite previously given in this subsection is some- thing quite different. Norfolk, Va., (464), 453: l; original text misplaced or lost.]
Entry 634
My aunt, she wus sick in bed, she couldn't walk, an' they sent fer some man. He came an' he taken-dout [taken'd out] something they said wus in shape of a terrapin. An' they said he put it down in [on] the floor, said to it, "Go find it," whutever that wus. [It had to be a terrapin (see No. 620), not a child's mechanical toy shaped like the animal.] It went around each corner of the house in the house an' come back to 'em. An' he said, "It's not in this house." He carried it to the door an' put it outdoors, an' it started around the house until it gets to the southeast corner of the house it stopped. He said, "It's right heah." [Since there was no place in the house where he could conveniently find the object causing conjuration, he was forced to go outside where he could dig - under the edge of the house so that his back was to watching eyes.] He went diggin' an' he dug up a bottle with a lot of needles, pins - Lord knows whut kin' of stuff it wus. The other stuff wus something like quicksilver [tin-foil?] into this bottle, with the stopper turned down, drippin'. That wus supposed when that got done through drippin' that she would die. An' we had a man aroun' thah by the name of H., he went crazy the time she wus in thah sick; an' when he got crazy an' started out, they told 'er he wus comin', then she got up an' run. [Deal Island, Somerset Co., Md., (?), 21:2.] [For tortoise or turtle, see also No. 620.]
Entry 635
If a tree gits struck wit lightnin' yo' know - well de lightnin' strike it yo' know an' it run down - well, it goes down 'ward de ground. As it stroke, de lightnin' shoots, yo' know, down in de ground - it'll hit yo' know. Dat whut cuts it, yo' know, it's a bow lak. An' whenevah de lightnin' got a sort of heavy dash yo' know, an' when it jes' strike de tree it jes' peel de bark off it, yo' know. Lak ah comes an' goes roun' an' roun' [the lightning-struck tree] yo' know, an' yo'll [I'll] find that thing jes' about dat long: It's a bow or sword or something othah de call it. Ah fo'git de name of it whut de call it, but anyhow, it's a long thing jes' about dat long an' it got a round ring around it lak that. It's a piece of steel lak tin-steel [metal roofing?] an' it's tough as steel. Yo' nevah bend it or bruise it no way. Dere's a piece right at home now, jes' about dat long. [This is the thunderbolt or lightningbolt I have described elsewhere (see Index), but this particular object with a roun' ring around it is definitely a small arrowhead or spearhead of metal sold by some mail-order firm.]
(What do they do with that?)
Whut dey do with it? Well, yo' kin take dat air an' yo' kin go tuh de jail- house wit dat in yore pocket an' if de law nevah git it an' dey try yo', dey can't do nuthin' wid chew. It's luck tuh keep it roun' yore house, yo' know, it changes colors sometime, de tip end of it. Well, de tip end right 'bout dat long an' it slim as a needle point on de end. Jes' long as out on dat end it stays white, everything's okay; but yo' bettah watch yo'self if it all change color.
(Where did you hear that - where did you hear about that?)
Mah granddaddy.
(Where did you come from?)
South Ca'lina.
Entry 636
Mah ole cousin - she's dead now - she used to could look in a glass of Water and she could concentrate with the spirits in this glass of water and she have tole some things out of that. She'd knock on de table and she would hold her head down and she would look in that glass of water and she could jest tell you most anything. Ah know, ah have heard - she have told me that. Ah went to her whenevah ah'd git worryin' or vexed - you know, any way aroun' home. Ah would go to her an' ah'd say, "Cousin Net, tell me some- thing - ah'm jest worried to death, ah don't know what will be mah outcome." But co'se, in mah faith [Roman Catholic] we're not supposed to believe in witchcraft or anything like dat. An' ah - ah didn't pay her anything - she jest consolatin' me and that's the way ah looked at it. An' so she say, "Everything's all right," she say, "but de people in yo' house yo' got'a watch out - dey gon'a try tuh skip yo'rent."
Entry 637
One time when I was cunjured I was about sixteen years old. And another girl invited me to go to a party, and to the party they served ice cream, and on the way back home I taken sick. And mah mother got ev'ry doctor she could in de town to try to do me some good and he wouldn't [couldn't]. And so she told me - mah mother said dat dey told her - she said ev'rybody kept tellin' her - to get a cunjure doctor for me. And so she did. And when she got the cunjure doctor he told her if she had a waited twenty-four hours longer to gotten him that he couldn't of saved me. And so he got some pokeberry root and boiled dem and made a poultice and put it to mah stomach, and taken water off of nine dimes that had been boiled fer nine hours, and I drank that first. Then after I drank that, he gave me some salts and sodee [soda] - takin' salts [Epsom salts] and sodee warm, and I drank that and that started me to get sick. And after I got sick on mah stomach he got two fars, half-a-gallon jars, one with muddy-lookin' water in it and the other was clear. And when I would vomit, he said the poison that I had taken would go in the muddy jar or the clear jar. He had to have both. And so when I vomit, it was a little snake about that long and it went in the muddy jar of water.
(Could you see it?)
I could see it after they show it to me. Of course I was so sick then still I couldn't see it. And after I taken that to stop mah pains, I had to have some silk-root boiled in a quart of water down to a pint, and some spirits of turpen- tine in it, to keep the misery out of mah stomach and take the soreness out - and still wear the poultices until I was better. [And I wore a] silver dime and salt in my shoes for about two years after dat - I wore a silver dime round my ankle, round both of 'em, and salt in both shoes. And he said that I could wear it on, if I wanted to; but I would be out de danger of those people hurting me again. He didn't say ev'rybody, just those people. [Wilmington, N. Car., (268), 273:7; Rose Hill, Duplin Co., N. Car.,1929.]
Entry 638
Graveyard dirt kin be used in many different things. It kin be used in love cases. Well, graveyard dust, if yo' wanta use fo' protection in love cases, yo' use it wit de wonderful water.
(What is the wonderful water?)
It's got from a spring runnin' dead no'th, a spring runnin' no'th - lak dis Way, de stream dis-a-way an' de spring heah runnin' no'th. (You get this wonder water and you get this graveyard dirt. How do you prepare this thing now?) Well now, we'll come on down an' prepare it fo' yo'. Yo' git the stream runnin' no'th - de spring is ovah on whut ah would call de south side of a stream runnin' dead no'th. Be sure dat chew find a spring wit de stream runnin' no'th. Well, we takes our graveyard dust an' we gits it in a clear bottle den wit a stopper to it dat we kin stop up, an' we goes an' puts some of de dirt in de bottle an' we gits our spring wit de watah runnin' no'th - we gits dat an' put it in dere. Den when we's goin' pull a deal of any kind, we sits our bottle with this heah graveyard dust in it. Well, quite natch'l, de dust will settle to de bottom of anything. Whatevah we gits our mind on, what de object we got befo' us - whatevah it may be, whether we make good or whether we lose out. Well, we handle dis bottle - we sets it on de table so de top of it will come clear. Yo' know spring watah is clear as a crystal, an' since [if] it clear as a crystal, why we knows everything whatevah we goin' do, we know we'll put it through. We put it ovah whatsomevah it may be. Well, den, if it's not dat way clear, it not fo' our luck tuh change right at dat time, dis heah graveyard dust will come up dere an' cloudy dat water jes' lak a cloudy day - change - de skies will change. It will change within de period of fifteen minutes. It will come on up an' cloudy dat water so yo' can't be sure atall. Den we jes' keep it dere, an' whenevah we goin' tuh do anything - in love cases or whatevah we may do, we goes an' git our bottle an' set it on de table in a quiet place. It's a great magic watah - it's a magic gift. Den we use dat tuh conquer spirits, yo' see, for sech things as whut dey call hants. We use dis heah spring watah wit de graveyard dust in it.
(How would you conquer a hant in that case?)
Well, if we conquer a hant in dat case, we put a little add into dat watah - we add somepin to dat watah, we'd add sulphur. We'd add burnt sulphur, we'd burn it - we'd burn it on de watah, somepin tuh form a little clond on de watah. Den we go up on dere an' git de cloud off an' put de cloud in dere on top of dat. Dat give us mo' force to conquer de spirit - we'd keep spirits away from anything we'd go tuh do. How to make a man come back. Yo'd have tuh use dis same watah in a case lak dat - it's a mind drawin' thing: First, yo' gotta git chure mind on whatevah object yo goin' tuh undertake tuh do. An' aftah we git our mind pin on dis heah, then we sits de watah befo' us an' we looks at de watah. We naturally sits dere an' looks - sometimes it takes us hours, until we kin git contact with the party whosomevah dey may be. They mind an' mah mind contact wit each othah, an' den he'll come tuh me, at de same time whether dey wants me or not. Den if ah want tuh draw 'em back, ah'll turn de watah, ah'll git de square bottle - see, ah'll turn de square side to me, an' ah'll give dem three days tuh roll in. Dey come back an' dey send fo' me. De same watah draw 'em back - draws through de mind, yore mind an' dis othah party's mind would come in contact together an' why, quite natch'ly, yo'll see 'em in three days aftah that. That is, if yo' stay on it dat long.
Entry 639
They claim that a woman, his wife, can take private hair, hers and his, and tell whether he's out having a good time with another woman. When he begins to use another woman these hairs will come together like different kinds of knots [groups]. She puts these hairs in a pan of water. If he isn't, each hair will float to itself.
Entry 640
To tell de diff'rence, yo' kin git yo' some sugah an' git chew a glass of watah an' yo' say a prayer ovah it an' yo' read in de Bible in de Book of Psalms - de 21st an' de 32nd of Psalms, an' you read that an' yo' put a little sugah in that watah an' yo' drink it, an' yo' kin tell the diff'rence. Yo' do that fo' 'bout nine days.
(Any particular time of the day - it doesn't make any difference?)
In de mawnin's best.
(How would you tell by that that you are tricked or just ordinarily sick?)
If yore sick, this watah will do yo' good; an' if yore tricked, why it won't do yo' any good. Yo' see things is done from de power of God. An' when yo pray yore prayer, pray it in faith fo' help. [Memphis, Tenn., (938), 1517:16.] [What I said in the Introduction must be repeated here. The difficulty of indexing hoodoo material makes every title or label incomplete. Always the Index must be consulted.] [The preceding subsection, Diagnosis, showed doctor and layman seeking in- formation in primitive ways discarded by modern thought; Ways still under the control of the spirits whose activities previously we had been following. One of these ways told us "whether to go to a doctor - a medical doctor either (or) a root doctor (see No. 551, p.167)." This reference, not to mention others, indicates a basic difference between medical doctor (Doctor of Medicine) and root doctor; it also implies a limitation in the therapeutics of scientific medicine. Let us begin with the doctor.]
The informant directs Bible/Psalms reading in an unverified diagnostic account; the following indexing commentary is editorial.
Entry 641
You getting a medical doctor, a medical doctor and you say [for example] I'm sick - I feel bad and I'm hurting and hurting or something. You get a doctor and the doctor will come. He'll come maybe once or twice and he'll tell you, after his medicine don't take no 'fect, tell you, say, "You have to get somebody else know more than I know." Then you got'a wander around and first thing you goin' find your mind on hoodoo, and you goin' get a hoodoo den. Well, a hoodoo, den he goin' come and tell you, 'Yeah, there's something done to you. You say, "Well, I want you to git it off. How much you charge me?" "Well, I charge four or five or ten dollars." Well, you goin' give him four, five or ten dollars and he goin' get it off. Well, he's the same one what put it on you. [Yet, see margin-title, Doctor Unable to Cast and Cure Same Spell.]
The account hypothetically contrasts failed medical treatment with promised paid removal; neither outcome is verified.
Entry 642
Ah tell from experience that when ah was sick and that when ah've taken medical medicine it made me sicker. And after ah went to the doctor and ah went to the root doctor and he was treating me for hoodoo I commenced gettin' better. (I see.) When you are fixed, when you take medical medicine hit use'ly make you worser; prob'bly, if you continue with it, it will kill you. That's what it will do.