Browse:Dice as Hands (Volume 1, entries 1835–1836)
Dice as Hands
Volume 1, entries 1835–1836. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1835
Well, yo' kin take a pair of dice an' put 'em away, pee on 'em, see. Pee on a pair of dice an' shet it up in a airtight box an' put some salt in on dem dice - table salt. See, table salt is somethin' slick. See, put some salt on those dice an' put 'em away an' let dat salt an' pee stay on dat dice dere fo' a while. An' yo'll always be lucky when yo' goin' out wit dice in yore pocket.
Entry 1836
For luck in gambling, I used to buy hands.
(Yes?)
One hand I bought, it was full of charcoal - there wasn't nuthin to dat one. But the other hand, it was purtty good. Ah bought me a ring, see, and my birth- stone was in it. And I would use lodestone and I could soak dice in pepper and chamber lye - keep those dice soaked in 'em, you see. And just like I run a gam- bling house and you come dere, well, you see I'm always got two pair of dice. Well, the dice what you shoot, they're soaked in that stuff - in that lodestone and chamber lye. But now, when it come round for me to shoot the dice, I'm going to shoot that other pair. Well, you see, you losing all de time; you can't make a point on it, but I'm going make a point because I'm shooting a diff'rent pair. See.
(I see. The pair you see, you don't do anything to at all?)
No, sir. I don't do anything to hit at all. And I keep my table, just like I got this cloth on here. I take and get me some silver - 'bacco silver.
(What's that?)
Silver off of tobacco, you know, chewing tobacco.
(Silver paper off of tobacco [tin foil], I see.)
Yassuh, take that silver and I pad it under this here tablecloth, see. I keep a shooting on de cloth all the time. Well, I pad that under there and I get me some - some pound - you see, it's pound lodestone, pound lodestone.
(You mean like powder?)
Yes, it's made up like dust. Well, I get some of that and I put dat silver down and I sprinkle dat lodestone under dat silver and put dat silver over it.
(I see.)
I put dat cloth over dat. See. Well, you don't know what's under dat. But it's all in my favor, none in yours - it's coming in my favor all the time but it's none in yours.
(I see - in shooting the dice.)
In shooting de dice. And you shoot dem dice on dat table, you kill 'em; you'll get a point, but it's three to one that you make that point. See, I can give you - ah'd give you odd bets on it. Why? Because I know ah'm got cinches on you, you ain't got none on me; but ah'm got cinches on you because I just natch'ly know. Then, after I give you odds on it, I kin turn in and switch dem dere - ketch dem dice and throw dat - send another pair out - the same dice but not the same dice what you got the points with. See.
(I see.)
And you going miss. (That silver [tin foil] under the table[cloth] then makes the fellow you are playing against - makes him miss?) Yes, sir.