Browse:Doctor Johnson (Volume 1, entries 2768)
Doctor Johnson
Volume 1, entries 2768. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (1) ALTARS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2768
(Was that the time you were being hurt?) Yes, sir. (Well, tell me what happened? How did they hand it to you? And how was that cured? Tell me the whole experience - the whole story.) Well, you know, that I couldn't even - couldn't walk in here like that.
(Couldn't even do what?)
Couldn't walk in here like that.
(You couldn't walk in here. All right.)
But then one fellow who came down here [to Vicksburg] took me to a fellow called Johnson down there [to New Orleans].
(Where did he take you to?)
To New Orleans.
(To a fellow called Johnson?)
Yes, sir. And course he told me that I was crossed up like that.
(Well, what happened when you went in? What first happened when you went in?)
He just asked me if I want git rid of my misery, and everything like that. He didn't do a thing but just rubbed me. And of course then I had a misery in my head. And then he said a man must have hurt my eyes, and he tied it up and told me use them head bandages - placed a candle over me for nine mornings and read a Psalm, and said a prayer. But the prayer was - but what the prayer was I don't know. (Was that a woman you went down with [from Vicksburg to New Orleans] or was this woman at Johnson's house?) They was there - she was. One was a woman and one was a man.
(Oh, they were working together in the same house.)
You see, when I first went to see him, why he was setting out on de porch. Well, it wasn't no porch either, but it like a church and he was sitting out there on a little old balcony kind of.
(It appeared like what?)
It's just a big church and place.
(Oh, a church.)
And still he treats people and all like that, see. He took us and carried us on upstairs.
(Into a room?)
Yes, sir - in a private room.
(And what was in that room?)
Like - just like desks and different things like that, just chairs and desks.
(I see. And then what else did he do?)
He asked me what was my misery and how long had it been hurting me and when it first started, and how did it work and things like that. And I told him. He told me to stand up and come to him - walk to him. See, I couldn't - I couldn't walk right. He told me that somebody had throwed something for me and so he would rub me. He would rub me and have me turn all the way around and bowing over and walking and coming back to him like that.
(What did he rub you with?)
Sir? Jest his hand. He didn't put no oil or nothing on it - jest rubbing and saying something. Jest rubbing [she demonstrates].
(He rubbed down off your clothing.)
In my clothes - just rubbing me down like dat for a long time. Then he would tell me to press up while he would hold me, push on me right here like that. I would strain up like that. I done paid him and then went on off.
(And then after that? Then where did you go?)
Ah went to a rooming house.
(Where?)
Went to a rooming house. (Went to a rooming house. Where did you meet this woman? Where did you find her?) The lady? Oh, I went back down there the next morning.
(You went back to this woman the next morning.)
And he told me to come back. I was supposed to go back and take the final treatment. He told me if I didn't have that why I couldn't walk up straight any more. Everything have happen to me like that. So, he tell me I was going too much, says, "Women like dat." I didn't tell him about how my head hurt, I didn't consider it was worth-while, thought it was just ordinary or something like that. He told me to come back and see about my head. So I went back the next morning.
(You went back to this church the next morning.)
Went back the next morning where we - so he was telling her about it. She didn't carry on [rub her], but she carried me around and telled me to sit down before the table and she asked me how my head hurt and all that and this and everything like that. And I told her. She told me sit down and she would fix my head up. So she lit a candle and put it before my - kind of a yellow candle and placed my hands before it, aside the candle. She got her one and lighted it, and went to passing it over her head [demonstrates] and she was saying something or other. (When she passed it - how did she pass it over her head? Like this? [I demonstrate.] Around her head in a circle?) Yes, sir. [See margin-title later, Halo Sign.] And so I had stayed there that day. And had to go back nine days - nine mornings. (Nine mornings. She did that nine mornings, you say. She said before sun- rise?) Yes, sir. No, sir - any time between twelve o'clock - between sunset and one in the evening.
(Any time between twelve o'clock at night and sunrise in the morning?)
[My question confuse her but she now gives the proper answer; the well-known magic rite.] Ah don't know how. But she told me to always come - never come at twelve - come before twelve when the sun was still on a rise. (Oh, I see - when the sun was still going up. I see. And that was all she did - burn this candle on you?) Everything.
(And then when she finished that - after the nine days, then what happened?)
Hit was gone! Never seen it no more.
(I see. What did they charge you?)
$25.
(The both of them - S25 for both of them?)
No, that was $25 for my head. I paid the same thing for the hip part.
($25 apiece? Each for the hip and the head?)
Yes, sir.