Browse:Dog (Volume 1, entries 1840)
Dog
Volume 1, entries 1840. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1840
See, ah takin' in a little washin' an' ironin'. Wal, I'se makin' good and she call herself fren' of me an' I believed 'er then. So she come to mah house an' says, "Ann, come heah a minute." An' ah went to her. She says, "Come walk around a piece with me." Well, ah did, but ah said, "Well, ah ain't got time cause ah gotta go an' wash." Well, there was another woman called me at de time, says, "Ann, do yo' know who dat woman is dat walk wit chew." Ah says, "Yes, dat's Lulu Taylor." She says, "Wal, now, ah want tell yuh dat woman will put chew in de worst luck - she put chew in de worst luck yo' evah been in yore life. That's Lulu Taylor's job. She call herself great frien's but she kin put chew in de worst luck yo' evah saw and yo' watch what ah tell yuh." She says, "Lulu Taylor is goin' put chew in hard luck," cause she has put her [speaker] in hard luck. She says, "She goin' put chew in hard luck." Ah says, "Well, how will she do that?" "[She] says, "She goin' burn sulphur on Friday on yo' and she goin' to git graveyard dirt to run yo way from heah. Dat's what she goin' do; put chew in de worst kind of luck." Wal, she did do it. She asked me to come home wit her and ah went and says - when she got a piece out she says, "Ann, does yo' know where any white dog manure is? Wal, ah wanna git some." She say a man's name. Now, it was a man there she had been knockin' aroun' wit, an' another woman come and commence to lose time with him. She say, "Come on an' go with me." Ah said to mahself, "Ef she goin' do this kind of trick, ah wanta see how it's done." Ah goes with her. She went to the graveyard and she dug in top of dis grave, down in de grave about dat deep [demonstrates].
(To her elbow.)
An' she got some dirt out of the grave and she say, "Heah's a penny." She put de penny down and tuk away de dirt, come on back to wheah I was wit it in her han' and says, "What ah want chew to do de first time yo' see any white dog's manure, git it fer me." Wal, by time she got to de house, ah walks on heah and ah see it. Ah calls her and she come on back dere to dat stuff. She mix dis heah stuff and put three pins in dere. She put three pins in dis stuff she had fixed - she wouldn't tell de [other] stuff she had. But she run dis man away. Ah know she done dat. Dat [given name] Thompson, ah think it was [his given name] - she run him away from there. Well, he went. [The preceding statement, come on back to wheah I was, shows the first rule of graveyard procedure - all rites must be performed by operator alone. A good illustration of this is the man who waits outside graveyard while woman enters; he not speaking to woman again until they reach home (see No. 77, p.32). Present informant talking about penny is merely after-the-rite knowledge projected for- ward. If present operator had mentioned penny to present informant before-the- rite, she would have violated the rule of secrecy, this causing failure.]