Browse:Ear Trumpet (Volume 1, entries 569)
Ear Trumpet
Volume 1, entries 569. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 569
When ah was twelve years old, people used to come to mah house and git mah daddy to let me come cut cards fo' 'um - see, it was a gift to me. Ah nevah been to school two months in mah life but I musta had [something?] down in mah heart, but ah got wicked and got to cursin', tellin' lies and it left me. Now, for experient [experience], for self- experient about mahself, about mah wife - ah tole you about my wife. Ah'm got a wife an' fo' kids. My wife, somebody put a spell on her in liquor [see No. 78]. She got it in whiskey and she done walked off. She been gone now fer about round three months. [This was not the first time she had left home.] Ah done spent money, all ah had - ah been to Beaufort, South Carolina, ah been to other people.
(Whom did you see at Beaufort?)
A man dey call Dr. Robinson - j'ever hear talk about him - live on an island?
(I never heard of Robinson - I know Rikker who is there.)
(Did he live in Beaufort or outside of town?)
He lived outside of town on a little island.
(Oh, yes, I know him - I know him.) [See Robinson in Index.]
Well, anyways he lived on a little island.
(What did he do for you when you went there?)
He tole me if I could get my wife hair - he put somepin to his ear, see - he say, "Yore wife got a spell on her in whiskey," which ah knows that, but I ain't said nothing. He put somepin to his ear and ah hear him talking and it look to like - and he say, "What dis boy done?" [He say] "Ain't done nothin'?" He say, "Uh-huh." He say, "Two wimmins put a spell on your wife in liquor." [The moment informant said the doctor had put somepin to his ear, I suspected Doctor Robinson had used an old-fashioned ear trumpet to consult a spirit. My informant could hear him talking - both spirit and doctor. Ventriloquism? I doubt it - it was unnecessary. Instead of asking his patient what was wrong, the doctor inquired of the spirit, What dis boy done? Presumably the spirit replied, Ain't done nothin', for doctor somewhat surprised repeats, Ain't done nothin'? And then he knowingly comments, Uh-huh. If the reader is skeptical about method and belief here, remember that the Tomb-of-de-Babe-of-Bethlehem preacher (see Contents or Index) could hold a sea shell to his ear and hear the roaring of the primordial ocean of Genesis - first book in the Bible. See also No. 242 for talking snake.] He say, "If yo' kin bring her to me," say, "ah'll cure her." Ah say, "Well, ah ain't got no way bringin' her - she done left home." He say, in seven days from den she goin' be back - and she was back de seventh day. She come back, but he say, "She won't stay without chew bring her to me." But ah never did get enough money to take my wife. All right, she left again. An' ah went to different people right here in town and dey couldn't make her come back. An' you know what I hear oncet? I did oncet, heah about two weeks ago, ah went to de people and tole 'em, ah said, "Don't work on her no mo' - jes' let her go." But dat day when ah come, heah she was sweeping de house. [At this point in the transcription an original note of mine reads, "Hayes (my transcriber) left out material about spirits - my use of silver." What this silver means I no longer know.] Ah give mah wife up. She wouldn't come near. She would come dere when ah wouldn't answer [while he was away from home] and go along. It come to me to take a aig, write her name on it three times and ah put it in a glass and bury it under - right near de house under a tree, see.
(Near her house or your house?)
To my house - right in mah yard.
(You didn't break the egg?)
Didn't break it. All right. Now, here where dis come. Ah have a little ole plum tree, too, out in de yard. Jest as plain as ah'm talkin' to you, it come to me in mah sleep - a man tole me - to take a white pine - piece of white pine - yo' know what a white pine is - go to dat tree three nights and three days and call her name nine times fore ah hit one of those - see, jest like a leaf - a tree done sprung from it [a come] - call her name and hit on it three times fer three nights and three days. All right. Ah tole de ole man yestiday she done workin' around somebody - seems she done gettin' worried. See, last night was de last night after sundown - she come home last night at twelve 'clock with her clothes and so help me, God, and she tole me, she said she ain't going leave no more. So I musta done git de spirit [the man in his sleep], see. Now, dat's the truf, if I never speak agin. An' she's gittin' jest further - she wouldn't come near me atall. Dey man moved in, say de spell was put on her to make her hate me - say two wimmin did it wit whiskey and one man. But now, this thing heah what ah'm tellin' yo' 'bout with that piece of white pine, and go to that tree after sundown and call her name three times an' jest tell her what chew want, tell her that you want her to come home and stay home.
(When you call her name, do you hit the tree with that thing?)
Jest knock a leaf off it. Yo' jest pick yo' one of 'em dat grows, see - tain't no pine, jest any kind of tree, but you git a piece of white pine to do it wit. You got'a go to a little ole green tree - somepin like a plum tree or any kind of a green tree. That what the man tole me and what ah did.
(Who told you this?)
A spirit tole me.
(Oh, a spirit man - I see.)
Dat's right - come to me in mah sleep - wasn't no man - jist come to me in mah sleep - a man tole me to do it and ah did it and last night made de six days - my wife walked in de house last night after twelve 'clock - knocked on de do' and tole me to let her come in. [At this point in the transcription an original note of mine reads, "Some untranscribed material about his wife."] No, heah how it started. Dey tuk de liquor and dey put somepin in it. See, when dey put stuff in dere like dat, no telling what - it gits yore mind, gits yo' dull and gits in yore brains. See. Every month, jest de date dey give it to you, every month dat dat you gits foolish head - den you Wanta do jest what dey Want chew to do. [See subsection Time in this section.] See. De chillun kept tellin' me about it - say, "Mama jest sets round dere an' cry-babying an' [we] say what de matter and she say dere ain't nothin' in her." Dey say, "Dere's somepin in her." Dat spell was working on her more an more and at last one Saturday night ah go home and to de chillun, ah say, "Where yo' mama?" They say] "Mama tuk her coat and left," and she stayed about a day. Ah went and talked with her and ah said, "What's the matter sweetheart?" And she jest cried and cried, "Ah don't know." Well, ah said, "Yo' come on home." She come on back home. About two months after that she was gone agin - she stayed about three days den. Ah go talk wit her and she come back home agin. But ah'd taken her to dis Father Abraham and he told her she was witchcrafted. He give her somepin out of de Bible to drink and some water -
(He had taken something out of the Bible and some what?)
He'd taken what he got out de Bible - some sort somepin, he made a little pill out of and give it to her [probably a Bible-text pill]. She got all right den, see, fer about a month. (Father Abraham is up here at Lottie, Florida Lottie, Florida - dey buried him last week. An' he say, "Yo' witchcraft - dat's your trouble." And he prayed some kind of prayer over her - put his hand on her haid. She got all right fer about a couple of months. Ah go home and she was laying on de floor stiff. Ah pick her up and say, "What de matter." She didn't know nothing. Next morning I'd taken her back to him. Ah give dat fellah $200. All right, she got all right fer about a couple of months. He says fer to stay from around dem people, say, "You'll be all right, but every time you go around dem, dey doubles yore dose on yo'. See. An' she laid [stayed] home agin. Ah'm telling you she stayed den three weeks. All right, ah goes to Beaufort, where ah was telling you about where ah went. Ah give dat fellah three dollars - Dr. Robinson - and I mean he had plenty people round dere to see him. He put that thing to his ear and he say, "Seven days and if she ain't come back under seven days - seven days, she'll be dere. But she ain't gon'a be stationery - she ain't going to stay." [He] say, "You bring her here to me and ah'll take it off her." But ah never be able to take her dere. She come back in de seven days. She come back in de seven days jest lak ah count de days, see, de seventh day on de minute she walks in after sundown.
(She came back last night, did you say?) [No, I am mistaken.]
Dat de seven days he talking about, see. She worked all right fer about two months round dere er [or] three months. Three months after that, three months from last night she was gone - walked out agin and she been gone three months. Ah went to diff'rent root people, ah been all over. Dere's plenty of dem here in dis town - plenty of 'em tell yo' dey kin do things, whether they done do it er not, see. And ah spent money with white wimmens, colored wimmins, colored men jest thrown mah money away and so ah been worried. You know about how ah been feeling - every time ah go home, de chillun say, "When yo' goin' git mama to come home?" Ah say, "Ah don't know." She'd go out once a week and see de chillun but she sneak away fore ah git dere. Dey put a spell on her to make her spirit die - make her hate me, see. An' dat spirit brought dat to me what to do, see. Dat's why ah'm telling yuh, I know it goin' work - nobody have to tell me. Now, you know when ah started to work on that - last Sunday night. It ain't been six days. See, you go to dat tree jest like ah tell you with a piece of pine board - don't make no diff'rent whether it is big or not - and yo' looking at de good limb wit de leaves on it, see, and you start to de head and call her name three times and you knock off some of dem leaves each time you call - jest three times - and stick dat stick in de ground, not up on de tree - stick it where nobody won't see it. See. An' you go back dere - you do's it fer three days and three nights. And de last night she walk in dere twelve 'clock wit her clothes under her arm. Dis mawnin' ah said, "Well." Ah knowed she was coming, see, 'cause de spirit had done showed it to me dat night wit her clothes coming - ah seed her plain wit her clothes coming. All right.
(What did she have to say?)
She knock on de door an' ah say, "Who dere?" She say, "Git up and open de door." She come in and ah say, "Why, you comin"' and she say, "Yeah, ah'm goin' stay now - ah ain't goin' no more - ah'm tired." Ah know where she was stayin'. She was stayin' tuh her aunty a while, stayin' over tuh her cousin a while - see jest scabering aroun' jest like somebody goin' away when she got her own home dere to stay tuh. But dey put a spell on her - she couldn't he'p it. Dis mawning she tole me. De chillun.say dey sure is glad to git her home. But she ain't exactly right yet - de spirits tell me it goin' wear off of her more and more.