Browse:Graveyard Plants (Volume 1, entries 1945–1946)
Graveyard Plants
Volume 1, entries 1945–1946. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1945
Co'se ah did have 'em but ah haven't got 'em now - de little flower dat grows. It's a white flower, yo' git it out de graveyard.
(What is the name of the flower?)
Ah don't know whut de name of dat flower, but chew kin go to de graveyard an' git it. It grows jes' about dat high.
(About a foot high?)
Yes, sir. An' it's all loaded wit - yo' find it in most any cemetery about dis time. Dey bloomin' now. It's a flower dat de whole place is white wit dem flowers, an' yo' go dere an' pick dem flowers, an' set dem flowers in some watah an' jes' go dere an' throw it [the water] right roun' in dere. It will separate 'em, git dem from roun' dere. Co'se ah kin git de flower all right. An' you say] "Ah want chew all tuh separate - raise hell." See.
(That will break up this man and this woman.)
Shore.
(You throw this water into that house.)
Throw it right at de steps.
The informant says the preparation will separate unnamed targets. The interviewer supplies a man-and-woman paraphrase; flower identity and the nearby say] text remain unresolved.
Entry 1946
Well, yo' kin go dere an' git a tree - to graveyard, git a little ole bush an' den carry it to anyone's home an' set it out an' let it stay right where yo' set it out. It won't be long 'fore dey'll go where yo' git dis bush from. (If you want to get rid of someone, you would go out to the graveyard and get up a bush and then come into that house and set it out where they wouldn't notice it. And that would send them to that graveyard where that bush came from.) Dat's right, jes' make dem move in somepin jes' lak a grave. Jes' make up a little something jes' lak a grave an' jes' stick it [the bush] right tuh de head of dat, an' a stick tuh de foot an' name it. It won't be lon g'fore dey be gone.