Browse:HOW MURDERER CAN BE CAUGHT (Volume 4, entries 7354–7516)/Part 3
HOW MURDERER CAN BE CAUGHT
Volume 4, entries 7354–7516. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → MURDER. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 7514
Bury 'im wit 'is head down an' is feet up.
(You mean upside down, standing on his head?)
Yes sir. Dat'll bring 'im back. [Here again, as in the preceding rites, it is assumed that the killer is known and that his photograph is available. Despite the indefiniteness of informant's statement, a photograph, not the corpse, is buried head down.]
Entry 7515
If yo' find a person daid an' yo' wanta find out who killed 'im - ah jes' tell yo' whut dey said, ah don' know. Dey say 'cordin' to how de man is layin', which way he's facin'. If he's layin' ovah on 'is side turnin' ovah on 'is face, de fellah dat killed 'im comin' back. An' says if yo' wan' to, when dey give de man a Wake, yo' go dere three nights han'rnnin' [= hand running = consecutively] at one 'clock at night an' say a prayah an' de one dat killed [him], he'll come dere durin' dat prayer. (You say if they found a man killed they just let him lie there and then his friends would go there every night for three nights and pray over the body, and the fellow that killed him would come back?) Durin' de third night. He would have to heah de prayah. [My comment apparently says the dead body lies at the scene of the crime of three days, so that his friends could go there three consecutive nights and pray over the body. My mistake began with the word when - when dey give de man a wake When, of course, here means after - after dey give de man a wake etc. On the three nights following the wake, friends at one o'clock visit the scene of the crime and say a special prayer to bring back the killer. The body was buried the day after the wake, that is, the day after the murder.]
Entry 7516
Dey take graveyard dirt an' put it in dey shoe an' dat will keep dem from interferin' in de family, an' it will cause dere death. Say, if yo' kill dat person yondah, well yo' bury 'em. An' ah'll go take some graveyard dirt an' sprinkle it ovah yore flo' an' put some in yore shoes, an' when yo' go out an' travel on, yo' tell it 'fore yo' know it.
(You'll find out on me that I killed that man. How would you find it out?)
By dat graveyard dirt. Yo' lay down an' go tuh sleep an' yo' know yo' did a bad crime. an' yo' - why den yo' go an' tell it. Dey go an' stick yore fingah in a pan of watah [while you are asleep] an' yo' tell evahthing about it. [Wilson, N. Car., (1474), 2654:7.] [This section contains merely a part of the many beliefs and rites in Hoodoo about death, burial and graveyard (see preceding section MURDER and everyvhere); therefore the subject matter here is not as complete as it could be. I have divided the section into three subsections, the first two concerned with grave- yard dirt: (1) HOW TO OBTAIN GRAVEYARD DIRT, and (2) WHAT TO DO WITH GRAVEYARD DIRT; and (3) COFFINS REAL OR MOCK - PHOTOGRAPH AND COFFIN - DOLL BABY - ANIMAL SUBSTITUTE - BONES FROM THE DEAD. This latter subsection (3) will be given in lettered subsubsections as we reach them.] [Graveyard dirt or dust, the most deadly and feared hoodoo substance, is act- ivated by the spirit of a dead person - a dangerous power to handle. An amateur would be wise to leave graveyard dirt in the hands of an expert, but if he or she desires a do-it-yourself experience or wants to avoid professional expense, here are the rules and procedures to be observed, beginning with a few words about the spirit itself.] [The Spirit in Graveyard Dirt is the same spirit we met at the beginning of Hoodoo (vol.1, Pp.19-164) and elsewhere in the text. Beliefs and rites in this subsubsection reestablish former atmosphere:]