Browse:Horseshoe (Volume 1, entries 1339–1344)
Horseshoe
Volume 1, entries 1339–1344. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → CURE AND PROTECTION. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1339
You kin take a horseshoe if you see ghostes and - you goin' in a dark place and you kin look and see ghostes, you kin have yore horseshoe and spit on it and throw it over your shoulder and the ghostes won't harm you all de way home. Like if you stayed in de country and you have a long journey to go late at night, and you used to seeing yore grandmother and you don't wanta see her - you know, it frightens you to see her coming and dere is nobody. Well, you throw that over yore shoulder and yo' all right.
Entry 1340
If they kept making noises at night and you can't rest, and you hear the doors opening and closing, after that body has been carried out of the home, they say, "I have an idea they're still coming back." They would get this horse- shoe and hang it over the door and they would have no more trouble, they said. They hang it with the ends down.
Entry 1341
[An old horseshoe is almost invariably used in folklore, but it takes an opposite to prove this rule:] If the house is haunted, put a new horseshoe over the door.
Entry 1342
Yo' hang a left-foot horseshoe ovah yore do', front do', an' dat'll keep all evil an' bad spirits out. [Left-foot horseshoe is rare.]
Entry 1343
Take a horseshoe and put it over the door and take some silver paper [tin foil] and wrap it around it, and hang it over the top of the door and you won't have any trouble with the spirit coming back - the prongs down.
Entry 1344
Well, yo' kin - jest lak, now, if somepin be's aroun' yore house sorta lak a spirit or somepin, yo' jest git chew a ole rusty horseshoe an' nail it up ovah yore front do' an' nail one up ovah yore back do', an' yo' won't nevah be bothered wit dem no mo'.