Browse:INTRODUCTION (Volume 1, entries 1–121)
INTRODUCTION
Volume 1, entries 1–121. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1
It was a stormy night, thundering and lightning and raining, and this old witch [Millie] was dying. My mother and father and grandmother and lots of other people were there. And she started to climb up the wall. Of course they had to tie her in bed. And then they all got frightened. My mother got under the bed. And she died that night. And when the time for the funeral came, which I guess was about two or three days after, they put her in the hearse. And she bled from the house to the cemetery. It came through the casket [coffin] and hearse. They say there was a stream of blood from the house to the cemetery. [New York City, (1), by hand. These three facts - where collected, from whom and how, are given for all material; sometimes "when" is added, this in Gaston Co., N. Car.,1892.]
Entry 2
[I now guote for comparison of beliefs mv accounts of the preceding white witch's death and burial:] Miss Healer [a professional healer] called me [the Informant] up [1932] and said Witch was sick and she wanted to see me. So that Sunday afternoon [my] Daughter took me over to Witch's, and Witch told me she was sick. And then she said, "Informant, do you know that Christ came to me this morning and had His thorns on His head like when He was crucified." And then she said He had His arms stretched out like this [here Informant stretched out her arms imitating Witch's action] and called her. He wanted her to come. Then we just talked from then on. Well, then I don't know what happened. See. But every day it just seemed like I would have to go to her house. And we generally just set and talked. That was about six weeks all told. And then one Saturday morning I went real early, about eight o'clock, and when I went in, this Miss Healer was there. And then she left. Then Witch's Husband, he wanted to go to the barber shop to get shaved, and he said, "Well, I'll go because Informant is here." After he left, Witch got those hysterical spells. She would scream and pull her hair and kind of go wild. I couldn't do anything with her. Then, every time I would leave her house, she would pray on me and made a cross about here [Informant crossed her heart]. Every time she made a prayer, she Was praying over these medals. [Informant, though a Prot- estant, was wearing several blessed Roman Catholic medals over her heart.] She didn't know I had them on, of course. Well, that was the last Saturday I was there. See. So when I got home I called Miss Healer and I said, "Do you think Witch is worse?" And she said, "No." She said, "Mrs. Informant, I think she's just working on your nerves" - cause she said, whenever she's there, Witch's all right; but whenever Witch seen me coming, she would throw herself into those Spells. So I told Miss Healer about Witch praying on me, and she said, "I be- lieve she's putting you in a spell." And she said, "Why can't you go out to Father Z?" And, let's see, we waited until next week. Miss Friend [Roman Catholic] took us [Informant, Daughter and small Grandson] out. We pressed the bell and went into the hallway and some young priest came. We told him we Wanted to speak to Father Z. Then Miss Friend introduced me to him. And he told her to go into the parlor on the other side. And I guess I went into his study. Well, then we talked and he said, "What made you come to me?" He said, "Don't you go to any church?" I told him I belonged to B. Church [which Informant had not attended for years] and he said, why didn't I go to him [the clergyman there]. I told him that I heard out to Y. Church the priests could help you if you thought you were hoodooed. He didn't say much of anything. He was a very firm old man. Let's see, so then I told him about Witch and told him that it seemed like I had to go every day. So then he said, "Who is this old hex?" I said, "Her name is Witch" - I didn't even say her last name - "she lives in the south part of towm." And he said to me, "Oh my!" He said, "You are about the fiftieth person from the South End of town that's been to me because they thought this woman had hoodooed them." And then he said something about the South End of town. I don't remember what he said. I told him, too, about her saying that we had it too good here [in Informant's home], that she was going to get even with us and make me suffer, having this swell home and getting all of [Husband'sl salary, and this and that. And then I told him about [Husband]. At that time Husband hadn't left home yet. [Informant and Husband separated perman- ently two years later.] And he said to me, "Don't you divorce him" - that's been three years ago [1932] - "he'll give this girl up." Everybody thought so. He said, "A wife has the best chance of holding a husband." So then he prayed on me. He stood up with his cross and prayed over me - whatever you call it. And he said, "I am going to give you this medal. I think it is the best one in my whole collection." Then after I thought a minute, I said to Father Z., 'Do you think it would hurt me to put this medal in Husband's clothes?" And he said, "No, it might help." He wanted Husband to come out to see him, and I told him he would never come. See, he kinda thought we were both put in a spell. But see, Husband would never go. So he said to me, "Don't you ever go in Witch's house again." I told him I wouldn't. And he said he would offer special prayers for me in church next day. I said, "What do I owe you?" He said, "Nothing." I said, "I want to give you something for your trouble and time." So I gave him a dollar. And he told me to drop it in a little slit in the desk. I don't know what he said, whether they use it for the poor or for the church. I think he said that. Miss Friend said if I had given him a quarter he would have been satisfied. And then we [Informant and Miss Friend] went out to the car. And then Miss Friend took Grandson and Daughter in. Daughter thought Witch had Grandson hoo- dooed too. It seemed that every time she [Witch] would come here [to Informant's home], Grandson would get one of those spells. He would be playing, and if Witch Would be here, see, why it just seemed like he would fall any place he would be at. One day he was at the top of the steps and fell clean down. Another day he stood in the cellar way here [just off the kitchen where I sat while recording this story]. And several times he was sitting in the high-chair and would just get like a dish rag, limber, and fall right out of the chair and turn blue. And sometimes it would take us a half hour to get him to come out of it. And Witch [who was frequently hired for housework] would always run and pick him up and rub him. Daughter and I would cry, thought he was going to die. And she said, "Oh, he will be all right." So one day Daughter found one of his stockings on a bush around the house, and so she got it and took it to the cellar and burned it up. After we burned that up Witch never came back. Then Witch took sick. That's where my story started, see. Well, then, all the doctors thought Grandson had heart trouble and they couldn't do anything for him. And they said they didn't understand why the medicine didn't work on him to get him out of these spells.- Dr. Q. said, whenever he got another spell, to call him up that minute. He never got any more after we burned the stocking. But in the meantime we took him to Father Z. I didn't go in, but Daughter told him that she thought he had heart trouble. And he said he never heard a child so small [two years old] having heart trouble. He prayed on Grandson and he never had another spell. Daughter Wasn't so generous. She didn't give him a nickel. It was worth a dollar, if you thought you were in a spell, to get rid of it. From that time on he began to gain and gain, and Dr. Q. couldn't understand it. When I came back from Father Z., I called up Miss Healer and told her I went to Father Z. and he told me not to go to Witch's house any more. So I didn't. But the end of the week, Witch kept calling for me, said she must see me. And Miss Healer knew that I would not go there any more because Father Z. told me not to, so she told Witch my phone Was out of order. And Witch told her, "You try again every day until you get her." That was like Friday. Saturday after- noon Miss Healer went to Witch's to give her a treatment. Miss Healer is sup- posed to be a healer. She don't tell you what she does. People say she is good. She don't take no pay. What you give her she takes. Then, while she was there, Witch grabbed her by the wrist, like this [Informant demonstrated the hold], and Miss Healer said to me, "You don't know what a feeling it was." I said to Miss Healer, "Maybe she is putting a spell on you." And Miss Healer said, "I am not afraid of her because I can take spells off." She says she can't, but the South End says she can. So Monday morning Miss Healer called me up and told me she went to St. Mary's Hospital Sunday afternoon to give one of her patient's treat- ment. She walked up the steps and as she got in the big hall she fell flat, full length of her face. She said the sister run to see if she was hurt. She said, "No." But she said, "I felt like a fool." She said it hurt her so bad she could hardly get home. So she didn't go to Witch's, Sunday night. So Monday morning Witch's Husband went after her. She told Witch's Husband she couldn't come, she fell and hurt herself. So she didn't go Monday to Witch's. Then he said, "Call Informant on the phone." And she told him our phone was still out of order. Then Tuesday morning early, Witch's Husband went about six o'clock and begged her to come again. She said, "I can't come, I can't walk on my foot." She told me she wouldn't go back. So he went back home and told Witch. And she made him go to the grocery store on the corner, F's Grocery, and call her up again, or me. She said, "I told you I couldn't come at six o'clock and I can't come now." I don't know what I will do," he says, "no neighbor will come in [they were afraid of Witch]." Then Witch's Husband went home from the grocery store and Witch was dead. Died all alone. I went to the funeral after she was dead. I wasn't afraid then. British. [British = Informant was of British descent, though of old American stock; other persons were of German descent - FACI (= Folklore From Adams County Illinois), 2ed., 1965, p.918f.; recorded by hand, word for word.]
Entry 3
[My account of the funeral of the preceding white witch follows:]
Some South End (of Quincy) women were out to the cemetery after J's (Mary's) funeral, and they said they tried several times to lower her casket and they couldn't do it. They had to dig the hole larger than usual. [I now comment on this informant's statement.] This refers to the burial of a reputed witch who died in 1932 and is a good example of the unreliability of eyewitnesses, espe- cially when these witnesses were expecting something unusual. It should be remembered that by this time a coffin was not lowered into an empty grave, but into a wooden container; hence the width and length of a grave were much larger than the coffin. Another witness, however, said it was only the lowering appa- ratus which refused to work. (Even that would be awesome!) This was probably the case. A third witness said the reason the coffin could not be lowered was that J ''didn't want to go." [FACI, 2ed., 1965, p.711, No. 15374.]
The informant reports the women's account; the editor separately questions it and gives alternative explanations.
Entry 4
There was an old woman who went for a cunjure. She lived in King George and she must have been a good cunjure because she made her living in that way, putting on spells and taking them off. A neighbor lived not far from her house Was hunting squirrels in the squirrel season and he passed near her home in the Woods, and he saw she had a snake tied by the tail hanging up the tree, and she had cut its throat and catching the blood in a small bucket. She wasn't: there. And he said to himself, "Damn you! I always heard you was a cunjure and now I know it." That was about forty years ago. She was a real cunjure. Everybody. Was afraid of that woman, both white and colored. If she came to your house and asked you for anything, it paid you to give it to her. She said, "You're going to lose ten times more than that." [This is called "putting a bad mouth on you."] She went to a neighbor one day and asked for a watermelon and he did not believe in cunjuring. So he didn't give her the watermelon and lost his horse that night. And then on he took off his hat to this woman. I knew both of them.
[Fredericksburg, Va., (71), Ed.; King George Co., Va.,1896.]
Entry 5
(Would you say that the people who are engaged in this kind of work... know much about it?) Dere lotta people workin' 'long dis line dat really don't know much about it. Yessuh, it's lotta people 'long dis line dat know much mo' den ah do, because all of us buy it outa de drug sto' anyway. [Buying from a hoodoo drug store or hoodoo mail-order firm or owning a hoodoo manual does not make a doctor.]
(Would you say that many of them make a good living out of this type of work?)
Yessuh, yessuh - white an' colored heah, ownin' nice homes an' don't do any- thing but dat, plenty nice cars an' plenty servants. [This woman marked "good and "professional(?)" exaggerates, considering me a white hoodoo doctor from New York City with car and servant; car and owner hired locally, servant(:) my skilled contact man Edward trained by me in four cities.]
(Do the white people in this work handle both white and colored?)
Some of 'em an' some of 'em doesn't. [Some doctors are exclusive. Madam Wiley of Memphis - see my interview with her - says, "Mah trade is white."]
Entry 6
It's an ole white gentleman in the neighborhood where I lived down there in Georgia. I lived at Daisy [pronounced it Da'ze'], Georgia, into de country. An' he was said to be, you know, they said he was The god of Liberty County. So when anything happened to the colored people they went to hunt him. I've seen him many a time.
Entry 7
I heard a white man tell this. I don't know whether it is true or not. He said this old lady, she was a witch, her name was Smith. He said he missed the ties that come out from under the streetcar track - he had a lot of old ones in his back yard - so he watched one night to see where they went. He said that old Mrs. Smith came over and got on one and rode it as a horse into her yard. It went right off the ground through the air. He said the next day he went over there - he was afraid of her anyhow - he said, "Mrs. Smith, where did you get this log at?" And she said, "Where do you think I get it at?" And he said, "You rode that log over here last night." She said, "You'd better get out of here or I'll ride you like I did the log." And he said he left, too. We were all scared to death of that old woman.
The log appears in dialogue inside a reported story whose narrator explicitly says its truth is unknown.
Entry 8
[I have four stories about the celebrated Zippy Tull of the Eastern Shore, each told by different informant. The following story, all the material he gave me, came from my hotel manager at Princess Anne, the only white informant in this book. The latter alone makes him memorable in my life, but a favor he also did later made the day doubly a worthy memory. See Zippy Tull in the Index.] This was I would imagine about sixty-five or seventy years ago [before 1936]. This lady [a white woman] was a relative [great-aunt] of mine, [the informant is a white man], she was living in Wicomico County at a little country place by the name of Siloam, Maryland - Wicomico County. She Was going With a young man living in that same neighborhood and they were engaged to be married. There was another girl that this same gentleman was [had been] going with, which of course I can't [do not.care to] call his name, but he was [had been] going with these two girls and they were very much in love with this one particular man. And in order to get the advantage of the [engaged] girl - her name was a Miss B., she [the other girl] tried to find some way to get rid of Miss B., and in doing so, the only way she knew how would be to fix some way to put a spell on her. She had lady friends of course was stopping with Miss B., and also with her, so she got one of these ladies to secure a lock of her hair. And in doing that, Miss B., of course, didn't know that she Was securing this lock of hair. It run on for a little while and she was taken sick. In other words, it was more like her mind - her mind got to be very, very bad, very bad. She consulted doctors frequently but nobody could seem to do her any good. She gradually grow worser in her condition. Of course, the gentleman friend that she had, wasn't paying so much attention to her while her being sick. He figured that wouldn't be the woman for him. He was paying more attention to this other young lady, number two I would call her. But in doing that, this lady tried round different physicians. Finally she couldn't get any relief, she went to see an old [colored] lady by the name of Zippy Tull. She was known for several counties as being a great fortune teller. She could remove spells, as we now call them, from different people; she could put 'em on someone else, if necessary. She consulted Zippy Tull and, in doing that, she [Zippy Tull] told her her troubles, told her what Was causing these troubles. She said, "Well, can I get cured?" She said, "Yes, I can cure you. I can also put this same thing on the one that put it on you." She said, "No, I don't want to do that, I would just love to get well. If I can get well, I feel that that would be the biggest thing in life." "But," she said, "I can tell you how to get well. If you go to the graveyard, your family graveyard, beside your brother that's now dead, there you will find a lock of your hair burried [buried] in the ground with a brick on top of it; there you will find a cord wrapped around a lock of your hair, and just: so.long as that lock of hair stays there, this will gradually work on you; there you'll find a cord which binds that hair perfectly tight. Now, when you go to that grave, don't go until this hour is over - between this hour of twelve and one o'clock at night, and her spirit won't be there or any of her spirits will be there to protect it. You go there at that time. There you dig'in the ground at a certain spot [next to her brother's grave]. You'll find this brick, and under there you look and you'll find a lock of hair just as I have told joo, and you bring it to me. Don't chew tell anyone tha' chew found it, don't tell any of your people tha' chew found it, but bring it back to Zippy Tull and I'll tell you what to do with it." Of course, she was like most people, she felt that anything she could do, you know, to bring her health back to her - she was rejoicing in the fact, if it would do it. But she waited until next morning and she went back to see Aunt Zippy Tull. And when she got there Aunt Zippy said to her, she said, "Well," she said, "you found just what you're looking for?" She said, "Yes, I found it. It was there." She said, "Would joo say that's a lock of your hair?" She said, "Well, it's the same colah and looks like the same hair." She said, "How did joo find it?" "I found it with a little piece of cord wrapped around that hair." "And that cord around the hair, it must be causing you all this trouble, your headaches and your pains; and just so long as that string, cord, was wrapped round that hair, you would have never gotten any better, you would have gradually grown worse. Now then, if you want, I can put the same spell back on the person, which of course you know who it is. I can put it back on them; or, to get rid of your trouble, you must do away with this hair. But chew must first remove that string." And Aunt Zippy Tull - that's how she was known, they all called her Aunt Zippy - she said, "You take this hair and you destroy it by burning it up. And don't let anybody ever have any of your hair, because this same woman will be trying to do the same thing again." This woman, after doing this, she gradually got better. She got well, made a strong healthy woman, and lived to be a quite old age. I would positively say she was around seventy or seventy-five years old when she died. This was the age of about twenty-three-or-four years old when this spell was first put on this woman. Naturally, I know it from actual knowledge. It had been handed down right in the family and we knew this to be a positive fact. This is not a heresay or somebody telling you about it, it's really positive, it's absolutely true. The woman had practically gone crazy and lost her mind. The woman just pulled her hair right out of her head. But her life, it would have been a blank. She went on through life. I don't know her married life of course, I don't know whether that would be necessary now in this particular case or not, but I know this thing Was put on by this woman and was taken off by Aunt Zippy Tull which [who] in those days were looked upon as a great witchcraft and fortune-teller. I would imagine she [Zippy] died between the age of - it's been thirty to forty years ago [before 1936]. But, she was known all over these four counties [Somerset (where we then were), Wicomico, Dorchester and Worcester]. She lived around Siloam; her home was Wicomico County.
Entry 9
Dere's a fore-knowing woman heah at - to Shamrock [Florida]. An' yo' go dere, yo' find dere both black an' white day an' night, an' dey lingering around her place to get a chance to talk with her an' she kin predict. [A fore-knowing woman will also do a little hoodoo work.]
Entry 10
Well, I know of a lady tryin' to poison someone else. An' so I wus told by a gentleman [doctor] that - she goes to work an' takes a tahrahpin [terrapin], a water tahrahpin, cooks this water tahrahpin up, takes this grease of it an' greases the other lady's husband in order to poison this lady [husband's wife]. Well, see, this lady [wife] was a - she happened to be cunnin' enough to not let this man [her husband] git nowhures nigh 'er. Well, he goes back to whure this woman wus. An' so in jist about a - well, say about nine month's time - well, it wus - yes, it wus nine month's time, this woman she has to be taken to the hospital. An' so whenever she got to the hospital the doctors wanted to 'topsy 'er after she died. So whenever she died they finds a tahrahpin wus hung on to this woman's livah. This wus re'lly true. I knowed this woman mahself. That wus in 1926. That happen in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The woman died in the hospital. [The preceding word poison is a technical term unknown to toxicology; it is a concept belonging to the realm of magic thought and action. We shall meet poison again and again, also the concept fixed, and always there will be problems. Why did not the husband have the terrapin hanging to him? The evil-doer intended the terrapin for the wife. How was this intention thwarted? By counter-intention. We are in a strange world - the nature of reality faces us.] She got it back on herself. But how this man turn it back on her, I don't know. But I know how the man told de man's wife to do to not let it be turnt back - for her to not get it, you see.
(What did she -do to get this on him?)
She rubbed it on him.
(All over him?)
No, not all over him. She just rubbed it on him [his privates]. So this fellah he wus supposed to go home to his wife. See, he wus to get this grease on her an' this wus supposed to take onto her, you see. He didn't get it off on his wife. So by his wife bein' cunnin' enough to not let him touch her no way, he goes right back to this woman an' returned this deal right back on her. An so the length of time that it wus supposed tah take - you know, in de nine months - why it taken effect.
(Instead of an actual child it was this terrapin?)
It wus a tahrahpin that wus attached to her livah. [At this point, from the informant's hesitation and manner, her companion's attitude, I suspected that the story must have been a personal experience and so asked for the complete details.] She wus tryin' to git rid of me. So she a - I commence, you know, I'd feel funny. Mah husband, he wouldn't stay at home, you see. I couldn't keep 'im home. Nothin' I could do, you see. I couldn't keep 'im at home. I could do - come in an' clean up [and leave]. An' two children in the home. Workin' ever' day. You see, I couldn't do nothin' atall with 'im. An' so he'd come in; he'd stay in the house for a few minutes. An' so mah mother-in-law, she stayed there with me, an' she says, "Nora," she says, "you'd better watch," she says, "maybe perhaps that woman has done somethin' to Thornton." I says, "Ah shucks!" I says, "Do away with that, mama." I says, "They ain't no woman can do nothin'." I says, "He jis' want to run anyhow." So one day she come to me - I wus drivin' an' ole Ford car. I'd always take him to work ev'ry day, bring 'im back home - backwards an' forewards. So I says to 'im, I says - she stayed home with me, she says, "Nora," she says, "I wan' choo to go off a piece with me." I says, "Go off a piece wid joo, mama?" She says, "Yes." So I says, "All right." An' so that day - so I goes on an' takes mah husband to work an' I rushes right back there. I says, "All right, mama." I says, "I'm ready to go." She got right in - she gets in the car. When she gets in the car, why, I says, "Where you goin'?" She says, "I'm goin' to Dunn [North Carolina]." She says, "No matter where I'm goin'," she said, "you come on an' take me." Well, I felt funny, you know because I know de whole - all of them, you know, that it wus used to such as that [all people who believed in cunjuration], that they did somepin [to protect themselves]. So I says, "All right." So I goes ahead with 'er. An' so we get there, we gets out of the car. An' so we commence goin' through a branch. We stopped the car way out here an' commence goin' [walking] through a branch. I says, "Where you goin', mama?" She said, "That's all right. Joo come on an' go with me." So we goes on acrost to a - so we goes to a branch. An' we wus steppin' acrost tussocks, zhoo know, goin' across. [This is my only encounter with spoken word tussocks: in the U. S. A.] I kep' axin' 'er. I said, "Mama, whar is you goin'?" Well, I wus afraid, joo see. An' she says, "Don't joo be uneasy." But whenever [as soon as] we walks in the house - we come to the door, she walks right up to de man. He wus an' ol' cunjure-man [a white man]. And we walked right to the door. And so he said, "Good evenin', Miss Nora, come in." Well, I looked at 'im. Well, I could have [been] shot [she was so astonished because he knew her name]. Well, I says, "Good evenin'." He says, "Pore thing." He say, "You ought to have been here long ago." [This is a usual opening remark by doctors.] He says, "You're tormented." He caught me by the hand an' says, "Have a seat, chair." Well, he drawed his chair right up. He says a - he says, "Well, you is certainly in a bad condition."
[This is another usual remark by doctors.]
I says, "In a bad condition! Why?" Well, she [the mother-in-law] still hadn't tole me anything, you know. So I says, "Why you say I'm in a bad condition?" He says, "They's a brown-skin woman that's givin' you lots of trouble," an' he says, "you are [something]." He says, "Now, I'm gon'a work for you." He says, "I seen you comin' here." He says, "You been on your road here since one a'clock." I says, "Yes?" Well, I know'd I left home at one a'clock sure enough I says, "Yes sir." An' so he says a - "Well," he says, "the thing for you to do, he says a, "tonight when you get home," he says, "whenever [as soon as] your husband comes home tonight," he says, "he ain't goin' hardly wait to eat his supper before he wan'a go to bed." I says, "Yes?" I looked at 'im. I says, "Wan'a go to bed?" He says, "Yes, '' he says, "but don't choo go." He says, "Don't joo go to bed - find something to do. Keep ev'ry night alone for two or three nights - keep away from him an' he'll care [carry] this right back." He says, "Pore thing," he says, "I'm sorry for you." Well, I go on back. I says, "Well," I says, "now, if he [the husband] don't do this, I know he's [the cunjure man is] not tellin' de truth." So I goes on back home. I talked with mah mother-in-law goin' on back all the way. She says, "Well, I knowed whare I wus car'in' you." She says, "Lots of people would say their mother-in-law wouldn't do that, you see, but it's a shame for him to do like that." I goes on back home. Sure enough, he comes in from work an' goin' out - you know how this house is, out on the porch, an' washin' his face. He - I had supper on the table. He couldn't - it looked like he wus nervous or something. He couldn't eat. He - "Come on," Nora, "let's go to bed." I says, "No." I says, "My land of mercy, I've got all these clothes to pack up here." I says, "I can't go." "I'se wantin' to get it." I says, "No." I says, "No, whenever I ain't got no work to do" - we jist had a big racket about it. I says, "When I ain't got no work to do," I says, "you is out an' gone." I says, "You can git out an' go." Well, he worried me around, around, there till about eleven a'clock, jist like he [the cunjure man] said. At eleven a'clock he says, "I believe I'll walk down to the depot." I says, "All right." He walked on out. But when he came back 'twus that next morning. All right. An' about two month's time another girl came to me. She says, "Oh-oh-oh, she says, "Thornton an' Mary is raisin' a new family." I says, "They is?" I says, "That's nice." She says, "I suppose it's so - I'm only tellin' whut I hear." An' so mah mother-in-law - in a few days mah mother-in-law come to me. She says, "Oh," she says, "Fannie [someone sent by Mary] come here to get some medicine." I says, "Did you give it to her?" She says, "Yes, I give it to her." I says, "All right." So - I still - so she hadn't heard still whut he [the cunjure man] told me. I told her some an' I kept some. [The mother-in-law was not present during the actual interview between the informant and the cunjurer.] So sure enough, about - well, she taken ill on about Saturday. So on Saturday he came to me an' he says, "Nora, I guess you're satisfied." I says, "Whut's de matter?" "They say you has poisoned Mary to death." I says, "Oh! beg your pardon." I says, "Poison?" I says, "I haven't paid one nickel out to poison nobody." I says, "If you think that joo would want to die yourself [be hanged or electrocuted for poisoning a person]." I says, "Whut's de good of a head an' you don't use it?" I says, "I jis' as well take a knife an' cut de thing off an' throw it away." So when I said dat, he says, "Well, you's poisoned her." I says, "Whut?" He says, "I'm gon'a do ever'thing I can for 'er." I says, "Well, that's all right - go ahaid an' do it." So on Saturday night he comes in - she wusn't dead, she wus in the hospital. Well, I wus workin' on Fairmont Hill, that's why I heard it - I could come down, the hospital sets a-way back - an' I could hear her screamin' murder, an' she's screamin'. They said, whutevah it wus, it would rise up in her - jis' rise up jist like that [from her stomach towards the throat] an' go back down an' rise up. Well, the doctors begged an' begged her fathah to let 'em 'topsy her. So when they 'topsied her they said it Was a tahrahpin [about six inches in diameter] wus hangin' onto her livah. So he came in that Sunday night an' set down by me an' set on the side of de bed, an' he busted out in a-cryin'. He says, "Well, you have killed her." I says, "Well, thank God! My prayers is answered." That's all I said. So mah mother-in-law come acrost a-laffin' to me. She says, "Nora, she's gone." I says, "Yes!"
Entry 11
My father used to go with a lady name Lida and she got tired of him and he wus goin' with another one named Ella. Well, Miss Lida didn't like it and she sent to papa's house for him to come around to hers, and she knew that papa loved whiskey, and so papa went round there and she went back in the kitchen and brung out some drinks. And him and her sat there and drink. But while she was in the kitchen she took some sweet spirits of nitre and put it in papa's drink. Well, he didn't know no diff'rent, 'cause it was strong, and he jis' drank it right on down. And while he was asleep she took some of his hair and - she cut it out - and if you take a person's hair and put it in runnin' water it'll run 'em crazy. And so she cut some of papa's hair. So when he woke up he says, "Well," he says, "Lida, I didn't know I was goin' to sleep," he says, "please excuse me." She says, "Well, that's all right Sam," she says, "you used to come to see me and go to sleep." And he didn't think anything of it and went home. And about three days after, he begin to feelin' funny for some cause or another. And every time he'd take a drink he would - seemed like he wouldn't have any sense at all. When he'd come home, seemed like if anybody would say anything to him - at least you wouldn't have to say.anything to him - the least little fault he'd find, he'd wan'a start fightin'. And Miss Ella couldn't under- stand it. She says, "Sam, what's ailin' you?" And he'd cuss and rip and rare, and the same way he'd beat us. He'd make us all pull off our clothes and he'd take his belt - he'd always wear a heavy belt - and take it off and double it and beat us with it. And so one day a man came to the house and Miss Ella, he was a white man, he claimed to be a fortune-teller, and Miss Ella Was telling him how papa would act. And he said he would come back when papa was home. And so when he came back he looked at papa and he told Miss Ella, he says, "Ella," he said, "there's some- thing awful wrong with Sam, '' he says, ''but I'll tell you wha' choo kin do, '' he says, "zhoo can go to Conway, South Carolina, to a certain man, and he'll tell you exactly what to do to cure him." And so Miss Ella did. And she took papa to Conway. And before they got there - before they got in the gate, the man said, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't come in here with all that mess on you," he say. "Wait a minute! Don't bring that in mah house. And he went out there and he took a wist [whisk] broom and brushed papa off. And he went in there. And the man told Miss Ella that the woman [Miss Lida] that he used to go with, he says, that she still wanted him but she was mad because she [Miss Ella was going with him. And he said that if he didn't get a piece of her clothes and wrap it up with some sulphur and her track - just one would be all right, the right track, a tablespoonful of her right track - he said that there was no way to cure him but dat. And put it in a little box or can or paper bag with some sulphur and a piece of her belongings, and some cayenne pepper, and mix it all up and put it over her head wure she had to go - like wure she had to pass under. And well, Miss Ella couldn't do it, because she knew that Miss Lida didn't like her. So she had her little boy to go to Miss Lida's house one day and tell Miss Lida that a certain woman wanted to see her up at de corner. And she left home and just as soon as she did, James, Miss Ella's little boy, got her track, her right track, and put it in a box. And Miss Lida came back. She says, "There wasn't anyone to see me." He said, "Yes mam, it was, it was a lady." And then he ast her fer a drink of water and den she went in dere to get him a drink of water, and he went in the front room, and he took a pair of scissors and cut a piece of her dress and he took that. And then -
(Howoldwasthelittlebov?)
He was nine years old. And he took it back to Miss Ella. And Miss Ella got some cayenne pepper, hot pepper, and some sulphur, and mixed it up all together. And she sent papa there [to Miss Lida] with it. And while she was back in the kitchen papa took and put it - jis' like that [pointing to the door], you see, put it over the door. And, the man [in Conway] told him if he would do that and leave it there, in nine days time he would be cured, you know, of the worst part of it, then to come back to him. And sure enough, in nine days time papa went back to him. And he said, "Now Sam, '' he says, "take some of your urine," he says, "in a little bottle and put it under her doorstep," and he says, "she'll come to you and confess." And papa did that. But she came while papa was at work. And she sit down and told Miss Ella just how she had done. And she said, "If you will jist please," she says, "take whatever you got on me away," she says, "I'll never do it agin." And Miss Ella had a chance to take the bottle up from under her doorstep and we didn't have any more trouble with her.
Entry 12
Sometimes some have strong minds. People be's sick and de give up quick. Some'll be sick and ever'thing go along and dey git well wit coal oil, and think they gittin' de right things. Mostly de 'fect yo' kin take on a man is by his planic [planet] and de time he was born under de moon and so forth, and git his mind. I kin go roun' sell things but ef ah cain't git a man mind, ah cain't do nuthin' wit him. Dat's right. Yo' gotta git him tuh believe whut yo' say, woman or man: [If he say,] "Well, ah know [as] much abou't [about it] as yo' do," dat wouldn't do me no good, [therefore] you say, "Well, go on about chure business." Nuthin' to it ["ah cain't do nuthin' wit him"].
(Are there many cunjuremen - what they call cunjuremen - here in town?)
Dat's all dey call 'em cunjuremens. Dey call me hoodoo - sure dey do, 'cause de little chillun - ah'm goin' long de street, "Mama, har de hoodoo doctor, har de hoodoo doctor."
(Are they frightened of you?)
Yeah, de little chillun is. Dey runs dey do's - oh yeah, run an' hide. Well, ah use to be a trudin [truant] officer fo' de Cath'lic school and dat's one thing make 'em 'fraid me anyhow.
(You used to round them up.)
Yeah, that was out in Prinship. I used to be in Prinship - fo' years - ah use to run a root store right chere on this same street, only it's down dere next to Davis Avenue - dat little shop down dere - ah be dere fo' years. Ah know dese people very well - all dese people - dis whole country. (I suppose they are still going to believe that for sometime to come, aren't they?) [A leading question but not with this man.] Oh, yes. (Aren't these children that are going to high school - are they smart?) [My sudden change here does not fool him.l Oh, yeah, they 'fraid too. Yeah, they believe in everything - like, it's whut chure parents teach you. If they teach at home that you'll git cunjured or git hoodooed, all, even de little chillun come and look fo' it. School teachers don' teach 'em dat; might as well teach 'ém dat 'cause they believe it all dere lives. Dey go to whut dey call de Old Age Assistance. Some people go down dere and de ain't even got sense enough to talk to de woman dat talkin' to 'em; wanta have dere Way about it. Some of them'll say they been tricked, want de doctor, but "no need a-send me a doctor 'cause ah been hoodooed and you have to send a hoodoo doctor to me" - tell de medical doctor dat. "You can't do nuthin' fo' me; I done tried ever' doctor in town, I ain't gittin' no better. You have to send a hoodoo doctor 'cause somebody done hoodooed me." And she ain't got a thing but heart trouble or something like that, dropsy or something - ain't nobody kin do her no good - or TB's. Dey'll do dat. Dis heah is de wust place fo' hoodoos you find.
(What do the doctors say about - what do they say about it?)
Doctors don't have nuthin' to say about it 'cause when dey go to 'em dey'll up and tell him so. You know when de jedge can't work with 'em, nobody else ain't.
(Well, how many white people believe in it?)
Dere's a-plenty of 'em believe in it - jest like we colored - dat's de biggest thing they believes in - cunjuration - it's nuthin' but a ism. De whole entire thing is whut a man's mind is - dat chew think, dat chew believe - whut worries on yo' mind. Take a man used to drinkin' or take a man used to runnin' around, hit'll prey on his mind - he ain't satisfied unless he into it. It's de same way - don't care whut chew do - if a man got a wife and she git sick, de fust thing he say, "Somebody's done somepin tuh mah wife" - or 'Somebody done somepin tuh me and I lost mah job, ah done dis-and-dat." [Then I] sell more John de Conker 'en [then] evah - dat's de biggest seller ah got - an' ah [even] sells it to - ef Jedge [Somebody'sl fool enough to buy it. ah let him have it. [I have underlined many examples of what a hoodoo thinks about medical doctors or physical doctors - see Doctor, not Doctor in Index. Doctor Zorro of Norfolk, Va., in my interview with him later, estimates colored believers at 90 and white believers at 40 percent. In mv interview later with Faith Doctor of Little Rock, Ark., he says, "Ah tell yo' mah deah fren' - de white race, ah would give it an even break, fifty outa ev'ry hunderd; an' in de colored, nine outa ev'ry ten."]
These terms occur in the informant's own reply and explanation; interviewer questions and editorial comments remain separate.
Entry 13
It's jes' lak [like] if ah'm runnin' a place of business an' ah has some enemies - yo' know yo' has enemies ever'where yo' go. If yo' large 'nuff to bother 'bout yo'll have enemies. Ah kin have some enemies an' ah kin be runnin' a place of business - jes' sellin' fish san'wishes an' all dat kinda junk. Well, a lot'a people would hate me on dis - yo' see, ah'm makin' mo' money den dey can an' dey'll hate me. Well, all right. Dey'll go, prob'bly uptown an' tell a false' on me an' have me put in jail. Yo' see, ah done lock up an' ah'm got'a pay out a bunch of money den an' come out if ah got it or prob'bly make time on it. Well, whensomevah ah git out - well, ah may go back to mah business agin. Well, now heah dey come agin after me. Understan' - heah dey come agin after me. Well, now, I kin go tuh de graveyard zactly twelve a'clock at night. Now, ah'm goin' to mah peoples - where dey's buried. An' after ah git dere ah walks five feet into de graveyard. Then - if' yo'll 'low [allow] ma ah'll show yo' axely [actually] whut ah mean [his voice turned from me while he demonstrates]. Ah walks dis way [he walks]. Now, heah's de gate chere. Well, ah walks [he walks] five feet from de gate an' when ah git inside [that near] de gate ah turns round [he turns] an' backs up five feet [he backs up] till ah git inside de ceme- tery. Ah wheel round right quick an' de first grave ah'll put mah eyes on, ah'll go to dat grave an' ah makes me a big round ring at de head of dat grave. [He acts out everything.] An' after ah make me a big round ring at de head of dat grave [as a protection against spirits], ah take me a solid fifty-cent piece an' put it jes' as fur down in dat grave as ah kin git it. An' after ah put it down dere mah hand would come up wit all de dirt-cover ovah dere [the dirt sticking to the half dollar]. Den ah takes a eatin' fo'k [table fork] an' ah sticks it in dat grave. Well, ah went to mah mother [her grave] to control her mind of might to dash dese peoples' mind from me an' keep dem from botherin' me, but dose [his people] are daid. Now, dose folks are daid - like dey say hants an' spirit an' all like dat. Well, dey come to form - to skel'ton, see. Well, now heah about three yeahs ago ah had a sister - she came down heah an' dere peoples in dis town will tell yo' dis very day, white and colored. Well, dey 'rest her two-three time of drunk'. She could take jis' dat much of whiskey [demonstrates] an' jes' go to her haid, an' she start to call anything come ovah her. Well, now, she was fixed, dey tell me in Jacksonville ~ now, dat's whut she tole me some other [person] did to her. [Alcoholism is usually caused by someone putting a spell on you - see Drinking-spell in Index.] An' ah could go an' git her sometime two an' three a'clock in de morning - bring her back. An' ah have went round to diff'rent people I knowed dat give 'er dat stuff an' tell 'em don't let her have none. Well, she got to find dis stuff but hit don't be until de change of de moon. When dat moon come to be a quarterfull, den dat's de time she commence goin' on, commence goin' on. Well, now, when dat moon done vanish 'way an' gone, she jes' as good, jes' as pleasant an' happy as she kin be. Well, she wus told to go to de graveyard - she lives in Jacksonville - an' when she git to de graveyard - now, our mother's daid - our mother died of witch- craft - whut chew call roots. She died of dat an' ah kin splain it tuh yo' how, whut caused her to die [he explains this later]. An' dey tole her to go to de graveyard an' after she got to de graveyard, tuh Walk five feet inside the graveyard an' wheel round right quick, an' de first grave she saw, she take a solid fifty-cent piece an' push it jis' as fur down in de grave as she kin git it an' take her han's out, an' in takin' her han's out befo' her han' git to de top, git jis' a lettle bit dat dirt - see, root [dig] fo' it [with the coin]. Well, now, dere's nuthin' dey put wit dat dirt. An jis' stick dat eatin' fo'k in dere an' leave it, chew see. Dat eatin' fo'k yo' wanta leave. Well, now, she got de dirt - dat's whut chew call buying dirt from de daid. [We shall meet many examples of the spirit of the dead being paid off with coins, but here the fork - silver-plated or steel, is both payment and protective device.]
(What did she do with that dirt then?)
She jis' take it an' put it on her an' tote it, jes' tote it - she didn't put anything in de worl' wit it. [Usually, this graveyard dirt would be wrapped in a piece of paper and worn sewed up in a very small cloth bag and called a hand or toby or mojo - these of great variety and purpose - many examples of them being given later.]
(How was your mother hurt did you say?)
Now, mah mother - dat wus in 1919 in Tallahasse, Florida. We lived in 362 Caldwell [?] Avenue. Well, during dat den de street wus name No'th McCommins [?] Avenue. Mah mother she wus poisoned with whut ah may call dung - it's a bottle of your dung. Jes' lak if ah go to de bathroom right dere an' use de - well, her stuff was taken an' it was placed into a bottle. An' after it was placed into dis bottle, jes' nuthin' but hit - an' it wus a cork stopper wus placed in de top of dis bottle, whut chew call to stop it up airtight dat no air in de worl' couldn't git in it, an' it wus buried to de no'th corner of our house. Mah mother lived an' suffered - lived an' suffered fo' [four] yeahs. But we tried doctors from Thomasville, Florida - Dr. McClintook supposed to be as good a doctor as evah walked out - a medical doctor de horsepital - we tried him. We tried all other doctors an' none couldn't do her no good. Mah grandmother went to a place you call Quincy, Florida - out in de country to a fellah by de name of Mr. McClain. She went dere to him.
(White or colored?)
White - he wus white - went out dere tuh him. An' he tole mah grandmother, he said, "Ah been layin' heah lookin' at de condition of yore daughter." [He was a forseer or foreknower.] Dat's whut he tole mah grandmother. He said, "Ah been laying heah lookin' at de condition of yore daughter," he say, "fo' [for] munts an' munts an' she been sufferin' fo' othah people." He said, "De people dat's doin' her dis dirt is comin' in her house eve' other mawnin', bahrin' [borrowing] a match or bahrin' some salt or bahrin' some peppah an' stuff." He said, "Dat is to he'p [help] build dis stuff whut dey got in de ground." Now, he tole her, said, "Yo' go back home." She said - but now dis man wouldn't take no money out chure han' - he didn't take a dime - but chew owed him whut he charged to do. Yo' didn't pay him what- somevah he git fo' doin' yore 'mount of work. When he git done wit his - whut yo' want to have him tuh do - yo' goes back home. He given yo' a piece of some- thin' look like a five-dollar gold piece in a black cloth an' he got dis money by de air. Dat's de way he worked it, by de air - he re'lly did it hisself. [See in Index, Doctor, payment of.] Well, he tole mah grandmother - she go back to de house an' look up on de south corner of yore house, an' he say, "Yo'll find a quart bottle wit some dung in it." An' he say, "Yo' take dat quart bottle an' unstop it," an' he say, "po dat stuff out of it." He say, "When yo' po' it out of it," he say, "then yo' come back to me." Well, mah grandmother po'd it out an' mah mother then commence tuh - her bowels den commence movin'; her bowels wus locked den [before that], yo' see. Well, she went back to him an' he give her some kind of medicine - ah don't know whut it wus. But she give him somepin - she had a twenty-dollah bill dressed, mah grandmother did fo' mah mother. Now, dis man tole her, said, "Now, let her tote dis on her as long as she live, an' nobody won't hurt her no mo'." Well, leastways, she died from it - she lived 'bout a couple of months afterwards, after dis stuff was po' out de bottle, but she died. [How the twenty-dollar bill was dressed (prepared magically) by the doctor I do not know, but my skeptical nature refuses to believe he returned it to grandmother. One of many ways of dressing money for oneself will be found in margin-title Cast It Into Oblivion. The medicine given to grandmother could have been black draft or Epsom salts both commonly used by doctors in such situations. The woman had been dying - constipation was not the cause. For a similar hopeless case, a poignant one, see margin-title Doctor Assists Death.] (Well, how did the man get his money when you paid him - how did he get that money?) He tole mah aunt an' mah grandmother to - he give dem somepin look like a five-dollah gold piece an' [also] it was a black rag; seemed to me [when I saw it later] that it was a han'chief. He tole her, said, "Yo' take dis an' go back home an' leave dis on de table - dis five-dollah piece yo' see - on de table." Well, it looked like to me it was five dollahs, but he didn't tell her no five dollahs, but ah called it five-dollah gold piece. [The coin was a fake. I comment here while checking transcription with cylinder - "speaks very rapidly."] But he tole her, when she give it [his fee] to him, say, "Lay dis [piece] on de table an' spread dis black rag ovah it - jes' spread it [rag] ovah it [piece] an put chure money [fee] on top of dat an' tie it up, an' walk out chure room." He say, "Ah'll git it, don't chew worry," he say, "because mah working is de air, star an' de moon." He say, "Ah don't work jes' natch'al comin' to a person." He say, "Ah kin do mah work an' not even go to you. Yo' kin jes' only write me an' yo' got to tell me whut chew want done - jes'write me an'ah'll come to yuh [in the spirit]." Dat's whut he tole mah grandmother and aunt. But anyway de money didn't leave out de house an' he didn't come an' git it - but didn't nobody carry it to him. But when we went back in de room de next morning, de money wus gone, an' most all de three of us wus in de house - mah aunt, mah grandmother an' me, 'scusin' mah mother whut wus sick. He re'lly got dat money.
Entry 14
Ah take de name of de party who havin' spells so terrible it seems tuh be. Ah write dat name seven times, either seven or nine, but then this is a prayin' job now. When ah write that name seven times ah prays de seven prayers - de same prayer seven times an' in less than nine hours he'll 'bout come tuh life.
(What prayer - any particular prayer?)
Yessuh. Dis pa'tic'lar prayer, dat's in a secret prayerbook.
(You take any prayer you Want to choose?)
Yessuh, yo' kin look through an' see which is de best one fo' sech case, accordin' tuh whatevah yo' likely tuh pray on. [Thinking he had finished I stopped my machine - he repeats a line or two of prayer.] Dat's page 51 though mostly.
(It's a prayer of the Episcopal Church, isn't it?)
Yessuh. [The secret prayerbook was The Book of Common Prayer - certainly not from page 51, which begins with The Thanksgiving of Women after Child-birth; probably one of Collects from page 49.] Dat's a gurontee tuh put a person in a house if they wanta git in there. Well, we take dis pink luck success an' de white luck success an' have them tuh pass an' break a bottle in front of de do' an' in de next six or seven days de house is his, if it's no one in it.
(Where do you get this luck success?)
At de Crackerjack Drug Sto' down heah at - dat's where ah deals at mostly. An' though ah nevah did desire to handle so much of de mean stuff, but some- times yo' have tuh do those mean things tuh git at the good ones. An' ah uses de hair of a white person into a colored person's ear fo' dizzy haids, an' ah use a colored person's hair into de white person's haid fo' dizzy haids. Sometime dey think yo're bumin' candle on 'em. [In the New Orleans area dizzy head is usually caused by someone burning a candle on you - see Headache in Index.] So ah take a little of de white person's hair, about say an' inch, an' stick in his [colored person's] ear, or ah'll take de colored person's hair an' put it in de white person's ear - [claps hands once] jes' dat quick [the dizziness leaves]. [For Negro hair in white person's ear as earache cure, see FACI,2ed., p.201; 1st ed., p.241.] Well, about burning de candle on jah - tuh put de candle out, ah take rivah watah, rain watah an' ditch watah or well watah, anything lak dat, jes' so it's three watahs mixed together, an' ah pass dat ovah dere haid three times dis way an' den three times de othah way an' make him wash his haid good wit it, an' it seems tuh been workin' out very well so fur. [Many doctors and spirituals in the New Orleans area make their holy water - usually they bless it - this three-waters rite being one way of making it.] (You bring that water over his head three times forward and three times back- ward?) Dat's right.
(What will that do about that candle then?)
Well, it supposed tuh put it out. Yo' git relief to de haid. [For other methods to put out candle, see Candle in Index.] Use a green candle, at least ah does, on Mondays an' Wednesday an' Fridays fo' success. Dat green candle dat's mo' fo' success. An' den with the green candle - yo' doesn't light the candle with a match, yo' git van-van [a hoodoo perfune]. Dat's whut ah use, van-van, an' put a little in de saucer an' light de van-van an' hold de candle to dat, an' den make yore prayer, whatevah wish yo' wanta make, an' den set dat dere an' yo' supposed tuh have a success from Monday up to Saturday. Burn dat Monday, not de same candle dough - burn dat whole one out Monday, an' de whole one out agin Wednesday, an' de whole one out Friday. An' den Saturday yo'll have a success in receiving a payment, if it's nuthin' but a little job in order to make a dollah or so.
(Do you light that candle at any particular hours?)
On Monday yo' light it at six a'clock, an' on Wednesdays yo' light it at nine a'clock, an' on Fridays at twelve a'clock noon [light them with the growing Of the day].
(That is just for general success?)
Yessuh. If someone is fixed an' dey husban' an' wife doesn't agree at home very well ah have them tuh burn a white candle - if dey kin burn it in dere home. Some of 'em, dey cain't burn it in de home - ah'll burn dat fo' dem. Ah'll have dem tuh hold de candle an' ah ask God tuh bless it, an' den let dem burn dat. Dat's tuh make de husban' an' wife agree an' stop squabblin' an' goin' on. Dat's de white candle.
(Do you burn that at any special time?)
Yessuh - ah burns that at three a'clock.
(Any special day, I mean.)
Yessuh - fo' peace, ah burns dat on Tuesday.
(If he has left, this is to bring him back?)
Yessuh - if he's gone an' yo' have de picture of him, well, dey take it an' turn it against de wall. Turn de face of de picture against de wall an' write his name nine times an' put it in de bottle, an' put essence of van-van on dere with the same amount of Floridy [Florida] watah, an' shake dat an' set it down on de flo' undah de picture, jes' lak de pictures up dere an' yo' set dat bottle undah dere. An' ever' time yo' shake it, it'll upset his mind till he returns. Dat's been proven. Ah don' wanta talk nuthin' dat ain't been proven. (In writing that man s name down nine times, how do you mean you write it - just one name right after the other?) No, suh - write this this way three times. Swing yore papah roun' an' write it de whole six times. De first three times yo' write it right straight that Way, an' den whirl it ovah again an' den write it six times. Dat'll return him back. Then yo' fold dat good an' keerful an' put it in de bottle an' put de Floridy watah an' de same amount of Floridy, yo' put that amount of van-van. Dat's de essence of van-van. An' when yo' shake that, well, no doubt it may be three or fo' days befo' de party returns - depend on de distance dey are. But when they shake that until the papah come aloose, it's okay. An' if he's a long [distance] we gen'ral'y write that with red ink an' that returns him.
(Can you give me a little account of your work - about that healing?)
Mostly a healer, dat's mostly whut ah am, a healer. When it come tuh lawsuits or any othah little home upset, well, ah jes' makes dat ovah. But mah main work is a healer. Ah gen'ral'y do de most of mah work wit mah necked [naked] han'. If a person come tuh me wit a pain in dey laig or dey arm, anywhere, ah lay dat han' on 'em an' pray, an' rub up in it an' he git up an' go 'way, say in about three minutes. Dat's mah main work. [Rub up instead of down is unusual.]
(You use an altar you say. Do you do anything with the altar?)
No suh, ah jes' stan's in front of de altar. (Do you wear any costume or anything of that sort when you are doing that work?) Nuthin' but de beads - prayer beads [he shows a rosary].
(With the little cross on them.)
Yessuh, dat's right.
(Do you wear anything on your head?)
Nuthin' but a little cap - a little black cap.
(Like a littie skull cap?)
Yessuh. (How did you get your power to do these things? Did someone teach it to you or were you initiated into it or were you just born that way?) [This is not a leading question; I had asked it too often - the answer always being the same.] Jes' nachally bo'n dat way - nevah went tuh school nary a minute in mah life. (This man who was just in here is a healer. He only knew a few things to tell me, but he might be a good contact man. End of 1578.)
Entry 15
Now, I think I'll almost explode de whole situation - it's mighty rough on a man's belief. I've been what you might call a globetrotter for about 20 or 30 years. I've spent my life rambling over de world. I'm a descendant from de 'foretime Indians. Well, naturally, we believe in the great virtue of roots, herbs and bark - that is, for medical purposes. But I find after I settled here in dis part of de world dat de people got a great belief in 'em doing wonderful things. These boys that - the big fellow that you met yesterday, he always runs up to see me every time he gets a little strained there. He's one of these hoodoo doctors - so he claims - but my belief about it is just actually where dey work is de will power that you got over de person that you delivering 'em to. Yo' kin take the root - well, all of 'em has some legend behind of 'em. They believe in dat and no sooner you get dat belief, why, they will do wonders for you. If you haven't got dat confidence in em, why, dey's no more than the ordinary root. But I finds through the southern part of this country, everybody is got some belief about 'em that-a-way. And I pretty well knows the growth of 'em - where dey kin be found and all. Dat's why I got acquainted with dese fellows. Dat's why I coming up dere to find out different kind of - the way dey believes, dat's, actually just what it'll do; anything they believe in, you get their belief in it. [This man, a part-time seller of roots, wanted to become acquainted with the beliefs of his customers and their patients.] Course when dey practicing dat witchcraft and all dat junk on de people, you gotta prepare your victim for you, see - you must have a go-between that prepares him for de shock dat's coming off. Well, den natural after it's passed on, you come and relieve de situation and there's no law in the world then that make him believe that you can't do those wonderful things. Well, that's just the way that I've always taken it, and since I've been here I've found that everybody, nearly, has a belief in some kind of a root or know the virtues of it.
(What State were you born in by the way?)
Well, I was born in Oklahoma. Course I left there when I was quite small. I never knew anything about my people till I was round about 27 years old. And after I found out, I made a couple of trips back dere. I brought my mother over here - she's only been dead about five years - 102 year old she was... Through here you meet an awful lot of 'em that's, you know, in that practice, selling roots and digging 'em and using 'em for different purposes - most all of 'ems in the hoodoo business. Lot of 'em comes up around dere to see me a lot of times." I do painting and decorating and I'm a mechanic too, but I just know de names of 'em and most of the natures concerning 'em - what they are in shape or de form dey is and what they kin be used for. Lot of 'em run around there time after time to see me about different ones. (Well, where did you learn these stories about them - from your own people, the stories about these roots?) [If from your own people sounds tricky, it is not intentionally so - see Introduction.] About dese roots - some of 'em and some I didn't. Now, we have a root chere, hit's well known all over de world. It's a grass, it grows with a small leaf, it's called the blood plant [the bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis] and inside the leaf it looks like it circled with blood. Well, now, you take over in de old countries, everybody over dere believes that a hemorrhage or any kind of a bleeding or issue from de flesh can be stopped in a few minutes with a tea made from that plant. Well, they claim the reason why is it's circled - well, that bloodstain, it came from when Christ was killed, when He was hung on de Cross. A man was driving nails in His feet, he got his hands bloody and when he finished he just bent down and wiped them right there at the foot of the Cross, and by Him hanging there bleeding, that from then on that grass sprung and after that it always showed a bloody stain. And they claim up until this day, it will cure any kind of bleeding or any kind of issue that-a-way. It's used purposely for that and nothing else that I know of, but a lot of these hoodoo fellows use it for other purposes - but it is, that's the legend of it. You put it in some water and steep it - the water looks like blood when you take it. (Have you heard that if a person thinks he is going to be hurt, that he can do something to protect himself?) The onliest way for him to protect hisself is the will power he's gotta have. He kin go right to de same person that really is going to fix him through [for] somebody else, and go to dem and just get him a bag of roots. Now, if he's got the confidence, if he's got 'em, nothing will hurt him. As long as he keeps that bag on him and feels that confidence in it, there's nothing they going to do. The moment he lose this bag, why den he's all to pieces - almost crazy, you see, because he knows that's what is going to happen to him...
(What tribe did you say you came from?)
From de Crowitans. (The Crowitans. Well, do the full-blooded colored people believe the same thing that you are telling me about this?) [My mind must have been tired! Fortunately, I do not think he understood the implication of my unfortunate and meaningless full-blooded. This man, like Doctor Johnson just interviewed in Richmond, was both Indian and Negro.] Yessiree - they believe that right out - positively you can't get it out of their heads - they really believe that - no way in de world to change their ideas about it. It's half of dere religion, believing in dis hoodoo stuff.
(Well, they don't believe in it as much as they used to, though?)
No, naturally, they are getting out of it some, but mighty little different you kin see today from what it was 35,40 or 50 years ago. It's actually in 'em, it's impossible to remove it from them. Why, I've talked with some of these graduates and colleges and stuff right here in this city and they are just as deep in it as their grandmother and father was - believes part of it if they don't believe it all. They've got some belief about that supernatural part, the roots and the herbs and stuff of dat kind. [Norfolk, Va., (470), 477:2...480:1.] [The belief in spirits is the foundation of hoodoo, conjuration, witchcraft, rootwork and similar superstitions. Everywhere throughout this investigation spirits are mentioned or assumed.]
Entry 16
My uncle, he was awful scared of ghos'es, and he stayed that-a-way for about three year'. After them three year' was up he sent and got some man, who never tried religion, to see if he couldn't do somepin. So he went and got this fellah - de fellah come from down de South. He got him to see if he couldn't break him from being so scared. So we went and got some graveyard dust, sand, got a rabbit's foot or somepin - this fellah told him a graveyard rabbit, and took and fix it up [dressed it] for him. He took the rabbit foot and put it in a little bag and put de sand in there with it. He was to take it and wear on a belt. About two year' he got he'd see 'em right on but he wasn't scared of 'em.
Entry 17
Mah brother had a way of goin' way out in de woods to see a girl an' mah mother had tole him 'bout goin' by de graveyard. So he said he wasn't afraid. So mah father tole him, say, "One dese nights one dem ghost is gon'a run yo'." He says, "Well, it'll jes' be two runnin'." So he went on dere by hisself an' he kep' continyin' to go out dere. So one night - it was 'bout two miles from de house - a ghost got after him. He knew it was a ghost because usually when a ghost gits in behin' yo' yore hair stand on yore haid - but it don't stand, it feel lak it standin'. An' so, jes' as he stepped out, dis ghost got behin' 'im. He said it was first large and then it was small. An' he say he looked at it - he say, "Ah knowed that was nuthin' nachur'l." He says, "Hit's no need tuh run 'cause if ah run it would run too." So he thought dat once [he] hear our grandfather say whenever anything gits after yo' lak dat, always make it tuh de fork of de road. So he turn roun' an' he let it follow him till he got tuh de fork of de road. When he got to de fork of de road, he said hit couldn't go any further 'cause he missed it. An' so ever since then always, when ah'm out anywhere an' ah see any- thing that ah knows not nachur'l, ah will always make it tuh de fork of de road an' dey can't follow me any further.
The informant narrates a reported ghost pursuit; the account does not establish a verified encounter or protective effect.
Entry 18
I know of a man one time, he was not scared of spirits, and he said one night that he was going through the woods and he saw a ghost and he stopped. And after stopping he went around and sit on a [fallen] tree. And he made believe that he was asleep. And in the meantime this ghost came and sit on the same tree with him, and the ghost re'lly went to sleep according to his belief because he was snoring. And this man said that he got up and walked to this ghost - he did not put his hand on him though - he jumped at him and yelled hard and s'aid, 'What are you doing sleeping here!" And that ghost jumped up then and outrun the Word of God.
Entry 19
My brother-in-law told me the old story. And he said they were in the bed one night and they heard something coming in the house, and when they looked up to see what it was, it was an evil spirit, and it come to the fireplace and sat at the fire. While the spirit was sitting there he broke wind. The old man that was in the bed with my brother-in-law, he said, "Git up and go out of here. You done farted." The spirit got up and went away.
Entry 20
I've seen two spirits myself because I have asked God. When - I was going to church one Sunday night when something says to me, a spirit, "You haven't got something to tell them people. Are you going to get up there before all them people and tell that little thing? Why they'll all laugh at you." I didn't get up that night. I went back home and said to the Lord, "Lord, if I ain't right, make me right; and if I is right, show me that I am right." He did show me that I was right and I've been right ever since. [The informant, a grown girl in Georgia when Sherman marched to the sea, here acknowledges two spirits within - one urging evil thoughts and actions, the other prompting their opposites. While going to church her good spirit said to her evil spirit, "Better test that testimony you are about to give."
The informant recounts their own appeal to God/the Lord; the editor's later explanation of two spirits remains separate.
Entry 21
A good spirit, it leaves the body, that is why the body becomes helpless. It cannot exist any longer. It goes to decomposition because the spirit is gone. The life is gone out of it. But still the spirit never dies. It goes to its immediate loved ones on earth, it overlooks them, it hovers around them. In my belief, what I have really had experience of, we are continually being enveloped and surrounded by the spirits of our loved ones who have gone before; especially until their spirits have been reincarnated and born in some child and come back to the world in the flesh again. The reincarnation comes earlier in some and late in others. Sometimes they are reincarnated in babies who are cut off. That spirit comes right back and goes again to be on earth until it is reincarnated. That is the good spirit. The evil spirit, it is abroad in the world. That is the spirit of those who haven't lived their lives consistent with right living. Their spirits are abroad and still doing Work they were engaged in, either frightening or bringing about disorder, just like they was when in the body, until they are reincarnated. They are reincarnated. Usually it comes out in the child. The child is very fretful. Usually, if it goes to any age, it goes into crime. That is the people that chose the evil way in life. When man was created he was created in the image of God. When he fell, that is in the Garden of Eden. Then when he was redeemed, he has since that time been left as a free agent to chose which he will do, right or wrong. That is the choice given us by the Son of God who died for us that we might be redeemed under the curse of the broken Law. Since then, we have this privilege of chosing for ourselves and being left as a free agent. Then this is the point where the evil and the good spirit exist. This is the origination of the good spirit and the evil. The good is permanent and the evil spirit is a choice of man. You know how long Christ stayed on the Cross, three days. It is supposed that everybody when they die their spirit still lingers in their body and about their personalities for three days until they are planted in the ground. Then it is around and about until the changes come. When the spirit comes out of your body your body really becomes like neutral, you can't move or do anything; you never will again. The mind of the person does not die. That is the spirit after all. That is the soul so to speak. It lingers around and it really sees what's being done until its visit is complete. The person who is responsible for the arrange- ment of the final affairs will dream about them. Often you will be half asleep and that person will appear to you and give you some gestures, satisfactory or dissatisfactory. I know that by experience.
Entry 22
[Despite the preceding title Two Spirits, they are two in character but one in substance.] I have hear'n people say that your spirit travels - it is out walking around at places where you have worked. You're sleeping and maybe you're trying to wake up - you're having a hard time waking. If you die, your spirit is gone from you, they say. It takes a long time to get it back. Some people are hollering and hollering and can't move. You're supposed to go and put your hand on them and shake them till they speak to you. They say you sometimes dies in that condition. People say they have hear'n this, people making a noise through the night. They think they were dreaming and they didn't bother, pay any attention to them. Next morning the're late getting up. When they go to rouse them, they would be dead.
Entry 23
If that spirit goes out somewhere and gets killed or drownded, it will not return and the body lays dead.
Entry 24
[There used to be a mathematical axiom stating that the whole is the sumn of all its parts. In hoodoo, however, a part can equal the whole. Every part and function of your body (hair and breath) - anything touching you (clothes and bathwater) - whatever signifies you (name and photograph) - all these and others are substitutes for either the whole or part of the spirit. Many examples of this belief will be found elsewhere - here are a few:]
Entry 25
Yo' could write a person name on a piece of papah an' throw it ovahbo'd an' it would cause dem to go. It would cause dem to jump ovahbo'd - jes' like yo' throw it in a rivah, it would cause dem to go an' jump in de rivah.
Entry 26
Get a little box - a tin box. Put dat toenails in there and fingernails in there, cayenne pepper, war water - you get the war water, devil dust. You puts in there and you stop that can up tight, you see, and bury it. Den when you bury it, the person what it belongs to, their hand'll come like that - they'll draw up.
(Draw up - drawn up.)
Yeah, all drawn up. If it stay longer, the more it draw. They won't be no use for theirself.
(What is devil dust?)
Devil dust is what you get in the [hoodoo] drug store.
Entry 27
Take your handwritin' - see, de handwritin' where it was writ wit ink or lead. Dey take it and soak it in water and get dat ink, get dat ink off it from your handwritin'. Den dey will take dat water and boil it. See. Den take dat water and pour it out gradually - don't pour dat all at one time, fes' kinda sprinkle it along. When dat water pour out chew begin tuh feel bad - yo' hand begin to feel nervous up thru yo' arms and finally, if you don't know what to do, yo' become paralyzed in your right hand.
Entry 28
A man, he tole me his ole lady went outdoors one night an' went to her chicken coop an' got a big sack fulla chicken dirt - taken it in de house an' taken ashes out de fireplace an' taken his underwears an' rolled dis stuff up in it an' taken - yo' know, rolled it ovah. Didn't mess wit it any Way at all - jes' rolled it ovah an' take it out an' carried it to his bed an' washed his feet, an' let de watah drene off his feet into that ashes an' chicken stuff, an' says, he can't even walk now. Says, lak if he walks, seems lak needles stickin' in him.
(Was he asleep - she did that while he was asleep?)
No, he wusn't asleep - he jes' thought she wus washin' his feet. Dat's all, but he had noticed dat.
Entry 29
Dey tell me dat dey kin take yore bath water and bury it. Dig a hole and pore it in dere and put a piece of - jest a small piece of bluestone, sulphur an' asafitadee [assafetida] in dat hole with dat water and cover it up. And dey tell me dat will keep yo' perishing away all de time.
Entry 30
I was on a island 'tween here and West Point, Virginia. Dere come a little white fellow from Danville County for to see one of Capt. Dick Coleman's daughters - first cousins, too, but he was loving her. He goes up a tree - he drawed de other man's pitchure on de ground - I don't know as you wanta hear that.
(Yes, I want to hear it - yes.)
He draws his pitchure on de ground - de other man pitchure, because he wanted her himself. He draws the pitchure on de ground and he goes up a tree right at sunrise and he shot at dat picture - that is to kill the man. Way up yonder he shot at dat pitchure.
(He went up in the tree and shot down at the picture - shot down?)
Shot down on de pitchure.
(He lust drew it in the ground - with a stick or something?)
Yes, just drew him on de ground and den go up de tree with a pistol, you know, for to try to shoot him in de heart. If he shot him in de heart - up here where he drawed that there - then he'd akilled that man up in [some place]. But he didn't do it, you see - struck him all around de edges of his clothes, arms and places. If that ball hadda struck him in de heart where he drawed it, he would have killed him instantly.
(You say a white man did this?)
Yes.
(Well, whom was he doing it for - another white man or - )
He was doing it fer himself.
(Doing it for himself.)
Doing it for himself - I seen him do it. I was with him.
(What island was this on - what was the name of the island?)
Purtain - Pertin Island.
(Purtin Island - that's in the James River?)
York River.
(Oh, the York River. I see. How long ago did that happen?)
Oh, that happened now - over thirty years ago [1906-7] about de shootin'.
Entry 31
If they kin [get] hold of it, they kin take your photograph and shoot it - shoot it.
(What will that do?)
That will afflict you - 'cause I knowed a lady one time, somebody stole her pitchure. And she used to wear a piece over her eye, see. So I asked her, I says, what's de matter with her eye. [She] say, well, somebody stole her pit- chure and shot her in de eye. She was called a hoodoo and I was afraid of her. Yes, they shot her in de eye. That's the reason that she wear dat piece over her eye.
Entry 32
During my childhood days I heard that a sick person who was very troublesome and worried them and worth a little money, the only thing you could do to stop the law from coming into it, this person went to a hoodoo and he told her to take this person's picture and turn it upside down under the [sick] bed and watch its effect. In three days the person was a corpse. You turn a photo- graph down like that and you watch the person and see if he don't get weaker every day. When you lay it down you are turning the life down like that.
Entry 33
Ah had a little boy home but ah stayed off about seven years, an' he wanted tuh see me awful bad. Ah went home but ah didn't know de cause of it - ah goes without any thoughts whatever - just picked up unconcerned an' went home. An' when ah got home ah found my picture standing on it's head and the grand- mother said that he said that would bring me home. It must have some powder. [She is mistaken - standing on it's head is sufficient.] So I did go home.
(Your son did this?)
Yes.
(Was the picture facing out or facing in to the wall?)
It was facing out.
Entry 34
It will drive them away but you can't make 'em stay, see. A spirit is something that you can't nevah drive away, but you kin silence him. You silence him^by the 23rd division of the Psalms of David - 37th division of the Psalms of David, the 108th division of the Psalms of David - will silence a traveling spirit - that's the spirit that comes in and goes out and each time when he comes in, he brings from one to seven more. Now, that's how come so many people become restless and dissatis- fied - is because of evil spirits transforming 'em, back and forth. Every time you breath you are breathing in and out some kind of a spirit. Well then, at night you will begin to worry about his moving around. In other words you kin take holy water and sprinkle it at chure door - up ovah your door and on each side of it, and read de 23rd division of the Psalms of David, and you will silence them, you won't have any more trouble out of 'em. Holy water is very good. Holy water is good to sprinkle on a person who, we Would say, if they were very sick, or if they were afflicted some way, could sprinkle this holy water around. Dere's lots of times again we would say that evil spirits visit around - dis holy water keeps the evil spirit away because de holy water supposed to be blessed by holy spirits.
Entry 35
De woman kin take or either a man, ah guess - but chew kin take a dozen needles an' put 'em in watah an' let 'em stay in dere ten days an' give someone de water to drink off. Dey say it's a deadly poison - say it jes' de same as yo' drink a needle - feel like some pins is sticking yo' in de inside - somepin like, jes' like if a person wanted to put a spell of some kind on - yo'd have dat pain jes' lak yo'd swallowed some needles yo' know. It take effect on yo' dat-a-way. Whut dey would do to stop it ah don't know.
[Just as the person's essential qualities were in the bath water (see No. 29)
so also the essential qualities of the needle absorbed by a bath are transferred to a person drinking needle-water.]
Entry 36
Don't leave de daid sticks of a match in yore house, cuz it gives yo' bad luck.
(What do you do with them?)
Yo' burn 'em up in de fiah, burn 'em up.
(Why do they give you bad luck, have you any idea?)
Cuz dey ain't good tuh be in de house, dey same as de daid - dey's not live matches, dere daid matches.
Entry 37
[Talking to so-called inanimate objects is a common practice.]
Why, if yo' wanta make people come in a place, yo' jes' take de pot salt an' carry it all round de place an' talk to it, "Ah want chew tuh draw a crowd at mah place." Why, de nex' day or two yo' be successful - be a crowd at dat place.
Entry 38
[To catch a spirit or to protect your spirit against the catching or to release your caught spirit - this is the complete theory and practice of hoodoo.] Ah kin ketch yore spirit easy. A person kin - jes' lak yo' settin' dere an' ah kin be talkin' to yo'. Yo' talkin' tuh me an' I be walkin' back an' ah got a bottle. Ev'ry word chew says, I ease dat stopper down - ev'ry word yo' say until yo' git to de end, den yo' stop it down. Well, then yo' won't be sick but yo'll jes' be lak a bird flyin' - here an' yon - an' de moment dat yo' kin git to it an' pull de stopper yo'll be yoreself all de same.
(You have to walk backwards while you are pushing that cork down?)
Yes sir.
Entry 39
Oh, yes, dey take dat chamber lye and stop it up and call yo' name. After yo' answer dey stop dat chamber lye up and den dat'll stop you up. See, long as dat chamber lye is runnin', why yo' is gotta luck; but de time dat dey stop dat and call yo' dis way, dat's jes' like yore spirit. Well, dey ketch yore spirit and put it away with dat jug. Well, dat stop yo' bowels from moving altogether - you can't make no water. [This confusion between bowels and bladder is common.] No way in de world fer you to make water 'till dey take dat stopper out.
Entry 40
De spirit like - yo' kin ketch dere voice. Yo' kin ketch a person's voice - jes' lak if yo' in love wit someone an' somebody else is.after 'em an' yo' wants 'em - yo' call 'em. Yo' gits yo' a black soda watah bottle - it jes' be a dark brown beer bottle, an' yo put dat chamber lye in dat; put dey chamber lye, not yores, an' yo' call 'em. An' after yo' call 'em an' dey answer, yo stop it up an' yo' keep it on it's haid all de time. Ah don't care where dey is, yo' kin make 'em come to yo'.
(You keep this bottle on it's head all the time.)
An' when yo' git ready fo' 'em - jes' lak if dey out an' yo' want 'em tuh come on home, make haste, yo' jes' shake it an' call 'em - call dere name three time an' dey'll come to yo' five minutes after yo' do it.
Entry 41
Ah heard 'em say dey'd call yore spirit lak. Ah kin git chew an' ah takes yo' - yo' see, ah calls yore name. Well, ah draw yore pitchure an' yore pitchure would come tuh me. Yo' see, lak if ah take a pencil an' draw a man, den ah calls yore name an' yore good spirit will fall on me. Den ah must ketch yore spirit an' stop 'em up.
(How are you going to stop it - in what?)
In a bottle.
(When you call their name?)
An' ah blows mah breath in dere an' stop it up.
(That catches my spirit?)
Yes.
Entry 42
Yo' mean gains influence wit anybody? Well, yo' could take an' wash yore hands [and] yo' could put it in whiskey or put it in water - or blow yore breath in a glass three times an' give them that glass to drink water out of; jest blow yore breath in that glass three times an' talk to dem.
(What will that do then?)
Gains influence -.dey'd have mo' care tuhwards yo', they'd do anything yo' say do. They couldn't he'p deyself.
Entry 43
A woman right here in Beaufort Street, she got holt of a man's foot track and took it and while it was hard, you know, and put it in a bottle and took it in her house and put it right in front of her door - wrapped it up in a silk cloth and put it in front of her door and used it as a door stop, and as long as dat was dere why he would come back. When she moved she didn't take that with her and de [other] people moved in that house. Long as dis bag was dere he kept coming back looking fer her. He always was coming back looking fer her and de people would tell him that she didn't live there any more - kept coming back - coming back.
Entry 44
(Do you know how they do that - catching a person's spirit?)
Well, yo' takes nine peas an' yo' put these peas in a bottle of hearts cologne an' yo' take it an' yo' ketch his shadah [shadow] - his shadah is his spirit, chew know. An' yo' take that an' yo' ketch that an' yo' put nine peas in a cologne bottle - hearts cologne bottle. Yo' Jes' watch 'im dere as he go along, yo' see, yo' jes' stop it up tight - yo' ketch his speech when he speak, yo' take advantage of it an stop that up tight.
(Well how do you get that shadow into the bottle?)
Well, jes' lak a person walkin' 'long - walkin' 'long lak dis an' yo' may walk up to him, anyway - yo' jes' unstop de bottle lak dat an' his shadah go in dere. Dat hearts cologne an' dat peas will draw it in dere.
(Then you stop it up quickly? That's got his spirit?)
Yeah, yo' got his spirit.
(And then after you got his spirit in that bottle, what happens?)
Well, yo' kin do anything wit it dat yo' want - anything - yo' jes' got his spirit den. Yo' got his spirit there - yo' could use 'em most any way.
Entry 45
Yo' calls a spirit. Now, ah'll go an' put a table out in de middle of de hall - in de middle of the floor and ah'll sit there and rap three times and call a spirit and dey'll come and talk with yuh. And de table will walk - de table will walk.
Entry 46
Quite a while ago a friend of mines - dey don't know whether he got killed or don't know whether he died, because when dey held de inquest fo' him, dey didn't find no spot of where he was killed or either shot. De doctors 'xamined pretty good. Now, dat right chere in Waycross heah about three or foah years ago. But in examining him - yo' know, dey tells me dat a person kin be daid, dey kin be stiff, an' after being stiff - like if dey found a person dead an' dey being stiff, well de undertakers can't git him in dat casket until he's properly stretched out, but dey tells me dat chew kin jest walk up an' jest call dis person - a natural person, an' he limbers himself.
Entry 47
I worked at College Park, Maryland, and when I would leave the quarters and pass by the hothouse, every time that I passed by this hothouse I would have a peculiar feeling, and when I got by this hothouse this peculiar feeling would leave. It impressed my mind that it surely was ghosts or something creeping around.
Entry 48
They tell me you can feel them. You feel creepy your- self; feel like something creeping up on you and going to grab you. You get awful restless. They say - a spirit is creeping up on you.
Entry 49
" If you are walking along de road an' you leave [pass by] a hot steam, they say that ghosts is travelin' by yo'.
Entry 50
In country places in the wintertime you can pass a warm stream going over your shoulder and all up and down your face. You're kinda like where they was over a stove right out of doors. There's something funny about that. But olden people said it was a spirit that you met. I've passed them many a time in my time. I've been awful frighten because I hearn the olden people speak about them so much. I thought they could harm me. I used to tell my mother about it. She said, "There's no harm in them. Don't be afeard."
Entry 51
They say you can feel a peculiar feeling. Sometimes a flash comes over you. Your hair seems to stand on your head. I felt it myself. People say then you are passing a ghost. They are near you. That's why these hot breezes meet you. I have been driving, my husband has been driving, when we passed those hot breezes. The horses stand almost up in the harnesses, they get so frightened, and dash to one side of the road. I have witnessed that. And the olden people told us that, that it was a ghost.
Entry 52
If spirits are around you light a candle with insent [incense]. After awhile everything will be light and nice. And as long as they are around every- thing is heavy and luggy and you think something is going to happen every minute.
[This refers to a headache caused by spirits.]
Entry 53
I was home in the yard one evening just about dusk and I happened to see an old lady coming up to the house. I run in the house and told mama I seen aunt Jozrah. Mama said, "If you don't stop coming in here and telling me about you seeing spirits, I'm going to whip you." My father said, "Don't whip her. You know she was born with these spirits." They tell me when I was born there was a cord [caul] around my face, it went under my nose and caught over my head and against my eyes. So this Saturday night papa went to town. Mama never did believe that I seen them. So that night [the second time she saw aunt Jozrah] my two brothers and myself was out in the yar d playing. The moon was just rising and so when I looked down the lane I saw aunt Jozrah coming up the lane. I said, "Lord, Harry and Jim, here comes aunt Jozrah." So we ran in the house all of us. Mama said, "What you see?" And I said, "Aunt Jozrah." And she said, "You don't see her." And I said, "Yessum, I do. You come to the door mama and you will see her." So mama came to the door and when she got to the door she seen her too. So mama fastened the door and put the bar across it so she couldn't get in there. Whether she came in we don't know.
Entry 54
I know that when my grandmother died they say that she came back. The reason for her coming back was that she wanted to see her youngest son. At the time of her death he was in France [World War I]. Of course he wasn't able to get home before she died. I had an aunt, Elizabeth, she was born with a veil over her eyes. It happened that she was the only one who could see my grand- mother. When she would go in a certain room she would see her mother standing up there as if she Was looking for someone. So my mother got some holy water from the church - we are Roman Catholics. She sprinkled this water around, especially in the room where my aunt had seen my grandmother. And they say they didn't see her any more.
Entry 55
I know people that have what they call a caul over their eyes. They can set right down with you and they can see things you can't see. People tell you that the air is full of spirits and with that caul on your eye you can see things.
Entry 56
If yo' evah had a child be bo'ned veiled - yo' know, yo' heard of 'em being veiled. Well, yo' take dat veil an' don' nevah throw it off; always take it off farwards, don't take it off backwards. Sometimes - now ah have two tuh be bo'ned wit dat - two twins. It takes de luck away from 'em to take 'em off this way, jes' [demonstrates].
(Over their heads - forward.)
Jes' lak yo' take yore dress off dis-a-way. An' den yo' take those veils - yo' have tuh keep 'em. Sew 'em up in somepin where dey'll keep 'em, yo' know. Co'se, yo' may have tuh resew 'em or else dey supposed tuh be split heah, an' put in dere an' sew it up. Yo' see [why] some people be so lucky an' so successful.
Entry 57
Yo' take a pitcher - dis wus gived to me in a vision - yo' take pennies, an' ah tried it to see whether or not it wus true. Yo' set it in de east corner of yore house, a half a pitcher of watah. An' ev'ry day yo' drop a penny in dere. See, dat's plantin' 'em. An' if yo' drop one in dere, yo' goin' git anothah one de next day, some way - if yo' don't know where yo goin' git it, yo' git it. An' ev'ry time yo' drop a penny in dat pitcher yo' say somepin good ovah it, jes' lak a Bible verse or somepin - whatevah come to yo', an' yo' jot dat down so yo' kin remember, yo' see. An' dat works out all right. It's diff'rent things yo' should say ovah 'em an' dey always come out - diff'rent things come true. Dat's called plantin' pennies.
(How long do you keep that up?)
Jes' as long as yo' evah want success to yore house or to yore business or to whatevah yo' doin'. See, try not tuh take 'em out till yo' git ready to start tuh plantin' some mo'. Don't take 'em out an' jes' leave de pitcher empty. Look lak yo' don't do so good if yo' move 'em.
Entry 58
I wouldn't want to speak ill of the dead, for I think they know what you are saying. My reason is, they can come back and give so many Warnings. These Warnings come mostly in your sleep. I have heard something about a man that was buried. This man kept on coming back to his family and asking them in a dream to take him up out of that grave, so finally they went and took him up, and the coffin was in water. They took him up and put him in a dry place, and they never saw him again.
Entry 59
I have tried to see my father's spirit ever since he died. I tried to draw him to me but I have never been able to do it. I'll tell you what I have seen. Sometimes I go to bed and I am warned in a dream - of any man or woman who is about to approach - by my father. However, I never hear his voice, but I see him in this dream.
Entry 60
Yo' dress that bed - specialiy when yore dead people come to yo' an' start to tell you somepin an' yo' wake befo' they tell you. Yo' take two matches an' cross them like that - stick a needle through it and lay it underneat' chure pillah with de point turned down, an' they'll come back an' finish tellin' you what he was tellin' you.
Entry 61
Fer protection from a root doctor - yo' already got dat, ain't cha? Dey cain't do nuthin', ah'm telling yo' now, if you keep it on; but chew gotta keep it on yo'. After ah got hurt, ah learnt - see, it come to me through de spirits to do it. You take yo' - dey kin put down anything dey wanta and you kin walk over it and it won't hurt see. You go to de drug store and git chew a nickel's worth of saltpeter and a nickel worth of bluestone and you take them two things. Don't put all it together. Take jest a little pinch of it, take it on a knife, and every time you pick it up say, "In de Name of de Father, Name of de Son, Name of de Holy Ghost."
(Each time you take a pinch on a knife, you say that.)
A pinch on a knife, say it on each one. All right, yo' take yo' some sulphur, take three pinches of that, "In the Name of the Father, Name of the Son, Name of the Holy Ghost." All right, that's three of 'em together - that's sulphur, blue- stone and saltpeter. All right, yo' take dat table salt de same way - you take dat sugar de same way. And then jest take and break yo' three match haids off and name dem de same way, "In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Sew it up in a little rag, jest a little small thing, and tie it around yore waist [this is a hand] and you kin step over anything, dey can't do nuthin' - dey kin touch chew but dey ain't goin' do nuthin' to yo', dey ain't goin' do nuthin'.
Entry 62
I wus livin' with a woman once on Mulberry Street an' this woman claimed that she could - we had a little fuss - she claimed that she could have me kilt. So she goes down on the Eastern Shore [that part of Maryland east of Chesapeake Bay] to see Mr. Bayhan' - he wus a man dey call Mr. Bayhan' [white man] - gon'a have me shot wit' a ball. He's gon'a shoot me through de ball an' I wus to be dead inside of twenty-four hours. She paid him $35. An' then he give her some stuff to come home to sprinkle all through the house. She start at de back doah an' sprinkle to the dining room doah an' starts from the dining room doah an' sprinkle upstairs - sprinkle de whole house ovah. An' he give her somepin to put under de runner where I walked when I come in de front doah - where dat I would walk over this, this would trick me. So, I worked [nights] to the steel plant, an' I came home [very early] one mornin'. She's asleep. Jis' as I opened the front doah, I start to steppin', somepin says, "Raise de runner up - jis' that way, jis' the same as if somebody wus speakin' to me. An' I thought it wus her. I says, "Frances! Frances!" No one answered. Well, I come up to a standstill. I stop [at] de doah an' looked. After awhile I started to take another one [step]. It says, "Raise de runner up. Well, then I kin'a got uneasy, you know. Then I called 'er an' called 'er, but I couldn't git no answer. Well, I say, "Well, I don't believe I'll raise it myself. I'll go across over de street," I says, "I'll git this man up" - the man across the street kept a little resturrant. So I went across de street an' got him to come over with me. I says, "Do you wan'a raise that runner for me?" I says, "cuz there's somepin told me twice to raise that runner up," I says, "an' I think my wife, '' I says, "must be asleep - I called 'er an' she didn't answer." So he said, "I'll raise it up. So he raise the runner up. It wus a black stockin', about that long, across underneath de runner. It wus a ten-cent piece in the center, an' two brass tacks in the toes an' two brass tacks in the end [the topl of it. He looked at me an' said, "Oh!" he said, "I ain't gon'a put my hands on it." I say, "Well," I say, "they say the grace of God is sufficient for all things. It can't hurt me." I says, "I'm gon'a pick it up, but I'm not gon'a pick the stockin' up, but I'm gon'a git de ten-cent piece up." So I reached over an' took my penknife [steel = protection] an' picked the ten-cent piece up an' dropped it in my pocket. I goes back in the house, I walks up an' I walks aroun' the runner, an' gits a fahk [fork]. I takes de end of the fahk an' folds it [stocking] up, [beginning at] de toe end, an' keeps rollin' it up. An' when I got it [rolled] up, you see, then I picked it up on de fahk an' carried it through in de kitchen, an' drops it in de stove an' put salt on it, touch a match to it an' starts it to burnin'. So when it starts to burnin', I goes to call her. I says, "Frances!" She says, "LET ME ALoNE!" I says, "Whut's wrong?" She says, "You's done concern with somepin that don't concern you." She says, "Mr. Bayhan' will get even wit you." Well, if ever I'd walk over it - well, she would git [hear] de shot from it, choo know. Well, [then] I got [would get] the dose. See, as soon as I touched it, why I guess it roused her up, you know. You see? (As soon as you walked over that stocking, that was to shoot the gun off down there where he was?) Yes, sure. That would kill me, you see.
(What kind of a gun did he have?)
He had some kin'a glass, suppose to shoot you through the glass with the gun. That wus suppose to kill me in twenty-four hours. But the Lord's grace is suffi- cient for all things. De spirit put me wise to it befo' I got to it. [Baltimore, Md., (157), 148:1.] [The amazing thing about this story, despite the protective fork, is a man risking his life for a ten-cent piece!]
Entry 63
Now, about two years ago [1934], up here to my place [farm near Hampton, Virginia], an automobile driv [drove] in with five men into it and I knew them every one. They driv through my yard and went out and never did come back. When I got after them [later] they disowned it. It was their evil spirits, and they were just as natural, and they were trying to do me out of my place.
Entry 64
They used to say, when you met a spirit and they knew who it was, they didn't say anything to them. When you got home where this party lives at, they are there. They say, "That was their spirit I met then." They say, "Have you been away from home tonight?" "I haven't been away. Why do you ask?" 'Oh well, I didn't know whether you were out tonight or not."
The informant reports an encounter and quoted identification; the person in the account says they had not been away from home.
Entry 65
I have seen men's spirits, living spirits. I went to visit an old woman one night and I stayed until about ten o'clock. When I was going home a man was standing on the street. I knowed it was the man's spirit and when I got over a little drain of water and looked back he was gone. I knowed that was a spirit - the man was living, he wasn't dead, he isn't dead yet.
Entry 66
I have heard mv great-aunt say that she was driving along a dark road once with her daughter. While driving along she struck a match to light her pipe. When she drove a little farther a man stepped out of the woods Wearing a full dress suit, a high silk hat, and grabbed the horse by the bridle. And rear as the horse would, he would not let him go. After holding the horse for about three or four minutes he let the horse go. My great-aunt explained this fact by saying that it must have been her father who Was dead and he wanted to warn her that she must not strike a match on a dark road because some danger might take place because of her doing so.
Entry 67
There had been a burying of a person and some of the people, that was at the funeral that was at enmity with the dead person, on their way home they heard a russelling [rustlingl at the edge of the road. And when they turned to look, there was a man standing without a head. And they ran until they were out of breath. For the next few days the doctor had to attend them because they were frighten. And it was said by the people, that it was the spirit of that dead person after that man he was mad at.
Entry 68
Sometimes you see a woman with no head on. Sometimes she will be naked. That's a spirit. And she'll follow you around. And you say,"0, get behind me Satan," and she will vanish off.
Entry 69
I was a girl about seven years old and my mother had let me go to these people - their name was Kane - to rock the baby. And after this baby Went to sleep, her little sister and I went outdoors - it was in the summertime - to play. And the moon Was shining as bright as day. You could see from one end of the field and woods to the other. She [the other girl's mother] was in the kitchen making light bread. And all at once I look towards the barn and I said, "Oh, look Mary! What's coming?" And she turned around and looked and she said to me, 'Oh, Lucy! What is that?" I said, "I don't know." And at that time it was something looked like Jesus. He had a white robe throwed around Him and He wasn't touching the earth. He came from the sunrise and kept rising higher and higher and went to the sunset. Then we got frighten and run in the house and hollered. So the madam says, "What is the matter with you?" And we told her what we seen. And she said, "It is a story. You didn't see anything. It's just a lamp setting in the window." So next night we tried it again, and the next night we tried it again. And I have never seen it since.
Entry 70
I heard of a ghost coming in once - there was an old house - my mother tole me this. They was a family that owned the home and they couldn't rent it to anyone because people had gone there to live and wasn't able to stay on account of ghosts. The last family that had any trouble, when they went to stay there, the first night, a dog came in and walked around the room. They tried to chase him out and struck at him and he turned into a cat. And they struck at it again and it turned into a hand, a human hand. The next time they took a knife and cut at it and actually cut it then [drew blood] and then it disappeared and they never seen the ghost in the house evermore.
Entry 71
I can truly say for myself that I have seen a spirit. I was lying in bed one morning and turned over and looked toward the door and there stood: my father- in-law. I knew him well. I knew it was my husband's father. I said, "Merciful Father! Merciful! What does father Dempsy want?" I didn't get frightened at all. I said, "He has come for someone, I know." I never said anything at all to him, but when I kinda winked my eye I saw him go up - he melted away. I never saw no more of him after that. He looked just as he looked in life, only he was just white. I told my husband about it, oh, I guess about three days after that, and he said, "That's nothing strange to me. I'm with all of my dead ones most every night." He said, "That don't bother me at all." And three months after that my husband was taken seriously sick, and I said, "Now I know he will never get up from this attack he had. Seeing father Dempsy, I know he came to notify me that he was going to take him away." It worked out just as I had seen it would.
Entry 72
A man told me that you will see a spirit or a ghost as long as you look at it or seem interested in its presence. As soon as you look away or become indifferent, the spectre will vanish.
Entry 73
[My wife and I on my first hoodoo collecting trip stayed at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Maryland, where I interviewed a few members of the staff. One of these men, native to the locality, acted as my contact man. He told me the following story and later repeated it - as an example of what I wanted - toa second man recently up from North Carolina. What happens when an original story is repeated for the first time?] [Original story:] A man, who was drivihg around the country, had the habit of driving rather late at night. One evening between twelve and one he was on his Way home, and as he was driving along the road - it happened to be rather lonely along this particular road - he saw a woman standing there and she acted like one of these hitch-hikers. And she waved her hand and so he stopped. He asked her where she was going and she told him this particular place. He told her he would take her along. So this lady got in the car and there was one peculiar thing about it, she wanted to sit on the back seat. The man noticed that and that she seemed to be rather nervous. The main thing he couldn't understand was.why she wanted to sit in the back when there was plenty of room up in front. However, he told the lady to get into the car and he would take her to the place she wanted to go. So they drove along and he didn't say anything to her. Finally he arrived at this house that she had spoken of. So this man got out of the car and opened the back door of the car and looked inside and he didn't see anyone there. Naturally he became very upset. So he went to this house and rang the bell. A man came down. So he told the man what had happened and the man didn't seem to be at all disturbed about it. And he said, "That was my wife who died sometime ago and quite a number of motorists have been annoyed by having her get in the car and when they arrive at my house she is not there. In that particular place where you picked her up she had been in an accident and was killed there." [Ocean City, Md., (13), Ed. My notation reads, [happened] "Last winter, February 1936, between Washington and Baltimore near a place called Dead Man's Curve."]
[Repetition of original story:]
The death is reported in a participant's speech within the story, not independently verified.
Entry 74
I am just now thinking of the most wierd ghost story that I have heard in recent years. There was a man enroute from Washington to Baltimore and on the Way he overtook an old lady who was walking and carrying a basket. When he saw the old lady, the man stopped the car and asked the old lady her destination. She gave him a certain address in Baltimore. The man drove along with his pass- enger and just as he was reaching Baltimore he looked back and saw that there was no one on the rear seat. Where the old lady had been sitting there was nothing. The man of course was very astonished and wondered where the lady had disappeared because he had not stopped at all after he had stopped to pick the lady up. He hardly knew what to do. Finally, he decided to go to the address that the woman had given him to take her. When he reached the address the occupants of the house told him there was a woman who had once lived there by that name but that she had been dead three years. Of course the man did not explain what he had seen that day. [Ocean City, Md., (18), Ed.; supposed to have happened in 1932, four years earlier. The vanishing passenger or stranger who disappears suggests a folk theme.}
Entry 75
There was a fellow who was gambling. His name was Jacob Brown. A lot of people was gambling and this Jacob Brown made a terrible excitement by saying that if he would lost his last dollar, he would curse God and die. There was a tree that had been blown down and they all had this place where they were gambling right close to this tree. And after he had lost his last dollar he cursed God and he went to this tree to sit down. So he laid upon the log. And after laying there he could not be moved. And specta- tors went there to see him. And after viewing his body laying out on the tree, they pitied his condition and some tried to get him away, and they could in no ways move him. So one day three preachers went there to see what was the trouble and so they viewed the place and the man likewise; and they decided that they would cut this log [cut out the piece of tree upon which he was lying] in order that they could move the man away. And when they began to cut, the log began to bleed; so therefore, they couldn't move this man and so they left him. That man lived according to my understanding about two months and nobody could move him off of that log. [Old Point Comfort, Va., (27), Ed.; happened about 1906 in Georgia, so my informant says - actually, this immobility being a folk theme in many forms, see Arrestation in FACI,2ed., Pp. 817-18, etc.]
Entry 76
I know something about spirits getting thirsty and coming and drinking. If you leave a glass of water overnight, don't drink out of it next morning; for they say, when it sets all night, the spirits drinks out of it. Always pour that out and get fresh water for yourself so in order not to drink after the spirit. That's what olden people used to say.
Entry 77
[An excellent example of this belief will also be found in my interview Beer For St. Peter - Whiskey And Cigar For St. Anthony. Here we have a desperate situation demanding exceptional power and daring to make an unwilling man run away from a chain gang.] Now, ah show yuh. It's two miles from heah to de cemetery ovah beyond [Somebody's] Hill, an' a man tole a woman tuh go to de cemetery at first dark an' git some graveyard dust an' fetch it tuh him, an' her husband was in yonder fo' nine months out chere tuh de chain gang. An' he says, "Ah will have him released in ten days. Ah went wit Mag to de cemetery dat night - went round to de cemetery wit her but ah did not git ovah in de cemetery - an' she got de graveyard dust dere; tole her to go right to de head of de grave an' go down in dere about half a foot an' git it, yeah, down in below de ground. Mag come back [to where Informant was - outside the graveyard] an' me an' her come on back home to mah home where ah stayed. Ah says, "Well, Mag," I says, "did joo git chure dirt?" [Mag could not speak between her leaving and returning home; no one could enter the graveyard with her.] She said, "Yes." She showed it to me. She had it tied up in a hand'chief, Mag did - had de graveyard dust tie up in de hand'chief dere. An' ah says, "Well," ah says - dere's a fellah by de name of Ole Man Andrew, he was a hoodooer an' dat. She says, "Yo' tell Mr. Andrew ah'll see him in de mornin'." He was de hoodoo ah had rented de room from in de two-story buildin' where I had a room. Next mornin' Mag come ovah dere an' seen duh ole man Andrew, an' she give ole man Andrew, she did, de graveyard dust. Ole man Andrew tole 'em, says, "Ah'll use it jes' as ah wanta use it." He sent me den de next day after a quart of likker. Ah goes an' ah gits de quart of likker fo' him. He gives me de 75 cents - ah goes an' gits de quart of likker. He says tuh me, he says, "Cal," he says, "now, ah want chew to keep dis kin'a secret" - says, "ah'm gotta fellah tuh run away from de chain gang an' go to his wife to Hastings [?] an' git her an' go to Florida in eight or ten days. Yeah. An' sure 'nuff dis boy come away from de chain gang tuh mah house [his room in the doctor's house] that night. When he was in there, he took the graveyard dust an' put whiskey on it an' put it in a bottle, yeah. An' when Mag come de next mornin' he give it to Mag an' he tole Mag to take that graveyard dust an' in dat whiskey whut he shook up an' use it round her bed an' out in her back yard. Yeah. An' she said dat she done it - she tole me dat she was gon'a do it.
(What will that do then?)
Dat 'fects dat fellah - dat made dat fellah git away from de convict camp. He come to my place, de first time when he broke out - he come to mah place an' den went on up heah to Fairfax an' him an' Mag went tuh Florida, ah know dat much, an' his time wasn't near up. [The bottle and contents is a hand, the whiskey is the spirit's payment for Work to be done, the giving of liquor is called feeding, and the shaking is to activate and incite the drunken spirit. My transcriber heard the doctor's name as Ander or Anders; I as Andrew or Andrews.]
Entry 78
[An alcohol-loving spirit or the alcohol spirit itself has no scruples about assisting with a drinking spell.] Well, it's a lady doesn't stay so far from me. It was a lady liked her hus- band an' she couldn't git him because her husband loved her more than he did her. So she framed up a way to git him away from her. So she goes an' gits some liquor an' she tells dis lady, say, "Come ovah tuh mah house an' have a drink." Co'se dis lady went ovah there an' she had somepin put in there, an' that has been about two - two an' a half years ago. An' so ever since that lady took that drink she got to de place she jest can't stop drinking - drinking - drinking. Wherever she goes [to a doctor], they all tells her that it's a drinking spell's been put on her tuh make her stay drunk to make her husband leave her. An' so she says, "Well, ah kinda thought that be- cause ah knows that ah can't stop drinking - jest drink all de time" - so she asked him [a doctor], say, "Whut kin ah do to stop me from drinking?"
Entry 79
[There is more than one way to cast a drinking spell.]
But ah do know dis fo' a true fact. Yo' kin take a person's photograph - if he nevah drinked a drop of whiskey befo' in his life - an' turn it down ovah a little small glass of whiskey, somepin like a wineglass, an' let it stay there until de whiskey fade dat photograph, an' dat person will drink hisself to death.
(This whiskey must touch the photograph - you must put it right over there?)
No sir - not touch it.
(Just so the fumes will come up?)
Yes sir.
Entry 80
I know a lady at home had a husband who would drink a lots - he stayed drunk all the time. Someone told her if she went out to the graveyard and got some dirt off of a drunkard's grave and sprinkled it in some of his food, that that would cure him. And afterwards she did. It didn't exactly cure him, but it kind of stopped it.