Browse:If Evildoer Dies, Spell Incurable (Volume 1, entries 1039–1040)
If Evildoer Dies, Spell Incurable
Volume 1, entries 1039–1040. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → FOLK MEDICINE (1) PRINCIPLES OF HEALING. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1039
I heard tell of a woman was taken sick and de doctor came. De doctor couldn't do her no good. She sent and got a high fellah, a hoodoo doctor. [He is also called high man, both names being confined to parts of the Eastern Shore of Maryland - see Index.] So when de fellah came he say he couldn't do her no good. He say, "De party dat put dis spell on you is dead, but if dey was livin' I could turn it back on him and get chew well." So just before this woman died, why she gagged up all those frogs and things. [I suggest high fellah either he heard the woman could not recover or one look at her was enough to make him decline the case by quoting this common belief. Who said a spell had been put on the woman and the spell-caster was dead? He did! Who could prove the contrary?]
The narrator says the woman died in a heard-tell account; the editor questions the healer's claims about a spell and its caster.
Entry 1040
I have a cousin, first cousin of mine, she was hurt. A spell was put onto her about fifteen-twenty years ago and she never gotten over it at all because the man died that did it. He put scorpions and lizards in her and dey bother her now. They say they was put on her in through candy. [The preceding belief is known everywhere (see Doctor in Index). It shows the hopelessness of medical practice in hoodoo and witchcraft; you can never be sure whether person casting the spell is alive or dead, his identity being unknown.]