Browse:It Warn't Put There for You (Volume 1, entries 653–654)
It Warn't Put There for You
Volume 1, entries 653–654. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DOCTOR AND DOCTOR: TWO OPPOSING SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 653
[Before I forget, I must return to the woman poisoned by perfume (No. 648). Why was her husband immune? He was dressed for his wife; the dressing no matter how poisonous, being harmless to him (cf. No. 10, p.7). Intention is almost everything in hoodoo and magic. A good example follows:] I was living in a street here in Norfolk, and the undertaker - you know I'm a jackleg carpenter - the undertaker told me to put a pair of steps to his door, and I had to dig down fer 'em. I come across a Eye-sh [Irish] potato that had nine needles in it and nine pins. And de woman dat was passing back- ward and forward over 'em was sick all de time - two of 'em died in dat same house, and both the woman was takin' sick. And I come across it with my hoe, you know, when I was making de foundation to put de foot of steps down. And I called and asked her, "What is this?" She come and looked and she cried, "That thing is the cause of my family being ruined!" A I'sh potato and nine needles and nine pins in it. And as that grow, the sap of it, the scent of it, or some- thing other in that house - some of 'em [persons] drop off. She says, "What you going to do with it?" I put my hand on it, 'cause I weren't scared of it, you know, 'cause I didn't believe in such things. I put my hand on it and I counted nine [needles and nine pins] with it in my hand. And I couldn't get a soul dere to touch it.
(No one would touch it?)
Nobody - couldn't get 'em to touch it. Then I thought to myself, I says, "I wonder if dis here thing goin' do me no harm?" Then a thought came to me, "It warn't put there for you and it would not harm you." I took it up in my hand, pulled the peelin's offen it and throwed de I'sh potato away and stuck the pins in my coat. But - it will certainly do you harm, if it is planted fer you.
Entry 654
One time I came out of the door, that was before we moved to Norfolk City [from County of Norfolk into Norfolk, Va., about 1885]. Right at the door was a snake-shed [the whole skin shed by a snake]. It was filled with sand. My mother was looking out the door. I thought it was a snake. My mother looked and said, "That ain't no snake." I said, "Yes it is, mother." 'No, that ain't no snake. Get some paper." She wouldn't touch it herself. She made me pick it up. You see, if that was for me, it wouldn't hurt nobody but me. If you touched it, it would be all right - it wouldn't hurt you. Mother thought it was for her. That's why she made me get it on that paper. You see, some woman was mad at her. She [other woman] said, "Never mind, I'll cross your path soon." I have heard them say that a lot of times. [This is called a bad mouth.] Then they put some- thing down for you to walk over. She was afraid I would drop it, "Don't you let that fall!" Then she said we would go to the bridge. She wouldn't let me go by myself. She and I went together. She did not cross it, the place where that snake Was, but went way around. She wouldn't walk behind me. She walked a way on the other side of the road. When we were halfway there [to the bridge] she said, "It came from the devil, let it go back to him." She made me go right out on the middle of the bridge, right in the middle of the channel, and throw that snake-shed right in the water. When she came back she bought a pound of salt and sprinkled that salt all over the place [where the snake-shed had been found], to kill the germs I guess. [For these germs, see No. 645.]
Salt is narrated as bought and sprinkled; killing germs is the narrator's guess.