Browse:Jack (Volume 1, entries 581–588)
Jack
Volume 1, entries 581–588. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 581
[The following divination device is usually known as Jack, but he has other names. I have never heard him named for a woman. A person asks guestions of Jack. His answers by swinging have at times given him the nickname talking hand (see FACI, 1st ed., p.622; 2ed., p.799). Technically, Jacks are hands. For more examples, see Jack in Index.] When I first come from the country [from near Spotsylvania Court house to Fredericksburg] I was eighteen years old - I'm eighty-one now [1936]. I worked in the paper mill with this man. He wanted to learn me to make money by cunjuration. He had a little ball with something he put in it. He would speak to this ball. It was wool - flannel. He would speak to this ball and itwould go first one way then the other. The ball hung on a string. Anything he would ask this ball would twist around. He would sell you this thing for so much money. "John, now, I want you to be my guide today: If anything is in my way I want you to tell me." He made money on it. He gave this ball a name. He called it John. And John would tell him if anybody was doing anything for good or anything for harm. He was a cunjure himself. He only made this ball and sold them.
Entry 582
I used to go to an old man's house and he had a bag and he called that bag Jack. It was long and big at one end and kinda small at the other end. The string Was tied to the small end - red flannel covered the bag. And then when you would ask him any questions he would take this bag and hold it up [by the stringl and stand still and let it strike the question you asked. If you asked him if this person was hurt, this bag would spin around like a top; if he wasn't hurt, it would stand still. You asked the question, he didn't say anything at all.
Entry 583
Then they had another one they called John the Conquer. It wus made in a little - somepin wus cut in [out of] wood about as big as my thumb. An' the bottom of it wus about as big as my two fingers an' the top wus like my thumb. It wus about that [several inches] long. It looked like it wus jis' a roun' little piece of wood cut out with a neck to it. The bottom wus heavy an' the top wus light. Well, he had somepin in that bottom there [as a weight] I reckon. I don't know whut he had in there. Anyway, you'd [he'd] take it an' set it up an' Says, "Now, So-an'-So - where is he? Which a-way he a-goin'?" He'll be settin' there. "Which a-way Sich-an'-sich?" He'll call your name. An' it'll rock which a-way you goin'. I don't know how it did it. But it'd rock which a-way you're goin'. An' he said, "How long he gon'a be gone?" If it would make two bows, he said it wus a hour each bow.
Entry 584
Making a Jack.
(Making a Jack? Well, how do they do that?)
Well, that's out of red flannen [flannel].
(I see. Well, tell me how they do that.)
Well, ah tell yah. You see, now, that's like you say I wanta find out where my husband at tonight. Well, I will take this piece of red flannen, you see. I will make a little Jack, if his name is Jack - I'll say [for example] I'll make William, and I make it re'lly small, and then I will take the rest of the thread and I holds it up in the front of my eyes and I will talk to it just like I was talking to you. I say, "If he is gone to his meeting or gone to his church" - wher'enever he is gone - ah looking right at Jack, or William or Sam - you got'a name him whatever he is named.
(You give him the name of the man you are talking about?)
Yes. Yes, and I hold it by the thread - hit so long but it not larger then your finger is, you see [demonstrates].
(Like a little bag.)
And I say, "Now, you tell me where is he?" Well, if he is gone to his church or gone to his lodge meeting, Jack will swing back and forwards to you. If he isn't, that will stay solid still.
(I see - you ask these questions and it will swing or it won't swing?)
Yes.
Entry 585
(How do you find this money now?)
With John de Conker. [This is rare, to call Jack by the name of a root within the package or bag. Root bags as hands are common.]
(And how do you prepare that?)
Well, yo' fix it in a flannel - sew it up in a flannel, yo' see an' keep it in yore pocket. Keep it perfumed [fed] wit Hearts Own perfume [sometimes confused with Heartsorn or Heartshorn = Hawthorn? perfume]. Put chew nine pins in it an' if yo' go out 'cross de way anywhere - cross de field whare dere's any money buried, it'll point. Yo' talks to it - it's got a string on de side - an' yo' talk to it an' jest where dat money is it's goin' point directly where dat money are.
(Well, you don't point in your pocket though?)
No, yo' has to take it out chere pocket. See, it's got a little string on to it. Dis John de Conker yo' know, it's got little roots to it - all roots kind lak a [centipede?]. [A small piece of John de Conker has so many root hairs it looks like a centipede.]
Entry 586
( Get some dirt from de grave an' put some lodestone in dere, put some dragon's blood and put a piece of John de Conker, put a piece of Eve and Adam root - puts dem togedder and sew dem up tight.
(Put them in a bag?)
In a piece of red flannin and sew dem tight and you wears it somewheres around you fer two or three days and he [enemy] come around and if he annoys you, you take aholt dat, it be's hot [if an enemy is near], and you carry dat by de string you know - a little piece of string about dat long and you hold on to dat [end of the string so that the bag or sack hangs free] and you talk to 'im, "Come on, Jack, any enemy around me? Any enemy coming toward me?" And he'll [Jack will] move - if he don't move, there ain't nothing wrong.
Entry 587
(This is the lucky hand you say - and how is that made?)
It made with peppah an' salt an' a penny or a dime.
(A penny or a dime?)
Yes - an' sew it up in a piece of red flannel. An' dere's a string left to it an' when yo' git ready to - fo' anything to happen in yore favor, you hold it by de string lak dat an' talk to it. An' when yo' git ready tuh go 'way, yo' say, "When ah git ready tuh leave heah - when ah git ready tuh leave dis country, ah hope ah nevah come back."
(That thing will revolve?)
If yo' de nerve tuh go. When it stops, den yo' go. Well, ah tried dat once mahself - ah heard it an' ah tried it.
(What do they call that little bag?)
Dey call dat a lucky hand.
(You ask questions of it?)
Yeah. An' hit goes certain ways, an' whatevah it says, yo' do.
Entry 588
I seed dis. He had dis bottle, little black bottle, looked lak somepin into it like leaves[?] [see later], and he talked to it, you know, and it would bow. "Well Jack, tell me so-and-so. Now Jack, tell me de troof." And that would bow to him. He'd hold de bottle in his hand and hold a string. He had dat string on de end of de bottle and he'd hold dat bottle up, you know, and he'd talk to it and it would bow, you know. [To bow meant 'yes"' - not to bow, 'no."] He said, "Now, you tell me de troof, Jack. Jack don't you lie to me, now." It [the bottle] was kinda white but de stuff into was black, black as that [points to my discarded black hat containing concealed microphone - see Hat, my black, in Index.]
(How long ago was that?)
Oh, I guess it's been fifty years [1876].
(Where did you see that?)
Oh, between Stockton and Girdletree [Worcester Co., on Eastern Shore].