Browse:Love Hand (Volume 1, entries 2073)
Love Hand
Volume 1, entries 2073. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2073
[This hand is in two parts, each coming from a different community.]
[Here is the first version:]
A man told me that he went to dig up a woman one night, and before he got tc open it [the coffin] he got scared. And the man was a cripple man and walked with a crutch, and he was about drunk; and when he got there he took another drink and got scared - a whirlwind came on the graveyard and scared him to death. He said he run a mile before he ever stopped running. And when he stopped running he forgot he'd ever been drinking. He said he was never more sober in his life. Somebody told him to get the fourth finger [forefinger] of the right hand [of the female corpse] and carry it in his pocket and he would be a good actor among girls - any girl he wanted would go with him.
[St. James, a Negro community about 5 miles from Pocomoke City, Md., by hand.]
[Here is another version of the preceding story:]
A little humpbacked man, he spent ever' cent he got fer to win girls. I didn't see him do it but I seen the finger. It was told me he went in the grave- yard'and cut off a woman's right [index] finger - I seen the finger - cut that off, and was carrying it around in his pocket.