Browse:Mojo (Volume 1, entries 2100–2104)
Mojo
Volume 1, entries 2100–2104. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → HANDS: MAGIC HELPERS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2100
I entered a house to clean it and hang some paper. Nobody had lived in it for about six months. The colored man who had lived there had moved out. There were about three daughters in the family. And when I went in the house and started to tear the paper down I found in a crevice in the wall a little ball of red flannel saturated with Hearts of Cologne. There were about 25 needles stuck in it. The fellow that was with me told me that was a mojo - a good-luck piece or to put somebody into a stream of bad luck.
Entry 2101
Yo' kin take High John de Conker an' git black lodestone an' Adam an' Eve root. Put them together with violet incense powders, an' sew them in a red flannel. They call that mojo an' dat fo' yore luck in gamblin' an' co'se yo feed it Jockey Club perfume.
(When you go to the game.)
Entry 2102
They have some lucky mojo. Yo' take an' put it in your house in your room an' that will make - when people come in yer room an' inhale that once, they'll come back again.
(That's for customers?)
Yes, sir.
(Where do you get this lucky mojo?)
You kin buy it from the Sweet Georgia Brown Company, Chicago, Illinois. [This mojo is either a perfume or incense.]
Entry 2103
In the State.
(In this State?)
Yes, sir.
(It isn't Kings?)
[Someone had mentioned Kings.]
Yes.
(Where is Kings?)
It's out here.
(Is it a town?)
No, it isn't a town - it just a little stopping place.
(Oh, village?) [Or crossroad store.]
Yes.
(And she saw this perfume?)
Yes.
(And it's called?)
Moojoo Lueky Star.
(Mojo Lucky Star?)
Yes, sir.
(And how do you use that perfume?)
You don't use it. The one that you want to come back to you, you put it on them.
(I see. That will make them come back?)
Yes. I've tried that.
Entry 2104
Bluestone, some blueing.
(Is that the blueing you was with?)
Yeah, blueing. Bluestone, brown sugar and scrub your floors first, and den take dat and put it in dat water and rinch your floor. Rinch your floor with it after you mop it, and sweep dat water out de door - all de time, all de time. Ev'ry morning git up and take dat blueing Water and bluestone and brown sugar and make it up and scrub your house. Get you some ensums [incense] and burn dem in dere and den de people be comin'. [Rinch = rinse.] You could be on dat corner and I could be on dis one and if you gittin' all de trade down dere and I ain't gittin' none here, I kin go down dere and stop you from gittin' anything. If de people is comin' by me gwinin' dere, I'll stop 'em from comin' by me. Dey won't never git no further den here. Dey ain't never gwine down dere cus I'm goin' stop 'em on dis end, you see, I'm goin' stop 'em. I'm goin' go out dere and cross 'em out in de road, you see. And when dey get to dat mark, dey goin' - instead of goin' on dey goin' turn and come in here, you see, all de time.
(I see. What sort of a mark did you put in the road?)
Well, I'd go out dere and draw me a mark and take me some.
(What kind of mark did you put?)
I'd just go out dere and draw just a straight line cross de road, just about dat deep, and take me some lucky powder and some lucky mojoo and put it right down in dat and put it on a little piece and put it right down in dat little trench and cover dat right back up, right where de people walk right by. Well, when he git dere he ain't gwine by, he gonna come in here and he ain't got no How come? See, the other fellah be dere and you be down dere, come to argue - how come he ain't gittin' no trade. Ah done took your trade, you see. [Lucky mojoo here is a perfume.]