Browse:More Rites to Put Out Candles (Volume 1, entries 2990)
More Rites to Put Out Candles
Volume 1, entries 2990. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (2) CANDLES. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2990
[Every well-known rite has minor variants too numerous or too unimportant to mention. At times these variants are too important to ignore - see Penny, pages 611-615.] (a) Anoint your head nine times with blueing to put out candle. [Blueing will whiten, therefore it will turn black magic into white.] [New Orleans, La.,
(803), 1122:4.]
(b) Go to an old-fashioned fireplace, stick a steel fork into the hearth bricks while wishing for the candles to go out, and let it remain there. [Witch- craft remedy taken over by hoodoo.] [New Orleans, La., (845), 1291:2b.] (c) Keep two new pins crossed over your heart and wear your stockings wrong- side out. [Two rites joined.] [New Orleans, La., (859), 1367:4.] (d) Turn the toe of your left shoe - an old one you are not using - to the north side of the house, and turn your left pocket inside out.
[New Orleans, La., (837), 1258:4.]
(e) Hang your clothes upside down behind the bed; that will make the candles go out. [New Orleans, La., (805), 1131:7.] (f) A man can hang his pants up upside down, the legs up.
[New Orleans, La., (835), 1257:1.]
(g) Nail with two nails [a nail for each leg] your underclothes upside down against the wall. [New Orleans, La., (800), 1116:6.] (h) Turn furniture, mattress and chairs upside down; that puts that candle right out. [New Orleans, La., (814), 1147:3.] (i) Go to the faucet nine times and wash mah face down.
[New Orleans, La., (788), 1100:2.]
(.i) Get up nine mornings before sunrise, each morning take nine glasses of water from the hydrant, go to the east side of the house, and throw the water over your left shoulder while wishing for the candles to go out.
[New Orleans, La., (845), 1291:2a.]
(k) Get right out of the bed and go to the hydrant, turn the water onto your head like that, and let it run nine mornings - without speaking to anyone.
[New Orleans, La., (798), 1115:4.]
[We have already learned that colored candles and privately owned altars are characteristic of hoodoo's treatment of Christian saints (pp.747-748, 770-773, 775-776, 789-792). In this sub-subdivison, SAINTS, our knowledge of individual saints will improve. Even so, only later interviews already mentioned (p.744) will permit us to go below the surface for a deeper understanding of this unusual aspect of life.]