Browse:Mother Kate of New Orleans, La. (Volume 1, entries 3097)
Mother Kate of New Orleans, La.
Volume 1, entries 3097. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → MORE DOCTORS DESCRIBED BY LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 3097
I haven't had no dealing with that, but anyway, ah kin tell you some- thing about that lawyer.
(About what lawyer?)
My husband, he had kilt a man and I went to Mother Kate. (Mother Kate?) Yes, sir. (Where did she live?) She lives up on Jackson and Magnolia.
(Is she still living?)
Ah don't know if she's still living yet. I think she moved uptown.
(Oh, all right.)
But anyway I went there to her. I'd gived the lawyer $50, and so a lady told me to go up there to her. And I went up there to her, and I say, "Mother Kate, I come for you to help me - my husband is going to the penitent'ry. The next trial he get, he go to the penitent'ry. She say, "You know what you do," she say, "you go to the Ten Cent Store and get ten cents of brand-new needles and ten cents of pins and," she say, "you go to the market and you get you a beef tongue and," she say, "you put ten pins on each side and you put ten needles on each side." And she say, "you get you 50 pounds of ice and," she say, "let it stay 24 hours and," she say, "leave that tongue froze; and when he go to court he won't get no lifetime - he go to the penitent'ry, but he might get six months in the parish or either get three." And he got three months in the parish. And so after I got him out, he left me. And I went back there and I told her, ah said, "Don't you know he done left me - all that I did for him." She say, "Well, you got any money?" Ah say, "I got one quarter." She say, "You go to the corner and get a nickel worth of nutmeg and a nickels sugar and," she say, "you grate that nutmeg up, ' and she say, "you write his name nine times on a piece of paper, and you put some of that nutmeg [and sugar] in that paper and you put it in the lamp," she say, "you get a piece of red flannel and you burn your lamp."
(Wait a minute! What do you do with that red flannel, now?)
Get a piece of red flannel and drap it in the lamp - keep him from seeing it, you understand - and drap the paper in there [into red flannel to hide paper], and [but first] wrap it up with a piece of thread. And she say, "You write it nine times again and tie it up with a piece of thread and wear it in your shoe." And she say, "You get it nine times again and," she say, "you go to the barroom and gets you ten cents of gin and," she say, "you put it [third paper with 9 names] in a bottle and put it behind your bed and," she say, "you shake it up three times a day," she said, "and I'm betting he'll come back to you.'" And I'm got him till yet.
(Did he come back?)
Yes, I'm got him till yet.
(I see.)
And she say, "Three time a day you shake it up and say, "The Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
(I see. Mother Kate told you that.)
Yes, told me to get a nickel's worth of nutmeg and a nickels sugar.
(Yes?)
She told me to grate the nutmeg and mix it up in the sugar, and write it nine times.
(Wait a minute! Write what nine times?)
Write his name nine times on a piece of paper.
(All right.)
And put it in the lamp and get a piece of flannel and drap [or wrap] it in there. (Wait! You wrap this paper in a piece of flannel, and you put the flannel in the lamp?) Put the flannel in the lamp and wrap the nutmeg and the sugar up in the piece of paper and tie a piece of thread around it and drap that in the lamp.
(But the flannel is around the two then?)
Yes, sir, the flannel goes at the bottom - you know, the paper done sink and the flannel, you see, is all around it.
(Oh, all right. Then what?)
And then she told me, 'Write his name nine times again and put some of that nutmeg and sugar and wear it in your shoe.
(What do you wrap it up in?)
A piece of plain white piece of paper. Write it nine times and tie it up with a piece of white thread and wear it in my shoe.
(You don't put any flannel around that?)
No, don't put no flannel around it atall.
(Just the paper?)
Just the paper.
(All right.)
And she say, "Write his name nine times again on a piece of paper and wrap it up with a piece of thread." And she say, "You go to the barroom and get you ten cents of gin, and you put it in there and three time a day," she say, "you shake it up."
(Wait a minute! You put this paper in this gin?)
Put some of the sugar and the nutmeg and wrap it up with a piece of thread and drap it in the gin.
(I see.)
And then stop it up and put it behind the bed. "And three time a day," she say, ''you shake it up and say, "The Father, Son and Holy Ghost." (I see. You had to do all these three things, then - you burned the lamp, you had to wear it in your shoe, and.) And put it in ten cents of gin.
(And put it in gin. For how long do you have to burn that lamp?)
Burn it all day - but I don't burn it now.
(I see. You only burned it all day.)
Burned it all day and all night.
(I see.)
That's to get him back.
(And you wore this up in your shoe too?)
Wore that in my shoe - the nutmeg and.
(You only burned that lamp one day?)
Burn it all day. I burned it about three weeks.
(I see. OhI you burned it about three weeks.)
Yes, sir, I burned zactly three weeks.
(And he came back.)
And he come back - come back with his suitcase. (I see. You burned this lamp three weeks and you kept that thing in your shoe three weeks and you kept shaking that bottle up for three weeks.) I've got the bottle now, but I don't let him see it.
(I see. You did all those three things for three weeks.)
Three weeks.
(It was three weeks before he came back?)
It was three weeks before he came back. He come back that Monday.
(I see. All right.)