Browse:Nine-Month Spell (Volume 1, entries 941)
Nine-Month Spell
Volume 1, entries 941. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → TIME AND HOODOO SPELL → Time (2) Chronological. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 941
Now, de woman that ah'm [was] living with, she'd taken advantage of me that way. An' ah had a gypsy Woman [usually a colored woman wearing large ear- rings and pretending to be a gypsy] to tell me all about it, an' de gypsy Woman tole me jes' where to find the nail on de east side of de tree, an' on de north side ah'd find a peg, an' on de west side ah'd find a snuff-can top drove in de tree. I wrote home to mah mother an' tole her about it. She had that tree cut down an' found those items in dat tree - dere was a big nail, a small bottle with a piece of mah shirt, an' in that bottle there were some safety pins - hairpins, an' that shirt, an' two worms about that long an' they were jes' white. An' the fellah [doctor] that did it - mah mother kept it an' she preserved those things fo' certain days - ah don't know whut cause her to do it - an' the fellah that did it was standin' at de windah - an' she pored those things in the stove an' put kerosene to them an' de wind blowing jes' dat way - he was standin' dere an' it blew all in his face [see Smoke in Index]. He was den makin' preparations to go out on de water [as sailor or fisherman] but he never did go - he went crazy. An' dey figured dat returned back on him an' he couldn't stand his own work.
(Well, it didn't affect you in any way?)
Well, ah couldn't stay in no place, no place.
(How did it happen that this gypsy woman told you about this?)
Ah were down heah in Egypt [colored community] - right 'cross in de same town heah. [There was a Little Egypt near somewhere I worked on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.] But it wasn't did here - it was did in the city Key [West?] Florida. An' she came by havin' a big bundle on her shoulder an' she were hungry. So she ast me fo' somethin' to eat. Ah was making mah breakfast-dinner [brunch] then. Ah tole 'er to wait. So when ah tole her dat, de woman she - I let 'er in, an' when ah let 'er in, shé ast me to let 'er read mah hand. So ah did so, an' she tole me jes' how ah got chere an' when ah came an' how ah came. Ah.came de first Sunday in de month, de first day in de week, de first of de month an' de first day of de year. An' she said, "Dis woman yo' marry 'er but," she says, "she's not chure wife." An' she tole me jes' lak ah tole yo' whut was done, an' she [the wife] had did it [through a doctor]. Dat wus put on me fo' nine months, an' ah went ailin' fo' those months, an' a fortune-teller man tole me after dat, if I had gone jes one more month, ah never would have [been] able to regain [myself]. (Well, did you go back home or did you go back to your mother's to get rid of that stuff?) I did. [My question is not tricky; his answer is not a lie - writing home was going home (see Introduction for questions and communication problems).]