Browse:Power from Dead Preacher's Bone (Volume 1, entries 822)
Power from Dead Preacher's Bone
Volume 1, entries 822. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → THE DOCTORS THEMSELVES: BIRTH TO DEATH: DESCRIBED BY LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 822
I'll tell you whut happened to me. Now, I wus goin' with a gurl an' I liked 'er. It wus mah firs' wife. An' there's anothah fellow [by the name of John] liked 'er - he lived over in Baltimore aftah while an' he died over there. He left home shortly aftahward [the present story] - he liked her. He [John] goes to - there is an ole sign tha' choo kin go to a grave wahr [where] there's a preacher bur-ried an' de's a certain bone in that preacher, if you kin get it - I don't know whut it is, but I think it's a rib bone, maybe a short rib; but, a certain bone you kin get out of that preacher - an' a certain amount of dirt joo kin get. That clay, you kin git it somewahr by the head or the foot of someone's [grave]. But anyhow, you kin git a little bit of that dirt an' you work this trick. An' you could have this woman so that she can't - she won't notice the other man, she won't notice nuthin but choo. So he [John] did this. Well, I had a friend goin' with me, a great whiskey man, drinked all de time, staggerin' around. So he told me, he said - the girl got so she didn't notice me, I couldn't do anything with 'er at all, befo' that she didn't like nobody but me - he says, "There's somepin wrong" - she wus a cousin to him, too - he says, "there's somepin wrong about Henrietta." "Oh," I says, "I don't think so - jis' a kin'a way she's got." "No, no, helll Joe, there's somepin wrong, an' I'm gon'a find out." So by an' by [several days later] he come back to me an' says, "Well, I found out whut I want." I says, "Whut?" He says, "I wus to John's house the other day," he say, "an' I see'd [seen de] clay on his pants - ole overalls he wus wearin' last week." So he says, "I seen these ole pants." He says, "I seen this clay. You know wahr that come from?" I says, "No." "My GodI' he says, "that come out d'ole [the old] man Brodick's grave" - this is d'ole preacher, ole man Brodick. He says, "This come out of his grave." He says, "That scoungrel [scoundrel] has got somepin out of Brodick's grave." An' the other fellah [who enters the story for the first time] happened to come up at that time an' he stopped, talkin' with us. Both wus her cousins. He says, "Now, if I ain't too interestin'," he say, "I guess I ain't interferin' wit you fellah's business?" "No, indeed, whut we talkin' about." So we kept right on talkin'. He savs to me - he stood there with his haid down, an' when he did speak - he says, "Well, well I spect [expect] that may be so." He says, "I don't know. I don't think John would do you that way. Anyhow, he might. Anyhow," he say, "if he did do that," he says, "I'm gon'a tell you somepin to do, an' you'll know how to stop it." I says, "You will?" He says, "Yes." I says, "Well, I don't know wurther I'll do it or not, '' I say, "I ain't gon'a harm 'im." I says, "He ain't got no more sense than do that to git de gurl, he'll have to take 'er. I'm not gon'a harm 'im." "Oh! No, no," he says, "i' tain't gon'a do 'im no harm [if] you do whut I tell you." So he told me whut to do - a very peculiar thing. Now, he told me to go wahr I could find wahr somebody had made a passage - some human being, you see, passed some dung. He says, "Now, you want it to be maybe about a week or so old, two or three days old anyhow. You don't want a new pile, you want a ole un," he said, "an' you mess yourself all up, git it all on your feet, so you kin smell youself. An' if you ever ketch him aside of that gurl," he says, "don't you h'yessitate" - he say, "you knowed de time he's with 'er - he say, "you git jis' full of it." He say, "Even if you git it on some of your clothes, it don' make no difference," he say, "you kin git it off - jis' so she kin smell it - an' he could smell it - an' you could smell it. You walk right up side of her an' don' choo stop until you follow her an' him both right to de doah," he say, "an' if he's done anything like that" [put a spell on you], he says, 'he'll nevah go thah no more.'"
(What would you do, carry this stuff with you?)
No, that same night dat I knowed she wus out an' he wus to go home with her, why, fer me to git ahaid of 'em somewahr, you see, an' mess mahself up; an' then, when they come by, fer me to be already to break out. I did it. An' man! I wus smellin' turrible dat night. I didn't even like mah ownself. That's right. I thought it wus awful to be that way. But, I got aside of her an' I aimed to make out to stay aside of her. And before I got - oh, yes, I didn't git much further from here to Mr. [So-and-so's] garage [which we could see through the hotel window] before she begin to talk with me. Now, I nevah could git her to answer me - if I was aside of her, she wouldn't say nothin' to me.
(The other man was there, too?)
He was there, too.
(Did you follow them to the door?)
Right to the door. I nevah left. Soon as I got aside of her I nevah left no more. We walked about a mile - she lived about a mile, an' I walked -
(Did they smell you?)
Oh! They couldn't help it, choo know. Man! I wus in a furiosity! I wus furious! I wus in a furious shape! So I went on until I got from here to that garage, she commenced to talkin' with me, an' she talked all the way along. Ever' now an' then she'd answer me anything I ast her, all de way to her door. Now, he begin to git dumb. He begin to git so he wouldn't talk, he wouldn't have much to say. But yet he walked along with us. He didn't have much to say. When she got to the door he jis' said goodby.
(Do you think the dung affected him?)
I don't know whut it done. I nevah did know whut had happened. All I know, I did that.
(How long ago would that be?)
I'm sixty [in 1936] an' I don't guess I wus much over eighteen years old.
(Did it happen around here?)
Right over at Whitehaven, there over in Wicomico County. I lived there, born over there. [Princess Anne, Md., (133), 35:2.] [The preceding story is true - not a funny story. Was it a practical joke? Were the girl's cousins trying to help or hinder the romance? Did informant's rival belong to the conspiracy? Whatever the purpose, the conspirators devised it in terms of ancient witchcraft - human excrement (also urine) is a powerful protection against or cure for evil intent (see FACI 2ed. p.905, Nos.16488-16489 and others).] [I have preserved the name of the man who told this story; he also the teller of another remarkable story: "133 - Joe Dorman began with snake whistling - head of people expression - told story of old Indian - told story of dung - his first wife, never told her" - Nunbers Book 83-134. Snake whistling story perhaps lost. Head of people = group or crowd of people. For story of Indian, Marcellus Gates, see margin-title Zippy Tull.]