Browse:Red Pepper and Its Combinations without Salt (Volume 1, entries 1444–1453)
Red Pepper and Its Combinations without Salt
Volume 1, entries 1444–1453. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → CURE AND PROTECTION. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1444
After I came here, they told me it was 'bout some hoodoo or something. Well, this is a case which I had a stepfather. (Just a little louder, please.) My stepfather, he was terribly mean. Well, he and my mother separated. Well, he had been talking to a lady that believes in this stuff and he got her to come to my mother to talk to her, but when she got there, my mother didn't know the lady and naturally anybody would come to my mother and talk to her because she was a hairdresser. And she came and she talked and she said sh wanted her hair dressed and she asked what was the price, and she didn't bring all the money. She said she would bring the rest of it later. So my mother went on and fixed her hair, and before she went she asked my mother to give her something to eat - say she was hungry. So my mother got up and fixed her some dinner and brought it in there and gave it to her. So she' told her, say, "That's too much - take part of it off." And she insisted that she take part of it off, so she went back in de kitchen and take some of it off. Well, when she come back, the lady had gotten out of the dining room and she was gone in the bedroom, and she never thought anything about it because she was puttin' a drapery on the bed and she thought maybe she was looking at the time. Well, she come on back in the room and she sit down to eat and she tasted. She had a little boy with her and said, "Do you mind if I give it to my boy? I have enough." So my mother says it all right with her. She gave it to the little boy and the little boy ate it. So when she got up she went on home and then next week she sent the money. So my mother got sick. We didn't know what was the matter with her - she was just ailin' around, didn't any special thing hurt her, she Was just weak. She Was in the bed. She was talking to a lady friend of ours and just how she was feeling and telling her about her sickness.
(I see. All right.) [Something may have disturbed us.]
And she happened to bring up about dis lady coming to see her. And what made her bring that up, they was talking about - this lady [who had her hair done] spoke about her husband that she had been with [but was with no longer] and she was saying he was a good man. And my mother asked her [present visitor] did she know him, and she turned around and told her, no, she didn't know him. Well, they was wondering why did she [woman who had her hair done] come there with that kind of talk, so this lady asked my mother, said, "Don't you know she believes in that hoodoo stuff?" My mother said, "No." So she said, "You get up out of bed," said, "we are going to see if anything is around." So she came in the room and she called me and she say, "Let's look." And we took all the things off the bed and didn't see anything and looked all under the mattress and everything, and under the rugs and everything - looked everywhere we thought for and couldn't find anything. So, we stopped looking for awhile. And then she had a little drop rug on de floor right at the head of the bed and she turned the rug back and found this little black bag in there. There was something in it - it was black, it looked like charcoal and something in there like fine grains of salt or some- thing. I really don't know what it was but that's what it looked like. And so my auntie took it and carried it out on de back porch and we looked at it and so we took it and threw it away. So this lady told my mother to get some hot water and red pepper and mop de floors. She did and after that she was all right. It didn't hurt her or anything other than being sick and just weak.
(Where did this happen? Where?)
It happened right here in Vicksburg.
(Oh, in Vicksburg. How long ago?)
This was in the summer - wait a minute, I will tell almost exactly - summer, 1936.
(1936, I see. Your mother got well?)
Yes, sir.
Entry 1445
You kin take a pod of red pepper, ordin'ry pod of pepper, and take it and put one pod in each shoe. Leave it in the whole pod like it is. You put it in your shoe. You take a common newspaper and you'll cut a sole, and you'll put that on top of that pod of pepper and you know, that will make it too hot, nuthin atall will harm you - see, that will be too hot for anything they put down.
Entry 1446
Now, if someone's trying tuh trick yo' in de feet, yo' go an' git chew ten cents wuth of unbolted [not sifted] co'n meal - dat's de thin, de fine grade stuff. See. Unbolted, dat's de fine grade. Yo' parch dat an' sprinkle it in yore shoe, cover de bottom of yore shoe with it. Put two leaves of red peppah in each shoe, two pods - one in dis toe an' one in dis heel.
(That's two pods in each shoe?)
Dat's right. Yo' kin do anything dat chew wanta an' cain't nobody hurt chew.
Entry 1447
When you make a foottrack in the dirt, if you happens to keep from getting hurt - ah don't know what they put in the track, don't know about dat. But to keep from getting hurt, they tell me you take nine grains of red pepper - you know, seeds, and sew them up in a bag [thus making a hand] and wear it in your shoe. Then they won't hurt cha.
Entry 1448
Yes, ah heard about dat. Dey say dat If yo' think somebody gon'a work roots on yo' or somepin lak that, or somepin dey 'fraid tuh walk ovah, den yo' git chew some cayenne peppah an' put 'bout six swallows of watah in there, yo' understand, an' boil it down to three swallows.
[This is the magic of diminishing amount.]
Yo' take three swallows of dat watah dat night - see, dat first night. Well, yo' don't take nuthin dat next night - yo' skip a night chew see. [This skipping magic is a recurrent magic delay; not the same as alternating magic - left and right, up and down, forward and backward, etc.] Take yo' a teaspoonfula sulphur de next night, chew understand, an' do that fo' - lemme see, yo' take three doses of dis peppah an' den yo' take six doses of dat sulphur. [Here is the complementary magic of increasing amount. Both diminishing and increasing amounts are in multiples of three magic. The exchange between three doses of pepper and three of sulphur is alternating magic; the three additional doses of sulphur being repetitive magic.] An' dat will keep the evil roots an' things off of yuh, so nobody can't harm yo'or nuthin.
Entry 1449
Dere's a protection measure dat you do in order to keep anyone from harming you. You takes a little sulphur inter a little sweet milk and you drink it, you see. Use a little red pepper and a little sulphur to keep in your shoes, you understand, and you contin'lly walk wit dat, you see. Well, tisn't likely that dere is anything dey kin ever do you. Dey kin put down things that will take effect upon you, but you would always get a shock - you'd be over it before there would be any great thing to it. [The informant says that despite "a protective measure...you Would always get a shock when passing over "put down things," but "you'd be over it before there would be any great thing to it." Another informant says, if you walk over some- thing buried for you, the ground will come up like a wave (No.717, p.239). The most frequent indication that you have walked over something evil is an immediate pain in your leg (No. 718, p.239, and Index).] (You take this drink and you wear this stuff in your shoes at the same time? Or are these separate things you do?) Well, now, I tell you, you drinks dis milk fer nine diff'rent mornings into sulphur, you understand. Think it make you sick, but get it straight - it's re'lly purtty good. Drink it - it's re'lly purtty good. And fin'lly, de next nine mornings you puts dis red pepper into your shoes, you see. Nuthin kin be done to you.
Entry 1450
Take red peppah an' sulphah an' gunpowdah an' put it in yore shoe.
(What will that do then?)
That'll keep any evil spirits that are tryin' tuh harm you or something away.
(You could walk over anything and it wouldn't hurt you?)
Yes, walk over anything, wouldn't take any 'fect.
Entry 1451
Well, if they put this down and you walks over it - to keep it from taking effect to you - well, that'll be a spell that they put on you, see. Well then, to remove that spell you use brimstone, red cayenne pepper and then you put gunpowder in it. See. And you let it burn and you stand over it and that will remove that spell if you use it fer nine nights.
Entry 1452
Dey say if somebody is doin' something to yo' an' yo' wanted tuh stay, or yo' wanted tuh stay home. Well, yo'd git some sulphah, a little red peppah an' a little black peppah. Mix it together. Well, yo' git some of dis heah insene [incense] - yo' hear 'em talk about dat - mixes all dat togethah an' put it in a little bag [making a hand] an' sew hit round yore laig - sew it up an' pin it round yore laig. Why yo' is all right, see.
Entry 1453
If anybody's botherin' or worryin' yuh, yo' take saltpetah - yo' dress yo'self in saltpetah and peppah. Yo' put that into yore shoes. That's the old colored remedy that chew git saltpetah and red peppah. Mix that thing togethah and put it in yore shoes or on yore person.