Browse:Rite of Disguise (Volume 1, entries 1038)
Rite of Disguise
Volume 1, entries 1038. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → FOLK MEDICINE (1) PRINCIPLES OF HEALING. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1038
[To fool the spirit by disguising a familiar object is a well-known rite:] They painted outside of the door and that will keep them [the spirit of a person recently dead] away. Most people use white. Well, after my mother died, my sister had a little baby that was ten months old. He was just beginning to talk. I walked when I was nine months old. And this baby of course knew my mother. He was always with her because she was sick. He always called her, "Mama." And after she died, my sister was holding this baby one night and he waved his hand and called, "Mama." He looked up and said, "Mama," and waved his hand at her. Then my sister got frightened. And she said, "Do you see mama?" And he said, "Yes." And she said, "How does mama look?" And he said, "Mama looks pretty." So after awhile he waved, "Bye-bye, mama." And then my sister say, "What was mama doing?" He said, "Mama, hum, hum' - sang like that. And every night at the same time he would see mother. So that was the time the people told my sister to put some paint there. Yes, she painted the door. She hated to do it. And he didn't see her any more. I think it was a sign my father was going to die soon, for he only lived three months after. [The spirit unable to recognize repainted door never returned.]
[New York City, (1), Ed.; Wilmington, N. Car.,1930.]