Browse:SPIRITS (Volume 1, entries 16–544)
SPIRITS
Volume 1, entries 16–544. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 16
My uncle, he was awful scared of ghos'es, and he stayed that-a-way for about three year'. After them three year' was up he sent and got some man, who never tried religion, to see if he couldn't do somepin. So he went and got this fellah - de fellah come from down de South. He got him to see if he couldn't break him from being so scared. So we went and got some graveyard dust, sand, got a rabbit's foot or somepin - this fellah told him a graveyard rabbit, and took and fix it up [dressed it] for him. He took the rabbit foot and put it in a little bag and put de sand in there with it. He was to take it and wear on a belt. About two year' he got he'd see 'em right on but he wasn't scared of 'em.
Entry 17
Mah brother had a way of goin' way out in de woods to see a girl an' mah mother had tole him 'bout goin' by de graveyard. So he said he wasn't afraid. So mah father tole him, say, "One dese nights one dem ghost is gon'a run yo'." He says, "Well, it'll jes' be two runnin'." So he went on dere by hisself an' he kep' continyin' to go out dere. So one night - it was 'bout two miles from de house - a ghost got after him. He knew it was a ghost because usually when a ghost gits in behin' yo' yore hair stand on yore haid - but it don't stand, it feel lak it standin'. An' so, jes' as he stepped out, dis ghost got behin' 'im. He said it was first large and then it was small. An' he say he looked at it - he say, "Ah knowed that was nuthin' nachur'l." He says, "Hit's no need tuh run 'cause if ah run it would run too." So he thought dat once [he] hear our grandfather say whenever anything gits after yo' lak dat, always make it tuh de fork of de road. So he turn roun' an' he let it follow him till he got tuh de fork of de road. When he got to de fork of de road, he said hit couldn't go any further 'cause he missed it. An' so ever since then always, when ah'm out anywhere an' ah see any- thing that ah knows not nachur'l, ah will always make it tuh de fork of de road an' dey can't follow me any further.
The informant narrates a reported ghost pursuit; the account does not establish a verified encounter or protective effect.
Entry 18
I know of a man one time, he was not scared of spirits, and he said one night that he was going through the woods and he saw a ghost and he stopped. And after stopping he went around and sit on a [fallen] tree. And he made believe that he was asleep. And in the meantime this ghost came and sit on the same tree with him, and the ghost re'lly went to sleep according to his belief because he was snoring. And this man said that he got up and walked to this ghost - he did not put his hand on him though - he jumped at him and yelled hard and s'aid, 'What are you doing sleeping here!" And that ghost jumped up then and outrun the Word of God.
Entry 19
My brother-in-law told me the old story. And he said they were in the bed one night and they heard something coming in the house, and when they looked up to see what it was, it was an evil spirit, and it come to the fireplace and sat at the fire. While the spirit was sitting there he broke wind. The old man that was in the bed with my brother-in-law, he said, "Git up and go out of here. You done farted." The spirit got up and went away.
Entry 20
I've seen two spirits myself because I have asked God. When - I was going to church one Sunday night when something says to me, a spirit, "You haven't got something to tell them people. Are you going to get up there before all them people and tell that little thing? Why they'll all laugh at you." I didn't get up that night. I went back home and said to the Lord, "Lord, if I ain't right, make me right; and if I is right, show me that I am right." He did show me that I was right and I've been right ever since. [The informant, a grown girl in Georgia when Sherman marched to the sea, here acknowledges two spirits within - one urging evil thoughts and actions, the other prompting their opposites. While going to church her good spirit said to her evil spirit, "Better test that testimony you are about to give."
The informant recounts their own appeal to God/the Lord; the editor's later explanation of two spirits remains separate.
Entry 21
A good spirit, it leaves the body, that is why the body becomes helpless. It cannot exist any longer. It goes to decomposition because the spirit is gone. The life is gone out of it. But still the spirit never dies. It goes to its immediate loved ones on earth, it overlooks them, it hovers around them. In my belief, what I have really had experience of, we are continually being enveloped and surrounded by the spirits of our loved ones who have gone before; especially until their spirits have been reincarnated and born in some child and come back to the world in the flesh again. The reincarnation comes earlier in some and late in others. Sometimes they are reincarnated in babies who are cut off. That spirit comes right back and goes again to be on earth until it is reincarnated. That is the good spirit. The evil spirit, it is abroad in the world. That is the spirit of those who haven't lived their lives consistent with right living. Their spirits are abroad and still doing Work they were engaged in, either frightening or bringing about disorder, just like they was when in the body, until they are reincarnated. They are reincarnated. Usually it comes out in the child. The child is very fretful. Usually, if it goes to any age, it goes into crime. That is the people that chose the evil way in life. When man was created he was created in the image of God. When he fell, that is in the Garden of Eden. Then when he was redeemed, he has since that time been left as a free agent to chose which he will do, right or wrong. That is the choice given us by the Son of God who died for us that we might be redeemed under the curse of the broken Law. Since then, we have this privilege of chosing for ourselves and being left as a free agent. Then this is the point where the evil and the good spirit exist. This is the origination of the good spirit and the evil. The good is permanent and the evil spirit is a choice of man. You know how long Christ stayed on the Cross, three days. It is supposed that everybody when they die their spirit still lingers in their body and about their personalities for three days until they are planted in the ground. Then it is around and about until the changes come. When the spirit comes out of your body your body really becomes like neutral, you can't move or do anything; you never will again. The mind of the person does not die. That is the spirit after all. That is the soul so to speak. It lingers around and it really sees what's being done until its visit is complete. The person who is responsible for the arrange- ment of the final affairs will dream about them. Often you will be half asleep and that person will appear to you and give you some gestures, satisfactory or dissatisfactory. I know that by experience.
Entry 22
[Despite the preceding title Two Spirits, they are two in character but one in substance.] I have hear'n people say that your spirit travels - it is out walking around at places where you have worked. You're sleeping and maybe you're trying to wake up - you're having a hard time waking. If you die, your spirit is gone from you, they say. It takes a long time to get it back. Some people are hollering and hollering and can't move. You're supposed to go and put your hand on them and shake them till they speak to you. They say you sometimes dies in that condition. People say they have hear'n this, people making a noise through the night. They think they were dreaming and they didn't bother, pay any attention to them. Next morning the're late getting up. When they go to rouse them, they would be dead.
Entry 23
If that spirit goes out somewhere and gets killed or drownded, it will not return and the body lays dead.
Entry 24
[There used to be a mathematical axiom stating that the whole is the sumn of all its parts. In hoodoo, however, a part can equal the whole. Every part and function of your body (hair and breath) - anything touching you (clothes and bathwater) - whatever signifies you (name and photograph) - all these and others are substitutes for either the whole or part of the spirit. Many examples of this belief will be found elsewhere - here are a few:]
Entry 25
Yo' could write a person name on a piece of papah an' throw it ovahbo'd an' it would cause dem to go. It would cause dem to jump ovahbo'd - jes' like yo' throw it in a rivah, it would cause dem to go an' jump in de rivah.
Entry 26
Get a little box - a tin box. Put dat toenails in there and fingernails in there, cayenne pepper, war water - you get the war water, devil dust. You puts in there and you stop that can up tight, you see, and bury it. Den when you bury it, the person what it belongs to, their hand'll come like that - they'll draw up.
(Draw up - drawn up.)
Yeah, all drawn up. If it stay longer, the more it draw. They won't be no use for theirself.
(What is devil dust?)
Devil dust is what you get in the [hoodoo] drug store.
Entry 27
Take your handwritin' - see, de handwritin' where it was writ wit ink or lead. Dey take it and soak it in water and get dat ink, get dat ink off it from your handwritin'. Den dey will take dat water and boil it. See. Den take dat water and pour it out gradually - don't pour dat all at one time, fes' kinda sprinkle it along. When dat water pour out chew begin tuh feel bad - yo' hand begin to feel nervous up thru yo' arms and finally, if you don't know what to do, yo' become paralyzed in your right hand.
Entry 28
A man, he tole me his ole lady went outdoors one night an' went to her chicken coop an' got a big sack fulla chicken dirt - taken it in de house an' taken ashes out de fireplace an' taken his underwears an' rolled dis stuff up in it an' taken - yo' know, rolled it ovah. Didn't mess wit it any Way at all - jes' rolled it ovah an' take it out an' carried it to his bed an' washed his feet, an' let de watah drene off his feet into that ashes an' chicken stuff, an' says, he can't even walk now. Says, lak if he walks, seems lak needles stickin' in him.
(Was he asleep - she did that while he was asleep?)
No, he wusn't asleep - he jes' thought she wus washin' his feet. Dat's all, but he had noticed dat.
Entry 29
Dey tell me dat dey kin take yore bath water and bury it. Dig a hole and pore it in dere and put a piece of - jest a small piece of bluestone, sulphur an' asafitadee [assafetida] in dat hole with dat water and cover it up. And dey tell me dat will keep yo' perishing away all de time.
Entry 30
I was on a island 'tween here and West Point, Virginia. Dere come a little white fellow from Danville County for to see one of Capt. Dick Coleman's daughters - first cousins, too, but he was loving her. He goes up a tree - he drawed de other man's pitchure on de ground - I don't know as you wanta hear that.
(Yes, I want to hear it - yes.)
He draws his pitchure on de ground - de other man pitchure, because he wanted her himself. He draws the pitchure on de ground and he goes up a tree right at sunrise and he shot at dat picture - that is to kill the man. Way up yonder he shot at dat pitchure.
(He went up in the tree and shot down at the picture - shot down?)
Shot down on de pitchure.
(He lust drew it in the ground - with a stick or something?)
Yes, just drew him on de ground and den go up de tree with a pistol, you know, for to try to shoot him in de heart. If he shot him in de heart - up here where he drawed that there - then he'd akilled that man up in [some place]. But he didn't do it, you see - struck him all around de edges of his clothes, arms and places. If that ball hadda struck him in de heart where he drawed it, he would have killed him instantly.
(You say a white man did this?)
Yes.
(Well, whom was he doing it for - another white man or - )
He was doing it fer himself.
(Doing it for himself.)
Doing it for himself - I seen him do it. I was with him.
(What island was this on - what was the name of the island?)
Purtain - Pertin Island.
(Purtin Island - that's in the James River?)
York River.
(Oh, the York River. I see. How long ago did that happen?)
Oh, that happened now - over thirty years ago [1906-7] about de shootin'.
Entry 31
If they kin [get] hold of it, they kin take your photograph and shoot it - shoot it.
(What will that do?)
That will afflict you - 'cause I knowed a lady one time, somebody stole her pitchure. And she used to wear a piece over her eye, see. So I asked her, I says, what's de matter with her eye. [She] say, well, somebody stole her pit- chure and shot her in de eye. She was called a hoodoo and I was afraid of her. Yes, they shot her in de eye. That's the reason that she wear dat piece over her eye.
Entry 32
During my childhood days I heard that a sick person who was very troublesome and worried them and worth a little money, the only thing you could do to stop the law from coming into it, this person went to a hoodoo and he told her to take this person's picture and turn it upside down under the [sick] bed and watch its effect. In three days the person was a corpse. You turn a photo- graph down like that and you watch the person and see if he don't get weaker every day. When you lay it down you are turning the life down like that.
Entry 33
Ah had a little boy home but ah stayed off about seven years, an' he wanted tuh see me awful bad. Ah went home but ah didn't know de cause of it - ah goes without any thoughts whatever - just picked up unconcerned an' went home. An' when ah got home ah found my picture standing on it's head and the grand- mother said that he said that would bring me home. It must have some powder. [She is mistaken - standing on it's head is sufficient.] So I did go home.
(Your son did this?)
Yes.
(Was the picture facing out or facing in to the wall?)
It was facing out.
Entry 34
It will drive them away but you can't make 'em stay, see. A spirit is something that you can't nevah drive away, but you kin silence him. You silence him^by the 23rd division of the Psalms of David - 37th division of the Psalms of David, the 108th division of the Psalms of David - will silence a traveling spirit - that's the spirit that comes in and goes out and each time when he comes in, he brings from one to seven more. Now, that's how come so many people become restless and dissatis- fied - is because of evil spirits transforming 'em, back and forth. Every time you breath you are breathing in and out some kind of a spirit. Well then, at night you will begin to worry about his moving around. In other words you kin take holy water and sprinkle it at chure door - up ovah your door and on each side of it, and read de 23rd division of the Psalms of David, and you will silence them, you won't have any more trouble out of 'em. Holy water is very good. Holy water is good to sprinkle on a person who, we Would say, if they were very sick, or if they were afflicted some way, could sprinkle this holy water around. Dere's lots of times again we would say that evil spirits visit around - dis holy water keeps the evil spirit away because de holy water supposed to be blessed by holy spirits.
Entry 35
De woman kin take or either a man, ah guess - but chew kin take a dozen needles an' put 'em in watah an' let 'em stay in dere ten days an' give someone de water to drink off. Dey say it's a deadly poison - say it jes' de same as yo' drink a needle - feel like some pins is sticking yo' in de inside - somepin like, jes' like if a person wanted to put a spell of some kind on - yo'd have dat pain jes' lak yo'd swallowed some needles yo' know. It take effect on yo' dat-a-way. Whut dey would do to stop it ah don't know.
[Just as the person's essential qualities were in the bath water (see No. 29)
so also the essential qualities of the needle absorbed by a bath are transferred to a person drinking needle-water.]
Entry 36
Don't leave de daid sticks of a match in yore house, cuz it gives yo' bad luck.
(What do you do with them?)
Yo' burn 'em up in de fiah, burn 'em up.
(Why do they give you bad luck, have you any idea?)
Cuz dey ain't good tuh be in de house, dey same as de daid - dey's not live matches, dere daid matches.
Entry 37
[Talking to so-called inanimate objects is a common practice.]
Why, if yo' wanta make people come in a place, yo' jes' take de pot salt an' carry it all round de place an' talk to it, "Ah want chew tuh draw a crowd at mah place." Why, de nex' day or two yo' be successful - be a crowd at dat place.
Entry 38
[To catch a spirit or to protect your spirit against the catching or to release your caught spirit - this is the complete theory and practice of hoodoo.] Ah kin ketch yore spirit easy. A person kin - jes' lak yo' settin' dere an' ah kin be talkin' to yo'. Yo' talkin' tuh me an' I be walkin' back an' ah got a bottle. Ev'ry word chew says, I ease dat stopper down - ev'ry word yo' say until yo' git to de end, den yo' stop it down. Well, then yo' won't be sick but yo'll jes' be lak a bird flyin' - here an' yon - an' de moment dat yo' kin git to it an' pull de stopper yo'll be yoreself all de same.
(You have to walk backwards while you are pushing that cork down?)
Yes sir.
Entry 39
Oh, yes, dey take dat chamber lye and stop it up and call yo' name. After yo' answer dey stop dat chamber lye up and den dat'll stop you up. See, long as dat chamber lye is runnin', why yo' is gotta luck; but de time dat dey stop dat and call yo' dis way, dat's jes' like yore spirit. Well, dey ketch yore spirit and put it away with dat jug. Well, dat stop yo' bowels from moving altogether - you can't make no water. [This confusion between bowels and bladder is common.] No way in de world fer you to make water 'till dey take dat stopper out.
Entry 40
De spirit like - yo' kin ketch dere voice. Yo' kin ketch a person's voice - jes' lak if yo' in love wit someone an' somebody else is.after 'em an' yo' wants 'em - yo' call 'em. Yo' gits yo' a black soda watah bottle - it jes' be a dark brown beer bottle, an' yo put dat chamber lye in dat; put dey chamber lye, not yores, an' yo' call 'em. An' after yo' call 'em an' dey answer, yo stop it up an' yo' keep it on it's haid all de time. Ah don't care where dey is, yo' kin make 'em come to yo'.
(You keep this bottle on it's head all the time.)
An' when yo' git ready fo' 'em - jes' lak if dey out an' yo' want 'em tuh come on home, make haste, yo' jes' shake it an' call 'em - call dere name three time an' dey'll come to yo' five minutes after yo' do it.
Entry 41
Ah heard 'em say dey'd call yore spirit lak. Ah kin git chew an' ah takes yo' - yo' see, ah calls yore name. Well, ah draw yore pitchure an' yore pitchure would come tuh me. Yo' see, lak if ah take a pencil an' draw a man, den ah calls yore name an' yore good spirit will fall on me. Den ah must ketch yore spirit an' stop 'em up.
(How are you going to stop it - in what?)
In a bottle.
(When you call their name?)
An' ah blows mah breath in dere an' stop it up.
(That catches my spirit?)
Yes.
Entry 42
Yo' mean gains influence wit anybody? Well, yo' could take an' wash yore hands [and] yo' could put it in whiskey or put it in water - or blow yore breath in a glass three times an' give them that glass to drink water out of; jest blow yore breath in that glass three times an' talk to dem.
(What will that do then?)
Gains influence -.dey'd have mo' care tuhwards yo', they'd do anything yo' say do. They couldn't he'p deyself.
Entry 43
A woman right here in Beaufort Street, she got holt of a man's foot track and took it and while it was hard, you know, and put it in a bottle and took it in her house and put it right in front of her door - wrapped it up in a silk cloth and put it in front of her door and used it as a door stop, and as long as dat was dere why he would come back. When she moved she didn't take that with her and de [other] people moved in that house. Long as dis bag was dere he kept coming back looking fer her. He always was coming back looking fer her and de people would tell him that she didn't live there any more - kept coming back - coming back.
Entry 44
(Do you know how they do that - catching a person's spirit?)
Well, yo' takes nine peas an' yo' put these peas in a bottle of hearts cologne an' yo' take it an' yo' ketch his shadah [shadow] - his shadah is his spirit, chew know. An' yo' take that an' yo' ketch that an' yo' put nine peas in a cologne bottle - hearts cologne bottle. Yo' Jes' watch 'im dere as he go along, yo' see, yo' jes' stop it up tight - yo' ketch his speech when he speak, yo' take advantage of it an stop that up tight.
(Well how do you get that shadow into the bottle?)
Well, jes' lak a person walkin' 'long - walkin' 'long lak dis an' yo' may walk up to him, anyway - yo' jes' unstop de bottle lak dat an' his shadah go in dere. Dat hearts cologne an' dat peas will draw it in dere.
(Then you stop it up quickly? That's got his spirit?)
Yeah, yo' got his spirit.
(And then after you got his spirit in that bottle, what happens?)
Well, yo' kin do anything wit it dat yo' want - anything - yo' jes' got his spirit den. Yo' got his spirit there - yo' could use 'em most any way.
Entry 45
Yo' calls a spirit. Now, ah'll go an' put a table out in de middle of de hall - in de middle of the floor and ah'll sit there and rap three times and call a spirit and dey'll come and talk with yuh. And de table will walk - de table will walk.
Entry 46
Quite a while ago a friend of mines - dey don't know whether he got killed or don't know whether he died, because when dey held de inquest fo' him, dey didn't find no spot of where he was killed or either shot. De doctors 'xamined pretty good. Now, dat right chere in Waycross heah about three or foah years ago. But in examining him - yo' know, dey tells me dat a person kin be daid, dey kin be stiff, an' after being stiff - like if dey found a person dead an' dey being stiff, well de undertakers can't git him in dat casket until he's properly stretched out, but dey tells me dat chew kin jest walk up an' jest call dis person - a natural person, an' he limbers himself.
Entry 47
I worked at College Park, Maryland, and when I would leave the quarters and pass by the hothouse, every time that I passed by this hothouse I would have a peculiar feeling, and when I got by this hothouse this peculiar feeling would leave. It impressed my mind that it surely was ghosts or something creeping around.
Entry 48
They tell me you can feel them. You feel creepy your- self; feel like something creeping up on you and going to grab you. You get awful restless. They say - a spirit is creeping up on you.
Entry 49
" If you are walking along de road an' you leave [pass by] a hot steam, they say that ghosts is travelin' by yo'.
Entry 50
In country places in the wintertime you can pass a warm stream going over your shoulder and all up and down your face. You're kinda like where they was over a stove right out of doors. There's something funny about that. But olden people said it was a spirit that you met. I've passed them many a time in my time. I've been awful frighten because I hearn the olden people speak about them so much. I thought they could harm me. I used to tell my mother about it. She said, "There's no harm in them. Don't be afeard."
Entry 51
They say you can feel a peculiar feeling. Sometimes a flash comes over you. Your hair seems to stand on your head. I felt it myself. People say then you are passing a ghost. They are near you. That's why these hot breezes meet you. I have been driving, my husband has been driving, when we passed those hot breezes. The horses stand almost up in the harnesses, they get so frightened, and dash to one side of the road. I have witnessed that. And the olden people told us that, that it was a ghost.
Entry 52
If spirits are around you light a candle with insent [incense]. After awhile everything will be light and nice. And as long as they are around every- thing is heavy and luggy and you think something is going to happen every minute.
[This refers to a headache caused by spirits.]
Entry 53
I was home in the yard one evening just about dusk and I happened to see an old lady coming up to the house. I run in the house and told mama I seen aunt Jozrah. Mama said, "If you don't stop coming in here and telling me about you seeing spirits, I'm going to whip you." My father said, "Don't whip her. You know she was born with these spirits." They tell me when I was born there was a cord [caul] around my face, it went under my nose and caught over my head and against my eyes. So this Saturday night papa went to town. Mama never did believe that I seen them. So that night [the second time she saw aunt Jozrah] my two brothers and myself was out in the yar d playing. The moon was just rising and so when I looked down the lane I saw aunt Jozrah coming up the lane. I said, "Lord, Harry and Jim, here comes aunt Jozrah." So we ran in the house all of us. Mama said, "What you see?" And I said, "Aunt Jozrah." And she said, "You don't see her." And I said, "Yessum, I do. You come to the door mama and you will see her." So mama came to the door and when she got to the door she seen her too. So mama fastened the door and put the bar across it so she couldn't get in there. Whether she came in we don't know.
Entry 54
I know that when my grandmother died they say that she came back. The reason for her coming back was that she wanted to see her youngest son. At the time of her death he was in France [World War I]. Of course he wasn't able to get home before she died. I had an aunt, Elizabeth, she was born with a veil over her eyes. It happened that she was the only one who could see my grand- mother. When she would go in a certain room she would see her mother standing up there as if she Was looking for someone. So my mother got some holy water from the church - we are Roman Catholics. She sprinkled this water around, especially in the room where my aunt had seen my grandmother. And they say they didn't see her any more.
Entry 55
I know people that have what they call a caul over their eyes. They can set right down with you and they can see things you can't see. People tell you that the air is full of spirits and with that caul on your eye you can see things.
Entry 56
If yo' evah had a child be bo'ned veiled - yo' know, yo' heard of 'em being veiled. Well, yo' take dat veil an' don' nevah throw it off; always take it off farwards, don't take it off backwards. Sometimes - now ah have two tuh be bo'ned wit dat - two twins. It takes de luck away from 'em to take 'em off this way, jes' [demonstrates].
(Over their heads - forward.)
Jes' lak yo' take yore dress off dis-a-way. An' den yo' take those veils - yo' have tuh keep 'em. Sew 'em up in somepin where dey'll keep 'em, yo' know. Co'se, yo' may have tuh resew 'em or else dey supposed tuh be split heah, an' put in dere an' sew it up. Yo' see [why] some people be so lucky an' so successful.
Entry 57
Yo' take a pitcher - dis wus gived to me in a vision - yo' take pennies, an' ah tried it to see whether or not it wus true. Yo' set it in de east corner of yore house, a half a pitcher of watah. An' ev'ry day yo' drop a penny in dere. See, dat's plantin' 'em. An' if yo' drop one in dere, yo' goin' git anothah one de next day, some way - if yo' don't know where yo goin' git it, yo' git it. An' ev'ry time yo' drop a penny in dat pitcher yo' say somepin good ovah it, jes' lak a Bible verse or somepin - whatevah come to yo', an' yo' jot dat down so yo' kin remember, yo' see. An' dat works out all right. It's diff'rent things yo' should say ovah 'em an' dey always come out - diff'rent things come true. Dat's called plantin' pennies.
(How long do you keep that up?)
Jes' as long as yo' evah want success to yore house or to yore business or to whatevah yo' doin'. See, try not tuh take 'em out till yo' git ready to start tuh plantin' some mo'. Don't take 'em out an' jes' leave de pitcher empty. Look lak yo' don't do so good if yo' move 'em.
Entry 58
I wouldn't want to speak ill of the dead, for I think they know what you are saying. My reason is, they can come back and give so many Warnings. These Warnings come mostly in your sleep. I have heard something about a man that was buried. This man kept on coming back to his family and asking them in a dream to take him up out of that grave, so finally they went and took him up, and the coffin was in water. They took him up and put him in a dry place, and they never saw him again.
Entry 59
I have tried to see my father's spirit ever since he died. I tried to draw him to me but I have never been able to do it. I'll tell you what I have seen. Sometimes I go to bed and I am warned in a dream - of any man or woman who is about to approach - by my father. However, I never hear his voice, but I see him in this dream.
Entry 60
Yo' dress that bed - specialiy when yore dead people come to yo' an' start to tell you somepin an' yo' wake befo' they tell you. Yo' take two matches an' cross them like that - stick a needle through it and lay it underneat' chure pillah with de point turned down, an' they'll come back an' finish tellin' you what he was tellin' you.
Entry 61
Fer protection from a root doctor - yo' already got dat, ain't cha? Dey cain't do nuthin', ah'm telling yo' now, if you keep it on; but chew gotta keep it on yo'. After ah got hurt, ah learnt - see, it come to me through de spirits to do it. You take yo' - dey kin put down anything dey wanta and you kin walk over it and it won't hurt see. You go to de drug store and git chew a nickel's worth of saltpeter and a nickel worth of bluestone and you take them two things. Don't put all it together. Take jest a little pinch of it, take it on a knife, and every time you pick it up say, "In de Name of de Father, Name of de Son, Name of de Holy Ghost."
(Each time you take a pinch on a knife, you say that.)
A pinch on a knife, say it on each one. All right, yo' take yo' some sulphur, take three pinches of that, "In the Name of the Father, Name of the Son, Name of the Holy Ghost." All right, that's three of 'em together - that's sulphur, blue- stone and saltpeter. All right, yo' take dat table salt de same way - you take dat sugar de same way. And then jest take and break yo' three match haids off and name dem de same way, "In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Sew it up in a little rag, jest a little small thing, and tie it around yore waist [this is a hand] and you kin step over anything, dey can't do nuthin' - dey kin touch chew but dey ain't goin' do nuthin' to yo', dey ain't goin' do nuthin'.
Entry 62
I wus livin' with a woman once on Mulberry Street an' this woman claimed that she could - we had a little fuss - she claimed that she could have me kilt. So she goes down on the Eastern Shore [that part of Maryland east of Chesapeake Bay] to see Mr. Bayhan' - he wus a man dey call Mr. Bayhan' [white man] - gon'a have me shot wit' a ball. He's gon'a shoot me through de ball an' I wus to be dead inside of twenty-four hours. She paid him $35. An' then he give her some stuff to come home to sprinkle all through the house. She start at de back doah an' sprinkle to the dining room doah an' starts from the dining room doah an' sprinkle upstairs - sprinkle de whole house ovah. An' he give her somepin to put under de runner where I walked when I come in de front doah - where dat I would walk over this, this would trick me. So, I worked [nights] to the steel plant, an' I came home [very early] one mornin'. She's asleep. Jis' as I opened the front doah, I start to steppin', somepin says, "Raise de runner up - jis' that way, jis' the same as if somebody wus speakin' to me. An' I thought it wus her. I says, "Frances! Frances!" No one answered. Well, I come up to a standstill. I stop [at] de doah an' looked. After awhile I started to take another one [step]. It says, "Raise de runner up. Well, then I kin'a got uneasy, you know. Then I called 'er an' called 'er, but I couldn't git no answer. Well, I say, "Well, I don't believe I'll raise it myself. I'll go across over de street," I says, "I'll git this man up" - the man across the street kept a little resturrant. So I went across de street an' got him to come over with me. I says, "Do you wan'a raise that runner for me?" I says, "cuz there's somepin told me twice to raise that runner up," I says, "an' I think my wife, '' I says, "must be asleep - I called 'er an' she didn't answer." So he said, "I'll raise it up. So he raise the runner up. It wus a black stockin', about that long, across underneath de runner. It wus a ten-cent piece in the center, an' two brass tacks in the toes an' two brass tacks in the end [the topl of it. He looked at me an' said, "Oh!" he said, "I ain't gon'a put my hands on it." I say, "Well," I say, "they say the grace of God is sufficient for all things. It can't hurt me." I says, "I'm gon'a pick it up, but I'm not gon'a pick the stockin' up, but I'm gon'a git de ten-cent piece up." So I reached over an' took my penknife [steel = protection] an' picked the ten-cent piece up an' dropped it in my pocket. I goes back in the house, I walks up an' I walks aroun' the runner, an' gits a fahk [fork]. I takes de end of the fahk an' folds it [stocking] up, [beginning at] de toe end, an' keeps rollin' it up. An' when I got it [rolled] up, you see, then I picked it up on de fahk an' carried it through in de kitchen, an' drops it in de stove an' put salt on it, touch a match to it an' starts it to burnin'. So when it starts to burnin', I goes to call her. I says, "Frances!" She says, "LET ME ALoNE!" I says, "Whut's wrong?" She says, "You's done concern with somepin that don't concern you." She says, "Mr. Bayhan' will get even wit you." Well, if ever I'd walk over it - well, she would git [hear] de shot from it, choo know. Well, [then] I got [would get] the dose. See, as soon as I touched it, why I guess it roused her up, you know. You see? (As soon as you walked over that stocking, that was to shoot the gun off down there where he was?) Yes, sure. That would kill me, you see.
(What kind of a gun did he have?)
He had some kin'a glass, suppose to shoot you through the glass with the gun. That wus suppose to kill me in twenty-four hours. But the Lord's grace is suffi- cient for all things. De spirit put me wise to it befo' I got to it. [Baltimore, Md., (157), 148:1.] [The amazing thing about this story, despite the protective fork, is a man risking his life for a ten-cent piece!]
Entry 63
Now, about two years ago [1934], up here to my place [farm near Hampton, Virginia], an automobile driv [drove] in with five men into it and I knew them every one. They driv through my yard and went out and never did come back. When I got after them [later] they disowned it. It was their evil spirits, and they were just as natural, and they were trying to do me out of my place.
Entry 64
They used to say, when you met a spirit and they knew who it was, they didn't say anything to them. When you got home where this party lives at, they are there. They say, "That was their spirit I met then." They say, "Have you been away from home tonight?" "I haven't been away. Why do you ask?" 'Oh well, I didn't know whether you were out tonight or not."
The informant reports an encounter and quoted identification; the person in the account says they had not been away from home.
Entry 65
I have seen men's spirits, living spirits. I went to visit an old woman one night and I stayed until about ten o'clock. When I was going home a man was standing on the street. I knowed it was the man's spirit and when I got over a little drain of water and looked back he was gone. I knowed that was a spirit - the man was living, he wasn't dead, he isn't dead yet.
Entry 66
I have heard mv great-aunt say that she was driving along a dark road once with her daughter. While driving along she struck a match to light her pipe. When she drove a little farther a man stepped out of the woods Wearing a full dress suit, a high silk hat, and grabbed the horse by the bridle. And rear as the horse would, he would not let him go. After holding the horse for about three or four minutes he let the horse go. My great-aunt explained this fact by saying that it must have been her father who Was dead and he wanted to warn her that she must not strike a match on a dark road because some danger might take place because of her doing so.
Entry 67
There had been a burying of a person and some of the people, that was at the funeral that was at enmity with the dead person, on their way home they heard a russelling [rustlingl at the edge of the road. And when they turned to look, there was a man standing without a head. And they ran until they were out of breath. For the next few days the doctor had to attend them because they were frighten. And it was said by the people, that it was the spirit of that dead person after that man he was mad at.
Entry 68
Sometimes you see a woman with no head on. Sometimes she will be naked. That's a spirit. And she'll follow you around. And you say,"0, get behind me Satan," and she will vanish off.
Entry 69
I was a girl about seven years old and my mother had let me go to these people - their name was Kane - to rock the baby. And after this baby Went to sleep, her little sister and I went outdoors - it was in the summertime - to play. And the moon Was shining as bright as day. You could see from one end of the field and woods to the other. She [the other girl's mother] was in the kitchen making light bread. And all at once I look towards the barn and I said, "Oh, look Mary! What's coming?" And she turned around and looked and she said to me, 'Oh, Lucy! What is that?" I said, "I don't know." And at that time it was something looked like Jesus. He had a white robe throwed around Him and He wasn't touching the earth. He came from the sunrise and kept rising higher and higher and went to the sunset. Then we got frighten and run in the house and hollered. So the madam says, "What is the matter with you?" And we told her what we seen. And she said, "It is a story. You didn't see anything. It's just a lamp setting in the window." So next night we tried it again, and the next night we tried it again. And I have never seen it since.
Entry 70
I heard of a ghost coming in once - there was an old house - my mother tole me this. They was a family that owned the home and they couldn't rent it to anyone because people had gone there to live and wasn't able to stay on account of ghosts. The last family that had any trouble, when they went to stay there, the first night, a dog came in and walked around the room. They tried to chase him out and struck at him and he turned into a cat. And they struck at it again and it turned into a hand, a human hand. The next time they took a knife and cut at it and actually cut it then [drew blood] and then it disappeared and they never seen the ghost in the house evermore.
Entry 71
I can truly say for myself that I have seen a spirit. I was lying in bed one morning and turned over and looked toward the door and there stood: my father- in-law. I knew him well. I knew it was my husband's father. I said, "Merciful Father! Merciful! What does father Dempsy want?" I didn't get frightened at all. I said, "He has come for someone, I know." I never said anything at all to him, but when I kinda winked my eye I saw him go up - he melted away. I never saw no more of him after that. He looked just as he looked in life, only he was just white. I told my husband about it, oh, I guess about three days after that, and he said, "That's nothing strange to me. I'm with all of my dead ones most every night." He said, "That don't bother me at all." And three months after that my husband was taken seriously sick, and I said, "Now I know he will never get up from this attack he had. Seeing father Dempsy, I know he came to notify me that he was going to take him away." It worked out just as I had seen it would.
Entry 72
A man told me that you will see a spirit or a ghost as long as you look at it or seem interested in its presence. As soon as you look away or become indifferent, the spectre will vanish.
Entry 73
[My wife and I on my first hoodoo collecting trip stayed at the Atlantic Hotel, Ocean City, Maryland, where I interviewed a few members of the staff. One of these men, native to the locality, acted as my contact man. He told me the following story and later repeated it - as an example of what I wanted - toa second man recently up from North Carolina. What happens when an original story is repeated for the first time?] [Original story:] A man, who was drivihg around the country, had the habit of driving rather late at night. One evening between twelve and one he was on his Way home, and as he was driving along the road - it happened to be rather lonely along this particular road - he saw a woman standing there and she acted like one of these hitch-hikers. And she waved her hand and so he stopped. He asked her where she was going and she told him this particular place. He told her he would take her along. So this lady got in the car and there was one peculiar thing about it, she wanted to sit on the back seat. The man noticed that and that she seemed to be rather nervous. The main thing he couldn't understand was.why she wanted to sit in the back when there was plenty of room up in front. However, he told the lady to get into the car and he would take her to the place she wanted to go. So they drove along and he didn't say anything to her. Finally he arrived at this house that she had spoken of. So this man got out of the car and opened the back door of the car and looked inside and he didn't see anyone there. Naturally he became very upset. So he went to this house and rang the bell. A man came down. So he told the man what had happened and the man didn't seem to be at all disturbed about it. And he said, "That was my wife who died sometime ago and quite a number of motorists have been annoyed by having her get in the car and when they arrive at my house she is not there. In that particular place where you picked her up she had been in an accident and was killed there." [Ocean City, Md., (13), Ed. My notation reads, [happened] "Last winter, February 1936, between Washington and Baltimore near a place called Dead Man's Curve."]
[Repetition of original story:]
The death is reported in a participant's speech within the story, not independently verified.
Entry 74
I am just now thinking of the most wierd ghost story that I have heard in recent years. There was a man enroute from Washington to Baltimore and on the Way he overtook an old lady who was walking and carrying a basket. When he saw the old lady, the man stopped the car and asked the old lady her destination. She gave him a certain address in Baltimore. The man drove along with his pass- enger and just as he was reaching Baltimore he looked back and saw that there was no one on the rear seat. Where the old lady had been sitting there was nothing. The man of course was very astonished and wondered where the lady had disappeared because he had not stopped at all after he had stopped to pick the lady up. He hardly knew what to do. Finally, he decided to go to the address that the woman had given him to take her. When he reached the address the occupants of the house told him there was a woman who had once lived there by that name but that she had been dead three years. Of course the man did not explain what he had seen that day. [Ocean City, Md., (18), Ed.; supposed to have happened in 1932, four years earlier. The vanishing passenger or stranger who disappears suggests a folk theme.}
Entry 75
There was a fellow who was gambling. His name was Jacob Brown. A lot of people was gambling and this Jacob Brown made a terrible excitement by saying that if he would lost his last dollar, he would curse God and die. There was a tree that had been blown down and they all had this place where they were gambling right close to this tree. And after he had lost his last dollar he cursed God and he went to this tree to sit down. So he laid upon the log. And after laying there he could not be moved. And specta- tors went there to see him. And after viewing his body laying out on the tree, they pitied his condition and some tried to get him away, and they could in no ways move him. So one day three preachers went there to see what was the trouble and so they viewed the place and the man likewise; and they decided that they would cut this log [cut out the piece of tree upon which he was lying] in order that they could move the man away. And when they began to cut, the log began to bleed; so therefore, they couldn't move this man and so they left him. That man lived according to my understanding about two months and nobody could move him off of that log. [Old Point Comfort, Va., (27), Ed.; happened about 1906 in Georgia, so my informant says - actually, this immobility being a folk theme in many forms, see Arrestation in FACI,2ed., Pp. 817-18, etc.]
Entry 76
I know something about spirits getting thirsty and coming and drinking. If you leave a glass of water overnight, don't drink out of it next morning; for they say, when it sets all night, the spirits drinks out of it. Always pour that out and get fresh water for yourself so in order not to drink after the spirit. That's what olden people used to say.
Entry 77
[An excellent example of this belief will also be found in my interview Beer For St. Peter - Whiskey And Cigar For St. Anthony. Here we have a desperate situation demanding exceptional power and daring to make an unwilling man run away from a chain gang.] Now, ah show yuh. It's two miles from heah to de cemetery ovah beyond [Somebody's] Hill, an' a man tole a woman tuh go to de cemetery at first dark an' git some graveyard dust an' fetch it tuh him, an' her husband was in yonder fo' nine months out chere tuh de chain gang. An' he says, "Ah will have him released in ten days. Ah went wit Mag to de cemetery dat night - went round to de cemetery wit her but ah did not git ovah in de cemetery - an' she got de graveyard dust dere; tole her to go right to de head of de grave an' go down in dere about half a foot an' git it, yeah, down in below de ground. Mag come back [to where Informant was - outside the graveyard] an' me an' her come on back home to mah home where ah stayed. Ah says, "Well, Mag," I says, "did joo git chure dirt?" [Mag could not speak between her leaving and returning home; no one could enter the graveyard with her.] She said, "Yes." She showed it to me. She had it tied up in a hand'chief, Mag did - had de graveyard dust tie up in de hand'chief dere. An' ah says, "Well," ah says - dere's a fellah by de name of Ole Man Andrew, he was a hoodooer an' dat. She says, "Yo' tell Mr. Andrew ah'll see him in de mornin'." He was de hoodoo ah had rented de room from in de two-story buildin' where I had a room. Next mornin' Mag come ovah dere an' seen duh ole man Andrew, an' she give ole man Andrew, she did, de graveyard dust. Ole man Andrew tole 'em, says, "Ah'll use it jes' as ah wanta use it." He sent me den de next day after a quart of likker. Ah goes an' ah gits de quart of likker fo' him. He gives me de 75 cents - ah goes an' gits de quart of likker. He says tuh me, he says, "Cal," he says, "now, ah want chew to keep dis kin'a secret" - says, "ah'm gotta fellah tuh run away from de chain gang an' go to his wife to Hastings [?] an' git her an' go to Florida in eight or ten days. Yeah. An' sure 'nuff dis boy come away from de chain gang tuh mah house [his room in the doctor's house] that night. When he was in there, he took the graveyard dust an' put whiskey on it an' put it in a bottle, yeah. An' when Mag come de next mornin' he give it to Mag an' he tole Mag to take that graveyard dust an' in dat whiskey whut he shook up an' use it round her bed an' out in her back yard. Yeah. An' she said dat she done it - she tole me dat she was gon'a do it.
(What will that do then?)
Dat 'fects dat fellah - dat made dat fellah git away from de convict camp. He come to my place, de first time when he broke out - he come to mah place an' den went on up heah to Fairfax an' him an' Mag went tuh Florida, ah know dat much, an' his time wasn't near up. [The bottle and contents is a hand, the whiskey is the spirit's payment for Work to be done, the giving of liquor is called feeding, and the shaking is to activate and incite the drunken spirit. My transcriber heard the doctor's name as Ander or Anders; I as Andrew or Andrews.]
Entry 78
[An alcohol-loving spirit or the alcohol spirit itself has no scruples about assisting with a drinking spell.] Well, it's a lady doesn't stay so far from me. It was a lady liked her hus- band an' she couldn't git him because her husband loved her more than he did her. So she framed up a way to git him away from her. So she goes an' gits some liquor an' she tells dis lady, say, "Come ovah tuh mah house an' have a drink." Co'se dis lady went ovah there an' she had somepin put in there, an' that has been about two - two an' a half years ago. An' so ever since that lady took that drink she got to de place she jest can't stop drinking - drinking - drinking. Wherever she goes [to a doctor], they all tells her that it's a drinking spell's been put on her tuh make her stay drunk to make her husband leave her. An' so she says, "Well, ah kinda thought that be- cause ah knows that ah can't stop drinking - jest drink all de time" - so she asked him [a doctor], say, "Whut kin ah do to stop me from drinking?"
Entry 79
[There is more than one way to cast a drinking spell.]
But ah do know dis fo' a true fact. Yo' kin take a person's photograph - if he nevah drinked a drop of whiskey befo' in his life - an' turn it down ovah a little small glass of whiskey, somepin like a wineglass, an' let it stay there until de whiskey fade dat photograph, an' dat person will drink hisself to death.
(This whiskey must touch the photograph - you must put it right over there?)
No sir - not touch it.
(Just so the fumes will come up?)
Yes sir.
Entry 80
I know a lady at home had a husband who would drink a lots - he stayed drunk all the time. Someone told her if she went out to the graveyard and got some dirt off of a drunkard's grave and sprinkled it in some of his food, that that would cure him. And afterwards she did. It didn't exactly cure him, but it kind of stopped it.
Entry 81
Years ago in the days of my grandmother - my grandmother died before freedom was declared. I never saw her. I only heard her story from my mother. They built their houses out of logs. There was just a front door. They had nothing on the floor but the dirt. The logs were laid close together on top of each other to form the walls. They didn't even have shingles then. The logs were hewed on each side and laid close together for the roof so the water would run off. Then they made little beds in each corner, like a shelf, near the ground. We would call them bunks. In one corner they would have for a table. The chimney Was in the back of the house opposite the door. They had no windows. They [the chimneys] were made of clay. The clay was mixed up, pine straw put in it to make it stick. Just daub it. And they made the chimney like a pen with small sticks, two rows going this way and one in the back, and this [the fourth or front side] was left open. That was the fireplace. When they got up a cer- tain distance [above the fireplace opening left in the form] it was a pen with four corners. They made it as high as the house was. They filled it [the double walls of the pen] with clay and straw. In the fireplace was a iron oven and an iron pot. They had something in the middle of the fireplace [crane] they hung the pot on, with the fire under it. The oven had a iron door. The ovens were iron and made flat. They put bread in there and bake it, and potatoes. This house whenever it was completed they killed a calf. If they had sheep, they would kill a little lamb to let the blood go wherever it was killed, let the earth drink it up. This lamb was barbecued in front of the door. All of their friends and neighbors would come and have a feast there. They did that entering a new family to the house. They kill it right near the house. The blood wastes on the ground, the ground drinks it up, near the house they were dedicating to the family. Now that I have been reading the Bible, I can see that the olden people were taking that from the Bible. It was on the lines of the Bible but they didn't understand it as they do today. The Israelites were told to kill a certain lamb and put it on their door faces. The olden people were just doing it in their way the best they could. In our neighborhood [Orangeburg County, South Carolina] in erecting a home, building a new house to live in, you always are supposed in one of the front pillows [pillars] of the house to fold the Holy Bible, wrap it carefully in oil cloth, that will protect it, put it in a stiff pasteboard, and lay it in the holler [hollow] of the front pillow of the house. This is supposed to be a pro- tection sent from God on your home. And you are supposed to live happily there. This is one of the customs.
Entry 82
This happened in 1917 in the City of Petersburg, Virginia, on Whych [?] Street in a section of the town called Glanville [?]. I was in the custom of coming home each night - after finishing work - and getting to a particular corner and waiting on a friend of mine. Then we would both proceed on until we got to Clutchfields Laundry. That's where another friend worked. Then the three of us would proceed on home together. This boy that worked at Clutchfields was killed in an automobile wreck. Several months after, on a rainy night we were coming home and we heard footfalls. They were following us. We looked and could not see anything. Then we thought the reflection on the street lamps hid the person from our view. So we stopped and tried to look under the glare of the light to see if we could not see what it was that was following us. We didn't see anything. We walked a little further and we stopped again. As we stopped the footfalls stopped. We walked about three more blocks and these footfalls continued. They followed us until they got to where this boy always used to turn. From there we didn't hear it any more. So I spoke of this when I got home to an old man, a man that had fought in the Civil War, and he said that's something people hear anytime. That there's a crater that's on the right hand side of Whych Street and there were many soldiers killed in there. People see things and hear things most any time of night.
Entry 83
I went to Pittsburgh from Staunton, Virginia, and my husband had rented me a house there. So one night while I was setting there sewing, I was very much disturbed about my children, so I sent the girl I had living with me upstairs to look after them. She came down and said, "Mrs. Baker, what is the matter with you?" She said, "The children is all right." So after awhile in about ten or fifteen minutes I heard someone put the key in the door and unlock it. But no one had a key but my husband. So I heard the tips [tiptoes] going up the steps - you could hear the steps cracking. So I said to Mr. Davis and Mr. Walker, they were boarding with me, "Do you hear that?" And they said, "Yes." And Mr. Davis said, "That ain't nobody but Bummie" - that's what they called my husband. And I say, "Oh, he would not do that." So we got up and we went upstairs to look and see what was going on. Well, I didn't see anything. I didn't hear anything up there. I said to Mr. Davis and Mr. Walker, 'I guess that's a token of the man who lives on the third floor, for his wife." She had gone to the hospital. In the meantime then I had forgot my own people. And in a week's time my husband was sick and died. And I never believe anything that that was a token of his death.
Entry 84
Ah knowed a lady one time, her son he got killed on de railroad out here and nobody knowed how he got killed, and she always believe dat a fellah dat he had put in jail one time did it - see, had pushed him in front of de train. So she would go out to some grave ev'ry night and git at de head of dis grave and dig a hole right at de head of dis grave and put her hands down in dere and she would give all kind of prayers - prayers fer him to come back alive and haunt dis man. Well, it's a man he was night watchman out here at de railroad yard himself. Well, one night, he would sleep like, he would jest seem to go to sleep on de switch all de time and nearly wreck de trains all de time. See. And he never did befo', but nights she wouldn't go out dere, like nights when it rained, he Would be all right. But ev'ry night she'd go out dere, he would always have some kind of accident happening to him. So one night she was there and he was walking down de railroad yard and she was out at de graveyard. People says she was out dere, dey'd seen her out dere, for she lives right cross from it, out heah on Union Street. And they said that he was walking down de railroad yard when he had stepped in a hole, a big deep hole, and he kept fallin' and kept fallin' and nevah seen him no more. But dey always said when de walked through dat yard on a dry night dey always could hear him hollering dey really could hear him hollering nights like that.
(He actually disappeared right there?)
He disappeared - dey found his lattren [lantern] an' all by a hole dere. De people dey tried to fill dat hole up but dey never could fill dat hole up. [Here is the bottomless pit of Revelation (King James Version), 9:11, 11:7, 17:8, 20:1&3.]
Entry 85
This woman lived on the same street I lived on. Her husband was sick and dying, and he told her, he said, "When I cross Jordan River I am going to let you know." And she asked him how she was to know. And he said his whole frame was going to shake when he was crossing. And when he died, he was dead about one-half hour, and just shook so hard until the bed shook with him. [New York City, (1), by hand; about i910 in Wilmington, N. Car.]
Entry 86
There was a whipping post at the Bloody Angle before the [Civil] War. Slaves were sometimes whipped to death there and they would come back singing. It was about a mile from Spotsylvania Court House. [Informant, thirteen years old when Civil War began, was born in what became the Bloody Angle during battles of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864; battle at Bloody Angle, May 12.]
Entry 87
I'il tell you this one, it's an actual fact. A family of people that had two boys, they were poor people it's true, and the city in which they lived you could sell most anything to the junk dealer - rags, bones, iron, tin, glass bottles and the silver paper in cigarette packages. This boy had a habit of picking up bones. Where he went to get his bones was an old burying-ground that had went down and he did not know it. Everybody thought that when they changed this burying-ground they removed all the bodies but it wasn't so. So one night this boy had been out collecting bones and he had it in a crocus bag - that's the same as a potato bag [gunny bag or sack] - and he wanted to hide them, so he put them under his mother's bed. Around about midnight his mother and father heard a moaning and groaning all over the house. They couldn't locate it. They came back in their room and it was still moaning. So they looked under the bed and there was this bag. They pulled it out and the father shook the bones out on the floor and they were still moaning. That's the way he recognized them as human bones. So he woke his son up and made him take those bones out that time of the night. The next morning he asked him where did he get them from. He showed him. He tole him from now on don't never bring a bone from here near the house for this used to be a burying-ground.
Entry 88
I heard of a woman, she wanted people to move out de house next do' to 'er, cuz dey always kep' too much noise. She used to at night git up an'.go out to de graveyard an' come back with dis yere graveyard dust dat ah tole yo' befo'. She used to take it an' take an' sling it all up against de windahs on de porch an' dat would bring such a damp an' musty oder into de house until it made all dose people re'l sickly feelin' all de time. De always wus hearin' a lota screams an' noises in de house until dey had to move out.
Entry 89
When I was a little boy [in 1860] I was praying an old-fashioned prayer the colored people used to pray. They went to the graveyard to get their souls converted. I went and prayed on a man's grave that was buried that day and I heard him moving and knocking on the coffin. I never paid no attention. [The knocking or beating on the coffin, once a common expression, survived in a few love divinations also about extinct - see FACI, 2ed., p.391. For praying in the graveyard and conversion, see my experience at Tyree Church in Introduction.]
Entry 90
My mother died and I didn't like to stay with strangers and I went to this lady's house to work. And while I was getting supper one night, this noise, something fell very hard upstairs and jarred the house so, that Mrs. J. and her mother, her sister-in-law and a fellow by the name of Ed and myself, all armed and went up, thinking because there were valuable things ir the house, that someone had broke in, but there wasn't a thing could be seen on the floor anywhere. Lots of times when I used to go up tc make this young man's bed I had to pass a room they called the Red Room. Every- thing in there was red, partly red. Every time I got against this door, thie dooı would open. But I didn't see no one come out. And I was afraid to go down\be- cause I would have to call some of them down there to see me down the steps. Anc many many times they used to see soldiers marching across the garden. And that house Was supposed to be han'ted. They used it for a hospital in the time of the [Civil] War. That's about five miles from Brandy Station [Culpeper Co., Va.].
Entry 91
If your door opens and shuts, some of your [dead] relatives are passing through the house.
The source brackets dead as an editorial insertion; it remains separate from the unbracketed conditional belief.
Entry 92
If you leave the house and lock the door and go away and come back and find it open, after awhile you'll wonder, "What's the matter? I'm sure I locked that door. Every time I come back the door is open." You get it in your mind somebody has died here and they didn't want anyone to come back in here to live. It wants it to remain just as they left it. Their family has got out and they feel the house should stay empty.
Entry 93
On the Old Dominion Lines a boy, a room steward, stopped a passenger and told him to go forward, for what reason I don't know and the captain met him on the starboard side and asked him what did he want. And the man that [was] told to go forward said he was looking for a room. The captain sent the boy back with the passenger and he went down to the second deck and opened the room, left the passenger outside, put the baggage in, locked the door and left the key in. The passenger stopped and was talking to someone right near there. When he went to the door the door was locked and the key gone. They never did find that key. They accused the boy of taking it. They sent for the chief engineer to open the door. When they opened the door the baggage was scattered all over the room and the beds unmade and everything upside down. And everything Was all right when the boy left the room. Here's what the boys thought about it. That was the Jamestown under Captain Tapley. She got into a big storm and around Boston Light, before they got to Boston, this Was several trips before this [the present story} happened, and they lost two passengers and they were in this room. And they thought the ghost of those people done it.
Entry 94
If yo' kill a man - he's lookin' yo' in yore eyes an' yo' kill 'im - an' he lookin' at yo' an' dey come back, yore picture will be in his eyes an' dey kin tell who done de deed.
Entry 95
(About those eyes?) I made a mistake - I said a nickel, I wanted to say a silver dime. Like it be - you'd kill a man and you'd start on off. Somebody done get to him and take and roll his eyes back and put a silver dime on each one of his eyes - this man he cannot get out of existence. He'll try, but he'll get caught before he can get away.
(Well, who - oh, they put these dimes over the dead man's eves.)
Over the dead man's eyes. [New Orleans, La., (866), 1404:1.}