Browse:SPIRITS (Volume 1, entries 16–544)/Part 3
SPIRITS
Volume 1, entries 16–544. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 176
Said dat wus de devil, dat whirlwind dat wus de devil. An' den ah mind some say dat dere wus money buried close round dere. [After informant departs, I comment:] (This fellow who was just in here wanted me to get his wife back for him!)
Entry 177
De devil - dey say yo' kin jump in an' open yore pocketknife an' yo' see de devil. Ah've nevah seen anything to it mahself.
(That's this whirlwind.)
Entry 178
Take an' stick a pitchfo'k in it an' yo'll see de devil.
(In the whirlwind.)
Yeah - ah've heard that.
The interviewer supplies whirlwind as the referent; the informant acknowledges the account as something heard.
Entry 179
If yo' take a needle, an' during de time when it's thunderin' if yo' take de needle an' go out to de corner of de do'step an' take an' put it to yore ear, now dey tell me yo' [will] heah de devil in hell when it would be thunderin' an' lightnin' jes' as sharp - yo' know de lightnin' [is] sharp. Den, if yo' take this heah needle an' put it to yore ear an' go to de corner of de do'step an' put yore ear down on de ground, say yo' listen dere, an' say yo' could heah de devil an' his imps in hell. Dat's all ah've evah heard about a needle. Ah heard that if yo' could lay down an' keep yore eyes open whilst de wind wus whirlin' - jes' git in it an' lay down an' keep yore eyes open - dat yo' could see de devil. Jes' git in it an' look up, an' when yo' look up yo'll see him.
(During this whirlwind.)
Entry 180
Dey said de whirlwind had de devil in it. An' dey tole me when ah wus little, say, yo' go to that whirlwind, an' git chew a pocket han'sckuff an' put it in nine knots, an' git in that whirlwind an' the devil will come an' talk with yo'.
Entry 181
Ah know dey say yo' could throw a brass pin in dere an' yo' see de devil - a lil' brass safety pin. Ah know yo' seen dese lil' yellow pins. (You throw it into the whirlwind and you'll see the devil.)
Entry 182
Dat de whirlwind dust goin' roun' an' roun'. Well, dey say dat's de devil showin' his power, whut he kin do. Sometime ah saw dem things when dere not a breath of air stirrin' - de devil wit de angry sinnahs.
(What is he doing with them?)
He whuppin' 'em - dat's de devil wit de angry sinnahs, not a bit'a air stirrin'. Had a ole fellah heah yeahs ago, tole us, said, "Boys, dat's de devil yo' see yonder. Yo' can't see him but yo' kin see de whirlwind. De devil havin' a time wit his imps" - de same thing ah'm talkin' 'bout, He says, "Dey tryin tuh do 'way wit him but dey can't do 'way wit him. He's wrestlin' wit 'em."
Entry 183
This was during the period of influenza [World War I]. It happened between two women, both colored women, very superstitious. One had an argument with the other. One not wanting to get in a heated argument started to walk away and she was feeling sick. That was the beginning of that influenza that was going around all over the country. And this woman overtook her and started to fight and she pulled her hair and almost stripped her and she gave her a good beating. This woman turned around and said, "All right, you may go, but I will get you. If I die I will come back and I will haunt you. I will get you. [This is another example of bad mouth.] So they parted. The one that started the fight, thinking that she had the better hand, went merrily home, while the other went sadly home feeling sick from the pains of the disease and having got a good beating. That went on about three weeks without saying anything between them. The one that was sick soon died. The woman that had beat her made fun of her death. Many a month passed and she didn't give a thought to what this woman had told her. One afternoon she started to the store to get some coal oil, and - this was in a rural district where they did not have electric lights. She passed the cem- etery where this woman's body had been laid. She had a little child with her, a child of five. The child noticed it. There was something over on the grave the shape of a goat. The child said, "Mother, look at the goat on Hanna's grave, '' for that was the dead woman's name. The mother exclaimed to the child, "Oh, come on, that isn't anything but the devil holding Hanna down." The child went reluc- tantly, passed the cemetery but hesitated [stopped] to look down before having gone too far that the cemetery might not be seen. They went to the store and purchased the oil and on the way back the child exclaimed again, "Mother, there's the same goat on Hanna's grave." The mother said, "Oh, come on, I told you." She gave her a quick jerk. As she gave her the jerk there arose a whirlwind that twisted around the two of them. As it twisted around them it seem to grow hotter and hotter until it had thrown her down. After having thrown her down it continued to whirl. carrving them both within its grype [grip]. It twisted and turned them until the woman seemed to be exhausted. Finally, she lost consciousness. The child was afraid to leave its mother because darkness had almost covered the earth. The child stayed there until a passerby inquired why the mother was on the ground. Then the child ex- plained the whole detail to the passenger. They took the mother and carried her home and went for the doctor. And I drove the doctor there to the home of this woman. The story was told to the doctor while I sat and listened and as we came away from there I wanted to know from the doctor did he think that was true. The doctor being a very intelligent man, I thought he would tell me nothing but the truth. So he said to me that it Was the most mysterious case he had ever attended. The woman seemed to be like scalding water had been poured over her skin. He doesn't know about [the truth of the] story because he wasn't there, but there was something mysterious about it. Several times I inquired from the doctor and he wouldn't discuss it very much because he didn't want me to think that he was superstitious, nor did he want me to think that he believed in spooks. Yet, I think that he believed very strongly in the story that this woman told,-that it was a true experience. That Was about 1919 near St. Petersburg, Fl6rida. The doctor was white.
Entry 184
This story happened about thirty-two years ago [1904] at a church near Greenville, South Carolina, where we pastored [the informant's husband was pastor of the church]. We were having night services. When I got to the church door, myself and another member of the church that had called on me at the parsonage that evening, they met me, the officers of the church, and asked me to go back to the parsonage and bring them another lamp. I said to the lady, you stay here, I will go back and get it. I went back, brought the lamp, we went in the church. After services we call all the Christians to come and kneel around the altar. When we went up, this particular sister that had come to visit me that evening, she knelt down just in front of myself. About the time she got settled down they commenced praying. We saw her begin to twitch around and to give away. People near her rose up, took hold of her, and they seemed to investigate. It seems that she had a partial stroke. They took her up, put her on a chair. Then the next thought was - the pastor said, "Lets get the doctor to her." Then her hus- band said, "No, lets take her to the doctor." They got her out, put her in a buggy, started to the doctor with her. My husband and her husband and two other men, when they got about twenty yards from church, there was a whirlwind right in front of them. And it crossed, went on the left side of the road, got in a tree and just wrung that tree, until, when they got by the tree, it was all they could do to get the horse by. My husband said that he was very frightened. But they went on to the doctor. When they got there the doctor said she had a partial stroke and to take her home at once. The home was two miles away. They carried her home. In an hour's time she could not walk. They sent back home for me. I went. About daylight I got there and she could not speak. In two hours after she took a very severe groaning and made such a noise. And the very wrestling, that they heard.on going to the doctor, was heard on the outside of the house. And she passed away in great agony.
Entry 185
"It's bad luck fo' a whirlwind to come anywheres nearby yore place of business - yo' know, make those rings lak that yo' know, fo' kinda lak a circus. Say it's bad luck.
(What do they say that whirlwind is?)
Ah heared - ah tell yo' de truth about it. Ah re'lly hear some people say - de knowledge of mah experience of dat. Ah heared people say dat if yo' take de vinegar an' throw it roun' yore place of business - sometime people kin do things lak dat; they come up an' be's, do's de devil work. Throwin' vinegar round yore place of business, dey say that [devil work] would nevah happen.
(What wouldn't happen?)
Dose whirlwinds comin' in a circus, yo' know, roun' a person place of business where dey - round in de yard where men about close roun' in de field. Jes' sprinkle vinegar roun' about two acres of yore place of business; after that it would nevah happen. Ah heard a lady tole me dat, but not as ah really think.
(They say if it came here, it would bring bad luck to what you are doing?)
Yessuh, because she said dat it was a man caused dat tuh come roun' her house one time. She said it come in - jes' lak a whirlwind; she couldn't see nuthin' but jes' a round wheel of dust. It would come, she say, sometime on three corners of de house, an' she say every time that would happen, her child would be sick, until she went to a man an' he said dat man had her place dressed, and told her that she must put vinegar aroun' about two acres of her place of business, an' carry some along with her. An' she say from that day until dis, she tole me - she say it happen about two yeahs befo' dis, den it nevah happen any mo'.
Entry 186
Well, dey say yo' ketch it when dat wind - jes' de whirlwind, if yo' kin git it. Git a papah an' ketch some of it when de wind is up in a whirl, an' take that an' mix it up with graveyard dirt an' lodestone an' sulphur - dere's somepin else yo' kin mix up wit it - an' plant it. An' jes' lak dat whirlwind go up, dat person will jes' continue tuh go dat-a-way - jes' drift till yo' nevah see 'em agin, jes' run 'em plumb crazy. Yo' plant it right in back of de do'step where dey do the most of they walkin' - dat's where yo' plant dat stuff.
Entry 187
If yo' go to de fo'ks of de road - jis' like if yo' mad at a person an' go to de fo'ks of de road - you have to wait to a whirlwind. You ever see a little whirlwind when yo' git to de road? Well, tha'd a time of de yeah when 'tis a certain day of de mont' dat dey have a little whirlwind. De wind will git a thing of dirt an' make a whirlwind [demonstrates] - jis' like dat, jis' like a whirlwind around like dat. Dey say dat's de day when [you] go dere, see. You git de dirt an' say you kin do anything you wan'a wit it. [Richmond, Va., (379), 320:1. This came from his grandmother - born Louisa Co., Va.,1836; died 1923.]
Entry 188
I have hear'd 'em say dey'll go at de graveyard an' stan' dere in de daytime. Whenevah a whirlwin' come by, it'll jis' circoolate roun' an' roun', an' whenevah any trash go up in dere, an' wheah dis whirlwin' stan' still at de longest, while it's out dere in de graveyard, dey'll go theah an' take de fingah down in de dirt, like dis heah [demonstrates], an' have it up an' say, "In de Name of de Fathah an' de Son an' de Holy Ghost." An' dey care it on den at de house. An' dey git 'em a silk rag an' git 'em some oak roots an' some sweet gum roots an' some black jack [oak] roots, an' tie 'em togethah; an' so evahwheah yo stay at, dey'll have 'em undah up de steps da' yo' be in an' out ovah. Dat will jis' run yo' min'less, dey say.
Entry 189
Dat's a wanderin' spirit. (The wandering spirit is that whirlwind. Do they ever do anything with that whirlwind?) No suh. But yo' kin ketch some of de dirt as it fly an' carry [hold] it ovah, an' if dere's any witches be riding, dat kin stop de witches from ridin' yo'.
(How would they do that?)
Dey'll give yo' somepin tuh put on yore bed.
(What will you do with that dirt?)
Carry it to de man - root man.
Entry 190
Dey study where de whirlwind stop at, mostly settle, so dey kin git some of de dust. See whut ah mean. Jes' de last whirl an' go way an' leave it, when wust part gone, see. It will go 'way an' it might have several places, yo' know, it leaves where de whirlwind's gone an' left off, dere be's a whirl. See. Well, if they kin git some of that an' make a wish with it, dat yo' kin do a lotta persons some damage with it. Git some parts of it. See whut ah mean. Dey does a lotta trouble wit dat.
Entry 191
Dey says if yo' could take, go an' git dat dust; says if yo' evah killed a man, said yo' could jes' git it - yo' have tuh reach in dere. Ah ain't nevah knowed nobody or seen nobody could do it, while de whirlwind's comin' by, tuh reach down in dere right quick an' git chew as much sand as yo' kin. Keep dat in yore watch pocket all de time an' if yo' evah happen tuh kill a man, or evah has killed a man, says yo' kin git away wit dat sand after yo' kill him.
(If this man has killed a man, he can get away and they can't catch him?)
Yeah, ah've heah dem say dat.
Entry 192
They used to say that there were yeahoos, something like to a bear, and we children were afeard to put our head out the door after night. And when I was a boy from twelve to thirteen years old, as soon as the sun were down, I was afeard to go out to the back part of the field after my sheep and lambs.
Entry 193
I have heard that student doctors used to roam the streets of our cities and would kidnap people that were found out late and unprotected, and especially so, if the person had any abnormality in which the student doctor was interested. I have also heard that there was a lady, who said that she was out late one night, and a student doctor stole her and carried her into the hospital and put her upon the table and cut her heel string. She Was slowly bleeding to death when her husband and other relatives came into the hospital with a policeman; they tracked them there and arrested the doctor and freed the woman. And after while because of medical treatment she be- came well again.
Entry 194
Years ago when I was a girl there used to be student doctors. They were allowed so many bodies a year, if they got them. After ten o'clock [at night] the girls couldn't go out or remain out, afraid the student doctors would catch them. All this I am talking about, now is called foggery [fogeyism].
Entry 195
One dark rainy night grandfather was going home on horseback. He had been to town. He lived out in the country. He had to cross a stream of water called a branch. If you were on foot, you walk across a plank; if on horseback, the horse walked through the water. When the horse got in the middle he sat down. Grandfather looked back. He saw a big black man with red eyes. Grandfather said a prayer and the thing jumped in the Water, made a terrible noise and disappeared. [New York City,
(1), by hand, Gaston, Co., N. Car.,1870 decade.]
Entry 196
[Many examples of the most powerful of spirits, the spirit of the dead, have been given. Very potent also are spirits dwelling at or called to where two or more roads meet.] De crossin' of de road is called cross-spirit [only use of this term], an' dey goes dere, if dey think dat yo' is doin' good or goin' at anything good - dis evil-minded somebody will go dere to cross yo'. Den dey has a certain thing dey put in dere. Dey dig a hole yo' know - jes' a ord'n'ry little hole an' drop it.
(What do they put in that hole?)
Dey tells me dat dey drops cayenne peppah - whut's dat othah thing - cayenne peppah an' sulphah an' garlic, yes. It's jes' a ord'n'ry hole dat chew dig wit chure fingah an' cover it ovah quick.
(What else do you do out there? What is that supposed to do?)
Den dey has some dis same wicked graveyard dirt [dirt from a wicked person's grave] wit 'em an' leave dat evil spirit dere tuh cross yo'.
reported small finger-dug crossroads hole. The recipe is introduced as Dey tells me; no firsthand ritual performance, efficacy or inferred shovel/depth. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Entry 197
I remember one time when I wus in Philadelphia. There wus a lady, her husband left her, she wanted to bring him back. So she got ready an' she went to this doctor. So she ast 'er, she said, "Could joo get my husband back?" She told 'er, "Yes." She said, "Whut way could joo get 'im back?" So she said, "I'll tell you wha' choo do." She said, "You get a black cloth, you make it up like you do a baby, an' you stick out one pin an' one needle in it - new needle an' new pin." An' she [the wife later] taken the needle an' she stuck it up one place, here [she demonstrates].
(In the head.)
I guess it must of been the eyes she makin' - an' [she half-pantomimes].
(The pin.)
Another place. [Many persons acted out everything they did.]
(For the other eye.)
She put it [the doll] right up over the doah [still demonstrating]. (So that it was held there by the needle and pin stuck through the eyes and into the plaster.) [Final result of my commenting.] I was in the house. I seen that mahself. An' she [the doctor] said, "Ev'ry time you come to this house [the wife's own]," she said that - "an' I'll pin it up here over the doar - an' ev'ry time you come in," [she] said, "before you speak to anybody," she said, "you cuss at it, an' that'll bring 'im back again an' make 'im stay with you." So, after that, another time, I seen her dress [prepare magically] a letter, this lady [the wife]. She dressed a letter for to send to him. An' when she dressed that letter she took an' went down there [the page] jes' like that with her fingernails - you know, went down jes' like that. Den she had somepin, ever' now an' then she dip her fingernails into this mess - it was jes' like perfume. She'd dip her fingernails into it, she'd make a straight line, she'd go straight on down [the page] for to make him start writin'. So they went on at dat an' went on at dat [using various devices to bring the man back]. So the next two weeks - I think it wus, yes - the moon wus shinin'. You see, this wus dark nights when this happened. So the next two weeks there would be a moon shinin' at night. So after that [in the light of the moon], she said to dis lady, she said, "When you came again," she said, "you bring me a piece of money, but let it be silver - a ten-cent piece, but don't bring it in two nickels." So when this woman [the wife] came [home] again she ast me to go with 'er, an' I went back with 'er. An' it wus some way out in de country, see. We taken de trolley [or streetcar] because we went a long ways. You know I'd heard tell of these things an' I wanted to see 'em. So when I went with 'er, she taken this money - she tied it up. It wus tied up in four corners - it was a handkerchief. She made it [the four corners of the handkerchief] in a cross like - like a baby. An' after she got way out de country, she taken an' threw it to the end of this road. The road was crossed up. She threw it to the end of the road [down the left prong which was crooked]. She threw it over her right shoulder an' said somepin three times. So I said to the lady, I said, "Whut did you do that for?" She said, "We got to pay off the evil spirits whut we git our work to act, So they'll do whut we want to do, see." So I imagine that's whut dey did that for. That's all I know about that. But anyhow I went with 'er. So after that, why she [the doctor] said to this woman, she says, "When this baby falls down off of the doah, '' she says, "in seven days after that, if not seven days then the ninth day," she says, "he'll come home." I didn't go back with 'er though after dat baby fell, but I went with 'er for to pay off, you know, dat concern to the ends of that road. I went with 'er den. So after that I ast the lady, I said, "Did your husband came?" She said, "Yes, he come back all right." I said, "Well, how he's treatin' you?" She said, "Fine, better than he did before."
Entry 198
It was tole to me that a woman took - stole another woman's door key and took it out to de forks of de road and buried it - buried dat key - sprinkle some dat - wrote dat woman's name five times on a piece of paper and sprinkled some salt and cayenne pepper - de pulverized cayenne pepper and dis heah hard ice- cream salt, but chew beat it up - not de fine table salt but ice-cream salt. An' taken dis salt and pepper and put it in dis paper wit dem names on it and put de woman's do' key in dat salt and pepper and rolled it up and jest cussed de woman; jest called her bad names and rolled it up tight and buried it right in de forks of de road. Well, de woman had to walk all on her feet for days, but still an' all de mo' dat key rusted in dat salt de worser de woman got. And when dat key rusted in dat, rust in two, dey tell me dat woman died. Yes sir, gotten rid of her.
Entry 199
Ah know one thing 'bout it - yo' kin go out tuh de fo'ks of de road if it's anything yo' wanta do to anyone, yo' kin go tuh de fo'ks of de road - or anything yo' wanta learn - yo' kin go tuh de fo'ks of de road an' sell yo'self to de devil of co'se. But yo' kin run a person off from dey home. Dey kin have evah sech a nice home but yo' could go tuh de fo'ks of de road an' git nine grain of sand, say, "Ah'm gittin' dis fo' puhtection fum yo' - ah want chew tuh puhtec' me." Git nine grains of sand, "Ah want chew tuh puhtec' me fum all things - ah want chew puhtec' me in mah home. Mah home is gotten bad an' ah want chew tuh puhtec' me in dis nine grains of sand." An' yo' take dem nine grain of sand an' git chew a brand new white pocket han'ke'chef an' tie dem nine grains of sand up in it. An' yo' kin go to dat fo'ks of de road fo' nine nights an' git nine grain of sand an' dat las' night yo' go an' git dat nine grains of sand, yo' kin bring it in de house an' put it up ovah yore do' an' if yo' want dat person tuh go out, dat person will go out an' dey won' nevah come in dere no mo'. Dat will do 'way wit dat person altuhgethah.
(That person who is bothering you - you do that for protection?)
Yes. [Sumter, S. Car., (1365), 2413:3.] [This subsection, in addition to animals as spirits, introduces that amazing animal, the doctor's or witch's assistant.]
Entry 200
If you say something to someone and they don't like it, they can see a hoodoo doctor and he has some kind of an animal. And while you are asleep, the animal will just roll all over you. If you try to wake up, you'll cough or sneeze or something, and that'll make you go back to sleep again. He'll just roll on you until you break out into a sweat he'll let you alone. [Here the doctor has taken over the hag's prerogatives with a difference. Since he himself is unable to go or prefers not to, he sends an assistant - an animal. For the great master of animal assistants, see margin-title Doctor Buzzard of Beaufort; for the hag, see subsection later.]
Entry 201
I heard an old gentlemen say once during slavery times his master got after him to whip him and he ran away in the woods and after he was in the woods his master couldn't catch him. So then they set bloodhounds after him and they couldn't do anything with him. He went in the woods and transformed himself into a bird and sit on a fence and saw his master and the people pass by. I heard these words from the lips of the man himself about fifty years ago [1886]. The old man was born in a place called Halifax, Virginia. [For Shape-changing among white persons - a witch becoming a cat, deer, dog, fly, horse, pig, rabbit, snake, etc. - see FACI,2ed., pp.820-829, Nos.16124- 16160; for Zooanthrophy And Possession, Pp.829-831, Nos.16161-16166; for Live Things In You, Pp.831-834, Nos.16167-16177; for Bewitched Animals, Pp.834-850, Nos.16176-16241.]
Entry 202
A woman had some trained birds that would go and pick up a person's hair and bring it to her so she could dress it. The hair was put in a tree and the woman died.
Entry 203
I had a sister-in-law was fixed. It wusn't put down for 'er, it wus put down for 'er husband behind de chimley.
[Usually the fixed article hurts only the person for whom it is fixed.]
(What was put down?)
Dey said dey'd digged up a hole; it turn out [it was] somepin looked lak a root or somepin in a bottle or somepin. She'd [she would be] de firs' one to get up [in the morning] when she went out to do round in chimley cornah, you know, lak de country folks do [who are without toilets], why she step ovah it [the buried root] an' aftah dat her leg begin painin' 'er an' she went to de doctor. Dey thought at firs' it wus de rheumatism but it wusn't de rheumatism. She went to de [medical] doctor - I went wit 'er. I wus livin' not fah from 'er. Dat wus in 1917, dat wus de same year I get married. [The doctor as usual failed to help a hoodooed person.] An' dey tell 'er to get a root doctor an' den dey tell 'er - said she took real sick an' cared 'er dere [to the root doctor] in 'er Wagon - it wus about thirteen miles. An' so she come back [home]. Dey [root doctor] tellen 'er dat it will turn [happen] a buzzard will come and swum ovah 'er house. De [root doctor] tole 'em de nex' day - tell 'em de buzzard [next day] will swum ovah de house. [Root doctor] tell 'er she wus [will] commence to get frighten, but she mustn't get frighten. (When they went to the root doctor, the root doctor said that next day a buzzard would fly over the house?) Yes sir. An' it sure nuff it did. It turn [it turned out or happened that] a buzzard come an' fly all right, all on de barn an' stuff lak dat. An' she would get up ev'ry day - she'd get [upl an' go around behind dat barn an' she commence to losin' 'er min' [mind]. An' she'd get out in 'er nightgown an' she'd come ovah home to my house an' set down. Ve [we] had a little tree up against de chimley drawin' water [in folklore a tree leans toward water and here it would surely be leaning toward the chimney corner]. She said, "You all wan'a hang me." [The informant drops too much of her thought here. I am certain the bewitched woman pointed to the tree, having in mind either, "Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree" (Acts 5:30) or the fact that persons in her lifetime were lawlessly hanged on a tree.] "You all wan'a hang me," she say [this is her repetition not mine], but dat's all right. Dey didn't tree [treat] me right, dey didn't tree me right." An' dey had to hide all dere knives an' fo'ks - she would try to kill 'erself 'er husband tole - all de knive an' fo'k an' smoothin' rod [this I do not know - does she mean smoothing iron?] an' cared it out in a little outhouse an' locked it up. [I transcribed all the Wilmington cylinders by hand, though some of it was typed later by the professional transcriber I had to call in. Fortunately I could eliminate duplicates and doubtful material, but even so my note for this story indicates the task, "Not all copied." The end is unknown.]
Entry 204
Mah ole parents said that she was witchcraf' once by a buzzard, zhoo know. They had witchcraf' 'er so that buzzard follow 'er, follow 'er. An' she stuck [stunk = stank] jis' like de buzzard. Didn't care where she go, she could look up, why no buzzard would be ahnd [or 'oun = round] 'er, swimmin' ahnd ovah de house but that one buzzard. An' she went to a witchcraf' man. An' he tole 'er that that buzzard had been fixed to follow 'er, that she had been witchcraf' with graveyard dirt - she got it in likkah.
(Who was this person?)
Mah mother.
(Go on with your story.)
She said this ole fortune teller man [witchcraft man, who like most profes- sional workers was also a fortune teller] tole 'er she git it in graveyard dirt in likkah - she was a great likkah drinkah - an' they jis' fixed, got that grave- yard dirt, fixed it in likkah, an' give it ta 'er." They fixed it so that buzzard jis' follow 'er. She stuck [stunk = stank] like that buzzard.
(How did she get rid of that?)
Well, she was cured by yurts [= y-eart's? = earths? = roots] in de woods.
Entry 205
A woman once was livin' an' she had a son. Another lady had a daughter. Well, this daughter was much older than the son. This woman [who] had the son didn't want fer her child - it was too much - to marry this woman's daughter. But anyhow, they went on together an' courtin' an' got married. An' this woman was heart-mad about it. An' so she went down in Jacksonville, Florida - some'ere 'nother - to get somepin fo' these people. Well, these people was wise, you see. These people was already on to it, see. They could do things to save theyself, you know, to look fer theirself, protect theirself. An' so the [hoodoo] woman tole this woman [boy's mother] - she went dere - now I'm not any lyin' - she say, "If dey [girl's family] see dis chicken fo' [before] it get to the house an' kill it, you'll die."
(Did she get this chicken from the woman down there in Florida?)
I couldn't tell. Anyhow, they see this chicken come out on Sunday mornin', comin' up to the house -.it went over to the front. Well, she [the girl's mother] gon'a watch out, you know, an' see this chicken comin' aroun' there - a necked [naked] chicken, a fry-size chicken, jis' as necked, didn't have a bit of feather on it. [A naked chicken - a chicken dressed to kill - a chicken carrying so much poison it had lost all feathers - see margin-title Doctor Frizzly.] A fellah say, "Oh, look at that chicken yonder!" An' this woman run out an' she met the chicken, an' she took a stick an' killed it, an' say, "Father, Son and the Holy Ghos', an' Three in One, I kill yeh." An' she sailed on the chicken an' she killed it. An' soon after that this woman took sick an' she died - the boy's mother.
(What did she tell her to do to this chicken?)
I don't know, but she had the chicken dress an' sent it [to] this house, you know. The chicken was goin' to the house. She [the hoodoo woman] said that she [the boy's mother] couldn't go - you see, they was watchin' then an' none of then couldn't go. She sent that chicken. The woman tole her, "Now, you send this chicken, you can't git to her - you send this chicken." [The action here is quite clear. The hoodoo woman did not give the boy's mother a dressed chicken to carry back to Georgia or wherever she came from; she gave her a two-purpose powder to sprinkle on a chicken after she had returned home - one part of the powder propelling the chicken forward, the other part containing the spell to be cast. A scientific explanation is also possible - the God of Chance took care of the final result, some stray undressed chicken getting itself killed.]
Entry 206
Dis wus a woman done dis. She had some tame Woopin' [whipping] owls, had 'em tame - hawks we all call 'em, chicken hawks, an' dey could say mos' any- thing dat she would tell 'em tuh say. An' dere wus de time she had dis woman tuh pay her if she would git her clear of her chile [clear her child] dat day, an dey wus tuh, yo' know, destroy [hang] 'im dat day, an' dey had de owl tuh go way down in de branch [creek, run, brook] wit de voice an' de hawk up in de air outa sight, an' she had de hawk to say, "If dey kill dat man, Ah destroy de worl'" - an' de owl he must say, "De Lawd." An' all of dem heah de voice, an' jes' as dey fixin' tuh kill de man dey all stop, an' jes' he say "Lord" again fo' three times, an' dey thought sho' 'nuff it was somepin up in de air - de good Lord or somepin. Den ever'body to' [took] out 'way from dere an' dey nevah did hang dis fellah.
(This old cunjure woman had this fixed up?)
Dat's right.
(These two birds - that's an old story?)
Yes.
(Where did you hear that?)
In Albany, Georgia.
The Lord reference is the listeners' reported interpretation of a staged voice, with or somepin retained.
Entry 207
I was aboard a ship where [at a later date] all the crew had been taken off and no account could be given, and I was on the lookout one morning between four and five o'clock on the fore stage. And there came five pigeons and sat on that stage and what they were I never could tell. I thought those five pigeons were the spirits of those dead. They said a sea serpent took those five men off that boat down in the Caribbean Sea. And that was in 1867. That brig was from New York, the Mary Celeste. [This man in 1860 was old enough to travel from Yorktown to Hampton by him- self, sleeping one night out in the open. Without claiming anything or boasting he said he had been a sailor on the ship just after the five men were lost in 1867. The loss of the complete crew to which he refers - the Mary Celeste left New York for Genoa on November 7, 1872, and four weeks later was found abandoned in the Atlantic; no one aboard ever being heard from again.]
Entry 208
Ah heard of a man wus in trouble once, an' he went tuh see a wise man [rare term] to try tuh git some help. So dis man said to him, said, "Yo' go on back home an' yo' stay there an' yore bossman will go down dere an' stan' yore bond." So he went on back home, an' de law caught him an' put him in jail, an' de bossman went down an' stan' his bond. Well, aftah standin' his bond, den he [bonded man] went back to him [wise man], yo' know, aftah he got out. Den he went on back to dis man an' he said to him, said, "Yo' go on back home now an' yo' make yo'self satisfiable an' whenevah yo' in co't," say, "yo' look up ovah de judge's haid an' yo'll see a bird flyin." An' sho' 'nuff - ah heard he say he done it, an' he look up dere an' de bird flyed across, an' aftah de bird fly up, he go on an' win his case - de judge clear him. De bird wus a sparrow. [The bird, of course, was sent by the wise man or hoodoo man.]
The informant reports a bird identified as a sparrow; the editor separately supplies the explanation that it was sent.
Entry 209
[Acquainted with Doctor Frizzly more than forty years, I could not include him among ordinary birds of the preceding margin-title; surely the zeal of Doctor Frizzly of Memphistown at the end of this medical group deserves special commendation by separation.] A woman from Beaufort [South Carolina] tole me dat. I went to 'er home one day an' see dis chicken, an' ask 'er why did she have dis little hen. She said she had dat frizzly hen to keep anyone from hurtin' 'er. An' I asked how she could keep anyone from hurtin' 'er. She say, well, dat hen, if anybody put down any roots or anything fer 'er, dat hen would scratch 'em up, an' of course if dat hen died, she would know dat she would die after dat, too.
(Well, why was that?)
Why dis root has [would have] poison 'er.
(Oh, it poisoned the chicken.)
Yeah, if it poisoned de chicken, of course it would poison 'er; but if dat hen lived an' scratched up de root, den she would liye, too.
(Where did you hear this?)
A woman from Beaufort told me dat.
(An old woman in Beaufort or from Beaufort.)
Right here in Charleston.
Entry 210
A black frizzly hen won't let nothin' stay in de yard - he'll scratch it up. You see some frizzly hen it be so necked [naked] in de back an' it'll be red? It be necked, then he done pick [up] a root. You see some chickens dat scratch aroun' de door for fresh worms? Well, if dere toby or anything stuck down here, if it's anything in a bag, dey [the ordinary chicken] ain't goin' do it; but a black frizzly hen, dey take it up an' eat all dat pisen an' den dat pisen, when he pick it up, he gets necked. An' de person who puts it down, dat hen take it up.
Entry 211
If yo' have a frizzly chicken - dey tell me dat if you always keep a frizzly chicken on yore yard, providin' if anybody puts down anything fo' yo tuh go ovah, de frizzly chicken will pick it up, an' if yo' see dat chicken begin gittin' necked, dat's what dat thing wus gon'a do fo' yo', an' de chicken git it [instead of you].
Entry 212
Yo'll git a black frizzly - dem othah chickens ain't no good - git a black frizzly. Yo'll turn dat black frizzly chicken in de yard an' yo'll gon'a notice her haid be clean as yore han'. Well, she done pick up stuff people done put roun' dere fo' yo' - de same kinda stuff lak ah'm tellin' yo', yo' see.
Entry 213
De frizzly chicken - most people have dem on dere yard. If anybody wanta do anything to yo', why dey supposed tuh scratch up all de poison.
Entry 214
Yo' kin take a frizzly chicken, if there's anything layin' roun' yore place - if anybody dress yore home, put anything down - dat chicken will find it, he'll scratch an' he'll find it an' he'll destroy it. Thare was a lady had one right heah an' he went from heah on 21st Street ovah in Memphistown somewhare. Dat chicken went thare hisself an' he found some stuff Was ovah thare. Dat was right heah in '26 [1926].
(How far is that?)
Well, Memphistown - ah don't know which way yo' come [to the hotel where I was interviewing in St. Petersburg] or.
(Is it a half mile or?)
Oh, Memphistown is two miles. He went all 'cross - well, dey didn't know [he had gone so far away]. Well, it's dis lady an' de lady dat lived ovah dere [in Memphistown] dey was fren's, yo' know, an' she tole dem, said, "Well, ah got a chicken heah an' if dere's anything lak dat - he be's gone [after itl. Ah don't know whare he is now. He's in de town heah somewhare now [looking for trouble]. He jes' goes about lak dat," an' she say, "if dere's anything dere he'll find it." An' sho' 'nuff he went dah an' found it.
(You mean this chicken just wanders around finding this stuff?)
Jes' all he do - dat s all he, dem kin'a chicken do - yo'[see] dem often, of dem kind. [For Memphistown, see Negro communities, some unofficial names for, in Index. Years ago the South End of Quincy, Illinois (mentioned frequently in FACI), used to be called Calftown, because so many of the German families living there kept a cow.]
Protection is inferred from the described finding and destruction of placed objects; the effects remain unverified.
Entry 215
I'll tell you what I have seen - twenty-eight years ago [1908] a cat behind a young woman and the young woman was kin'a intoxicated. There were two sisters. They lived together. One sister had gone out to a party and the other one was all ready to go out. And this one, that hadd't gone yet, waited for her sister to come in. She waited until eleven o'clock. And it was in the summertime. So she said, "Mrs. Duke, will you take my key." - I said, "Yes' - "to give to my sister when she comes, because I have been waiting for her. She hasn't got here yet." So I said "Very well, sure, I'll do that for you." I took the key. And her sister came in about one o'clock at nighttime and was rapping on her sister's door. I was in bed so I holler to her and say, "Emma, '' I said, "I have your key, your sister is out." She said, "Very well." I got right up and opened my door and passed her the key. Meantime, the cat got in behind her. I was trying to move back. I couldn't move [the reason is given later]. She was trying to unlock the door but couldn't. She had a little too much drink in her. I said, "Emma, come on in my house." She said, "No, I am going on in home. The door is a little hard to unlock." She unlocked it and went in. And she said, "Cordelia, there's a cat over here. Is it your cat?" I said, "No, not my cat." She said, "Yes." I said, "No, Emma," like that. I said, "Well, come on in my place." She said, "No, no, I can't do that." So in the meantime she says, "Here goes the cat. It's going out." But I am a little ahead of my story. During the time she was unlocking to get in, this cat got very tired awaiting. And it turned three different colors while she was trying to get in; one was yellow, the other was grey, the other was black - black and white. It didn't worry me about being a spirit. What came over me, I couldn't move. I said, "Couldn't it be the moonshine" - it was nighttime - looking for the moon to see if it was reflecting on the cat. Had it of been the moon I wouldn't have been frightened. After I couldn't get a sight of the moon and couldn't move, I was terribly frightened. And I never moved, couldn't move, until she unlocked the door and the cat went in behind her. Then I went and got into my bed. This was on 115th Street [New York City] where I used to live. I never had the nerve to ask her; but one thing I do know, she never came to her sister's any more. In six months she never came to her sister's house. She stayed around other people's houses further downtown. I said to her sister about the cat, "There's a meaning to that." Her sister said, "Don't mind that. That's only the devil after Emma." That was one sister speaking about the other. I knew is must have been a token. I asked a minister. The minister said, "That cat was the devil shown to you because Emma has all the faith in the world in you. She is not a Christian. It was shown to you for you talk to her because she has lots of faith in you." Six months after that she died.
Entry 216
This story that I am about to tell happened in New York [City] about two years ago [1934]. There was a black cat came to a lady and followed her home. She tried to keep him out. He followed her on into the house. To begin with she intended to get rid of him, but after he stayed for a day and a night, she liked him and she kept him. He was there about four weeks. The woman went away to Chicago to the big fair that was there and she took the cat, she carried it over, to another woman's house to spend the ten days she was away. They took care of him over there. When she came back home, she sent and got this cat and brought it back. This woman's house she carried it to, her brother-in-law was living with her. Three days after the cat was carried back, this woman's brother-in-law - he had heart trouble - that had kept it ten days, started upstairs. He got to the third floor, he lived on the fourth, dropped down with his cigarette in his mouth and died right there. People came up the stairs and found him with the cigarette still in his mouth and had to take it out to keep it from burning him. They took him back up to the apartment and he was buried from there. One week after, the woman that the cat had followed home, she went to work. She didn't work all the time, but this was a special day she went out to do some- thing. She kissed everybody goodby, went downtown to do some little housework. She did what she had to do on the first floor, went up the stairs, got to the top of the stairs, gave one little sigh. Someone came to her and when they got there she could not speak. She died. The black cat was still at her house. They huddled him out from there because no one wanted to see that cat because some people was watching the effects wherever he had been. They took him to another apartment on Grant Avenue. That family was demolished. Trouble came up and they separated. So they got someone to take the cat out in the country and I heard no more of him.
Entry 217
I remember a story of a cat. This was a man who went to a hotel. He put his horse up. Going in the hotel the man told him that, "You go over yonder and stay." He said, "What am I going to pay for the night?" He said, "I'll go to work and give it to you free, if you'll just only stand there for one night." He says, "Well, I'll try it." So he goes over to this house. He had a lantern. He sits it down, set back and commence smoking. In walked a big cat. He walked up along side of him and looked in his face and said, "John, '' he says, "look, John, there's nobody in here but you and I." John looked at the cat. The cat was as large as a young calf. John said, "Listen, in a few minutes there won't be anybody in here but you."
Entry 218
One time a fellow was frying some eggs. He was setting down there cook- ing and looking things over. He heard a voice. He looked around to see where it was at and couldn't find it. So he goes to the stove and something up on top of the chimley said, "I'm gon'a drop." He said, "You can drop all you want, so you don't drop in my pan of slop." Finally, a cat leg fell down the chimley, went in the corner and set down. The fellow looked at it, then at the pan, and something on top of the house said, "I'm gon'a drop." Another leg fell down the chimley and went over there and both got together. When the two legs commenced to get- ting together he said, "It's getting kin'a tight in here. The legs said, "That's nothing. Wait till my body comes down." Something on top of the chimley said, "I'm gon'a drop." That cat's body fell down the chimley. It went over and got with them legs. The fellow look at them again and the pan of slop and said, "It's getting kin'a tight in here." Then they said, "Wait until them front legs get down here." Something said, "I'm gon'a drop." He said, "You can drop all you want to just so you don't drop in the slop." The front legs dropped and went over there and got together. He said, "It's tight in here now sure enough." Then it said, "Yes, but you wait until the head comes down." The man said, "The back legs is here, the body is here, the front legs is here, but when that head gets down I'm gon'a be gone."
Entry 219
A man was tramping and gotten hungry and he stopped by a house, and the woman gave him a pint of meal and told him there was a old cabin further down the road and he could stop there that night, and she said he could build himself a fire and cook this meal. The fire was getting hot - they.made ash cakes in those days. While the fire was getting hot something spoke up the chimley, 'Look out, I'm gon'a fall." Down fell a leg. He picked that up and threw it back behind him. After awhile it cried again, "Look out, I'm gon'a fall." He said, "Fall." He took that leg and threw it behind him. Presently it cried again, "Look out, I'm gon'a fall." He took that arm and threw it back behind him. Presently it said, "Look out, I'm gon'a fall." The other arm fell. He threw that behind him. Then it kin'a cried, "Look out, look out, I'm gon'a fall." The body dropped down. He threw that behind him. He done gone back together. He grabbed this poker and started after him and he run out ran around to the corner of the chimley and went down into a hole. And he dug and came to a pile of money.
Entry 220
A girl was always crazy for fixing her hair. Her mother was going to a party. Her mother was hurrying her." And she told her mother she'd rather go to hell than to go to this party without time for fixing her hair. And she died and they laid her out in the coffin. They couldn't move the coffin. They open it and a black cat jumped out. The hair was fixed as good as anybody ever could fix it. They said the cat must of fixed it. [For girl 'fixing her hair, '' cat, and heavy coffin, see FACI,2ed., Pp.710-711, Nos.15372-15373.]
Entry 221
I heard one time that a woman died and the day - they got ready to bury her and the pallbearers had taken her out of the house and put her in the hearse. And they had four horses and they couldn't pull it. So they got two more and they couldn't pull it. And they said they got two more horses and they couldn't pull it. So then they decided to open it and see what was in it. And when they opened it there was a cat in there combing her hair. So they got the cat out and the two horses could pull it.
Entry 222
I did hear one time that there was two girls which was partners, used to go to and fro together. So at last one day, one Sunday, they decided to go to church. And they went to Sunday school in the morning, also to eleven o'clock service, and that night one of the girls decided she Wanted to go to the night service. So when the one girl got to the other girl's house, the other girl was combing her hair. She told the other girl, "Leave us go to church." The other girl said to her in reply, "Before I go to church I'd rather go to hell with both eyes open without my hair being combed." After then they went. The next day, which was Monday, this girl was taken sick. Tuesday she died. On Thursday they were getting ready for her funeral. They had taken the corpse to the church. And after carrying it to the church they opened it so everybody could review. And after doing so, they went to pick up the coffin to put it to the hearse and they couldn't nobody move it. Then at last a gang of men put this coffin in the hearse. After the coffin got in the hearse they had four horses pulling the coffin. All four of those horses could not move it. It was an awful thing to see the great excitment. Then they decided to take this coffin out of the hearse and open it to see what was the trouble. So when they open this coffin there was a black cat in there combing this girl's hair with its paw.
Entry 223
That's the reason I don't plat my hair to this day. If a woman dies and her hair be platted, they said, "She's gone to torment [hell]." The horses could not pull the coffin it would be so heavy. A black cat would be in that coffin unplatting the hair. You open the coffin and run that cat out and go on to the grave. They say never plat your hair. I never platted my hair in my life. They Say it's a bad sign. [Informant a large girl near Woodville, Miss., when Civil War began.]
Entry 224
I heard of another story one time, I don't know how true it is, about a man dying. He wasn't a church member. So when he died they had the casket and they carried it to the grave. And it seemed as heavy, well, as double as what it belonged to be. So when they opened it, out fly a turkey buzzard. That buzzard was supposed to be the devil. Then the casket became light and they could carry it to the grave.
Entry 225
They said they were going down a woods road one night and they said this dog ran up and ran through the legs of the horse and right on between the buggy wheels and ran on off into the woods. They thought it was someone trying to put bad luck on them. They thought it was a spirit, they didn't think it was a dog. They thought it was some spirit someone had sent out for you know, to kin'a cunjure them. [The reader can see at once that this dog was not an ordinary prowling animal meeting by chance a horse and buggy. A natural dog would never have met a horse head on, running between the four legs and then the four wheels, two legs and two wheels each side of him - quite a feat at night! This dog Was going in the opposite direction to cross the occupants of the buggy.]
Entry 226
If you are a sinner, you will come in any kind of shape. I know a man at home who died and his home had a black dog in it all the time. You could see it, too.
Entry 227
I heard a man say he was coming along one night and there was a little bit of a dog come trotting along behind him. He said he hollered at the little dog and asked him where he was going. And the little dog still kept trotting out after him and he turned around and kicked the little dog. He said the little dog rose up high, as high as his shoulder was, and liked to scared him to death. He ran until he fell. The dog was supposed to be an evil spirit.
Entry 228
Then, I saw a billy goat one night that was a spirit. We were coming home from over town and when we got up to the graveyard we had to pass. There was a bridge there by the path and this goat he come up from under that bridge. There was twenty-five or more women together coming over. And I said, "Oh! look at that goat." Another old lady along there with us, she said, "That ain't no billy goat, that's a spirit." When we got up to the bridge he went overboard then and the water splashed all up. And when we got up there we didn't see nothing.
The informant identifies the billy goat as a spirit in a recollection; another woman's quoted identification remains separate.
Entry 229
He wanted this gurl to love 'im. She wouldn't love 'im - didn't kear anything about 'im atall. An' so it wure a camp meetin'. An' he bought a water- melon - a great big, nice watermelon - took out a nice slice of it. He put somepin on it [a love powder] - I don't know what, but he give it to this gurl. An' while he give it to this gurl - but his gurl wouldn't eat it. So some hogs out there - he threw it out to the hogs an' the hogs ete it. An' this hog come back an' followed this man all over the campin' aroun' until fin'lly he went home.
Entry 230
My mother told me that once when she was a child her father and another gentlemen had been to the city [Mt. Olive, North Carolina] on Saturday night to get food for the week, and on their way back - they had waited real late to come back, and they had to come through a stretch of woods. They got along at a certain distance where people had said a man Was killed. The horses stopped that was carrying them in the buggy and they couldn't get them to start. The team made an attempt that they were looking at something but they did not see it at all. After about a half a hour they got the team to go. But in the meantime something jumped on the back of the buggy and didn't get off until about a quarter of a mile from their home, and when it got off it fell like a tree had fallen. Yet they didn't see anything.
Entry 231
Now I know a woman down here in Caroline, she was called on a Sunday morning to come over there to the farm. They had a horse very bad off. She discovered where they had planted a bottle under this door, the door of the stable, and they got this horse so he couldn't get up. She removed it and the horse got all right. [Fredericksburg, Va., (?), Ed.; Caroline Co., Va.,1934; a rare example in my Negro folklore of an animal itself being bewitched.]
Entry 232
Well, now dat's done fo' hosses [horses] an' fo' humans, too. Fo' ninstance, say if yo' wanta buy a hoss - a nice fine hoss, fat an' all an' yo' Wanta buy 'im an' de man wants too much fo' him or he don't wanta sell him to yo'. Well, yo' take - git chew a brand new piece of homespun an' start from his hip-bone an' make one knot, an' go up. Ev'ry time yo' come up to ev'ry joint, yo' make a knot, an' yo' take an' bury it in dat hoss's track an' he'll become tuh be lame - crippled an' he lay down an' he can't git up. Well, de man maybe Wanted de hoss, but he take most any kinda price - well, he take it den.
Entry 233
I have seen a spirit in the shape of an animal. I was going home one night from the lodge. My daughter and myself were together. And we came to this pool of water and a great big mule, he was standing up in this pond and he didn't have any head on him. I said to my daughter, "Look at that big mule." And she got scared and run and said, "I don't see no mule." So when we got home she told papa, "I ain't going with her no more-at night. Mama seen a ghost tonight and I didn't see nothing." He asked me what it were and I told him it was a mule but it didn't have no head.
Entry 234
This colored fellow used to hunt a' night for 'possum and 'coon. He said one night his dogs were on a cold track and they continued to follow this 'coon track until the track began to get warm. After awhile they bayed and after they bayed he to-ld [took hold] his lantern and went to see what the dogs were after. He went to the dogs and there was something on the ground that looked like a 'possum. He picked it up and put it in his bag. He started to trail another and he almost reached the dogs when the thing in the bag began to cry. It sounded like a baby crying, so he had to take it out of the bag. He took it out of the bag and he hurried home as fast as he could. He left it there. He didn't know what it was.
Entry 235
I heard one about a 'possum. Some people went out 'possum hunting that night and when they got out in the woods they looked in a tree and see what they thought was a 'possum and they [shot] at him and missed him. When they started to cutting on the tree they cut it until they cut it down. When the tree fell they looked all around with their lanterns and the 'possum Was gone. Right behind them then they heard a noise splashing in the water. They thought it had gone in there. They never did see the 'possum. It was real funny the 'possum got away. When they come to find out an old man told them it wasn't a 'possum but it was a spirit in the shape of a 'possum.
Entry 236
Well, dey say it's useless to go 'possum huntin' or varmint - any kin'a varmint - on a Friday night. As a rule, de dogs will run ha'nts.
(Where did you hear that?)
Oh, ah've heerd dat all mah days.
(What part of the country, I mean?)
Well, I heerd dat in north Florida an' south Georgia.
Entry 237
Another fellow used to hunt and his dogs treed something. When he went to cut the tree something like a sheep fell but it fell like it weighed fifteen tons. This land on which the tree stood belonged to an old fellow who had for- bidden hunting on the ground and after he died anybody that hunted on there would always see something or hear something peculiar.
Entry 238
It wus a long time ago. I hear mah father use to offten talk about it. He said it wus a man had something down fer another man, an' it wus a rabbit that passed acrost his path ev'ry day he wus going from work goin' his home. An' he wus tellin' some his friends about 'im [the rabbit]. An' he [the friend] tole 'im, he said to go an' see a witchcraft, you know, who knowed something about root things. He say it wusn't quite nachural. An' this rabbit he would pass acrost de road ev'ry day when this man would be goin' home at night. An' he vent to de witchcraft an' he wus tellin' 'im about it. An' the man he fixed [dressed] a long hick'ry stick an' he tole this man, he said, "When this rabbit cross the road," he say, "you wan'a take this stick an' fling it af' tim [after him]." An' he said, "An' when you fling it af' tim," he say, ''if it hit de rabbit," he say, "the person that put it down they [there], he'll die. An' he said, "If yo' can't hit de rabbit," he say, "you come back an' you see me." So he took the hick'ry stick along with 'im. An' he wus comin' back home an' he took an' had de stick with him, an' the rabbit wus crossin' his path, an' he took the stick an' fling after de rabbit, an' de stick rolled to it an' stick through de rabbit, an' the rabbit then run through [between] two trees an' it stop 'im. An' the next day he came along de rabbit wus dead. An' fin'lly, three days after that, this man, de man that put it [some root] down they [there], he died.
Entry 239
There was a woman that died - the night before she died, we was crossing Gilmore and Moore Street, going to church and her snake got away.
(Her snake?) Her snake got away from her. (Did she have a snake?)
Yes, kept two snakes in de house - say she could send 'em anywhere/ she wanted to.
(Oh, I see.)
And those snakes got away and come out and one run down de culver' [one ran into a culvert and was lost] and a man killed one, and when the one he killed - when he killed that snake she drahpped [dropped] sick in de chair. So I went around next morning to see her and she made me open de drawers. I was about twenty-nine years old then. And she had a drawer on side of de wall there - settin' up in a rack - and she made me open that drawer and pull out about half a dozen socks, tied in a knot in the middle and pins were up in de toes. And then she had pieces belongs to diff'rent women, and one of the women that the pieces belonged to lived right up in the square, and she got that when she give birth to a baby, and she was ridden down, but she didn't die till recently because somebody - they cleaned the place up and burnt up all them rags. She had rags - she had hair - she had pieces cut out the seat of a person's pants - oh, she had everything, in a jar about that tall. (Well, why did she die when these snakes were killed - what did she say about that?) [He doesn't understand me. He would have, had he known the answer.] She takes the snakes - she say she could take them snakes and. make 'em go anywhere she wanted 'em and sprinkle the dust.
(Well, that's what she did - but she died when those snakes were killed?)
She died - well, they say that that was all her company. [He almost has the answer. She and the snakes are really one spirit; her life being magically bound up with the lives of the snakes.]
(Well now, this woman you say, that was going to have a baby or something?)
She had a baby. And she paid five dollars for somebody to get one of her sanitary pieces and she had that stopped up there in a box.
(Trying to harm her or something?)
Harm her, which she did harm her. Whatever she did, now, I didn't know; but whatever she did it jest rid her down.
Entry 240
These two brother had get married. An' so one of the brother wife got sick, an' so he thought he would get his sister-in-law to vait on 'er. An' So ev'ry time she seem like she wus gettin' a little bettah, they would try to do somepin else to 'er. It seemed like a snake - they had a snake up in the loft [of the sick woman's cabin]. An' so one day she [the nurse] vent home to git huh husband dinnah, an' so this snake he come down while she wus 'vay [away]. An' so aftah the snake come down, he [the patient's husband] killed the snake. An' she [the nurse] come runnin' an' hollerin' an' tole 'im that he would kill 'er. An' so, fin'lly, she [the nurse] died. An' the woman whut they had been hurtin' by this snake, she lived a good while - but aftah while she did die.
Entry 241
Once upon a time a lady brought a friend of her a pot of rice and tomatoes, and the neighbor, not wanting to eat it, she gave it to her little girl. And the little girl ate some of it and it made her sick. After that the little girl would always go out into the woods to drink her milk. Her parents didn't know what the child was doing with this milk. Later her brother followed her to find out what was happening with this milk and he found the little girl Was giving this milk to a snake. Her brother told her father. Her father and the neighbors set out to find the snake. After they found the snake and killed it, the little girl passed away. [For snake eating or drinking child's food, see FACI,2ed., pp.62-63, Nos.1571-1573.] [New York City, (?), 370A:1; near Charleston, S. Car.,1922.1
Entry 242
If people keep coming there and you don't want 'em there, well, you kin go to a hoodoo. Miss Young, this lady I know.
(You go to Miss Young, you say?)
Yes.
(What does she do, you say?) [I am asking him to repeat.]
Say, she sit you down and have a long snake. Well, dis isn't much about it what I know about it. See, that snake have - talk like a human, and she say [to the snake], "What he ask you, you tell it to him." And so then she give you a little bag. And she say, "You go there and whilst they setting down, ' say, "you just take this little powder out of this and just sprinkle on their back behind." And she say, "They'll stay away from your house." (You said, when you go to see this Miss Young, you see a snake - you say a large snake?) Yes, a large snake.
(Well now, a large or a live one?)
A large and a live one - he's large and he's alive.
(And you say that snake talks?)
Yes sir.
(What did he talk about?)
Well, they never told me that.
(You said, it told you [not my informant] what to do.)
Whatever you tell - whatever that snake tell you, you tell dem.
(Tell whom?)
Tell de people you wanta stay away from your house.
(I see.)
[The client asks Miss Young's snake a question. The snake answers. Ventril- oquism? I doubt it. The snake talks into Miss Young's ear and she repeats what the snake says to her. A good example of the routine will be found under the margin-title Earphone in subsection Diagnosis.]
Entry 243
That's what she told me [this woman who had gone down to New Orleans to consult Madam (Somebody).]
(What did she have - a snake, you say?)
A big snake, and they say that she'd meet you at the door and turn you in that room. And she would go on out and directly that big snake come crawling out. And they say, if you didn't get frightened and could stand that snake - and she'd come back after awhile. And that snake would just crawl and look at you. I know - I heard. (She has a fit of laughing [comment by transcriber].) A man told me that he went after a gambling hand and he say, he got that hand and he just won money, and she [preceding Madam] didn't trust him. "Now, you ain't got the money [to pay me now]." Say, "When you make your first $200, you send me $100," and he didn't do it. And he just make money hand over fist and say, after about six months he was taken deathly sick. And they couldn't do nothing with him - he stayed here in the city [Vicksburg] - and they sent him down to New Orleans [seeking a cure]. And he say, one day she came in the room, Madam [Somebody], and sit down at his bedside and says, "Do you remember you came down to a woman at such-and-such a time about six months ago?" He said, "Yes." "And you know what you promised her?" 'Yes." "And didn't you have luck?" "Yes." And he said he cried and carried on, told her to release him. She say, "That's cause you are thief. I'll release you and God knows what you do then." So she released him, say, "I'm going to let you get well this time, and now, you send me $200." And he say when he went back he made it and he sent her $200.
Entry 244
If a person is possessed of certain spells, they have a peculiar treatment for them. In fact, my uncle told me this story. He told me that he went down to South Carolina with a man several years ago and he said this man Was possessed with a certain spell, a spell that would worry him. I think he couldn't eat and he couldn't - he was erristable all the time, couldn't hardly keep still. And so he went to some doctor who deals with serpents. And he took this serpent and he asked him, he told this man rather, to take hold of this serpent. So he took hold of the serpent. The serpent was stretched out across the top of the ceiling - near the ceiling, rather, he had a rack full of 'em. It looked similar to a fish[ingl pole I should have said. And so he took a hold of this pole, he said - and he thought it was a fish pole, so he told me. And so after having grasped this fish pole, seeming it was a fish pole, why this fish pole turned into a serpent. Well, this man became frightened and he began to scream. And after having screamed for a long time, why this man spoke to this serpent. And it curled back and went back up to this rack and became a pole again. And so this man walked on out and he charged him five dollars. But he said he never had no more trouble with that spell.
Entry 245
(All right - suppose you tell me that?)
See, year before last, I had a fence round my house and I had vent cross to the store, and when I come back and I put my hand on the gate. Well something hit me in that finger [demonstrates] just like it was a - had stuck it with a pin or something.
(The little finger of the left hand.)
The little finger. So, I didn't pay no attention, and the next day I looked on my arm, right along up there and it was a long black mark like that and like a cross. Well, when I seen it, I know it was something wrong. Well, I got up and went got me some of this fish brine; you know, what come off a mackerel fish. I put me some saltpeter in it and I put me some salt in it and heated it, and I put some soda in it - heated it right hot and I bathed in it. Well, then after I bathed it, in a day or so it was gone off - I bathed it but once or twice, but- it left a little sign of it there. So I went to a kind of a fortune teller woman when I was here in town and she told me just what I used was the right thing. Well, I told her I sure was glad, I didn't know that because, I said, if anything else happened to me I'd know exactly what to do. So she told me that it was where somebody had had a painted snake and dressed my gate with it.
(What kind of a snake?)
A painted - some kind of a painted snake.
(A painted snake?)
Yes sir.
(Well, what do you mean - was it a live snake? What kind of a snake?)
I guess it was. And they must have painted him with something what they had, and just laid it on the gate, and I caught it on my hand and arm.
(You mean they painted the paint on the snake?)
Yes sir - some kind of old poison stuff. See. And see, when I went to the gate and caught holt of it, it got on my hand. (I see.) [This snake was dressed with a poison and sent out to smear it on the gate.]
Entry 246
When I was five years old, my mother got hurt in her knee and she called the hoodoo, and my grandfather - was living at that time. And her knee came to be swelled larger than my head, and my grandfather had taken this mackerel fish brine and he'd taken a nickel's worth of Brown Mule tobacco - puts it in a quart of water and boiled it down to a pint, and he'd taken red peppah and put in there and vinegar, and he continued to rub and rub her knee with that until she got rid of it.
(Can you tell me how she got hurt down there?)
Well, she told me that she - it was a mark across the road, you know, and she stepped cross this mark and when she stepped cross this mark, not thinkin', the pain struck her in her knee.
(What kind of a mark was it, do you know?)
Just like you would - she said, just like a snake would cross the road, she say, that's the way the mark look to be. [Either her enemy drew a zigzag mark across the road - intended for the victim only - or her hoodoo man sent a dressed snake to do the work. Had she crossed a normal snake track, she would not have had the pain. The zigzag track of a snake across path or road - zigzag being a lightning symbol - is a sign of rain; see FACI,2ed., p.20, Nos. 535-537. No wonder, "when she stepped cross this mark... the pain struck her in her knee."]
(I see, I see. How many years ago did that happen?)
That happened when I was five years old and now I'm forty-three - will be forty-four on my next birthday.
(About forty years ago. I see. Where did this happen, around here?)
Out chere about eighteen miles from here.
(About eighteen miles from Vicksburg?)
Yes sir.
Entry 247
I got in a little trouble in 1912, for cutting a fellow, and a lady over in South Richmond, by the name of Mrs. Bright, she told me, she says, "Now" when I went over there she says - she told me my name, the first thing. She told me what I was in trouble about and all that. She says, "Now," says, "now, I will tell you what you do, '' say, "you bring me five brand new one-dollar bills the day of your trial, and a brand new pocket handkerchief, and wear a black hat," she says, "and I will tell you just what the judge is gon'a do with you." And in each corner of the room - she had a black snake in this corner and a black pne in that corner.
(In opposite corners?)
In the opposite corners, and each one of 'em came and put their heads - each head on each one of my legs and ah kinda got frightened. She says, "Don't bother, they won't hurt you." So they laid there. Then she read the cards. She said to me, she said, You are in trouble for cuttin'a man." She says, "You cut this man about a girl." She says, "The man's name is Rueben Johnson and the girls name is Hazel Taylor." She says, Now, the man that arrested you is named Mr. Fred Kringle"-he's a detective on the Richmond City Police Depart- ment. I says, That's right." She says, Well, all right, on the day of your trial you come back." Well, I was running a cleaning and pressing shop at that time at Mayo and Franklin. So on the day of my trial, I carried her five brand new one-dollar bills and I carried her a brand new pocket handkerchief, and I bought me a black hat, and I went over there, and she was running the cards around - she didn't tell me anything. She'd taken my hat and this handkerchief and those five one- dollar bills and went out and carried one of these snakes. The other one stayed in there, but he crawled up under my chair and curled right up under de chair and stayed there until she returned. When she returned she gave me the hat and the handkerchief but not the money. She says, "Now," says, "you go on to court." Says, "When you get to court, just pull off your hat"-which you have to do - "and wipe your face with this hand- kerchief as often as possible, and get as close to the front of the judge as you possibly can." Says, "There's nobody goin' be in court but you, the judge, and the prosecutor, and the clerk of the court." Says, "The judge is going to try you without the defendants being there," said, "they going to fine you $lo and costs which will be $18.97." Say, "You pay that and when you start down the steps, you'll meet the defendants and the detectives coming up the steps," said, "but you'll be tried it'll be too late." Just as she said just as it happened. There was no one in court but just she said, and I goes sittin' direct in front of the judge. I used this hand- kerchief constantly. See. And so the judge didn't call no other case but mine own, and so the judge says, "Well," says, "nobody here to prosecute it, so I'll just fine him ten dollars." So I paid eighteen dollars and something and walked on out of court.
Entry 248
(You go to the root man and get this bag [hand] from him, and then what does he say to the man?) He be there. He won't be there only if his work be there - that snake, a big rattlesnake. See, it gets down right in de front [of the courtroom]. And when you go dere and when dat gentleman talk, de snake stare in your face; and while the judge talking, de snake jes' licking his tongue. "Well, gentlemens, it's up to you - go upstairs and bring him down, guilty or not guilty." And when dey come back down, he not guilty. By dat snake, you see.
(How does that snake get into the courtroom?)
Aw, he get through a little crack anywhere.
(How does that root doctor get that snake there?)
He send it by de air.
Entry 249
Ah haven't heard 'em say nuthin' much about it, but ah has understandin' in dis way. Ah've been travelin' wit roots purtty good fo' awhile [for a pretty good while]. Ah'm twenty-eight years old an' ah had about eighteen years in it. See. An' ah went tuh a root man an' he explained it tuh me in dis way: Jes'if yo'wanta have luck yo' kin tote some de roots, dey say, "De Lawd is mah green pasture - -ah shall not want. He'p me to de green pasture." An' walk around de house three times befo' goin' tuh bed. Seven steps from de do' walk in back- wards, an' den he give de stuff to rub ovah yo' - yore han's, an' den yo' go to bed. De next mornin' yo' go roun' one time - dat's fo' luck.
[I did not record his story; now I want him to repeat it.]
(What kind of luck?)
Well, fo'gambling.
(You went to this fellow to get this luck?)
Ah went tuh him fo' two kinda lucks. Ah went to him fo' gamblin' an' ah went to him 'cause ah wus runnin' a business.
(This is what he did for you - told you what to do?)
Yes sir.
[Cylinder changed - I talk while changing.]
(You went to this root man for luck in gambling and luck in business. Now, just what did he do when you went there? Tell me the whole story.) When ah went dere, it was a good while befo' ah could see 'im, an' after ah went in an' tole mah position an' tole him whut ah needed an' everythin', he grabbed me in de pam of mah hand an' when he grabbed me in de pam of mah han' he tole - tole me de history of mah life an' tole me whut kind of shape ah was in - whut wus gon'a come an' whut was gon'a be happen, an' he say it'd [it would] take twenty dollahs tuh stop it. So after ah paid him, he fixed up de little bag of roots an' give 'em tuh me, an' ah left. An'befo' ah left he wrote me a story tuh tell [Psalm 23?] an' so after ah left den, he wrote me den fo' tuh come back up dere an' ah went back up dere an' ah tole him dat de officers wus givin' me right smart of trouble. An' he tole me, said, "Well, it will cost yo' eight dollahs to stop it." An' he wrapped me up a bag of dat tuh stop de officers, an' dey did stop. Dey stopped botherin' me any atall, after ah used it, an' he tole me how to use it. Drink three glasses of watah.
(Well now, wait a minute - the story. I want to straighten it out.)
The whole limit [?] of it?
(That's right.)
Well, mah uncle come from Florida an' he wus goin' down dere an' he tole me, said, "Come on, git in de car an' let's go down dere." So ah went down dere wit 'im. He went in dere first an' he give me twenty dollahs tuh go in dere. So after [afterward], ah went in dere an' explained it to de fellah an' he explain it back tuh me 'bout how much it cost.'Well," he say, "yo' be fixed up an' ah guarantee it - if yo' don't, yo' git chure money back." So after he [doctor] went in dere, him an' his wife fix up de stuff, a snake - whut ah mean, he brung a cup in dere but it turn into a snake an' it crawled through mah han'. An' he said, "Don't git nervous - if yo' do, it won't work so good." An' after ah did it, did whut he say, ah wus a little nervous; but ah kinda changed it when he brung de second snake in, an' ah got brave an' ah left. So dat worked pretty good. (Forget what you told me before. I want to begin right at the beginning and tell the whole thing. I don't know a thing about it, now. Now, tell me right from the beginning, all the details, the whole story. First, why did you go down to see this man? Tell me from there.) ['My voice a little exasperated" - this is my notation when I listened to the cylinder to check the transcriber's tran- scription.] Well, ah wus in bad luck, an' mah uncle come by an' ah told him 'bout it. An' he say, "Well, ah'm goin' tuh see a man to he'p me out on mah bolito in Florida. An' us went down dere an' after us got to de man, he [uncle] went in first. An' he give me twenty dollahs fo' me tuh go in. An' ah went in dere an' den de man commenced tuh workin' on me an' tole me how much he would charge. An' after he tole me how much he charge an' ah tole him it would be all right, he got de Bible an'read a verse in it. An' he went back an' got his wife. She brung a cup in dere an' it turnt into a snake or de snake wus in de cup. De snake crawled through mah han' an' he tole me not to git nervous. Well, ah did got nervous.
(Why did he tell you not to get nervous?)
Well, he said it wouldn't work, if ah got nervous - dat it wouldn't work. So de second time ah did not git nervous of de snake. So he fixed up fo' de gambling an' ah come on out.
(What did he give you?)
He give me a little root - a little bag full.
(Well, didn't he tell you how to use this stuff - or something?)
Yes sir.
(Well, tell me what you told me before - how you were to use this stuff.)
Well, yo' take it an' yo' walk around de house three times, walk seven steps away from de steps an' walk in backwards an' go in an' lay down. De next mawnin' vo' hol' a quarter up to de sun or a dollah - either one, it don't make not much diff'rent. An' after you hold dat quarter up dere yo' say, "Lawd he'p me through de green pastur [pasture]." An' after yo' say dat, yo' walk around de house one time - yo' say, "Lawd is mah shepherd, ah shall not want." Den run yore han' an' take some of dat stuff - yo' put it [the root bag] in whiskey [this is feeding the hand] an' den yo' rub it ovah yore face, yore arms. An' dat's for de luck in gamb ling.
(Then what happened - you said you went back the second time?)
Yes sir.
(What happened - you had a little trouble again?)
Yes sir - de polices wus givin' me trouble 'bout selling whiskey an' gambling. Well, ah went to him de second time an' ah told him. He wrote to me an' ah wrote him dat ah would be up dere on a Wednesday. Ah went up dere on a Wednesday an he tole me - ah tole him dat ah wus havin' bad luck from de polices runnin' me an' getting me fo' whiskey. An' he say, "Well, ah got a idea fo' dat." An' so ah went on in den - went in dis little room an' he got a room to tell yo' every diff'rent thing in. So ah went in one room an' ah tole him how de polices did tuh ketch me, an' so he tole me, say, "Well, it take eight dollahs to stop it." An' after he tole me it would take eight dollahs to stop it ah paid him, an' he give me a little hand to tote in mah right pocket all de time, an' when de polices - during de time dey supposed to travel dat beat, jes' roll mah jomoo an' dey'd pass on by. Well, ah tried it an' it worked. So ah left.
Entry 250
Ah had a cousin dat wus hurt like dat - mah first experience to it. They taken some of her hair an' dey put it in de back of a frog, an' her finger- nails an' toenails, an' they got that frog an' put him into a 'bacco sack an' dey put a piece of frog bread - dere's de stuff whut chew call frog bread.
(Frog bread - what is that?)
It's somethin' grows in de woods - jest comes up jest like a sprout. Yo' ever seen celery grow? Well, yo' know how when celery come up outa de ground it's right white. Well, dat's de way dat frog bread comes up but it spreads yo' know, as it gits up outa de ground - it spread kind round like a parasol [a mushroom, always called toadstool in folklore]. Dey put a portion of dat in dat. An' afterward dey taken dat frog to mah cousin house an' dey sewed it up in de bed mattress an' dey had some pins in dat frog - [pins in dat] frog bread, tacked down. An' as dat frog - after it got in action - after dey sewed dis up in mah cousin bed - dis frog de longer it go - after it was fixed - an' as dis frog would Jump, she would fits right after one another. An' she wus jest wizlin' away to nothin'. Well, we could take her 'way from home, we could take her 'way from there an' she would git along pretty well, an' we thought she wus well enough to take back home; we'd taken her back dere an' no quicker'n she hit dat bed, she begin havin' dose fits. Dere wus a ole doctor, Mr. Marlborough.
(White or colored?)
Colored - we'd taken her tuh him. So he sont us back an' he tole her he'd be to her house de next day. Well, on de same day dat he promised us dat he would be dere, he wus dere on de noonsday hour. He goes [in] dere - he wouldn't let her see him take it out - he'd taken mah mother an' aunt an' also her husband. He went into de mattress an' he cut dat frog outa dere which dey had - dey says dey had examined it but dey refused [failed] tuh find [anything] but he went in dere an' seem to let 'em see it. So he bring it from de middle room back tuh where mah mother lived an' he'd taken it out an' he cut dat sack open an' out come de [live] frog: He tole us, says - before he ever did it - he said, "When ah open dis sack - de direction dat de ones who done it, dat direction dat dis frog gon'a try tuh go." An' sure 'nuff jest lak he did - it wus true. So he'd taken it out an' [there was] stuck in dere bluestone, stuff de color of graveyard dirt, her hair, fingernails an' all - I'll never forgit it - he po'red it down in de yard. An' he said, "Now, when ah burn dis stuff, when ah say, "strike a match to it, '" say, "hit gon'a burn like fire in all colors it gon'a be." Ah nevah see nuthin' like it befo' or since. He said, "It gon'a be a snake come heah an' dis snake he is gon'a venture to bit her" - a great long black one. He sot dat stuff afire an' it wus a long blacksnake come runnin' up an' he did his best tuh make it tuh her but he kilt it - ah reckon he jest didn't even know whut he wus doin' an' he kilt it. So he burnt dat up. He say, "In three days' time from dis day, de ones who done it, dey will leave outen de roof of dat house." De ole lady name Charlotte an' her daughter wus named Mamie, an' dey would be wanderin' from place tuh place. Course ah nevah - ah wus young den - ah nevah did learn how he done it, understand - dey have been wandering. But ah do - ah take a man oath - ah know dat's true.
The informant reports pins in the frog, followed by Hyatt's bracketed insertion and frog bread. Placement remains ambiguous; all three source layers are retained. Read the complete cousin narrative for its reported events and treatment claims, which remain unverified.
Read full source (printed page 72) · Read full source (printed page 73)
Entry 251
Once mah grandfather wus hurt. Dere's ole lady - he had kill a terrapin once, and de nex' morning he got up, when he put his boot on, de terrapin head was in de boot. And he shuck his boot, choo know, before he put it on, and it fell out. And mah grandmother said, "Wonder wot dat thing doin here?" Papa say, "I killed dis terrapin yesterday an'," he say, "here his head, dis is in mah boot." It was a ole lady wanted him to go with her and he wouldn't do it. And he went on back to work as musely [usually] and he taken sick on de job and he couldn't make it home. He got down and tried to crawl to the house. And ah saw 'im, you know, tryin' to make it to the house, and ah went out dere, me an' - mahself an' mah mother got him and carried him on to de house. An' dey made him some red pepper tea and put dis three pieces of silver [money] in there, in dis pepper tea, an' gave it to him to drink, and that cured him. He killed him [the terrapin] where he was workin' at; he left him there. I reckon she had it fixed so that she mean for this thing to bite him, you know. Well, if it had'a bit him it would of killed him. That thing he said had been follerin' him up an' down de ditch bank, you know, and he killed it and left it there.
[For a terrapin put inside a person, see No. 10.]
Entry 252
Yo' kin take a toadfrog an' send him to people house. Yo' kin tell him tuh go dere an' if dey ketch him [and] hang him up in dey fireplace - if a toad- frog come to yore house an' yo' ketch him an' hang him up - hang him up de chimley an' he'll dry up. An' de mo' he dry up, whosomevah sent him dere dey'll dry up de same way. An' 'long as dat frog hang dere dey'll come dere an' dey'll begin tuh fade away lak dat frog do.
(How would you send the frog to a person's house - the toadfrog?)
Jes' tell 'im dey name an' he'll go dere. A frog came to mah mama's house one day an' he'd come dere every morning, be sittin' in de fireplace. An' so she tried dat an' hit was a lady come dere. She'd come dere an' stand to dat fire- place every morning, an' so Mama taken de frog down. She livin' today - mama taken de frog down. She'd come dere long as dat frog hung up dere. [Waycross, Ga., (1134), 1842:17.] [The black cat bone or black cat lucky bone or the lucky bone involves the killing or abuse of a black cat. The principal theme of this rite is boiling a live black cat; the variations are many. Most unusual of these is the symbolism of the three little rooms, an experience of Informant 1532, whose complete inter- view is in the Interview section.]
Entry 253
Well, de tell me dat chew kin go out in de woods an' git chew a black cat, solid black cat, an' yo' kill him. An' yo' boil him till yo' boil all de bones - boil all de meat off de bones. Take to a runnin' branch an' po' dem bones in dat watah, an' de lucky bone will swim, an' de bone dat no good - de bones whut no good will stay on de bottom of de watah. An' yo' take dat bone an' bring it on back home, an' yo' say three words an' de Lord's Prayer. Den yo' take an' sew it up in yo' sack an' tote it - wear it [this hand] in de right hand of yore pocket an' yo'll have all de luck in de world dat chew want.
(You say three words - what are those words?)
"Lord have Mercy."
(And then you say the Lord's Prayer after that?)
Yes sir.
Entry 254
I git me a black cat. I'll take this black cat. I'll put dis cat on alive. I boil this black cat an' whutevah bone comes to the top of dat, that's called, they say, sellin' yerself to the devil. All right. I kin take that bone but I got to go to a house by mahself. An' in boilin' that cat I got to put a top on that cat an' boil this cat alive. An' I got to stand zamination between de devil an' his imps. It'll come a great many things. They come a whole gang of little people in there to dance with me. I've got to do this in the dahk. But when they git in they'll bring their own light, de own music an' ever'thing An' if I kin go through that zamination, an' that cat gits done - the meat boil offen that cat bone, the very bone that I want, the black cat's bone, is comin' to the top. Well, I kin git that an' tote it. Jis' as long as I kin tote it, I can go in your house or I kin walk up to you, take money out of yer pocket; or I kin go in amongs' a sto'keeper an' go behind the counter an' git the money out. They kin't see me come out. They may shoot at me an' can't hit me a' [or] nothin' as long as I keep that black cat's bone. I've sold mahself to the devil.
Entry 255
De way ah know it or de way ah've heard it - ah have nevah had any personal experience about it, but de way ah've heard it is dat yo' ketch de cat an' keep the cat nine days. An' in de ninth day yo' throw de cat into it - jis' as he is, life an' all - into a boilin' pot of watah, an' de bone dat bristles up out of his back aftah de boilin' is de bone which yo' want.
(Then what do you do with that bone?)
Yo' wear that bone on yore person. Dat's de lucky bone.