Browse:SPIRITS WITH SPECIAL FORMS (Volume 1, entries 115–202)/Part 2
SPIRITS WITH SPECIAL FORMS
Volume 1, entries 115–202. Source context: SPIRITS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
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.