Browse:Silver (Volume 1, entries 1514–1558)
Silver
Volume 1, entries 1514–1558. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → CURE AND PROTECTION. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1514
Dey wear that roun' their laig, de dime - put a hole in it an' wear it roun' dere laig to keep off witchcraft.
(So if you walk over anything of that sort?) Yes, it wouldn't hurt chew.
Entry 1515
Well, if anybody dat put whut dey call roots at chew, yo' see, yo' kin wear a dime wit a hole in it round yore neck an' yo' kin wear one round yore laigs. Course ah say ah've tried dat mahself an' de dime will change de color - it gits black, see. Dat's fur as ah could say on dat part.
Entry 1516
Well, ah haven't heard of 'em doin' anything but jes' borin' a hole in a dime an' puttin' nine kmots on a piece of cotton string an' tyin' it through the dime an' puttin' one around each laig fo' cramps an' sprains an' things.
Entry 1517
Well, you take a silver dime and you tie nine knots in a cord string and you wear them in turpentine [knots soaked in turpentine, see Turpentine title later] - [or] six of them in green coal oil, and you bore a hole in that dime and wear it around your ankle, and you take the dust that you bored the hole outa that dime and put it in vaseline and make a salve and rub it around your waist, and they can't do you anything. Yes, if they put it down for you, it won't take on you. That silver, it'll keep it from taking on you. [No question asked at the time indicated I thought I knew the meaning of green coal oil. This could be crude oil, green indicating unrefined rather than color; otherwise, a coal oil (kerosene) colored green sounds like a hoodoo commercial firm product. The choice is between 9 knots in turpentine or 6 in qreen coal oil.] [New Orleans, La., (851), 1317:6; informant "excellent."] 011.
Entry 1518
Take ten cents [dime] and put three holes in it and they say that'll keep anybody from hurting you. You tie around your neck or either around your ankle. You gen'ally tie it around your left ankle.
Entry 1519
If anybody tryin' tuh harm yo' an' do a little stunt [= trick], take one silver dime - a silver dime an' some sulphur an' cut de bottom of de shoes inside an' lay dat dime's worth of sulphur in dere an' put dat dime on top of it, yo' see, an' wear dat dime right in de bottom of yore shoes all de time.
(You just use that in one shoe?)
No sir, in both of them.
(Both shoes - the dime in each shoe?)
Yes sir, with the sulphur underneath of 'em. [Dime and sulphur is laid under insole; sometimes a depression being cut in the sole for the dime.] [Savannah, Ga., (1271), 2151.1
Entry 1520
Take a silver dime an' put in a quart of watah an' boil it down to about a teacupful, an' tie de dime down yore laig an' yo' kin walk ovah anything dey is on earth.
(You have to boil that dime first, though?)
[He said this but I am asking for a repetition which often produces other details.] Oh yes! oh yes! Yo' take de dime an' boil it in a quart of water down to about a teacupful [magic of diminishing amount] and put de dime down yore laig.
(Either leg?)
Either laig an' yo' kin walk ovah anything.
Entry 1521
Dey says if anybody put anything down fo' yo' to walk on, why yo' take a piece of silver an' scrape it off lak that an' make a tea out of it an' drink it, an then aftah yo' make the tea, then take an' put a hole in it. Co'se it jingle fo' a time on accounta they's small. An' tie it round yore laig an' then they can't do anything to yo' - or roun' yore knee. They can't do anything to yo'.
Entry 1522
Put a dime roun' de baby's neck when de baby's small. Yo' know, lak people lak tuh look at people's babies, dey say he'll blink himself an' won't grow; so people put a dime roun' his neck an' den keep people from blinkin' so he kin grow.
Entry 1524
A dime on dere laigs or either tie it roun' dere arm or wear it around dere neck.
(What is that supposed to do?)
Well, dat keep down de pains fo' heart trouble.
Entry 1525
I hear 'em said that anybody don't want nobody to hurt 'em, to give 'em nuthin, hurt 'em inside, why they kin take a dime, but no one dime of his own. They got a dime, take it an' swap it with somebody else, git another dime. Well, they kin take that an' file it up an' put it in a - file the whole dime up an' put it in a teaspoonful of sulphur an' take that, put it in the mouth, take some water an' wash it down. Well, if you eat anything, if anybody put anything down in somepin to eat for yeh, you kin eat an' it won't hurt yeh.
Entry 1526
He got poison in some whiskey. Don't know what he [poisoner] had in there, but he'll pour it in your liquor. Well, another fellow gave him [poisoned man], sent him a dime, a silver dime unaware to him - he didn't know anything about it. This fellow's wife cut this silver dime with a file and gave it to him to drink in sweet milk. [This is the magic rite of the unknown remedy, one of many devices for hoodwinking the disease spirit within.] That helped him awhile, until they got him to an old lady and she gave him some - some blacksnake root and rose water and May-water (see p.381) together. You take the blacksnake root, a package of blacksnake root from the drug store, and you pour it in your water, in your - or anything you going to put it in and then pour it - put this May-water and rose water in thataway and let it get hot, good and hot, and then when she cool down you drink it. And this poison in you, it'll pass up and down, from this way and that way [from mouth or bowels]. You understand. If it too hard here, well it come from up above. And through the rose water it will go through the lower bowels - it'll pass, all be gone. And the fellow will become well - that sickness will leave him.
Entry 1527
Like someone put somepin in your food, joo can - when you go to eat, joo put a dime under your tongue to keep 'em from hurting you.
Entry 1528
Take a dime made in 1898 an' yo' kin place it under yore tongue an' if anyone is tryin' tuh give yo' any poison or anything, yo' kin drink all yo' want an' that dime will take that poison from it - yo'll nevah git poisoned wit it. Then, when yo' take that dime from under there an' drink dis stuff, yo' kin take it an' wear it round yore laig an' yo'll never - nobody never could poison yo', jes' long as yo' keep that dime round yore laig. Let it be a silver dime though.
Entry 1529
I remember one time of a gentleman in our home taken violently sick and what was the ailment nobody knowed. They had the medical doctors to come to him and they seemed to do him no good - the medicine they gave him put him in a rage. So then they decided to go and get some root doctor and see if they could do any good. So at last one day they found a man named Doc F., who came to see this man how he was. And after getting there he walked into the room of this sick man and asked his wife, "How's his urine?" And she told him the best she knew how. So he asked her did she have a Canadian piece of money. She told him yes. So he asked her for a dime of Canadian money. She got it and gave it to him. And he compound this piece of Canadian money into dust, mixed it with whiskey and gin and vaseline, and gave it to this man to drink. He dranked it. He stayed with the man all night. And during the night he gave the man two doses of purgative medicine, and the next morning the man was under complusion to have a discharge; and after having this discharge, they found ground puppies, frogs and snakes, and everything of this kind in his urine pot. [Old Point Comfort, Va., (27), Ed.; Dinwiddie Co., Va.,1916.]
Entry 1530
Cut yo' a silver dime into fo' parts wit a file, if anybody have given you any poison or anything dataway. Yo' take an' cut de silver dime into fo' parts, an' yo' take yo' some fresh beef lard an' take de cow milk an' drink that, an' yo'll vomit everything that chew took - fight it right now, in about fifteen minutes everything will come up. (You just take the dust of the dime. You don't cut the dime all the way throughthen?) Yo cut dat dime all de way through see, because yo' goin' tuh swallow that silver.
(But you must cut the silver into four parts.)
Yo' cut into fo' parts an' den roundin' it so it won't irritate de entrails, makin' it very round so yo' won't have no sharp point on it atall. See. Take an' mix it with that milk, that cow milk, an' that fresh lard an' drink it down. Anything that chew take that won't kill yo' in de co'se of twenty minutes, it comes right back up.
(You don't use the dust?)
No, not de dust - dat's very dangerous, de dust. If de dust git into de intestines dataway, yo' understan', an' settle - why, yo' understan', yo' got'a file it aroun' an' make it small enough tuh swallow de same as a pill yo' know. Not de dust. [Sometimes the whole dime is swallowed - see Dime in Index.]
Entry 1531
And there was a lady that live right in my block. She's been sick a long time. She been going to the hospital and the doctors and things, and she said maybe something was done to her. I say, "I don't know whether anything's done to you or not, but actually if it is," I say, "it is something simple - you can tell 'fore day's dying out if it is." So I made her get two dimes and I made her have the man to grate them dimes up right fine, fine, fine. Well, she grate those dimes up and I say, "Get you some sweet milk." Well, she got some sweet milk and I made her put them dimes in there and just a little pinch of aloes and she drinked it. She passed nothing but worms - long worms and it - she's right there, right where I'm at now. And she called me for to see the worms what - when she went to urinate [frequently used for defecate]. Then I made her take a dose of oil on top of that, you know, for to work her. And she took that oil. I bet they was calling me next morning to see those - how they was running from her, just trying to get away. She's right there in the block now.
Entry 1532
Ah heard dat chew put two dimes around yore laigs, but git two dimes of de same years - 1912. Be sure dey both of 'em is de same year an' tie dem round yore laig an' yo' walk ovah anything an' it won't hurt cha.
(You tie one around each leg.)
Entry 1533
If someone is tryin' tuh do yo' evil, well yo' begin tuh take yo' some prayahs. Yo' takes a prayah outa de Bible. Yo' takes one pod of peppah, red peppah, two silvah dimes - dat's twenty cents. Yo' takes de pod of de peppah an yo' puts it into a cloth an' yo' grinds dat peppah an' salt togethah jes' as a powdah an' yo' sews it up in a bag an' yo' keeps it undah de bottom of yore feet always - don' nevah go without it. Take dat dime [two dimes] an' dat peppah an' put it all undah yore foot an' always wear it, an' de ones dat is trying tuh do it, if yo' git their name, yo' kin write their name down, which is nine times, an' put hit in yore shoes. An' wear it jes' with that peppah an' it's no harm dat dey kin do to yo'.
(You wear one of those pods under each foot then?)
Under each feet. (Each has a dime an' each has a piece of pepper and each has some salt in it and their name?) Yassuh, each one of their name in dat shoe.
Entry 1534
Yo' take three dimes, if anybody do anything to yo'. Well yo' take three dimes an' put 'em in a quart of watah an' boil 'em down to a pint. Well dat spell will git off of 'em.
(What do you do with the water then?)
Yo' drink it.
Entry 1535
Three dimes made in the same year - three pieces of silver, but'they must be silver dimes and they must be a dime dat de woman settin' upon. Let me show you. [He shows me a dime.] It mustn't be that, just de neck and the head it must be the whole woman. Well, you must git three pieces of dese and they must be made in the same year, and put 'em into a little vinegar and you take three swallows for nine mornings off of that. And then dose things will begin to worry. And after dey work, den you kin tell whether they're [live things] in you. Den you kin go and git you some mulleins, git you some broom sedge root, git you some siZkroot [silkweed]. You mix all that together, make you a tea. Then you git you some potash, mix that with it. You git a little wormwood and mix with it too.
Entry 1536
I fell in my flower garden an' they taken me in de house an' by that night I couldn't walk on one of my legs an' I didn't seem to be sick any at all before. An' that night dere came some little black pimples, pizen places on it, three of 'em on my leg. An' another woman come dere an' tole 'em in de house whut to fix for me to cure it. She tole me to get a tablespoonful of salt an' a tablespoonful of sulphur an' three dimes an' ten cent worth of Brown Mule Tobacco, an' boil that together an' bathe in it. Take de tobacco when it get cool enough, that wus in it, an' jis bathe my leg from my hip on down and from my feet on out (see pp.369-377) fer three times. You bathe in de same water three times - you bathe tonight, well jis' sit it aside an' de next night heat de same thing up an' bathe in that the second time, [and] de third time do de same thing the nex' night. That's fer three nights. An' de las' night at twelve o'clock throw it - take de dimes out an' throw dis stuff, cup an' all in de middle of de street an' tell it, "From de devil you come from an' de devil you go back." That's whut they tole me to say an' so I did that. [To "take de dimes out" of the bathwater before throwing it into the street is unusual - cf. No. 997, p.384 and No. 1552, p.491 - but "de devil" may make this a rite of turning back spell on culprit rather than a rite of transference to a stranger.] Then I got nine dimes an' boiled them from a quart to a pint an' then drink de water off that. Made two drinks out of it, choo know - drink one half one time an' the other half another time. An' before I did that, the first thing they gave me was a pint of milk. I drank that, sweet milk.
Entry 1537
Jis' like anyone got poison through liquor or anything like that, you take some dimes, seven dimes an' put 'em in gas [gasoline] an' water, an' you take 'em out gasoline an' put 'em whiskey, [take 'em out of whiskey] an' then boil 'em, an: then when you done boil 'em you drink the whiskey an' that'll kill poison. [For gasoline as protection, see p.446.]
Entry 1538
If a person got dem live things in 'em, you kin git chew nine dimes an' take an' git chew one dose little cornered file an' git yo' a piece of newspapah. Yo' file one-half of each one of dose nine dimes an' git chew half a pint of sweet milk and take dat dust an' po' into dat drink of sweet milk. Let that silver lie in yo' all night long till de next mawnin'. Den yo' git up an' git chew a brand new bottle of castor oil an' take. That silver, dat kills that thing, and oil jis' - it'll all pass out. Silver kills poison.
Entry 1539
One time I was poisoned an' I taken with a pain in my stomic an' head- ache. Well, I taken real sick. I begin to throw up an' ev'rything I throw up was jis' as green as grass an' bitter as gall. Well, they sent fer de doctor. The doctor came. He give me a 'scription of doctor medicine. Well, I taken a dose of de medicine an' de medicine stayed in me I guess about two minutes. An' de medicine made me awfully sick, made me worser than I was. An' I threw it right back up. Well, we had twelve doctors[il!]. [Twelve doctors like every doctor in town is an exaggerated expression not mean to be taken literally - a hyperbole.] They didn't any do me any good. They did me worser instead of good. De medicine would do me worser all de time. So after that, they said, "Well, dere must be something to do." So I sent my sister to the store an' got a box of Squibbs soda an' a box of sulphur. I taken a teaspoonful of that. And that stayed in me. It gave me a little relief. After that I got nine silver dimes. I boiled them dimes good. Then I let the water cool. I drink nine swallows for nine mornin's. An' I improved an' began to get better. Then I got some Eve- an'-Adam [Adam-and-Eve] - that's a little roots. I boiled de Eve-an'-Adam an I drinked de tea of that an' I got better.
Entry 1540
This wus my daughter. Well, it wus give her in a apple an' this apple wus poison; we think it wus dressed. Well, she'd take sick on the young of the moon every moon. The poison would swell her - sick in the stomach an' her laigs. An' that went on. Then I went to a doctor an' the doctor says he give her up. Well, he didn't know whut wus wrong. The medicine he used, you know, instead of gettin better, for a year she got worse. An' so one of my brother-in-laws from Brunswick wus here. He would insist, you know, on sendin' me to a woman an' this woman I went to she liveded on Second Street. She wus one those ladies, you see, a woman that knowed how to cure folks, you see. An' she explained it to him whut it wus. She said this child wus poisoned in a apple. I remembered after[ward]. She ate hit I didn't [think anything about it at the time].
(How old was your daughter?)
She wus eighteen months old.
(When she ate this apple?)
Yes. An' after, one of my frien' speakin' with this woman [doctor]. An' she said, her name wus Lucy, she [following woman doctor's instructions] told me whut to do with child. She told me when she got crampin' at home - an' I explained to her how long this child would been like dat - an' she said dis child wus poisoned from me not givin' her no [root doctor] doctor medicine. Then she tole me whut to do. She tole me to take thirty-five cents in silver - twenty-five centsea [a quarter] an' a dime, an' boil that in a quart of water down to a pint. An' then she tole me to take it out de water an' scrape some of it an' boil that [in another quart of water] down to a pint, and then when I cooked 'em [each of these separate quarts of water] down to a pint, she told me to put a teaspoonful of table salt.
(Which water?)
An' after I did that this swellin', you know, commence to leavin'. An' I'd give her this medicine three times a day. The first time it passed through her, you know, it wus as green as grass; the second an' third time [the green was weaker] until it cleared up. An' she got her - this swellin' an' everything would leave her an' it continue on an' in six-month time that fixed it. She was all right but she tell me that she had this poison so long that she'd never be sound an' strong as if her normal self. An' so she lived then until the six day of de month last March. She died in the night.
(How old was she when she died?)
Seven.
Entry 1541
I heard of a lady - she wusn't none of mah people - an' she got tricked choo see by a snake. And they said this woman had got some ole snake sheds, joo know, an' throwed it into her water bucket. An' she drank water off it an' that create snakes in her flesh. Well, she goes to someone an' they tole her about it - told her whut it wus, an' told whut to get to cure her. An' she went an' got it. She told her to get three pieces of silver money - fifty cents, twenty- five cent, an' ten cent, an' some silkroot an' boil it. Put it in a quart of water an' boil it down to a pint an', you know, jis' keep doin' that an' drink off it. An' that cured it.
Entry 1542
Take five fifty-cents [five half dollars] if a woman got short hair an' let her boil it an' take de watah off it - off de [five] fifty-cents an' wash her haid with it an' make her have long hair.
The instruction aims at making hair long through washing; no growth result is established.
Entry 1543
Yo've heard people say dey boil eight halfa dollah [eight half dollars] in silver an' give that person the watah off it, an' dey say fin'lly, event'lly, dey'll git out chew. (That is to kill these live things in you.)
Entry 1544
Fo' poison yo' kin take a silver dollah an' boil it in a halfa gallon of watah an' boil it down to a quart wit dat dollah in dere, an' den when yo' take dat dollah [out] put a dime in dere an' drink off of it. But put chew a little sugah in dere, jes' enough to dress it, an' drink off it an' it will kill de poison. [Unusual use of word dress.]
Entry 1545
Git one of dese little three-edged file and git chew a silver dime an' scrape a little dat silver, and den take a teaspoonful of salt - I mean to say and sulphur, and jes' three drops of camphor and a glass of sweet milk. Dat will git de poison out of you, if dey's got dis dope by witchcraft in you.
Entry 1546
Ah know dis mahself - ah seen de man when he come out but ah hadn't seen whut had happened.
(You saw the man what?)
De man dat had went wit a woman, de woman dat anothah woman wus goin' wit 'er husband, an' she wus fren's wit dis woman an' she eated at dis woman's house - gi'ed her somepin tuh eat. An' den after gittin' somepin tuh eat, she wus sick, sick, sick an' in bed - in bed, stayed in bed. So after while, fin'lly, she feel things workin' up in her stomach - she see some things wus workin' up in her stomach. So she seen she wus sick, so dey went tuh graveyard an' git two tablespoon of graveyard dust, an' tuh git a quart of sweet milk, an' den dey put dis two tablespoon of graveyard dirt in de milk an' dey boil it. An' after dey boil it fo' a little while, dey take it out an' dey strain it an' take a new file. Git a new file an' git some silver.money, an' den yo' saw [file] some of dat silver money up in dis milk an' graveyard dust tuhgethah. An' den in two doses de maggots come from her.
Entry 1547
If yo' got anything in yo', yo' git chew some parsley an' some sweet milk an' a silver dime, an' yo' grates dis silver money an' yo' supposed tuh give 'em a pint of dat sweet milk wit dat boiled parsley in it an' dat grated silver dime, three times a day at six in de mawnin' an' twelve at noon an' six at night, an' yo' give it to 'em fo' nine days. An' den at the end of de nine days then yo' give 'em some kind of purgative medicine an' work it on 'em. Dat'll make 'em pass it. Whensomevah dey have any kind of insects or anything dey got in 'em, yo' see, dis heah sweet milk will kill it. An' den when de sweet milk an' de silver dime positively kills it in yo', den yo' gives 'em a purgative an' dat makes yo' pass it right out.:
Entry 1548
Lak when yo' come tuh mah house an' ah got anything against yo', if ah wanta hurt yo', ah'll fix somepin an' yo' eat dat an' yo' gits sick. So dis man, yo' know, he drunk some whiskey at a woman's house an' on de way tuh curin' him, somebody got a dime, a silver dime, an' took dat silver dime an' scraped it. An' den he got some gunpowder an' he got sweet milk an' mix it together an' give it to 'im. An' he puked dat stuff up.
Entry 1549
They say yo' can take de lodestone and boil it into de sweet milk and a silver dime and file it and git de silver from de dime. Yo' take de saltpeter and de sulphur an' yo' make jes' a medicine of it. Yo' put dat on de inside. Yo' take de poke root, de saltpeter and de sulphur and gunpowder and use it as a bath an' fish brine an' that will kill it.
(What do you put.inside you?)
You put inside you this saltpeter and the sulphur and the lodestone, yo' see, boil this into the sweet milk - inside. Yo' can take de gunpowder inside, tain't goin' hurt chew - gunpowder don't hurt anybody. Yo' use that into de inside. An' then tuh tell whether you've got the stuff in yo' or not, dey tell me yo' kin take a silver dime - a real silver dime and put it in yore mouth and it will turn black immediately, and then yo' kin tell if these things into yo'.
(How do you do that?)
Hold it into yore mouth until a certain - jest about an hour, and dey say if anything like dat in yuh, it certainly will turn black.
Entry 1550
They took some of her underclothes and bury 'em under de front step. We had to send to South Carolina to git a fellah to work on her mind. He said she walk over it nine mornings, dat was the cause of her be like dat. So he told us to git her some siZkroot and boil it with some money, silver money, and let her drink de liquid; and take a brand-new towel, dat nobody ever used, and wear it aroun' 'er waist next to the skin and dat would cure 'er. [Wilmington, N. Car., (226), 220:1; Savannah, Ga.,1929.]
Entry 1551
Well, they give her, made her use 'bacco [tobacco], money [silver], mullein and fish oil - that was all in it. She use it but all that had to be mixed together, but she would bathe her leg down in de mullein, money and 'bacco, and after using that, why she would - they called it eel-fish oil and it was eel- fish oil. Well, she'd have to get that and she been using that pract'ly up to now sometime. So we never did get her straight, but she went to diff'rent people and all, and they told her the cause of it, the woman that did it - why, had her tricked that way and why. She died from that. (And somebody down below Natchez told her to use this remedy.)
The eligible source wording is 'bacco; the earlier tobacco expansion is bracketed editorial matter.
Entry 1552
All right. You will take you some cinnamon powder, you will take some bluing, you will take you some Jockey Club Perfume. You.will mix that together. You will go to the market and get some parsley, you'll boil it well - after boiling it well, making a solution, putting that in their bathtub where the party bath at, leaving them bath in that tub, putting a amount of [silver] money in the water which you bath with. After that water - you bath with it, keeping it in the house overnight, 'fore day in the morning throwing it out into the street or the path wheresomever the people go to and fro. Leave them pick up that money and they will take your bad luck and you'll start off new again. [Cf. 997, p.384.]
(What will you do with that money then?)
The money that you throw out into the street?
(Oh, you throw the money out into the street?)
That's to keep them from passing by - anyone will pick up money if they practically see it in the street. Well, the solution that you see in the water, that's to wash all your bad luck off you, and the money draws it into the money, and throwing it out - well the one who picks up that, they picks up the bad luck.
(I see.) [For "the money draws it into the money," see No.1558, p.493.]
Entry 1553
Well, if dey had anything down, yo' could take a silver dime an' git some of dat silver offa dat dime an' make a wish - yo' know, yo' don't want no trouble or nuthin tuh come against yore place, or yo' don't wanta be swole up or whutnot. Scrape some of dat silver off an' yo' kin put it in yore shoe. Jes' sprinkle a little bit, take up dat sole in yore shoe, de first sole, an' sprinkle a little of dat silver - all dat in de hollow [arch] of yore feet, yo' might say. Den yo' kin take some cayenne peppah an' saltpeter, jes' about a quarter or halfa teaspoon, an' make a cross an' put hit in his shoe. An' hit won't hurt chure business whatevah they put down; it won't hurt chew or nuthin. It kills dat, whatevah they brought there.
(You mean you sprinkle this stuff in the form of a cross?)
[He reexplains, adding details.]
Yo' kin take a papah, yo' understan' - take some table salt that hasn't been used an' yo' make yore wishes. Always make yore wish to de Father, de Son, when- evah yo' want things tuh vanish away an' don't harm yo'. Yo' put some of that silver first in yore shoes [under first sole] an' then yo' takes that table salt that hasn't been used an' yo' kin take some cayenne peppah that hasn't been used an' then yo' folds it in a little papah, jes' a little thin papah wit jes' a little bit in it. Then yo' folds it like a fan. Then yo' take the peppah an' put up on top of that saltpeter as a cross in yore shoe lak that.
(You put each one in a little package - these two packages are crossed then?)
Dey crossed and you layi 'em cross lak that in yore shoe in the flat part of yore shoe, an' whatevah they brought there it won't harm yo'. [The silver dust and two packages of mixed salt and cayenne pepper above it are crossed first with saltpeter and then these are crossed with red pepper - this being two crosses, a double-cross.]
Entry 1554
Lak a spirit or somethin' lak dat, dat chew wanta kill an' keep 'em from messin' with yo', yo' take de balls out [shotgun shell] an' put chew a silver dime in dere an' shoot it, an' dey claim it won't bother yo' no mo'. (This spirit won't bother you no more?) [This repetition of his words is unconscious, not intended.] No suh. [A spirit cannot be killed as he admits later.]
Entry 1555
Ah've heard dat yo' could take a gun an' jes' lak anything dat was hard to handle [a spirit or hag], yo'll take a silver ball or sech as dat. Jes' take yo' a piece of silver an' melt it an' make a ball, somepin. Well, now yo' kin take dat an' jes' say kill - yo' kin kill anything an' it don't make no noise atall. Jes' lak a person could come right up heah now [upstairs where I was working in the hotel] an' go tuh kill one of us, if dey had a silver ball an white powder dey call it; dey could come right heah an' shoot one of us, why dere's nobody nevah heah de report of it.
Entry 1556
Sometimes in shooting a ghost or striking at it they shoot or hit themselves. The ghost may do something to them.
Entry 1557
Well now, you see, it's two kind - dere good spirits an' dere evil spirits, an' evil spirits is hard tuh control. If yo' don't know how tuh control 'en yo' cain't do much with 'em, dey'll run ovah yo'. But yo' kin take yo' a silver spoon an' yo' kin control 'em with dat spoon. Yo' kin take dat silver spoon an' put it up ovah de do' or anywhere round near de do' wherevah at dey come in at an' worry yo' - dey can't come ovah dat silver.
(The evil spirits?)
No sir, dey can't come ovah dat silver. Or yo' kin use a piece of new bo'd. Yo' kin take any kinda piece of new bo'd, jes' so it's big as my finger, an' tack it right up ovah where de do' where dey - ah 'magine dey come in at. Yo' usually kin tell where dey come in at - dey'll come in - yo'll hear de do' squeakin' or make some noise or 'nother. Whatevah direction dey come in from, yo' put dat up ovah dere - dat'll keep 'em out. [For "new bo'd, ' see margin-title Wood - New Wood Against Spirits; also Index.]
Entry 1558
[I will end this margin-title concerning silver with my only example of an unusual belief about a very common rite:] Hear of 'em usin' a dime fo' sech as poison. Says if dere's any poison an' yo' have a dime roun' yore ankle an' yo' walk in de poison, dat dime will turn black; an' if yo' urine in [on] dat dime it will gradually take all dat poison away, but if yo' don't renew it, it will go on to yore heart.
(But you will get well if you renew the dime?)
Yessuh. [Here the dime has taken over the qualities of a madstone, which have been described as follows: A madstone, according to an old farmer who once saw one used, is grey and resembles a hog kidney. Years ago someone living near him had been bitten by a mad dog, and the owner of a madstone was called in to work the cure. The latter began by putting his madstone against the bite, where it stuck for a long time like a magnet and could not be removed. This signified, said the operator; that the madstone was sucking out the poison: further, as soon as it was thoroughly saturated, it would drop off the wound. Thus the madstone eventually let loose, and he placed it in a crock of milk which turned grey immediately. This process of administering the madstone and then dipping it into the milk was repeated seven times. When it was applied for the eighth time, it no longer adhered, indicating that all the poison had been extracted: but to make certain, the healer asked for another crock of milk and swished the madstone in it as a final test. The milk remained white. ( (FACI, 1st ed., 1935, No. 4540, p.218;2ed.,1965, No.4709, p.204.)] [Any dime, worn as a protection against poisonous substances swallowed or roots walked over, will absorb the poison. This power of absorption by silver appears to be inexhaustible, but in the present belief my informant says a dime has a capacity for holding poison; anything beyond this limit will go to your heart and kill you. To be on the safe side, he continues, you must periodically cleanse the dime by urinating on it. Urine shows your contempt for the poison spirit; it leaves at once. Here the dime, the silver spirit, is treated as a hand which must be fed for renewed strength (see subsection Hands). How urine repells and attracts at the same time is no more mysterious than your intention. The skeptic may ask, "When a dime starts to blacken, why not substitute a new dime?" That question could be answered in various ways but the real answer is simple - if you believe substitution will work for you, it will work for you.]