Browse:Spirits: Diagnosis by (Volume 1, entries 624–627)
Spirits: Diagnosis by
Volume 1, entries 624–627. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 624
She told me that her husband was running with a woman and she said that it was revealed in her to whup his tracks - jis' take a stick like a whup. See, jis' like he track down a plow row, see plowed-up land, and jis' whup his track and say, "Go, go, go." And she declares dat dis man moved shortly. Says he come right by her doah and said, "I's leavin' this plantation," said, "I ain't gon'a stay here no longah."
(Who revealed this to her?)
She said it was God.
Entry 625
Well, ah had a sister an' ah know that was true. An' a rootman told her he [her sister's husband] had a sweetheart woman he was living with befo' he married mah sister. An' he told her, said that he would nevah live with mah sister, which he didn't live with her no longer den but about a month or little better. An' she [sweetheart woman] had some of her friends to slip in dere some Way or 'nother an' she had seven ole rusty keys an' seven pods of peppah an' seven needles - well, she had 'em ovah each do', one ovah de back do' an' one ovah de front. Dey nevah woulda found it unless [as] ah said, de spirit brought it to her mind. At last one day she spoke, said, "Ah believe ah'll look up ovah dis do' an' see whut's heah." She looked up dere an' dat's where she found it. Well, mah mother, she'd taken these to a man in [name of town not clear] an' this man tole her, said, "That was to keep her out all dem many years - keep her out de house, dat she nevah would live dere any mo'." But after she had found these things why he could turn it back on de woman, an' so mah mother tole him, why she didn't care fo' it to be turned back, an' so she left de keys an' thing dere with him. Say, she nevah would live with him. An' then, too, after she did that - we had been doin' some washing yo' know, an' her ministratin' clothes, yo' know, we didn't git through washin' dat - at least dat day, an' we jest left 'em out do's in de tub. She went dere an' stole dem an' taken 'em off an' buried 'em fo' 'em to kill her. An' so dis cunjureman tole mah mother, say, after them things rot, why yo' could jest pick 'em up an' dey fall, yo' know, to pieces jest lak a ole rotten rag or somepin lak dat. See, an' she would fin'lly die. Well, she did suffer, yo' know, a long time till mama got her cured by diff'rent mens yo' know. When- evah she'd go to ministrate oncest a month, why she looked like she was gon'a soon go to bed - git confined an' knots would come in her stomach as large as yore fist, an' when dat passed through - it passed through in knots like dat.
(Do you know anything - what they did to cure her?)
Yes sir. Well, a man by de name of Mr. Oleberry, he cured her - he cured her wit jest an ole green gourd. She had to make teas oncest a month outa green gourd. An' when she couldn't git de green gourd why he tole her jest to save up some dry gourds an' jest put a little turpentine in it, an' dat got her well.
(That's all that cured her?)
Dat's de only thing dat cured her. An' we had taken her to medical doctors an' all - an' all kinds of doctors an' dis man wus de only man dat reached her case. An' then sometime ago ah had a brother - he wus out in Tennessee, ah believe where he got hurt. Some wimmins hurt him. Ah don't know jest how it wus done, but anyway they had him dead from heah on down to his feet.
(From his stomach on down to his feet?)
Yes sir, an' dis same man cured him with jest de simplest thing. Yo' could jest stick a pin in him an' he couldn't feel it from his stomach on down. An' he said two wimmins an' one man fixed him lak dat out in Tennessee. An' he didn't do anything but jest had us tuh git green pine tops an' give him - bathe him, yo' know, from there on down an' give him some to drink. An' he tole him everything he do from de first day he started taking it. He hadn't walked none in twelve months, not nary a step had he walked. Yes sir, he tole him dat after de first day he'd sit up - he'd have to lay down most of de time after he had taken his bath in dis green pine-top tea an' given him some to drink an' tole him on de second day he would stand up, an' say, an' de third day, he said, "Yo' gon'a walk wit a stick out to de toilet" - de toilet wus out do's yo' know. An' really he did it. An' so we kept dat up fo' about two months, an' now he's in Florida, married an' got three children.
Entry 626
Some girls wanted to get this boy she was going with. There were two sisters. He went with Rebecca. Rebecca got so she couldn't walk. Her sister, who was almost white, she believed in hoodooing; but Rebecca was a brown-skin girl and she didn't believe in it. So she went down to a lady's house to a party one night and set down and she tore a square piece out of her dress. So when she came home, she was working for some very wealthy white people, she got so then she couldn't hardly walk. And she said she felt like there was a mouse crawling on her leg: She had to go down to get sugar and things to this little town and she rode down. And when she came back home she had a big black blister on her foot. She hadn't walked nowhere. So she stayed home a few days and she got so bad she had to tell her sister what had happened. Her sister said, "Oh! Well, they got you but didn't get me." So the young man, who went to see Rebecca, asked his mother for a wagon and his nephew to drive her to a woman's house what could do something for you. I guess she was what you call a two-header. It was about twenty miles. When she came in the door she [the two-header] took a bottle like that and shake it. Rebecca hollered and said, "Oh! Oh! Don't you do that any more." She did that to try to see what was wrong with her. She come on in and set down. She [the two-header] called all the people [their spirits] to her that were doing something to her. She said, "Now Rebecca you are going home, and the bright woman [the innocent one] is going to go away and isn't going to speak to you; the one that did it is going to whip you, if you let her." [Since the spirit of the innocent woman called before the two-header possessed a bright countenance, we must assume a dark one for the spirit of the culprit - see No. 627.1 So Rebecca came back and stop in front of this store and de young boy [nephew] went in to get some things. I heard such a fuss outside, myself, I goes out to see what is happening. This girl that done something to Rebecca, she lived just across the road, says to her, "There comes your partner [the young man returning from the store]. Yes, you're cunjured. And God Almighty cunjured you. If I get close enough to you, I'll take you out of that wagon and give you a good Wooping [whipping]." But she didn't touch her. And Rebecca went on up home and done what the woman told her to do. She told her how to use [the medicine] what she give her. That would do away with that causing her leg. I don't know what Was in it. Rebecca got so then she could run and jump and ride good. It shows that something had been done to her. [New York City, (7), Ed.; Rappahannock Co. Va.,1896.]
Entry 627
I can tell you something my father did when my little brother was sick. You know that hoodoo doctor I told you about? My father sent for him to see whether my brother was going to get well. He looked at the baby and said, "Come on outside." So when my father went outside. He [doctor] said, "A city lies over there." My father said, "Yes, it's Charlotte." He said, "I don't mean that, I mean the city of the dead." My father said, "Yes, that is the cemetery over there." And he said, "Well, call someone that you know from the cemetery." And the first name that came to my father's mind was that Millie woman [witch in No. l], and my father called this woman Millie's name. And the man put his hands up to his eyes and said, "No, don't call Millie." And he turned his head away. My father said, "Yes, I know someone else, I know sister Easter." And my father called her. And he said, "Yes," and smiled and turned and said to my father, "your son will get better." My father asked why he turned his head away, and he said he saw this Millie woman coming towards them - she wasn't looking at them - [and] he said she had the most horrible face he ever saw. So he said when the Easter woman came she was dressed in white and smiling, and he knew the baby was going to get better. And my brother got better. [New York City, (1), by hand; Gaston Co., N. Car.,1900.]