Browse:Spitting (Volume 1, entries 1057–1059)
Spitting
Volume 1, entries 1057–1059. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → FOLK MEDICINE → FOLK MEDICINE (1) PRINCIPLES OF HEALING. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 1057
It shore a sign of bad luck, if yo' goin' some place an' dere's some reason fo' yo' tuh turn roun'. Why if yo' don't [do] make a cross-mark an' spit in it, why dere's nuthin to it. An' then too, dere's anothah superstition among men dat if yo' urinate an' don't spit in it - ah learned dat from childhood, ah can't help but take dat forward when unwittingly I will do - ah learned dat from childhood an' ah will do it. But somebody kin do somethin' tuh offset chew, yo' understan', if yo' don't do dat.
(To harm you?)
Yes, to harm yo'.
(Where did you live during your childhood? Where did you hear that?)
Ah wus born in Fairfield County, Winnsboro [county seat], South Ca'lina, 'bout three miles from de village proper.
Entry 1058
[The preceding informant's words somebody kin do somethin' tuh offset chew...if yo' don't do that are proved true in the following two rites.] Well, yo' take a man's watah an' yo' put it into a bottle - ketch it. Don't chew pee in it, leave him only pee dere hisself. An' when he pees yo' take it in a small bottle. Yo' don't have tuh have a big one, but see dat he don't spit in it or nuthin lak dat. An' yo' take that pee an' yo' put it in a bottle. Well, yo' buries that right by yore steps. That brings him home. [This is a bottle hand - see subsection Hands - used in love rites.]
(That brings him home. Keeps him home?)
Dat's right.
(Why wouldn't you get it, if he spit into this?)
De spit supposed tuh not - might be killin' outfit whut he could do. Yo' see whut ah'm speakin' of?
(That kills the power.)
Now a woman when she could do dat - she's tuh watch an' see if he does dat, but ketch him when he wouldn't do dat - yo' see, lak a man would make watah an' he would spit in it. Den yo' kin take a man's watah an' put nine needles an' nine pins in it, yo' see, into this watah an' bury it anywhere upside down an' he won't pee any mo'. Dat will kill him. [Retention of urine, perhaps most urological trouble, is caused by hoodoo.] [New Orleans, La., (1568) 2878:9.]
Entry 1059
Dey tell me you kin take a bottle - listen good now - take a bottle with your husband's chamber lye. Just don't let him spit in it - just like he pass de water, don't let him spit in dere, see. And you take a piece of de underclothes - piece of his underclothes and you take one piece of his stocking from heel side, one piece off de middle, one piece to the bottom see, and den put them three in it and then you gets six needles - gold-eye needles and this - some kind of old-time cologne dey call - some kind of old-time cologne dey call - it's real sweet cologne. (Heart's Cologne?) [Informant could not remember. I had to suggest a name to get along with the story.] I'll say. Get dis Heart's Cologne and dey put dat in dere and then they put six needles, and they put six new needles - gold-eye needles see, and you put - then you take it and bury dat late at night. And den dey put 'em down at de head of yer step like dat and when you put 'em down you say, "You son-of-bitch, I want you to come back....
(The head of the bottle is upside down. There is a cork in it though?)
Yas suh, cork in dere too - airtight. Nobody - nothing can get into it. And say, "You son-of-a-bitch, I want you to come." And he won't have no nature for no other woman, just have to come back to you. [While checking transcription against recording I made a note "lowland dialect," meaning that the transcription is approximate.]