Browse:Stick (Volume 1, entries 628–629)
Stick
Volume 1, entries 628–629. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 628
He'd take a stick about that long [demonstrates].
(About two feet.)
Yes sir. And take a certain number [two] wires and set it on this stick, and then this man would say something to that piece of wire there, and he could say things to this one. (How did he get these wires on that stick?) He just had them bent [demonstrates].
(Around the stick in one loop with the two ends pointing down.)
Laid right over that stick.
(Like a staple?)
Yes sir.
(He held the stick in his hand.) [Informant is holding imaginary stick.]
Yes sir. And he'd say, "Now" - for instance - "which way should I go to look for this [conjuration] stuff?" And this piece of wire would walk just the same as you walk. ["In other words, the stick and wire held in the conjurer's hand worked on the principle of the planchette or ouiji board." This - preceding words - is a note of mine when I transcribed cylinder a few days after recording. The stick and wires could be called a type of Jack.] He'd say, "Now, don't fool me, I don't want you to fool me," and say, "I want you to stop when you git near the place." Then that piece of wire would stop and he'd say, "Listen, now, which way shall I go?" The piece of wire commence stepping and it walked and got near the place - and he let you set there and watch it - and when it got near the place where he had put this stuff, I say put
[hid 'this stuff'"], it would stop.
The editor supplies the word conjuration for the sought stuff; it is not presented as the informant's own term.
Entry 629
[The following root doctor used a simple and inexpensive method for finding the buried article of conjuration:] He had him a little stick you know, and he goes aroun' and he sticks it, jahbs down in ground, and he says, "There it is."
The editor identifies the buried article as conjuration; the following informant account does not itself supply that word.