Browse:Stolen Ring Recovered by Trick (Volume 1, entries 784)
Stolen Ring Recovered by Trick
Volume 1, entries 784. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → Tricks. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 784
This was in 1863 - mah huncle [uncle] was a slave an' his mastah name Was Miller, an' he made out he was a fortune-tellah only to keep from goin' tuh de field tuh work. (Where did this happen?) Dis happened in No'th Ca'lina. An' he made out he was a fortune-tellah in order to make good wit his boss, that he wouldn't have to work so hard. He says, "Mastah, I kin tell fortunes." He's bluffin' - couldn't tell nuthin. So one day his mistress was out washin' her hands an' she had a di'mond ring prob'bly not as expensive that day as it is now, in '63. She pulled it off an she laid [it] on de side of de washbo'd while she was washin' her hands. An' Bias [Tobias] come along - dat was mah mothah's brothah. He picks up de ring an' goes in de kitchen an' mix up some wheat dough right quick an' he bobbled it up in dere somepin de size of a marble of a middleman - dey used to have middle- men fo' marbles. An' she said dey had about fifteen or twenty turkeys an' he takes it out to a certain gobbler. Dey had several gobblers but he knew the gobbler - he had a beard hangin' down his breast an' de gobbler swallowed it, gobbled it up. Dat evening - afternoon, mah mother said, dey called Bias, says, "Now, Bias, you sich a" - he spoke a oath. Shall I speak that?
(Yes.)
She say he spoke a oath, he says, "You sich a damn good maker of wisdom, tell me whare mah wife's ring went dis mawnin'." Bias says, "Mastah, yo' have tuh give me a little time tuh study." He says, "She had it heah in de house an' she's lost it somewhare. Now, you make out you kin tell me that." Says, "The war's prob'bly fixed to go on. If sich a thing gon'a be done, you prob 'bly be de loser an' you may not, but if you tell me this definitely, ah'll make it very easy on you - ah'll put chew overseah ovah de othahs." "Mastah," he says, "ah'll tell you." He says, "When you gon'a feed dese turkeys?" He say, "Ah ain't got nuthin do wit turkeys; tell me whare mah wife's ring is." See, he was hot, de mistress was cryin'. She [informant's mother] said he went on den an' he tole 'em tuh call 'em up den. He call 'em up tuh feed 'em an' he fed 'em, an' he says, "Mastah he says, "you kill dat gobblah thare." Dey didn't know nuthin dat he done dat himself. Says, "Look heah, kill him fo' what?" He says, "You kill dat gobblah," says, "ah wanta bring dat ring back." Says, "Whut de gobblah got'a do wit dat?" 'If ah kill dis gobblah ah'm gon'a buckle you across dat barrel an' give you a gen'ral whupping. So, dey caught de gobblah. Soon as dey killed 'im - when dey cleaned 'im an' cut his craw dey found de ring. An' his mastah went all about ovah de country, tole ev'ry man, says, "Ah've got a niggah on mah place dat knows something." An' he jes' jumped up and down an' gave 'im a very easy job, but he was awful to pick. up things hisself - he was a great thief hisself, you know, tuh steal, an' so he didn't be hard on him.
(Your uncle was supposed to have done it in Cleveland County, North Carolina.)
[I occasionally found this practice among white informants in Adams County, Illinois - a person telling a folktale would identify the chief actor as a member of the family. Sometimes this was a story; other times the informant as a child had heard the tale so often he actually believed it belonged to the family.l [At the time of collecting I must have known what the marble of a middleman was or he explained while machine was off.]