Browse:TIME AND HOODOO SPELL (Volume 1, entries 928–964)
TIME AND HOODOO SPELL
Volume 1, entries 928–964. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 928
This is the real truth but I'm goin' tell you. When I was livin' in Florida, it's been eight chears ago [1929] I was goin' with a man. You see there's another ole woman wanted to go with the same man. An' I was workin' out but she weren't. An' I'd go to my work in the mornin' - I knew she wanted to go with him a long time before she did this - an' I would go to work ev'ry mornin' an' I always git back home in time for five o'clock. So she lived out in the country an' I lived kin'a in town. So she came in town one day: The train comes in there at Jl:30, see. An' I was workin' but I went home that afternoon about five o'clock an', as a general thing, I went an' I put my right foot upon the steps first [for luck], you see, an' after I got in the house I went on in the house an' put down my packages you know, then I begin to feel sick, an' I begin to spit foam an' white spit, an' it jis' went all over, you see, an' I set there an' I say, "I wonder what's the matter with me." An' I had a brother-in-law there an' he says, "Sister, wha' choo been eatin'?" I said, "Not a thing. I haven't even eaten any dinner [noonday meal]." So he come in there to see if there's nothin' wrong. I kep' a-spittin' that foam an' spit you see. I say, "I believe I'll lie down but first I'm goin' have a drink of water." Then I went an' lied down an' when I lied down the more that foam an' spit would come out of my mouth an' I'd have to spit. So I got up an' I said, "Bert, I feel like I have to leave you." I went to go down de front steps back out to go roun' the house [to the toliet] an' I jis' tumble - jis' my head was jis' [demonstrates] goin' over and over like that. I sort'a had to hold it up you know to keep from fallin'. An' I [came back and] went on into the house an' there wouldn't be a thing but that foam an' spit. So he went an' got a doctor - he got a medical doctor, see. The doctor come. He says, "Why, what's the matter with you - what choo been eatin'?" I said, "Nothin'." He thought - he sayed it might'a been a kin'a indigestion. I said, "I haven't eaten anything." So he give me some medicine; he give me some black froth [= black draft see Index]. First, he give me a dose of Epsom salts. But it got worse. I couldn't eat an' I couldn't keep settin' up alone. So then my brother-in-law say, "Well, I'll tell you, sister," he say, "suppose we try a root doctor." I said, "Well," I said, "anything you think you kin do." That was the next day. So he goes an' gits a root doctor. He's up there about East Palatka, Florida. An' so he got a man to take him up there. They got back that night. He came in an' immediately say, "This woman," he said instantly, "she's hurt." He [brother-in-law] say, "You think so?" He say, "No, I know." He sayed. "Now, let me tell you what choo do." He say, You go there an' you dig under her front steps tomorrow mornin' - the first thing.you go there an' dig." Well, I got along that night - he say, "After you git what's under them steps," he said, "then I'll tell what to do." He [brother-in-law?] went out there the next mornin' an' dug under there an' they got a pint bottle - a pint flask with corn whiskey [often means moonshine whiskey, white] in it an' that had frogs in it. He sayed there were frogs. He stayed around there till they got that bottle - had frogs in it an' lizards. Well, after they got the bottle out, then my leg would start funny - it would grab me like that, llke somepin crawlin' up my leg. It would get up almost to my knee an' then there would be a big knot, jis' like that - you could see that thing with the blood in it.
(What leg was this?)
The right one [she had stepped upon the steps with her right leg first]. Listen good. He sayed, "Now, I'm goin' tell yah what choo do." He: say, "You po' this whiskey off of 'em, you take these things an' burn 'em. He say, "Then, if you kin," says, "you try it," he say, "I know you kin becuz it's right on the railroad" - you see, down in Florida an' the train was always killin' cattle, you see - "an' you go down there an' you kill a buzzard [round the dead cattle]," he say, "it's against the law to kill [a buzzard] but if somebody killed one, you come back, you boil that buzzard, an' you give 'er a cup of that buzzard tea." Oh, it smells horrible! But I wanted to git well. An' then I would drink a cupful an' bathe that whole leg down with it choo know.
(Don't you bathe it up?)
No, he bathed down right on out de toe; told me to bathe right on out de toe. An' take that stuff after I bathed with it, you know, an' throw it north. An' then after that he sayed, "Well, I'm goin' try to cure you. I had four patients like this. They were in terrible condition." An' he did that with that buzzard water in that bucket for two or three days. Then he changed from that an' give me a pint bottle - he put sulphur in it an' whiskey, pure corn whiskey. An' I had to shake that up an' take a tablespoonful of that three times a day. Well, I got better - that spittin' up that foam an' stuff, you see. An' I felt good. Ev'ry day I'd feel all right. I'd go on with my own work till about time for that same - that train would come - the same she come on it that day at 11:30 - I begin to feel bad.
(Why did you feel bad when that train came?)
Oh, that the train she come on to put that devilment down, you see. An' ev'ry day when that ll:30 train come along I begin to feel bad an' I had to go to bed. Well, I - it was in summertime you see, an' I had to put on all the clothes an all the bedclothes they kin git an' put on me. An' the perspiration an' sweat would jis' roll off. An' when that train go back that she went [back] on at 5:30, I'd git all right. I'd git right out de bed - could git out de bed an' do my work. [For knot on head going and coming by time, see p.270.] Well, then I got well, I kep' takin' that sulphur an' whiskey what he told me. Then he fixed another dose [prescription] of red pepper and soda and vinegar in a bottle an' drinked that. He told me to take a swallah [of] dat ever' now an' then when I begin to feel bad an' boil all the water I drink. An' then he told me to lay hot poultices on that leg, an' ev'ry time it begin to pain to put that hot poultice of [corn] meal an' real hot pepper, an' they'd bind that to it. An' from then I began to feel better. [Wilmington, N. Car., (300), 225:3; at Burnell, Fla.,1934; the doctor charging $25.00.]
Entry 929
Twus my gate on Campbell Street where I lives at right in Wilmington. At ten 'clock - I'm talkin' about mah ownself, at what I know on Campbell Street. At ten 'clock at night I'd haf to lay down. If I didn't lay down, I would fall. But ten a'clock ev'ry night - I'd notice de clock. An' comp'ny would come to see me, an' when de comp'ny come, I say, "Now, you all set as long a' zhoo want to, because at ten a'clock I git so weak until I haf to lay down." An' I do that. One day when I come from work I met mah cousin on Fo'th Street, an' when I met 'im on Fo'th Street - mah gate fell first on.de side; too, mah fence fell. So I said to 'im, I said, "Joo come home an' help me fix up mah gate, an' alsc mah fence fell." I'm talkin' about mahself now, what I know. An' so he come home [by her house] Monday evening, he said, "Now, Cousin, two a'clock [tomorrow I got to go to work." I said, "Well, all right then; I'm gon'a cook dinnah an' you have your dinnah here [tomorrow] an' you help me fix the gate, fix mah fencei." An' we wus fixin' that fence, de time came fuh him to go. He went on. I had de shovel, I got right to mah gate, jis' as I got to come in the house, somepin say, "Dig." An' I dug, I got a bottle from mah gate, that long [demonstrates], where I'd been walkin' along. Dat wus de thing causin' me I had to lay down ten a'clock ev'ry night. An' it had sulphah in it, it had hah [hair] in it, it had bluestone in it, an' it had some kind of roots in it. An' when I took it up, I hold it right up, I says, "Oh, looka heah! Come an' see this! Somebody tryin' to cunjure me," I say. An' dey cunjured me too, beca' zhoo, zhoo know, ten a'clock at night I'd haf to lay down. An' de people come an' look at it, "Oh well, it's nothin' but childrun put that tharh." I said, "Childrun couldn't put hah." I said, "Childrun couldn't put all this kind of mess zhoo see in it; dey could not put in it." I said, "To banish it right, ah'm gon'a care [carry] it to a cunjure sure enough den dey did dat to do [to do that]." [She was going to take the bottle to a cunjure more powerful than the one who had prepared the bottle.] The people all said, "You ain't gon'a do that? I wouldn't touch it." I said, "Ah'm gon'a care it to a man that kin cunjure and cunjure right." I wus talkin' about takin' an' keepin' it - that's what I meant choo know, when I said that. I says, "No, I'm gon'a care it to cunjure right." An' so I kep' it. An' do you know that night, dat I could set up till 'leven an' twelve a'clock! I could set up till 'leven-twelve a'clock. An' so I kep' it till about on Friday evening. Dat Friday evening I made a fire in the pot in my back yard. An' I wouldn't git right over it, jis' like that [demonstrates]. I opened it like dat an' I burned it up. It wusn't long befo' de lady next do' had to go de hospital an' have her leg cut off.
Entry 930
(When was this - last year?)
Last year, my wife got hurt in her leg. Dey had her up ev'ry night at twelve o'clock hopping like a dog [see correction later] - she couldn't sleep. And she just tell me, say, "Somebody done something to me." I say, "Well, I see if somebody done something to you." I went and got me some dove blood. (Dogblood?) Dog blood - a dog; I order it - dove blood.
(Oh, dove - dove like a pigeon, dove blood?)
Yes, sir.
(Yes. You ordered it?)
Took dat and ah fixed dat in some medicine and give her dat and let her take dat and den I rubbed her, you see, with dat Noozoo oil. I rubbed her good and in fifteen days, den I turned dat spell back on de person what put it on her. You see, when I turned back on dat person, den -
(What did you put that dove blood in?)
I put dat in John de Conker root - took John de Conker root and boiled it and made de medicine and then.poured that dove blood in it. You see.
(I see. And then how did you give that to her?)
I let her take dat fus' like a doctor would give it to her - a suscription, take a tablespoonful three time a day before each meal. And when she'd taken dat little bottle full, dat long, den she could get up and go.
(I see. And you say you rubbed her or something?)
Rubbed her with Noozoo oil.
(You rubbed her with that Noozoo oil?)
Yes, sir.
(And then how did you turn that spell back on the other person?)
Well, you go - the person what done it, you ain't goin' never know who done it until you do it and then you goin' have the complaint. See, you figure who it is and where dat person is passing back and forwards. You git in a conversation wit 'em and you begin to do things - you see, put things down where dey kin walk over it, you see, and pass back and forth by it, and they'll ketch this yere. When dey ketch it, dat's got the slam offa her, you see - it's on dem, you see. And den, if dey don't get somebody to get dat offen dem - if dey don't get de person what put it on before he die, they never will get it offa dem.
Entry 931
Well, once she got poisoned she wus poisoned an' she stayed sick about two weeks, an' aftah she start feelin' somepin jumpin' in her stomach. It start in de mawnin' at five a'clock - it jump in de mawnin' an' it jump in de evenin' at five. So she say dat she feel somepin lak a frog or somepin in her stomach. Well, dey decide tuh git a man to come an' look aftah her. So dis man came an' look aftah her an' he tole her dere wus a frog in dere, an' he give her some medicine dat mawnin' an' he tole her dat when he jump up five a'clock dat evenin' dat he'll git dis frog. So when he jump five a'clock dat aftahnoon - five a'clock, he caught de frog an' he take de frog an' he carry it back wit him. An' he tole her that she wus dressed by her own husban' - dat dis woman take a frog an' she squeeze him in her han' until he dies. An' aftah he dies, she take him an' put him in de stove an' parched him up to a powder. Den dat night when she wus wit her husban' she put it on him, an' he went an' live wit dis lady an' dat's causin' she got dis frog. [Dressed by terrapin, see No. 10, p.7.] (Oh - this other woman who wasn't the wife put this frog on the man. Then the man went home and then she [the wife] got that stuff?) Dat's right - the man - she [wife] got dat stuff. Den aftah nine days it come a frog in her. It jump in de mawnin' at five a'clock an' in de evenin' at five. An' dis man came an' he caught it.
(Well - do you know what the man did to catch the frog?)
Yes - he give her some medicine. Ah dunno whut kinda medicine it wus.
Entry 932
Now, dere's a girl down on de street where ah live at now, she wus fixed up heah summer 'fore last an' she ain't straightened out yet. An' we carried her to a man. An' de way she got hers, it wus a girl give her some aigs - dey said dey wus lil' snake aigs in some whiskey. An' de snake aigs bust in her body dere an' yo' see dem snakes create. An' at one a'clock, de time dat she got dat stuff - any day at one a'clock - yo' see dem snakes runnin' in her veins.
(You say these eggs busted some place?)
De lil' aigs - when she drunk 'em, yo' see de whiskey cooked dem-in de person in whut dey develop an' it made lil' snakes.
(Oh, they developed into little snakes.)
Yes.
(And she hasn't been cured yet?)
No - she's gittin' it outa her but she ain't got [cured yet].
Entry 933
There was a lady living in the house with me who called herself a good friend, and her husband had two children by his first wife. She didn't care for his children. They got along so bad together, her husband asked me to take one of the children and I did. She got angry with me and hurt me in my leg. They say she either put it in the water cooler or in my stocking. The woman who cured me, she is dead. They said I was hurt with lizard dust and some kind of weed that blooms in October. I've been down ever' October for years, three weeks or four weeks, I didn't much bother about it because I didn't believe in it [conjuration] until the Lord showed it to me in the spirit. The woman that hurt me came to me as a witch and tried to ride me to death, and said to me that I had tried to hurt her. I said, "No, Mrs. B., I haven't done a thing to you but you are trying to kill me. You'll never kill me as long as Jesus lives." I got a hold of her ankle and said, "As long as Jesus lives her ankle's broke." So after this visioni I went to a fortune teller. She put a belt around my waist and my stomach went just like that [puffed out]. She gave me some stuff to put in my shoes, some dust, and a dime, and I could go over anything I wanted to. After that I got cured. [Fredericksburg, Va., (69), Ed.; woman conjured in Richmond, Va.,1896, and cured 20 years later.]
Entry 934
Well, ah was hurt - ah wus swollen up all ovah and ah had a rash jest broke out on me jest like spider web - jest all over wasn't a speck on me without de web, and mah eyes, de balls of 'em fell down heah and dis part was up in yore head. (Your eyeball sort of fell down?) Yes - ah couldn't see. Come on me all lak that. Ah went out mah house and came back - out well and came back all in dat condition. Well, it run on me till fo' 'clock so ah didn't know whut to do. Well, ah first called in a doctor. Well, de doctor he came and he said ah was poisoned. Well, he was doctoring on me, see, an' ah didn't know [then that I was hurt] - ah was trying him first. Well, it happened agin round de same time round de 15th of de next month. All right, he came in and saw me again. [And the doctor's medicine didn't do her any good.] So it come tuh me - ah said, "Dere something else wrong." So ah goes [to a doctor] tuh fin' out. So ah [or doctor] found a bottle of stuff look like sulphur - it was puffed. When it would swell, ah'd swell - it jest went all ovah mah body.
(This stuff in this bottle puffed up?)
It would puff up - it puffed up. When ah found it, it was swole jest lak ah was - looked like sulphur. It swole, you know, jes' like sulphur when it get wet and swell. Well, dat's de way it was. Well, when it would swell, ah would swell uP, yo' see. Mah eyes git blind and ever'thing. Well, after ah gits de stuff up, well, de swelling was yet there, yo' see. Well, it came to me [this is always guidance by a spirit] to use - ah use chamber lye and saltpeter. Dat's whut ah used to bath ever' morning 'fore sunrise. Then throw it away - throw it out. It commence to sink - all advanced away. Ah swole one time mo', after. Well, ah did de same thing. Well, ah've had no mo' of it.
(Where did you throw this out when you finished bathing with it?)
Throw it out in de back dirt, out chure back do', yo' see, sunrise - yo' throw it sunrise.
(Towards the sunrise?)
Yes, throw it sunrise and don't look back - over de left shoulder and don't look back. Dat cleared me up.
(Did that happen here in Mobile?)
Yeah.
(How long ago?)
'34 [1934].
Entry 935
Yo' git a thresher bird [a brown thrasher], yo' know. Yo' git to a thresher's nest an' yo' git nine straws out of his nest an' if yo' git to dis man hat, yo' kin put jes' nine straws in his hat, jes if he went to be - yo' understand whut ah mean, Doc - i an' when he put on his hat he'll have a severe headache an' he won't come back to yore house any mo'. An' ev'ry summer dat headache will worry him till it kill him - he die, he die wit de headache.
(Why will the headache worry him in the summer?)
"Cause it in de summer - in de spring of de year when de birds are makin' dere nests, dat's de time his head will ache him.
Entry 936
I know one that's true. I have a brother who went to the sanitorium for two years. They said he lost his mind. In fact he had lost his mind. They say that his wife got some owl-brain powder. She went to a cunjure and they fixed this up and put it in his hat. He lost his mind the same night he put this hat on. And he wandered about the streets every night until daybreak in the morning [like an owl]. About six months ago my other brother and my uncle were told to go to New York to a West Indian hoodoo doctor. They [he] gave them some stuff in an envelope and he put this on a needle and went to the insane asylum and put it in his arm. Before he got all right this doctor went back and shaved all his hair off his head and put some salve of some kind on his head. In three weeks time he was out. He went to the West Indian in New York and stayed about four weeks in his home. [Fredericksburg, Va., (70), Ed.; Philadelphia,1932.]
Entry 937
This is one about a woman being tricked on account of another woman's husband. There was a married couple that had lived together happily for five years. Finally, they had a roomer come into the house, a girl about eighteen years old. She fell very much in love with the woman's husband, so much so that it caused a lot of trouble. This woman that was the wife went to see a cunjure woman and had this boarder tricked. She put her in a sleeping form and she slept for seven days and could not be awaked from that condition. So a hoodoo doctor was sent for in order that the spell might be removed. At the end of every seven days this woman would go into this sleeping spell and have to have the hoodoo doctor to remove it. Finally, one day she became very very sick, her stomach was swollen very badly. She began to vomit. Suddenly there were about a dozen live rats appear having come from the woman's stomach. Finally, the woman said, "If you promise to leave my husband alone, I'll have the spell removed." She had the spell removed. That happened several years ago down at Ladysmith, Virginia.
Entry 938
There wus a man by the name of Alfred F., he lived about three mile from here. My mother an' father in their younger days they used to believe in cunju- ration. An' so my mother got sick an' always complaintin' with 'er feet, an' so she sends fer this man, w'a' choo call dese high men. An' so he come over an' told her w'a' choo call her fortune. He says, "A wurman [woman] has measured jore foot - foot tracks," an' "she's got it buried under yore steps." He says, "You'll never git well until this here measure is taken from under yore steps." So he says, "Now, I'll have it taken up fer you fer so-an'-so much money. An' she tole 'im she'd give it to 'im - or her father tole 'im he'd give it to 'im - to go ahead an' have it taken up. An' anyhow, he says, "You wait until the third day [magic delay] - on the third day, '' he says, "I'll come over here at seven o'clock, '' he says, "an' I'll have this measure takened up." An' so anyhow, when he went under the steps that night - I'll tell you my belief as soon as after I end the story - so he went under the step that night an' when he come out, he come out with a little stick about that long with nine notches cut into this stick. It was so many on one side of the stick - the notches - an' so many on the other side, jis' the same as you scallop anything. He come out an' he showed 'em this stick that was buried under the steps. Next thing he hauled out an' shows them was a little red bag about that long, a red-flannin [flannel] bag about that long. So the next thing he shows them was a little bottle about the same, about the same size, a little bottle with a whole lot of little somepin or others in it, I don't know 'ut [what] was in it. It looked like snake sheds [shed = ecdysis] or some kin'a sheds. He comes out with that an' he shows it to 'em an' says, "That's whut wus buried under your steps." Well, I figured on that after a while, I figured on it, an' then I had my opinion. I jis' thought that he'd put it under there his- self. That's sixty years ago [1876] on the Island here.
Entry 939
I had an' a'nt and uncle. Both of them was sick at the time, so we sent fo' a doctor, and it was close to a year and de doctors kept coming and dey said dey couldn't do no good. So we got a kind of hoodoo doctor and so he came to see 'em and he came fer nine days and he told her that she'd have to go out under her step and dig. So she went out and dug an' she got a bottle, and we looked down in it and dere was some roots and lotsa needles and two sets of hair - her husband and her hair. And dey tole her she was tuh take it and put it in running water. And she did and he said in nine days he's come back again [magic delay]. So after that he started to rub 'em - rubbed both of 'em and they both commence tuh git well after that. They'd failed terrible - that's mah aunt, ah know that. Both of 'em got better. (Well that first time - he didn't tell them anything until after he came the ninth time?) No, he didn't tell 'em about it - he say he'd have to come right along.
(I see - before he did anything at all.) [Washington, D. C. (626), 801:1.]
Entry 940
Well, the people who do that work look like they use it on a Friday. Suppose a fellow comes to you and says he wants to do some work, he generally start on a Friday. Now, why they pick out that particular day, I don't know, but that's the day they generally start on. But the weaker the moon is, the more the work taken effect; and the party that you working against, that's the time they get in the red. You see. If it's anything or headache or pain in the leg, that's the time it taken effect - when the moon is weak.
Entry 941
Now, de woman that ah'm [was] living with, she'd taken advantage of me that way. An' ah had a gypsy Woman [usually a colored woman wearing large ear- rings and pretending to be a gypsy] to tell me all about it, an' de gypsy Woman tole me jes' where to find the nail on de east side of de tree, an' on de north side ah'd find a peg, an' on de west side ah'd find a snuff-can top drove in de tree. I wrote home to mah mother an' tole her about it. She had that tree cut down an' found those items in dat tree - dere was a big nail, a small bottle with a piece of mah shirt, an' in that bottle there were some safety pins - hairpins, an' that shirt, an' two worms about that long an' they were jes' white. An' the fellah [doctor] that did it - mah mother kept it an' she preserved those things fo' certain days - ah don't know whut cause her to do it - an' the fellah that did it was standin' at de windah - an' she pored those things in the stove an' put kerosene to them an' de wind blowing jes' dat way - he was standin' dere an' it blew all in his face [see Smoke in Index]. He was den makin' preparations to go out on de water [as sailor or fisherman] but he never did go - he went crazy. An' dey figured dat returned back on him an' he couldn't stand his own work.
(Well, it didn't affect you in any way?)
Well, ah couldn't stay in no place, no place.
(How did it happen that this gypsy woman told you about this?)
Ah were down heah in Egypt [colored community] - right 'cross in de same town heah. [There was a Little Egypt near somewhere I worked on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.] But it wasn't did here - it was did in the city Key [West?] Florida. An' she came by havin' a big bundle on her shoulder an' she were hungry. So she ast me fo' somethin' to eat. Ah was making mah breakfast-dinner [brunch] then. Ah tole 'er to wait. So when ah tole her dat, de woman she - I let 'er in, an' when ah let 'er in, shé ast me to let 'er read mah hand. So ah did so, an' she tole me jes' how ah got chere an' when ah came an' how ah came. Ah.came de first Sunday in de month, de first day in de week, de first of de month an' de first day of de year. An' she said, "Dis woman yo' marry 'er but," she says, "she's not chure wife." An' she tole me jes' lak ah tole yo' whut was done, an' she [the wife] had did it [through a doctor]. Dat wus put on me fo' nine months, an' ah went ailin' fo' those months, an' a fortune-teller man tole me after dat, if I had gone jes one more month, ah never would have [been] able to regain [myself]. (Well, did you go back home or did you go back to your mother's to get rid of that stuff?) I did. [My question is not tricky; his answer is not a lie - writing home was going home (see Introduction for questions and communication problems).]
Entry 942
De sign dat dey's bo'n undah - jis' lak ah or yo' wus bo'n undah a sign lak, dat's de way yo' work dese things.
(Give me an example.)
Fo' yore luck yo' gota work yore problems on time dat yo' wus born - yo' know, on de month an' de day an' lak dat. Den yo' kin go [to the] almanac an' yo' kin see whut - ah cain't call it plain lak some people [can't say Zodiac] but anyhow each one of those - see, lak those fishes an' de woman an' those things. Well, yo' kin go to that an' yo' kin tell whut sign yo's bo'n undah. An' it show yo' in de almanac whut days to do that on. (In other words if you were doing this work for somebody, you do it according to the sign he was born in.) Dat's de best time tuh do it in - de time dey is bo'n in.
(The sign of Zodiac you were born in. What about the moon?)
Well, de moon - it's de time dat de moon rises befo' day or somethin' lak dat. Yo' always ketch a full moon for stillness on a yellah moon see that's growin'. A growin' moon is fo' prospects an' when de moon's 'bout on de waste away, dat's de time den dat yo' do fo' not a good success, yo' understan'.
Entry 943
You do that on the last quarter of the moon and then you see results for it on the growing of the next moon or the new moon. That's for someone doing something for you, you know, like when you want to make a person do like you want them to do. Of course, now, they say if you want to, you know, like running a person away or hurt a person or killing a person, you want to begin on the new moon and they'll go away as the moon get older. See, like when you're running a person away. Now, like I want to move you from this house. Whatsomever I do, I do it right on the new moon and the first quarter, and then, see, by the time the moon gets to the last quarter I'll leave this home or I'll waste away or die on the last of the moon.
Entry 944
They got another thing to do. They'll come to your home - they done my brother that - my brother's bin dead nine er ten years. Comes to your home and knocks on door, "Hey, So-and-So. How you? Who you?" Have a bottle in hand and you got de stopper. As you call my name Carrie [I answer] "Huh?" You got me.
(What is your name?) [Here is a question I never asked at a later date.]
Carrie Clark.
(Well, after they have got you, what do they do then?)
Take dis bottle and cover it up here and you keeps it dere. Dey kin keep you in de house or underneath de house, but you'll be there - can nevah travel - or save a dime - an' perish - an' yo' mind be goin' jes' like that [demonstrates - back-and-forth or up-and-down]. That de truth, though. Dey had my brother fixed that way. On de moon sometime he go, on de young moon, and we'd have to hunt him. Dey had him stopped up in a bottle.
Entry 945
It works by de moon.
(What does?)
Dis thing - dis charm [or hand] works by de moon.
(That he gave this woman.)
An' says dat, if you live twenty [years] longah, dat only make it dat much strongah. Says ev'ry time de moon goes ovah dat, she [the charm] strengh'nin' up, gittin' strongah. An' he says dat it'll weigh like a pound [if] your luck comin' right [to] yeh good.
Reported words link a charm's weight with luck coming right; the bracketed connecting words are editorial.
Entry 946
Mah grandmother used to tell me dat on a moonlight night dat a witch doctor he kin do mo' then - on a moonlight night than he could on any other dark night, because de moon helps him along With a lot of other witches and they goes out and it seem like dese witches dey jes' raise from de grave to come and help him do a lot of evil - on a moonlight night it re'lly is a evil night fer anyone.
Entry 947
On the 13th of the month - that's befo' de new moon, yo' go out an' kill a frog and place him in de sun and let him dry and if any affected part about chew, why dat's poisoned or anything like dat, yo' lay dat frog on it and it'll ease it. That's a sure cure.
Entry 948
Jis' lak if yo' wanted somethin' tuh work good, see - yo' work on de new moon. Start on de new moon. Jis' lak dis mawnin' - as soon as yo' git up this mawnin' if ah wanta have success, see, start wit de new moon. If ah want yo' back soon, bring yo' back or leave, yo' start yo' work den. It's bettah tuh work on de moon, yo' see - he'll come back. Yore work will take effect quicker den - waitin' till de middle of de month till it git off, cain't do nuthin den.
Entry 949
If a person be's fixed - fixed on de young moon - well, every young moon dey would have a fit or somepin - lak if ah would fix a person to have fits, every young moon she would have a fit, or de wastin' of a moon, [or] de full of de moon, [or] whatevah time dat she would be fixed. Well, ah - when dat moon Would come, it would come on her.
The account conditionally links being fixed with recurring fits; it provides no verified diagnosis or lunar cause.
Entry 950
He was living at a place called Bearfield just outside of Baltimore [Maryland]. He was a very great singer. All the women folks loved him for his singing. His brother-in-law's girl got attached to him and he couldn't do any- thing with her, so he decided to disfigure him. It was his wife's brother. So he got a chicken and put something on this chicken. After he ate this chicken he came nauseated. At last, at a certain time of the moon, he would get on the bed and put his feet up in the air and keep running his two fingers down his throat. They got a hoodoo doctor and he gave him some medicine but he wouldn't take it.
Entry 951
I'll tell you how I got mine. I got it at my cousin's down at a place, David Jackson, down in Caroline [County, Virginia]. I drink some lemonade, it made me sick. I vomited it up, I couldn't get it all. And I was sick one day and the next day I were well. I went on until I had it every change of the moon. I throwed up a groun' dog [ground puppy = mud puppy = hellbender = salamander] that's as big as your finger, it has spots on it. From then on I had a spasm and I had to leave home. I went to Washington [D. C.]. I stayed there two years in Washington. I went to a cunjurating doctor, a man in Washington, and he took it off of me, but I don't know what he done. [Fredericksburg, Va., (80), Ed.; Caroline Co.,1916.]
The speaker reports having a spasm; the account does not establish its cause, diagnosis or the doctor's method.
Entry 952
You can take their shoes and carry them down to the river at noontime and let the water run over them. Take them back and let them dry. On a full moon go down to this river, call, and keep calling them. And when they have them shoes on they'll walk into the river and drown themselves.
Entry 953
Take and watch the moon to see what - when the moon - a full moon - if the moon a full moon, well, there's nothing. They have to wait until the moon is on a waste. See, when the moon is on the waste, well that's the way they waste you off - they Work with the moon.
Entry 954
I say, they say when you wan'a do somebody somepin - jis' like you wants to have me jis' draggin' an' wastin' away - fat as I am I could git small as I don't know what. They say you do it on the waste of the moon - an' as de moon wases away, you wases away until that's all of you.
Entry 955
If any one of those things that I was outlining to you - if the moon is very weak, that's the time it is taking effect on the individual; see, when the moon is weak. When the moon is strong, then - well, they don't be as bad. For instance - (Someone knocking.) [Comment by transcriber.] (Yes?) [I call out - person knocking probably my man Edward - I turn off machine for a moment and then continue.] For instance, if a fellow would do anything to anybody and when the moon is weak, look like they take full control over 'em; when the moon is strong, well it don't take such an effect.
Entry 956
An' de - fo' a woman - yo' kin take dis period fo' de woman on de young moon, it will work swell; but after dat it don't do no good. Dese woman, yo' know, know how to use dey period - give it to a man to eat. All right, but if dey don't git it on de young moon it can't do no good.
Entry 957
When the moon is on the wane, a person can take a woman's minstrational cloth and wash 'em and take that water and put 'em in a tree - you know, make a hole in the root of the tree and pour that down in that hole and stop that hole up. On the waste of the moon that person will jest waste away, they'll jest ministrate too much, jest flood to death. And they can take it on the full of the moon and do the same thing - well, the person will be ill from the idea that they don't ministrate at all. That's done wit the moon.
Entry 958
It's a bad sign to play numbers on a new moon - it brings somethin' yo' wouldn't have on yore mind, it's low number. Full moon brings a high number, like 80's or 90's.
Entry 959
Well, as fur as ah kin learn, that's whut got me - it was given tuh me in some whiskey.
(What did they give you?)
Hit was graveyard dirt - it was in whiskey. Well, ah had a spell - all right, ah talked outen mah haid. Well, but ah don't do it only at certain times - an' ah does it now, too - an' ah kin go fo' a certain time till de moon changes - when de moon changes, well, ah gitten dat drinkin' spirit in me an' ah go an drink. Well, dey went an' dey digged dis graveyard [dirt] an' wheresomevah ah got dis whiskey at - [doctor] said dey sprinkle it in dey whiskey an' ah would drink it. Well, ah didn't know it. [For drinking spell & moon, see also No.13.]
(What makes you talk that way?)
Ah don't know - ah guess ah'm been like dat ever since I wus fixed like dat. See, ah had two spells - ah like tuh went crazy. (You said something about the spirit when you first told me - what about the spirit?) Well, it's de graveyard dirt - see, dat's de spirit from dere - yo' go to dat grave an' git dat dirt. Well, dat spirit is gon'a follow dat, yo' know. Well, ah already got some of it in me, an' ah kin heah mah insides always talkin' - jest, yo' know - dey talks to me jest like yo' talkin' - all kinda talks - curses me an' everything.
(These spirits inside of you talk to you all the time?)
Talk to me an' then ah kin heah ord'nary people like dat. (And you say this only happens to you on certain times of the moon. Well, when is that?) That's right - when de moon change - ev'ry time de moon change.
(Then you hear these voices.)
Entry 960
Ah remember a lady once lent a fren' lady her shoes tuh wear - she's a dear fren'. When she brought de shoes back - dis lady wore her shoes to church - when she came back she began to swell. She swole up so until she didn't even favor herself. An' so they got doctors fo' her and de mo' she would take doctors medicine, it seems like de worse she would git. An' so fin'lly someone tole her 'bout gittin' a root doctor. So this root doctor came - she was a lady - and she said, "Well, ah can't work on yo' today, see, ah have to work on you when de spirit tell me - ah'll come back maybe two days later." She came back and she brought some kin' of a tea and she heated dis tea and put this girl in terrible hot steaming water - jest was so hot seems like it was scalding. So she jest bathed her down - and she did that fo' three mornings and de swelling left her.
(Why did she bathe her down - why not up?)
She said by bathing her down that'll cause de misery to go on out - go on out
[through feet - see Downwards in Index.]
(Did that happen right here in Mobile?)
That happened in Mobile.
Entry 961
Yo' know, lotsa people works from de signs, diff'rent signs, 'cause dey bo'n undah diff'rent stars yo' see. Yo' have tuh work undah yore star an' ah have tuh work undah mah star, an' jes' befo' day in de mawnin' is de best time tuh do mos' any big signs dat chew wanta do. Git up soon in de mawnin' befo' de day, at de break of day, an' yo'll do yore works whut chew wanta work.
Entry 962
If they had an idea of traveling, like if they wanted tuh go north or wanted tuh go to California or Oklahoma - well, they haven't got the money to go with. So they goes, walk out tuh the forks of the road an' turn dere face eastwards and would pray for the Lord to give. them that directional star in their mind that they might be able to get ahold of the luck that would - even if they didn't have the money, that would give them that trip. An' ah've had them to say that - why they shortly after doing that, why they would meet up with some rich person who would wish for them to go as a chauffeur or as a cook or as a maid to such a place, to such a state. And they would go with that person to that state, make a trip jest by going to de cross of the road - dem forks of the road an' looking eastward and making that prayer while they were standing there looking eastward, for that luck.
Entry 963
Yo' take a toady - rock toady frog and kill it and let it dry up and den grind it up and put it in any meal [food you eat]. And every time de tide come up, you will swell; when de tide go down, you body will fall.
The instruction describes killing and drying a rock toady frog for a preparation; its claimed tidal effects are unverified.
Entry 964
Dere somepin did to mah sistah. She go fo' a ice cream sodee on a Friday night an' de othah girls dere didn't like her at all. So she went dere at night an' dey served her ice cream an' dey fixed her a saucer of it, an' after- wards she remembered dey speci'lly bring her saucerful. An' after- ward, purtty soon after she leave, de side of her laig all commence painin' her all de way up. An' purtty soon dey had taken an' carry her home, couldn't walk, where she got sick an' de doctah 'tended her [and could not help her]. An' dat laig had swole so, jes' to de knee - swole so dat it jes' be a bag of skin dere an' yo' see somepin like somepin wus crawlin' up an' down her laig. So mah father, he goes an' git him a ridge bass - a root worker, an' he looked at her an' he give her some tea, some kinda tea in a jar an' tole her she'd be all right in about eight or nine days. Didn't [give] her no 'tenshun an' she seem to be gittin' worse an' worse, an' in about a week an' a half he came dere - it wus in de mawnin', said, "Ah come tuh cure de girl." Father say, "Ah hope so - she didn't rest any last night an' she not restin' now." An' he give him three little tablets 'bout de size of an' aspirin tablet but they were black. He tole us, say, "Git the slop jar." She taken de three, an' in about five minutes time she commence gaggin' an' she gagged up a pure green frog: She re'lly did dere in de slop jar. Ah wus standin' right dere.
(End of 1429.)
(That story he told me about the envelope - throwing it up in the air and having it disappear - he said that the root doctor was old Doctor Harris down in Florence, S. Car.) [Fayetteville, N. Car., (1429), 2579:13.] [Folk Medicine I will divide into two subsections: (l) Principles of Healing, beginning here, and (2) Cure and Protection, which begins on page 410.] [A considerable amount of material about principles of healing, cures and protection has already been given. Here I would like to emphasize two things - folk cures about which we have heard little; and the fact that disease, sickness, pain, bad luck, everything in witchcraft and hoodoo is a spirit.] [The problems of health are many, difficult and expensive. It is unfortunate that they should also be encumbered with prejudice and superstition. Concerning the latter - believers in witchcraft, hoodoo and magic throw a halo about their heads, claiming as their authority the Bible, the Word of God: - (l)he [Manasseh] observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards (2 Ch.33:6) - (2) Saul had put away those that had faniliar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land (1 Sam.28:3)- (3) Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (Ex.22:18).] [One informant expresses the attitude of witchcraft and hoodoo believers as well as the view of Biblical fundamentalists:]