Browse:Terrapin (Volume 1, entries 634)
Terrapin
Volume 1, entries 634. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → DIAGNOSIS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 634
My aunt, she wus sick in bed, she couldn't walk, an' they sent fer some man. He came an' he taken-dout [taken'd out] something they said wus in shape of a terrapin. An' they said he put it down in [on] the floor, said to it, "Go find it," whutever that wus. [It had to be a terrapin (see No. 620), not a child's mechanical toy shaped like the animal.] It went around each corner of the house in the house an' come back to 'em. An' he said, "It's not in this house." He carried it to the door an' put it outdoors, an' it started around the house until it gets to the southeast corner of the house it stopped. He said, "It's right heah." [Since there was no place in the house where he could conveniently find the object causing conjuration, he was forced to go outside where he could dig - under the edge of the house so that his back was to watching eyes.] He went diggin' an' he dug up a bottle with a lot of needles, pins - Lord knows whut kin' of stuff it wus. The other stuff wus something like quicksilver [tin-foil?] into this bottle, with the stopper turned down, drippin'. That wus supposed when that got done through drippin' that she would die. An' we had a man aroun' thah by the name of H., he went crazy the time she wus in thah sick; an' when he got crazy an' started out, they told 'er he wus comin', then she got up an' run. [Deal Island, Somerset Co., Md., (?), 21:2.] [For tortoise or turtle, see also No. 620.]