Browse:Time (2) Chronological (Volume 1, entries 939–962)
Time (2) Chronological
Volume 1, entries 939–962. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → TIME AND HOODOO SPELL. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
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.