Browse:Time (3) Spiritual (Volume 1, entries 960–964)
Time (3) Spiritual
Volume 1, entries 960–964. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → TIME AND HOODOO SPELL. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
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:]