Browse:Tricks (Volume 1, entries 783–795)
Tricks
Volume 1, entries 783–795. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 783
[Two accounts of the gourd-and-frog trick have been given - Nos.576-577, Pp.186-187; see also Trick in Index.] Take lodestone - ah've heard dat if yo' wanta play some kinda trick or 'nother an' dey - now, ah know a man, he use lodestone. Ah've heard of a man usin' lode- stone - dere wus two of 'em. Dey wus in love with a girl an' so dey were good frien's an' dey didn't wanta fall out. So de girl, she wus in love wit de two boys, an' she say, "Well, ah'll marry de one dat will come in ridin'" - says, "ah'll marry him." Dis heah youngest one he study how he couldn't marry dis girl because he re'lly wanted to. An' she say, "Ah don't want chew tuh ride on no cars, ah don't want chew tuh ride in no horse an' wagon" - she name all de diff'rent things that he couldn't come on, dat she didn't want him tuh ride on. He studied then how could he ride. So he goes an' git him some lodestone an' he showed dis man. An' so he got sick an' he say, "Well, boy, ah tell yuh, let's us both walk." "Okay," he says. So they started off walkin'. He say, "Well, ah tell yo' whut" - dis heah man whut re'lly wanted tuh marry - de youngster, he says, "Well, ah don't feel lak walkin'." He says, "Ah'll tell yo' - ah'll tote yo' a piece if yo'll tote me." So de man tole him all right. So de man taken him an' tote him so he wouldn't be ti'ed [tired] - yo' know, he got dis lodestone in his hand. So he carried dis man. So whenevah he tote him a piece, say, "Yo' ti'ed?" Tole him no he wusn't ti'ed. Long as he had dis lodestone - he had de lodestone in his han', said, "No he wusn't ti'ed." So whenevah they got right to de do', dis heah man said, "Well, now we goin' Walk in." Says, "All right." So when dey go to de do', dis heah man wus holdin' de lodestone an' he got on dis heah othah man's back, an' so whenevah he got near de do' an' he spurred dis man - stuck spurs in him an' made him jump in de house with dis man - so he married her, de youngest man. So he, by him having dis lodestone helpin' to do his trick, dis girl she married dis man dat rolled in on dis othah man's back.
(Where did you hear that story?)
Mah mothah tole me that story long yeahs ago.
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.]
Entry 785
During slavery my father told me he knew a man who was a cunjure and his master and mistress trust him with everything, and he was boss over the rest of the slaves as well as being a cunjure. And he could tell many tales and never get caught. His mistress lost her gold ring and asked him to find it for her. And he said, "Missus, if you give me three days off from work, I'll find your ring" which he already had by being tricky. So he laid in bed and slept as much as he want, and got the best food from master's table. On the third day he took the gold ring and a fishhook - at first - to work the trick. So he changed off and got a grain of corn and corn meal. And he put the gold ring inside of the meal and the grain of corn and give it to a certain duck, which he had marked that he may know from the rest. And he give the duck that corn meal, grain of corn, all rolled up together, and went to his master's room and said, "Get your madam, for I'm going to find your ring right here this day. Come and go with me to the chicken yard." He told him to kill a duck which he knew did not have the ring, neither the second duck, but the third one which he killed had the ring inside. So he said, "Master, what are you going to give me for this job?" He said, "Anything you ask." He said, "One month off, boss, to court the gals." When he had killed the third duck and opened it, he found the ring. And then he got thirty days off and the ducks which he had killed. So his master after this went coon [racoon] hunting one night and caught a coon. And the other men that went with him got a bet of five-hundred dollars that his nigger couldn't tell what his master had in the bag. So he called his slave John out of bed that night that he might win the five-hundred dollars. So John got up and come indoors with a dozen other men that was in the coon hunt and also had a part in the bet that John could not tell what was in the bag. So his master said, "John, tell these men what is in the bag: So John scratched his head and lit his pipe, knowing not what was in the bag and that his master had caught him this time. So he said, "Well, master, you have got the ole coon at last." [Near Fredericksburg, Va., (71), by hand; supposed to have happened in King George Co., Va.; a folk story.]
Entry 786
Now, let me tell you an old darky story of the Civil War. There was an ole plantation that had a lot of darkies a way up in Oaksville: He claimed that his darkies were more sensible than any other darkies in the country. Other adjoining farmers said they had the smartest and they agreed to put something under a barrel and wanted the neighborhood to come around to see if this smart darky could tell him what was under the barrel. So this farmer went out at night and put a coon under a barrel. When the neighbors gathered to see this wonderful man they put up a five-hundred dollars deposit and told him his master could get it if he could tell what was under the barrel; and tell him his master would lose' it, if he couldn't tell them what was under that barrel. He got up and walked around, all around that barrel, scratched his head and said, "Master, you've got the ole coon now." [Informant born a slave.]
Entry 787
There was a driver that his master owned and he used to drive him about, and one night he stole the horses. The next morning he called his master up. His master got up and came to the door and asked, "What do you want?" "Master, somebody stole the driving horses." While his master told him to go and hunt for them, he went off a little ways and he stopped and turned round and said, "Master, I'm a fortune-teller. I hate to tell you I know where them horses is." His master told him, "If you can tell me where them horses is and get them, I'll make you have an easy time." He spit in his hand and said, "Master, whichever way this spit flies, the horses is that-a-way." He had put them there. He goes out there and gets the horses and he comes back and says, "Here's your horses." The master said, "I'm going to make you my boss for the rest of the slaves." He went on and was the boss of the slaves for his master's work.
Entry 788
Once dere wus a man an' he wanted tuh marry a girl - no, he married dis girl, see. He wanted dis girl tuh stay home, an' every time he would go out he would rake his yard, see. [Raking of loose soil or sand is an ancient device.] So sometimes whenevah he went out he would see dat somebody had been walkin' cross de yard. Well, he'd ast her had she been off an' she said no. So dis heah woman re'lly wus scared of dis man, so she stayed home when he tell her. Dere wus a rooster an' he tole her he had dis rooster trained, an' he told de rooster, he said, "Now, whenevah she leaves, yo' crow." An' so dis woman, she hadn't been goin' no place, say, "Well, ah believe ah'll walk off." So she walked out that day. An' so when she walked out de rooster crowed. Well, de man come back an' he begin tuh raise Sam. [Sam = devil.] He says, "Yo' been out dere." She said, "No, ah haven't - ah haven't been no place." Say, "Yes, yo' have." Well, de man wus jes' workin' right cross de canal like from de house an' he could tell whenevah she would leave de house by dis rooster crowin'. So de next day she went off - she then begin now wantin' tuh go out, an' so whenevah she left that day, the rooster crowed agin. He heah de rooster crowin'. So when he came in de afternoon, said, "Yo' been out?" Says, "No, ah haven't." Say, "Yes, yo' have." An' he jump on her an' he beat her. De next day, she wondered why did he know. So she started out. She looked all around an' she walked out de do' an' she looked back an' she hear de rooster crow. Well, she thought about dat rooster had crowed already fo' three days. So she went out dere, yo' see, an' she looked down dere where de rooster wus, an' dere wus a kind of - a lil' [little] pint box settin' dere; yo' know, a lil' box dat hold jes' about a pint of corn. So this man had been givin' this rooster a pint of corn tuh crow. So then while she wus standin' dere she looked at de box dat wus settin' dere an' she wondered, she thought within herself, "That's why dat rooster wus crowin', because he had dat box settin' dere fulla corn." She goes an' she gits a larger box then [than] dat an' she sets it down dere an' she fills it up fulla corn. She tole de rooster, "Now, if yo' don't crow whenevah ah start out, ah'll give yo' this corn." So they says dat the rooster had said, "Well, he give me a pint of corn to crow,"' says, "yo' give me a quart, den ah won't crow." So dis woman she sets de quart of corn down dere so she went on out. So dat night whenevah her husban' come he say, "Yo' haven't been nowhere today?" She say, "No suh, ah know ah haven't. Why yo' say ah haven't been nowhere?" "Jes' because ah have a sign - dat rooster hasn't crowed." Dis woman then, she knowed fo' shure dat de rooster had been crowin', dat why dis man know dat she had been goin' off, so de nex' day she killed de rooster, an' dey didn't have de rooster to tell de tale. Ah heard that long yeahs ago - dat's a ole story.
(You heard it from some older person?)
Yes.
Entry 789
There wus a man by the name of E., lived about three miles from here. My mother and father in their younger days dey used to believe in cunjuration. My mother got sick an' always complaintin' with her feet, an' so she sends fer this man, whu' choo call dese high men, an' he come over an' tole her whu' choo call her fortune. He says, "A woman has measured yore foot, foot track." An' he says, "She's got it buried under yore step." He says, "You'll not git well until this here measure is taken from under yore steps." So he says, "I'll have it taken up 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. So anyhow, when he went under the steps that night [three days later] - I'll tell you my belief after I end my story - and he come out wid a little stick about that long wid nine notches cut into this stick. [Notches are unusual, knots are common.] It was so many on one side of the stick, the notches, and so many on the other side - jis' the same you scallop anything. [Scallop - this is an old-time waterman and oysterman talking.] He come out an' he showed 'em this stick that was buried under the steps. Next, the thing he hauled out an' shows 'em wus a little red bag [a hand], that long - a red flannel bag about that long. So the next thing he shows 'em wus a little bottle [another hand] wid a whole lot of little somepin or others in it. I don't know whut wus in it - it looked like snake sheds or some kinda sheds. He comes out with that an' he shows 'em an' says, "That's whut wus buried under yore steps." I figured on that after awhile - I figure on it - an' then I had my opinion. I jis' thought that he'd put it under there hisself. That's sixty years ago [1876] on the Island here. [I was talking to this old man in the Negro home where I worked and in which I was about to spend the night described in the Introduction. His name was F. Milburn - this was Tuesday, December 8, 1936.]
Entry 790
He [doctor] jis' come dere an' he put his hand down, he spread down newspapah - he up heah tuh Middlewood nahow [now] - spread down newspapah an' he giben [given] her a glass - he give me duh glass an' tole me to git a glass of watah from de pump. An' ah pumped it from de pump an' brung it tuh him an' he took dat glass, an' dat watah jes' boiled jes lak he'd put it in a pot an' he tole her to drink it. She drunk it an' put her laig on dat newspapah an' he said somepin other an' dat snaked crawled out dere through de skin [sleight of hand].
(You saw that?)
Yes sir, looking at it, me an' Dave - brother Dave, Clara an' Miz [Somebody], all of us looking at it. [This happened out in the country.]
Entry 791
I heard lots of people, you know, would go to this guy. They would say that they would hit de numbers, an' I wanted to hit - ah wus playin' the numbers, too, at this same time. So I went to 'im an' he ast me whut I came for an' ah told 'im. After that, why, he put a [drinking] glass up theah [on table] - de glass wus thin ~ an' he put this glass up theah an' he had me to hol' mah han' over it like yat [partly cover the mouth of the glass so that she could blow into it. After she did this, a piece of paper he had placed in the glass kept circling round and round in the water]. So after that it would come some writin' in thare [on the paper]. I could see this writin'. I know it wusn't no writin' on this [before she blew]. He give me that piece of paper [which was the gambling hand]. Carry it with me. ["This story of how the informant got a hand in Philadelphia, Pa., for luck to choose numbers when playing policy, a gambling game widely spread among city Negroes, was first told without being recorded and then repeated for Telediphone. The second version, as usual in such cases, omitted some previous details, hence my promptings and annotations on the present cylinder. Further, the cylinder was transcribed immediately after the recording while the details were still fresh in my mind. Give my experience in Little Rock, Ark., with invisible ink or powder." This note was made soon after my Little Rock work.]
Entry 792
Well, they say you take the foot tracks and they can trick you with 'em. Pick it up - take something like a shovel or something like that and pick it up and bring it. Care [carry] it to the graveyard, and they would plant it by a grave and you'll find yourself - you're wasting away, something like wasting disease, see. Well, you say, "I'm going to a doctor, a medical doctor." Well, a medical doctor don't do you no good. "Well, I think I go to a two-head doctor" = [that] mean a hoodoo. Well, you go to a hoodoo and he'll say, "Well, you're tricked." He'll ask you, "Does you have pains up your legs?" You'll say, "Yes." Then the hoodoo will come and the hoodoo will say, "Well, have you been walking somewhere on the road somewhere?" You'll say, "Yes." The hoodoo will say, "Somebody done pick up your track - well, I can cure you." That what the hoodoo will say - he can cure you. Well, you say, "I give you so much to cure me" - you know, to make me well. Well, he say, "All right." Well, I'll try - try with this hoodoo man until he will try to do me some good. Maybe he may do me good and maybe, iffen I'm got confidence in him, he will do me good. Well, my feet are starting to swelling and paining me. I would take all kinds of 'erbs and medicines from him and start to rubbing myself with them but that don't do no good. Well, I'll say I'll try another hoodoo. You see. And then this Way he will go - the swelling will go - quite natchurly most anything will make swelling go down. This hoodoo will come along and may think he can do a whole lot for you. And well, he can't do nothing for you, you understand, because my sister was sick in the bed and a hoodoo man came there - he had a grip [bag] in his hand.
[He imitates a doctor by carrying a medical kit - see Doctor's bag in Index.]
He say to me - he walks in there - my sister was in the bed and I was setting by the bed with her. [Again, he apes a doctor by having a prescription: pad.] He had a tablet like you [see later] - just buy outen the store and there wasn't nothing on it, same as new, but he had that tablet fixed so that I couldn't tell - I couldn't tell you what I was going to tell you, but he walked in there and he say, "Your sister is sick and she got a bug in her bed."
(What in the bed?)
A bug, bug in her bed. He say she got a bug in her bed.
(Your sister had a bug in the bed?)
What made her sick.
(I see.)
Causing her being sick. And he say, "I can get this bug outen the bed for your sister, but it will cost fifty dollars. So she said, "Oh, I ain't got but thirty-five cents in the house." Do you understand me, what I say? [See Deafness in Introduction.] And he said, "I can show you what I can do." He pull out the tablet and he tore the sheet off the tablet - you couldn't see nothing, it was just like you'd buy out of the store. He goes, says, "You got a little lamp?" And he goes and he burns it. He burn that sheet but it didn't fall to pieces, you know. And on that sheet it say, "You going to die - you got a bug in your bed and if you don't get him out, you going to die and your next door neighbor - a tall, dark woman, put it in there for you."
(Did you see this writing on the paper?)
Yeah, I saw it.
(He held this piece of plain paper over the lamp?)
Yeah, and let it burn, and when it burn, you could see the writing just as good as you take your hand and do [write] it. [See Writing invisible, in Index.] He say, he ask the girl, my friend, he say, "Have you?" She say, "Well, I ain't got but thirty-five cents." He say, "Oh, it takes fifty dollars to do dat." He say, "Well, come back here." He goes back there in the next room and he say, "To show you that I'm not lying" - that's the hoodoo man say that, you know. He say, "Turn your mattress back." He had two little bottles just about that big, see [demonstrates].
(About the size of your finger.)
Yeah. One had a black bug in it like a wood bug - I don't know what kind of bug, but like a bug. And one bottle didn't have any in it. He said, "Throw your mattress back." Well, they throw the mattress back and he say, "Now look." Now, I was watching him very close, you know, and he say, "Now, you see this bottle." That bottle he showed us didn't have anything at all in it. He said, "I'm going to put this bottle under your mattress and then you throw it back and that bug going to get out of that mattress into that bottle." All right. She did that. Now, in place of him putting the bottle without any bug in, he slipped the one with the bug in it, you see. And when she turn back, he said, "Now go back and turn the mattress - look." And when we turn the mattress there was the bottle with the big bug in it. I say, "OH!" And my friend say, "Oh, look there, that bug was in your bed, too." I told her, I said, "oh, don't mind that, tain't no bug in no bed or nothing like that." I watched him so close and he was watching me very close, you know, when he was doing that. He say, "Well, I charge you fifty dollars to get him out." I say, "Well, she ain't got no fifty dollars." He say, "Well, I have to put this bug back in your bed." He goes and slips the bottle with the bug in in under there and taken the one what there was none in, and when he got ready to take the bottle out, he put the bottle what didn't have no bug in. He said, "Now, the bug has gone back in the mattress - into the bed." You know. Well, that was a fake. He didn't have no bottle - he had two. And by watching him close, that's what drawed my attention to him - you know, with the bottle what's in there. [He had a tablet like you - he refers to one of my Numbers Book.]
Entry 793
Lak ah'm comin' heah an' yo' think yo' got frogs in yo'. Well, ah goes out an' git me about five or six frogs, an' ah come in an' have 'em in mah pocket or either tie it up in mah sleeve, up undah dere some- where, an' ah tell yo', say, "Now, whut's de mattah wit yo'?" Yo'll gi' me a hunderd doliahs if ah git 'em out. Yo' say, "Well, if yo' tell me whut's de mattah wit me, ah'll gi' yo' a hunderd dollahs." "Yo's fulla frogs." Yo' set down dere an' ah say, "Well, now, yo' set wit yore back to me," an' yo' git a ole slop jar an' have yo' settin' ovah de ole slop jar - well, yore back's to me. Well, ah'll draw dis heah string out an' let all dese frogs fall out down on dat flo' roun' yore feet an' up undah yore feet. Den ah tell, "Now, git up," say, ''now look down dere." An' all dem frogs, little ones an' big ones be's hoppin' round down dere. An' den yo' say, "Lawd have mercy, ah didn't know all dem things wus in me." She ast me whut's de mattah wit her. Maybe her feets were swole or somepin, an' [I] give her somepin yo' know tuh take dat swellin' out of her feet, an' in de next few days dat swellin' be's gone an' she - well, ah gen'rally tells 'em it's frogs. "Well, ah'll take dese on back to advertise - to show whut ah done." Well, she won't be thinkin', or he, whosomevah dey is. Dey go to anothah man an' he got snakes or lizards. Well, he got a gang of lizards an' he has 'em in a little bag up his sleeve, small an' big, an' he [patient] be's layin' in de bed hurtin' so an' gruntin' so, an' de othah ones gone outa de room, an' he'll dem loose up dere in de bed, so he kin ketch 'em. Jes' come in an' jes' raise de cover an' dere's de lizards an' scorpions an' things all up undah de cover. Yo' got money then - two or three hunderd dollahs. [I do not have this woman down as a doctor. She could have been a small-time worker or just a skeptic who thought live-things-in-you was by trickery.]
Entry 794
[The preceding margin-titles, Live Things in You and Roots (see No.720)
left opportunities for a doctor's ingenuity, but the following trick at the end of informant's account is one sold by the hoodoo trade:] Ah tell yo' 'bout dis hoodoo. Ah spent money an' spent money an' ah lak tuh lost mah home an' wife on account dat. Ah spent money fo' dat to git love wit other women an' buy whole lotta ole junk - dirt, graveyard dirt an' stuff an' put in a rag an' tie up, an' git mah home, git mah mind all tore up by thinkin' 'bout whut he says. An' quit mah home, mah min' all tore up an' there won't be a thing in de worl' tuh ut. It's jes' git chure min' all tore up an' yore family goin' crazy an' yo' be worried 'bout dat. Den yore home jest be tore up fo' nuthin. Ah tell yo' one thing ah've had done. Ah've had a person heah - ah paid a person five dollars year befo' last to give me luck. He had me tuh go to a - he had me tuh go git a bull bat - bull bat dat fly, a leather-wing. He had me git him a leather-wing bat - dat's fer hoodoo. An' ah put out a 'ward [reward] for him to a little boy - give him fifty cents 'ward an' he find him one night. An' ah tuk him an' cut his heart out wit a - he's livin'. Ah put mah foot on his head an' cut his heart out, an' den ah carried it back home, den went to a grave- yard, dis graveyard right ovah heah, one dark night, dark night, an' reached in dat grave wit mah han' like he said, in it an' got some of dat dirt an' carried it back home an' put it in dis bull bat, wit dis bull bat an' tied it up in a piece of red flannen an' dat's [a hand] fo' mah luck. An' ah like tuh went crazy, an' to de chain gang an' ever'where there. Dat's one of badest lucks ah've never seen. Ah've spent thousands an' thousands of dollars. [This is like I've had every doctor in town.]
(Did you go to the chain gang because of that?)
No, sir, like to went. Yes, sir, ah nearly did gwine jes' on account dat dirt Dat hard luck.
(He had you do that to give you luck?)
To give me luck. Yo' wants tuh know about somepin 'bout gittin' yore wife back. Well, yo' go buy yo' ten cents bottle of hearts cologne. He buy a ten cents box of talcum powder an' he put dat wit dat perfume an' den he puts it on yo' - dat's gittin' yo' wife back. Dere no sech thing as that. It's all 'magination. Well, it's some kind of root, it's a kind of a root that goes off in sprouts. Yo've seen dis heah stuff called lodestone - kinda dirt, de rock dey dig up wit fur on it. Dey'll git dat, den dey goes out an' gits some kind of a root with little ends on it - call High John de Conker. Dey git dat an' dey tie it up - it be's all lak together an' den dey'll give it to yo' fo' to tote in yo' pocket, an' ah paid $25 for it. Ah tote it in mah pocket an' tote in mah pocket an' lost everthing. [Lodestone or loadstone is magnetite, an iron oxide and important iron ore. What the hoodoo trade uses I do not know, though I have seen numerous pieces of it - all looking different. A stone having fur, being fed, and growing - this is beyond my visual and tactile experience.] Now, dere one'll come dere. He'll have somepin he kin burn; he jest 'maginat' [working on the imaginations of the] people, see. He may call dis woman outa de crowd an' she'll come dere an' he'll make her think she's got her head hurtin'. She ain't got a head hurt. Den he'll splain to her den, her head hurt an' some- body done somepin to her. She'll say, "Yeah." Say, "A long time ago in yore hat." She say, "Yeah." It won't be a thing but he jes' git dere 'magination. Den he have some kind of a root den, an' he'll burn dat root an' dat root curl up jes' lak a snake. Den he'll make lak dat'll come out of her haid - make lak dat come outa her haid an' den he won't let nobody pick it up but her. Den dey carry it back heah an' throw it out. It ain't nuthin but a root burn an' curl up lak a snake. [A chemical, not a root, is burned - an old trick.]
Entry 795
I knew a man that was said to have a spell put on him. He was a lawyer who didn't believe in anything. Anyhow, he had something that they deemed to be a nervous breakdown. They had three doctors with him. It seems that he would be up today but tomorrow he would be in the same condition. In the meantime, a woman came to his wife and told her that she knew somebody that could do him some good. She said to the woman, "I will do anything to try to help him, because he cannot go to his office and all of his business is going to pieces." She said, "I will bring the man to your house tonight and he will tell you what you must do." On the designated night she brought the man. The man went in to the lawyer's wife and told her, "This is a spell that is put on your husband by conjuration. I can help him. You, tomorrow, go to the bank, get me seventy-five dollars in silver [silver dollars] and have it here tomorrow night when I come." In turn the man left. The next day the woman went to the bank, got the seventy-five dollars out in silver and brought it home. When the man came next night, he took this silver, and he had this lawyer lay flat on his back, and he laid this silver all up and down his breast and all around. He bound it every one in its place till he had the seventy-five dollars on his body. He said, "Leave that be for three days and I'll be back." He went away. The third night he was back. He unbound the lawyer and took the money out. Each piece of the money was black. He took it out and laid it down and said, "See herel" When he got the seventy-five dollars off it was all very dark. And he said to the man's wife, "Now, I will rake all of this into this bag and I will cast it into oblivion, and he will get well, because this is his disease that's in this silver." So he took the silver and went away and stayed away for quite a while. When he came back the man was up and about the house. And he said, "Are you getting better?" He said, "I don't know. I don't feel so strong. I don't feel like going to my office. But still, I am convinced of the fact that something must of happened to me." He said, "That's all I want' - that's the conjureman. "All I want is for you to be convinced that you are conjured. Now, that you are convinced, now I will begin to work on you. He kept working on the man till he got about five-hundred dollars out of him - and the man by that time was in such a low state of health and of spirits - till he had to move out of the house that he had been owning for about sixteen years and go into another that was given him by a white man. And he stayed there as a baby for three years till his hair was gone. He was just like an invalid. And about three years ago he died right in Orangeburg [South Carolina]. [New York City, (10), Ed.] [The preceding subsection, Doctor and Doctor, gave some beliefs and practices emphasizing the difference between the primitive thought of hoodoo's magic world and the modern thought of science. Now comes a survey of doctor's entire career. As an introduction to the following margin-titles, I will use a story permitting us to watch two doctors on the same case, one succeeding the other; the first a country doctor, the second a city doctor. Medical doctors are also involved at the beginning.]