Subject:Blue
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Entries
Entry 1701
Say, if you got headache and you done taken things to cure it and it don't cure it - so, you see, they got two color matches in a box. You see, you take a red match - you know them red p'ints, and you take a blue one. Well, you put one in your hair like this, and you put the other one like that - see, you cross 'em in your hair.
(Like an "x" - like a cross?)
Just like "x" - and you wear it in your hair for nine days and then your head- ache begin to pass off.
Entry 2468
Where people go in, you know, to see each other - bootlegging or some- thing like that. That what chew talking about? (That's right.) Business like that. Well, now this is something that is sold mostly in the South. Did you ever hear of Darby's fluid?
(What does it look like?)
It's blue - looks like garment blueing: It's something that is almost the same as, you might say, Zonite or - what is this other stuff we use, it's kind of like a disinfectant. You get this fluid - it looks like blueing but it's a fluid. Well, you mix a tablespoonful to a gallon of water. After you have mopped your floors, dey usually take about a quart of urine. Say now, if you dressed your house on a Monday and Fridays, you put a quart of this urine into this water. See. And you drop nine drops of oil of cinnamon in this water and when you dress your house you start at the door and never sweep out the door, because of the sill of the door coming in you see. Just get a mop just for that purpose and don't use it for anything else. Put a half cup of sugar in dis and get it well dissolved in this same water and you just mop your house from de front clean on back to the back. And when you have done that and it is well dried, you wanta be careful don't let anyone to come in your house before that time and you wanta do that before six clock in morning. At six 'clock you get de contents of a five-cent box of sulphur. Mix a teacup of sugar in dis sulphur and measure it out in exactly how many rooms you have. Say now, you might have five rooms or you might have seven. You divide this as near equal as possible with this sugar an' sulphur. You put it on a little tin pan. You don't have to buy a pan, you can get the top of a tin bucket of some kind - just since it's clear and bright. An' put a little of that ~ jest the same as you would a candle - stick it together an' let that burn, an' don't open your house up until this have burned. Befo' three hours time your house will be so crowded you can't hardly stay in it your- self. Now, that is a fact, too.
(You make as many piles as you have rooms.)
That's right. Now that is one thing I can substantiate. I tell you how I know about that. [During a pause she told me she had formerly lived in Cincinnati. I said I also had once lived there.] I used to live right down from Mound Street across from dat undertaker - had dat big house at 714 and times were very good at that time and people were paying pretty good money for rent. But it seems that - I had nice rooms and all, but it was just so hard for me to get people to come in and pay me. They would come in and pay the first, or they would come in and give me half of it and say, "Well, I'm sorry but I haven't got it all." Well, ah wouldn't want to put them out, you know. So I was telling a friend of mine about it. She said, "Well, I will come down and see what I kin do for you." She came down and fixed my house up like that - burned de stuff in de house, and she told me to do that every Monday and Friday. After that I just had so much trade. I tried it several times since then in different places and I found it to be true. It will absolutely do that - I found it to be a fact.
Entry 2756
See, hit's [the altar is] made like a table, and she got all kinds of different candles, you know, on it, and on the table it's shaped like a pulpit. You done seen a pulpit. Well, they got all kind of different candles - got white candles, they got green candles, they got pink ones, they got red ones. So I went to another man and I asked him could he do anything to help me. (Now wait a minute. This woman you said that had this altar. Was she dressed in any particular way?) Yes, she had a robe.
(What kind of a robe?)
A blue.
(A blue robe?)
Yes, sir.
(Anything on her head?)
A crown.
(A crown?)
Yes, sir.
(What kind of a crown?)
It's a white piece of cloth was made like a crown.
(I see - piece of white cloth.)
Just like a piece of cloth - just like you would put something [on your head].
(When you came in there, did she make you do anything?)
No more than sit down.
(Just told you to sit down?)
And wait until she get ready.
(I see. And how was this man dressed that you went to see?)
Well, he wears clothes just like you wear but he had a white robe over his clothes.
(I see - a white robe. Anything on his head?)
Not nothing on his head at all.
(Did he have an altar?)
Yes, sir, he had an altar.
(What did it look like, this altar?)
Well, his altar look just like a pulpit. Well, he got candles and saints' Pictures and flowers - you know, all that. (I see, I see.) [My note on original transcription reads, "This was told in conjunction with 1088:9 & 1089:10.]
Entry 2867
Burn that stuff - take it an' burn that candle - take three an' burn 'em in three corners of de house, de east, north and west - jest three corners, special. Set it on somepin dat it don't ketch fire, an' burn it till it burn out an' make yore wish whatsomever yo' wish, "Ah wish ah won't be worried wit anyone or "Ah wish dat ah would git so-an'-so" - whatsomever yo' wish.
(That will keep the officers away. What do you burn now?)
Those candles.
(What color are they?)
Red - some red, some blue.
(You send away to buy those?)
Yo' sends away an' git them. Cost $l for a half dozen. [Here candles are uninfluenced by normal candle rites of New Orleans.]
Entry 9407
AH TAKES A DOZEN AIGS. ALL RIGHT. AN' AH'LL BRING 'EM UP HEAH [I AM INTERVIEWING ON SECOND FLOOR OF DOWNTOWN BLACK HOTEL] AN' AH'LL SET DOWN AN' ASK YO' WHAT'S CHURE NAME. AN' YO' BE SETTIN' DOWN ON ONE SIDE AN' AH BE SETTIN' DOWN ON DE OTHAH JIS' LAK WE BE'S SETTIN' NOW. AN' AH HAVE A DOZEN. AIGS AN' YO' DON'T KNOW NUTHIN ABOUT IT, AH HAVIN' MAH HAT LAYIN' OVAH DEM. AN' EVAH TIME AH ASTS [ASK] YO' WHAT CHURE NAME AN' AH JIS' KEEP A-WRITIN' IT ON DE AIGS AN' TALK- IN' WIT CHEW RIGHT ON. ALL RIGHT. AN' DEN DEY TAKES DEM AIGS AN' PUTS 'EM, AN' PUTS CHURE NAME ON 'EM AN' DYES 'EM JIS' ABOUT DE COLAH OF DAT WALL DERE, DARK BLUE. An' dey take dem aigs, dey takes one tuh de windah, fo' at de steps, an' de rest of 'em at de back do'. All dem is left, chew know, from gwine roun' to de windah an' de front steps. But chew puts even [number of] aigs on de front steps, but chure name is on dem aigs. An' dey'll let 'em stay undah dere so many days [or] so many weeks. An' den dey'll go an' dig dem aigs up. If yo' don' go out dere yuhself, someone goin' tell yuh tuh go an' dig aroun' undah yuh do'step. An' when yo' dig roun' undah yuh do'step, see dem aigs settin' down dere, an' suddenly yo' goin' be hunt [hunting] fer 'em. Yo' jis' a feelin' in yuh mind yo' be hunt [hunting] fer dem. An' when yo' go dere yo' dig down. All right yo'll pick up dem eggs an' dey'll jis' bust away, jis' bust, an' all de stuff git right on yuh an' dat's de end.
(What will that do? Why do they bury those eggs under the doorstep?)
Dat's tuh run yo' crazy. Jis' lak - dere's two things dat dey'll do tuh yuh. Dey kin run yo' crazy wit 'em. An' den if yo' got a wife - jis' [like] ah got a wife heah an' she done quit me. Ef ah go an' take dem eggs an' bury 'em undah 'er do'step an' she don' come back, she'll go crazy. An' when she come back tuh me, she can't leave me no mo'. An' she kin take 'em an' go an' bury 'em undah yuh do'step, an' if yo' don' go back tuh 'er yo'll go crazy or eithah yo' won't live wit nobody else but 'er, until she dig 'em up. (The first you said, it was to set somebody crazy, but they have to find those eggs though. Doesn't somebody break them or they won't work? That right?) Yo' ain't gotta bothah. Yo' jis' goin' tuh feel tuh go out dere an' dig round undah yore do'step, or maybe jis' yo' wanta see sompin an' yo' jis' diggin' undah dere or somepin. (If they bury those eggs under your doorstep and you don't find them, does that have any effect on you?) Yes, if she don't nevah go an' find dem, dey do's jis' as much harm if she don' go an' fine [find] dem as it does tuh fine dem. De name is on dem eggs.
Entry 10212
Tuh separate 'em. Yo' take dis man when he deal wit yo'. Yo' wanta break dem [man and other woman] up. Yo' take dis man when he deals wit yo' an' yo' take dat towel dat yo' an' him uses, see. An' yo' take dis towel tuh dis woman's house - if yo' kin locate where she live at - dis woman he's runnin' roun' wit. Den yo' bury dis towel down right at her do'step, where she have tuh come out at. Yo' bury dat towel dere an' den yo' take some bluein' - Purity Bluein', see. See, yo' takes bluein' an' ink an' mix it up combined. Yo' kin jis' sprinkle dat towel, on dere, an' den yo' bury dat towel right up undah- neath whah she have tuh walk at. Dat'll break it up. Dat break it up, too.