Subject:Bone/Human bone
Entries
Entry 10116
There was a fellow who used to say - a long time ago a fellow was not so very lucky, and another man told him to go and git hisself a black cat bone. He told him to go over into the graveyard and find whatsoever he could of a bone from a person, and then come back and git a black cat bone, and keep them in his pocket. He told him to git the fore right-hand arm of the black cat and keep it and the other bone in his pocket and his luck would change.
Entry 10135
Take a bone, the dead man's bone, and take a black cat bone. That's tvo bones; a certain bone in the black cat, a certain bone in the dead man. And you'll be... (You use them together?) Yes, sir. (I see. All right.) Listen. Take a: certain bone of the dead man and certain bone of the black cat, tying them across [in the form of a cross], wearing them in your pocket. After wearing them in your pocket, you'll be a mystery man at least. You'll do things that it look impossible to do. For instance, I would walk in here - come in and walk on out and I wouldn't see yoo aad you wouldn't see me. But it's a certain bone.
(What bone is that?)
That's a certain bone of that black cat you have to take, you see. They got a bone in that cat - it come from the shoulder, from the left shoulder, that bone. You take that bone, and after taking that bone, to find out if you have the right bone, you takes a mirror, see, passing those bones that way [demonstrates passing che through mouth]. And long as you see yourself in the mirror thar isg't the right one. The moment you get the right one, you don't see yourself my nore. gell, that's supposed to be that bone that you kin absolutely disappear. You'll be coming in the street there and you don't disappear, but anyhow the party you hope don't see you, won't see you. When they do see you again, you'll be a dis- tance off.
(What bone do they take out of the body? Out of that person's body?)
Out of a person body? That bone they got right here, it's a small bone near to your spine.
(At the end of the spine?)
Yes, sir.
(Where you sit down on?)
Absolutely! [Some place else in HOODOO I have another example of the "inde- structible bone, " but I cannot recall where it is.] Take that bone and that black cat bone from the left shoulder and tying them acrosst. But the bone of the cat, to be sure that you have the right one, you have to use a mirror.
Entry 666
They claim they'll make it from bones, dried bones from people. They call it goofer dust at home. They sprinkle a little goofer dust in your tracks and you're sure goin' wrong.
Entry 836
Yo' take dat bone, yo' see, an' yo' kin carry it. Put it in yore pocket an' anywhere yo' go - jes' lak if yo' wanted to make a deal anywhere or goin' to a bank or anything, yo' take dat dead man's bone or one joint of his fingah, see, an' jes' 'fore yo' git dere yo'll kinda stick de end of it in yore mouth. When yo' put it in yore mouth why yo'll disappear, be nuthin den but jes' a shadah - see, yo' be nuthin but a shadah. Well, now, den yo' kin go ahead on den an' do jes' anything yo' want. Yo' kin walk right up to a person - dey'll nevah see yo' until yo' relieve dat bone out chure mouth.
Entry 1811
De bones of a dead man - yes, dey showed me dat in my studies. [This small-time doctor now tells me how to make and sell bone rings.] You take de bones of a dead man and if you kin get it and dry it and if anybody wanta do anything to you - anything in any way, you take that bone of a dead man and have ring make of it and wear dat ring. A bone ring dey call it - and nobody kin harm you. And if you git de bone of a dead man and make dat ring yourself, you kin sell those fer five dollars apiece - each ring is five dollars. Then everybody come to you and you say, "Now you put this ring on - it cost you five dollars" - be sure and make them give it to you first - "dat's a real ring - give it special to you and nobody kin harm you." You git dat bone - you speak to de undertaker when he begin embalmin'a body. He embalm de body and get a bone for you. You see dat's de spirit. There 206 bones in every parts of de body.
Entry 1812
If yo' take an' make a place up in yore chimley, where yo' kin place yore whiskey, see, an' yo' kin take an' git chew dis heah dead man's bone. An' yo' take this dead man bone, yo' see, an' beat it up fine, yo' see, an' at de hearth, yo' take an' dig up around de hearth, yo' understand, an' yo' place this around there, an' they claim dat de law can't go ovah de dead man's bone. [Here is the great theme of dead men guarding buried treasure - see pp.111-135.] [Fayetteville, N. Car.,
Entry 1813
Ah heard 'em say, take a dead person's bone. If yo' can't, yo' know chop it up as small as yo' wanta, why yo' jes' wrap it up yo' see; an' if yo' can't git under de house, git some small chile tuh put it right middleways of dat house an' it'll break yo' [them] up.
Entry 1815
Take a bone from a dead person an' drop a penny at de side of de grave, an' yo' kin take dis an' bury under yore step an' he'll come to be a spirit dere an' come to be jest; in other words yo' can't live dere. Somebody will be coming all de time - somebody be knockin' on de do'. Ah hear mah grandmother talk a lots about dat - knocking on de do' an' jes' disturbing. Yo' can't live dere.
(That is another way of making a person move out? Out of the house?)
Yes suh.
Entry 1820
You take a bone from a dead man's right hand. You go to the cemetery and dig them up, and you make a pair of dice out of them. And when you get in a dice game - I don't mean a gambling club but around these jobs that have payday, they have a big dice game and you go in there with these dice and you are more than likely to win.
Entry 2902
You take the dead bones of somebody they's related to. You take nine candles [demonstrates]. Like that a candle like that, you turn that candle up- side down. You write the name of that person on that candle that way. From the bottom to the top. Then you burn that candle thataway [demonstrates]. (Wait a minute! Put that candle upright now, the way it belongs. Do you write the name on it now?) No, no. [Demonstrates.] (Then, all right - you turn the candle upside down, then you write the name from the top down to the bottom. All right. How many times did you say?)
[He did not say. This questioning device I use frequently.]
Nine times.
(Nine times. All right.)
Then you burn this candle - leave it stay down there. At the flicker of that candle thataway, things is going bad; but when the candle burn calm and straight, well then it's all right.
(But you said you burned down that candle, didn't you?)
No, write their name nine times, but you burns just three of the candles.
(Oh, just three of the candles. I see. What color do you burn there?)
Any color.
(I see.)
Wax.
(Just wax candles. You don't burn anything else with - that's all you do?)
Just the candles. (Well, what will that do? Make you [I turned off machine].) [The dead bones did not impress me, I asking no question about them. The important thing here is the flickering candle.]
Entry 7943
She had a daid man bone an' she tole me she had de length of a daid man. Say she has 'is measure too. Yeah, she measured 'im while he wus layin out.
(What did she do that for?)
Yo' see dat wus jes' 'er luck. [She did this to obtain luck.]
Entry 8022
Yo' kin git a piece of a dead body's bone but chew have tuh git two pieces. An' yo' go tuh a person's house while dey sleep in de night, an' yo' cross dat crossways lak dat [make a cross], yes sir, right in de middle part of de house, undah de middle sill. [This crossing of two bones at the middle of the house creates a quin- cunx.] Yo' bury it dere an' it won't be long 'fo' dat person will be dead. [For the soporific nature of graveyard dirt, see also Nos.7529-7530, Pp.3298-3299.]
Entry 8037
Yo' git de little fingah of a woman from de graveyard - de bone from de hand of a dead woman - de little-fingah bone, an' take dat an' put it in yuh pocket. An' yo' kin gamble wit dat.
Entry 8042
Yo' kin take a pusson's skull attah dey daid, thirty days attah dey daid. [Nothing more is said about skull.] If yo' kin go tuh de graveyard an' turn de casket roun' an' yo' kin take one clip off de end of dis fingah, an' carry it back tuh dey house an' bury it tuh de'steps - dat's wherevah dey come from yo' know, or anybody dat yo' have anythin' ag'inst - dat's about nine days aftah dey's daid, jes' take de fingah off, jes' so yo' git one j'int, an' yo' bury dat at de do'steps an' say, "Yo' leave," jes' lak dat, an' bury it down. If yo' don' believe it, yo' try it, an' it will be datavay. Wit de fingahnail up facin' de house, jes' lak dat, an' dem people have tuh move. Hobody Will nevah stay at dat place. AH KNOWS TWO PLACES RIGHT NOW IN TOwN NO- BODY BEEN ABLE TUH STAY IN LONG AS AH'M IN TOWN. (All you do, you just go out there and just take this finger and bury it in the door. You don't do anything with the skull?) No, yo' ain't gotta do nuthin wit de skull tuh do dat.
Entry 8049
Ah hear'd about dey gittin' de bone, de haid part.
(A bone from the head?)
Yes, sir. Ah hear'd dat dey go out an' git dat, goes out dere an' dig it up. Git de haid of a pusson. An' when dey git de haid of a pusson, beat up dat an' make some kinda diff'ren' li'le thin's dey calls hands, so dat dey have good luck an' all dat. Dat's what dey do wit dat. [For headbone see also pp.38,282 & 283.]
Entry 87
I'il tell you this one, it's an actual fact. A family of people that had two boys, they were poor people it's true, and the city in which they lived you could sell most anything to the junk dealer - rags, bones, iron, tin, glass bottles and the silver paper in cigarette packages. This boy had a habit of picking up bones. Where he went to get his bones was an old burying-ground that had went down and he did not know it. Everybody thought that when they changed this burying-ground they removed all the bodies but it wasn't so. So one night this boy had been out collecting bones and he had it in a crocus bag - that's the same as a potato bag [gunny bag or sack] - and he wanted to hide them, so he put them under his mother's bed. Around about midnight his mother and father heard a moaning and groaning all over the house. They couldn't locate it. They came back in their room and it was still moaning. So they looked under the bed and there was this bag. They pulled it out and the father shook the bones out on the floor and they were still moaning. That's the way he recognized them as human bones. So he woke his son up and made him take those bones out that time of the night. The next morning he asked him where did he get them from. He showed him. He tole him from now on don't never bring a bone from here near the house for this used to be a burying-ground.
Entry 110
A white man killed another white man in slavery time - had killed him for years. An' one day they was riding 'long an' he says, "Thare zem bones - I killed dat fellah ten or fifteen or twenty years ago." An' de other fellah says tuh him, "Aw hush, git down an' let's see yo' tetch 'em." An' dey say, when he touched de bones, de blood come out - out that bone, an' he had him 'rested. An' that was de evidence - dat blood.
Entry 596
Yo' kin take a fellah whut had a peg-laig yo' know an' he die, an' when he die why yo' git dat knee-cap off an' use hearts cologne an' whiskey on it, an' tote it in yore pocket, an' yo' know, when yore luck come on hit would jump, an' then, yo' know that would give yo' more attention to bet mo'.
Entry 900
Dey did it with mah brothah. Well, dey took one of de dead bones out of it, out of de dead person rib - de last rib on de left side. An' dey cut dat rib into three parts an' make it as near like a cross, see, an' den wrap it an' sew it into a piece of cloth, red flannen, an' den dey put black peppah, salt an' graveyard dirt in that, an' bury it right at de front steps, as yo' come out. That'll cause yo to go crazy, hate everybody dat near yo' would care fo' yo' - would like anybody dat hate yo', an' de people dat care fo' yo' dey can't come near yo', an' finally yo'll die. Well, it be a short death, 'cause he didn't live ovah one week an' fo' days - mah next oldest brothah. An' dis man dug it up an' showed it to us, an' he said it wus de last rib of a man an' wus cut into three parts - 'cause we looked at it. It placed in a little small three-cent cream can - was in dat an' buried undah de steps.
Entry 8021
Ah tole yo' 95 percent of de people in dis town an' othah towns have got frauded outa money goin' tuh people, yo' undahstan', who claim dey kin do dose things an' frauded 'em outa money wit'out any proof. Yo' git a bone, a dead person's bone, yo' undahstan' an' yo' Would bury it undah de step where de party is at, tying nine knots in dat bone, yo' see, an' it will keep sickness in de house, yo' see. It will keep de people who can't undahstan' one anothah - man, wife and daughter, dey can't undahstan' one anothah. Dey all pull contrary somehow or anothah, see. An' dey will nevah make de end Iends] meet.
(Well, how do you tie the knots in that bone?)
Tie them in a cord an' den tie de bone wit de cord.
Entry 8908
You can take a bone of a person and do lots of harm. They can be the biggest crook in the world, the one that has got the bone - like the professional stealer, the one that has the bone. And as long as they have that bone, they will never be caught because they got the dead man's bone. And the dead man's bone keeps all other spectators away and nobody perhaps hardly sees what this man with that bone is doing because it is a real dead man's bone.