Subject:Disease
Entries
Entry 999
If you have chickenpox, go into henhouse, lie at door or under roost, and let someone shoo the chickens out so that they will fly out over you. [This cure is based upon the magic law of like cures like (see margin-title so named) - chickenpox being symbolically connected with chickens. The homeless chickenpox spirit, evicted by patient's intention and the enticement of mystically related chickens, may select one new home (a chicken) or split his spirit personality to grab several.]
Entry 1007
[This man spoke so rapidly I could repeat only snatches of his conver- sation to my Ediphone. After his departure I pieced together a few beliefs such as the following:] [The informant and another man quarreled about a woman. Sometimes later, not suspecting any evil motive, he accepted a drink of whiskey from his rival. After a few days came four paralytic strokes in his left side, one following the other and all on the same morning. Failing to be helped by five doctors, he went to Norfolk, Virginia to consult a conjurer. This healer, stating that he could rid him of paralysis, demanded a fifty-dollar fee in advance. The patient offered to pay twenty-five dollars down and the balance on recovery but these terms were refused. At this point my informant became so skeptical orally, the conjurer defended his power by claiming he could take the paralysis upon himself - absorb it into his body. Negotiations collapsed.]
Entry 3241
Makin' connection wit othah woman, in case any- thin' won't happen to him, hol' a penny in 'is mouthan' it'll kill de germs - ketch anythin'.
(Hold a penny in his mouth while he is doing this.)
Entry 3242
(Begin at the beginning.)
A bad disease. See, her have a pox.
(She has it?)
Yes, she has it. He hasn't got anythin'. Now, she'll take a penny, a brass penny, an' put it into her mout' undah her tongue, an' she'll lay down in bed wit dis man. Now, when he git up outa baid, from affiliatin' wit 'er, he's got a dose dat he'll nevah git rid of. (What has that brass penny got to do with it?) Well, dat penny, dat gives it - you know, dat makes it mo' strongah dan what it would, if a man bein' ketched wit it jis' by himself.
(I see, that makes it stronger.)
Strongah.
Entry 3246
A pin, a brass pin. You can take a brass pin - like if she - if a woman's goin' an' she get after you and she wants to give yo' a vener'al disease, you understand. (She wants to give you a venereal disease?) Yes. (I understand.) She take dat pin - she'll take a brass pin when yo' havin' intahco'se wit 'er. An' she'll take dat brass pin an' she'll hold it in 'er mouth, see. Well, she hold it in 'er mouth. Well, all right. Aftah yo' have yore intahco'se wit 'er, see, well nine days aftahwards, if yo' don't have no idea about it, why dat thing will start to run, an' stay on if, if yo' don't know what to do. If yo' don't know whut to do to cure it, why it, jes keeP gIttin' WOrSe. An' I DON'T CARE NUTHIN ABOUT DOCTORS [M.D.'s]. HEDICINE WILL NOT CURE IT.
(I see. That's if she wants to give you a venereal disease.)
Yes, if she want to give it to yo', yo' undahstan'.
(Well, ISN'T THERE ANY WAY YOU GET RID OF IT, if she gives it tO you?)
Yes. Well, de way yo' git rid of dat, yo' go to de woods. Yo' go to de woods or a swamp somewhere an' yo' git Swamp root or de watah lily.
(The what?)
De watah lily root - swamp root.
(Water lily. All right.)
[This is probably the swamp lily, a white flowered lily (Crinum americanun) of the southern United States.] Swamp root, yo' boil dat. Yo' boil it down an' yo' take one tablespoon of sugar, one tablespoon of sulphur. Yo' mix dat togethah into a quart of watah. Yo' take three tablespoonsful a day. Before each meal yo' take a tablespoonful. Dat'll cure it. But not wit'out some Swamp root. Somepin ah'll do it wit, it'll nevah nOt cure It. DOCTORS SHOOTIN AN' ALL DAT KIN'A SHOTS WILL NOT GIT RID OF IT, AN' I HAD IT. SO MANY PERSONS A DAY IN TOWN DAT DIES FROM DAT GOIN' TUH HOS- PITALS AN' NEVAH BE'S CURED. YO' GOTA GIT SOME MAN OUTA DE WOODS, OR SOME MAN TO GIT SOMEPIN OUTA DE GROUN' TO CURE DAT.
Entry 6688
Yo' kin take a penny an' if yo' havin' a intahco'se wit a woman an' if yo' don' wants 'er no mo', don' cä' [care] fo' her no mo', an' jis' wants tuh see her blat up, why yo' put dat penny in yore mout' an' put it undah yore tongue an' have intahco'se wit 'er, an' den yo'll give her some disease dat she nevah kin git rid of. Dat's whut chew kin do wit a penny. [The preceding word blat used only here in Hoodoo, is a variant of bleat, which means to cry out, as calf or sheep. Colloquially, blat could signify to utter loudly and indiscretly, or to be loud- mouthed. Perhaps the meaning in the present instance could be loud-mouthed or to blow her top. Or does informant intend to say she will bloat from the disease he gives her? As a matter of fact (hoodoo pathology says so), diseases are given by holding a penny in the mouth or under tongue during coitus: a woman holding the penny causes a stroke in the man (No.3240); prevents veneral disease (3241); makes a disease stronger (No.3242); etc.]
Entry 6758
[The following medical rite I marked doubtful years ago and was about to throw it out with the discards. Years later on taking a second look I saw something unseen previously. Why did I keep it? Suppose we take a look:] (Cow manure? What do you do with that?) Yo' kin take cow manure, vinegah, dirt daubah nest an' black peppah an' if a person is got a disease, yo' kin keep dat disease on 'em wit dat cow manure, an' dirt daubah nest an' vinegah an' black peppah. [An excellent opening statement!] Yo' weah a bandage on yuh laig, on yuh lef' laig jis' evah mawnin', jis' put a fresh bandage on. An' jis' as long as dat bandage is applied tuh yo', dat disease will be applied tuh dat person.
(The person has the disease to begin with, you mean?)
Yes, sir.
(I see. Well, how do I know which person to apply it to?)
Well, it's jis' lak if somebody would come tuh yo' an' tell yo' an' say, "So- an'-so-an'-so is got a case of shankles or a case of pox or somepin, an' DEY BEEN WASTIN' TIME WIT MAH DAUGHTAH" or somepin. An' dey say, "If dere's any way dat ah kin keep it on 'em, ah wanta tuh do so." Well, den yo' [the author] know whut tuh tell 'em tuh do [when they come to you]. (Get this person's name and put the bandage on [PUT THE PERSON'S NAME ON THE BANDAGE!]. I see.) [My seeing at the time was not very good!] [Here we have a remarkable folk-medicine rite, one of the finest beliefs in Hoodoo, and yet I missed it! Perhaps I was tired, often interviewing for hours at a time. An experienced folklorist will immediately recognize: (1) the 4 in- gredients put in the bandage are about the commonest in folk medicine, cow manure a well-known ointment; and (2) that some doctors claim the power of being able to absorb a disease (see No.1007, p.387). For another example of the latter, some wart doctors pretend to, or are said to, catch all the warts they remove. In the present case however, we do not have an absorbtion rite, but a substitution rite; the absorbtion being only a pretense like the birth pangs of the husband in the couvade! The father in our present rite by pretending to have the venereal dis- ease of his daughter's paramour, keeps it upon the man permanently! Surely there must have been a time limit for the father's acting!]
Entry 6821
[All the following graveyard dirt rites, as well as others elsewhere, indicate that the spirit in graveyard dirt fights or protects you against the spirit powering the cunjure put down for you:] Pay de grave an' git dat graveyard dirt...den new needles an' huh [her] ole shoes an' sul- phur...in de room evah night tuh keep ghost aay. [Here is one of other statments showing that the spirit in graveyard dirt keeps other spirits away.] Charleston, S. Car., (500), 544:2.]
Entry 6939
They claim that if you put a ten-cent piece under your tongue while you're having sexual relation wit a woman, you won't catch any diseases from the woman. [This belief should have pre- ceded No.3258, p.2373, but it was under CURES and missed. This original tran- scription of mine in pencil was never typed. See ILLUSTRATIONS for original.]
Entry 6981
If you have a [social] disease and have a running, they claim if you take some of that and go backward to a stream of running water and throw it over your left shoulder, it will cause that running to stop. [That word social within bracket, originally a parenthesis, is mine. What it replaces I no longer remember. Above it I have a note copy myself! Back in 1936 when this belief was collected, everything about a venereal disease was taboo. A final note of mine reads My original [[pencil]] copy never typed, dated H. M. H. note Aug. 1971.]
Entry 7189
Take dat - say, now, if dere is a woman dat wuz runnin' wit a man an' yo' don' want it done, yo' see. Dat's de othah woman, yo' know, wit a married man. Dis man is runnin' wit anothah woman. His wife have got aholt [a hold] of it. She kin dress 'er husban' fo' de othah woman. (Well, how would she dress him? What would she do that with?) She dress 'er husban'. She would take, she put 'erself in contact wit 'er husband now an' use 'im 'erself. An' when she's done wit 'im, den she smote [rub] 'im down, by puttin' dis innocent oil in 'er han's an' smote 'im down.
(She'll only do that after she's finished?)
Aftah she done wit 'im, herself; yo' know, de wife.
(She puts this oil on her hands?)
Yes, an' smote 'im down. An' aftah she smote 'im down, den she'll turn 'im loose. He kin go. Now, den, he kin go aftah dis othah woman. He cain't raise a heart fer'er, see. Den he'll come den an' looks - go on an' beat 'is wife, knowin' dat he don't wan' nobody else but 'er an' [that] he cain't mark time now lak he used tuh; knowin' dat somepin's wrong somewhere, don't chew see. But dat's de way she kin do.
(Well, what kind of oil would she use to do that? Put on her hands?)
Innocent oil. (Innocent oil. Well, where do you get that? Where do you buy it? How do you get it, make it?) Yo' know whut a innocen' is. Innocen' [as] a lamb. A lamb is innocen'. Yo' kin take a knife an' go tuh 'im fo' tuh cut 'is throat, he won't say a word. He's innocent. (Well, they call it innocent oil, yes, but you have to buy that some place, don't you? Where do you get that?) Oh! Yo' make it yuhself. Take a piece of lamb.
(Oh!) You get a piece of lamb. I see.)
Git a piece of lamb an' take a piece of fat off it an' stew it up.
(Take the fat and stew it up.)
AH DO'S DAT. AH MAKES A LI'LE MEDICINE NOW, YO' KNOW, TUH CURE "BAD DIS- EASES." (That's all you use, just that oil from that lamb? This mutton or lamb oil, you don't put anything with it or anything?) Don' put nuthin else wit, except dere's somepin else yo' wanta do.
Entry 7233
Yo' see dem li'le red onions, but chew git chew one dat's small; yo' know, got a li'le tail tuh it, lak dat, [demonstrates] chew know. Yo've seen 'em?
(I've seen them.)
Now, de way yo' gotta do, yo' [go] up to 'im - now, listen good. Yo' kill it [the trouble]. Ah had de claps right tuh mah.... So yo' take dis red onion. Now mix dem good. An' yo' know a coman's vury weak anyway, say, "This ain't goin' hurt choo. Wipe dis on yo' so ah won' have tuh come back no mō'." Now, listen good. Now, aftah yo' take dat onion, yo take yo' a cord string an' tie it up somewhere where nobody won' see it. Now listen good, where it won' touch de wall anywhere. An' ah'll betcha, if she have any other man, ah'll eat chew up. She won' [have] any, anothah man, betcha.
(Now, you have that onion and she takes that onion, doesn't she?)
He has tuh tell 'er, see, say, "Ah have de claps, here. De doctor tole me tuh git some of yuh [your] wiping." Yo' know, it ain't goin' hurt 'er. Yo' know, put it between....
(But you have her take that onion and wipe you?)
Shore. Undahstan', yo' know, jis' lak yo' have a woman, yo' say, "Baby wid dis, will ya? Ah have de claps so bad." An' yo' takes dat [red onion] away from 'er an' yo' take a cord string, an' tie it up somewhere where nobody - not even yuh wife won' see it. Where it won' touch de wall nowhere. An' ah betcha evah day an' evah night she be right on yo'.
(I see. You wipe the woman with the red onion.)
Shore, an' den git roun' dat li'le ole tail of it [onion], git chew a cord string an' yo' tie it, an' hang it up somewhere where nobody can't see it.
(You hang up that red onion.)
Yes.
(I understand now.)
Entry 7522
Jis' what sickness, what disease dey died wit - why where dat woman is, maybe she step ovah it, why she will git de reflect of dat. If dey dies wit T. B., why de T. B's will reveal on yo'; an' if dey dies wit rheuma- tism, yo'll take effect of dat. See, all dat comes out of dat bone, yo' see.
Entry 7530
Dey use it fo' puttin' a person tuh sleep. If yo' wanta keep 'em sleepin' all de time, yo' go tuh de graveyard an' yo' git some of dat dirt an' yo' put dat in watah or anythin' tuh drink, wine or anything, an' dey drink dat. Well, den dey jes' have a sleepin' disease. Dey sleep all de time an' dey nevah kin keep dey eyes open. [Algiers, La., (1575), 2898:11.] [The following list of grave types from which to obtain dirt is rather long but surely incomplete. I neither made an effort to complete it, nor could I spend time searching for further examples printed in the preceding volumes. The Index will accomplish that task I hope. For an important grave not mentioned among those that follow, a drunkard's grave, see No.1929, p.566.]
Entry 7592
Ah've heard dat on de new moon dat chew kin go tuh de graveyard, if a person died wit a certain disease, perhaps tuberculosis, yuh kin git de dirt from roun' de grave an' possibly plant it in someone an' dey'll git de disease. (How would you plant it on this person?) Yuh kin possibly put it in dere clothin', or possibly roun' any object dat dey will put dere ban's on.
Entry 8035
Yo' pound it up.
(What do you get?)
Yo' git a bone, any bone yo' git.
(A dead person's bone?)
Yeah. Yo' jis' pound it up. Yo' kin make a powdah. Yo' kin take one bone dat long an' make a thousan' dollahs wuth [worth] of powdah, becuz it don't take but jis' so yo' got one grain of dat bone. De person dat yo' give dat tuh will die wit de same disease dat he [bone owner] died wit. An' soon as he take it he got dat disease.
(How would you give it to them?)
Well, yo'd have tuh give it tuh 'em in somepin, yeah. If it's any way - de bes' way yo' could, if yo' wus goin' to do dat, if yo' could git tuh any of dere eats, or yo' could git tuh any of 'is coffee, or a drink of likkah or anythin'. Jis' de bes' way tuh yore advantage. But jis' as soon as he take dat he'd have de same disease dat de person dat's daid. [Brunswick, Ga., (1189, small-time doctor, has 6 & 7 Books of Moses), 2008:3.] [A few bones-from-the-dead rites were given on pages 543-545, as well as scat- tered throughout the text. Let us begin with a rite that could have been indexed under graveyard and graveyard dirt margin titles on pp.3248-3254:]
Entry 10688
After you have taken a bath, they can get some of that water and stop it up in a bottle, and of course they can bury that, and that will cause your body to dry up and waste away - something like you have a wasting disease.
Entry 10872
Take the fur. (Cut the fur?) From under the black cat's left leg or the left quarter. (From the front or behind?) Behind, and let it get right dry and you kin fix in a way. Clip it fine and you kin throw it over somebody, but you gotta make the black cat laugh. (I see, before you cut that hair. And then when you throw it over somebody, what will that do?) Well, that goes in your flesh - sticks in your flesh.
(I mean, what is it supposed to do to you?)
It works in your flesh, they say it'll work in you and it effect the flesh so that you taken with a certain disease in your skin and you'll die.
Entry 11347
Yo' has dis earwax an' yo's fixin' tuh have a' interco'se wit a woman, if she wuz subject tuh any disease. All right, yo'll take de wax out de ear jes' befo' yo' have her, an' jes' lak yo' make de pass in, tetch it wit dat ear- wax on yore finger. If dere anythin' dere, she can't stay dere. She'll jump clean from undah yo'.
Entry 12563
Under your foot track - just like people come along and say that they could hurt you by your foot track. But they couldn't hurt you by a foot track, but I tell you what they could do. They could take some dirt coming from your shoes: just like if you had a hole in your shoe like that [dirt would get into shoe through hole in shoe]. And your foot track they Would probably pick up [in that way]. And after [hole in shoe] picking it up, they could take that dust, what come from your shoes. And they could shake it, put it in a box with some of these here pigeon eggs, and beat it up like that. Anywhere you bury that, you have to leave town [be- cause pigeon flies!]. And anytime you couldn't stay nowhere, couldn't never come back into the place where you was. (You mean the dirt from your shoe, any of the dirt that sticks to the bottom of your shoes? What about that hole in your shoes?) Just like - you see, where I Was, this feet chere, how it was. How this feet chere of mine was [he evidently demonstrates foot or feet]. Well, then, gettin' a remedy for that? [Here is how it happened.] I walked out one morning and it had some kind of yellowish-looking stuff on the steps. But I didn't paid attention and I walked on out of there, going to my work. Well, it was in the summertime and it was right warm. Well, I had some shoes that cut, you know, like this [demonstrates].
(Had holes in the bottoms of them?)
Yes, sir. Well, then, what made me heed them then was my heel started to hurt. I comes on back. Well, that heel of mine was about that big [demon- strates]. So they carried me and they got some of this sugar, this white granulated sugar, and got some of this Palm of Christiandom.
(Palm of what?)
Palm of Christiandom. (Palm of Christian?) [I am not correcting informant but commenting for the future. Besides, the words are Palma Christi "hand of Christ, " the castor-oil plant.] Palm of Christian, yes. You get that anywhere through the country. And they takes that and they put that on, in hot water, just as hot as I could bear it. Then after that they take some cayenne pepper and put it there and they soak it. Then they take, after that - don't never wipe it off - you just take it and let your feet hangs over the water like that, and drain until it dries. Then you take some of the "Pp" oil.
(PP. Two "P's.")
Yeah, PP oil. Get it in the drug store. You take that PP Oil and you just take it like that, with a piece of cotton, you know, and 'noint it. But always 'noint it going down.
(Why?)
Well, that's to draw out all the swelling and all the pain leaves - whatever. You have to rub it like that. [Informant either did not know or did not under- stand my question. You rub downwards to drive pain or any crunjure out through the feet. Many examples of this occur in HOODOO, see No.981, p.377, vol.1.] Well, the swelling before I ever knowed, well they had all the - I'll just lift it up here. They had all this here and all down here. [Informant demonstrates all this.] And they told me how to use it. Well, I got relief of that.
(What did it do to make your ankle swollen that way?)
Well, I walked in some yellowish-looking powder.
(Oh, I see.)
That's where it came from. And it was somepin that makes your ankle itch, you see; and you scratches it, you know.
Entry 12601
Ah said when a person is not...de blood's not right and dey [sexual disease] 'tack [attack] yore man an' yo' don' want him with yo' an' yo' have been gittin' money outa him, why yo' could burn peppah, red peppah in yore home, an' that'll make him flee 'way from there an' he won't come back heah no mo'.
(If he's doing what you said?)
If he been 'tackin' [attacking] yo', wanta go with chew [sexually] an' his blood is not right. He's fulla disease.
(That's the way to get rid of him?)
Yessuh.
(He's attacking you, you say?)
Yeah, he tryin' tuh see, yo' understan'. Yo' been gittin' [getting] money outa him but den his blood is not fitten fo' yo' tuh have him. Yo' burn red peppah an' he will go 'way from yore home an' yo' won't be havin' no trouble 'bout him no mo'.
Entry 13326
De way ah've heard it now, dey split de tree - a little small sap- ling. Dey jes' split dat tree an' yo' kin take de trimmin'. Jes' lak yo' split it - yo' split de tree an' yo' cut out inside dere. Yo' take yore pocketknife an' yo' cut out de trimmin' 股中商 outa dere. An' den yo' take dat trimmin' an' den yo' go an' yo' - jes' lak a person dat chew see dat chew kere [care] fo' lak dat. Well yo' take de trimmin' outa dat an' yo' slip it in some of his clothes - yo' know, anywhere in de individual's clothes dat he wears regularly. Yo' understand, sew it up in his bindin' an' dey tell me dat'll bind two [one] couple together [you know] make dem cleave to one another. Dat's fur as ah evah hear of dat.
(What does that tree do then?)
Well, dat tree grows - yo' know, hit'll go back together, yo' understand me.