Subject:Downward
Entries
Entry 978
Earthworms - you know earthworms that you fish with. That's an experi- ence of myself - I did that. I was hurt. A lady wanted my husband. She caused me and my husband to get along bad. Well, I was working for some white people doin' days work. (She had what?) [Her word caused like cuzed or cussed.] She had I and my husband living disagreeable and we could not get along: I was finding a child every year and he was very whore-ish about running around at women. Now, I had days work from white people I was working for since I was a little girl. So she buried a bottle at my gate and I goes in the gate that evening from my work, a pain struck me in this foot. Well, I rubbed, I rubbed, I bathed and the more I rubbed the worser it'd get. And my foot busted open on top and worms like - you've seen wood sawyers, haven't you? Well, they's crawl out of my foot. [These beetles probably pine sawyers.] Well, there was an old man - he was a two-headed man - old man Ellis Perdue. He's dead now. He lived that far from me - from here [to] across the street.
(Here in New Orleans?)
No, that was in Alabama.
(What town in Alabama?)
Atmore, Alabama. He's dead though, now. He comes to my house and look at my foot. He takes a hoe and goes into my garden. He digs as many earthworms as you could: hold like that [demonstrates] - just as many as you could hold up in your hands. He puts 'em in a pot and boils 'em. He goes and buys this first hog lard - you know, the leaf like you buy and dry it up [render] yourself. He dried that up with some saltpeter - a nickel of saltpeter and a nickel of red pepper in it and made a salve to bathe my feet in. Then he told me to save my urinate. I saved my urinate until I got about a quart and I put that on with nine pods of red pepper and a nickel of saltpeter and a box of table salt and boiled it. That's to bathe me in all over, I start from here down [demonstrates].
(From your head down.)
For nine mornings, bathe me down in it to my feet. Then rubbed me down with that salve after he done made out of those earthworms, and on the ninth morning he say, "Now when you bathe yourself on the ninth morning, go in your back yard, facing the sunrise, go but turn your back to the sunrise and throw it over your left shoulder and don't look back and you'll walk." And I've been walking ever since. That's just the experience of me. My feet was layin' open, just like you about that far [demonstrates], like you take a knife and split it open and those worms crawled out. And he told me, he says, "Long as you live, you get you two silver dimes and wear 'em on your legs, to keep anybody from putting anything down for you. But I've been hurt since then because I got jealous. The strings of my dimes rotted and I lost 'em in the bed. Course I put 'em up but I never did put 'em back on, but I've been hurt through my minastratin'. Yes, sir, I was hurt here in New Orleans - next month it'll be five years ago.
(How did that happen?)
Well, my daughter died. My enemies through the death of my daughter come in my house. I was minastratin', you know, like women will pull their pieces off and be careless sometimes. I left one of my pieces and I put it down and the woman got my piece and buried me in the graveyard. Well, she stopped me up. I Was stopped up fifteen days before I could minastrate. I was took with pains in my stomach, in knots like that and I was turning dark. So on a Tuesday at twelve o'clock I was cutting some turnip greens at my table. I had boarders, you know - I was selling lunches and selling liquor - bootlegging. And a pain hit me right in here and right back here and throwed me just like you would knock me down. In the bottom part of my stomach, right down just above my cross-bone and just above my rectum back here, and I fell just like you would, you see, just somebody knock you down. So they come and they picked me up and they put me in the bed and I rang up for the doctor. He come and he give me a hyperdermic. That hyperdermic set me on fire. I looked like I was - I just clawed everything, my pain was so severe in my body that I just wanted to tear up everything I could get my hands on. So I had a white doctor - it was a colored doctor that come [the first time] - so I got my insurance doctor, a white doctor, and the more medicine he'd give me the worse I'd git. So there was an old lady in the block. She come to see me. She lives in the block where I live now. She told my mother, she said, "That girl is hurt." She said, "You go to the drug store and get ten cents of jumaca ginger," 'you know what that is, "and you boil it and you give her that tea, just as hot as she can drink it, three nights straight." I drank that tea. And then she said, "You soak her feet in that saltpeter, red pepper and table salt and her urinate." My feet was white as cotton without a drop of blood in 'em in my feet. I was burning up from here down to my feet and up here I was freezing to death. So my mother did that and when my minastratin' come on it Was black as that coat you have on [see Coat, author's black, in Index]. I stayed that way a solid month. I was weighin' 164 pounds - when I got up I Was weighin' 92. And 100 pounds of ice a day I used. I had a foot-tub and I had to crush that ice and lay on the side of the bed like this with a pillow at the foot of my bed to try to sleep with my feet in that tub of water until I was burning up. If I didn't have 'em in that ice water, it looked like you just had fire made against my feet, burning me up. I was burning up from my knees down and I was freezing here [from knees up]. And when I'd get tired of laying like this, my mother would put me in the bed and I bought one of these big hot-water bottles, and I'd crush the ice and put it in there and lay it against the foot of the bed and rest my feet on it, so I could rest my body. You see I'd get tired of being cramped like this. That's just the experience of me since I've been here. And after that, the old lady told me, she say, "Whatever you do, every month you come like that, you Wash your pieces as fast as you use them and don't leave away from home and leave them hanging outdoors; always keep your pieces in the house, 'cause another rap like that you'll never make it. Now, what dose medicines was she give me, I couldn't tell you because she didn't let me know that. But I do know about the Washing of my feet and my urniate in that tub of saltpeter and table salt, 'cause I had to do that myself.
Entry 981
Ah wus hurt an' when ah wus hurt ah wus cured, an' ah dunno whut kinda [rubbing] medicine it wus. He strip me necked an' po' [pour] dat medicine in his han' an' jes' rub me down three strokes, an' somepin othah [usually a ''live thing in you"'] follow his han' down jes' lak dat an' bust out de end of mah toe - right de same where it went in. When ah first got it, ah got it in mah toe. Well, it wus somepin jes' lak a needle dat stick in mah toes an' dat needle jes' work right on - jes' keep aworkin' roun' till it got [inside].
Entry 3172
[There are many examples of this magic rite elsewhere.]
Evah time jes' when he start to deal up wit 'em, some of dese broad wise one dey takes, instead of yo' wipin', dey wipes it, pulls it down. Dey don't pull it uP, pull it down, an' den yore horn will stay down. When yo' git aroun' anythin lak dat it will curl up like a grubworm, instead of goin' in. (That's all they have to do then, just wipe it?) Some of 'em will take an' wipe it off, yo' know, an' dey will pull it down an' make wishes an' stuff lak dat an' it will stay down.
Entry 3360
Dey tell me dat whenevah him an' 'is wife, yo' see, would have an in- tahco'se, dey tell me dat she could take a dishrag, yo' see, an' aftah she git through yo' see, wipe him down wit it an' evah- thin', yo' see. An' take it yo' know an' put it up yo' know ovah de do' in a private place, where it can't be seen dat way. An' dey tell me he can't have nobody but 'er.
Entry 3361
Ah've heard now - not dat ah know. Say when a man runnin' aftah a woman an' if yo' wanted tuh break 'im up from it, say git chew a snail or adish- rag, ary [either] one, an' rub dis snail on de dish- rag an' when he have connection wit 'er, gib 'im dat rag - steal de dishrag - an have him wipe, straighten hisself down wit it dat way. Wipe himself aftah he git through wit 'er. An' dey say he can't have no connection wit nobody but 'er.
Entry 3362
She takes de dishrag - he fast asleep, fast asleep. Jes' take dat an' jes' wipe it down 'im an' call his name. Wipe it down, don't wipe it up, cuz hit'll come up. Yes, wipe it down, an' it'll be jes' lak de dishrag.
Entry 3363
Yo' could use eithah a bran'-new pocket han'cheff or eithah de dishrag, lak ah tole yo', tuh keep 'im from foolin' wit any othah woman, see. Yo' kin take an' wipe him down wit a bran'-new pocket han'cheff, an' take fo' nails an' nail it down undah de flo' undah yore rug, an' dat'll keep 'im. He couldn't raise a heart fo' othah women. Ah know yo' kin do dat.
Entry 3364
Yo' kin go buy a new pocket han'kech'ef an' yo' kin wash de dishes wit it once, an' take an' strip 'im down [when wiping him]. [Strip here means to deprive of equipment or power.] Don' strip 'im up. Evah whut way yo' wanta do it, git it [foot track] toward yo' - git 'is tracks an' toenails, an' put dem in a cloth an' sew it up an' keep it. An' he git tuh de place hewouldn't Wanta go nowhere. He stay home dere an' nevah treat chew bettah den he evah have treated joo.
Entry 3365
Dere's things she could do to make him love her. She could take a dishrag, she could pet 'im up to have intahco'se wit 'er. Take a dishrag an wipe him down an' bury one undah de do'steps an' put de other one undah de mattress or on de springs, an' he couldn't have no feelin' fo' no one but 'er. He'd have to love her cuz he couldn't git a passion fo' nobody but 'er, as long as she kept dat dishrag buried.
(Did she use one or two?)
She use two - yessuh, she uses two. She buries one undah de front do'steps an' uses de othah undah de mattress.
Entry 3663
Oh, dey said if she goin' out wit anothah man an' he wan' it fixed so dat she won't have no courage fo' no othah man. Well, in othah words, so when de man goes tuh be wit 'er he'll fall befo' he evah be wit 'er. Git chew a ten-cent bottle of Hearts Cologne. An' when yo' git dat ten-cent bottle of Hearts Cologne, git tuh playin' roun' wit 'er. An' take an' saturate his han's wit dat Hearts Cologne, prob'ly jis' befo' he git ready tuh go tuh bed an' be wit her. An' when he do dat, why he takes den an' bathe her down - rub her down [demonstrates].
(From her hips right down?)
Yessuh, from de hips down - all in heah. An' do dat fo' three time a week - dat means evah othah day. An' dey tell me when yo' do dat, why den when she'd go out, de man dat gon'a be wit 'er - but when he gits to de place his courage will fall. He can't have any intahco'se wit 'er.
Entry 3664
Yo' kin take a snail an' jis' boil 'im an' git de watah off 'im an' put it on a piece of cloth an' if it's a man or a woman - if it's woman.has othah fel- lahs goin' wit 'er, den rub 'im down. He'll nevah come up. Dat's all yo' wanta do, rub 'im on down. She slip, jes' slip on 'im - can't do nuthin - nevah want de use of a man.
(You mean no other man but her husband?)
Yessuh.
Entry 3712
Go out to de henhouse an' git yo' nine dry hen turd an' put 'em in sompin an' let dat watah git lukewarm. Take dat an' stroke yo'self down good. Jes' lak yo' expect to go dere tomorrah, why yo'll do dat today. Den say, dat aftah tomorrah, de nex' day, yo' go an' buy a little bottle of Heart Cologne, an' go on back an' bathe wit it.
(That will restore his nature?) Yessuh, an' he do dat mo' den one time.
Entry 3768
Heah's whut she do, she git de gizzard of a mockin'bird an' [or] de dog gizzard, an' if de man is tied up, yo' know, Doc, an' yo' wanta git loose. Is dat whut chew mean? (That's right.) If de man is tied up an' he wanta git loose, an' de woman whut he goin' wit wanta git 'im loose, an' de woman or he git a gizzard from de mockin'bird. An' he take de gizzard while it's bloody - lak it is jes' from de bird. Don't cook it or do anythin' wit it. An' put on 'isself an' jes' take de gizzard an' put nine times. Draw dis gizzard down 'is penis nine times. An' dat will bring his nature back.
Entry 3818
(How could he get his nature back?) If he not too ole, why dey kin. He kin go tuh de sto' an' buy 'im maybe five-cent white pocket han'ke'chuf, an' git 'im a pint of clear watah an' wash 'isself down three times wit dat bran'-new pocket han'ke'chuf, an' don' use it any mo'. Throw it away. He kin go an' mess wit anybody he wanta den. (That is if this woman has taken his nature away, he can do that and then his nature will come back to him.) Yeah, if he not a ole man.
(Just use clear water?)
Yes.
Entry 4334
Dey will take yuh urinate an' put it intuh a glass about dat high [dem- onstrates]. An' ah kin take dat an' ah kin take it tuh de no'th side of a green tree an' bore a hole in it, an' pour it in dere an' stop it up. Den yuh watah will nevah pass no mo' until yuh take it out of de tree - until yuh po' dat out. An' it'll fin'ly have yuh goin' tuh de doctah tuh draw de watah from yuh, see. [Presumably this hole is bored slanting downwards, other- wise urine could not be poured into hole.]
Entry 6764
If a person got a wen on dere arm or anywhere about 'em, 20 wanted tuh git rid of dat wen, when a person dies, yo' kin go dere an' jis take dat wen an' wipe it on 'em jis' 'fore dey git cold, or eithah wash it down. Jis' take it an' wipe it on 'em. An' when dey bury dat person, in three day's time dat com- sence tuh wizen [wither or shrivel] away an' it'll go. [The verb to wizen, from the Anglo-Saxon, is obsolete, though it lingers on as dialect.] [Sumter, S. Car.,
(1368), 2422:2.] [Bone from dead cures warts, No.8027, p.3409.]
Entry 8168
Dey take yore photograph an' write chure name on it an' carry it tuh de cemetery an' put it under a tombstone an' turn yer face downwards. Yo' goin' from heah. (You put under the tomb- stone?) Awrr-right undah it, undah de tombstone [headboard]. Jis' shev [shove] it up undah dere.
(Face down?)
Face down, an' [as] hit goes away, yo' goes away. [Or] take it an' put it bot- tonside upwards an' put it undah yer steps, dat bring 'em home tuh yo'.
(This photograph.)
Entry 8281
Ah've heard of a person takin' anothah person's pichure, a pichure of 'em, if dey dislak 'em, an' takin' it in de woods an' bo'in' [boring] a hole in dere an' stickin' de pichure in de tree, face downwards, an' den shootin' holes in it. Ah've heard of dat. An' dey'll soon die.
Entry 8332
Yo' kin take a per- son's photograph, a tin, on a tintype, an' yo' kin take it an' turn it downwards an' put it on de north side of a tree. An' nail it up an' shot it right by where yore heart is an' yo' will die.
(Where do you put that on the tree, up high or low or what?)
Yo'll put it up about six foot from de ground.
[The person of the photo will soon be 6 feet underground.]
[This rite should have gone under preceding margin title SHoOTING.]
Entry 8359
Upside down on de no'th side of a.tree. Jis' lak if it's a woman's photograph an' yo' dislak dese people, an' as it fades yo'll fade away wit it. On de no'th side of de tree bury it bottom upwards. An' as dat pichure fades yo'll fade away wit it.
(You mean standing on their head bottom upwards?)
Bottom upwards on its haid.
Entry 8399
As fer as ah know 'bout usin' de photograph, now yo' kin take a per- son's photograph an' yo's in love wit a woman an' she quits yo', yo' take her photograph an' turn it bottomside upwards an' bury it an' dat'll kill 'em.
(How do you mean, turn it bottomside upwards?)
Bury it face down an' bury it in vinegah, an' dat'll make dem perish away.
Entry 9305
Yo' take a black hen aig if a person has murdered somebody, take two. Lak if de person wuz murdered, yo' put a aig in each one of dere han's, a black hen aig. An' be shuh [sure] it's a black hen aig, an' put it in each one of dere han's. Git a piece of grass rope. (What's that?) Dese heah ropes whut people ties bundles an' things with. An' yo' git a piece of dat an' yo' make nine knots in it, an' yo' tie it on dere wrist. An' when yo' git ready tuh bury dat person, yo' turn dere face bottom upwards [back of head upwards]. An' de one whosomevah murdered 'em gotta come back where dey did dat murdah. Wit dat black hen aig.
(Do you tie that rope on just one wrist?)
On both of 'em, both wristses, put a aig in each han' an' shut dat han' up. An' when yo' git ready tuh bury 'em, yo' turn dere face down. Yo' see, dey gen'ly [generally] bury people wit dere face up, in place of puttin' de face down tuh de bottom of de coffin.
Entry 10261
If a woman have tricked him where he can't do business, well every morning he take dat. Take some milk an' put it in de pan an' bathe down wit it; an' throw it toward de risin' sun, every morning fo' nine mornings. [I had stopped machine but restarted it to include informant's use of the word courage.]
(What will that do then? That will restore his courage?)
Yes, restore his courage. [Stop machine.]
[Start machine again to pick up another addition.]
(You say bathe down.)
Entry 8747
Now if a woman's husband left her, dere's several ways dat she could bring him back. She could write his name an' her name on a tin pan, a brand-new one nevah has been cooked in, an' turn it down undah de bed, an' he'll come back. Dat's a good one.
Entry 975
I get out of bed. I broke down so blue over the condition. I said tuh him to git away from the house. I had sent the children away with de jar in case he might have raised sand and [have become] superstitious [suspicious] that I had it. So I said to him, "Ah'm goin' tuh the drug store, I'm so sick, an' git me some medicine. Ah'm going on Clay Street and git me some whiskey." Had no idea or I had no intention of getting it, but that was to get away from the house. So ah went to where I had told the children to go. I get a top and put on the jar and come on back home and locked it in the chifforobe of the front room. The next morning ah went about mah work, didn't show him any superstitious[ness = suspicion = any indication I had the iarl, and around one 'clock ah left home with the jar and ah taken it off and ah went to a woman's house, 商 and ah said to her, ah said, "Please tell me what is this and what is it fo?" She took the jar gracefully in her hands and she shook it this way [demonstrates]. She laid it on de floor [demonstrates]. She pick it up agin an' she shook it and she looked through it this way [demonstrates]. She laid it back on de floor [demonstrates]. She gits up from me and she goes into a extra bedroom.
(Her extra bedroom.)
[The doctor is putting on one of many possible acts. The case is so difficult she must read for it - consult the spirits. Information in fortune-telling comes from spirits.] She came back with a deck of cards and she begin to shuffle the cards jis' holding her hand - the cards was holded in her hands. She said tuh me -
(She held a handful of cards.)
He held her hands fulla cards this way [demonstrates].
(Two hands of cards.)
She had the cards in both of her hands an' she said to me, she said, "It's a man that's doing this." [This is one of a fortune-teller's stock statements for a woman client or patient.] She says, "How could a man have such a mean heart to do his wife like he's doing." She says, "That's your husband that's doing these mean things to you." She says, '"Yo're sick, too," she says, "the-son-of-a-bitch ought to be dead in hell fer taking such advantage of his wife when she has put forth every effort to make him happy." She taken the deck of cards down and holding them into two hands an' she held 'em in one hand, an' she went an' she got a bottle - this bottle.
(That bottle you have in your hand.)
This bottle that I've got in my hand. She filled it with a liquid oil and the color was nut-brown. She says to me, she say, "Ah want chew tuh go home this afternoon." Mah eyes were so they seemed to have a skin over them that ah couldn't see - they were very sore. When I went to look around ah had to turn all around - ah couldn't roll mah eyes because they hurt so bad and mah face ache and I couldn't close my hands. I washed an' ironed and I got to the place where I couldn't hold mah irons in my hand. She says to me, she says, "In this bottle" - when she came back to me after getting up with the cards and going into another room - she says, "You take this and you.see my hand?" I says, "Yes." She say, "Tonight when you go home, git chew a teacup of warm water - let it be real hot boiling water." She say, "Yo' po' that much of it [oil - demonstrates] in the: cup of boilin' water and then po' it into a wash basin." She says, "Take any ord'nary clean rag and, '' she says, '''noint chure face." She says, "Start this Way with the rag, with your hand open, jis' with the rag you know, to help your [almost closed] hand." She says, "Let it come gracefully over your shoulders [demonstrates]."
(Now wait, you come down the left side first?)
Yes, from the left side first. (With your open hand - with the rag on your open hand - over your face, down over your left shoulder and down your left arm.) Right on out to the end of mah fingers. Taken mah left hand and did the same way, going out mah right hand. (You take your right hand and go down your left arm - then you take your left hand and go down your right arm out to the fingertips.) That's right. After doing that, she says, take the remains.
(Do you do that just once?)
Jis' once. After doing that take the remains of the water, start beyond mah knee - mah knees were swole up - one swole up about like that [demonstrates].
(Huge.)
Then ah'd taken it from just above mah knee and squeeze the water and then put de bottom of mah feet in the remains of it. (I don't quite understand - after you finished with your hands, then you do what?) Pull mah dress up and put mah feet in de basin and taken de same rag an', yo' know, run mah hand into de basin, pulls it up and jes' squeeze the water with mah hand and let it run down mah laigs.
(Which leg do you begin with?)
Mah left laig - mah left laig first like I did with mah left arm.
(Up your leg to your knee?)
No, ah went down - start from ovah mah kneecap and go down. [She had already implied this but I wanted her definite statement, "Ah went down."]
(Then what do you do?)
Then after I did that -
(You squeeze that water out you say?)
The rag - an' let de water run down mah laig. Then ah'd taken that feet out of the basin and taken mah left hand and did the same thing on mah right feet. Ah didn't dry them - jes' sit by de fire. Then she says, "Take - (Now wait a minute - you take the right hand and you put it down in the water and fill the rag full of water. Then you squeeze that water over your left knee and let it run down into the pan.) That's right. (Then you put your right foot into the pan and take your left hand and you dip that down and wet the rag and then you squeeze it out over your knee and let the Water run down your right leg.) That's correct. After doin' that, she says, "Yo' take the remains of that water and go to your front do' - go through your front [room] - keep [walking] right out of the middle room - ah was in de middle room, and go through to your front part [yard outside] of the house and throw it over your front gate," she said, "an' Tuesday morning, ' that was Monday night, she say, "Tuesday morning you git up very early and git chew tin tub and git chew enough water" - she didn't measure it - says, "Jes' git chew enough water that chew kin start from yo' back steps" - and says, "Po' the remains of that liquid," that she gave, that brown-nut liquid, "in the Water. Don't put any soap or anything in it." She says, "Start at chure back steps and go through yore house, scrubbing de floors and keep on out through de front porch - on down the front steps - and what remains left of de water, she said tuh, "Throw it on de gate and let it run out," she says, "an' go around de house and come in," She says, "Wednesday night."
(You go round the house and come in the back door.)
Come in the back door. She says, "Wednesday night," she says, "have a ten-cent box of saltpeter" - says, "git chure bath water ready an' don't use any soap and git in thare and git a bath all ovah from your neck down, and let de water stand befo' de fire or behin' the stove-heater."
(You mean, you bathe from the neck down.)
No, ah bathe mah left side first.
(Oh, you bathe with this the way you did the other thing.)
Jes' all over agin - den ah taken mah hand an' squirted it over mah back this way - the same hand. Then ah'd take this hand and squeeze it over mah back and let it go down mah back that way.
(Well now - after you had washed your arms or after you had washed your legs?)
Ah mean that was after ah had did all the mopping and all the washing of the legs - this come along de last bath dat ah had. When ah had the last bath, it Was Wednesday night, coming up from Monday. Ah'd taken the water after ah had bathed and stood befo' de fire an' got dry. Ah put mah clothes on and ah po'd the water out of the tub into a smaller basin - that's so that ah could carry it through the house. An' ah throwed it ovah. An' she said to me, "Make de remarks when yo' po' it over de gate, 'Let me have peace, success and luck - mah sickness and disease all pass away. I did that. After ah had did that - the next following morning I got up - I felt well as ever - ah didn't have any of the trouble - mah eyes Was not sore - ah didn't cry that day - I use'lly would cry, jes' cry, jes' wash down in tears and hold mah head down. She says to me, she says, "Yo'll find a new spot - a spot on your floor that had a lot of new nails drove in de flo'." She say, "When you wash the house," as I have first related of the mopping, she says, "that will take the dressing off of those nails" - said, "that was to make yo' hold your head down and not look up to be happy when you were home." She says, "Your husband has one of your stockings and that he'd taken it to someone and they had dressed it fo' him - that was to keep you down in yo' laig and vo' feet." Said, "He has a piece of yore underclothes which was one of yore sanitary guards." That was to cause me to have the trouble ah had in the lower part of mah stomach, and ah would have a very bad sick headache, an' mah eyes would begin tuh hurt.... Now that ends that story. (Well, I just want to get something absolutely certain. I want you to 'tell me about the other bath - that last bath you had.) That last bath. Well, de last bath ah took, ah'd taken it on a Wednesday night. I had a teakettle, an old fashioned kittle - that's what I used to warm mah water in to keep on the stove. I po'ed the kittle of hot water in the tub. I had taken de whole dime box of saltpeter and po'ed it in de tub. Then, I mixed it around with a rag to absorb de saltpeter. I gits in de tub of hot water. I'd taken mah right hand and begin bathing mah left side first [demonstrates].
(From your shoulder down to your.)
From mah shoulder down to mah feet. (This time all the way down to your feet. All de way down to my feet.
(That was your left side.)
All de way down to mah feet ah'd taken mah left hand and I began from heah bathing mahself all de way down to mah feets.- on mah right side. Then when ah got through with that ah'd taken mah right hand an' begin putting the rag ovah mah back this way.
(Qver your left shoulder.)
Ovah mah left shoulder - that the water would go down the back. An' ah did de same thing with mah left hand over mah right shoulder - that the Water would go over mah back.
(So the water would go down your back.)
Yes.
(Then after you got that down over your back, then what did you do?)
I got out of the tub - stepped out of the tub and stood before the fire and let the water - turned around, yo' know, that the water would dry on me without taken a towel and wipin' it off. When ah become dry ah put mah nightclothes on to git ready fo' bed. Then ah taken the water out of the tub and po'd it into a bucket - that was to carry it through the house instead of carryin' the tub - and ah po'd the water ovah the front gate this way - ovah the top of the gate to let it run down.
(Let it run down the gate.) [This is the magic rite of.transference.]
Then I comes back up the steps an' comes on back in the house. That was Wednesday night. Thursday morning when ah got up - all the trouble, mah swelling from mah knees and my defect from mah eyes [were gone]. [Mobile, Ala., (693), 929:1.] [So complicated is this bathing rite, I will illustrate and support it with the following quotation:] [(No.976 mistakenly put before this bracket is now omitted.) The rite which I now quote from Adams County, Illinois, used among white people can be even made more complicated than the preceding rite from Mobile, Alabama:]
Entry 284
They claim you go to the fork of the road fo' nine mornin' straight. You walk backward. You curse the day you were born. You curse the sun, the moon. You curse God. Then they'll sell theirself to the devil. The ninth mornin' they'll take a black cat to de fork of that road an' they'll git a tea- kettle of water boilin'. They'll take dat cat an' they'll t'row him down in dat water an' let him cook to pieces. An' then they'll take a - somepin, an' they'll fin' one of them bones. an' they'll call that the black qat bone. An' they sell theirself to the devil an' they be able to do all kin' of matter.
The informant reports nine mornings at a road fork, walking backwards and cursing, with a black cat brought on the ninth morning and a bone sought. Selling oneself to the devil and gaining powers remain attributed claims; this sequence is not combined with different neighboring cat-bone accounts.
Entry 713
Ah got hurt. I walked over it. An' one man worked on mah laig one time an' he say I had some snakes in it, but I didn't have - not snakes, some worms. An' the nex' man worked on me, he tied a rattlesnake hide above mah knee an' rub mah laig down with some oil, but whut the oil wus I don't know. An' the laig didn't never bust open after he had worked on it, an' I went right on to walkin' an' go anywhere I wanted to go an' been walkin' ever since. [This is like cures like. The snake not being able to pass above the knot in the rattlesnake hide, was gradually rubbed downward (downward magic) and out through the foot - sometimes the big toe.]
Entry 2565
Ah'm a bottlegger mahself - dat's how come I mos'ly knows some of them things. Yo' don't need nuthin but take yo' a can of potash an' a box of red pepper and digs yo' a hole right befo' yore steps - round hole jest enough to fit de can. And take it and take de red pepper and set it right on de lid of dat can, and set it down and bury it right dere befo' yore steps.
(You set this can of what?)
Potash.
(Up - upwards?)
Dat's it.
(And you take the red pepper and do what?)
Put it upside down on dat can.
(And cover it up. That keeps the law away.)
Entry 2861
"The black candle, that's tuh bring back. But chew must put de party name on de candle an' turn it upside down. See [demonstrates], writin' de name on de candle dataway, an' cuttin' de end off an' settin' it upside down, an' burnin' dat candle in - if de party like coffee, yo' burn it in coffee; if dey like whiskey, burn it in whiskey; if dey like gin, burn it in gin. Yo' burn dat fo' nine days. If de party don't come back in nine days, yo' git a round candle. Light it once all day - all de time. Dey guaranteed tuh come back. Dat will bring 'em back.
(You burn this candle all the time.)
Jes' be sure dey upside down, because if yo' burn dem straight dat'll keep den on away.
Entry 3797
Dis shaneful brier.
(What kind of brier?)
Shameful brier. (Shameful brier. No, I never heard of that.) [Afterward I heard of it many times - see p.646 and else- where.] Dey gits dat, dey gits de root of it an' boils it. An' now, if yo' wanta have intahco'se wit 'er, see, an' yo' rub 'er downwards - yore hand, rub yore hands right on down nine times, an' he'll kneel, an he wants to, see, but he'll fall. She'll be so anxious fer 'im, but he'll fall.
Entry 4208
Dat stop 'is bladdah. Dey takes 'is urine an' put it in a bottle an' let it stay stopped up in dere nine days an bury it turnt down.
Entry 7702
Take de haidbo'd from de grave an' dey carve, cut dat person's name in it dat's involved, an' dey bury it face down in de graveyard, right dere in de graveyard an' covah it up. An' dat person jis' comes right down in de dirt where his name is down dere. He's Way up in de world tuh begin wit, but dat [is] jinx, an' he puts de jinx on 'im fo' his name tuh be buried in de graveyard.
Entry 8117
Ah have mah pichure made an' den de person who made mah pichure would bring it an' ah refuse tuh take it out [to pay for it?l. Somebody would take dat pichure an' scratch out de eyes an' turn de head-part down, an' dat would run yo' blind.
(How do you mean put the head down? Where do you put it down?)
Ah don't know dat. Dey jis' tell me dat.
(Where do you set it down though?)
Yo' jis' set it down any place, anywhere yo' kin.
(You mean on a table or something of that sort?)
Jis' lak yo' walk tuh de house an' set it down tuh de side of de house lak dat.
Entry 8142
Well, lak if dey got enemy people an' dey have a tintype pichure of de person whut dey tryin' tuh do hahm [harm] tuh, well dey'll take dat pichure out tuh de forks of de road, an' yo'll bury dat pichure wit de face down. An' de person whut dey doin' hahm tuh yuh, as dat face is down, dey will always have a upstirred mind, an' dey'll feel lak dat dey wan'a kill dem- selves. But dere is a way outa dat, wit dis pichure buried. Dey got two-headed people - in our, all diff'ren' towns - kin do away wit dat wit'out gittin' de pichure, by goin' gittin' methods from de whut choo call de fortunetellah people. Dey got methods fo' dat, dat 'casion [occasion]. [This is my only example of a two-header having to consult fortunetellers for methods. Here, this shows the tendency in Hoodoo to rid itself of the twoheader badge by replacing it with fortumeteller and other names, all of which were old. Was the term twoheader originally a white or a black word?]
Entry 8299
Dey could do two things tuh yo' [with photograph]. Dey could kill yo' or dey could drive yo' away.
(Suppose somebody wants to kill me, now?)
Bury it face downwards.
(Bury the photograph with the face down?)
Yes.
(Well, suppose you want to drive me away?)
Well, if dey wanta drive yo' away, dey bury it standin'; yo' heah [in the interviewing room of Eureka Hotel, for blacks, see v.1, p. XxxIII]. Bury it standin' up, wit de face away from yo'. No, not on its haid, jis' lak it is standin' upward, lak dis pichure heah. Wit de face away.
Entry 10795
Put a person in bad luck, yo' take de broom an' sweep him down every morning.
(How do you do that?)
Jes' take - leave him stand up in de house an' take yore broom an' sweep him down. Put him in all de worstest luck in de world. Or let somebody sweep 'cross yore foots [feet] wit a broom, dat de same thing.