Subject:Earthworms
Entries
Entry 6830
Red peppah, hot red peppah an' chamber lye an' bathe yo' laig wit it an' that would give yo' ease. Ah have tried that mahself. (If somebody has put something down for you to walk over.) Yes sir, a fortuneteller tole me someone had put sompin down fo' me to walk ovah. [Here, either while'recording ma- chine is stopped or cylinder is changed, I ask for the whole story.] Well, mah laig kep' hurtin' me an' someone come along an' tole me, say, "Miss Carter," say, "ah knows a good man 'cross town. If yo' would go, he would tell yo' sompin tuh relieve yo' of dat pain in yore knee." It nevah would swell but it jis' hurt all de time. So ah went ovah dere an' he tole me someone had hurt me in mah knee. An' he got me some green moss an' tole me tuh boil dat an' bathe in de watah hot. Put some table salt in it. An' aftah dat, den rub it wit some of dis red peppah an' dis saltpetah mixed tuhgethah. Make a salve. Put some lard wit it or some oil or sompin an' make a salve an' rub wit dat, an' hit would relieve me. An' ah did dat an' it relieved me. An' a li'le latah it commence tuh hurtin' ag'in. Well, ah went tuh anothah lady an' she tole me - least she didn't tell me but she fixed de poultice huh- self; Brown Mule chewin' 'bacca an' earth worms whut chew dig up out de ground. An' she stewed it up tuhgethah an' give me dat tuh put some meal wit it, an' make a hot poultice an' put on mah knee. An' dat relieved me.
(That was the end of that?)
Yes sir, an' mah knee got bettah.
Entry 6684
chamber lye or 'is urine - well, dey kin take dat an' dey'll [a woman vill] mix dat wit yo' [a man's] food. Dat comes tuh yo' be vury weak. Normal [normally] yo'll have haidaches, yo'll have all kinda pains. Dat's when dey take an' dey'll go out an' git some earthworms. Dey take de earthworms an' den mix dat wit fresh lahd [lard], an' fry it up an' make a salve. An' dey rub dat intuh de man's skin. Dat'll form 'im tuh have earthworms in de skin. He is no good fer nobody an' den de woman leaves 'im den.
Entry 2760
[At least three Helens, all working at the same time, are indicated by the margin-title Miss Helen, Madam Helen, and Mother Helen. The original Helen must have had quite a reputation. Was this original the Helen of the Seven Sisters (2736, p.745 and Index)? Was Helen actually the Seven Sisters - one woman playing seven parts?] No, sir, they are not supposed to be hoodoos. They supposed to be God-sent people - so they tell the people, but they do's hoodoo work.
(Who are these people from Algiers who have altars and candles in the room?)
Well, those are what you call hoodoo spirituals. They are supposed to do whatever you want them to do with prayers, and like if your wife is gone, or like if you are gone. Yes, sir. I brought a fellow to one of them here that had earthworms in his body:
(Well, give the whole story about the whole thing.)
This fellow came to me. I was back on a street right here in town called Magnolia Street. He came to me - say a woman had fixed him up in Mississippi. He say she took and cooked those earthworms and she made a salve out of them and she rubbed him and that caused him to have earthworms in his skin. Well, I told him, I say, "I don't know what to do for that for you, but I can bring you to Madam Helen." That is a fortuneteller lady over the river. [My informant, a doctor not accepting live-things-in-you cases (for such cases See pp.227-239), refers and personally takes his patient to a specialist, Madam Helen. I, the author, for a few minutes once enjoyed the exhalted rank of specialist - see p.279.]
(Is she still alive?)
She is still alive. Well, I brought this fellow over there to her and she told him that she couldn't do nothing for him, in nine days [magic delay] to come back. Well, he say, he told her he was suffering pretty bad and he couldn't sleep because things were creeping in his skin at night, so she told him to come back in nine days. Well, he made it his business to come back in nine days, and after he went back in nine days why she took and she rubbed him with dead man dust. When she rubbed him with dead man dust and gave him nine drops of blood with sweet oil - sheep blood. She keeps lots of sheep, snakes and everything in her house. She gave him nine drops of sheep blood and she rubbed him with this dead man dust. There is a lot of places over the river there where they cremate the bodies over there. She got bottles lined all up in her house, different dead peoples dust in it and she rubbed this man and gave him that blood and this man is a well man right now.
(When you went into that room, did she have an altar in that room?)
She had an altar. It had a lot of candles burning - black candles, blue candles, purple candles, white candles, amongst diff'rent pictures [of saints] she had.
(Was the room light or dark?)
One [reception room] was light, but the room where the candles was burning of those great heavy stockings. She had on about three or four skirts. She dressed something like a gypsy woman do. They call her Madam Helen. She is over in Algiers on Pelican and 26th.
(When you first came in what did she say to you?)
She said, "Come right in," she said, "I know what is the matter with you." She told this gentleman. "You [informant] stand right outside, mister, you can take a seat on the gallery. I know what this man come for." [See You Don't Have To Tell Me, p.316; and The Doctor Knew What She Came For, p.317.] She said [to patient], "Something's wrong with you. How long you been like that?" "Well, I've been like this about three years." She said, "Well, you won't be like that long if you get me $50." That is what she cured this man for - for $50. And the man is healthy, strong and got a job. He works right here at the Public Service Gas right now and he hadn't did a lick of work for three years.[ New Orleans, La., (809), 1138:1.]
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 2254
Ah told him [my contact man Edward] absolutely dat ah believed in dese things an' dey could do - dese things could be done. Dere is roots dat ah know of dat ah've got faith in. Yo' take de rattlesnake marster, dat's one of de wonderfulest roots dat will bring luck an' carry it fo' yo' - keep yo'. Ah have experienced whut ah'm tellin' yo'. Yo' take it - yo' kin an' have it round yo' an' yo' kin hold a job. Ah know that - ah believe it - got faith in it. Yo' take de blacksnake root - dat's a good root an' in usin' it with whiskey yo' kin keep love. Yo' kin love them.... Then there's a root dey calls de shoestring - devil's shoestring. Yo' kin wear it - dat'll keep luck. Dat's good fo' luck. Den yo' take the - ah've got faith in it 'cause ah've tried it. Yo' take - dere's a bull nettle. Well, whenevah a man an' a woman - a woman kin fix a man so dat he kin have nuthin tuh do with othah women.
(How would she do that?)
How she do it - dey tell me dey take worms, these earthworms, an' fry 'em an' git de grease an' rub it on him. He can't have nuthin else to do with no othah - take it an' use de grease an' he can't have nuthin tuh do wit a woman. But now, if he take dat bull nettle, he kin overcome it. Nuse [use] it by puttin' it on whiskey, gin whiskey [= white whiskey, either gin or moonshine (uncolored) whiskeyl, puttin' it on gin whiskey an' drink it. He'd overcome it. Well, dere's a butterfly root. Now dat's a wonderful root tuh keep a woman with yo' jes' as long as yo' want her.
(How would you do that?)
Yo' kin use de root dis way. Take hit an' boil it, git all de suction [juice] out of it, an' put it in a vial an' keep it with yo' all de time in that vial - a small vial, jest as small as yo' kin git it. Keep it with yo' all de time an' she nevah will leave yo'.
(You don't use it?)
Don't use it - jest keep it with you....
(What is the name of the root?)
Shoemake root. Dey tell me if yo' take hit an' git tuh de person an' git it somewhere dat dey have tuh step ovah it - they will have tuh come back. Dey tell me if yo' take dis heah thing - ah calls it [Graney?] Greybeard.
(Graney Greybeard.)
Take hit an' use it or wear it. Soak it ovah night de first night yo' git it an' use it gamblin'. Ah tried dat. Ah know dat. Soak it ovah night in some kinda cheap cologne - perfume it an' use it. Do dat once a month an' ah believe it's luck. Ah tried it.
(You just wear that thwn you go to - )
Wear it dat way - soak it once a month.
Entry 10267
De snail, yo' know, he's got some ole wax on him, an' de earthworm. An' yo' mix de wax offa de snail an' de earthworm an' rub it on de woman, an' if she has an- other man yo'll ketch him - [one of the many folklore causes of penis captivus. For other snail rites and impotence, see pp.2458-2470, v.3, and later in this present section].
Entry 10282
If yo' wanta rule a woman or rule a man, yo' git a he an' a she earth- worm. An' yo' kin take dem two worms an' put 'em somewhere an' dry 'em up. An' when dey git dried up, den yo' git chew some olive oil an' mix it up. Rub it up into powders. An' mix dat worm up with it an' rub dat cross dey stomach, dat person down in dey lower parts, an' dat'll keep 'em. Dey cain't use anyone else 'cusin' [excusing] yo'. [Mem- phis, Tenn., (1524), 2722:4.] [Here I am listing short or reduced statements of beliefs, all original, to indicate how widespread impotence folklore was and probably still is. For this same reason, ubiquity, I shall include in a following section, CHANNEL DE WORLD, a few long lists of references with only a descriptive word or two attached. This present subsection will use margin titles similar to those in volume 3, pages 2341-2509, so that our separate collections can be compared. The original condensed rites will be found in the original manuscripts at the end of this subsection.]