Subject:Hair/Human
Entries
Entry 5810
[I have included this margin title because LIVE THINGS IN YOU (Section 8) is based upon the theory that some animals are reproduced through their blood. Our informant evidently confines the word animal to horse, cow, dog, cat, etc.; a lizard or a snake being an insect.] Yo' kin take yore hair an' put nine drops of any- thing's blood on it - yo' know, insects - an' put it in runnin' water an' run yo' crazy. (You take nine drops of any kind of blood from an animal or insect or any- thing?) Insect - not a animal, a insect.
(Any kind of an insect?)
Yes suh, a lizard or a snake, an' put it in runnin' water an' dey say dat will nmn yo' crazy.
Entry 5840
Co'se yo' kin take, really. [a person's hair] an' ball it up wit hen feathahs an' throw it into runnin' watah wit yore left hand. Dat will run a person off. Yo' kin [take] hair, anybody's hair yo' know, an' knead it wit hen feathahs an' throw it into runnin' watah an' run any- body off - any kinda hen feathah an' throw it wit chure lef' han'.
Entry 5953
Dey tell me yo' git a - say fo' instan', now ah wanta do yo' some harm, yo' know. Yo' comb yore hair yo' know wit a comb. Well, yo' know lotsa times yo' leave hair in de comb, a little bit of yore hair. Well, yo' git dat hair out de comb an' den yo' take an' git a horsehair outa de mane, yo' bre, a'yo' put it in a vial an' bury it [both types of hair]. Jes' lak yo' stayin' beah am'ah bury it undah yore do' or somepin lak dat, dhy it'll do yo' all de harm yo' [ah] want. (What kind of harm will it do then?) Well, it will, yo' know, Zingah yo' an' all de time yo' be's sick an' undah de weathah. An' it's a good way to make a woman love yo', t too. [HERE IS DOUBLE- EDGED MAGIC. WHICH EDGE DEPENDS UPON YOUR INTENTION.]
Entry 6095
An' ah could take yore hair an' ah could ketch me a rabbit, git any Hinda rabbit, an' clip dat rabbit back open an' put chure hair in dat rabbit back, an' ah sew dat rabbit back up, an' yo' nevah will quit'walkin'. Yo' jis' walk till yo' die. If nobody nevah kills dat rabbit, yo'll jis' nevah quit walkin'.
Entry 6096
Now along de hair line. Yo' kin take de hair outa de top if any in- dividual's hair, say if yo' wanta send 'em away. Dis is mo' from sperience ah'm tellin' yo' dat. [Now follows a good example of giving a rite and then illustrating it with a personal ex- perience.] Yo' take dat hair an' ketch a rabbit den, an' split 'is skin right in de fo'head dere, an' place dat hair in dere an' sew it up. Jes' turn 'im loose. Well, who- Cvah hair den dat yo' put in dere, if yo' want 'em tuh leave, when yo' turn dat rabbit loose dey can't stay. [We lived] cross town togethah. I an' 'im were good frien's, too. Well, he bad a right clevah wife. So ah nevah said nuthin tuh anyone heah 'bout dese things jes' like yo' talkin' tuh me now, 'bout runnin' off people. So ah says, "Well," says, "ah kin take de hair outa anybody's head, outa de zole [mold or mould] of de haid an' ketch me a rabbit," ah said, "an' ah kin nm a off quickly." She said, "How do yo' do dat?" Ah said, "Well, yo' git de hair out de mole of dere haid an' ketch chew a rab- bit an' split 'im right in de fo'haid," say, "an' put dat hair in dere an' sew it Turn de rabbit loose. She say, "Shuah 'nuff?" Well, ah didn't pay no mo' 'tenshun tuh it. Two-three days latah ah wus out in de woods cuttin' crossties. [Railroad rails are laid on and spiked to crossties.] All of a sudden he pulls off 'is clothes, all but 'is top-shirt. Ah nevah bothah. Ah reckon about fifty yards distance betveen us - us dere a log-cuttin'. An' when 'is cuttin' stopped, ah stopped aattin', looked tuh see whut wus he doin', weren't thinkin' about nuthin. So chen ah looked he wus standin' up on de log lookin' right straight off tuhwards de cypress pond. He got down off de log an' he walked right straight on off de Way, de direction he wus lookin' tuhward dat pond. He walked on off down dere an' he walked on it. Well, ah nevah pay any 'tenshun, ah went on back cuttin'. Ah say, "Maybe prob'ly got hot an' he's about gone [to] cool off." Dat's whut ah thought tuh mahself. So ah worked on about a hour an' he hadn't came back yet. Ah jes' worked on, hadn't nevah give it a thought. Well, it's about three hours he hadn't come back, so ah thought ah'd go down tuh de pond. Ah went on down tuh de pond where it wus muddy goin' in jes' 'fore yo' git tuh de water. Ah tracked 'im on tuh de watah. Ah whistled an' whistled an' called an' called. Aftah ah couldn't [find] 'im, ah went on aroun' de pond, an' when ah got on de othah [side] de back of de pond - ah seed where he come out. Still ah couldn't git no hearin', ah called an' whistled. So ah went on back, ah said, "Maybe he jes' went off tuh look fo' some [something]." But still he wus in his shirt, nuthin but 'is shirt. Ah went on back an' ah worked on till time tuh knock off. He hadn't came back yet. Time tuh knock off, ah couldn't call 'im up, couldn't whistle 'im. So ah went on back home. So ah went on down tuh his house aftah ah got suppah. He hadn't showed up yet. His wife couldn't tell nuthin about 'im atall. De nex' mawnin' he hadn't showed up. So ah went back out in de woods where his clothes still hangin' dere where he lef' 'em. Well, ah come back tuh de house den tuh tell 'er about it. He git plenty time to git 'rested [arrested for being in his unclothed condition.] Some- body mdght search fo' 'im. Well, de people dat know 'im - de law, dey took 'imup an' dey look fo' 'im dem two weeks. Dey nevah did find 'im. So' 'bout six-eight weeks latah dey got ahearin' from 'im. He wus in de 'sylum. So, I an' 'is wife wus talkin' dere one day aftah he had gone on an' she say, "Yo' know one thing?" "Whut?" Say, "Yo' know whut chew tole 'bout dat rabbit?" Said, "'Yes?" She says, "Ah tried dat. Ah thought yo' wus roun' devilin'," say, "an' dat's whut run mah husban' off from heah."
Entry 6336
Well, dey kin git holt some of yore hair. It's 'cordin' to whut dey wanta do wit yo', why dey kin take dat hair. Now, if dey wanta partly run yo' crazy, frenzy minded, dey could take dat hair an' put it in a bottle an' stop it up an' pore watah on it.
(Any kind of water?)
Any kind of a watah po' on it. Let it stay until it become to be - DAT WATAH GOIN' MAKE DAT HAIR 'LIVE LAK A LITTLE LIVE WORM IN DE WATAH, yo' see. Well, WHEN DAT HAIR BEGIN TUH GIT 'LIVE, dey take an' po' dat Water out an' t'row dat bottle in de rivah. Let it float on de way down - on - on - on. T'row it away. Whenevah dey throw it down, dey [the thrower] jes' turns aroun', dey don't look back aftah it a'gin at all. Well, dat run yo' crazy.
(They pour the water out that bottle before they throw it into the river?)
Yes, 'fore dey t'row it in de rivah, dey must keep it nine days aftah yo' put de watah in it. Yo' keep dat bottle 9 days. Have it roun' yore house an' IN 9 DAYS DAT HAIR WILL COME TO LIFE. (Yes, but I mean, you leave the water [hair] in the bottle when you throw it into the river?)
[The word water in my question is a slip of the tongue for hair.]
Yeah, oh yeah. An' de bottle's goin' float on, be goin' right on doon wit de stream.
Entry 11842
[THE LETTER "H" OF CHANNEL DE WORLD BEGINS HERE and SO dO some extra rites about human hair, a subject already largely concentrated in pages 2937- 3049, volume 4. For various reasons hair, not always the primary element of a rite, is widely scattered throughout HOODOO. The following beliefs about hair start with a few longer rites, which are followed by many brief statements with- out margin titles but with the key words being underlined.] And again they say if you take it [a hair from per- son] and put it [in] some kind of manure or somepin - like if you have a cow or somepin round the lot and they do fresh manure. Say, if you take this hair and bury it in there, and set this manure about in some shady place maybe it won't dry so fast, and say let it stay there. And you take it out of there and put it in a bottle of rye whiskey, a pint bottle of rye whiskey, and say in nine days it will be a snake. I've heard that. (But they don't put that snake in you though? That snake they don't put in you?) Well, if you drink the whiskey, if you drink the whiskey before the thing kin, you know, come to be whole, well hit will come alive in you.
(I see, but you have to put it in this cow manure?)
No, take the hair out it [the manure] if you know right where you put the hair in.
Entry 6036
Hair out of dere head - hair anywhere off of dem. An' dey take dat hair an' dey bury it in de north cornah of dere house undahneat' de house. An' aftah dey bury it down dere an' put nails on top of it, well it's a cinch dey ain't goin' to stay here.
(I see. Well, how many nails do they put on top of there?) Dey put ten, but dey got to be bran'-new nails. (I see. That'll send them away.)
Send 'em away.
Entry 6367
Ah heard people say yo' could take a person's hair an' tie it up in a rag or sompin lak dat, an' put salt an' ah think dey said spices in it an' carry it wit 'em all de time. Dat make 'em love dem, see.
Entry 11854
Yo' kin take a girl's hair an' black lodestone an' yo' kin lead her cross [cross what? I interrupt too soon]. (What would you do with that hair?) Totes de lodestone with the hair, with a piece of solid silver money, and she will follow [wherever you go and any time]. She'll git up an' follow if it's one a'clock in de night.
(You mix those together?)
Yessuh. Jis' keep 'em in a bag an' she will follow.
Entry 202
A woman had some trained birds that would go and pick up a person's hair and bring it to her so she could dress it. The hair was put in a tree and the woman died.
Entry 864
A fortune-teller woman told me year before last that someone got a lock of my hair, that I combed out, and buried it with the dead to keep me down and out, ailing and always feeling bad. She told me if I was to give her a couple of frying chickens, she Would stop it. [She also said], in washing my face in a few mornings I would find this hair in the water I washed in. I didn't do it because I didn't believe in it. And she told me, if you don't give it [them] to me that they will die. And sure enough, they were dead in three days. I'm sorry I didn't give them to her but I didn't want to get such foggyism in my head. She said the reason I would have bad luck was because her mother was sick and she was begging for her.
Entry 3904
Well, ah have 'sperlence yo' know dealin' wit wimmins an' makin' 'em love yuh. An' so ah have, yo' know, got dere sick rags, yo' know. Yeah, ah have got dem an' den ah got some halr outa dere heads. An' so when ah put it undah de cornah of dere house where dey sleep - yo' see, right undah de cor- nah - an' when hit [sick rags] come to die [rot], well dey'll die dereselfs. When it rots dey'll die dereselfs. (Walt a minute! Did you bury both the sick rag and the hair together, or do you do that separately?) Aw, ah bury both of dem togethah, yeah. See, when it rotten, well time hit rotten well den dey'll come tuh die.
Entry 3920
[HERE IS VERSION TWO OF THE RITE:]
Dey kin take yore hair an' put it into a cloth an' put some mo' things wit it. Put needle in dere. Take two or three gold-eye needles, take yore hair an' take a sanitary cloth, an' sew it all up in dere togethah an' a silvah dime. Git a silvah dime from me [a man] an' sew dat all up dere togethah, an cross dem nee- dles in dere an' keep 'em. Well, yo' would always be crossed. (Someone would do this to a woman. You said you put a sanitary cloth. Where Would you get this sanitary cloth? You mean her monthly cloth. Well, you Would have to be doing this to a woman then?) Yeah, yo' doin' it to a woman, or eithah to a man.
(How Would you do it to the man?)
Dat's whut ah'm tellin' yo' now, dat's de way yo' would do to a man.
Entry 4137
(What do they do out there?)
Well, yo' kin do dirt [evil] out at de fo'ks of de road. In case yo' wanta woman or anythin' lak dat, an' she's really separate from yo', yo' git nine stran's of 'er hair. Yo' understan'. An' yo' bury it at de fo'k of de road, an' yo' go dere fo' nine mawnin's an' yo' urinate on dat where yo' bury it at. An' aftah de nine mawnin's or in- side of de nine, she goin' to return to yo'.
Entry 11632
If someone ties a strand of your hair round the neck of a live catfish and turns it loose, "you'll be a downded man." [Wilmington 229:2+85.]
Entry 11863
A woman wraps a man's hair in paper and wears it on her bosom for love. [Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11874
Woman takes hair from man's head and her head and wears over her heart for love. [Wilmington 236:5+85.]
Entry 11900
To keep man home, cut hair from mold of head, under the arms, and from privates, and wear these next to your skin. [Newport News 512:3.]
Entry 11902
"To have man under her feet, " woman wore his hair between her bare feet and stockings. [Mobile 899:1.]
Entry 11904
To bring a man back, a woman may take hair from the mole of his head and wear it in the hem of her underskirt. [Wilmington 185:8+85.]
Entry 11907
11907-11910. The person whose hair is stopped up in a hole bored into a tree will go crazy [Snow Hill, Md., 5: l; Boxiron, Md., by hand; St. James
(near Pocomoke City, Md.) by hand; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11908
11907-11910. The person whose hair is stopped up in a hole bored into a tree will go crazy [Snow Hill, Md., 5: l; Boxiron, Md., by hand; St. James
(near Pocomoke City, Md.) by hand; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11909
11907-11910. The person whose hair is stopped up in a hole bored into a tree will go crazy [Snow Hill, Md., 5: l; Boxiron, Md., by hand; St. James
(near Pocomoke City, Md.) by hand; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11910
11907-11910. The person whose hair is stopped up in a hole bored into a tree will go crazy [Snow Hill, Md., 5: l; Boxiron, Md., by hand; St. James
(near Pocomoke City, Md.) by hand; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11911
Bore hole into tree and in it stop up person's hair to run him crazy.
[Washington, D. C., 837:3.]
Entry 11912
If you nail a person's hair to a tree - usually by first making a nail hole and then inserting the hair - that person will go crazy after the bark grows over the hole. [Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone.]
Entry 11913
You can give a person a headache by boring a hole in a tree and plug- ging up some of his hair. [Old Point Comfort, Va., by Ediphone.]
Entry 11914
By boring a hole in a tree and stopping up in it some of victim's hair, you give him a headache. [Wilmington 116:7+85.]
Entry 11916
If you are stopping up a person's hair to harm him or her, it must come from the mold of the head, the vital spot of a person's body. [Wilmington 171:4+85.]
Entry 11917
If you bore a hole in a tree and stop up a person's hair in it, it will either rumn the person crazy or out of town. [For a long time I could not understand how hair stopped up in a tree could run a person out of town. Nothing could be more illogical! Gradually I learned that intention or wish was more powerful than action or symbolism.] [Wilmington 74:3+85.]
Entry 11918
To kill a person bore a hole in a tree and stop up some of his hair.
[Deal Island, Md., 21:3.]
Entry 11920
If you wind a person's hair around a small nail and drive it into a tree, that person will have a headache the rest of his life. [Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 11921
Wrap hair around a nail, drive it into tree when sap is rising, and run hair owner crazy. [Richmond 328:4.
Entry 11926
If a person buries your hair under the root of a tree on the left- hand side as he approaches tree, you will lose your mind. [Washington, D. C., 799:5.]
Entry 11928
Drive victim's hair into the right side of tree as you approach it to drive victim crazy, but you must use a rusty nail. [Richmond 337:1.]
Entry 11931
Victim's hair must be stopped up in north side of tree to run him crazy. [Norfolk 480:5.]
Entry 11932
Wrap victim's hair around a nail, name it, drive it into the north side of a tree, and it will run victim crazy after 9 days. [Richmond 367:2.]
Entry 11933
Go to a swamp and on the north side of a black gum tree bore a hole into which you push victim's hair. Then trim a peg and gradually drive it into the hole, making one blow on the peg and wishing each morning for 9 days. What- ever you wish will happen. [This peg into a hole with one lick on each of 9 mornings is a common theme in HOODOO.] [Washington, D. C., 839:1.]
Entry 12008
Hair of person buried to bring him or her back home. [New Orleans 1158:9.]
Entry 12010
Hair from the mold of a woman's head is wrapped in cloth and buried at a man's doorstep to hold her there or to bring her to his house. [Norfolk 494:9.]
Entry 12030
If anyone burns your hair, you will lose your mind. [Old Point Comfort, Va., by Ediphone.]
Entry 12031
If a man ties a piece of a woman's hair around the stems of 2 unlight- ed matches, sews this into red flannel and lays package under her [his?] steps, she'll soon come to the man doing this. [Richmond 298:2.]
Entry 12033
If a woman boils a man's hair in the food he eats, he will be under her control. [Jacksonville 751:2.]
Entry 12034
A woman seals a man's hair into a little hole in the mortar of the fireplace flue to keep him near her. [Elizabeth City 390:5.]
Entry 12040
If you throw out a person's hair so that a bird can get it for making a nest, that person will have a headache as long as that hair is there. [Rich- mond 384:6.]
Entry 12042
Either bury person's hair or put it over a door to keep him or her from running around. [Wilmington 169:4.]
Entry 12043
Woman makes wishes while tying knots in some of man's hair and bury- ing it in the plaster of her house. [Elizabeth City 406:5.]
Entry 11893
"I heard of people taking your hair and put it in a rag, jest tie it up in some way and put it in their shoe - wear it in their shoe; and it would be some Way that it would affect you, and it would bring you to attract your mind toward them."
Entry 11925
"Split point of nail, lay hair in split, drive into tree at bottom, runs crazy." [The splitting of the point of a nail here, of course, is impossi- ble. Informant is talking here about a wooden peg, which is used in many tree rites. "At bottom" sometimes means exposed root or beginning of root at bottom of tree.] [Richmond 302:10.]
Entry 12029
"They say they could take your hair and pray over it for you to die on a certain date. When that certain date come you'll die." [Richmond 459:4.]
Entry 12038
"Sometimes, they say, that they can take your hair and throw it away and cause you to go crazy." [There are probably many reasons for this but one of the best known is birds will get your hair and use it in building a nest.]
[Elizabeth City 556:8.]
Entry 11
My father used to go with a lady name Lida and she got tired of him and he wus goin' with another one named Ella. Well, Miss Lida didn't like it and she sent to papa's house for him to come around to hers, and she knew that papa loved whiskey, and so papa went round there and she went back in the kitchen and brung out some drinks. And him and her sat there and drink. But while she was in the kitchen she took some sweet spirits of nitre and put it in papa's drink. Well, he didn't know no diff'rent, 'cause it was strong, and he jis' drank it right on down. And while he was asleep she took some of his hair and - she cut it out - and if you take a person's hair and put it in runnin' water it'll run 'em crazy. And so she cut some of papa's hair. So when he woke up he says, "Well," he says, "Lida, I didn't know I was goin' to sleep," he says, "please excuse me." She says, "Well, that's all right Sam," she says, "you used to come to see me and go to sleep." And he didn't think anything of it and went home. And about three days after, he begin to feelin' funny for some cause or another. And every time he'd take a drink he would - seemed like he wouldn't have any sense at all. When he'd come home, seemed like if anybody would say anything to him - at least you wouldn't have to say.anything to him - the least little fault he'd find, he'd wan'a start fightin'. And Miss Ella couldn't under- stand it. She says, "Sam, what's ailin' you?" And he'd cuss and rip and rare, and the same way he'd beat us. He'd make us all pull off our clothes and he'd take his belt - he'd always wear a heavy belt - and take it off and double it and beat us with it. And so one day a man came to the house and Miss Ella, he was a white man, he claimed to be a fortune-teller, and Miss Ella Was telling him how papa would act. And he said he would come back when papa was home. And so when he came back he looked at papa and he told Miss Ella, he says, "Ella," he said, "there's some- thing awful wrong with Sam, '' he says, ''but I'll tell you wha' choo kin do, '' he says, "zhoo can go to Conway, South Carolina, to a certain man, and he'll tell you exactly what to do to cure him." And so Miss Ella did. And she took papa to Conway. And before they got there - before they got in the gate, the man said, "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't come in here with all that mess on you," he say. "Wait a minute! Don't bring that in mah house. And he went out there and he took a wist [whisk] broom and brushed papa off. And he went in there. And the man told Miss Ella that the woman [Miss Lida] that he used to go with, he says, that she still wanted him but she was mad because she [Miss Ella was going with him. And he said that if he didn't get a piece of her clothes and wrap it up with some sulphur and her track - just one would be all right, the right track, a tablespoonful of her right track - he said that there was no way to cure him but dat. And put it in a little box or can or paper bag with some sulphur and a piece of her belongings, and some cayenne pepper, and mix it all up and put it over her head wure she had to go - like wure she had to pass under. And well, Miss Ella couldn't do it, because she knew that Miss Lida didn't like her. So she had her little boy to go to Miss Lida's house one day and tell Miss Lida that a certain woman wanted to see her up at de corner. And she left home and just as soon as she did, James, Miss Ella's little boy, got her track, her right track, and put it in a box. And Miss Lida came back. She says, "There wasn't anyone to see me." He said, "Yes mam, it was, it was a lady." And then he ast her fer a drink of water and den she went in dere to get him a drink of water, and he went in the front room, and he took a pair of scissors and cut a piece of her dress and he took that. And then -
(Howoldwasthelittlebov?)
He was nine years old. And he took it back to Miss Ella. And Miss Ella got some cayenne pepper, hot pepper, and some sulphur, and mixed it up all together. And she sent papa there [to Miss Lida] with it. And while she was back in the kitchen papa took and put it - jis' like that [pointing to the door], you see, put it over the door. And, the man [in Conway] told him if he would do that and leave it there, in nine days time he would be cured, you know, of the worst part of it, then to come back to him. And sure enough, in nine days time papa went back to him. And he said, "Now Sam, '' he says, "take some of your urine," he says, "in a little bottle and put it under her doorstep," and he says, "she'll come to you and confess." And papa did that. But she came while papa was at work. And she sit down and told Miss Ella just how she had done. And she said, "If you will jist please," she says, "take whatever you got on me away," she says, "I'll never do it agin." And Miss Ella had a chance to take the bottle up from under her doorstep and we didn't have any more trouble with her.
Entry 1031
[In the preceding rite we warmed up or gave extra power to a fireless coffeepot; in the following rite we have a waterless bath powered by singing:] I was livin' [rooming] with a lady in this town here and she had a man she was livin' with. An' this man, you see, would go out and work but he wouldn't bring in money to suit this lady, see. And this lady went to some hoodoo lady and tried to find out some way of gettin' him to put his money in de house - you know, in de home. Well, this lady told her what to do. She told her to go somewhere and get a, about, you know, a cup of graveyard dirt from some place, and get and have some strands of his hair out of him, and mix it together, and get some more - some kinna roots, you know, out de woods. I don't zackly [know] what de name of 'em would be but I seen 'em, you know, seein' how she mixed de stuff together. She took de graveyard sand and roots and this strand of his hair - she tied it aroun' de roots see, put de graveyard sand in a little sack. Den she put dat in, you see, put de sticks [roots] in this bag too, and tied it up and wore it in her bosom up here. And de lady told her to get in de tub and face de sun in de mornin', you see, take a bath and holler and sing - you know, sing low to herself. There wasn't any water in it - jis' an empty tub. But she was suppose to do dat early before de sunrise rise, for nine mornin's and burn some kinna lamp behind de door - you know, a lamp jis' like we use. But I don't know whether it's true or not. I couldn't say that [she didn't see this part of the rite]. But that was de words she came back and told us. And she did it. And then she ordered off - of somepin from some firm, Johnson C. Smith, I think it is, in Racine, Wisconsin, and got somepin dey call High John de Conquer. But she wouldn't let me see that. I couldn't tell you zackly what dat looked like; she wouldn't let me see it. But I re'lly do know from myself experience dat he did change. He start to bringin' de money in and spendin' it in de house jes' like any other man. [Wilmington, N. Car., (261), 257:3.]
[For a doctor singing while making medicine, see margin-title George Jackson.]
Entry 1261
Yo' kin take a person's hair as dey comb it out chew see - git dandruff and all and wrap dat hair right tight. Yo' know people combin' dere hair it come out in de comb, an: yo' jis' take dat hair an' wrap it real tight in some red flannel wit a piece of lodestone, an' stick needles all through it. Jis' stick 'em all through dem - Jis' diff'rent ways an' dose needles will inflict de body some way. Yo'll break out in spots de size of quarters or half dollahs on yore laig or on yore body. An' yo'll always be afflicted until somebody in de family finds that thing. Ah'm telling dis from experience. Mah mothah wus hurt dat way an' ah found it when ah wus thirteen yeahs old. An' den she bathe her laig in fish brine an' she got well.
Entry 1841
You know what they make that out of?
(No.)
Well, I'll tell you what they make that out of - that's made out of snake- hides. That's what they make that out of - they make that out of snakehides. What's sewed inside of it is ordinary sawdust - sawdust and brown sugar. And you can keep that under a person's bed and a man' 11 never have no nature for his wife. [While machine is off we talk about another hand.]
(Well, what shape would they fix it up?)
Fix it up just the shape of a person - two arms and two legs with the body made to it. And if you put that under a woman's bed, she ain't going to be much service to her husband - her and her husband be fussful all the time. (What did you say they make that out of?) [I am trying to pick up what was lost while machine silent.l Sawdust - take sawdust and alum. Take you a piece of alum, powdered alum. Take you a little piece of bluestone and powder it. Take a piece of garlic and tie the garlic around it. Understand? And put it under a woman's bed.
(Well, what do you use for the outside cover?)
Outside cover on it? Just tie it around with a string, you don't have to wrap it in anything - just put in, open her mattress and put it in a mattress.
(What did you say about a snakehide a moment ago?)
A snakehide? You could take a snakehide and use that - just clip a person's, a piece of a person's hair and burn it. You understand?
(In fixing this doll baby - how was that made, did you say?)
You takes ordinary sawdust - just take ordinary sawdust. If you want to make a woman disagreeable - things disagreeable in a home for a woman and her husband, take ordinary sawdust, a piece of garlic, a piece of alum and a piece of blue- stone, and powder that. And mix it in that sawdust and sew it up in that form of a person - see, like - just like a little small doll baby - a small piece of it.
(What kind of material would you use for that form?)
For Wrapping that in?
(Yes.)
Bed ticking.
(Any kind?)
No, not any kind, bed ticking - something that a mattress or pillow is made out of, not any kind of material.
(Oh, I see. Well, why is that?)
Because you wants to lay the stripes according to the rise and fall of the sun. That's why we do that. You want to make the stripes so that on the shape of that thing like a person it lays with the rise and fall of the sun. You lays it like you take a dead person is buried with their head to the east - I mean to the west and their feet to the east. You lay that thing with the head to the east and the feet to the west. That's against the life of any person it's under.
(Now, where do you put this little doll?)
You put it in - you put it under or in a mattress. But the best way you do, if you can open the mattress and put it in there, sew it in the mattress. Just know how you got it - lay it in the position and lay it right in that mattress where they lay on that. And that woman'll have trouble in her house with her husband as long as she sleeps on it.
Entry 2289
If you wanta have luck in gamblin', if yo' married or got a wife or got a girl fren', jes' git a piece off her bloomers an' a piece of her hair an' a hairpin, an' put Heart Cologne wit dat an' a piece of garlic, an' sew dat into a cloth together with a dime an' keep it in yore pocketbook or in yore pocket. Yo always have luck in gamblin'.
Entry 2763
Well, now, I tell you about the hair. A person takes some of your hair and cut it out of your head. I know a man did me that - that's the reason I tell you so good about it. My husband was laying and I was laying down in the bed and I was asleep - laying down on my back. He couldn't find my scissors, he got up and got the case knife. I heard something going - saw - saw - saw - you know, and I woke up like that. He was setting up in the bed - had my hair sawing a piece of it, got it out. So I went to the hair-dresser and she said, "What is your hair doing cut out." I said, "My hair ain't cut out my head." She missed it, and she say, "Yes, it is." I say, "Oh, Lord, I don't remember cutting my hair out for nobody." I say, "Gee, I'm going to watch my husband tonight when he come." He was working in the swamp and when he take a bath that night, I goes in his clothes and I look and he had a plat of my hair in his pocket. I said, "What you going to do with that hair?" He say, "I cut this here, Daisy, ' he call me Daisy, "to keep you with me 'cause I love you" - to keep me from going away from him. A Egyptian woman told me - I went to her - she say, "You suffering with your head." I say, "Yes." She say, "Some man cut your hair out your head and he dead." [See margin-title If Evildoer Dies Spell Incurable, p.396.] I say, "Yes, what did he do with it?" She say, "He take it to a tree in the woods and he bore a hole in that tree," and she say, "while he may - he put that hair in the tree," she say, "and then he closed it." That what the Egyptian woman told me. I say, "Well, what you think he want to do that for?" She told me, she say, "He didn't Want to kill you, but he wanted you to be crazy about him - cause that would make you crazy, make you follow him everywhere." Because he wanted me to go to that [camp something?] and he working there - and he wanted me to go and I didn't go. She say, "Well, you go on with him." So, well, my husband he got - he put my hair in the tree. He bore towards the sunrise. He got on the side of the sunrise and he dug the hole and she told me how to go there to get that hair. I went there right away and just like she told me, it was true - my hair absolutely Was there. I went and I take a knife and I dug the plug out. And my hair had done growed long and I taken it out and it cold-like. And I say [to myself], "Well, I declare." I say, "I never did dream about any hoodoo or nothing like that. I said [to myself], "Why she told me." I went to the hoodoo woman 'over the river" - she's dead now. She say, "Don't let no hoodoo and no fortuneteller or none 'em son-of-bitch tell you that you are fixed. You're not fixed," she say, "it's your blood cause you suffer with your head."
(Who told you that?)
Miss Helen - that was a hoodoo woman told me that. She say, "I could fool you out of money just like the rest of 'em fool you out of it," she say, "but there ain't anything ailin' you but your head." Well, that's just what the Egyptian woman had done tole me [that I was fixed]. Well, I was on two opinions. I didn't know 'aht to do. The Egyptian Woman had told me about my hair and Miss Helen done told me it was the blood. Well, I got operated on. That didn't do no good and I said it must be true what the Egyptian woman say. And I go - what the Egyptian woman told me - and I goes and that's where I found my hair was in the tree. And I say to my husband, "Well, what you want do with my hair?" He say, "Oh, I love you so much," he say, "and I don't want you to have nobody else but me and that's the only thing I'se wantin'." I say, "Well, listen."
(Did your husband die after that, then?)
Ohyeah, he got drownded.
(I see.)
He was working, he got drownded - he fell overboard, he got drowned. After I'd taken [found] that [first] piece, he cut another piece and he got drownded with the piece - that piece in his pocket. Because when they caught him [his body with a grappling hook] he was just so bad, they had to bury him with every- thing on 'em, you know, and that's why my hair is in the graveyard.
(He was so bad what?)
It did up - the fishes and things had did him so bad, you know.
(Oh, I see.)
Yeah, they had did him up so bad, so that's why they had to bury him with his pockets - with all his clothes what he had on, his working clothes. So that's.
(And he still had some of your hair? He didn't put it in a tree?)
Yeah, he still had it. And I went to hoodoos and all. I went to all. I have been to a lot of them and they tell me - some would say I was sick and [some would say]. [Egyptian woman is a fortuneteller wearing large earrings and sometimes a head covering; usually a Negro, occasionally a white woman, rarely a gypsy. Along the Mississippi River a drowned body is ''dragged for with grappling hook. For folk- lore methods to recover the body, see FACI,2ed., Nos. 15127-15136, pp.696-697.]
Entry 2766
Ah'd taken sick with the child, you know, before I left town. So I went to my house and ah stayed there three months. So I came back and when I came back, I just, you know, something just run all over me. You know, like a chicken - like a chicken when you pick it and you fix it - you singe it - with all them pimples - come up on it where you pull those feathers out. Well, you see my flesh all over was just like that. It was all round my neck and every- where was just like that. And so I just stayed sick and stayed sick - had doc- tors and doctors and doctors and doctors. So my husband told me, say, "Well, it just don't look like you goin' to ever get well." But still I didn't give up - still I didn't give up. I told him, I said, "Well, I just strictly believe that I gotta have an operation." He says, "Well, make it up in you' mind and go on a'get it." So the doctor come to me and told me I'd have to have an operation. So they rang up the ambulance for me. Ambulance came and ah got ready to get in the ambulance. So they took me on to the hospital and they examined me and they said I was too weak to take an opera- tion. Brought me back home. And so he said, "Well, you go next week." So my cousin come and she told me, she says, "Her sickness is not natch'l. Suppose you go and see about her - go and see somebody about her and question her." So he went and got a fortunetelling man - he didn't believe in nothing like that - went and got a fortuneteller man. And he come there and told him, "Your house is dressed." Says, "She left from here and went away [see preceding 3 months] and somebody done got de key and went in her house - got the key and unlocked the door and went in the house. Under the steps is dressed and all over. The back door and front door and all in the house is dressed." He didn't believe that. He says, "I don't believe it." So he talked with me about it and I didn't believe it. So, another one of my cousins come and told me and say, "Now, you must believe things like this because it's true." And she went and got de Bible and showed me, you know, where it says witchcraft, you know, and all like that in the Bible. [For some of Biblical sources, see my comment on p.361.] So, ah told him, ah said "Now, you go and see somebody, go and see somebody, [even] if you don't believe [in] him, go see somebody." And so he did. Him and my sister and another young man went, and they went to a lady called Madam Helen. She told him, she even as much as told him about my mother [in New Orleans]. She told him when I left from him and he had ordered a hundred and some dollars worth of furniture. She told him when he got dat and the date of the month, said, "Your wife has been down and this has been working on her for about eight months and - as clean as your hand. And it was true, too. Nobody ever went down and told her about it. She said, "It's a cup right under the left side - what's called the north corner of your steps, under the back and front." [My informant may not realize it but she uses unusual symbolism here. The outside doorsteps is a threshold altar! A person facing the house and standing in front of the steps is before an altar. To speak liturgically, he is looking "east and "the left side of the steps is "the north corner or "north end of the altar.] She said, "You go there and dig that cup up and if you - these people, if you want 'em to wander away, you bring it to me and I'll fasten it up. I'll put this junk in a bottle or a [glass] jar and let you go throw it in a running stream, if you want 'em to wander away. If you don't, just take it and fill it all full of [Red] Devil Lye." There was hair in there and lots of something look like blood, and nails and hair and garments, you know, pieces of step-ins or something - look like pieces of my underclothes, you know, was all in there. And there was needles in there, in the two cups underneath my steps back and front. And so she told, said, "Now, you go back and dig that up. When you dig that up, bring it to me and what you want did about it, I'll do it." And said, "Tell her to come." Well, ah was so weak. Ah was just so weak ah wasn't hardly able to stand up, and just did not want to leave that house. She said, "And move out dat house just as quick as you can." I just didn't want to, they just had to pull me out of there. And I just couldn't hardly walk, I was so weak. I went to her and she told me what was the matter with me. And she said, "Now, I don't want you to go back in that house. Never go back in that house no more." And I didn't go back in that house.
Entry 8605
Now wit chure hair, lak if yo' an' yore ole man's tuhgethah an' if some woman is tryin' tuh bust yo' up from 'im, yo' kin take some of his hair an' put it in a lamp. An' yo' kin write this woman's name an' his name on a piece of papah an' fold it tuh yo', an' put it in dat lamp an' burn it fo' nine mawnin's. An' aftah de ninth mawnin', yo know, put de lamp out. An' den yo' 'noint chure room wit oil of [verbena probably]. Hearts Co- logne, an' scrub roun' yore flo' wit some urinate, sugah an' a li'le cinnamon. An' dat breaks dat [affair] up.
(You put his hair in this lamp?)
Yo' put his hair in de lamp an' yo' write dis woman's name who he's goin' with. Write her name crossways [this is crossing them up] an' bring his'n - yo' know write hers down first an' den bring his'n cross. An' yo' put it in a lamp an' burn off it fo' nine mawnin's. [A great many scrubbing rites are scattered through Hoodoo. That oil, instead of verbena, could be a word I eventually dis- covered was oil of Bergamot, this last word appearing in a variety of forms: bergamine, Essense instead of oil might have helped the decipherment.]
Entry 12026
To send a man away, wrap up in a rag some of his hair with 2 needles and several pins, and bury this package on the bank of a river. [Here again we have one of these many rites in which the victim is buried to send him traveling!]
[Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 3898
If it's a woman, yo' kin git some of 'er sanitary things of hers an' keep 'em yo' know. Jes' keep 'em in a close place an' put - either jes' wash 'em an' put de water in a little bottle or somepin, an' mix it wit dis Heart Cologne. An' den if yo' kin git some of de hair, put it in dere an' keep it. She goin' come back.
Entry 4685
(Dey take that bow from the back of a man's hat and do what with it?)
An' tack it on a tree an' git some of yore hair an' tack it right on de end of dat bow, an' put dat hair on dere. When dat hair go all de way roun' dat tree, it'll meet back to dat bow. Den yuh'll go crazy. (They have to go to the tree with the bow and have some hair in [on the end of] the bow. Then that hair grows all the way round the tree?) All de way roun' de tree. [For detached human hair to continue growing under all sorts of conditions, See examples at the beginning of long section HAIR.]
Entry 6230
If dey git hold-a some-a yuh hair outa yuh head, or prob'ly from any- dere about chew where dey could git hair - from undah yuh arms, maybe yuh pri- vate or somewhere. Yuh kin take dat hair an' go tuh a tree, an' yuh kin bo' a hole right in dat tree. See, say fer instance deep enough, say fo' or five fches deep on de north side of dat tree. An' git yuh a peg jis' tuh fit dat hole. Yuh put turpentine on dat hair an' put it in dat hole. An' take dat peg a' drive it on dat an' leave 'bout nine licks tuh covah dat peg up. An' go dere evah mawnin' between six an' nine a'clock an' give one lick on dat peg. De first mawnin' yuh start, dey starts wit a headache an' fin'ly - evah mawnin' he g dere an' hit it fo' nine mawnin's. An' evah mawnin' yuh hit it, yuh git wuce orse] an' wuce wit dat headache. Hit got so severe sometime - de last mawnin he hit it, yuh mind will leave yuh. Yuh supposed tuh die, CUZ HE DRIVE YUH UP IN DAT TREE AN' YUH DON'T KNOW WHERE IT IS, AN' IT'S GONE, AN' YUH GROWS INTUH DAT SAP [hair grows in tree, see No.5804f.].
Entry 644
Take the toenail, fingernail, lock of the man's hair; parch it well and make a powder and put over his food. That'll make the man's ambition be for her prack'ly [practically] all the time. And in that length of time it will give him some ailment in the stomach and no physician in the United States can reach the sickness unless it is one that knows exactly what he has got. And [besides] it's outside the medical trade, you see. Over sixty-five percent of our men now by having those kind of women have bad stomachs - rusty stomachs from dat. [This could be the only time I heard the word physician in hoodoo. Rusty stomach, a boiler that becomes rusty, used only here.]
Entry 921
Well, it wus a girl, a fren' of mine. Well, it wus three of 'em [girls] an' her mothah married. She married a fellah dat wus stepfathah to dese children an' so de stepfathah tried tuh go with her. An' aftah she, yo' know, commence tellin' her mothah an' lak dat, yo' know, well, den he commence tuh whippin' her an' beatin' her yo' know an' all lak dat. She had long hair about that long [demonstrates] an' when she got up tuh about fifteen yeahs ole, he taken a plait of her hair an' put it in a cake-flavor bottle an' he carried dis girl's hair to de Miss'ippi Rivah, an' put it ovah in-dat Miss'ippi Rivah, an' dat chile fifteen yeahs ole, she started tuh walkin'. She left home that evenin' an' her mothah didn't know where she wus, an' she walked - she walked aways. She walked back down heah to a place dey call Forest City, an' she got lost walkin' an' so they wus in Cold Spring tryin' tuh find her, an' dey did find her, an' dey carried her tuh a man named Mr. Smith. He's up heah tuh Turrell[?] Arkansas. Her mothah taken her tuh dis man, an' he killed de hair in dis bottle, but how he kilt it ah dunno. But he kilt de hair in dis bottle, an' that brought de girl back.
(How long ago did that happen?)
Aw, it's been 'bout nine yeahs ago.
Entry 922
Well, this case, she wus at some frien's - an' [she] a vury nice lookin' woman - an' they all got jealous of 'er. She had all the bes' fellahs - she had a beautiful head of hahr. An' one of 'er frien's come roun' to brush 'er hahr. An' in the meantime she [the friend] had took some of 'er hahr, an' all of 'er hahr wus fallin' out. An' so she's got hahr now, but it's so short an' it nevah growed. An' she said her..friend wus the one that did this to 'er. Well now, she said she [the friend] cared it to some person [doctor] out dere in Dinwiddie County [Virginia] some place, an' said they takes this hahr an' put it with snake bones an' some kin'a 'erb they got, an' put it in a bottle an' let it float. An' as long as that bottle float, why yo' hahrs fall out; but if that bottle breaks, you die. Tha's whut she said. An' so, now, it's a way to quit this spell, as they say, by some kin'a method they use. They git some of that other person [the friend who cast the spell] urinate an' care it to this other party. [The "other party" was a root doctor living at Richmond.] This party [Richmond root doctor] will put that to float. An' [also] he gits some of this other party's [the friend's] hahr an' put it in there with his [her] own [the friend's own] urniate. An' that'll float. They said dis [second] bottle will cause some kin'a gas to form an' bus' de cork out of it. An' when that cork bus'es, when dat cork come out, why that will kill [remove the spell from] de other bottle. They claim that de other [first] bottle do burs', you gon'a die, because dis other fellah's [the friend's] urinate an' hahr - they claim that hahr turns to some kin'a serpent in that bottle [see Hair, turning to snake in Index.] [This is complicated thought and action. What happened? A woman losing her hair thought a friend had tricked her. The Richmond doctor told her the friend had taken the hair to a Dinwiddie doctor who set it afloat in a bottle with snake bones and a root. The Richmond man, faced with a difficult problem, came up with the logical remedy - float a stronger bottle in pursuit. Actually, the friend was innocent - also, neither Dinwiddie doctor nor first bottle existed. I also doubt the launching of the second bottle. One small point may be missed - the spirit of the dead snake was in the first bottle [see margin-title Snake, p.66 and Index]; in the second bottle was urine, destroyer of evilminded spirits. That Richmond doctor thinks magically; doctors brilliantly.]
conditional predicted death in the narrator’s disputed bottle account. No observed death asserted for the described woman These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified. The informant reports an herb; Hyatt's editorial retelling says root. Those words and voices remain distinct. Hyatt says the friend was innocent and the first doctor and bottle did not exist, and doubts the second bottle. This link does not verify the events or identify a plant species.
Entry 984
It's a very broad expression, yo' can't - dere blood unless yo' put a person, unless a woman, yo' know - yes, her ministration.{She was uncertain about using the word.] Well, once in a while - this is mah experience with mah- self. I'm not givin' you an' idea whut ah hears. I had a cotton mattress yo' know - yo' didn't pack dem, an' my ministration was taken up from my - ah worked at a hotel, see, an' it was taken up an' that piece was cut clean out an' honest, it was fold jes' lak this - 'bout five times an' outa de five times, they have five needles in it, an' beside the five needles they have something it looked kinda like a black snake, it had a little teeny head like this - like that. I found that in mah mattress. An' then they had another one to go 'cross that an' dis little head was in dere. [Two snakes were crossed.] Then they had that wrapped up - it was sprinkled with something - it had been there so long. Then they had it wrapped in one cloth, yo' know, white duck. Then the next was red flannen. An' those things ah didn't see myself at all until ah found it an' ah'd taken it to a doctor. He says, "Oh, they had jure ministration." Ah didn't take it to a medical doctor - ah took it to a root doctor - ah had never believed in them [medical doctors]. An' they had lotsa my hair in there with it - ah had long beautiful hair - an' how they got it I does not know, but I guess from combing mah hair an' leaving or de dresser.
(What did this doctor do for you?)
Whut did this doctor do? He'd taken it with him. Ah say, "Now, what is yo' goin' do with it?" He says, "Ah tell yo' whut ah'm goin' do. Ah'm goin' take it to a runnin' stream an' ah'm goin' put it in there an', '' he said, ''the same person that did joo like this, they'll come an' ast chew the next morning, How yo' feelin, Miss Davis?" Anhe say, "Now, don't look ugly an'don't look nasty, jes'say, "Jes' dandy an' how yo' feelin'? Ah did so. An' he say, "In nine mornings when it come yore time, yo'll jes' come jès' lak yo' always." So it has - ever since ah never had no mo' trouble.
(He cured you?)
He did - but he done something else, but he did it to himself [he did not tell her what he did].
Entry 1394
I have heard the old people say that you can take a lock of your hair, and a piece of your underwear, and nine nails - five up and four down, and bury it right down at the sill of your door and lean it out from the house. You lean the package out very carefully - you bury it just out of sight. Take your left foot and drag the dirt over it and cover it. If anybody walks over it, that keeps them from trespassing. You won't have any trouble with them any more.
Entry 1456
Ah know a boy, a fren' of mine. Well, he wus goin' with a girl an' dis girl liked him but he didn't like the girl, an' she took the hair out de top of his haid, right in de mole of his haid an put it in a sody watah bottle. She puts dis bottle undah do'step undah her do'step. Ever' time she would go down de steps or come back in de house he would have convulsion. He had dem so until dey would put stones in his mout' an' he would jis' chew dem stones. Dey brought him heah in town tuh Dr. Crank - yo' might know him, an' carried him tuh Dr. Johnson, an' none of de doctahs couldn't do him no good. Dr. Jenkins said he had de T. B. Dr. Curlew said dat he had de high blood pressuh. An' dey had tuh take him outdo's an' 'bout five minutes apart he'd have 'em so hard until dey jis' mostly dey had tuh hol' him in de baid. An' a spiritual woman took 'em offa 'im. An' she give him - she got a box of table salt an' a box of [baking] sody. She take as much of dat sody as she could hole in her han', in de palm of her han' an' dat much salt an' put it into a gallon bucket of hot watah, an' bathe him in it ever' mawnin' fo' nine mawnin's - give him a bath in dat hot watah. Den she used iodine an' potash tuh clear his blood up. See, dat's tuh keep de blood from goin' tuh his haid. An' he wus so po' till dey fis' laid him out [for burial] - ever'body wus lookin' fo him tuh die. Well, he's up walkin' aroun' now an' have a wife an' kids. But don't nobody use outa dat salt an' neither dat sody but him, see. An' use all of dat until it's all gone. An' rub in olive oil.
(Did she rub him in any special way?)
No.
Entry 1749
She takes an' cut dat little bow out of de back of a man's hat, any- thing, an' she puts her urine, her water, in a bottle too. An' she gits a strand of yore hair if she can. If she can't git it, why den dat bow will do de same, cause it come from de back of yore haid an' yo' been wearin' it an' sweat. Jes' 'long as she gits somepin 'bout chew. An' she take an' put that in a bottle an a lil peppah, an' den wrap it up in a flannen cloth an' keep it in de flannen cloth an' carry it roun' with her, somewhere roun' 'bout her waist. An' yo' cain't git away.
Entry 1819
[In my earlier collecting days a hairball among white inform- ants was: "A cow licks her hair and that hair goes down in the left side of the pouch and that forms a ball, and if you have one of those in your hand you can bewitch anyone." This object is sometimes called a witch-ball: "One morning the cow didn't come up for milking and they went out to find the cow and found it dead. It had been shot in the thigh with a hair-ball.... You see, a witch always uses a silver bullet or a hair-ball to kill anything, and this man [witch] had shot the cow with one of those witch hair-balls." FACI, 2ed., Nos. 15884 & 15885, p.797; see also No. 16151, p.827.]
[In the following account we have a different hairbalZ:]
Now, dere's a hairball - dat's concernin' a lady, misfortune between yo' an' her. Now, yo' kin wear dis hairball tuh keep in contact with her an' yo' kin wear it dat chew may nevah git in contact with her no mo'.
(What kind of a hairbalZ do you mean?)
It's an ordinary hairball.
(Well, where do you get that hair?)
Well, it's hair dat's from ole dead people, yo' know, befo' it's event'lly decayed - it's spoiled. Put it in a thimble or somethin' round that chew may put it in a ball. Quite natural, by it gittin' air it will not, yo' know whut ah mean - fade away. Quite natural if yo' know de person that die - everythin' all right. Now, this hairball - it comes in a ball. To keep in contact with this party, yo must put this in a bag - yo' know, somethin' lak a Bull Durham sack. [The latter was a small cloth sack containing a cigarette mixture used in "rolling your own" - making your own cigarettes. The paper label on the sack had the picture of a bull.] Yo' make a small bag small enough fo' it tuh git in. Now, tuh keep in contact with this person, yo' must put this hairball in that bag an' sew it. Make nine stitches, an' dere's three words yo' must say while sewin', "With me Fo'evah." Yo' know, as yo' make a stitch, jes' say a word. Now at de end, when yo' git tuh de end of de bag, do not make a knot in it. Make three turns wit chure needle - yo' know, lak yo' be sewin' dis, jes pass it roun dere three times. Den yo git chew a string an' put nine knots in dis string an' de ninth knot, yo' take a needle an' attach it to dat bag an' wear that next to yore skin. Now, tuh git rid of dis lady event ally, wear dis hairbalZ jes' outright - don't put it nex' tuh yore skin. Fo' instant [instance], lak yo' got chure coat on dere, dis top pocket heah - jes' keep it in dat pocket, jes' outside from yo'. See. An' yo' wear it thataway yo'll nevah come in contact with her. That's all it is to the hairball.
Hyatt quotes earlier FACI material comparing a silver bullet with a hair-ball as alternatives. The quoted cow account uses the hair-ball. The following Algiers informant describes a different hair-ball; the quoted bullet is not part of that later recipe.
Read full source (printed page 544) · Read full source (printed page 545)
Entry 1869
An' a man - de only thing to do to make him come back, when yo' be goin' out git de dirt out of nine of his tracks right in de palm of his foot - yo' know where he step on - de palm, an' take it, an' take de chewin' gum out of yore mouth, an' his hair. Yo' git close enough to git some of his hair out of his haid. An' put it in a bottle an' bury it under his room where he's supposed tuh sleep - yo' know, that's if he yore husband, an' bury it undah his room. An' then yo' go to that bottle twice a week an' tell it, says, ask it - close yore eyes an' ask if he wus really comin' back. An' they say them little things in dat bottle will turn round an' round, an' den nine days after dat, he be back.
(She puts this hair and his track and this chewing gum in this bottle?)
In de bottle an' bury it under his room.
Entry 2341
Yo' take that hair an' yo' bury it, yo' see, an' when yo bury that hair yo' puts it into lak a little bag, an' yo' make a toby lak yo' would make a toby, put a little hair in there an' bury it; but chew bury dat in de grave- yard.
(What will that do then?)
That will run yo' crazy.
Entry 2395
Someone who used to live on the Riprap Road found a box at the gate one morning and brought it to my house and said, "Look what I dug up at my gate." I said to her, "What's in it?" And she opened it and there was pins in there and needles and some of her hair and sulphur in a bag in there and a piece of red flannel that had four sticks sewed up into that and a dime into it. It was a wooden box about that long. (Eight inches long and four inches wide.) [Probably a cigar box - symbolic coffin.] She said she was going to take it and see who put it there, she was going to take it over to Norfolk to a fortuneteller. And when she came back she told me that her husband put it there. That's what the fortuneteller told her.
Entry 3809
(Well, how do you get rid of that?)
How could yo' git rid of dat? Well, yo' git one of dem turnips, dem green turnips.
(Get a green turnip - green, turnip green.)
Yes, sir. An' take one of dem green turnips an' yo' squeeze it - yo' squeeze it. An' yo' take some of dis same snail dust lak dat, an' yo' mix it up an' yo' rub it, jes' tryin' to get juice out of de turnip lak dat wit dat snail dust. Yo' take dat an' yo' bathe yoreself wit it, jes' be- fo' yo' go to fool wit 'er. Yo' bathe yore- self wit it unbeknowst to her. An' when yo fool wit 'er, prob'ly she may want to put yoreself in 'erself. Yo' say, "No." Pretend. Make out yo're playing wit 'er an' fool aroun' wit 'er. An' when yo' get dat stuff, yo' try to get some hair. When yo' get dat hair, yo' take it an' rub it wit dat turnip. She have to turn yo' loose, de way it burnin' 'er, yo' undahstan'.
(You get a piece of her hair?)
Yeah, yo' get dat hair an' yo' mix it up wit dis turnip an' dis snail dust, an' den yo' rub it, jes' lak yo' rubbin', an' yo' jes' put it down In some pep- pah. It burns 'er all de time. Den she wants to know from yo', she say, "I'm got a burnin' down here all de time." Jes' lak dat. Den she say lak dis here, "Huh, yo' know what's it all about? Yo' got a idea whut's it all about?" An' yo' say, "Well, de last time yo' had yore panties on." She say, "Well, I ain't had my panties on since dis time." Yo' say, "Well, I feel a cord roun' yo'." Yo' say, "Prob'ly dat's by yo' wearin' dis here cord." Yo' undahstan'?. [This last to the author.] Yo' say, "Whyn't yo' [why don't you] cut dat off?" She say, "Oh, no, dat don't make dat. Dat's jes' to keep my back from hurtin'." [Somewhere I have given a rite in which a dime with 9 knots is worn about ankle for love under the pretence of a cramp cure.] Yo' say, "Oh, here, I'm going to cut it." Yo' take yore [pocket] knife an' have a [blade] dere an' befo' she say, "No, don't cut it." Well, yo' make a [reach] fer 'er an' yo' cut it. Jes' cut yo' loose right from dere.
[While recording machine turned off, informant explains how he was tied.]
Yo' take a person's length [with a string].
(You mean that's to tie? You call it keeping them tied?)
Yes. When yo' got 'em tied, meanin' dat yo' can't fool [with other women].
Entry 3974
Well, he [my contact man when testing informant] ast me about did ah know about makin' a man love yo'. Ah tell 'im, yes. Yo' take de hair out of his haid an' wear it in yore shoe an' dat will make him love yo'. An' den yo' kin take 'bout runnin' anybody crazy. Yo' kin take dere, yo' know, ministratin' pieces an' wrap hit in de seat of a Woman's pants, an' wrap it togethah an' boil [ball] it until it's, yo' know, an' den put it in runnin' watah. Dat will run 'em crazy. (Well, do you throw those pieces in running water or [throw] the water that you boil them in?)
[They are not boiled but balled.]
No, yo' throw 'em in runnin' watah an' dat will run 'em crazy.
Entry 11930
"Go to the forks of the road where's a tree at, git young girl's hair...the right-hand side of the fork...take that hair and drive it in that tree and it will make her wonder [wander] away." [New Orleans 1142:1.]
Hyatt presents this item in his brief and condensed compilation. The quotation contains ellipses; omitted wording and a continuous recording are not reconstructed. [wander] is an editorial gloss. The reported outcome remains an attributed historical source claim.
Full quoted item (printed page 4267) · Compilation notice (printed page 4264)
Entry 7036
Yo' take a man dat's been drinkin' all 'is days, or if yo' take dat [man] ain't bery long started, it easily done. But one dat's drinkin' all 'is days, most of 'em drinks whiskey or drinks [hard liquor]. De way she do 'im when he come in evah night - evah night when he comes in she goes tuh work an' clip off 'is, git 'is hair down dere.
(His private hair.)
His private hair, an' a li'le from 'is haid an' mix it tuhgethah. Den she takes dat an' puts it in a li'le bit of whiskey an' she keeps dat fo'.three days aftah she do it. Git dis li'le bit of hair an' takes dat fo' three days an' keeps it. Den she buys den a halfa pint of othah whiskey an' po's hit intuh dis whiskey, an' let 'im drink dat, an' he'll slack up on dat whiskey. Maybe he drink, perhaps it be fo' days, but it won't be ovah fo' days 'fore he come in, "Ah b'lieve ah'll slack up drinkin' whiskey, ah sho' do think it's takin' 'fect on me."
Entry 7940
Yo' take a person's hair an' if a person dies.... If ah wanta take a plait of yore hair an' ah take de plait of yore hair an' ah plait it, an' if ah knows of a person dies, ah take de plait of dat hair yo see, an' ah puts it undahneath dat daid person's haid. See. An' when dat daid person begin tuh rot, yore hair will begin tuh rot, yo' see. Jis' lak a person, yo' know, almos' aftah a person dies, well yo' know dere hair rots offa dere haid. Well, dat's de very yay ah take dat plait of hair an' ah put it in dat coffin, yo' see, an' when dat person begin tuh rot, mah [that] hair begin tuh rot.
Entry 9369
Yo' kin take a aigshell an' yo' kin git some of 'is hair or have someone tuh git 'is hair. Have a barbah- shop or anywhere his hair cut at, yo' manage tuh git some of 'is hair. An' yo' bo' a hole in dat aig jis' as though a man gwine suck it an' yo' put some of dat hair in dat hole, an' yo' go tuh some runnin' watah. Now, dat's if yo' wanta git rid of individual. Yo' put dat - yo' go tuh some runnin' watah an' drap dat eggshell in dere. See, all de good [raw egg] is outa de aigshell. Yo' let it run out or suck it out lak some do. Yo' put dat aigshell in some runnin' watah an' 'long as dat aigshell drift, he ain't gwine be contented nowhere. He's travelin'. Dat's gittin' rid of - yo' might say of yore enemies or somepin lak dat.
Entry 11327
(Your mother was sick?)
Uh-huh an' de doctor said dat somebody had put somepin down for 'er. So I kin remembah dat he dug up - you know, dey had dese fireplaces, an' he had taken up threw whole bricks. [I] remembah when he'd taken up dese bricks. Dey had a bot- tle buried an' had a form as a baby wit feathahs. Dat Was sewed up in a piece of yellah cotton [or unbleached homespun] an' in dat - see, he opened it - an' in dat dey had a red piece of flannen an' red cayenne peppah intuh dis bag. An' dis baby had its legs an' feet an' arms made outa feathahs.
Chicken feathahs. An' some of 'er hair was in dis bag. An' so he tole my mothah tuh leave it tuh him, dat he would 'tend tuh dat bag. So, well, I don' think he did anythin' good enough. But still he put somepin else down dere, but my mothah always said dat whoevah put dat stuff down; dat dis man instead of workin' fuh 'er, he was workin' fuh de people what put it down. An' she didn't give him dat. [Patient keeping doll baby is most unusual. Poor doctor!] (Well, how was your mother sick? I mean - how did she happen to call him in? How did it start?) She had, she was kept wit dese wretched headaches, you know, an' she had de [medical] doctor, couldn't do nuthin. She kept sick all de time an' was jes' pinin' away tuh nuthin. An' so somebody told 'er tuh see one of dese root doc- tors. An' so she got one. An' de time he come dere, he says, "Yes, dere's somepin right here." An' she [said], "Dere's somepin dere? Go get it." He went an' got it. Looked like he know right where 'twas.
(Was it inside of the house or outside?)
Inside de house, in dat hearth, 'neath de three bricks, an' dere it was all laid out fer 'er. (Was this thing in a - what did you say the name of the thing, this feather thing was in?) In a, you know, a bag, in a yellah cotton bag. Was made on purpose fer it, so it would be shaped all of de baby.
(The bag was in that shape, too.)
[The bag was a baby doll form stuffed with feathers.]
Uh-huh. Dey done fixed it an' had made it out of feathahs, an' put it down fer 'er. Now, my mother's ['s = was] sick all de time.
Entry 11864
She takes hair from a man's head and some from her own head, ties it with thread, puts it in a bag with her fingernails, and wears it on her bosom for love. [Wilmington 252:4+85.]
Entry 11867
Carry person's hair and fingernails in bottle with Hearts Cologne for love. [Wilmington, 169:3+85.]
Entry 11879
To hold woman, man obtains hair from her head, adds lodestone, wraps these into a piece of red flannel, and into this package weaves 3 needles cross- ing one another * [the common rimless wheel device or emblem already given a number of times elsewhere: No.5720, p.2920, Z.10, v.4; No.8214, p.3447, v.4; and No.9796, p.3853, v.5; cf. No.10181, P.3961, v.5]. This package he carries in his pocket or keeps elsewhere. [Compare this rite with following 5 needles one, HAIR 11884.] [Memphis, informant (963), 1555:8.]
Entry 11901
If someone ties up your hair with a string and wears it next to the skin, that will give you a headache [presumably until you love the person].
[Richmond 318:13.]
Entry 11906
Man takes hair from mold of woman's head, sews it into a package, keeps damp with whiskey, and wears it to hold her love. [Richmond 303:1.]
Entry 11923
If someone cuts a hole in a tree that stands in running water and stops up in it some of your hair, you will lose your mind. [Wilmington 269:6+85.]
Entry 11924
You can kill a person by airtighting some of his hair in a small bot- tle and stopping it up in a hole you have bored into a tree. [Wilmington 228:3+ 85.]
Entry 11945
Her private hair and hair from the mold of his head, stopped up in a tree or in a bottle with Hearts Cologne will run the man crazy about her. [Nor- folk 457:8.]
Entry 11962
If you throw a person's hair into running water, that person will go there and drown himself. [Snow Hill, Md., 11:4.]
Entry 11984
They mix your hair with human excrement, add salt and vinegar, and throw it into running water before sunup to run you crazy. [Washington, D. C., 822:3.]
Entry 11987
How they run you crazy. They take a strand of your hair, or either any kind of it. They stop it up in a bottle tight, tight. That's all they got- ta do with that. [New Orleans 1405:5.]
Entry 11988
Take yore hair an' run yo' crazy shore [sure]. Take yore hair an' stop an' put it in a bottle, an' as long as dey keep dat hair intuh a bottle airtight, why it runs yo' finely [finally] crazy.
Entry 11989
11989-11990. Your hair buried in a bottle will drive you crazy. [Richmond 323:3; Wilmington 108:7+85.]
Entry 11990
11989-11990. Your hair buried in a bottle will drive you crazy. [Richmond 323:3; Wilmington 108:7+85.]
Entry 11993
Stop up a person's hair in a bottle and bury it on a river bank near Water to run the person crazy. [Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 12005
If you bottle a person's hair with snail-shell powder and frog powder, you will run your victim crazy. [Fredericksburg by Ediphone.]
Entry 12007
If someone bottles your hair and urine with 9 new needles and 9 new pins, and buries it, it will run you crazy. [Newport News by Ediphone.]
Entry 12028
I heard of people taking your hair and put it in a bottle and put 9 strands of hair, they say, and 9 needles and 9 pins. They say they take that bottle some [of] 'em and bury it under your doorstep to do you harm. [Wilming- ton 72:6+85.]
Entry 12035
A woman may cut hair from a man's head, put it in a sack, keep it on her side of the bed in the mattress, and sleep on it all the time for love.
[Memphis 1560:3.]
Entry 12037
Hair from her armpit soaked in his whiskey will bring a present from him and create love. [Charleston 572:4.]
Entry 12046
She can hold his love by wrapping some of his hair round 9 needles and keeping it hidden in the bed. [Wilmington 79:5+85.]
Entry 12297
They take your hair and bury your hair, see. They'll get two brass tacks and a brass pin [three brass objects] and they can put your hair in a lem- on, and then they'll turn that lemon upside down [unusual express- ion!] and bury it. And that'll give you a thun- dering headache. Now, for to cross that, you take that out. Now, you get you some war water and you get you [war water is omitted]. You go to the hydrant for nine mornings and just put your head under the hydrant like that, and let the water run on your head and say, "In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, please let this affliction go from me."
Entry 12416
Just fix 'em, Put- tin' 'em in a cross like a "x", you know, and might get a powder an' tie 'em up together, and take that and bury it at yo' [victim's] door.
(Bury it at your door? They cross them like a real "x"?)
Just like that [demonstrates].
(I see. How many do they use? How many matches do they put that way?)
They git 'bout eight or nine.
(I see and they bury it at your door?)
Bury it at your door. And pins - take needles and pins and put 'em in de same way like dese matches.
(Cross them.)
And git some - if they kin git some hair out de mole of yo' haid. Wrap that up - wrap that round dere and cross 'em and bury that at your door.
(What does that do?)
They say that will kill you.
physical X arrangement of materials in a reported burial procedure. Quotation marks around x indicate shape emphasis, not a new quoted speaker. wrapping available hair around the described crossed materials before burial. Keep the conditional availability of hair from the mole of the head without extra anatomical interpretation. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Read full source (printed page 4332) · Read full source (printed page 4333)
Entry 12453
Yo' kin git de young uns [ones] an' raise 'em.
(The young mockingbirds?)
Yes, an' yo' kin take a man's hair - jes' lak ah tell yo' 'bout de fish. Say, yo' carry 'em from heah - carry dat bird from right heah tuh Columbia [S. Car.]. An' fasten dat man hair on dere, to his wing an' turn him loose. Yo' ain't goin' have no mo' trouble about Tom [owner of hair] until dat bird die or somebody kill him. Nou, dere's a good one [method] tuh carry people off from heah. Dat's de only thing ah know [about mockingbird].
(You said that man will die?)
No, if dat bird die, dat man will come back home.
Entry 4332
Bury yuh hair down in a bottle an' dey kin turn aroun', dey kin go. Jis' like yuh live off in de country-like - yuh understand, off at de edge of town, say. Well, dey take it atop - right up chere [demonstrates], de mole of yuh haid. Dat's de part right chere dey wants - see, dat's de mole of yuh haid [demonstrates]. Dey kin take dis an' take a - jis' about three stran' of it, dey wants. An' take dat an' stop it up in a little small bottle, an' put up some holy water an' a little urinate an' things up in it. Yuh own urinate now. Kin take yuh own urinate an' po' it up in dere. Jis' like yuh git up in de mawnin' an' leave yuh wife. Well [she] go on aftah de chambah [you used] an' [get the] thing [urine] herself. An' she pour dat out dere herself, see. An' [she] kin go, jis' like dey got a ole tree. She kin dig a hollah right down side of de tree an' bury dat [threefold mixture] an' I guarantee when dat thing rotten out, yuh'll die.
Entry 4546
If dey jes' take some of yuh hair out chure haid, dey takes dat hair an' buries it. See, dat's tuh git chew in de action tuh work like dey want chew tuh work. An' jes' like if dis cap [informant's own], OR DIS HAT [MY BLACK HAT ON RECORDING TABLE]. Dis heah boW yuh see in dis cap [demonstrates], why yuh kin take dis bow heah out of dis cap an' run me crazy. See, ah gen'ral' [generally] WHEN AH GITS A CAP OR HAT AH ALWAYS TAKES DIS [demonstrates] OUT, CUZ IT'S DANGEROUS, see.
(Well, how would they do that?)
Well, dey takes dis bow heah out of yuh cap or hat an' dey takes dat bow an' dey dresses it, see. Dey dress it wit dis heah, some kinda whut de' call Hearts Cologne. Takes it an' put dat on it, an' dis heah stuff dey call - dat's a great thing - table salt. Dat's great. Dey take dat an' put dat in dere wit it an' dey sew it up, an' dey try tuh work in a way tuh git where yuh stay at. See, play partnahs wit yuh. An' when dey git tuh where yuh stay at, dey put it up ovah yuh do'. Den, when yuh git tuh actin' funny an' gittin' crazy [anything of yours over a door you walk under makes you light-headed], see it will run yuh crazy, an' yuh won't even know whut it's all about.
Entry 11869
Woman wears man's hair and perfume on breast for love.[ Wilmington 188:4+85.]
The printed account names a man's hair and a love purpose. Wearing and effective attachment remain source claims.
Entry 11871
"[A man can] take her hair, you know, and dress it [prepare it magi- cally with perfume, or his urine, or pins, or all sorts of things, and wear it] in de band of his hat [for love]." [Memphis 2737:3.]
Her hair is explicitly named. The bracketed subject, preparation examples and love purpose remain editorial additions, with no documented preparation or effect.
Entry 11927
If you nail a person's hair to the left side of a tree [the side to your left as you approach tree] that person will die with a headache. [Newport News 502:6.]
A person's hair is explicit in the conditional account. The left-side explanation is editorial; the predicted death with a headache is not a verified event.
Entry 11956
11956-11961. If you throw a person's hair into running water, it will run that person crazy. [Norfolk 465:2; Richmond 335:6; Snow Hill 12:4; Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone; Wilmington 165:4+85; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone. This be- lief is kmown everywhere.]
The range11956–11961 shares one printed hair statement and locality group, not six separate quotations. Its crazy outcome and editorial 'kmown everywhere' assertion remain unverified.
Entry 11957
11956-11961. If you throw a person's hair into running water, it will run that person crazy. [Norfolk 465:2; Richmond 335:6; Snow Hill 12:4; Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone; Wilmington 165:4+85; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone. This be- lief is kmown everywhere.]
The range11956–11961 shares one printed hair statement and locality group, not six separate quotations. Its crazy outcome and editorial 'kmown everywhere' assertion remain unverified.
Entry 11958
11956-11961. If you throw a person's hair into running water, it will run that person crazy. [Norfolk 465:2; Richmond 335:6; Snow Hill 12:4; Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone; Wilmington 165:4+85; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone. This be- lief is kmown everywhere.]
The range11956–11961 shares one printed hair statement and locality group, not six separate quotations. Its crazy outcome and editorial 'kmown everywhere' assertion remain unverified.
Entry 11959
11956-11961. If you throw a person's hair into running water, it will run that person crazy. [Norfolk 465:2; Richmond 335:6; Snow Hill 12:4; Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone; Wilmington 165:4+85; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone. This be- lief is kmown everywhere.]
The range11956–11961 shares one printed hair statement and locality group, not six separate quotations. Its crazy outcome and editorial 'kmown everywhere' assertion remain unverified.
Entry 11960
11956-11961. If you throw a person's hair into running water, it will run that person crazy. [Norfolk 465:2; Richmond 335:6; Snow Hill 12:4; Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone; Wilmington 165:4+85; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone. This be- lief is kmown everywhere.]
The range11956–11961 shares one printed hair statement and locality group, not six separate quotations. Its crazy outcome and editorial 'kmown everywhere' assertion remain unverified.
Entry 11961
11956-11961. If you throw a person's hair into running water, it will run that person crazy. [Norfolk 465:2; Richmond 335:6; Snow Hill 12:4; Ocean City, Md., by Ediphone; Wilmington 165:4+85; and Fredericksburg by Ediphone. This be- lief is kmown everywhere.]
The range11956–11961 shares one printed hair statement and locality group, not six separate quotations. Its crazy outcome and editorial 'kmown everywhere' assertion remain unverified.
Entry 12027
They use 9 strands of your hair, sprinkle salt and black pepper over, and bury: "you will soon go away, rambling and drifting around." [Mobile 875:5.]
The printed account names nine strands of hair; its quoted prediction of rambling and drifting remains an unverified result.
Source passage
continuous interview · Source-local attribution; no resolved person identity is asserted.
editorial speaker label; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
MIFFIN
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
This is about two good frien's. An' mah cousin sta'ted co'tin'
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
[started courting]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
this lady's husban'. An' this lady fin' out tuo ont's later tha' she
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
[cousin]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
wus co'tin"er husban' an' she had dis spell put on 'er. An de spell wus dese snakes an' some othah insex. Dat whut de doctor says.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
(How many years ago did this happen?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4493
Ooooh, Miz Carrie been dead - been about six yeahs now. No, it hasn't...yeah, about six.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see. Where did this happen, by the way?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
This happen in Savannah, Georgia.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Oh, in Savannah, Georgia.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
She came down
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
[to Florida]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
when she got sick. Dey sent 'er down here to see 'er brothah.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Den 'er brothah taken 'er from here to a root doctor.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Where did he go to, do you know?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
I don't know where dey went - some part o' Florida.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Some part of Florida.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Uh huh. An' this main
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
[man]
informant · Current interviewee; supporting excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
worked on 'er an' she went back 3 or 4 times an' dey got some snakes an' a lotta insex. An' 'er skin it turnt as black as de snake, as rough as de snake hide. An' all 'er hair, bald, completely bald.
editorial recording or production note; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
[Children can be heard in background.]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
An' den she got so desp'rate an' less den two mont's time she died.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
But dey did git dese snakes an' things out, 'cause her brothah brought de jars back wid dese things, yo' know, in it.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see. Then what happened to the woman who put this...)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Well, de woman taken sick two mont's later an' she died.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Now this is the woman who put this spell on this other woman?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Uh huh. She got sick an' died sho'tly aftah mah cousin Carrie died.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see. Well when the brother took this woman there - this woman was your cousin wasn't she?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Uh huh.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(When he took her there, did the root doctor say anything when she came in or what?)
context only; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
[
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
What some doctors say on first seeing you can be interesting: see CONSULTA- TION TECHNIQUE, pp.307-321, v.1.1
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Well she went back 2 or 3 times an' he had to keep workin' on 'er. Yo' know, to try to git it all out of 'er. But when they fin'ly didn' git it all out of 'er she had turnt so black an' it had poisoned her through an' through. An' so he tol' 'er he couldn't do her any mo' good an' she died sho'tly aftah.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see. And what did you say about her skin?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Her skin turnt as black an' rough, jis' like a snake. He said she had some- thin' like snakes, somethin' out of a poison snake into her system.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see.)
context only; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Who turned the spell back on the woman?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
My cousin
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
[husband of cousin, Carrie]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
did, he had it turnt back on 'er.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Did the same root doctor do that or...)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
No, not de same one, but de one she wus goin' to down here gave her de stuff dey put back on 'er up dere.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(Oh, I see.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
She had to go back to Savannah but after dey taken her back up to Savannah, dey brought 'er back down here an' she got so sick an' den dey took 'er from here back up to dere an' she died.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
But now de woman did confess dat she had 'er fixed by
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
[for]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
botherin' wid 'er husban' - bein' a good frien' to 'er now, she confessed dat.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
(I see.)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Yes, she did.
Nested source context: reported doctor treatment and statement · Vol. 5, p. 4494
Well she went back 2 or 3 times an' he had to keep workin' on 'er. Yo' know, to try to git it all out of 'er. But when they fin'ly didn' git it all out of 'er she had turnt so black an' it had poisoned her through an' through. An' so he tol' 'er he couldn't do her any mo' good an' she died sho'tly aftah.
locally coherent subpassage
The editorial comment on printed page 4494 has an unclear closing mark. The following answer belongs to the interviewee.
Miffin’s self-correction about six years remains unresolved.
Doctor diagnoses, cousin relationships, return of the spell and confession are narrated claims, not additional live voices or established facts.
The editorial CONSULTATION TECHNIQUE bracket retains its printed closing glyph.
Children heard in the background are recording context, not participating testimony.
Bounded passage retrieval, not complete corpus coverage or practitioner consensus.
Read the full source context: Vol. 5, p. 4492 · Vol. 5, p. 4493 · Vol. 5, p. 4494 · Vol. 5, p. 4495 · Vol. 5, p. 4496