Subject:Hog
Entries
Entry 229
He wanted this gurl to love 'im. She wouldn't love 'im - didn't kear anything about 'im atall. An' so it wure a camp meetin'. An' he bought a water- melon - a great big, nice watermelon - took out a nice slice of it. He put somepin on it [a love powder] - I don't know what, but he give it to this gurl. An' while he give it to this gurl - but his gurl wouldn't eat it. So some hogs out there - he threw it out to the hogs an' the hogs ete it. An' this hog come back an' followed this man all over the campin' aroun' until fin'lly he went home.
Entry 580
I remember when the town [Hampton, Virginia] first went dry and they didn't allow any bootlegging, so they said, and two or three people got caught with their whiskey and a stiff fine was put upon them. So thereafter there came a man from Newport News [Virginia] to Hampton, going from one place to another, saying he could prevent the law from coming to my house and that I could go and sell all the whiskey I wanted to and the law could not bother me. So I took it in my charge that I would try him. I had taken in my house fifty gallons of liquor and I began to distribute it from one place to the other. Sometimes I would look out and see the law coming and was wondering whether or not they were coming to my house. I can say with a clear conscience that the day I saw the man and paid him one hundred and fifty-three dollars and fifty-three cents for this instrument, and I can say and witness the fact, that the law has never been to my house since that occasion. He gave me an instrument and told me to hang it by my stove and leave it stay there, and whensoever I saw the law coming, to take it down and put it on the table and the law would turn around and go back. It kin'a resembled a hog bladder or something of that sort. When the law was coming in your direction, this instrument would puff out, and you could always look out your casement and see the law; and then you would take it down and put it on the table, and the law would turn around and go back. Then this bag would come down to its normal size.
Entry 1334
They tell me you can take a frog, catch a frog alive, and you put him into any kind of a pot or skillet and you parch it until it come to a dust, and you sprinkle this over the food - you know, just parch it until you can just make a dust out of it and put it in the food. And when they eat it it become live again in 'em. They do the same thing wit a snake or scorpion.
(How do they get those things out of them?)
How do you get 'em out? You takes sweet milk and something they call hog hoof - that's a powder you get it down here at the Cracker Jack Drug Store and you put it in there and you boils it. See, get fresh sweet milk. Well, you put it in there [the hog hoof powder] and you boils it up. Well, you drink that and you vomit it up.
Entry 3219
It was said that a woman took rosin an' take a hoof of a hog or any kind of cattle an' grind it up fine, an' rub it on that person would cause 'em to draw up so that they would connection an' they couldn't be wntied.
Entry 3763
Yo' kin go where a bo' hog has been.
(A boar hog and you use his urinate.)
No suh, git his, where his bowels move. An' she take dat an' use it about herself, an' den don't take no wash off or nuthin lak dat an' den be wit him. He cain't go wit no othah woman. [This rite could confuse a few readers, it momentarily confused me - the reason for my comment in the parenthesis. My informant says go where a bo' hog has been. To be certain that I understood, I immediately interpreted the words bo' hog as boar hog, not bored, a castrated one. Informant did not correct me. But looking back through the years, was I correct? She wants him to be bo'd except when with her. Perhaps a parallel has been or will be found.]
Entry 5560
Dey said dat chew could take a new penny-nail, new brand [brand-new] ten-penny nail, an' git some hog lard an' grease it an' yo' kin harn a person lak dat. Yo take it an' go bury it in de left foot, de hollah [hollow] part of de lef' foot. Stob it down an' talk tuh de nail an' tell it whut chew want done.
Entry 5564
Dat a lady taken de track, yo' see, de hollah [hollow] of both of de feet - dirt - an' put intuh some fresh hog lard, stuck nine wire nails, new wire nails in this lard. Den wraps it wit raw cotton thread an' cuts de shape of a shoe sole, a pair of 'em, an' put 'em tuh- gethah an' wraps 'em an' put it in ground. Now, dose things dey say stops de ones from walkin'.
(How do you mean stops them from walking?)
Dere knees cannot bend.
(She gets that sole out of your shoe or does she cut it out of something?)
Cut it out of a pasteboard. Now dat's whut de lady tole me herself. [Mobile, Ala., (704 0r 702), 960:8.]
Entry 10552
Gits a leather-wing bat to run people 'way from dey house - jes' lak de person nex' tuh me. Git de leather- wing [never leather-winged] bat an' git de ashes of him. Burn de whole body. Burn him up an' git his ashes, an' take an' place dat [ashes] down in dere wit some good fresh hog lard. Put it [mix- ture] down in dere path an' dat will move dem.
(That will run them. They have to walk over that?) Yes.
Entry 11380
Git a ole rusty file, understan, what somebody haven't used and you kin file that file. In other words dig a hole about two steps from the door- step and put a hog foot down in dere. An' then go about two steps further and you drive that file down about two inches under the dirt. An' of course when you drive it down in, using three words. Conseguently, it won't be long till that's gone. (What three words do you use?) Well, you drive that down, In the Name of the Father, Name of the Son and the Holy Ghost.
(I see. What will that do to them then?)
Well, they have to go. That will set them going.
(Make them move.)
Entry 12159
Dey put somepin in de shoes. It's a mixture of this ground up - they call it hog-hoof. Yes, dey grind it up lak meal an' dey mix soda an vinegah an' salt, but it's gotta be ground up very fine, jes' lak flaxseed meal, in a powder, so it won't be notice- able. An' jes' powder de shoe aroun' wit dat. Dat will keep him from goin' off. [A note of mine reads: this keeps the man from being hoodooed away by another woman.]
Entry 12160
De cow hoof or hog hoof - yeah, anything lak dat. Yeah, yo' burn dat. Yo' git dat cow hoof, hog hoof, whatsomevah what it is, an' yo' git chew some Hearts Cologne an' sprinkle ovah dat an' yo' burn dat. Burn it in yore house. While yo' burnin' dat, yo' hook yore han' [fingers] together an' yo' make yore wish. Dat's good wishes. Yeah yo' jes' lock yore fingers together. Dat's good wishes, dat's sompin good. Dere no harm in it. Ah haven't heard it, dere's no harm in dat.