Subject:Immobility
Entries
Entry 75
There was a fellow who was gambling. His name was Jacob Brown. A lot of people was gambling and this Jacob Brown made a terrible excitement by saying that if he would lost his last dollar, he would curse God and die. There was a tree that had been blown down and they all had this place where they were gambling right close to this tree. And after he had lost his last dollar he cursed God and he went to this tree to sit down. So he laid upon the log. And after laying there he could not be moved. And specta- tors went there to see him. And after viewing his body laying out on the tree, they pitied his condition and some tried to get him away, and they could in no ways move him. So one day three preachers went there to see what was the trouble and so they viewed the place and the man likewise; and they decided that they would cut this log [cut out the piece of tree upon which he was lying] in order that they could move the man away. And when they began to cut, the log began to bleed; so therefore, they couldn't move this man and so they left him. That man lived according to my understanding about two months and nobody could move him off of that log. [Old Point Comfort, Va., (27), Ed.; happened about 1906 in Georgia, so my informant says - actually, this immobility being a folk theme in many forms, see Arrestation in FACI,2ed., Pp. 817-18, etc.]
Entry 3099
[Pauline lived on an island 6 miles from Brunswick, Georgia, where I Was then working. What an opportunity to have explored that marvelous coastline as I had done at Beaufortl But I resisted the tempta- tion, refusing to break my rule - not to interview white doctors. I have two accounts of Pauline, both taken from broken interviews. In the first, we had been talking about Pauline - I am unable to find this - and then later I ask the following question.]
(Are there any white people that work here now?)
[Informant returns to Pauline.]
She lives on Bly's Island.
(Oh! She is still here. I don't want to talk to her but I just wondered.)
[Brunswick, Ga., (1201), C400:7 = 2017:7.]
iTne second account of Pauline comes from a man who has already given us in- formation about Doctor Buzzard - see 3071, p.893.] A white woman.
(What was her name?)
Miss Pauline.
(Where does she live?)
She lives heah at Bly's Island, a large island right cross tuh de rivah on de road to Jacksonville.
(Oh, just near Brunswick?)
Yes sir - six miles out chere [on the road] tuh Jacksonville. Well, mah mother done taken me out dere. Well, soon as ah got dere she set down an' talk tuh me. She asked me if ah evah worked any place an' ah tole her where ah worked. She asked me, "Did yo' have any enemies round dere?" Ah said, one woman wus a cook dere an' she wanted concernin' me tuh have somepin tuh do wit her - me an' her had tuh make beds in dis, yo' know, to dis home ever' mawnin' together. Ah wouldn't say nuthin to her. She said ah tried tuh play cute. She de one dat put down de stuff at de back gate of dis white tourist home where we were workin', an' ah step on it wit mah right fut gettin' ovah de fence. She done put it right whar ah got ovah de fence at ever' mawnin'. Me an' her wus de first ones dere. So after she seen me - see, ah tried to step on mah left fut, if it done kilt me. See, after two yeahs an' a half ah wus dried up to 135 pounds. She [Pauline] tole mama tuh let me come dere an' she would give me medicine. She taken sulphur, turpentine an' some kinda cocklespur weed - cocklebur weed - taken de cocklebur weed an' made a medicine out of it. [Three ingredients.] So she made a medicine an' ah started to taken dat cocklebur weeds an' sulphur an' turpentine. An' tole me tuh wear three pieces of Irish potatoes - white potatoes in each one of my shoes. So after dey figured - it came on to 'fect mah othah fut an' mah hips, yo' see, an' ah wus dead from heah down [demonstrates].
(From your hips down.)
Yeah, from de hips down. So after dat ah wore de Irish potato an' thing. an' ah begin tuh git bettah. So she tole me not tuh drink no whiskey. So ah stop off from drinkin' some whiskey an' got tuh walkin' an' ah put down de crutches. Yo' know, ah could walk wit de walkin' cane. Ah put down de crutches. So ah begin tuh drink whiskey at night wit de othah boys roun' heah. So dat throw me agin. Dey had tuh take me dere agin. She tole me ah had been drinkin'. Well, when ah got dere dat time, it had done came up into mah shoulders heah - see [demonstrates], it had me, ah'm daid in mah left ahrm - come up mah left side. So she had tuh work fast. Dey had tuh keep me out dere tuh her house fo' three days. So we had tuh pay her wit three pieces of silver money - ah had tuh find three silver dollahs somewhere. She charge only three dollahs - don't care how big de case wus - had tuh pay her wit three silver pieces of money. That concernin' de three links of chain also.
(Of Mary - that Mary wore around her neck?)
["Dat concerning de three linked chain dat Mary wore pertaining tuh de Bible" - from his interview in INTERVIEWS.] Yes sir, dat [represents] three silver dollahs dat ah had tuh pay her wit. De firs' time paid her wit a silver dollah, an' after ah went three times, had tuh pay her de three silver dollahs. So dat's de whole case of it, until ah taken up dis last bottle of medicine. Ah didn't drink any mo' an' dey said ah wus cured of it. Den ah had a fren'. He wus poison by a girl on a piece of cake. But he wus crowin' lak a rooster - jumpin' up an' down. An' ah tole him concernin' dis same lady - tole his mothah. An' she taken him out dere an' she pay her with three silver piece of money - carried him three times. See, each time it wus a dollah. When she carried him de last time, dat's when she gave him some kinda medicine an' out of his throat came a frog, little small wiggle-tail, little small snake. [Three things came out of his throat.]
Entry 215
I'll tell you what I have seen - twenty-eight years ago [1908] a cat behind a young woman and the young woman was kin'a intoxicated. There were two sisters. They lived together. One sister had gone out to a party and the other one was all ready to go out. And this one, that hadd't gone yet, waited for her sister to come in. She waited until eleven o'clock. And it was in the summertime. So she said, "Mrs. Duke, will you take my key." - I said, "Yes' - "to give to my sister when she comes, because I have been waiting for her. She hasn't got here yet." So I said "Very well, sure, I'll do that for you." I took the key. And her sister came in about one o'clock at nighttime and was rapping on her sister's door. I was in bed so I holler to her and say, "Emma, '' I said, "I have your key, your sister is out." She said, "Very well." I got right up and opened my door and passed her the key. Meantime, the cat got in behind her. I was trying to move back. I couldn't move [the reason is given later]. She was trying to unlock the door but couldn't. She had a little too much drink in her. I said, "Emma, come on in my house." She said, "No, I am going on in home. The door is a little hard to unlock." She unlocked it and went in. And she said, "Cordelia, there's a cat over here. Is it your cat?" I said, "No, not my cat." She said, "Yes." I said, "No, Emma," like that. I said, "Well, come on in my place." She said, "No, no, I can't do that." So in the meantime she says, "Here goes the cat. It's going out." But I am a little ahead of my story. During the time she was unlocking to get in, this cat got very tired awaiting. And it turned three different colors while she was trying to get in; one was yellow, the other was grey, the other was black - black and white. It didn't worry me about being a spirit. What came over me, I couldn't move. I said, "Couldn't it be the moonshine" - it was nighttime - looking for the moon to see if it was reflecting on the cat. Had it of been the moon I wouldn't have been frightened. After I couldn't get a sight of the moon and couldn't move, I was terribly frightened. And I never moved, couldn't move, until she unlocked the door and the cat went in behind her. Then I went and got into my bed. This was on 115th Street [New York City] where I used to live. I never had the nerve to ask her; but one thing I do know, she never came to her sister's any more. In six months she never came to her sister's house. She stayed around other people's houses further downtown. I said to her sister about the cat, "There's a meaning to that." Her sister said, "Don't mind that. That's only the devil after Emma." That was one sister speaking about the other. I knew is must have been a token. I asked a minister. The minister said, "That cat was the devil shown to you because Emma has all the faith in the world in you. She is not a Christian. It was shown to you for you talk to her because she has lots of faith in you." Six months after that she died.
Entry 1208
A woman live out heah - she out heah now. She lived out to - by de Fairfax[?]. Well, she wus heah [in town] an' somebody put somepin down to her do'step an' she stepped ovah it an' dis laig here drawed up. An' hit's a man lived out heah from Sappville[?], Uncle Tom Williams, he brought some devil's- shoestring an' he tole us about how he did it. An' he tied it round dis laig an' tied a piece round her wase [waist] an' one round her ahm [arm], an' she got so she could walk. An' de doctors say she would nevah walk no mo'. An' he took dat devil's-shoestring an' wrapped it an' twist it, put round dere - put three pieces round her. [The magic three.] Dat laig straightened out an' she went to walkin' agin.
Entry 2306
Yo' take a snail now. Regardless to how a person is, dey tell me if a person is fast an' as pert as dey wants tuh be, yo' kin take a snail. Yo' kin take a snail an' take 'im an' rub it on anything - yo' kin rub it on corn dat be on yo' feet or a bunion or anything. If you do dat it will care [carry] it off.
(What about rubbing that snail on a person that is fast?)
Well, yo' take it an' yo' rub it on a person dat's fast, jes' rub it nine times on a person. It'll git dem to de place where he jes' kin mope along - he can't go, he jes' be draggin'. People might say, "Well, ah wonder what ails So- an'-so," say, "he used to be jes' as fast, an' now he can't hardly git along." Well, dey don't know. It's someone dey done got a snail on him - dat's whut chew cail puttin' a snail on him.
Entry 510
I have been told that if you want to stop a hag when she comes to your house, you will take a fork and stick it in a chair, in [under] the bottom of a chair. And if you believe this party is a hag, then you will make you a big fire and you take this chair and set it close to the fire, and then you take a broom and put it at [across] the door, and then you ask this party to sit down. She will sit in this chair the fork is sticking in. Then you make a hot fire and they can't move. She will keep twisting. And before you release them, you take the broom up across the threshold before you remove the fork, and they can't go otherwise until you move this. And after you move that broom and the fork they will certainly go.
Entry 1127
[In the two preceding beliefs blacksnake root was a protection; here it is a crippling poison, which reminds us again that everything depends upon intention.1 My mother's sister was fixed like that. This guy went out in de woods and he got some blacksnake root, and he went and killed a rattlesnake and he got some blood off it and he cut off de rattlesnake's head, and buried it underneath the doorstep and de next morning when she step out - you know, she had to step right over it, her foot fastened up in her back and she still go about in dat position.
(It still fastened in her back?)
It still fastened in de back and she walk on crutches. (He got the rattlesnake and caught the blood and cut it up with this black- snake root.) With the blacksnake root and buried it under de steps. De first person that steps over that, that's the one goin' get it, see. [The first person that steps over that is sometimes heard, but it violates the widely accepted safety rule of It Warn't Put There For You, No. 653, p.220.]
Entry 4367
Well, ah've seen 'em. Yo' mean whut dey takes tuh lock a person up? Well, dey say yo' takes some of dat pass dey leave an' yo' fasten dat airtight, anywhere jes' so it airtight - jes' as tight as yo' kin git it. An' if yo' don' let dat catch no air atall, dey say dat'll lock yo' - say dat'll fasten yo' up. (You mean a person's water?) No, no, some of de othah. Yeah, some of dey passin'.
Entry 5049
Oh, yes sir, dey could take yore socks. Dey could take yore socks an' git a augah, an' carry it in de woods an' bore a hole intuh a tree, an' stick it [socks] in dat hole an' stop it up airtight, see. Well, yuh wouldn't be no mo' good in yore limbs de balance of yore days.
(I see, you would be sort of a cripple.)
[The author is either rebuked or considered naive:]
YUH WOULDN'T BE SORTA CRIPPLE, YUH WILL BE CRIPPLE - likely tuh be Paralyzed, yuh cain't do nuthin.
Entry 27
Take your handwritin' - see, de handwritin' where it was writ wit ink or lead. Dey take it and soak it in water and get dat ink, get dat ink off it from your handwritin'. Den dey will take dat water and boil it. See. Den take dat water and pour it out gradually - don't pour dat all at one time, fes' kinda sprinkle it along. When dat water pour out chew begin tuh feel bad - yo' hand begin to feel nervous up thru yo' arms and finally, if you don't know what to do, yo' become paralyzed in your right hand.
Entry 231
Now I know a woman down here in Caroline, she was called on a Sunday morning to come over there to the farm. They had a horse very bad off. She discovered where they had planted a bottle under this door, the door of the stable, and they got this horse so he couldn't get up. She removed it and the horse got all right. [Fredericksburg, Va., (?), Ed.; Caroline Co., Va.,1934; a rare example in my Negro folklore of an animal itself being bewitched.]
Entry 751
My grandmother had a very dear friend, it was a woman, and she came to see her. Sitting, talking, while she Was doing her sewing, she began to spit around on the floor. The conversation continued on. And when she got ready to go, my grandmother started to rise to go with her, and she entreated her to sit still and not to get up. She insisted on her setting down and so she didn't get up. And after she had gone quite awhile, when she started to get up she couldn't even move. She remained that way for a long while. They worked on her so she could get up, but she never did straighten up. [Fredericksburg, Va., (74), Ed.; in Orange Co., Va.,1886.]
Entry 918
Dere was a young girl one time. Dey was workin' seems like on a big strawburry faum [farm and it was her great ambition to make fun of everybody - you see, to make game of everybody. So, dere was an ole man, you understand, dere - he was kinda broke up and cripple same as me, you understand. So this ole fellah come out and try to pick burries, and she clapt her hands and laff at him every morning he come out, chew understand. So he tole her one morning, he says, "Daughter, let me tell you somepin, that laffin' is gon'a cause you trouble one of these days." So she laft and clapt her hands, told her mother about it - her mother, she laft. So, this evening when dey all got through pickin' burries, come in, why this ole man, when dey all went to wash up of the evening, you understand, this ole man set right down and waited until everybody washed up. She was the last one washed. When she wash she was always kinda countrary, you know, she didn't poah water like de rest of dem [let someone pour water over her hands], she had to wash in a basin. The ole man gits up, you understand, and goes and takes dat water, goes in de house, puts dat in a little can and sets it on de stove, sets back and began singin' a little, some kin'a little piece over this while it was - after it got to boilin', you know, steam comin' out, he sings a little piece [see Singing in Index]. After she got to steamin' right good, he got to singin', you understand, taken de can off and sit it under his baid. Next morning dey called 'em all up you understand fer to go to work. Every- body come up but de girl. Dey call this girl. She tole dem she can't git up. She says, "Got no use of my limbs." "What's de matter?" "I have no use of my limbs. I can't move over." She tried dat and she couldn't move over. Dey sent fer de doctor. De doctor came. He shuck his haid, "It was the strangest case I ever seen." He done everything he knowed. Twas another lady there, she begin talkin', she says, "Don't chew know one thing," she says, "I told joo go laffin' at dat ole man," she says, "I told joo go laffin' at dat ole man. Dat ole man's fixed joo." Well, she didn't believe in nobody fixin' yo', yo' understand. Her mother said, "No, dey ain't nothin' like dat; de girl jes' caught a coal [cold]." She says, "You'd better go to work and see about it," she says, "somebody - dat ole man fixed her," she says. "He told her two or three times about her laffin' at him, and she would keep on laffin', '' she says. So, it kept on a week or so. But the girl didn't git no worse and didn't git no better. So dey kep' sendin' fer the doctor. And the doctor didn't do her no good, so dey sent fer an ole gentlemun by de name of Ole Uncle Ben Mackey. He was suppose to be a wizard. Ole Uncle Ben Mackey, he comes you understand and looks at her. "Uh huh! I know what's de matter." So now, dey knowed Ole Uncle Ben hadn't been there. "Uh huh! I know what's de matter." They says, "What's de matter?" He says, "Have you got two dollahs and a half?" Her mother says, "Yes, I've got two dollahs and a half." He says, "Gimme two dollahs and a half." So she give him two dollahs and a half. He goes and knocks on the ole gentlemun's shanty doah. De ole gentlemun comes to de doah. He say, "You take dat can of water from under yoah baid," he says, "and poah it out," he says. "Remember, '' he says, "this is Uncle Ben Mackey." Well, I guess the ole man kinda knowed Uncle Ben, you under- stand. He didn't have no talk. He went and throwed dat out. No sooner 'an he throwed de water out, in about twenty minutes de girl got up, walked aroun' jes' like she was at first. [Snow Hill, Md., (?), 8:1; near Washington, D. C.,1901, but it sounds more like a folktale.]
Entry 944
They got another thing to do. They'll come to your home - they done my brother that - my brother's bin dead nine er ten years. Comes to your home and knocks on door, "Hey, So-and-So. How you? Who you?" Have a bottle in hand and you got de stopper. As you call my name Carrie [I answer] "Huh?" You got me.
(What is your name?) [Here is a question I never asked at a later date.]
Carrie Clark.
(Well, after they have got you, what do they do then?)
Take dis bottle and cover it up here and you keeps it dere. Dey kin keep you in de house or underneath de house, but you'll be there - can nevah travel - or save a dime - an' perish - an' yo' mind be goin' jes' like that [demonstrates - back-and-forth or up-and-down]. That de truth, though. Dey had my brother fixed that way. On de moon sometime he go, on de young moon, and we'd have to hunt him. Dey had him stopped up in a bottle.
Entry 966
I was sitting to my machine sewing when I taken sick in this arm and in the spine of my back; felt just like-a chill begin to run over me. And from there my heart begin to beat too fast and I thought once or twice that I might just had a dumb chill when it first struck me. And my mind just lead me to get up and I'd gotten up from my machine and I walks to my front porch and I sits down. And then another spirit told me to pray and I prayed. And whilst I was doing that I walked on a ways and I come back and had taken some medicine. From there on I rang-ed [rang = telephoned] up my brother that I thought that I had a stroke or was taking one from the way I was and he came to me. And from there they prevailed with me to go to someone that knowed a little more than I did. And they [the doctor] told me how come that I had it; that my [sewing] machine was dressed on this side. [For another bewitched sewing machine, see FACI,2ed., No.16337, p.875, white person.] And the chair that I setting in, it had - liquid was poured in it and from there I lost the use of this arm, had no use for it. And when I'd stand up my heart would just go so that I had to lie down. But it wasn't but one thing cured me and that was that ammonia and cooking soda. And then they told me how come I to get it. I got it through a piece of meat and by my machine was dressed and chair. And the minute that I begin tc take it and begin to read the Bible, it begin to leave me.
(You did what?)
I read the 7th Chapter, Psalms of David, in the morning and the 7th and 8th of Psalms, I read it in the afternoon, and before noon I'd taken that teaspoon of soda and ammonia. You don't drap the medicine, cause when the Bible speaks of witchcraft you shouldn't drap it; you should pour a certain amount instead of drapping it, cause if you drap it, it'll do you just as much harm if you hadn't taken it. You pour it.
[Whether to drop or pour medicine - not in the Bible so far as I know.]
(Well, how do you pour it then?)
Just hold it and pour it - a certain amount as you think you should take into the glass, instead of drapping it. Well, that's what I'd taken and then from there on I begin to rub this arm with alcohol to help to gain the strength back and by reading the Psalms of David - just taking it right back to the one who put it on me. (Did you also take this medicine in the afternoon when you read this chapter in the afternoon?) I'd taken the medicine in the morning and read the chapter right along with it
(You didn't take any medicine in the afternoon?)
No, just in the morning.
(Once a day. I see.)
Entry 1604
An' right in mah laig heah - ah couldn't move an' ah couldn't walk but mah sistah would bring whut ah'd tell her tuh me. Ah tole her, ah said, "Now yo' bring me a basin an' when ah urinate," ah said, "ketch dat fo' me." See, she Saved it twice, that made enough you know tuh bathe wit yo' see. An' then ah had her tuh bring me some salt an' some saltpeter. Den ah sent her tuh de drug sto' an' bought me some John de Conker an' ah had her tuh bathe me from heah out to de end of mah toes on both laigs. Ah jis' couldn't walk.
(What did you do with that John the Conker?)
Ah kept it roun' in mah pocket - jis' keep it in yore pocket.
(Why did she bathe you down that way?)
[Informant does not understand my question, I do not reask it. I wanted her to answer, "That made the cunjure go out through my toes."] She bathe me down dat way. Yo' know that cured it. Yo' see, this saltpeter an' this chamber lye an' table salt, it'll cure it. An' aftah she bathe me three times in dat ah got so ah could stretch out mah laigs an' jis' kept on an' kept on an' fin'lly till ah got up from bed an' went tuh walkin'. An' dat's whut cured me.
Entry 5169
Take a pair of shoes dat yo' have worn an' yo' kin take dose shoes an' carry dose shoes tuh yore house - carry 'em tuh yore house. Den aftah yo' carry dose shoes tuh yore house, turn 'em ovah on dey face an' den go out in a cow stall somewheres an' git chew some of evahy kin'a manure yo' kin pick up from diff'ren' animals, all kin'a manure yo' kin pick up, an' put in dat shoe. An' dat will drive yo' jis' as crazy as a bedbug. (That is, if you want to harm me, you would get my old shoes and take them to your house to dress them?) Yes.
(Then what do you do with the shoes after you put that stuff in them?)
Oh! Yo' take de shoes an' carry 'em away an' bury 'em.
(What would that do to me then?)
Dat would jis' fix yo' up so yo' couldn't walk or do nuthin - paralyze yo'.
Entry 5443
Jis' lak a person walkin' in dey foot track, dey pick up de whole track an' put it in a bottle an' bury it in de cemetery. An' dey say, as long as hit stay dat way, dat person can't walk a step:
(Either track or both of them?)
Jes' from de right foot.
Entry 5548
[They would] tie - dey'd make nine knots in dat foot track. (How could they make nine knots in that track?) Well, dey'd measure it.
(Oh, they'd measure it. I see.)
Yo' have to measure it. Yo' make nine knots.
(In that string?)
In dat string, an' yo' take dat string an' yo' tie it tight an' bury it. Yo' see? An' yo' bury it in any yard way in de back undah of a tree. Dat would make dem person leg draw up.
(Make the leg draw up?)
Draw up.
(I see.)
Yeah. (Now, would you measure either one of those tracks, measure either one of them?) Yeah, it would have to be one of 'em, de lef'. [New Orleans, La., (798) 1113:1.]
Entry 5641
Ah heard 'em say yo' could take some dirt out right in de bottom, right in de palm of de lef' feet, choo know. Take it an' put it in a bag an' fix yo' so yo' couldn't walk. Yo' jis' weah it in de bottom of yo' shoe.
Entry 5712
Well, dey kin take yo' foot track an' dey kin put it in a box.
(Which foot track do they take, either one?)
Take eithah one of 'em an' put it in a box, an' shet yo' foot track up in dat box an' carry yo' foot track away, an' bury it in some great big ole wood in some tree an' let it stay dere. An' yo'll git tuh de place where yo' can't walk. Yo'll nevah have no mo' good atall, yo' won' be no good tuh yo'self. Paralyze yo', yo' can't walk atall.
Entry 6495
Well, dey take yo' toenails or eithah yo' fingahnails an' go out tuh a green tree an' has yo' augah wit ja [with you]. Yo' bores yo' a little hole in- tuh dat tree, an' carry yo' hammah 'long witja, an' drive it up in dat tree as fur as yo' kin git it. An dat will cause a stroke tuh jump on yo' from dat. See? An' yo' be lame fo'evah an' yo' wouldn't know whut happened tuh yo'. Yo' enemies done dressed yo' up, done got chure fingahnails an' toenails drove intuh a tree fo' de balance yo' days, an' yo' cain't nevah trace it up findin' it out.
Entry 6597
[As a diversion from the usual accounts of live things in you, I begin this margin title, about live snakes in a person, with a snake sensitive to time and psychology. For similar material in Hoodoo, and else- where in Hoodoo. Time without the psychology is a very important element in hoodoo.l Dis girl, a man fixed 'er, an' he had sompin jis' about dis big aroun', long lak a snake, an' it worked all de way roun' in 'er body. An' she said at night when she'd know dat dis man wanted tuh see 'er real bad, dat she had tuh go. Say dat snake would move roun' an' roun' 'er until [it] come all up aroun' dere [where?]. Yo' know, yo' could natchly [naturally] see it when it wuz movin'. An' it stayed in 'er back. Yo' know, move up in de bottom of 'er back dere, anl she could git rested. She couldn't do nuthin. An' DE MINUTE SHE WALKED IN DE DO' TUH 'IM, SHE SAY IT STOPPED MOVIN'.
(He put the snake in her to make her come to him.)
An' dey tryin' tuh find out how he put dat snake in her. Ah dunno [I do not know].
Entry 7164
Take dat an' put 'em undahneat' chore house in de midnight, but yo got'a do dat on de young moon. An' take one of dem headbo'ds an' bring 'em an' put 'em, right jis' lak it wus yore bed here, an' shove 'em undahneat' dere. If yo' wanted tuh git up in de maw- nin' on time, YO' WOULD SLEEP AN' SLEEP UNLESSEN SOMEBODY WOULD WAKE YO'. Yo' can't - yo' wanta git up but choo can't. Yo' go back tuh sleep.
Entry 7501
Jes' take of dat dirt, yo' know graveyard, an' a frog. Yo' lay 'im on his back in dat dirt an' yo' put some weight on 'im an' cover 'im an' let 'im stay dere, so he cain't move no ways. Well, he's stay dere - see, he'll smothah in dat. Well, he's comin' back an' he'll find out.
(Well, where are you going to put this frog?)
Undah de steps. Yo' put dat weight ovah 'im, lay 'im on 'is back. (What do you do this for? For what purpose?) Tuh make him come back, de murderer.
Entry 7947
Dey take yore shoes an' measure yore shoes. Take a needle, a needle dat's been sewed through a corpse - see, when yo' make a shroud an' dey [I inter- rupt]. (Use a needle that has been used in making a shroud?) Make de shroud tuh bury some- one, yes. Take dat needle an' put it through yore shoes, through de eyeholes yore shoes - see, three times. Den take dat needle an' carry it home an' stick it on de east side, an' yo'll stay dere wit 'em. Yo' cain't go nowhere. Yo' stay right dere at home an' be subject tuh dem in evahthing dey want.
(What about measuring the foot? Do they measure the shoe first?)
Dey measure de shoe first, den put dis needle through de eyehole three times. (Do they do anything with the measurement of that shoe? After they take the measurement of the shoe?) De measurement of dat shoe dey bury dat. Dey bury it undah de do'step.
Entry 7954
I've heard them say that they can take coffin nails and then take an individual's, some parts of his clothes, and go way out in the forest somewhere where the sun shines on a tree and nail that, use those nails in driving, and maybe some un- derwear or coat or something or a part of a coat, on that tree and fix it so it can't fall off. And as long as it stays there, on every change of the moon the individual will weaken down, and then finally he gits so he can't have any activity of his limbs atall.
Entry 4325
Yuh could take a person's urine an' bo' a hole in de 'simmon tree, an' when yo' bo' it in dere, bo' a hole an' put it in dere an' stop it up, an' dey can't do anythin'.
(It must be a persimmon tree?)
A persimmon tree or any kin'a hard tree.
Entry 4395
(What do you say they do in that case?)
Well, jis' like a person's bowels want tuh move, yuh know, an' if dey cain't git intuh a toilet nowhere so dere bowels will move, an' dey happen tuh, yuh know, do it anywhere where a person kin git it. Well, yuh takes dat an' yuh puts it in a powdah can, a 'east [yeast] powdah can. An' yuh fastens it up tight, an' yuh puts it in a dark place an' yuh let it stay in dere. Now, yuh see like yuh bowels is supposed tuh move like three times a day. Well, yuh kin take diff'ren' thin's an' make yuh bowels move. Well, dey cain't move becuz some - ah'm got yuh stuff fastened up an' dat gives yuh locked bowels. An' in- stead of yuh bowels goin' down, hit comes up through yuh mouth. Ah've seen a man died like dat.
(I see. Yuh take this can and put it in a dark place. All you have to do?)
Uh huh, dat's all yuh have tuh do.
Entry 4601
She kin take dat bow an' she kin run yuh crazy wit it, or eithah make yuh love 'er. She kin take dat bow an' go uptown an' git 'er a bottle of Black Heart Cologne [this may be only time mentioned] an' she takes it an' drops about nine drops on dat, an' take it an' place it undah de middle of 'er bed [making a quincunx], right on de springs. Well, yuh have tuh stay dere. Yuh can't go nowhere. Yuh have tuh stay right dere. [This is merely Hearts Cologne with a black heart on the label, stamped solid black or hand drawn with a single line; not a heart-shaped bottle of black glass. The term is rare.]