Subject:Lard
Entries
Entry 1763
Dey say yo' take a buzzard an' yo' kill him an' yo' bury him an' yo' let him stay buried three days. Then yo' take him up an' yo'll cook him down to lard. Jes' cook him an' jes' take his own lard, an' then yo' put that in a box. That's fo' gamblin'. That's a gamblin' hand.
(What do you do with that lard?)
Yo' take that lard an' yo' jes' mix it up - see, jes' mix it all up. Yo' don't have tuh put anything in it. Jes' mix it up an' put it in a box an' dat's tuh use fo' gamblin' - fast luck.
(How do you use it?)
Jes' rub it on yore left han' lak dat, an' then from yore left han' go ovah to yore right han' lak that. See [demonstrates], rub up this way - rub up all de time. (Rub up on the hands.) [For upward rite, see No. 1074, p.405.]
reported fast luck for gambling. No demonstrated success These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Entry 3783
Wal, if yo' run aroun' wit a woman an' yore wife didn't want chew to go out dere, she kin take, when yo' have communication wit chure wife, she kin jis' only go git a dish towel an' wipe yo' wit it. Yo' can't go wit no othah woman but 'er. (Is there any way I can get rid of that?) Yes sir. Wal, yo'd have to go to work an' git chew some Hearts Cologne, an' some dis powdah called love powdah, an' some pure olive oil, an' dis heah pure lard, an' mix it togethah an' jis' saturate yoreself. An' yo'll come to where yo' kin go out; but not dat [if you don't do that], yo'll nevah will bothah wit no othah woman but dat one. Evah time yo' start to covah 'er, why yo'll fall.
Entry 5308
She could take his track an' she'd care [carry] it - take his track an' she'd care it tuh a ants bed, see. She'd ketch it in de middle, in de mid- dle of de foot, see. Jes' one track, yo' right foot. Dey would take it an' take jes' dat much sand out frum [from] undah his feet [demonstrates]. (Just a pinch.) She would take it an' care it an' put it in an ants bed, an' put some lard wit it an' place it intuh dat ants bed an' leave it dere. An' de mo' dem ants would stir it up, de mo' he'd go. He'd leave town.
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 6695
Yo' kin take saltpetah an' yo' kin take whut chew calls, de medicine dey calls aloes, an' yo' put dat tuhgethah in some salts [salt] an' some warm watah. An' yo' kin take a good bath all ovah with dat stuff, make enough of it tuh give yo' a good bath. Bath [not bathe] yo'self all ovah. Den yo' kin take anothah, dis same medi- cine an' boil it, an' drink it. Drink it jes' as hot as yo' kin at night an' dat kills whutsomevah germ is in yo'. An' den aftah doin' dat, den yo' git chew a bottle of sweet milk an' a cup of lard an' lemme see - an' a teaspoon of salt- petah an' stir it all. Jes' stir it all up tuhgethah an' yo' drink dat. An' den five minutes aftah dat, if yo' hurt [hoodooed] yo'll throw it up. De white stuff, 'xactly [exactly] whut yo' done eat, yo' know, de milk will come back firs' lak dat. Den aftah dat it comes green, whole lotta green stuff vill come out of yo' system 'cuz yo' done vomit it up.
(What is that green stuff?)
Dat's dat poison dat is put down in yore stomic, dat's tyin' yo' up.
Entry 6830
Red peppah, hot red peppah an' chamber lye an' bathe yo' laig wit it an' that would give yo' ease. Ah have tried that mahself. (If somebody has put something down for you to walk over.) Yes sir, a fortuneteller tole me someone had put sompin down fo' me to walk ovah. [Here, either while'recording ma- chine is stopped or cylinder is changed, I ask for the whole story.] Well, mah laig kep' hurtin' me an' someone come along an' tole me, say, "Miss Carter," say, "ah knows a good man 'cross town. If yo' would go, he would tell yo' sompin tuh relieve yo' of dat pain in yore knee." It nevah would swell but it jis' hurt all de time. So ah went ovah dere an' he tole me someone had hurt me in mah knee. An' he got me some green moss an' tole me tuh boil dat an' bathe in de watah hot. Put some table salt in it. An' aftah dat, den rub it wit some of dis red peppah an' dis saltpetah mixed tuhgethah. Make a salve. Put some lard wit it or some oil or sompin an' make a salve an' rub wit dat, an' hit would relieve me. An' ah did dat an' it relieved me. An' a li'le latah it commence tuh hurtin' ag'in. Well, ah went tuh anothah lady an' she tole me - least she didn't tell me but she fixed de poultice huh- self; Brown Mule chewin' 'bacca an' earth worms whut chew dig up out de ground. An' she stewed it up tuhgethah an' give me dat tuh put some meal wit it, an' make a hot poultice an' put on mah knee. An' dat relieved me.
(That was the end of that?)
Yes sir, an' mah knee got bettah.
Entry 6934
(How do you do that, now?) Take a dime, one thin dime, an' file it in sweet milk an' drink it, an' take fresh lard an' drink down, an' dat poison-a come up. Pull dat poison up.
Entry 6977
Well, now, yo' kin take lard an' vinegah an' sugah an' kill any poison in de worl'. Yo' undahstan' me, if yo' use it right away. Yo' undahstan' me, yo' kin take lard an' sugar an' mix it tuhgethah, yo' undah- stan' me, in a quart bottle. Lard, vinegar an' sugah. An' mix it in a quart bottle. If it's right den, yo' undahstan', an' take a tablespoonfulla it three time a day. An' dat'll stop any poison in de worl'.
(That's what you do [use] when people come to you?)
Sure.
Entry 9696
One of the greatest things for luck, you get a little sulphur an' a little lard an' a little salt, an' put that together an' wear that in a bag around your neck. That will keep all hoodoos, all cunjures and all evils away from you.
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 10560
Live things? Why sure, sure. You go to work and get you a bat.
(A bat that flies around?)
Yeah, take a bat, he got live things in him. You get you a bat - course it's bad person and things. You take that bat and you take it and stew him down with fresh lard. Stew it down and grease with it. You grease and why them things will leave, just like any kind of live things crawling. You feel somepin inside of you, you catch that in your nightgown. It [bat salve] brings 'em out.
(That brings these live things out.)
Yeah, it'll bring it out. [Since a bat is supposed to carry bedbugs, live and perhaps other things, its salve should bring out all crawling things, things perhaps caused by witchcraft.]
Entry 10642
Left-foot track, mix with sugar and lard, put in red ants bed; when they remove all that, "you'll wander about jes' like de ants."
[Xobile, 841:2.]
Entry 10764
It's only certain days dat de bluestone, dat it will do ceruln work. Now, heah's de bluestone heah [demonstrates], den ah put in some lard an' chunk it [stir it] roun'. An' ah wants yo' gimme some work. Ah dip mah han' [demonstrates] in an' ah p'int [demonstrates] an' make a wish dat ah wants tuh work at S0- an'-so's house. Well, 'cos' God's Name gotta be mention, yo' see. Yo' p'int tuh dat place dere. An' yo'll shore git somepin tuh do.
(In what direction did you point?)
Dat way, at de house, right befo' yo' dat way.
(At the boss's house?)
Jes' lak, down roun' heah tuh dat church dat's where yo' goin', yo' goin' stay heah an' p'int. Stay right heah an' p'int.
(You simply pointed toward the boss's house or business?)
Yes.
Entry 12203
Now, listen, she kin take nine horseshoe nails, some sulphur and lard, put those nails in de lard and sulphur at six 'clock in de morning. And then leave 'em there until six 'clock in de evening, standing at chure do' dere, an' call it. Put dem nails up on top yore door like that [demonstrates]. (Lay them along the ledge at the top of the door?) Yes, den you lay them up there and then you call him three times by his name. Jes' like you'd say, "Sam! Sam! Sam! Come heah!" And he would come. Ah don't care where he's at, he'll come.
Entry 13002
They have live things in them, you kin take a cupful of lard, and a cupful of sulphur, and you take a cupful of salt. And you puts all of that to about a quart of water and let it boil. And you take a silver [bow or beau or bull] dollar. (A silver what?) A silver dollah, a bow dollah. (A bow dollar?) They call 'em bow dollah, them silvah dollahs, one of them big round dollahs. They don't use 'em very much now [1938]. Well, you let that boil. Yo' get a [cove] oyster can [these were not the recent canned oysters kept on ice] and you let that dollah boil real good. You boil it for about a hour in that water. And you take that water, put it with this other ingredients, this cupful of lard and everything. And I mean that will certainly pass from you. You let 'em drink that fuh 9 mornings, see. Give 'em a cupful and them live things will pass. That'll kill it. An' then you take - behind that give 'em a bath, behind that a bath of saltpeter and bluestone and sulphur.
Entry 13255
You take sulphur, they tell me and mix it together in pure lard and rub with it. You kin move it [poison or cunjure] 股中 away. Sulphur and pure lard, cream it together and rub with it. They say that choo kin get it out choo by that. And [in addition] you take so much sulphur, don' choo understand, with brown sugar. You take it [inwardly]. Well, that purges you, you know, and git all dat bad stuff out.
Entry 1181
Dey use chicken feathers, dey say to take spells off people - dappled. dese speckled feathers. Yo' take 'em an' yo' put 'em in a pot or a pan an' yo' fry 'em down to a medicine lak, an' if dere anybody dat swole up or root worked or somethin' lak dat, yo' bathe 'em down with that. Yo' cook dat [feathers] down in pure lard.
Entry 1198
Well, ah've heard of 'em gittin' de blood of a snake, a poison snake, an' put it into whiskey an' give a person an' that will grow snakes in them, so ah've heard. When the snakes grow in a person, they kin take sweet milk an' mix it with the grease, which would be lard or somethin' - make a salve an' grease the intestines wit dat chew know, with this grease an' it will draw the snakes because milk will draw a snake, an' it will draw dem from 'em.
(What do you mean grease the intestines?)
Ah don't mean de intestines, ah mean de rectum.
(And the snake would come out that way?)
He come tuh git dat milk - vo' see, he git de scent of dat milk an' he'll gradually git so far he has tuh come on out.
Entry 2218
Git de dust of dat - dat's tuh make love. (The file?) [Steel tool.] Yessuh. Yo' take an' file dat off, git de steel of it an' git de dust, an' yo' puts hit in quicksilver an' yo' - it'll run yo' cross country, jes' run yo' clean to devilment. Yo' take an' put dat powders an' dat silver dust together an' yo' take an' make a salves of dat - make a salve of dat silver an' lard, don't put no peppah in dat. Grease yore han's wit it an' when yo' shake han's wit anybody, dat's conjurin' anyone. (And that quicksilver, is that the silver that comes around tobacco?) [I ask because quicksilver and silver are sometimes tin foil.] No, it comes on de back of a lookin'-glass, on de back of de lookin'-glass.
[Steel dust is usually bought prepared.]
Entry 3336
Take de dishrag an' grease it good in lard an' put it in a airtight box an' de man nevah raiae a holler no mo', nevah in dis worl' be able tuh raise any holler Isee margin title of 3220, p.2365.] (That all she does with the dish- rag? What does she do with it then? Does she wipe him with it?) No, she don't have tuh wipe him wit it. Jes' grease it in lard, see. She kin jes' let it touch 'i - jes' [touch] him anywhere, when she have connection wit 'im. An' den she kin wipe wit it if she wanta wipe off wit it. But she kin jes take it an' grease it in lard an' jes' touch 'im anywhere.
Entry 12471
Marrow from hog jowl and lard mix and rub up, not down, to cure mps. Remedy of Humpadee, female root doctor. [Richmond 359:9.]
Entry 12914
Yo' kin take a snail an' put it with fresh hog lard an' stew it down an' grease a man's privates with that an' that'll keep him from havin' any nature. [Waycross 191:6.]
Entry 12916
Snail into cup with fresh lard, boil down, use as salve, cure for impotence. [Memphis 1561:2.]
Entry 1246
My ole grandmother wus poisoned an' dey take elder [leaves] an' sulphur an' put it together [by boiling] an' [take] a feather an' an'inted her laig an' worms wus in her laig. [Wilmington, N. Car., (232), 156:3+85.] [An ointment is also made of 'elder, tobacco and lard to take out live things" - Wilmington, N. Car., (?), 234:1.]
Entry 1530
Cut yo' a silver dime into fo' parts wit a file, if anybody have given you any poison or anything dataway. Yo' take an' cut de silver dime into fo' parts, an' yo' take yo' some fresh beef lard an' take de cow milk an' drink that, an' yo'll vomit everything that chew took - fight it right now, in about fifteen minutes everything will come up. (You just take the dust of the dime. You don't cut the dime all the way throughthen?) Yo cut dat dime all de way through see, because yo' goin' tuh swallow that silver.
(But you must cut the silver into four parts.)
Yo' cut into fo' parts an' den roundin' it so it won't irritate de entrails, makin' it very round so yo' won't have no sharp point on it atall. See. Take an' mix it with that milk, that cow milk, an' that fresh lard an' drink it down. Anything that chew take that won't kill yo' in de co'se of twenty minutes, it comes right back up.
(You don't use the dust?)
No, not de dust - dat's very dangerous, de dust. If de dust git into de intestines dataway, yo' understan', an' settle - why, yo' understan', yo' got'a file it aroun' an' make it small enough tuh swallow de same as a pill yo' know. Not de dust. [Sometimes the whole dime is swallowed - see Dime in Index.]
Entry 11278
Now, here's another black art method. This black art method was by this old - this here William Rogers. This is one of his authors.
(Down in Columbus.)
Right here in Berkeley, Va., adjoining Norfolk. [His method] was to go to a ant's hill and look for the large size red antses. He gets nine of them out of there and kill them. Then he would go and look for a snail. Take him and shove him in the stove and let him parch up. Mix this together with lard, give it to a man or woman. Give that to a man and he rub that on his wife, the next man what have intercourse with his wife, his testicle bag Will burst open.
(Burst open.)
Burst wide open and kill him in three days time. [444:5.]
Entry 6369
For instance, if I had a wife and she was in love with me and I was running around with other women and I vent to sleep, she would pull three strands of my hair and put them in a bag, and put sugar and lard, and make it just the size of a dime in a little pad, and wear it around her leg, either leg. I would have no more use for any other woman.
[Fredericksburg, Va., by Ediphone.]
Entry 6599
Well, she takes de snake an' she dries 'im up an' she takes 'is bones outa his tail, which dose de softes' bones, an' she dries dose bones up. Dey make a dust outa dem an' put dat intuh a vaseline, or hair oil, or hair grease dat he uses, an' he passes dat ovah 'is head when he combs 'is hair. An' it will penetrate tuh 'is - through 'is skull intuh 'is brain. An' he will al- Ways have a min' dat he wants tuh drown 'imself, or he will always have a min' he wants tuh kill 'imself or commit suicide. But de Way tuh keep 'imself from doin' dat, committin' sui- cide, HE WILL HAVE TUH GO TUH ONE OF DOSE PEOPLE OVAH DE RIVAH [IN ALGIERS], SOME OF DOSE TWO-HEADED PEOPLE, AN' DEY WILL TELL 'IM JIS' WHUT IS WROEG WIT 'IH AN' DERE IS NO DANGAH FO 'IM, BECUZ DEY KIN GIT IT BACK OUTA 'IS SKULL BEFO' IT
(How do they do that?)
Dey shave all de hair off, yo' see, an' dey use fresh lard an' sulphh an' hot towels, an' dey will draw dat - draw dat right out, an' he will have tuh pot eat anythin' fo' nine days. He should not have anythin' on 'is stomic, nuthin in "is bowels, nuthin. Give 'im two or three big dose of salts, an' dey contimue usin' dat fresh lard an' sulphuh on 'is head. An' in about nine or ten days, he il begin tuh come back tuh 'imself, an' den he will realize den whut dangah be sus in.
Entry 6827
Well, yo' take graveyard dust - see, I wuz a person hurted in dis right feet heah an' it wuz ah had tuh bathe intuh hot watah - boilin' watah intuh red peppah an' ammonia, saltpetah [defect here, could not tell whether salt or saltpeter] an' mah urine - an' jis' bathe in dat fo' nine mawnin's. An' den ah made - it wuz plaster made outa fresh lard an' graveyard dust, see. An' dat's whut drawed de misery out.
(I see, if you were hurt in that right foot.)
Yes. Ah wuz crippled fo' three months an' dat's de only thing dat cured it. A woman came along an' cured it.
(Who came along?)
A woman. She know right smart.
Entry 10221
Boil a cicada in lard and grease man's tool with it to cure a spell of im- potence. [The magic here is probably be- cause the insect sings, then comes out of a hard shell it leaves behind; a symbol of escape, new life and singing with joy!]
Entry 10458
If a witch ridin' yuh, botherin' yo', followin' yo' aroun', yo' kin git salt, cookin' salt, an' tie it up in a little rag an' yo' kin git rid of dat witch. She can't stand salt. (What do you do with that rag then?) Yo' take dat rag an' yo' ties it an' yo' lets it stay right in yore room. An' yo' have tuh put a little lard on dat rag. Yo' know, have it kinda greasy. An' jes' hang dat rag right up in yore room an' dat witch ain't goin' tuh bother yo' no more. So, dat's de onliest time - look, lak de witch will bother when yo' in, yo' know, in yo' room tryin' tuh rest, be try- in' tuh ride yuh.
Entry 12854
Mix salt, sulphur and lard and wear it in a bag about your neck to protect against cunjure. [Fredericksburg, by Ediphone.]