Subject:Mantel
Entries
Entry 8190
An' den yo' kin take a persons's photograph an' jes' lak ah'd [Iwould] take yure photograph, an' yo'ere [you were] mah fren'-lak, an' yo' wuz away from me an' had treated me wrong. Well, ah'd take yure photograph an' stand it up on de mantel. Well, now, yo'd [you bad] tuh come back tuh me, or eithah worry yo'self tuh death.
(How would you stand it up on the mantel?)
Stand it up on it's haid. See, it be up lak dat [demonstrates], see, yo' ondahstan', an' he'd be standin' down on 'is haid, upside down. Dat'll make him cme back.
Entry 912
She vent down South [to South Carolina] and she say she owed this man two dollars. He told her fortune and she said, "Now, I ain't got nothing to pay with for curing me." So the man told her, "You're cunjured in your side," he said, "but you go on home," he said. She said, "I ain't got no money to pay, now." He says, "That's all right," he say, "you go on home and take dat medicine I tell you, and leave that money anywheres in the house and I'll get it." And she said she laid that money on her bedroom mantelpiece and went on doing her work. At twelve o'clock she thought of it and she went back there and the money was gone. And she telegraphed down there and he said he got it. Now, I wonder how he got it. She told me that herself. [Wilmington, N. Car., (238), 237:6.]
[See Payment and Air in Index.]
Entry 3031
St. Peter, he'll open the door for you.
(Well, how would you do that? What would you do for St. Peter?)
St. Peter, you carry him a key.
(Where? To the church or?)
Yeah, to the church. But if you got a key to your house - and you tell St. Peter to open the door for you, you give him that key. Well, you've got to give him that key. And if you tell St. Raymond to do good for you, you give him a flower or piece of money - dime like that, you give him that. Whatever promise you make him, you got to give it to him though; and if you don't, he take it away from you.
(Where do you buy these keys to give St. Peter?)
You have to buy it from the store. But don't let nobody use that key, but get that key and buy that key yourself.
(You can't buy those keys at the church then?)
No, you can't buy them at the church. (Now, if they have these saints at home, how would they do - what would they do wi th them at home?) They takes 'em and puts them on the mantelpiece - sometimes they puts 'em on the mantelpiece, sometimes they have a little altar. You know what an altar is. Well they have a little altar and they have a candle at each one of those saints, burning in there.
Entry 13449
Well, now a persimmon - de persimmon ain't much good as dat. But de weepin' willow tree, it's mighty fine fo' luck. A weepin' willow tree, is mighty lucky.
(Well, how do you do that?)
Well, yo' take dat an' gits de leave of it, de roots of it, an' dry it. When yo' shake it dry, den yo' jes' put it in a bottle an' set it up on de mantel- piece. About once a month yo' take a taste of it. An' ah declare hit'll bring luck in yore home fo' hit shore brought it in mine. [Since the weeping willow is a tree of ill-omen and generally considered unlucky, our present rite is unusual, one of defiance of fate, or one based upon contraries, or the well- known poison kills poison doctrine.]