Subject:Pain
Entries
Entry 1026
[As we had medicine taken by proxy, so can pain be shared - the spirit being made to divide itself:] If a woman is in fo' a labor, if she has somethin' of his about her, a sock, hat or somethin' lak dat - she has somethin' about her, why that'll cause him tuh have some of the pains, too. ["A pregnant woman by crawling over the husband can transfer her future labor pains to him," FACI,2ed., No. 2953, p.133; for psychic or pseudo-couvade - husband having morning sickness and ailments of pregnancy and acute pain during wife's delivery - FACI, p.133.]
Entry 1027
[An example of crossing pain was given in Crossmark Cure (p.365), where a boil was willed or intended away. In the following rite the operator asks the spirit to cross or remove the pain - this is prayer:] Ah wus hurt. Ah caught a pain in mah side an' ah stayed sick aboat - it wus t'ree veeks [weeks] befo' ah give up, you know, in de baid. An' ah got a veak [weak] an' ah turnt re'l black. An' ah vent tuh de hospital. Dey couldn't do me no good. An' ah get, you know, medical doctah, an' none of dey [not dem] couldn't do me no good. So I vent in baid on it, stayed in dere t'ree veeks, an' dey [family or friends] had a root doctah tuh come an' zamin me. An' t'wus somepin in mah side wit a pain. It seem lak it keep movin' up - you know, lak somepin turnin' aroun' in yer side. An' she [root doctor] said dat she didn't know no [internal] medicine or nuthin lak dat would of kilt it, but she could of fix an' rub it. She take a penny an' some sulphah an' gas'lene an' salt an' pu-tit tuhgethah an' tell it to cross de pain - yuh know, cross it, cross de pain wit it, zhoo know, jis' rub it. She had tuh mix it all tuhgethah in a jah [iar] an' sha-kit [shake it] re'l good. Yuh see, dat penny get right brown - I mean lak sulphah. Fus' [first] t'ing, she take [starts] to rub it - jis' do lak dat [demonstrates]; made a cross ovah de pain wit de medi-seen. Den she jis' rub it straight down fuh nine mawnin's an' tole me to stay in de baid aboat five days. An' aftah she rubbed it fuh nine mawnin's, den I would of been able to get up, you know, an' walk aroun'. An' it sure did help.
(Did you find out who had done this?)
Dey find it. It wus some needles tied up in a little claht [cloth] an' stuff down in a bottle an' undahneat' mah baid, you know, undah de house. An' den undah de [outdoor] step it wus some match haids an' some kin'a seeds. Dat wus in a bottle. Dat wus undah de step. She found it an' brought it in de house an' sprinkled salt ovah it an' take it wit 'er. [Sulphur, as well as salt, is used to sterilize a hoodoo object - see No. 897, p.328.] She tole me ah could of keep it an' pu-tit in a runnin' watah an' it would do de same good, but ah'd ruthah, yuh know, let 'er care [carry] it off. [Wilmington, N. Car., (231), 155:2+85; happened 1932.] [I would like to illustrate further this important rite of talking over disease or ailment among persons of German descent in Adams County, Illinois:] ["Ten or eleven years ago (1920-1921) I came upon a superstition which was quite new to me at the time. Questioning a little girl about the health of her cousin who was suffering from a badly infected arm I was told that his condition was very serious, "Grandma had to talk to him last night." On inquiry I learned that Grandna knew how to 'talk over' people who were afflicted with wounds or sores and made them well, and that she frequently exercised her art for all sorts of people. She had 'talked over' Marie herself, but Marie declined regretfully but firmly to tell what she said. "You dassunt tell or something bad will happen." The school janitor to whom all the secrets of the 'South End' Ithe Calftown in No. 214, p.60] are an open book, told me that he knew several old women who pretended to this skill, and he mentioned one within two blocks of the school, a radius that would include Grandma also. I mentioned Grandma's curious practice to Mr. B., pastor of K. Church. He received the tale without any surprise and acknowledged that the thing was comnon. Walter [informant's brother] asked several acquaintances of German parentage what they knew about it, and he found that old women who will 'talk over' you can be found in north- east Quincy as well as in south Quincy. No doubt this is an old German superstition. It is certainly alive and flourishing in Quincy." FACI, 1st ed., p.206; 2ed., p.199.] [Miss Ella Randall, one of my great friends, wrote this statement as well as others and also gave material orally. She was interested in my collecting for FACI but died before the first edition of 1935. A copy of the second edition I presented as a memorial to her to the Quincy Public Library, where she for years had been on the Library Board. We first met during high- school-freshman English; she the elderly teacher, I the young pupil.]
Entry 4192
Breakin' nine needles - take nine needles an' break 'em an' put 'em intuh dat - down intuh it, don't chew undahstan', in yuh chamber lye. It jis lak if yuh'd drink [milk]. Now, yuh kin take milk an' drink it an' put sugah in it, an' take a knife blade an' stir it, yuh'll have de stomikache from dat knife blade. Well, yuh'll always be ahurtin', always be a [in] pain, all de time. Evah time yuh look aroun' yuh will complain of a pain, but it be's in de same place - it nevah moves.
(And then this chamber lye, you put it in something to hold it, don't you?)
Yes, bottle.
[Long pause.]
(Well, go on, put it in the bottle there [informant demonstrating], and then you put these knives [this knife blade] and needles in it.) In the bottle.
(What do you do with that, then?)
Yo' jis' bury it, de bottle, in de ground an' nobody knows. "Git chew a round stick, yuh know, an' dig yuh a hole an' bury it right in dere.
(I see. That will give the person pains in his stomach.)
Yes sir.
Entry 4198
Yuh kin take a person chamber lye an' put nine brass pins in it - any- body chamber lye - kin put nine brass pins in it an' put it intuh a dry place where it will be air- tight, where no light can't hit it, an' as long as dat pins an' dat chamber lye is stopped up in dat bottle, dat person al- ways complain of pains in dere stomick.
(That gives them stomach pains.)
Entry 5268
Well, dey kin git yuh shoes. Dey will git a li'le piece of de innah sole out of 'em, jis' outa eithah one of 'em. An' take dat innah sole an' carry it an' use turpentine on it; may- be ten or fifteen drops, not undah ten an' not ovah fifteen. Take it an' put it in a tobacco can or snuffbox. Git dat an' bury it, jis' keep it buried dere. An' YO'LL BEGIN TUH TAKE PAINS IN YUH ANKLES AN' KNEES, JIS' AS LONG AS DAT'S BURIED, JIS' LAK YO' WUS A MAN WIT DE RHEUMATISM. YO'LL BE DOWN IN YUH ANKLES AN' YUH KNEES, AN' FINELY [FINALLY] IT WORK ON UP IN YUH HIPS. AN' WORK ON THROUGH YUH BODY. IT'LI WORK ALL OVAH YO'. IT'LL GIT YO' IN SICH A CONDITION DAT YO'LL HAVE DE STIFF- NECK AN' EVAHTHIN' ELSE.
Entry 5527
Ah'm tellin' whut experienced. Dey take de dust, de dirt out from yure lef' foot, an' dey put it in a li'le small bag an' mix wit Devil Lye. An' put it in a secret place dat chew kin walk ovah it, an' dat'll cuz pain in yore foot. Yo"mem- bah [remember] readin' duh Bi- ble whah [where] it says, in Numbahs [Nuonbers] de 27th and 15th [chapter 27, verse 15].
(What Was that? From the Bible?)
De Numbahs, ah say, de 27th an' 15th, say, "Warned he dat hideth anything in a secret place dat yore neighbor finds it not."
(That's from Numbers, 27th chapter,15 verse?)
[The preceding guotation comes not from Numbers but from Deuteronomy as fol- lows: Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen" - King James Version.] [While recording machine was stopped I must have asked informant, "Where did you hear this?" He evidently answered, "From my uncle."]
(Where did he live, here?)
Oh, he daid now. He used tuh live in Perry County, in Perry County, Ala., Scott Station.
(What was his name?)
His name Jim Herod. An' one [another uncle] named Winston Williams. Well, he daid.
(Well, he wasn't your uncle?)
Both of 'em mah uncle. Both uncle on mah mothah's side, but dey had diff'- ren' fathahs, see.
(Well, whose remedy was this? Who told you this?)
Mah uncle Jim Herod.
(Well, you tell me which one of your uncles you learned these things from?)
[This man Was brought to me as a root doctor. Two comments of mine are on the original transcription: "not much" and later "may use as [[an example of]] a fake R.D.[[root doctor]]. THE LATTER CRITICISM IS UNJUST. I WAS TOO SEVERE ON THESE EARLIER INFORMANTS. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS LYE-TRACK RITE, AS THE PRECEDING AND LATER-IN-DATE EXAMPLE FROM BRUNSWICK, GA., SHOWS.]
Entry 6787
If yo' in trouble wit high pains an' yo' been in trouble wit high pains, yo'll go an' git chew a young duck, an' regardless of where dat pain is, jis' cut dat duck open 'live an' lie it ontuh 'is nachel [natural] skin, an' when- evah dat duck is daid, an' dat duck git cold, why dat pain is 'sposed [supposed] tuh be gone.
(Be gone?)
Dat be gone. It draws out, it be gone, don' chew undahstan'.
Entry 6794
(How do you do that?)
[Something will] cuz warts on yo' haid or on yo' body, yo' know. Well, if it's on yo' haid, yo' kin git de - kill a dove, yo' know. (Kill a dove?) Git 'is heart out an' scrap de bottom of 'er feet; yo' know, husk scuff, scrub off where yo' feet [have become rough]. An' yo' puts dat in watah an' yo' boils it an' an'ints wit it three times a day. Ah mean three times a night: befo' night at six o'clock, twelve at night, an' six o'clock in de mawnin' [this is the well-known FORMULA 6-12-6, No.2885, p.830 and elsewhere]. But yo' always an'int wit dat at night, not durin' de day- tine.
(THAT'LL TAKE AWAY THESE PAINS THAT PEOPLE PUT ON YOU?)
Dat's SO. SuPPOSed tuh be Wit ANY KINDA PAIN DAT IS PUT ON YO' DAT YO' WASN'T BORN WIT. (Well, would that take off a pain that.someone put a spell on you? With that Lind of pain?) Dat's right. Dat's so [true] too. (You have to do that at six in evening, at twelve at midnight, and then at six o'clock in the morning?) In de mawnin'. (I see. You boil this dove heart and the scraping from the bottom of your feet.) [This rite presupposes the patient's walking barefoot much of the year, pick- ing up all sorts of bad smells and tastes odious to the disease-or-pain spirit captured by the spellcaster. The latter, called witch and many names, dislikes: Spitting, obscenity, animal manure, human excrement and urine (see FACI, 2nd ed., Bos.16481-16499, Pp.903-908). Our present rite is a hair-of-the-dog-that-bit you oae. Since the victim picked up his witchcraft or cunjure pains through his feet, he will rid himself of them the same way. Rites sending pain, even live things fn you, out through your feet, often through the big toe, are fairly common in Boodoo. Killing the dove is double or back-up insurance.]
Entry 6838
Tea from High John de Conkah, apple tree bark, an' fig tree roots [for pain or swelling].
editorial-only purpose annotation for the short tea item. Role remains editorial, not informant. Preserve pain OR swelling rather than both diseases or a diagnosed condition. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Entry 7850
Af' choo bear [bury] it [graveyard dirt], yo' walk ove' [over] dat, dat'll give yo' a pain. Well, dat'll make yuh feet swell up. Some time yo'll fall down dey [= dere = there], yo' cain't git up wit'out somebody help yuh up. [To bury graveyard dirt for an intended victim to walk over is one of the commonest rites in hoodoo. Examples in various combinations and for a variety of purposes are given else- where.]
Entry 7864
Take graveyard dirt an' red peppah. Jes' lak if yo' seen somebody yo' hated, why yo' go where yo' think dey walk at in de mawnin'. Go 'fore sun [before sunrise] in de mawnin' Where dey git up an' walk ovah it. Sprinkle it roun' in de yard yo' see, an' den dey'll walk ovah it. Yo' kin fix dem lak dat.
(What will that do to them?)
Well, sometimes it will give dem - dere feet will swell up or dere laigs or somepin lak dat, an' dey can't git it off dem until dey go tuh some root person or somepin lak dat.
Entry 8221
Ah've heard two-three things about photographs. Ah've heard dat chew kin take anybody's photograph, say if yo' wanta 'flict dem some way. Take yo' a needle an' stick in dat part yo' wanta 'flict, an' bury it in de earth face down. See, yo' bury it three feet deep which would represent three things, de Fathah, Son an' de Holy Ghost. Bury it three feet deep. Say fo' in- stance now, yo' wanted 'im lame in de am. Yo' take dat photograph an' stick dat needle in dat arn an' bury it's face down; or in de laig, or in de eye.
(Any place you want them afflicted?)
Yes sir.
(Then all you do is bury it face down?)
Yes sir.
Entry 8263
If someone wanta give yo' real bad luck, says dey kin take - if dey got a grudge ag'inst chew - dat dey kin go an' git chure pichure an' take dis pichure an' build a fiah, an' set de pichure behin' de fiah. Dat's [demonstrates] de pichure an' heah's de fiah. Dat's de pi- chure. Set it off lak dat. Yo' git ovah heah. Yo' [they] take a gun an' dey shoot through dis pichure, through dis fiah an' hit de pichure. Take a shotgun, scattah shots. An' shoot through de fiah an' shoot a hole through dis pichure. Well, when dey shoots a hole through dis picture, dey says den, dat gives yo' bad luck. It'll take dat - on dat time in evah yeah an' evah month, on dat day, yo'll have pains. Whatevah day of de month it was, dey say yo'll have pains, sharp pains jis' lak if yo' were shot. (Now this is the picture across the fire, and it is looking at you - face towards you?) Yes sir.
Entry 8363
Take yore photograph picture, tintype. Yo' go out in de woods tuh a pine tree an' take yo' nails, see an' put dat pichure up in de tree wit de hammah an' nails. An' yo' nail dat pitchure tuh a tree, yo' see. An' evah time, evah place where dat nail go therough [through] dat pitchure, dat person will have a pain in dat spot, yo' see. Yo' kin kill 'em wit dat.
Entry 8372
Den, if it was a tintype pichure, yo' kin take dat an' carry it out an' cuz a person tuh fade away. Dat kin cuz death, kill a person. Yo'll take dat an' tack on a tree. Put tacks all through de body an' dat cuz de person tuh have actual pains. Yo' see some people doctorin' an' nobody kin cure 'em? Well dat's why a lotta people ain't havin' pichure made tuhday.
Entry 9823
Dey kin bury nine needles. Point de nine needles up an' put dem intuh de groun'. An' yo' walk ovah dem nine needles. An' dey have de points right straight up from de groun' an' put dat right in de mid- dle of yore do'. An' den dey kin put nine nails. Put nine nails wit dose nine needles an' yo' walk ovah dose nails, yo' see, an' dose points. Dat goes intuh yuh.
(You don't have to step on them?)
No, yo' don' have tuh step on 'em. Dey have 'em buried, but dey have 'em pointed upwards. Yeah, dey has 'em pointed upwards.
(What would that do to you then?)
Dat would give yuh pains.
Entry 9829
Dey put nine needles, dey say, in a snuffbox an' bury 'em at a do'step. Dat'll make de person be painful as long as dey cross 'em.
Entry 9833
Dey git nine needles an' tie 'em tuhgethah an' dey'll put 'em in a bottle, but wit de point of 'em down lak dis - de haid part up. [Normally points should be up, see No., etc.] Jis' tie 'em tuhgethah. An bury it undah de steps, an' dey say dat'll put a puhson [walk- ing over them] in pain.
Entry 9834
Take nine new pins an' stick 'em down in de ground, an' when dey stuck dere see, people come by an' pick 'em up. Why when dey pick up de first one, yo' know, dey commence havin' pains. Den de mo' pins dere be's, de mo' bad off dey gits - de worsah dey git. (You put those down so that they will be picked up?) )[Perhaps this knowledge that the pins will be picked up is based upon the well-known folklore rhyme: See a pin, pick it up; all that day you'll have good luck - see Hyatt: Folklore from Adams County Illinois, 2nd ed., No.10494, p.478.]
Entry 9847
[This rite I preserved only in my own original notations made soon after the interview.1 Her sister, they found her hair and nine needles and nine pins in a cologne bottle - salt in the hair - buried under the house beneath the head of the bed. She broke out in sores and pains. A root doctor called in and told them the woman had been tricked. To prove his diagnosis he crawled under the house and came out with the bottle. He showed the bottle but would not let anyone touch it, especially the patient, who would have died!]
Entry 9891
Yo' take a toadfrog alive an' yo' sew it up. Yo' puts 'im in a sack, sew 'im in a sack 'live. An' den ah cain't git tuh yuh bed, see, but dere is a fren' woman dat kin git tuh dere dat is a pers'nal fren' of mine. Ah give huh dat, tell 'uh tuh put it in yuh bed, in yuh mattress, see. An' when she slip dat, put dat in dat mattress, yo' become restless an' dose things will come tuh be in yuh flesh, becuz ah got de frog in dere. An' ah got de needles in dere, dat make de pain come. An' den dat git chew restless on de bed. Don't care when yo' git in dat bed, yo' gotta git out an' gits dressed. An' den all ah got- ta do den, aftah ah got it in dere, ah'll come tuh yuh house; an' when ah come tuh yuh house, if ah ketch yuh back tuh me, see, ah sprin- kle yuh bed wit dese [some kind of] powdahs. Ah sprin- kle dat, else ah drop one or two drops of dat perfume on dere.
Entry 10184
An' some says anothah remedy tuh put 'em [candles being burned on you] out [is one] dat yo'll use on yuh head. Well, yo'll have tuh git chew diff'ren' little things. Yo'll git chew vinegah, a teacup of vinegah an' three teaspoons of olive oil, an' one egg an' yo' beat it up - whip it [3 things] up tuhgethah. Yo' beat up de egg first an' den add de othah all tuh it. An' put it in a bottle an' shake it up. Well, yo'll take some of dat, take a swallah of it evah now an' den, about two or three time a day or somepin othah like dat. Den yo' take some of dat an' put it on. Yo' know, dey say when de candle burns, it strikes yo' on one mos' pahtic'lah place - burning an' pullin' [demonstrates]. (It strikes you in one particular place, right here in the back of your head some place [informant demonstrates]. Where your neck and head meet, right up here some place [I demonstrate].) Well, some says it will be here [demonstrates]. Sometime it will be here [demonstrates]. But more in gen'ral it be's kinda back, it's pullin' [demon- strates]. Dey tell me it work like dat.
[I describe last demonstration.]
(Or near the left temple.)
Yas, neah de lef' temple or somepin lak it. It pulls. It seems as if some- one is pullin' on de strands of yuh hair. Dere's a strain, yo' know, on yuh hair. Dey say dat's whut dat is [someone burning a candle on you] when yo' have dat. (Well, you've taken some of this mixture, then you do something else you said.) Yo' take dat mixtry [mixture], yo' take it in yore han' jes' like dat. Let yuh han's git wet jes' like dat an' jes' like dis [demonstrates].
(Just rub it right on your scalp.)
De scalp of yuh head. An' sometimes it so severe yo' take de bottle an' po' it like dat [demonstrates]. Jes' douse yo' head wit it good [demonstrates].
(What will that do then?)
Dat eases it, but yo' gotta do dat about two-three days maybe.
(Well, what does that do to the candles?)
Dey say it puts dem out. Dat's whut ah heard, it puts 'em out.
Entry 11160
For pain in the stomach, boil devil's shoe- string and drop in two [silver] dimes while boiling, strain and let patient drink.
Entry 11582
Why dey'll jest chip off a piece from de toes or de heels [foot track from informant's preceding rite] dere. An' dere's somepin dat dey has dey put it in [it in, a cloth] and dey sews hit up tight wit a brass pin. An' dat sup- posed - an' dey jest put dat anywheres in de house, or buries it underneath de steps. An' if dere is anybody around dat dey don't keer much about, why yo' won't go back to dat house no more.
Entry 11684
Ah says, dey'll - sometimes dey'll go dere [forks of road] an' drive a stäve [stake] down in groun' where yo' can't see it, and pull green grass and put on top of it. When yo' git dere yo' won't know it. Yo' can't cross dat road. (You can't cross that road? Where do they put that stake?) In de middle, right in de middle of de road. Dey'll drive it down so yo' can't see it, even wit de groun', yo' know.
(You do that out at the forks of the road. Well, what do they do that for?)
Well, if you walk over it, you'll have pains de balance of yore days in yore laigs, dey begin tuh git so stiff.
Entry 12312
Ah kin take three stobs outa dat [lightning-struck] tree, de same one, an' dem concemin' of another thing. Den yo' kin use dose de side of de house or inside of it, or wherevah dey passes ovah. An' aftah dey goes ovah dat, dey gits tied up wit pain. An', too, ag'in, 'lessen yo' kin find anothah fellah [doctor] in three days, dey'll be contin'ly [in pain] - nevah be cured of it till you [some doctor] find dat. Ah know a man in mah own neighborhood, he gits de wood off a tree struck by lightnin' an' dat officer come right down fur as de lot, but as fur comin' in... [This policeman did not enter man's house, did not set foot on man's land.]
Entry 13067
Dey say if yo' put a snail in a person's path an' yo' put it 'bout dat far into de groun' [demonstrates]... (Three or four inches under the ground?) Yeah, jes' 'bout. An' he walk ovah dat, dat will cause dem to have aches an' pains of all kinds. Dat will put spells on dem, too.
Entry 13294
Ah hear a lady say she taken a turtle aig an' dry it up an' put it - jes' beat it up, jes' grind it up jes' lak she wus goin' tuh make somepin out of it, a powder of some kind. An' she taken dis turtle aig an' she put it in a turtle. She cooked de turtle fo' a lady - a sick lady - about dis lady's hus- about dis lady's hus- band. She cooked de aig in de turtle an' when de lady eat de turtle she loved de turtle. Whenevah she eat dis turtle - she et it every dat - it wus a certain time on de moon dat de turtle would come in her right breast over her heart. An' ever' time it would come out it would draw her [breast?] right down to her knees. It looked jes' lak rubber - jes' lak she stretch rubber. Dey take it an' stretch it down to her knees!
(What time of the moon?)
On de growin' of de moon.
Entry 573
A woman in Georgia said if yo' got a pain about chew anywhere, said, take a frog an' don't kill him, but jes' lay him in de palm of yore hand or wherevah de pain wus an' dey tie him an' let him stay there. An' dey say, if he dies, yore poisoned; if he don't die, then yo' are not poisoned.
Entry 750
(All right - what about that broom?)
Ah say ah knowed a woman that she was tricked with de broom. She was sweeping her house, grabbed that broom one morning - she left it out on the porch. You see, somebody had angry in 'em against her and come along and dressed her broom some way or 'nother. And one morning she went and grabbed that broom, and when she grabbed that broom she couldn't turn it loose - she was just taken with pains all in her hand, couldn't turn that broom loose.
(Both hands?)
Yes, sir. Well, they had sent and get the hoodoo doctor. When the hoodoo doctor come he just walked in and tole 'er to, "turn that broom loose - what's de matter wit you." And her hands flew open. It could have been the same man that did that, you see [but see No. 641, p.217]. Well, he dressed her hands an' an'int [anoint] them around here and wrapped them up and she got all right.
Entry 1242
Jes' take a dry piece of eelskin an' put it on yore wrist, if any pain in dere or somepin.
Entry 1274
All right, she had me - ah did it mahself. Ah went an' caught a bull- frog, not a bullfrog but a toadfrog, up heah in de yard. After I caught dis toadfrog, she took dis frog an' put him in a little cloth like an' put dis frog right on her side an' wore him dere fo' a few days until dat frog died. After dat frog died den dis pain left her jes' on account of wearing dat frog dere.
Entry 1337
Well, dere somethin' de woman gits out his [horse's] laig called dat night-eye [see following rite], an' yo' take some of that, if a man or a woman is perishin' with de toothache an' dey can't git ease. Take a leetle bit of dat, take an' pound it up an' git it in de hollow of de tooth, an' yo' won't have any mo' toothache an' yo' won't have any trouble wit none of yore teeth.
Entry 1423
Pain such as rheumatism and things like that, he kin do somepin simple to get rid of that. He kin pass some grocery store, any kind, or in his home if it's your brother and he's in your home and you got de Irish potato - natch'ly you have one in your kitchen or in your pantry or some place in your house - not ask you for it but they call it stealin' - and jes' put it in your [his] pocket, any pocket you [he] got and jes' wrap it so it won't soil his clothes too much. Keep in there and let it ferment and that kill any rheumatic pain he has in his body.
Entry 1752
I heard my father tell about boxing hands, where they get bees, flies, ants, wasps, cow ants - the great big ants - hornets, thousand-legs, all that kind of stuff, and they put that in a bottle and fill it with hot water. And that was used to put on their fists - just a drop or two. And when they struck a man he had a great pain and swoll up, and he couldn't fight back he was hurting so. [Here again, a hand can be a liquid.] [St. James, a Negro community 5 miles from Pocomoke City, Md., (104), by hand; these hands of 1870 decade in Wicomico Co., Md.] [Cf. margin-title WrestZing Hand at end of this subsection.]
Entry 1924
Well, I've heard dat people could go where you make a step on de groun an' git de dirt outa de holler of your right foot. Would take it an' dig a hole in a fresh graveyard a foot an' a half deep an' bury dat dirt; an' take some of de graveyard dirt an' put it back in one of your tracks. An' dey say you'll be- come to have a pain in your leg an' you'll never git over dat.
Entry 3943
Jes' like you've got a wife an' she don't want yo' to git away from 'er, PROVIDIN' SHE THINKS SHE IS DOIN' GREAT; but yet still she is suffering yo' [making yOu Suffer]. See, SHE IS PUTTIN' AFFLICTION ON YO', BUT SHE DOESN'T KNOW IT. Now, she'll take her ministration an' she'll use if fo' a certain length of time. See, in your food, eithah in tomato soup or anythin' like dat. An' when yo' eat dat food, well den from time to time, if yo' continue on to take dat, well it will give yo' a pain in de stomick. A man, it will give him a pain in de stomick an' it will annoy an' he can't go, eithah come. Well, she is ruinin 'is health.
Entry 4382
Ah hear dem say dey could take it an' burn it. Dat will make yuh sore, stop yuh action - stop yuh bowels from movin'. Say it would lock yuh bowels an' dat would kill yuh.
Entry 4998
Take dat stockin' an' carry it tuh de no'th cornah of de house an' bury it. Bury it in de no'th cornah of de house an' yuh jis' lingah. Yuh won't die, yuh jis' lingah, have pains in yuh laigs.
Entry 611
My mother she taken with a pain in the bottom of her foot an' we thought she had rheumatism - that's been around about five years ago [1931] - an' it continued to get worser an' the foot swoll up. An' she had the doctor an' the doctor kept dostin' [dosing] her with medicine an' she didn't get any better an' at last he told her, "Don't know whut in the world's the matter with your foot." So there was a man here by [staying with] a lady he's fixin' [doctoring] - he's suppose to be one of these root doctors or somepin an' we taken her down there to her house an' he looked at her an' examined her an' said, "You're sick - somepin that choo've walked over." So he told her to take three dimes, to put a quart of water on 'em an' boil it an' see if that foot don't turn black [when bathed in this water]. An' she did that an' sure enough it did, an' then he made her some kin'a grease looked like it was made out of mud. I don't know whut - he didn't tell us whut he put in it, but it black like that, an' he greased that foot with that an' he made a tea out of parsley an' give it to her three time a day - one of these wineglass full. She did that for four weeks but after she taken that these pains begin dyin'.
Entry 871
I was hurt myself - I was hurt in whiskey and I started with a little pain back of my head. And it keep hurtin' and hurtin' and I thought it was from a - I caught cold. And so I went to the doctor and I got some medicine but that made me still worse and so I got down in the bed. And so they keep gavin' me medicine and that wouldn't do no good, and so my aunt went and seen a root doctor. I was so sick I couldn't go myself. Well, she got him and bring him up to the house and he look after me. And he went and got some mustard and got some salt from the drug store, and some black pepper, and take a little bit of dat salt and black pepper and put it in the mole [mold] of my head, and when he put it in there he said, "In the Father and in the Son and Three in One." And when he did that he took that mustard and some black pepper and salt and a little flour and mixed it together, and he take it and made a plaster and he put it under the bottom of my feet. And I was so I couldn't sleep that night. And after he did that and I got relief in less than thirty minutes. If he hadn't of done somepin to me under twenty-four hours, you see, I would of been dead [thig is what the doctor told her]. He said I get it in this whiskey give me by my friend.
Entry 899
A girl hurt me, got betweeen me and a boy. I had two children for him. I was noticin' how she come aroun' and talk to him and things, and I didn't pay it no mind. I taken it for a joke. Well, it wasn't a joke. And so this girl got between me and him. And so she got my track and got two three-penny nails, she got my left track, and put them in a little white sack and bury it under mah door. And so mah feet went to swelling, and legs, and I didn't pay it much attention. I worked right on. And after awhile I got so I couldn't you know, it pained me. So I went de doctor and the doctor he bathed me for it, and it looked like all he did wouldn't do me no good. So an old lady, she lived aroun' there, told me to go to some kind of other, a root doctor. And I did. And so he told me that I was hurt, and told me I couldn't git it up from de door. He says I have to git somebody else to git it or git him. So I give him a dollar and told him to dig it up from mah door. So he did. And he told me what it was. And so he say he'd take this stuff and put it to her door and that's the onlyest way he could have it turmed off of me. And he turned it back On her. Well, she Was in the same condition. I got well.
Entry 927
Two years ago - no more, ah was takin' so ah couldn't sleep at night and it went on dat way until finally my nights turned to days and my days turned tuh nights - jest went on around [days and nights were reversed]. (What do you mean by that? I couldn't quite understand you.) [To make her speak louder and repeat.] Well, ah couldn't sleep at night you know, and when ah'd see de daylight come you know, ah'd git scared, ah wouldn't know it was day. Ah hadn't been sleepin', ah hadn't closed mah eyes. And it would be day, but de minute that ah realize that it was day ah'd fall off into a deep sleep, and I would sleep from daylight until eight 'clock in de morning, but when ah'd wake up ah'd jest be fulla aches and pains, so much so that ah couldn't git up, so ah layed in bed till about ten 'clock and then at ten 'clock ah'd git up and git mah breakfast, and the minute ah'd git mah breakfast ah'd fall off tuh sleep agin. Well, it jest continue that Way tiil finally I fest give up to day-sleepin'. An' ah'd feel tuh mahself - ah feel jest like a snake do or something like that or frog or something other, but yet ah couldn't get mahself togethah. Natchurly ah couldn't work. Well, it went on like that tull ah begin to git sick inside - somepin jest jump jest like heart's beatin' and it worried me. And when ah layed down to sleep, somepin would jest go 'cross mah face like this [demonstrates] and ah'd jump and wake up, you know, and look under the pillahs. There would be nothing, ah could see nothin' you know. And sometimes ah would feel like feathers Was sticking intuh me - like de quills. Ah's take and pull dis cover off and there would be nothin', absolutely nothin' - could see nothin'. And so this continued tull finally ah became a wreck, and den dey said it was bad nerves and ah goes de hospital. De doctor pronounced it neuritis, ar-ritis, flamitary rheumatism, chronical rheumatism, muscular rheumatis, tubercular rheumatism and bone fever. Well, so then they stuck needles in mah arms - all in de shoulders, you know, and they Would hurt me tuh mah heart. And ah says, "THESE THINGS BEAT LIKE SOMEPIN LIKE HEARTS ALL OVER ME." Ah had a pocket right chere [demonstrates] - it's a little bit there now - jest like somethin' in there Would beat, beat.
(There was a pocket on your right side?)
Yes.
(Right about the waist.)
Jest like there was somethin' live in there. Well, ah takes sick at night and ah vomits turrible. It near kill me - green, pale, an' it near kill me. And ah jest kept up this thing and kept up this thing until finally one of the doctors says to me, says - these needles was hurtin' me so bad ah cried. They said, "Do those needles hurt chew like that?" Ah said, "Yes." Well the doctors said don't give her nuthin tuh rub and don't give her nuthin tuh gargle with. One little doctor was West Indian [a Negro] - dis Was at de Freedman's Hospital.
(Here in Washington?)
Yeah, and he says, "Now, ah'm goin' to put dis needle in here," he says, and he didn't hurt me and ah didn't cry, and he says, "and ah'm goin' to give you somethin' to rub with." Now, other doctors said ah shouldn't rub with nuthin, see. "Ah goin' to give you this linament to rub with and then you stop in the druggist and git you something to gargle yore throat with." And he says, "If there's a reaction, let me know." Well, ah remember that - that was the first encouragement ah had, and ah says, "Now, ah'm goin' do that. That night - see, ah's be 'sleep and somepin would work up and work up and choke me, but when ah'd wake up you know it would go back. And so, that night somepin got up heah and jest choked me turrible and I was so sleepy - ah got it out and put it on a piece of paper, and started off asleep and de second one came up. Well, it jest like to me ah was in daze condition, and den ah woke up like dat and ah felt purtty good and ah remembered dis, and ah went looked at it and it was black - it was large enough to choke me. And the other one was smaller. So when ah told de doctors about it, den they commence to jab in here - like to choke me all through de body. Dey [had] to quit, but however - then, I says, "Ah'm goin' take now - go to church fo' this and ah'm goin' tuh pray - ah'm gon'a pray to get well." Ah didn't want tuh die. Well, ah thought ah would die like ah was. So it went on that-a-way until ah moved - it happened so ah jest had to move. Ah would go on tuh de back porch and would sit there all de day long, and then go back and go lay down and go to sleep. If I would eat ah would go to sleep. But night come ah'd be jest like a bird, frog or snake - ah'd be up ready to go, see, go back and go to bed. Ah couldn't sleep, so ah moved. And gittin' worse and worse, move - bearin' on de heart all de time. An' ah was taken wit chills and the lady ah lived with she was thinkin' ah'd die, so when she would come upstairs she would call me, but when dat spell go way ah'd git up and go on down. So one day ah was laying, ah was sick and ah was layin' asleep, it was in the day and I was between sleep and awake, and a black man come - a jet black man and he come in, he come jest like dis [demonstrates].
(His - with his shoulder up to his head, sort of deformed.)
[This is a usual reference to a doctor's appearance - he is a jet black man and queer in manner or physique.] [See, Doctor in Index.] Yes, he was and he was very old and he had stubble gray whiskers - they weren't longer stubble and he was very black. He says to me, he says, "You're not sick [sick in a medical doctor's way]." He says, "Ah'm from Greenville, North Carolina, and I did it," he says, "and I am dead and I can't rest." He says, "You are a good woman," he says, "but ah did this to you for" - he called the name of the man and the name of the woman. And it was - dey done it diff'rent times.
(They did it together or separately?)
One didn't know what the other did. [My only example of this!]
(People that you knew?)
Oh, ah knew both. [We now have reached the only example of bewitched feathers in my collection of Negro folklore. The accompanying psychology is also interesting. Both I will discuss at the end of the story.] And he came back. So he says, "If you look in yore pillah," he says, "you'll find out what's the trouble with you." He says, "It is to set chew insane or to kill you or to make you have enemies all yore life." He says, "You won't be any good, you'll not be able to make a livin'." An' he says, "You git into them - if you don't, ah'll never be saved." I got up and jest took de pillah - "if dat isn't de queerest thing, ah don't believe it"-dis was a hard lump in mah pillah - why there's nothing to that" ''there isn't anything to that' - "nobody kin do nuthin like that," I says. So ah went down and ah says, "Mrs. Jones" - ah tole her, jest like ah'm tell' you, what occurred while ah was 'sleep. She says, "Miz, don't chew know when you go up[stairs] to sleep in dose spells, you know, ah'd call you befo' ah'd git to de top steps 'cause ah think you're dead." Ah said, "Well, do ah look that bad?" She says, "Come on peek, come on." An' she says, "Well, if ah was you, ah would look in there and see." And ah goes to work and takes this out and it was jest about that wide and it was like that and like that [demonstrates] an' de feathers in this thing [looked] jest like dey was born and glued - was a piece of yellah looking wood, imported wood, and it was jest like real feathers and de Way it was done, it was jest streaked through. Then these feathers was pushed down in there, but it had no head but it was de shape of a hen.
(This wood was a thick thing and the wood looked like feathers.)
And so when ah rubbed across there, you know, the feathers would come out and ah said, "Ah'm goin: take this and throw it in de stove." Ah took it down and showed it to her. "Oh," she says, "Ah never saw nuthin like that." She said, "You'd better look fer some more - ah would if ah were you." Ah goes back and ah gits de rooster. De rooster was three feathers fixed together in de shape of a rooster - red. The hen was a dominicker [Dominique] and then ah gits that. Then ah gits a piece of rope out about dat long [demonstratesl, heavy cord, about [that] long, and then ah gets jest a bunch of feathers tied round jest like this, jest tied around with a string, jest like you tie 'em to make a baby doll. Well, that would go in mah face and ah would brush it - keep me awake all night long jest torturing me. Well, then after it was quill, chicken quills and in the end of 'em was powders and dey Was corked up. It make Miz Jones sick and me too, when ah got [them] out, then - that was whut this man bring in. And the next was a snake about that long [demonstrates], jest wrapped with feathers, dis ole man did - paid and did de stuff fore dese people. And he was jest grapping in dere in de shape of a snake and everything. And the other one was a -
(This snake was about a foot long?)
About like that and this here one wasn't, and it was all in reality.
(This snake was only made of feathers?)
No - yes it was - it was all feathers - if you seen it in de pillah, you'd a thought it was feathers. Everything was made absolutely like feathers. (What was the other thing after you got the snake out? What was the other thing?) It was two snakes, a hen and a rooster, and quills, and it was about that long - supposed to be a coffin, ah reckon, and the other one was jest this - like what you'd jab to make babies laugh, string with feathers, but it was tied 'round, it was feathers. It was a bunch of feathers and these feathers would come into my face, would torment me. Now, jest like you tie this [demonstrates].
(Tie your handkerchief in a knot.)
Now you see you do that [demonstrates]. (Oh, you jingle the handkerchief up and down and - like you make a baby laugh, and that kept going over your face. And this was made of feathers, too.) Yes, all of feathers. An' ah'd git up and see nothin' you know. And when daylight would come ah would git scared, ah would say, "What is the matter with the sky - ah can't tell." And finally, ah say, "Why it's daylight." Well, now ah gits everything out and I shows it to Miz Jones and she wanta keep this thing like a hen and ah says, "No, ' ah say, "Ah'm ain't goin' keep it." Ah lays down agin and he comes right straight back. He says, "Now, you've got all ought [out] that was put in there." He says, "Now, the hen is a barnyard fowl - stays in de back - so you had a room in back - that was to keep you in there and to keep you down." You see, ah was a great worker and a lecturer. And he say, "They didn't mean you to go nowheres and you couldn't go nowheres, and when you would commence to talk you'd cackle - sound jest like cackling - or crowing like a rooster, you see." And you know, dis snake - he saysi, De snake was to make people hit at cha - pick at cha - and then you'd pick back at dem. And then they would say you weren't capable of doing the things that whut you were doing. De woman did that." That was to keep me from being president of a large club. And the man he did it because ah paid him the rent. And ah couldn't git further than the back porch - ah couldn't work - ah had to git on Emergency Relief - ah had to git on de Emergencies Relief, and ah would have died if ah did that. So then this old man, after ah gits all this out - dis ole man comes back again fer the last time, and here's whut he tole me to do with it. He says, "Now, you take all dese pillahs dat's on dis bed." So Miz Jones she got excited, it scared her - it made her sick and me too. That powder got out and got on us, got out dose quills and got on us. He says tuh me, "Yo' take dose pillahs" my two nice pillahs - "you take those pillahs and you burn dem up - the tick, the feathers and all." He says, "Yo' take those four dresses you wore de most around - de everyday dresses, and burn dem up. Take those two pair of shoes that you wore when you was in that house and burn them up." He says, "You know it's written that the wicked shall become stubbed on yore feet and shall be burned root and branches and the whole thing will go back to them. If you put it on water it will come back to you." [The preceding quotation and everything she says shows a woman with an agile mind - a qreat worker and a lecturer. Her words are a conflation - two or more passages thrown together: King James Version - (1)"The day cometh...all that do wickedly, shall be stubble [[not stubbed]]...shall burn them up...leave them neither root nor branch," Mal.1:4 -(2)'Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days," Eccl.11:1 - (3) her stubbed was suggested by stubble and "Dash thy foot against a stone," Mat.4:6 & Lk.4:11.] [As I stated previously, this story is the only certain example of bewitched feathers in my Negro-folklore-collecting experience (see Feathers in Index). Not even in Quincy, Illinois - where belief in bewitched feathers survived among persons of German descent - did I ever find a colored person interested in the matter. Similarly, I found bewitched animals rare among colored people, frequent among persons of German descent. The Reason? Racial? Economic? (For bewitched feathers in Adams County Illinois and Quincy the county seat, see FACI, 2ed., Nos.16255-16323, Pp.853-873; bewitched animals, Nos.16178-16254a, pp.834-85.)] [Since some general readers may be unfamiliar with bewitched feathers, let me briefly describe them. The witchcraft spell cast upon a person is done with the feathers in the feather pillow or feather bed (feather-tick or feather mattress) on which the victim sleeps. These feathers on which the victim lies gradually weave themselves into a form: bat (animal), bird, butterfly, chicken, rooster, coffin, cross, flowers, shapes like parts of the human body, horseshoe, etc. Sometimes these forms are combined with foreign objects: piece of clothing, key, needle, ribbon, rope, spool, thread, etc. The most frequent form of all is the wreath (symbolic of the funeral wreath) - also known as a circular. This form occurs more often because the head lying on the pillow pushes feathers out into a circle. At times a person can hear, so it is said, the weaving in the pillow a ticking sound (No.16293, p.865) or music in the pillow (No.16263, p.855). As soon as the form being Woven is completed the victim dies. If you find a form uncompleted and burn it, the victim will recover. To demonstrate this belief further, I now quote two examples from FACI:]
["Now I am going to tell you a story that was told by one of my [school]
children. A baby [about 1931] was born in a family. Although it received the very best attention, it was not thriving. An old mother in the neighborhood entered the house one day and said, "There is a wreath in the baby's pillow." The mother wished to open the little pillow and take out the wreath, as had been suggested. The father scornfully laughed and forbade the mother's opening the pillow. From that moment the child grew more delicate and passed out. The old neighborhood mother entered the room and said, "Let me examine the pillow, ' which she did, and took from the pillow a perfectly formed wreath of feathers, all going in one direction. The center of the wreath was the size of the baby's head. The feathers forming the wreath were all going in one direction [see also 16277] like the down on a dress hat. I will draw you a diagram. I saw it. It was marvelous. [The informant's diagram of this wreath I have reproduced in this book.] Underneath the wreath it seemed to be flesh; like the flesh on a chicken's breast with large pores. It had no odor. Dead chicken flesh has an odor. The skin was moist as if alive. The feathers seemed to be growing. The old woman took the wreath out and burned it, and said if ever another child came to the house to give it a new pillow and it would thrive." (FACI, 2ed., No.1255, p.853; a picture of wreath drawn by informant being reproduced just before the Table of Contents.)l ["I knew a boy out here in the south part of Quincy years ago that was sick all the time. They done everything for him and try everything anyone would tell them, but it would not do him any good. Some of the neighbors thought he was bewitched, but the folks didn't. But at last they Went to looking in the bedtick and pillows to see if they could not find anything, and in one of the pillows they found a rooster all done but a little of its tail. If that tail had of been done, that boy would of died; but they took the rooster and put it in the stove to burn. and after that the bov got well." (FACI. 2ed. No.16289, p.863.)1 [To return to our informant, once again we meet an old routine - the doctor (M.D.) fails; the doctor (hoodoo) is called in. This time, however, there is an amazing difference both in doctor and doctor.] [My informant refrains from criticizing hospital doctors for their inability to cure her, though she considers them impersonal and uninvolved. Naturally, the West Indian, a man of her own race would appear in a better light; at least he permitted her to have something 'to rub and...to gargle with." But, when the woman says, "The doctors said, "Don't give her nuthin tuh rub and...tuh gargle with, '" do not believe her, though she is telling the truth from her changed point of view. After the colored doctor offered it to her, the white doctors by not offering it to her had forbidden it. This is a mere gripe. She knew the doctors had done everything medically possible; the real trouble was herself, spiritual - "Ah'm goin'...go to church fo' this and...ah'm goin' tuh pray to get well." She realizes death stared her in the face - "Ah didn't want tuh die." Two steps having been taken toward health, she then took a third - "It happened so ah jest had to move."] [Despite her changed attitude, she still refused to accept any blame for her condition - a man and woman separately would not have hoodooed her had she been all sweetness and light! She needed a scapegoat. Scapegoat also would permit her to satisfy those childhood beliefs and fears which had floated to the surface during her illness. Too intelligent to call in a hoodoo doctor, she summons the spirit of a dead hoodoo doctor. He appears not as master giving orders but as sinner seeking forgiveness - his eternal future depending upon her. She, of course, is the spirit of the dead hoodoo doctor. Thus disguised she saves the soul of a sinner (his - actually her own) and cures herself by forgiving him (finding the bewitched feathers). In forgiving him she forgives herself. If you don't forgive yourself neither God nor Church can do it for you - though either or both may smooth the way. This solution of my informant's is the brilliancy and power that comes with a dream. This is also my guess about what happened. Each reader is entitled to a similar guess.] [Washington, D. C., (629), 808:3.] [Time in hoodoo is very important and covers a wider field than it does in scientific medicine. So wide is time that many aspects of it cannot be given in this subsection - see Time in Index for a listing of separate time entries.]
Entry 1539
One time I was poisoned an' I taken with a pain in my stomic an' head- ache. Well, I taken real sick. I begin to throw up an' ev'rything I throw up was jis' as green as grass an' bitter as gall. Well, they sent fer de doctor. The doctor came. He give me a 'scription of doctor medicine. Well, I taken a dose of de medicine an' de medicine stayed in me I guess about two minutes. An' de medicine made me awfully sick, made me worser than I was. An' I threw it right back up. Well, we had twelve doctors[il!]. [Twelve doctors like every doctor in town is an exaggerated expression not mean to be taken literally - a hyperbole.] They didn't any do me any good. They did me worser instead of good. De medicine would do me worser all de time. So after that, they said, "Well, dere must be something to do." So I sent my sister to the store an' got a box of Squibbs soda an' a box of sulphur. I taken a teaspoonful of that. And that stayed in me. It gave me a little relief. After that I got nine silver dimes. I boiled them dimes good. Then I let the water cool. I drink nine swallows for nine mornin's. An' I improved an' began to get better. Then I got some Eve- an'-Adam [Adam-and-Eve] - that's a little roots. I boiled de Eve-an'-Adam an I drinked de tea of that an' I got better.
Entry 1592
Like somebody put somepin on cheh [here] fo' yo' an' right along yore path and when yo' steps on dis, why you'd have a pain in yore laig. Well, yo' Wouldn't know what caused it but chew would go to someone and dey would tell yo' right away. Git sulphur, spirits of turpentine, put all dat on mah han's - spirits of turpentine [and sulphur] and take mah han' and go to de chamber lye and bath 'em in dat, and go right on dere [to buried cunjure] and take it up. [I can now] go over dere and dey won't ketch me, de pain won't ketch me atall. Ah'd take it [cunjuring object] up and take, carry it to de fork of de road and burn it. When ah carry it to de fork of de road and build a fire under it, why it sparks. Well, it's all gone - it go right back to where it come from, see.
[I now ask informant to repeat part of story I failed to record.]
(How did you say you knew this was laid down out there for you?)
Ah seen de spirit - jest like you'd dream, ah seen de spirit and dey go on showed it tuh me. Ah git up in morning and ah goes right straight to it. See. Ah goes straight to it and ah 11 take and bath mah face and han s in dat - dis urinate in de night, and den ah take de spirits of turpentine and ah saturate mah han's good with dat. See. Den ah'll take dat sulphur and saturate mah hands good and den ah'll go dere to de hole and dig it up. When ah dig it up ah'll pick it up and ah'll take it to de four corners of de road and put it in de middle of de street and burns it. When ah put it down dere and build mah fire under early in de morning or late in de evening, an' when ah do that why dat pops. When it pops it goes back to where it come from.
Entry 2768
(Was that the time you were being hurt?) Yes, sir. (Well, tell me what happened? How did they hand it to you? And how was that cured? Tell me the whole experience - the whole story.) Well, you know, that I couldn't even - couldn't walk in here like that.
(Couldn't even do what?)
Couldn't walk in here like that.
(You couldn't walk in here. All right.)
But then one fellow who came down here [to Vicksburg] took me to a fellow called Johnson down there [to New Orleans].
(Where did he take you to?)
To New Orleans.
(To a fellow called Johnson?)
Yes, sir. And course he told me that I was crossed up like that.
(Well, what happened when you went in? What first happened when you went in?)
He just asked me if I want git rid of my misery, and everything like that. He didn't do a thing but just rubbed me. And of course then I had a misery in my head. And then he said a man must have hurt my eyes, and he tied it up and told me use them head bandages - placed a candle over me for nine mornings and read a Psalm, and said a prayer. But the prayer was - but what the prayer was I don't know. (Was that a woman you went down with [from Vicksburg to New Orleans] or was this woman at Johnson's house?) They was there - she was. One was a woman and one was a man.
(Oh, they were working together in the same house.)
You see, when I first went to see him, why he was setting out on de porch. Well, it wasn't no porch either, but it like a church and he was sitting out there on a little old balcony kind of.
(It appeared like what?)
It's just a big church and place.
(Oh, a church.)
And still he treats people and all like that, see. He took us and carried us on upstairs.
(Into a room?)
Yes, sir - in a private room.
(And what was in that room?)
Like - just like desks and different things like that, just chairs and desks.
(I see. And then what else did he do?)
He asked me what was my misery and how long had it been hurting me and when it first started, and how did it work and things like that. And I told him. He told me to stand up and come to him - walk to him. See, I couldn't - I couldn't walk right. He told me that somebody had throwed something for me and so he would rub me. He would rub me and have me turn all the way around and bowing over and walking and coming back to him like that.
(What did he rub you with?)
Sir? Jest his hand. He didn't put no oil or nothing on it - jest rubbing and saying something. Jest rubbing [she demonstrates].
(He rubbed down off your clothing.)
In my clothes - just rubbing me down like dat for a long time. Then he would tell me to press up while he would hold me, push on me right here like that. I would strain up like that. I done paid him and then went on off.
(And then after that? Then where did you go?)
Ah went to a rooming house.
(Where?)
Went to a rooming house. (Went to a rooming house. Where did you meet this woman? Where did you find her?) The lady? Oh, I went back down there the next morning.
(You went back to this woman the next morning.)
And he told me to come back. I was supposed to go back and take the final treatment. He told me if I didn't have that why I couldn't walk up straight any more. Everything have happen to me like that. So, he tell me I was going too much, says, "Women like dat." I didn't tell him about how my head hurt, I didn't consider it was worth-while, thought it was just ordinary or something like that. He told me to come back and see about my head. So I went back the next morning.
(You went back to this church the next morning.)
Went back the next morning where we - so he was telling her about it. She didn't carry on [rub her], but she carried me around and telled me to sit down before the table and she asked me how my head hurt and all that and this and everything like that. And I told her. She told me sit down and she would fix my head up. So she lit a candle and put it before my - kind of a yellow candle and placed my hands before it, aside the candle. She got her one and lighted it, and went to passing it over her head [demonstrates] and she was saying something or other. (When she passed it - how did she pass it over her head? Like this? [I demonstrate.] Around her head in a circle?) Yes, sir. [See margin-title later, Halo Sign.] And so I had stayed there that day. And had to go back nine days - nine mornings. (Nine mornings. She did that nine mornings, you say. She said before sun- rise?) Yes, sir. No, sir - any time between twelve o'clock - between sunset and one in the evening.
(Any time between twelve o'clock at night and sunrise in the morning?)
[My question confuse her but she now gives the proper answer; the well-known magic rite.] Ah don't know how. But she told me to always come - never come at twelve - come before twelve when the sun was still on a rise. (Oh, I see - when the sun was still going up. I see. And that was all she did - burn this candle on you?) Everything.
(And then when she finished that - after the nine days, then what happened?)
Hit was gone! Never seen it no more.
(I see. What did they charge you?)
$25.
(The both of them - S25 for both of them?)
No, that was $25 for my head. I paid the same thing for the hip part.
($25 apiece? Each for the hip and the head?)
Yes, sir.
Entry 3940
Den a woman could take a - jes' like yo' go to market an' yo' git some steaks - yo' get steak. She know yo' like dat, or any kin'a meat yo' like. She wears dat right 'tween 'er laigs. She take dat an' leave her wear dat whole day an' she cook dat. An' she'll take dirt from undah her toenail an' she'll put it in yore food. She'll take an' she'll get some tomato paste an' put it into dat meat. De minute yo' eat dat, regardless of where dat woman at or where yo' at, but yo'll suffah wlt cramps in yore stomik. She done got dat, all dat filth down in yore stomik. Don't care where dat woman at, yo' want to see her, [even] if dere mens wit a fowl gun dere; but if dat woman in dat buildin', yo'll take a chance an' go on where she at. Dat's what yo' call she done fed yo' off 8ome of 'er 'pearance.
Entry 3982
Yo' take de antses when dey pilin', totin' dere dirt up high, why yo' kin take dat an' git a han'fulla it, an' put it in a bran'-new white han'ke'ch'ef an' urinate on it, an' den put it in somepin lak a tin [can] an' bear
[bury] it. Now, dat'll fill yo' fulla pain, jes' lak somebody shovin' needles through yo' dataway, yo' know - jes' lak somebody stick yo' dat way. Well, it's no cure fo' dat. (You have to walk over it.)
Entry 11216
Dirt dauber's nest, yeah. You take a dirt dauber's nest. You take it after it's dry. You take that and use that as a dust. You take that, you take sulphur - you take sulphur, you take carppis [copperas = green vitriol or ferrous sulfate].
(Carpus?)
[To my ears later the word was copperas.]
Coprus, yes. You mix that together. All right, you sprinkle that before the person's door or put it anywhere where they can step in it, see. And it'll worry them where they can step in it, see. And it'll worry them and it make their feet be tender. It gives them bad feet, so that they can't get around, see.
Entry 988
Then I hear of a man having a cap. Where he worked at a man didn't like him on account of his job and every time he put this cap on his haid - see, he kept this cap where he worked, he wore his other hat home. And the minute he come and put this cap on his haid, he'd fall out with head trouble. So he went to an old man and this old man told him to take this cap and in crossing dis Water throw his cap over his left shoulder and don't look back - cross the water, cross the bridge. So he did that and that head trouble went away.
(That cured him?)
That really went away - 'cause that was my husband did that.
(Well, did he use the cap again or just - )
He used it - he tried it once more - he put it on his head that morning and the pain came back.
Entry 8126
About dat photograph, ah had it done tuh me.
(What did they do with it?)
Dey done take dat photograph an' turn it on de face, an' if dey kept it on de face, dat's so yo'll be suffahin' a while an' die. Dat's what dey said tuh me an' ah found out.
Entry 35
De woman kin take or either a man, ah guess - but chew kin take a dozen needles an' put 'em in watah an' let 'em stay in dere ten days an' give someone de water to drink off. Dey say it's a deadly poison - say it jes' de same as yo' drink a needle - feel like some pins is sticking yo' in de inside - somepin like, jes' like if a person wanted to put a spell of some kind on - yo'd have dat pain jes' lak yo'd swallowed some needles yo' know. It take effect on yo' dat-a-way. Whut dey would do to stop it ah don't know.
[Just as the person's essential qualities were in the bath water (see No. 29)
so also the essential qualities of the needle absorbed by a bath are transferred to a person drinking needle-water.]
Entry 246
When I was five years old, my mother got hurt in her knee and she called the hoodoo, and my grandfather - was living at that time. And her knee came to be swelled larger than my head, and my grandfather had taken this mackerel fish brine and he'd taken a nickel's worth of Brown Mule tobacco - puts it in a quart of water and boiled it down to a pint, and he'd taken red peppah and put in there and vinegar, and he continued to rub and rub her knee with that until she got rid of it.
(Can you tell me how she got hurt down there?)
Well, she told me that she - it was a mark across the road, you know, and she stepped cross this mark and when she stepped cross this mark, not thinkin', the pain struck her in her knee.
(What kind of a mark was it, do you know?)
Just like you would - she said, just like a snake would cross the road, she say, that's the way the mark look to be. [Either her enemy drew a zigzag mark across the road - intended for the victim only - or her hoodoo man sent a dressed snake to do the work. Had she crossed a normal snake track, she would not have had the pain. The zigzag track of a snake across path or road - zigzag being a lightning symbol - is a sign of rain; see FACI,2ed., p.20, Nos. 535-537. No wonder, "when she stepped cross this mark... the pain struck her in her knee."]
(I see, I see. How many years ago did that happen?)
That happened when I was five years old and now I'm forty-three - will be forty-four on my next birthday.
(About forty years ago. I see. Where did this happen, around here?)
Out chere about eighteen miles from here.
(About eighteen miles from Vicksburg?)
Yes sir.
Entry 598
In 1888 I was well and hearty and doing daily labor, and a man told me to my face that he Would fix me. And I asked the boss what time it was and he told me it was half past five o'clock. And I was breaking on cracked stone. And I fell backwards and I was carried away from the place by two white men and I didn't know nothing from how I got home. And one old gentleman told me that two white men brought me home on their shoulders. And I asked this old gentleman haven [have] the sun gone down yet. I was not of my mind until the next day three o'clock. I sent for the doctor and he told me that he didn't know what to say about my case. And I taken with a swellen in my right leg, and then I had a pain in my hip, and I had it from that day to this, and I have been in with this misery since 1888. [At this point the informant's wife broke into the story to say that at first her husband had not suspected conjuration:] He was home here years before I was showed by the Lord in the Spirit that something was wrong with him. The Spirit told me that something was wrong, he was hurt. [She then described this spiritual revelation at length, but so rapidly that it was impossible to write it down. She was so suspicious of my intentions that she would not repeat the story, nor would she tell me anything about conjuration. Finally, the old man gave an account of his experience with the first root doctor who tried to cure him.] The fellow took me upstairs and asked me to cut a pack of cards. I told him I didn't know nothing about cards, "I never had a pack in my hand in my life and you'll have to show me how to cut them," and taken them and shuffled them and laid them down and told me to shuffle them out three in a pack [make four- teen packs of three cards each]. And he said, "I'm going to tell you who hurt you. You have been hurt." And he caught me by the toe [patient was barefoot] and show me right where the poison went up. And it went in my hip and swellen my leg up. He showed me who done it on the cards. He took a card from each pack and held them before me, and it appear to me that it was the man and woman and I had to confess [to the identity]. I recognized them but I ain't calling no names. And he said that he could cure me if my nerves would allow me to take the medicine he would give. And that's about all he told me. He gave me some dark medicine in a bottle. It had whiskey in it. And he told me I had to get a lot of whiskey and I got seven gallons. And he made the medicine and gave it to me. But my system was gone so weak that I couldn't take the medicine. That's what he told me. And he swoll me up so, he told me to cut the dose down three tablespoonful three times a day. Then I cut them down one half spoonful. And I found that it didn't do me no good and I quit. I went to see two or three fortune tellers and they told me the some thing. [Fredericksburg, Va., about ten miles out in the country, (65), by hand, no electricity.] [The dark medicine could have been black draft, frequently used by doctors - see Index. Whiskey is too often the chief ingredient of doctor-made medicine.]
Entry 615
Like sometimes you have a sore on your foot and it's hard to cure up, or you feet swells, give you a lot of trouble and painful. Then you take this bluestone...you boil this silver money in this water and if it jingles [to tell whether you have been conjuredl why then you mix this bluestone in that and then mix this sulphur. You take silver-water like that, they call it, then sulphur - you mix this sulphur with it and make a paste like, or you kin jest use it to soak your feet in and then bake 'em in de fire. You soak 'em for nine days or nine nights, then bake your feet by the open fire. You see, from the heat, and that draws out, they say, the poison. It's something like, they say, they dressed somepin they stepped on or dressed your shoes or dressed your stockings. And when that poison comes out it'll leave little white speck like places in your flesh. That's like if somepin you've powdered they've brushed on you or you've stepped over.
Entry 697
Her first husband's sister had two daughters and this younger girl married. But when she married this young man there was quite a bit of confusion. They didn't want her to marry this young man, so she married this man any Way. And after some considerable time everybody thought she was pregnant, but she stayed right under the care of a physician. And she didn't seem to revive, So the physician just gave her up. So her mother got very interested in her, she got interested. So she went to this same Woman down in [Augusta] Georgia. And when she took this girl to this doctor [recommended by the Augusta woman] it was too late that night for her to see him, so of course they had to go over until the next morning. So the next morning they went again to call on him. So he said to this girl, he said, "Well, you're in right bad shape," he said, "but you'll have to eat breakfast with me this morning." So he got an egg and he broke this egg, and he put the white of it in one dish and the yolk in another. And he whipped this [white of the] egg up to a froth and he took something and shook over it. She says she thought it Was salt. She don't know what in the world it was. And he said, "Now, you eat this and I'll watch this" - he's speaking of the yolk of the egg. He handed this plate to the girl, and a fork, and told her to eat it. She ate that and he watched the egg [yolk]. And when she had finished eating this white of the egg, why this yolk had turned as white as the white Was. So he said to her then, he says, "How do you feel now?" She said, "Well, I'm not hurting like I was, but I don't feel very good." So she leant over and he says, "What's the matter?" She say, "I'm having such cramps." So she said to him, she said, "I'll have to go to the bathroom." So he rung his bell and a woman came in. So he turned around and got a sanitary plate - one of these paper plates - and give her and told her, "Now, you use this instead of the commode. You use this." So she took that. And she said when she went to herself and her bowels passed, this plate was just piled up with long and short warms [worms], just as long as one could stay on there. And he told her in the meantime, he said, "Now you watch your action." So she went on out and that was the results from the medicine. So then she went back again to him. She told him. And he said, "Well, you didn't get frightened did jeh?" She said to him, she say, "I'm so nervous, '' she say, "I never saw any- thing like that." And he said, "Well," he say, "you're in bad shape- But after you were able to pass those warms [worms]," he said, "now I can cure you." So he gave her some medicine. And she's a perfectly well woman today, but she doesn't have any children. He said this thing that was put on her interfered with her organs and so she doesn't have any children.
Entry 699
This wus uncle's wife. She started one day to limpin' in her right leg. She said her leg wus hurtin' her so bad she couldn't do this an' she couldn't do that. She couldn't hardly walk on it and she couldn't cure it wit that medicine. She'll feel somepin jumpin' an' runnin' - claimed that's a jumpin' an' runnin' in her laig, an' she couldn't tell whut was the matter. So a little bit after that you could see that. She held it up so ever'body could look at it. That started to run up her to her knees and run right back down to near her ankles - jis' like that, jis' as plain that you look at it. An' in that time she wus havin' fits. So ole man Henderson Bird, she sent for him. He wus a root doctor. We'd call it a witchcraft doctor. He's from Camden, South Carolina. He come there an' he give her a dose of medicine an' he anoint dat laig down with somepin - it look like mercurochrome, a red liniment. He didn't told whut it wus but he told how it could happen. He said if you ketch a scorpion or a snake, jis' like you wan'a put a snake in a person, you kin kill the snake an' cut his haid off an' hold him up an' drop that blood into some water into a bottle an' stop that bottle up; that in nine days it'll be a snake or a scorpion, jis' whutever it wus [you killed]. An' he say that's whut they dose her. They dose her in some coffee with that scorpion blood. [Wilmington, N. Car., (295), 219:1+85; near Camden, S. Car.,1900.]
Entry 718
I have heard an old man say that he once went to a camp meeting and on his way home he walked over a root. And as soon as he walked over the root, a pain came into his leg so terribly that he had to hop all the way home. I do not recall how he got rid of this ailment but I do know that he thought someone had put a spell on him.
Entry 792
Well, they say you take the foot tracks and they can trick you with 'em. Pick it up - take something like a shovel or something like that and pick it up and bring it. Care [carry] it to the graveyard, and they would plant it by a grave and you'll find yourself - you're wasting away, something like wasting disease, see. Well, you say, "I'm going to a doctor, a medical doctor." Well, a medical doctor don't do you no good. "Well, I think I go to a two-head doctor" = [that] mean a hoodoo. Well, you go to a hoodoo and he'll say, "Well, you're tricked." He'll ask you, "Does you have pains up your legs?" You'll say, "Yes." Then the hoodoo will come and the hoodoo will say, "Well, have you been walking somewhere on the road somewhere?" You'll say, "Yes." The hoodoo will say, "Somebody done pick up your track - well, I can cure you." That what the hoodoo will say - he can cure you. Well, you say, "I give you so much to cure me" - you know, to make me well. Well, he say, "All right." Well, I'll try - try with this hoodoo man until he will try to do me some good. Maybe he may do me good and maybe, iffen I'm got confidence in him, he will do me good. Well, my feet are starting to swelling and paining me. I would take all kinds of 'erbs and medicines from him and start to rubbing myself with them but that don't do no good. Well, I'll say I'll try another hoodoo. You see. And then this Way he will go - the swelling will go - quite natchurly most anything will make swelling go down. This hoodoo will come along and may think he can do a whole lot for you. And well, he can't do nothing for you, you understand, because my sister was sick in the bed and a hoodoo man came there - he had a grip [bag] in his hand.
[He imitates a doctor by carrying a medical kit - see Doctor's bag in Index.]
He say to me - he walks in there - my sister was in the bed and I was setting by the bed with her. [Again, he apes a doctor by having a prescription: pad.] He had a tablet like you [see later] - just buy outen the store and there wasn't nothing on it, same as new, but he had that tablet fixed so that I couldn't tell - I couldn't tell you what I was going to tell you, but he walked in there and he say, "Your sister is sick and she got a bug in her bed."
(What in the bed?)
A bug, bug in her bed. He say she got a bug in her bed.
(Your sister had a bug in the bed?)
What made her sick.
(I see.)
Causing her being sick. And he say, "I can get this bug outen the bed for your sister, but it will cost fifty dollars. So she said, "Oh, I ain't got but thirty-five cents in the house." Do you understand me, what I say? [See Deafness in Introduction.] And he said, "I can show you what I can do." He pull out the tablet and he tore the sheet off the tablet - you couldn't see nothing, it was just like you'd buy out of the store. He goes, says, "You got a little lamp?" And he goes and he burns it. He burn that sheet but it didn't fall to pieces, you know. And on that sheet it say, "You going to die - you got a bug in your bed and if you don't get him out, you going to die and your next door neighbor - a tall, dark woman, put it in there for you."
(Did you see this writing on the paper?)
Yeah, I saw it.
(He held this piece of plain paper over the lamp?)
Yeah, and let it burn, and when it burn, you could see the writing just as good as you take your hand and do [write] it. [See Writing invisible, in Index.] He say, he ask the girl, my friend, he say, "Have you?" She say, "Well, I ain't got but thirty-five cents." He say, "Oh, it takes fifty dollars to do dat." He say, "Well, come back here." He goes back there in the next room and he say, "To show you that I'm not lying" - that's the hoodoo man say that, you know. He say, "Turn your mattress back." He had two little bottles just about that big, see [demonstrates].
(About the size of your finger.)
Yeah. One had a black bug in it like a wood bug - I don't know what kind of bug, but like a bug. And one bottle didn't have any in it. He said, "Throw your mattress back." Well, they throw the mattress back and he say, "Now look." Now, I was watching him very close, you know, and he say, "Now, you see this bottle." That bottle he showed us didn't have anything at all in it. He said, "I'm going to put this bottle under your mattress and then you throw it back and that bug going to get out of that mattress into that bottle." All right. She did that. Now, in place of him putting the bottle without any bug in, he slipped the one with the bug in it, you see. And when she turn back, he said, "Now go back and turn the mattress - look." And when we turn the mattress there was the bottle with the big bug in it. I say, "OH!" And my friend say, "Oh, look there, that bug was in your bed, too." I told her, I said, "oh, don't mind that, tain't no bug in no bed or nothing like that." I watched him so close and he was watching me very close, you know, when he was doing that. He say, "Well, I charge you fifty dollars to get him out." I say, "Well, she ain't got no fifty dollars." He say, "Well, I have to put this bug back in your bed." He goes and slips the bottle with the bug in in under there and taken the one what there was none in, and when he got ready to take the bottle out, he put the bottle what didn't have no bug in. He said, "Now, the bug has gone back in the mattress - into the bed." You know. Well, that was a fake. He didn't have no bottle - he had two. And by watching him close, that's what drawed my attention to him - you know, with the bottle what's in there. [He had a tablet like you - he refers to one of my Numbers Book.]
Entry 818
[Power for good or evil comes from many sources - actually, from one's desire or intention:] Well, it wus a little woman, her husband died an' leave two chil'run, a settle woman, light [complexion], an' it wus a bright-skin man, a settle man. He wus much older then she wus dough [though]. He wus single. He had liked this woman, had loved her an' wanted to marry this woman. An' another woman had love him, see, but he didn't care nuttin fer her. Well, he would buy her ev'ry kin' of thing ev'ry kin' of - nice things you know to bring this woman. He carries her candy, milk, ham an' all kin' of things to bring this woman, but she never would eat it when he'd bring it. She would take it out an' bury it. She wouldn't eat it. An' he kep' bringin' her some of his - he'd bring cloth an' all like dat. Well, she wouldn't use it. So he - fin'lly he couldn't git her that way, he came to see her one day, an' fin'lly he wed her anyhow by chewin' some chewin-gum, somepin like chewin'-gum, an' she inhaled it, choo know.
(What did he put on that?)
I don't know, sir, whut he put on it. An' he would use a white han'kerchif - you see, throw it aroun' like this [demonstrates], zhoo know, whenever he'd come to see her. [The Waving or manipulating of a white perfumed handkerchief appears to have been a fad at one time.] He'd throw it aroun' an' fin'lly she jis' went crazy about him, you see, an' she married dis man. But de other woman had loved 'im an' this other woman wus jealous of her an' this man. An' one day she came to her house an' the way she came she had to come through the back doah, an' she [wife] wus in de house. As she came along she drop some dirt down by de table.
(What sort of dirt did she drop?)
Some kin' of grey-lookin' san'" - where she always stan', you know, washin' dishes. An' she said, "Hey." She didn't hear her because she wus in de house. This wus in de country. She didn't hear her because she was inside de house. She said, "Where are you?" She said, "Here I am." She said, "I thought you ought to be standin' here washin' dishes." She say, "No, here I am in de house today." She she went in an' done dropped dis in there in the kitchen as she was passin'. An' they went on in there wit de talkin'. She said, "Well, now, Louise, I got'a get up an' fix dinnah, '' she say, "he'll be here directly for his dinnah." An' she went on back in the kitchen, went to stirrin' aroun' the table, you know, built a fire in de stove an' messin' aroun' de table an' things like that. An' all at once a pain struck her in the bottom of her foot an' then her foot went right on up to her stomach an' her stomach began to hurt an' she said, "oh," she said, "you know my feet hurt!" An' the other woman said, "Yes?" She said, "Whut's de matter with you?" She say, I don't know." She had jes' stepped on this san' an' it went all on de bottom of her foot, but she didn't see it, you see, an' this woman knowed she had put it there. An' she say, "You know, I got a pain down in this toe." It looked like it would come in spells, you know. It would lay off awhile an' come back again. An' she kep' on like that, didn't pay it no min', didn't thought it 'mount to nuthin. Fin'lly the woman kep' on worryin' her - this other woman went on back home. An' she got bad off, real sick, an' they called de doctor an' tried ev'rything they could an' didn't seem to do her no good. An' one woman come there, she say, "You know one thing, I believe you's hurt." She said, "You reckon?" She said, "Yeh, I believe you's hurt." She said, "Well, I don't know how it works but I seen people hurt an' dat's de way it worked - come in spells like dat." An' sure enough, she say that why she couldn't make a pass - couldn't have a action. An' so she tole her about a root man. They took her in de buggy an' carried her - I don't know where he lived - an' this man fixed her up. She said the man said, "This a simple thing." He worked through the spirit, with the Lord, you know. He reads the Bible an' all. Before time she walked in the house he could tell her - he commence to tellin' her whut she come for an' tell her she wus hurt. An' he gave her some plain aloes - this bitter medicine, this black aloes with whiskey on it an' tell her take a teaspoonful of that ev'ry four hour. An' he give her a box of sulphur an' tell her take a pinch of that sulphur whenever she take this aloes. So she did that an' fin'lly she begin to have a action an' you know her bowels begin to hurt an' she pass. A snake come from her. The snake had a head on both end. Den a scorpren [scorpion] at de next time. Well, she said she continued takin' that. After that passed she begin to get all right. She had to pay fifty-five dollah.
Entry 867
[A picture of a handbill will be found among the illustrations. In the Introduction I explain my experience with handbills in Baltimore. My Mojo Expert of Memphis in Interview section is puzzled because I did not advertise.] Here on Madison Avenue in the same block and - so one morning I'd gone to the store and I'd taken a awful pain in my foot and I had to hop, and I hobbled back home and ah told my daughter, ah say, "You go and tell Mrs. Dawson, I can't come up dere this morning, '' I say, ''because somethin' happen to mah foot before I got up there." And you know before the day was gone my feet was this way [demonstrates].
(Swollen?)
Swole. Well, I couldn't wear a shoe, a bedroom slipper or nothin', and I hobbled round there for most of the week. But one day I was settin' on de porch and see de wind blow somethin' - some advertisin' papers [handbill] up near de gate and I called my daughter to come and get dem so I could read dem and see what they was. [See illustrations of handbills given to me.] When she brought dem - went and got dem and I see where it was a man out to Merrimac Avenue and he was from New York, so de paper said, and he say he want ever'body that was sick to come and get well. Well, I got her to get her boy friend to take me out dere and he'd taken me out dere. He called himself Professor Purvis. And we'd gone out there and he look at my feet and legs and he said, "Oh," he said, "you are in bad shape." He says, "Where did you get this from?" I said, "Well, what is it?" "You walked over something," he said, "a enemy put down fer yuh and you didn't have - you wasn't wise to the fact." He say, "It's a woman this man is dealing with and it seems like he likes you better," and he say, "that she is stopping you from going to the house - to the store." And he says, "You've taken [this] thing between your house and the store?" I said, "I sure did." He said, "Well, I tell you," he say, "that's purtty serious," he say, "but I will work on you," he say, "but ah works peculiar - ah don't give you anything, but ah give something to wear." And he gave me a little piece of something like silver and he say, "When I work on anyone and cure them, it always goes back where it come from." Well, I'd gone on [home]. He say, "Now, in a few days you goin' be so dizzy you can't get up, but stay in bed." Well, sure 'nuff, I was. And so when I commence to getting dizzy, well [that meant] this swelling going out of my feet and veins, because I couldn't even walk - had to get my daughter pull me around in a chair. And so after then, purtty soon I heard talk of a woman being very sick. Well, her friend asked me where did I go and I told her where to go, but they never could catch him at home. Well, they'd gone to North Carolina and got an old man and brought him up there and this old man told her - her friend told me because she lived upstairs over me - she might of known about her puttin' this out on me. But I didn't see this [what was] put out fer me because he said he was goin' to get that one night himself. He said it was in a bottle and it was put down fer me and I asked him what was it. He say, "It's your tracks with some pins in it." He say, "Dere's nine pins and your tracks is in there." and he say, "that's to give great effect," he say, "and then there's some graveyard dirt too," he say, "that took great effect on yuh," and says, "but I'll get that one night myself." I never did see it. He say he got it and I got well, but the other woman was taken sick. And this man from North Carolina came and her own friend told me, that when he come in and she was going on so, he said, "What's the matter?" He says, "Nothin' the matter with yuh but just reapin' what you sows." He says, "You sowed somethin' to somebody that hadn't did anything to you and they was just sharp enough to turn it back on you," and say, "I can't do you no good, when you beginnin' to reap I can't cure you." Say, "You just reapin'" and they say he took his bag and went on back to North Carolina. He didn't do anything for her and she died. And she was one of my lodge members, too.
(That's all you did - was to wear this silver?)
Wore that silver, all I did - little piece of silver that I wore a long time. It look white as my old hat here - just as white. But I'd gotten well - whatever he did, ah don't know. He didn't give me anything to take or nothin', jest told me to wear that.
quoted participant cure claim and refusal, followed by narrator-reported uncertain recovery. No verified cure or causal efficacy These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified. A quoted participant specifically claims graveyard dirt; the narrator says she never saw it. This occurrence is retrieved under the broad historical Dirt index without merging it with the separate Graveyard dirt destination. The contents, responsible person and causal cure remain unverified.
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Entry 882
(Yes, go ahead.)
In the little town where I was born, you know there was a lotta people there that believed in hoodooism. (I see - and will you talk slow, please.) There were a lotta people and they believe in hoodooism. There was a man, he was - before he married - he was courtin' another lady, and after he married why he still Sweethearted with her. And he moved next door to her when he married. And he took care of his wife and bought her everything that she needed as far as he was able, and his sweetheart envied her, envied his wife because he neglected her mostly altogether. And she tried a certain some way of getting rid of his wife, and she - she sought around, she found out that it was a man in another county that she could go to him and have this lady fixed to get rid of her. And she went - she caught the train one evening and went to this man. It was a man. She went to the man and when the man saw her coming, he told her to come in - he knew what her business was there. (Where did this man live that she went to see? What town did he live in, or near what town?) He lived in New Orleans.
(And where was this town that you were born in?)
Taylor.
(Where?)
Taylor.
(Where is that?)
It's in Mississippi.
(Taylor - how do you spell it?)
Cary.
(All right - go ahead.)
And after she went there, he told her what she - he knew what she came for. And so she explained everything to him. So he gave her a little bottle about fo' inches tall with some kind of a liquid in it - it was a little green bottle with some kind of liquid in it. And he told her, like if - when she come back to bury it under her [wife's] steps. And she came back with it one dark night and took and buried it under the steps. And the next day the lady came out, you see, to go to the store to [buy] some- thing for breakfast. And when she came out, she came down the steps, and as she came down the steps, why something caught her - a pain caught her in the leg and drew her legs up and she couldn't walk. A man came along and he called another lady and he helped put her in the bed. And she was getting worse and worse, look like it would kill her and so her husband thought he would get, you know, consult diff'rent physicians and he couldn't never get any cure for her. So one day, he was long and sad, looking for someone and he met a man, and the man told him that he knew his troubles, and then asked him how long his wife had been sick. And he said about two months. And so he said he could cure his wife. So the man went on back to his house and told him - when he got to the steps he told him to bring him a spade. He brought him a spade and he dug up that little green bottle. The man what he met was a hoodoo himself, and he dug up the bottle and carried it to some running water and threw the - opened the bottle and threw the liquid into the stream, and threw the bottle into the stream, too, both of then, and didn't even look back and went on back to the house and he asked the lady how did she feel, and she said she was feeling better all at once. And so he made up some kind of a mixture of herbs and rubbed her up with it - rubbed her with it, and fixed some stuff in a bottle and told her to put it under the pillow and let it stay under there for about three days. And then after he'd taken it from under her pillow, well, he'd taken and diggin' in the front yard, you know, puts it and buries it in the front yard in front of the gate - opposite the gate, and buried it deep enough so that no one could dig it up or nothing could dig it up. And after he done that, why - after the three days he did as the man told him, and then the lady was getting along fine. And after she was getting along fine, the lady what tried to kill her came - you know, began to visit her. And she seen that she was getting better and when she'd get there; she came in one evening to see her. The lady Was getting along, around the house doing her work, and she was sitting up in the bed. That lady brought some fish, and she ate that fish and why hit kilt her.
(It killed her? They killed the wife, you mean?)
Yes, sir.
(That killed the wife?)
Yes, sir. (What do you mean about the three days - I didn't understand - you said some- thing about three days?) Yeah, he told her for to let that - he fixed some - a little old bottle of medicine - I don't know exactly what all the ingredients was, but he told her to put it under her pillow - under the lady's pillow and let it stay under three day and then take it out and dig a deep hole in the ground and bury it deep enough so that nothing could dig it up.
(He left it under the pillow for three days?)
Yes, sir.
Entry 886
Yo' kin take dey underwear right in de seat an' take it out somewhere an' bury it an' dat'll give yo' pain all ovah, especially in all de joints - jis' pain an' continue hurtin' all de time. De reason ah'm tellin' yo' dis becuz ah had de same thing happen tuh me yeah befo' last, an' ah'd written a man a lettah an' mailed him one dollah in it an' he straighten it out fo' me.
(What did he do - send you something or tell what to do?)
He didn't send me nuthin - didn't tell me whut to do. Jis' wrote an' tole me, says, "Yore case will be okay. An' in fo' or five days dat misery wus gone.
(Did you write very far away from here to get that done?)
Yessuh, a pretty good piece - I wrote to Patterson, Arkansas.
Entry 964
Dere somepin did to mah sistah. She go fo' a ice cream sodee on a Friday night an' de othah girls dere didn't like her at all. So she went dere at night an' dey served her ice cream an' dey fixed her a saucer of it, an' after- wards she remembered dey speci'lly bring her saucerful. An' after- ward, purtty soon after she leave, de side of her laig all commence painin' her all de way up. An' purtty soon dey had taken an' carry her home, couldn't walk, where she got sick an' de doctah 'tended her [and could not help her]. An' dat laig had swole so, jes' to de knee - swole so dat it jes' be a bag of skin dere an' yo' see somepin like somepin wus crawlin' up an' down her laig. So mah father, he goes an' git him a ridge bass - a root worker, an' he looked at her an' he give her some tea, some kinda tea in a jar an' tole her she'd be all right in about eight or nine days. Didn't [give] her no 'tenshun an' she seem to be gittin' worse an' worse, an' in about a week an' a half he came dere - it wus in de mawnin', said, "Ah come tuh cure de girl." Father say, "Ah hope so - she didn't rest any last night an' she not restin' now." An' he give him three little tablets 'bout de size of an' aspirin tablet but they were black. He tole us, say, "Git the slop jar." She taken de three, an' in about five minutes time she commence gaggin' an' she gagged up a pure green frog: She re'lly did dere in de slop jar. Ah wus standin' right dere.
(End of 1429.)
(That story he told me about the envelope - throwing it up in the air and having it disappear - he said that the root doctor was old Doctor Harris down in Florence, S. Car.) [Fayetteville, N. Car., (1429), 2579:13.] [Folk Medicine I will divide into two subsections: (l) Principles of Healing, beginning here, and (2) Cure and Protection, which begins on page 410.] [A considerable amount of material about principles of healing, cures and protection has already been given. Here I would like to emphasize two things - folk cures about which we have heard little; and the fact that disease, sickness, pain, bad luck, everything in witchcraft and hoodoo is a spirit.] [The problems of health are many, difficult and expensive. It is unfortunate that they should also be encumbered with prejudice and superstition. Concerning the latter - believers in witchcraft, hoodoo and magic throw a halo about their heads, claiming as their authority the Bible, the Word of God: - (l)he [Manasseh] observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards (2 Ch.33:6) - (2) Saul had put away those that had faniliar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land (1 Sam.28:3)- (3) Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (Ex.22:18).] [One informant expresses the attitude of witchcraft and hoodoo believers as well as the view of Biblical fundamentalists:]
Entry 978
Earthworms - you know earthworms that you fish with. That's an experi- ence of myself - I did that. I was hurt. A lady wanted my husband. She caused me and my husband to get along bad. Well, I was working for some white people doin' days work. (She had what?) [Her word caused like cuzed or cussed.] She had I and my husband living disagreeable and we could not get along: I was finding a child every year and he was very whore-ish about running around at women. Now, I had days work from white people I was working for since I was a little girl. So she buried a bottle at my gate and I goes in the gate that evening from my work, a pain struck me in this foot. Well, I rubbed, I rubbed, I bathed and the more I rubbed the worser it'd get. And my foot busted open on top and worms like - you've seen wood sawyers, haven't you? Well, they's crawl out of my foot. [These beetles probably pine sawyers.] Well, there was an old man - he was a two-headed man - old man Ellis Perdue. He's dead now. He lived that far from me - from here [to] across the street.
(Here in New Orleans?)
No, that was in Alabama.
(What town in Alabama?)
Atmore, Alabama. He's dead though, now. He comes to my house and look at my foot. He takes a hoe and goes into my garden. He digs as many earthworms as you could: hold like that [demonstrates] - just as many as you could hold up in your hands. He puts 'em in a pot and boils 'em. He goes and buys this first hog lard - you know, the leaf like you buy and dry it up [render] yourself. He dried that up with some saltpeter - a nickel of saltpeter and a nickel of red pepper in it and made a salve to bathe my feet in. Then he told me to save my urinate. I saved my urinate until I got about a quart and I put that on with nine pods of red pepper and a nickel of saltpeter and a box of table salt and boiled it. That's to bathe me in all over, I start from here down [demonstrates].
(From your head down.)
For nine mornings, bathe me down in it to my feet. Then rubbed me down with that salve after he done made out of those earthworms, and on the ninth morning he say, "Now when you bathe yourself on the ninth morning, go in your back yard, facing the sunrise, go but turn your back to the sunrise and throw it over your left shoulder and don't look back and you'll walk." And I've been walking ever since. That's just the experience of me. My feet was layin' open, just like you about that far [demonstrates], like you take a knife and split it open and those worms crawled out. And he told me, he says, "Long as you live, you get you two silver dimes and wear 'em on your legs, to keep anybody from putting anything down for you. But I've been hurt since then because I got jealous. The strings of my dimes rotted and I lost 'em in the bed. Course I put 'em up but I never did put 'em back on, but I've been hurt through my minastratin'. Yes, sir, I was hurt here in New Orleans - next month it'll be five years ago.
(How did that happen?)
Well, my daughter died. My enemies through the death of my daughter come in my house. I was minastratin', you know, like women will pull their pieces off and be careless sometimes. I left one of my pieces and I put it down and the woman got my piece and buried me in the graveyard. Well, she stopped me up. I Was stopped up fifteen days before I could minastrate. I was took with pains in my stomach, in knots like that and I was turning dark. So on a Tuesday at twelve o'clock I was cutting some turnip greens at my table. I had boarders, you know - I was selling lunches and selling liquor - bootlegging. And a pain hit me right in here and right back here and throwed me just like you would knock me down. In the bottom part of my stomach, right down just above my cross-bone and just above my rectum back here, and I fell just like you would, you see, just somebody knock you down. So they come and they picked me up and they put me in the bed and I rang up for the doctor. He come and he give me a hyperdermic. That hyperdermic set me on fire. I looked like I was - I just clawed everything, my pain was so severe in my body that I just wanted to tear up everything I could get my hands on. So I had a white doctor - it was a colored doctor that come [the first time] - so I got my insurance doctor, a white doctor, and the more medicine he'd give me the worse I'd git. So there was an old lady in the block. She come to see me. She lives in the block where I live now. She told my mother, she said, "That girl is hurt." She said, "You go to the drug store and get ten cents of jumaca ginger," 'you know what that is, "and you boil it and you give her that tea, just as hot as she can drink it, three nights straight." I drank that tea. And then she said, "You soak her feet in that saltpeter, red pepper and table salt and her urinate." My feet was white as cotton without a drop of blood in 'em in my feet. I was burning up from here down to my feet and up here I was freezing to death. So my mother did that and when my minastratin' come on it Was black as that coat you have on [see Coat, author's black, in Index]. I stayed that way a solid month. I was weighin' 164 pounds - when I got up I Was weighin' 92. And 100 pounds of ice a day I used. I had a foot-tub and I had to crush that ice and lay on the side of the bed like this with a pillow at the foot of my bed to try to sleep with my feet in that tub of water until I was burning up. If I didn't have 'em in that ice water, it looked like you just had fire made against my feet, burning me up. I was burning up from my knees down and I was freezing here [from knees up]. And when I'd get tired of laying like this, my mother would put me in the bed and I bought one of these big hot-water bottles, and I'd crush the ice and put it in there and lay it against the foot of the bed and rest my feet on it, so I could rest my body. You see I'd get tired of being cramped like this. That's just the experience of me since I've been here. And after that, the old lady told me, she say, "Whatever you do, every month you come like that, you Wash your pieces as fast as you use them and don't leave away from home and leave them hanging outdoors; always keep your pieces in the house, 'cause another rap like that you'll never make it. Now, what dose medicines was she give me, I couldn't tell you because she didn't let me know that. But I do know about the Washing of my feet and my urniate in that tub of saltpeter and table salt, 'cause I had to do that myself.
Entry 1099
I have known a woman who had a swelling from her knee down - from her knee down she was miserable. It hurt her, it kept her in terror, until she got so she could not walk. Finally, when the people had tried everything they knew to rub with and to bathe her legs with, her foot continued just to be swollen in such a nature of misery until she could not bear any weight on it. On a certain day an old woman came by the house. She said, "What have you done for that leg?" She asked how about her foot. They said, "We have done everything we know." She said, "Will you do this?" She said, "I will tell you what to do. You go out in an old field and when you find where these big red ants have made their nest" - it has a big hill, usually there is a lot of young ones in that hill - "you carry a pot with you, take a shovel, go around four ways around the nest and let it go in the ground. Then you just scoop that nest right up on the shovel and put it in that pot, all the live ants you can get, and cover the pot up and take it home. Put it over the fire, get some chamber lye, put the pot on the fire, put the chamber lye in, shut it up tight, let it get hot with the ants in there. When it gets hot and you know the ants is all dead and the dirt is hot through, open the pot, take a piece of cloth, spread this ant hill out on the cloth hot, apply it to the leg, as hot as she can bear it, bind it there and in her instep, bind it good and let it stand. I guarantee you that it will take the misery out of the swelling, because she has been cunjured." That was in Orangeburg County [South Carolina]. I saw the person. I saw the ant hill. I saw the poultice. And the next day she could put her foot to the floor. In four days she could walk. They repeated that twice and the leg Was healed. [New York Citv. (10, Ed.]
Entry 1210
(They do what with the dirt dauber's nest?)
Make a tea out of it an' strain the tea an' give it to 'em to drink. Dey give it to 'em tuh drink. Dey give de girls in de home - young girls in de home an it will make dere periods start on 'em if dey have nevah start an' dey won't have any pains. Dat's de onlies' [only-est] thing dat ah heard dat wus good fo'.
Entry 1212
If a woman's in birth an' pain, it seems to be slow, well yo' kin git dat dirt dauber nest - git dem lil' daubers out of it. [Whole nest is not used as in preceding remedy.] Go an' git dat little trash out of it an' put it in a cup of hot water an' let it steep. Strain it an' put chew in a - jes' 'cordin' to how much yo' got. If yo' got a half of a half a pint of it, well yo' put a half of a half a pint of whiskey into half a pint of it an' give her a teacup of dat. An' in ten minutes aftah she drink it de pains rise on her - de pains will rise. An' when de pains rise den de watah first will bust - de watah bag, dat'll bust. When dat'll bust den de baby will come out.
Entry 1370
For backache you take a cord string and you tie nine knots in it and get you a bottle of turpentine and wet that string good in that turpentine and wear that around your waist. And that turpentine will kill the pains in your back.
Entry 1393
Ah've heard about wire nail. Jes' lak ah be walkin' in dis house or either walkin' out dere in de street. Ah go an' git me a wire nail - git one dat stickin' up in de groun' an' ah go ahead an' walk on dat nail. Ah'll take dis wire nail an' carry it to a tree. When ah carry it to dis tree, take it den an' nail it up to de head, an' ah'll nevah have any soreness in mah feet from no wire nail. An' either dat, den if it's a rusty nail, ah'll nail it in de tree an' ah will nevah have no lockjaw.
Entry 1524
A dime on dere laigs or either tie it roun' dere arm or wear it around dere neck.
(What is that supposed to do?)
Well, dat keep down de pains fo' heart trouble.
Entry 1581
Sweat - frequently used in the form of soiled clothes for rites of love or bodily harm - does not occur often in cures or protection.] Well, jes' lak now yo' figure somebody dey done hurt chew or somepin an' yo' have pains, well yo' git up dat mornin' befo' sunrise an' git chew some water out de well an' drink it befo' it curify yo' know. An' yo' turn toward de east an' run yore hand down, yo' know, an' look toward the east an' spread yore hand - yo' know, smell yore hand an' look toward de west, look toward de north, an' look toward de south like that. While yo' doin' it an' smell yore hand jes' lak dat. Yo' won't have nary another pain.
(That will get rid of that pain?)
Yes sir.
[The implication without demonstration was sufficient for my comment:]
(You run your hands under your privates and smell them each time you look toward the four directions. And you should drink some of this water out of the well before what?) Befo' de sun rise, befo' it curify, yo' know. Draw it up an' drink it right den.
(Before it what? Curifies? What does that mean?)
Well, yo' know, dat means jes' lak yo' - jes' lak fresh water yo' know.
(While it is still fresh?)
Don't let it set no time - jes' draw it up an' drink it right den - dat's whut ah mean. [I think he is trying or means to say purifies = pure, fresh - don't let it stand. Water left standing overnight, for example, is dangerous (No. 76, p.32.)] (And after you drink that water, then you rub your hands between your legs and smell them and put them in the four directions.) Every time you look in a direction you turn an' smell yore hands an' look right straight up, yo' know.
(And that will take away any pain you have?)
Yes.
Entry 1637
Ah wus fixed. Ah wus dressed one time an' ah wus tole to take some table salt an' go roun' an' roun' mah buildin' three time a week an' jes' scatter it 'long. An' take some of my chamber lye at night an' in de mawnin' throw a han'ful in de fire an' jes' sprinkle dat chamber lye right in de fire behin' yo' an' don't look back at it - jes' back up to de fire an' throw it in an' don't look back. An' it 'move mah misery - it painful all ovah.
(You threw that handful of salt in the fire every morning [for three mornings]
and then you threw that chamber lye behind it?) Yes - fo' three mawnin's, befo' sunrise.
(And you threw that salt around the house three mornings in the week?)
Three mornin' in de week.
(One morning right after the other or what?)
Yes sir, three mornin': Monday mornin', Tuesday mornin', an' Wednesday de last momin'.
Entry 1676
Any time dat lightnin' strike a tree, why yo' kin take a piece of dat, yo' see, an' use it fo' any kind of pains lak dat. (How would you use it?) Well, yo' boil it yo' see an' yo' wash yoreself, bathe in it.
Entry 2846
She kin call that person that's impregnant [pregnant] an' mark in they back nine times. Jis' make a mark cross it - jis' lak yo' standin' talkin' to a person - jis' be standin' up doin' anything. (Like making a cross?) Jis' all in her back an' jis' cross it all kinda ways, yo' see. Then she go on an' she write that person's name down on that black candle. An' then she burn that candle an' red peppah in a green saucer.
(What will that do then?)
Well, that will cause her tuh have pain an' she cain't have her baby, see. She'll lose it.
crossing/marking a pregnant person's back, with geometry left indefinite. The continuation states intended pain and pregnancy loss; retain it as a reported harmful purpose, not a medical fact or recommendation. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
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Entry 2974
Take two. needles an' yo' cross 'em nine mawnin's in de hair - up in de hair yo' cross fo' nine mawnin's. Yo' go tuh de rivah or well an' yo' bathe yore face, dat'll pass dat pain in de haid.
(Will that put the candles out or what?)
Dat'll put 'em out - put out dat cross.
Entry 3133
De way she ties 'im up when she make a connection wit 'im, she'll use de cloth, an' she takes it an' puts it in a quart jar an' stop it up. He could- n't go tuh anothah woman tuh save his life. Evah time he go - an' he'll make yo know. If it's mah husban' an' ah do dat fo' him, he'll make yo' know dat he can't go out an' have a connection wit anothah woman. He'll come in an' tell yo, say, "Ah don't know whut s de mattah wit me. Mah back wore me out. Ah'm jis' tuh de place where ah cain't do nuthin. Ah'm goin' up tuh see de doctor." Long as yo' keep 'im stopped up - she don't use de same cloth he does, jes' let 'im use it.
Entry 3305
Dey could git ahold [a hold] of yore chamber lye an' could stop it up in a dark bottle, yo' know, an' put nine nails in it, lak dat, an' keep it turned up on de head, an' quite natchly [naturally] dat would hurt yo', yo' know.
(Well, how would it hurt you?)
Well it could stop yo' from makin' watah. It would give yo' pains or things lak dat.
(I see. What kind of a bottle did you say you have to keep it in?)
Keep it in, you know, lak a beer bottle - dark bottle, any kinda dark bottle.
(It wouldn't do any good to put it in a white bottle, would it?)
No. Yo' would have to put it in de cornah of de house some place, in a dark place yo' know, an' turn it up. Dat will stop yo' from makin' watah an' keep yo' painin' [hindering sexual potency].
Entry 3834
[Take] dat blood an' put it on a rag er somepin an' bury it up undah 'is house. Dat'll keep 'im down. (Blood from any part of his body?) Any part of 'is body. (How do you mean keep him down?) Well, how yo' keep )'im down - see, dat's buried undah de earth, undahstan'. Well, dat keeps 'im painful - jes not able to work, not go.
Entry 3917
Take dey sanitary cloth an' roll it up aroun' dat hair wit de quick- silvah in it, an' den yo' stick dose needles in dere, yo' see, an' yo' put it in a secret place somewhere. An' dey'll be worried to death wit dat, an' natchly [naturally] it will run 'em crazy. (You told me something a while ago. How does it make them feel, you say?) Oh! it makes 'em feel lak pins is stickin' in 'em - in dey flesh or somepin all de while.
Entry 4424
Ah have seen dat, dis chamber lye [see later]. Dere wuz a man heah 'bout ten yeahs ago - no, it's been about twenty yeahs ago [1919]. He'd taken me, mahself, taken mahself an' buried me in a tree. An' when he buried me in a tree he sup- posed tuh hit it - tap dat wedge nine days an' den ah'd die. But he didn't tap it nine days. De Lord fixed it so dat ah wuz able tuh light [loosen] it an' knocked it out befo' ah begin tuh take bad. Befo' ah begin tuh take bad ah found it an' knocked it out.
(What did he put in the tree?)
[I ask this because of the preceding chamber lye.]
He put some of mine in-stuff in de tree, put nine needles in it.
(He put some of your passage?)
Yes sir.
(How did he prepare that?)
He took it somewheres an' put it in a tree, bo'd a hole in a big tree wit a augah, an' aftah he bo'd wit dat augah in de big tree, he'd taken nine needles an' put dem in dere. Den he made dis wedge, wedge or stoppah, an' put in dere an' hit it fo' nine masniln's, an' he didn't git a chance tuh hit it fo' nine mawnin's befo' de Lord fixed it so ah could find it. When ah founds it ah knock- ed it out an' ah got bettah.
(What did you do wdth it. just leave it there?)
Ah'd taken an' carried it to de house an' showed it tuh 'im, but de pains wuz shootin' up through mah haid lak dat. An' if ah had let it stayed dere an' he'd ahit it nine mawmin's, ah wouldn't have been heah today. Ah wuz goin' down, be- fo' ah'd taken tuh bed.
Entry 4747
Jis' lak a woman got a husban' runnin' roun', or yuh got a woman run- nin' roun' an' yuh wanta stop 'er. Yuh know wha' chew kin do wit dey socks or dey undahclothes. Yuh kin take de socks or eithah dey undahclothes wha' dey wore nex' tuh 'um an' bury dem. Put dat salt on it. Put a boil aig in it. Take a boiled aig an' put in dere an' dat salt.
(Leave the shell on or off?)
Leave de shell on - jis' a boil aig hot. Wrap it right up in dat clothes, see, an' bury it down undahneat' de front steps. MAN, DAT'S ONE OF DE WORST THINGS YUH EVAH. IT WEAKENS DOWN YUH MIND, YUH THINK YUH GOIN' DIE. Dey gits sick, jis' weaken down. Don't have no mo' strength atall. Dat's if a man is runnin' roun' an' yuh cain't stop 'em, see. An' yuh kin take it up, if yuh wanta ease de pain; but if dey start in ag'in, put it right back down an' dey git right back down ag'in. (That is if they are running around.)
Entry 4889
You take that sock off that right foot and carry it somewhere and bury it and you hurt that foot. It cause pains to come in your leg. [Richmond, Va.,
(385. Doctor Johnson, see p.1620f.) 333:4.]
Entry 5532
Ah've heard dat dey kin git chure foot track an' measure yore foot track, an' take some of de dirt out de hollah of yore track, see. Den go tuh de graveyard aftah twelve o'clock an' git some de dirt from de heart, about de heart, an' from de head an' from de foot [3 places]. An' mix it wit dat dirt whut dey took out of yore track. An' march aroun' dat grave fo' times, firs'. Den come back an' march aroun' it ag'in five, six, seven. De seven is de uneven numbah. March roun' dat seven times. Den take dat dirt whut dey got wit de graveyard dirt outen yore track, an' go an' mix it tuhgethah, an' boil it in salt an' water an' lime. Throw dat in salt, watah an' lime. Den dey will take dat an' sprinkle it wherevah yo' gotta go, where yo' cross ovah at, if it's yore doorstep or some path yo' go. If yo' in a car, why dey'd sprinkle it aroun yore car - sompin like dat - an' dat will do yo' harm. See, when yo' git in dere, yo'll be painful an' cain't rest, an' have no min' tuh stay at home - only be goin' all de time. (NOW TO MAKE CERTAIN ABOUT THIS. When you get this graveyard dirt after twelve o'clock at night, you get it from three places: on the head, the heart, and the feet. And before you get that dirt, do you walk around the grave four times or after?) Aftah.
(Then you say you walk around it again five times?)
Firs' yo' walk aroun' it, dat make five. Den yo' walk aroun' it seven times.
(Seven separate times or all together?)
Altuhgethah.
(You walk around it four times. Then what do you do?)
Yo' walk aroun' it fo' times an' yo' speak words.
(What will you say?)
Yo' will say, "Ah wan' dis man tuh be subjec' tuh me. Ah wan' 'im tuh go an' not come back. Dat 'is min' may go from 'im, dat he may not undahstan' whut he do." See, dat's whut dey'll say.
(Then you will walk around it?)
Two mo' time. Dat makes seven. (They walk around it four times. They dig that dirt up and walk around it four times. Then what do they do after the fourth time, after they say those words?) Den dey walk aroun' it ag'in one time. Dat makes five, yo' see.
(Then do they say anything?)
Naw, don't say anything. Den de fifth time, den de sixth an' de seventh. Den dey march aroun' dere de seventh time, den dey will repeat de same words over ag'in....
(Then you go on away with the graveyard dirt.)
Entry 5538
Ah'll answah yo' dis guestion. (All right.) Dey'll take yore foot track an' dey'll take a cord string, a bran'-new piece of cord outa de store, an' dey'll measure yore foot track. Dey will measure each one of 'em, right an' left. Dey goin' tuh put one foot track goin' dis Way an' dey goin' tuh put de othah goin' data way [demonstrates]. An' dey goin' tuh write yore name on a bo'd - it goin' tuh be on a bo'd [symbol of graveboard]. Dey goin' tuh write yore name on dat, an' dey goin' tuh take an' throw it ovah de lef' shouldah in de rivah [Mississippi] or in de lake [Ponchartrain] air [either] one of dem two go; if it go in de lake, it's all right an' if it go in de river, it's all right. Well, dat's tuh - dat is so yo'll jis' git sick, lingah sick, an' yo' don' know whut's de mattah wit chew. Firs' thing, a pain'll take yo' an' yo'll git paralyzed-lak, but yo' isn't paralyzed, yo' is tricked. See. Yo's [you has] no control of yore feet an' jis' puts yo' in a dragon [dragging] con- dition. (Now, they turn one foot track that way and one this way [author demon- strates]?) Yes, sir, jis' lak dis [demonstrates].
(Do they use the same string for both or two different strings?)
It's de only one string. Dey wan' dat track.
(Do they dig up that track or do they [merely] measure it?)
Dey takes 'em up. Dey takes 'em up, de whole measure of it. But how dey do, dey take 'em up - dey have a li'le flat bo'd an' yo' see, dey take dat dust an all up tuhgethah.
(They just slip it under those tracks?)
Dey slip it right undah dese tracks, an' now dey goin' tuh put one track goin' dis way an' [demonstrates] - one feet goin' out dis way an' de othah feet go dis Way. An' dey goin' tuh write yore name on a pastebo'd.
(Pasteboard?)
Shoe pastebo'ds whut chew buy shoes in. Dey goin' tuh write yore name on dat. An' aftah dey write chure name on dat, dey takes it an' dey goes tuh de rivah or de lake, an' throw it ovah de lef' shouldah.
(Well, wait a minute. Do they throw these foot tracks in with the pasteboard?)
Yes, sir. Dey throw dat ovah de lef' shouldah an' In de Name of de Fathah, an de Son, an' de Holy Ghost.
(I see.)
Dat's goin' tuh make yo', in nine days time, yo' goin' tuh come, be loose of yore limbs. No more service tuh yoreself. (What do they do with that string they measure it with? What do you do with the string?) Dey takes dat string - dat's de - dat so as - yo' see when yo' be - if yo' be pickin' up - yo' know, if yo' pick up dust, it's bound tuh crack, huh? But chew got de full length of it wit dat string.
(I see.)
Well, dat string goes wit it. It's tied right across dat bo'd. An' throw it ovah de lef' shouldah In de Name of de Fathah, of de Son an' de Holy Ghost.
Entry 5566
You take nine new nails and nine new pins and nine new needles. You cut around their footprint, lift it up, turn it upside down and put it right back in the same hole; then, they stick these pins and needles and nails in it. That will give you pains in your leg. They always say they come in the left leg and changes to the right.
Entry 6022
(What do they say they do with that?)
Dey say dey takes yore hair. An' dis lady [root doctor] tole me dat dey take yore hair an' git nine pins, an' say dey will wrap it an' git chure tracks, an' say dey will wrap it up an' put it in a bottle, an' den dey'll put somepin lak, lak if dey could git yore urine, dey will do dat, an' stop it up in a bottle an' carry it away from dere an' bury it. Sometimes dey bury it right at chure doorstep, be- cuz dey say dat's what wuz did fer me. An' she warned me always be careful how or what I do wit mah hair. Comb it. An' I tole her, yes, becuz somebody had taken out all mah hair. She says she knowed it, says dat's why she tole me to be careful. An' dey take dose pins an' take dat hair an' put dose nine pins an' stick 'em in dere an' dey wrap it. An' dey put yore track in dere an' puts in a bottle. An' say if dey can't git any of yore urines [often called ureen], dey'll try to git some watah from de place where yo' use, yo' know, lak yo' might have a well or spiggot or somepin an' dey'll - sometimes people will come an' [say], "Ah wants a drink of watah, please." Dey jis' want some of yore watah from yore house where yo're at. An' den dey've got all dey want to do wit - dey got de othah parts. (What would they do with this hair and pins after they got it? What would they do with it?) Dey buries it.
(What is that supposed to do to you then?)
Well, it 'fect yo' some way about yo' head, give yo' pain an' miseries.
Entry 6103
Yore hair proposition - dey git chure hair right out de mole of yore haid, right out de mole of yore haid. An' aftah dey git de hair right out de mole of yore head, dey take dat an' wrap it up into some into a rag, some cloth. An' aftah dey wrap it up into some cloth, dey takes it an' puts some red peppah, undahstan'. An' aftah dey put de red peppah in it, dey takes hit, takes de - Put red peppah, bluestone, alum, an' mix it all togethah, an' sulphur, an' put hit in dere an' ties it up. An' dey ties dat up an' dey carries it. Dey'll eithah bury it right at chure do'step - bury it at chure do'step an' yo' walks ovah all dat. Den dat begin pains about chure haid, right about chure haid. Den when it begin painin' about chure haid, put chew in bad sickness.
Entry 6450
Dey hoodoo - tell yuh whut dey, yuh know [with] whut dey. stick on stamps.
(Mucilage, it's like gum?) [This sort of thinking can happen!]
Dat's right, somepin like gum.
(Mucilage, paste?) [Again I OFFEND THE OCCASION with MUCILAGE!]
Yes, sir. Put dat in a bottle an' put it in dere wit de fingahnails an' toe- nails an' shut it up, stop it up. (What else did you say? You said you put something else in that bottle. What did you say?) A little limewatah.
(A little limewater and what else?)
Dat's all.
(Did you say something else about water?)
No, sir.
(I see. And what will that do?)
Well, jis' keep it - tote it.
(Well, what will it do?)
Whut'll it do?
(Yes.)
Well, it'll cuz yuh tuh have - toenails, fingernails, lose all of 'em, see. Toenails always be sore, toes always be sore.
Entry 6472
Take yore fingahnails an' put 'em in new cloth an' it will cuz yo' tuh be painful. Jis' take 'em an' put 'em in some new cloth an' it will cuz yo' tuh be painful. Yo' know, sew 'em up real tight in a new cloth, an' don't break de needle off. Jis' stick de nee- dle right through de cloth where yo' sew it up, an' jis' lay it up ovah de do' where a person got'a pass through in an' out. It would make 'em painful.
Entry 6494
Dat would make yo' painful. Yo' scrape dat off de bottom of a person's feet an' den put it in a glass - in a drinkin' glass. Jis' put it in a drinkin' glass an' put 17 drops of kerosene on it. Put 17 drops of kerosene on it, a pinch of sulphuh - jis' lak yo' put a pinch up lak dat, of sulphuh. An' git some borax - take a level teaspoonful of borax an' put in dere. An' jis' let it set up.
(Where?)
Jis' let it set somewhere in a dark place lak up in de loft of de house or in a closet where nobody nevah visit at. An' it will dry out de marrah in 'is arms.
Entry 6507
[I heard'em] say yo' could take, yo' know, if dey git yer fingahnails or somepin lak dat - said dey could take an' put it in a bottle of watah. Dey say, if yo' be any- where, dey say yo' jis' painin' all de time. Yo' know somebody - jis' lak yo's goin' wit somebody an' dey git mad wit yeh, dey fix yah lak dat so yo' jis' be painin' an' hurtin' all de time. Put it in some watah - put it in a bottle of watah an' put it in a dark place somewhere lak a closet.
Entry 6511
Take yore toenail an' scrape from de bottom of yore feet an' put [red] peppah in it, an' throw it intuh run- nin' watah an'yo'always achin'. Yore feet an' things always achin' - hurt chew. Dat de hot foot.
Entry 6717
Take a buzzard, take 'im clean [clean him] an' boil 'im out tuh a li'le grease, an' take dis grease yo' unnahstan'. An' jis' take a li'le bottle - keep de bottle all de time. An' time yo' feel a stiff joint, rub de stiff joint, an' dat'll jis' remove yuh pains from yo'.
Entry 6748
Yo' take a fellah or a woman or any age dat suffahs wit rheumatism. Put one piece of coppah in end of one shoe, one piece of galvanized iron in de othah, an' regardless of whethah he is walkin' in de street, tuhday he don't need no stick. Dat's providin' he takes de rubbah off de heel of de shoe. Gravity draws de pain right on out.
Entry 6774
If yo' thought somebody wuz HOODOOIN' yo' or if yo' had any pain an' yo' thought it came from somebody's work dat had anything on yo', dat chew kin use a plastahs on dat part wit dirt daub- ah, wit de eithah pound dat up or let it dissolve in vinegah an' use dat applica- tion. It will give relief.
Entry 6781
Makes up a salve wit it, wit some dirt daubah nest, saltpetah, chewin' tobacca an' yo' make a salve. Now yo' kin put it in a li'le - ah dunnō [don't know] how much yo' goin' make up, but put chew a li'le vine- gah in it an' it's jis' lak a mustard, yo' know, jis' lak prepared mustard. Make a li'le of dat an' put it on de place an' see whut it will do fo' yo' [recording machine stopped, see later].
(What will that cure for example?)
Well, jis' lak a lotta people - yo' know yo' got a misery in yore ankle, cain't stand up on yore ankle. Dey [person working spell against you] got chew down in yore knees. (You said before [while machine turned off] that it kills off a lot of hoodoo ousiness.) Hoodoo business.
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 6895
Den yuh kin git some root whut dey call de blacksnake root, grain [green] root, an' arrowroot, an' High John de Conkah. Well, dat's de root, dat John de Conquah, dat is goin' tuh conquah mos' anythin', any kinda HO0- DOO dat come. DAT'S A Did yuh git chew [down] [blacksnake root] grain root, an' de arrowroot, an' John de Conquah? DAT RooT'S VERY EXPENSIVE AN' AH KNOW ZACTLY WHERE TUH GIT IT, see. Yuh kin [take] dose roots an' boil 'em tuhgethah an' if anybody wuz HOoDOOED, if mah lady wuz HOODO0, take some of dat root when it's dry an' beat it.up an' give it tuh a lady in some ine an' dat'll perform. Yuh kin see it, scorpion drived an' - given in powdah tuh someone - movin' in 'er laigs. Git dat stuff an' boil it an' make tea out it, an' in ten days dat git de pain outa yuh body. Dat came out. One time she couldn't walk straight. Evah time she stand up she fell on de floah. Ah goes tuh dat dere fellah an' ah says, "Look, ah wan' chew tuh drive me out tuh de country. See yo' got a li'le hatchet." Ah want tuh get me a hatchet an' he gave me de hatchet, an' ah went tuh de red oak tree. Ah trimmed off de white bark an' de black bark ovah it an' cut down tuh de juicy wood. Ah cut me fo' chips out on east side. Ah goes tuh de west side of de tree an' ah cuts me fo' more. Ah cut de chips off de east side firs', den ah go tuh de west side. Den ah git me some blackberry root, chew undahstan'. Den ah git some mul- lein an' ah take dat home, put it tuhgethah. Ah gits home an' ah tell mah wife, ah say, "Look, git me about two quarts of vinegah." An' she put dat on de fiah an' boil it, boil it an' boil it. An' she let it cool. Den she bathe me from mah haid tuh mah feet [downward bathing so that it will go out through his feet] in de tub, an' ah ain't had a pain in dis laig since.
Entry 7259
Years ago my mother walked acrost the yard one time going to the well. A pain taken her in the foot. She was as well as she could be before. And she became sick. A white doctor 'tended [her] and she became nothing but skin and bones. We saw he couldn't do nothing so we got a cunjure, some lady. I don't know who she was. She came back [with us to our house] and said I was the only one to go and GET WATER FROM A HIDDEN PLACE. If somebody saw us going we had to change and go somewhere else. I was just a little girl. She came back [a second time] and brought something in a box - I had to rub [on] her [the mother] in a bath. No one could do anything for her but me: You're the only one to rub your mother, nobody else but you. You have to do all the cooking, everything she eats. No one else is to cook it. We [I] had to go some- where in the Woods and get HIDDEN WATER AFTER DARK.
[The mother's situation became worse.]
She was going [barefoot] acrost the floor one night and stepped on a splinter. [This of course was the work of an enemy.] In the meantime [before this] a [strange] man came in. [After he left] that kitchen sprung up. [The floor buck- led causing the splinter her mother stepped on.] I don't know what it was. Every time that spell would come upon her she would rage. One day [some years later] as I was going to work this woman [cun.iure] came around the [corner of the] house and we happen to meet at the same time. And she said, "You're hurt. All your misery is right there." And she put her hand on your [my] stomach. She said, "You're hurt with your hair and with your pic- chure." And I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to said a word to her. And she said, "Let me go in and I'll tell you." [I took her inside.] "Give me a glass of water." I gave a glassful. SHE SET IT ON THE FLOOR. "IF YOU'RE GOING TO GET WELL, I'LL SHOW YOU BY THIS WATER. THIS WATER WILL BOIL." We sat there and looked at the water. And the water boiled over the glass. IT WAS COLD WATER. And she said, "You're hurt." She said, "If you don't say anything about it when you feel better, you'll get well; but if you tell anybody, you'll die." And every time mama felt better and would say something about it, she'd get worse. Just a week before she died she up and got out of bed. She said, "You all think I'm going to get better but I'm going to die." That evening, Friday evening, she Was taken speechless and stopped talking. She called for fish and corn bread. I gave it to her. I was upstairs and I would hear a funny noise. I went down and called her. She said, "No, nothing is the matter with me. I'm just eating. That was just a little while before she stopped talking. She coml menced eating and stopped talking and couldn't say a word. She died that night.
Entry 7705
If yo' wanta hurt anybody, yo' kin go tuh de graveyard an' call de person name. An' carry a piece of [his] ole clothes, leave dat dere, an' bring [a small piece] eidah [either] de haidboard or de footboard; an' yo' kin go tuh a person house an' put it right undahneat' 'is pillah, [but] undahneat' de baid. An' he'll go tuh sleep dat night an' he'll take a pain an' he wouldn't nevah be no good tuh hisself. He wouldn't fin' out until he die. Somebody goin', but she'll nevah let 'im, unless yo' wanta turn 'im loose. Den yo' kin go an' tum 'im loose if yo' don't wanta harm 'im. (How do you mean put that footboard under the pillow. Wouldn't they feel it under there?)
[Actually only a splinter from the board is used.]
No, sir, dey ain't goin' feel it. Dey ain't goin' have sense enough tuh feel it. [This rite is unusual. The man's old clothes has contact with the grave- yard dirt, and the graveyard board splinter is taken to the house as a substi- tute for the dirt.]
Entry 7941
Well, it's got tuh have yuh initial on it, though. Yo: see, dey take dat tie clamp wit de initial an' dey put dat in an envelope. Aftah dey put it in de envelope, well dey will bring it somewhere [where] dere is, a wake is at, where someone is dead at. An' dey will pertend [pretend] lookin' at de daid person an' dey will take an' drop dat envelope wit dat tie clamp, wit yuh initial on it, an' drop it in dat coffin. When dey bury dat body, well dey bary dat. Well, aftah dat tie clamp is buried wit dat daid body, well dis person which de tie clamp belongs tuh, become bad feelin' all ovah dere body, aches an' pains in de jaws.
Entry 8136
Photograph, dey buries dat on yuh face. Go ovah tuh de cemetery an' bury it on dey face, wit de face turned facin' hell. Say, '"Hell is now undah- neat choo." (What will that do?) Well, accordin' if yo' put it deep, why den it will kill yuh; an' if yo' don't put it deep, why it will always make yuh in a lingahin' pain. [I make a one word comment about informant after he leaves: drinking.]
Entry 8860
Now, yo' take a person an' yo' write a lettah an' a person git holt of yore han'writin'. Well, now, yo' take dis han'writin'. Well, ah'll take dis han'writin' now an' ah'll see whut ah kin do wit it. Take yore han'writin' - yo' take it an' lay it on a table. Yo' lay it on de table an' den yo' take yo' some Scotch Snuff - jis' say, Railroad. Yeah, Railroad Snuff. Yo take dat an' yo' put dat snuff on dere, an' take anothah wet piece of cloth, thin cloth, an' lay on dere. Well, now, when yo' lay dat on dere yo' got chure han'- vritin'. Well, now, in a very li'le while yore whole hand will commence tuh pain. Well, a person - de doctors [M.D.'s] might tell yuh dey don't know whut it is. Dell, yo' see dat's de germ dat dey have caught from yore hand. An' dey got it den goin' right back intuh yore system. Aftah while yo' git tuh de place dat hand is no good to yuh. It jis' wilted away tuh nuthin.
Entry 11336
(Well, tell me about the dove's heart then.)
Just like I and you is enemies. I get me a dove and I'll take the dove and call your name, you see, at twelve o'clock at night. And I'll take that dove and I'll stab that dove through the heart and call your name In the Name of God, the Father, the Son. And when that 股中 dove - when that pain hit that dove it supposed to hit you, you see, and that will effect you, and you will wilt down just as that dove die. You see. But you gotta call your name and hit that dove through the heart with the knife. (I see.) [This is only one of many times in HOODOO I was used as a guinea pig.]
Entry 11686
Yo' go out dere 'fore day in de mawnin' an' git a twig offa tree at de fo'ks of de road an' use it. Yo' kin use it fo' luck, fo' bad luck, an' dey use it with dis red flannel. Ah 'magine yo' seen red flannel. Yo' use red flan- nel. An' git chew a twig while de sap is in it, but chew cain't git it when it's dry, at de fo'ks of de road. Dat cause people tuh has spells, fallin' outa beds, agony in de haid, agony in de feet, athaletics feets an' all lak dat. (What do you do with this twig? How do they work that?) Well, yo' git chew a piece of red flannel an' git chew some turpentine an' asafetidy an' boil it all tuhgethah in 'bout, jes' say 'bout a cup of watah an strain it an' po' all dat drugs [dregs], let say yo' has drugs tuh it, an' strain it through dat red flannel. An' aftah yo've strained it through de red flannel, den yo' use only de watah, understan'. Set dis watah in a dark place in a closet an' keep dis twig in dis red flannel wrapped. Yo' kin weah dis roun' yore neck fo' luck fo' yo'self. An' de watah fo' bad luck yo' kin sprinkle around a person's do'steps tuh cause 'em tuh move. If yo' wanta sprinkle it fo' luck, if yo' Wanta sprinkle it, yo' kin sprinkle it tuh cause 'em tuh move. Yo' kin sprinkle it fo' a person dat's sick, tuh make 'em have iller health. Yo' kin sprinkle it where a person is sick, tuh make 'em have bettah health; accordin' tuh whut chew magic' but chew gotta git it from de fo'ks of de road 'fore day in de mawnin'.
Entry 11843
You got to take and burn de gunpowder and get the scent - not de scent but de gas from this gunpowder - and take a stran' of yuh hair, or eithah a piece of cloth or sompin dat joo have, dat de person you tryin' to hurt had, and put it in this bottle. And shut it up in this bottle. And they say that'll make de person lose de min', or eithah make 'em sore in some parts of de body.
Entry 11019
(Ever hear of them using chicken feathers for anything?) [An old note of mine adds: Always asked this question to see whether Negro believed in witch wreath.] Well, er...ah.... Jis' lak a person doin' somepin tah yo an' yo' wanta git rd of 'en, yo' take some of de feathahs outa dey bed shere dey sleep at an' yo' put dis oil of bergamine [bergamot] an' sweet oil togethah an' jis' grease dose feathah with 'em, dat chew got out de bed from where dey sleep. Jis' grease dose feathahs with 'em an' take 'em an' put 'em in a can or somepin an stop 'em up, an' take 'em tuh de south side of a tree not very far from dey house an' bury it dere. See. An' when dem dere feathahs will finally pine away - dey'll jis' pine away tuh nuthin. Dey jis' git sick an' dey sick on dey stomick an' dey jis' ache all ovah. An' it jis' sompin lak de rheumatism an' cain't no doctor [M.D.] do 'em no good an' event'ly dey'll die.
Entry 1254
Dey say dat if yo' come prey wit a diff'rent disease, yo' could go to a dogwood tree an' git some root an' skin de bark from de sunrise side, an' go to a cherry tree and git de bark from de sunset side. An' then go to a firewood tree - dey call it firewood tree [the ironwood CyriZla racemeflora of southeastern U. S. A.; a number of trees are called iron- wood] - an' git some from de south side, an' put those ingredients together, and it would fin'lly turn if yo' had - somebody had tricked yo' or somepin, it would turn all dat away from yo' an' yo' become well. Ah heard dat.
(Well, what would they do with those barks? How would they fix those up?)
Dey said dey would take 'em jes' lak if ah got a bark from de dogwood an' one from de cherry, ah would take dem an' de firewood tree. Ah'd take dose barks an' ah put 'em in a pot an' ah boil 'em down to a certain ingredients, so dat dey Would become liquid, yo' know. Git some of de strength from each one. An' then ah would use 'em as a drug fo' to take or to rub until de parts dat were affected would pass - de pain would leave an' ah'd become well.
(What is a firewood tree?)
It's a tree that grows in the woods. De leaves all when dey come out, the bright side - in de nighttime dey give a light, jes' de same as if it was de, yo' see, de moon or somepin shinin' on it. It has a brighter leaf den any othah tree in de woods. Dey call dat firewood.
(Do they grow that out here?)
No suh, dey all be in de rivah swamps, mostly in the rivah swamps - jes' lak soggy [ground] or somewhere lak dat. Yo' mo' or less find dose kinda tree in that.
Entry 1263
[Three men together are talking about two absent men:]
Ah've [informant] seen a [doctor] man take a [culprit] man's shoes an' seen 'im, you know, dressin' dem. An' so dis [third] man axed 'im [doctor], say, "Whut chew goin' do wit dis fellah [culprit]?" An' he say, "Well, he [culprit] been givin' de man [doctor's client] trouble to 'is house 'bout 'is wife." See. An' dis [client] man had hired dis [doctor] man to fix dis [culprit] man up. An' so dis happened, you know, up de country. The three men are in town.] An' so dis [third or objector] man tole 'im, say, "Ah wouldn't do dat." He say, "Yes, dat's mah job." An' so he [doctor continues] says, "Yo' ain't got nuthin to do wit it." So he went to work and he dressed dis [culprit] fellah. He say, "Ah'm goin' have to fix dis shoe and den ah have tuh [fix] dat pedal, ' say, "if ah can't git tuh fix his shoe lak ah wanta." See, he [culprit] was a truckdriver. He say, "Ah go an' dress dat dere clutch' - yo' know, where yo' have tuh put in clutch, yo' know, tuh change gears. "Ah kin git 'im good on dat." So he fixed up de shoe and dis fellah, yo' know, jes' lak ah say ah'm gon'a.
(How did he dress the shoe?)
Well, he took dat shoe and he took two toadyfrogs - see, took two toadyfrogs and he cut dat toadyfrog wide open live, see, an' got dat blood and put it down in dat man's shoe, spread it down in dere. [A frog for each shoe.] An' den he put somethin' else in dere. Whut it was ah don't know, but he put something else in dere. An' dis heah [objector] fellah heah, tole 'im, say, "Would it hurt me now if ah wear his shoes back to 'im? See, 'cause ah jes' borrowed his shoes playing partner wit 'im, see, 'cause make out lak mine was too little and want 'im to break 'em out. Ah swap wit him tull I git a chance tuh fix 'em?" He [doctor] says, "No, it ain't goin' hurt chew. It jes' goin' hurt de one hit was fixed fo'."
[Why objector borrowed shoes and then objected, I do not know.]
An' so dis fellah wears de shoes back an' so dis [culprit] man den puts on his shoes, see. Well, he goes down de next morning tuh git his truck. Well, dey got 'is clutch fixed on 'is truck. Well, when he went an' got on de truck, well dat night he wasn't able to walk home. He was hoppin'. His laig was hurtin' all up, clean up tuh 'is knee. An' yo' kin hear 'im hollerin'. Ah heard 'im my ownself. You could hear 'im hollerin' two blocks. De doctor he come. De doctor couldn't do no good. Dey had to go git another hoodoo woman - big hoodoo woman stay out from Bergen Junction, back out dere - ole lady Rivers [Ridders?]. Well, she goes tuh work an' she come dere an' she lays her han' on 'im jes' lak dis heah [demonstrates] an' drag it over 'is face - we was all standin' dere lookin' at 'em - bring 'er han' right down ovah his face jes' lak dat an' carried it straight on down, right ovah dat laig. An' she done dat three times, an' when she done dat three times, two toadyfrogs hopped outa dat man's laig, an' dat man got all right. Come out back dere where de two places 'bout tuh come to a haid - where it done, you know, formed a corruption.
(What was this woman's name?)
Rivah - Ridder.
(Is she near St. Petersburg?)
No sir, she stay right up 'cross de rivah from Rocky Ford, Georgia. [Speaker is from Georgia.]
Entry 2896
If you wanta do some dirty work with a black candle, you do the same as you would the green candle - cut the top of it off. And always turn it bottom up - don't take the little tail [wick] that lights and set it straight, but cut that off and turn it bottom up with that name on it. And they'll always suffer with a pain in the head at certain times - like you light it fer six, that misery'll start at six; if you light it at nine, that misery'll start at nine; if you light it at twelve or three in the evening, [that misery'll start at twelve or three]. That misery will last at least a hour.
Entry 4181
Dey stop yuh watah.
(How do they do that?)
See, dey take yuh chamber lye an' put it in a bottle. Dey'll take yuh chamber lye an' dey'll' put it in a bottle, an' den dey'll take an' put yuh name in dat bottle - put it in dere. Den dey'll take an' dey'll stop dat bottle up tight - tight - tight. An' dey'll git some hot pepper an' put it in dat bottle. An' yuh see, den dey'll take an' stop dat bottle up tight an' bury dat bottle upside down. You see? An' dat stops yuh watah up - stop yuh from peein' an' gives yuh a gripe from all ways in yuh stomik. An' yuh can't pee good.
Entry 4230
If a woman is pregnant an' yuh wanta make her lose de baby an' yuh don't lak 'er. Well, yuh see, yuh kin take some of her urinate an' stop it up in a bottle an' dat'll make her mis- carry a baby, or she'll git tuh de place she'll have sech dreadful pains in de bottom of 'er stomik, in 'er bladdah, see - sompin lak bladdah trouble, an' 'er stomik begin tuh git weak an' event'ly she'll lose out.
Entry 4232
Yuh kin take some of 'er urinate or ministration an' yuh could fix it. Yuh could take some of 'er urinate an' yuh could bury it about 'er house or any- where undah 'er house. Suppose tuh be undah 'er house close by 'er baid an' near time yuh know think she gon'a git down. Go an' git dis bottle, whatsomevah yuh git it in, yuh kin put it in a bottle or a jar or somepin, but de best partly [mostly?] puts it in a bottle. Yuh go an' git dis bottle yuh think about near time dat she gon'a git down. Yuh git dis bottle, take de stoppah out. Sometime it will shoot out, sometime it will jis' blow out, jis' lak beer or somepin, hot beer. DEN FILL DIS THIN' UP FULLAH PEPPAH. SEE DAT FILLIN' 'ER FULL OF PAINS. Den bury dis deepah on down [than] what it wuz. An' she may given birth tuh de baby but she sure won't live.
Entry 4278
Put soda in it. (Put soda in the chamber lye?) Yes sir, put soda in it. Jis' lak if yuh wuz layin' down tuh sleep, or me, an' when we git up through de night, someone ease [into] our room an' git dat stuff an' bottle it up an' put some soda or somepin in it an' dey bury it. An' de nex' time yuh git ready tuh do dat, it will stop on yuh an' give yuh pain.
(You mean some man or woman will get it?)
No, de man kin be alone.
(Or the woman alone.)
Yes.
(They only do this with your own chamber lye?)
Yes. (They put the soda or something in it and then they bury this.)