Subject:Palmetto
Entries
Entry 2200
To keep the law away from your place. Weli, here's the way they told me to keep the law away. You go in the woods and find a he palmette root.
(They find a what?) A he palmetto. (He?)
A he palmetto root like a man - a palmetto - man.
[Somewhere I have a man-shaped root.]
(Palmetto root?)
Yes, sir - man palmetto root. (Do you mean that little thing that looks like a palm? That root? Looks like a spear?) [My questions are ridiculous in words. Actually here is a good example of occasional hand-talking. For little thing I indicate a low bush looking like a palm - I had seen millions of palmettos up and down the southeastern coast. To make certain we meant the same plant, I air-draw a cleft leaf - each cleft looks like a spear. Informant's answer shows the result.1 Yes, sir, got big wide leaves on it.
(All right, all right.)
Well, you get a he palmetto root. You take this he palmetto root and you bring it to your house and you cut it off just at that bush. After you cut it off at that bush, you put three splits in it - right in the bottom of that root, you put three splits in it. And you takes the judge's name, the district attor- ney's and the prosecuting attorney's name in there. Put it [names] on a piece of paper nine times backwards, you understand. And put it [paper] in between them splits, understand, and wear that in your pocket. I guarantee you they'll [the law will] all stay away from there.
(That's if you are bootlegging?)
That is if you are bootlegging.
Entry 3280
[Three ingredients is only one of many groups of 3's in the text (pp.651-654 and elsewhere). Blackjack received it's name from the black bark of the common oak Quercus marilandica. Palmetto in the present case are the scrubby palm plants one sees in the coastal lowlands from North Carolina down into Florida. Turpentine weed can be one of several plants having an actual or a fancied odor of turpentine.] [To] fix dat up to keep de mens away from dere [his wife or woman] he'd go out in de woods an' he'd git 'im - jis' ast anybody, any of dem ole people. Dey tel] 'im right, yo' know, right where to git dat, dem kinda roots at. Yo' take a blackjack root - get de blackjack root an' a he palmetto root an' some of dis 'tentime [turpentine] weeds. Dey got some weed dey call de 'tentime weeds. An' yo' mix dat up, yo' understan', an' put it on yore private see, an' let it dry.
(You mean, you just mix the leaves up, themselves?)
Yes, jis' take nuthin but de leaves, see.
(You don't boil them, you just mix the leaves up?)
Mix de weeds [leaves] up, yo' undahstan'.: See, it'll come wit juice all ovah it. An' mix 'em up, put 'em on yore private, see, an' let it dry. Don't wash it off. An' go wit yore wife, yo' undahstan', an' go ahead on out dere an' work where yo' wanta work at. Evah time a man git ready to go wit yore wife - dey won't have it, but he'll get on her, yo' undahstan'. Well, he'll jis' straddle her an' 'is thing will fall - he can't have her.