Subject:Prevents
Entries
Entry 891
There was once a lady and I used to be good friends. And so her husband wrote me a lettah and sent it through de mail, and he didn't sign the name to it. And so I was asking diff'rent one of my frien's did they know who it came from and they said no. So I ast de lady one day - I thought maybe she jis' playin' a joke on me - and I ast her did she write it. And she said no. But she said she would look at it and tell who handwriting it was. And the minute she looked at it, she said it was her husband's. And so she snatched it and ran out of mah house jis' like she had found some money. And [later] she came on and she tried to raise a fuss with me in de street befo' a crowd of people, but I wouldn't pay any attention to her. So later, two weeks, she came to mah house. And I jis' thought maybe she jis' come in there on a little visit, and I reckon she did. So when she left I said O.K. I went to de door with her and I half-shut de doah [after her departure]. And so I went to work dat mornin' - that was on a Satiday. And dat evenin' I commence feelin' - mah fingah got stiff, I couldn't use that hand that night. I tole my mothah about it. She bathed me in some kerosene, becuz she thought maybe it was - jis' was come from cold and so she bathed me in this kerosene. And de next mornin' I didn't seem to feel any bettah. And I couldn't use this hand, you know, dis whole arm. And it went on down in the feet. Becuz my mothah is a Holiness woman - and she thought maybe if she got some of her Saints [fellow worshippers] to pray wit me, I would get all right. And so she got 'em to pray wit me. But it didn't seem to do any good. So Tuesday - I didn't ache any at all dat Monday night - so that Tuesday night she called Dr. Somebody. Well, he came. He said he thought it was a rheumatism. And it was down in mah feet - it had left mah body and fell in mah foot. And he said - he gave me a pe'scription. But when I taken this medicine it seem like dat jis' made me ache dat much more. And so she called him again and he said he didn't know nuthin but de rheumatism. And I jis' suffered like dat hurtin' an' hurtin' for about two months. And so she had jis' told several people about it an' they said they didn't know anything unless it was the rheumatism." And so they said dey knowed a man named George or somepin ["a well-known root worker of Wilmington" - Note included in my pencil transcription made soon after interview]. But anyway, they said dis man could work roots. And when she went to dis man - and he said he could tell it and give me a treatment for fifteen dollahs down. And she said that she didn't have it all right then, but she paid him some down and he gave her some kind of medicine. And she say it was made out of some kind of St. Joseph's roots [either the doctor's own name or a commercial product like several others bearing a saint's name]. And she gave me it. And I taken about two treatments or two or three from him and I saw where it was doin' me a little good. And it continued to about two months and I got all right a little bit. And then he said that he could secure de thing dat was really de mattah. And so he found some roots buried under de doorstep in a bottle - looked like it was little verms [worms] on dis root. He showed it to mah mothah; he wouldn't let me see nuthin. He say if I didn't look at em, say he could make this spell leave me - make this so it would leave me. And it left. But he say I wouldn't feel all that sore-iness, but it would leave me enough that I could be able to walk. And so I started to walkin' on crutches and gradj'ly it left me.
Entry 901
I was hurt once by a rootworker. I was hurt in mah right leg. And mah mother she went - and I was swellen - mah mother she went out to get a doctor. The doctor didn't do me no good. And after she found out dat de doctor wouldn't do me no good, she decided on to go back and git a root doctor. Well, he told her to go back and look under de front doorstep and she'll find a little rag, a red [rag], a little ball in it - red rag with red little ball in it, wrapped up. It [ball] was made of cloth. And he told mah mother dat when she go-ed [pronounce gode] dere she might be scared to pick it up, but don't be scared to pick it up: Well, de first time she went dere she looked at it, she didn't pick it up - she's scared. And she went back. He told her dat de only Way dat I would git rid of dis swellen, de lest dat I swell right on up, she'll have to git dat and bring it to him. Shortly after she came back, she went on back and got de rag and carried it on back to him. In a couple of days after- Wards, den I feel mahself gittin' a little ease. And so he worked on me and worked on me, and turned it around on this other fellah that had me fixed up [by rootworker in first sentence]. She said dat he took it [rag and ball] and dressed it up, and told her to carry it back - he told her where it came from [who had planted the rag and ball] - and told her to go throw it over de fence [into this person's yard]. [Wilmington, N. Car., (225), 228:4; in Petersburg, Ga.,1928.]
Entry 3241
Makin' connection wit othah woman, in case any- thin' won't happen to him, hol' a penny in 'is mouthan' it'll kill de germs - ketch anythin'.
(Hold a penny in his mouth while he is doing this.)
Entry 6939
They claim that if you put a ten-cent piece under your tongue while you're having sexual relation wit a woman, you won't catch any diseases from the woman. [This belief should have pre- ceded No.3258, p.2373, but it was under CURES and missed. This original tran- scription of mine in pencil was never typed. See ILLUSTRATIONS for original.]
Entry 8914
I have heard 'em say that you could take a fork and stick it down at the gate or the entry or around the building near where you think they're going in, and make your wishes. And that'll keep 'em away, if you think a person's trying to steal - to perwent [prevent] a person stealing from you. And that'll keep people from talking about chew too, they say. Keep 'em from bothering you in any way, shape or form or fashion. [This fork rite has been taken over from methods to keep a hag or witch out of the house - see No.510, p.154, etc.]
Entry 9501
(Take table salt?)
Yessuh, an' sprinkle it all de way roun' dat house an' dere cain't any one go back tuh it dat chew don't want tuh. Call dat man's name dat chew don't wanta go dere. (I would do this if I didn't want anybody to rent this house? Or to live in here after I left?) Yessuh.
Entry 9652
Take black peppah an' salt all roun' at chure do's. Dey cain't come ovah it. (They can't come in and steal things?) No.
Entry 9702
The way now to do to git rid of folks - there's folks in your home an' you wan'a git rid of 'em. Yo' take sulphur an' salt - cooking salt yo' know - yo' mix it together an' jis' start right from your bed- room an' sprinkle it all aroun' in there, an' right on out the hall, right on out the steps, right on the steps, right on out de walk, an' jis' throw it north. An' that's supposin' to go out [make a person leave] if there's anybody they wan'a go out, they go out. An' if there's anybody you don't prefer comin' in there, they won't come in.
Entry 9703
About dat keepin' de person from hurtin' yuh, well dey say yo' take dis salt an' sprinkle it roun' in de fo' cornahs of yuh house. Do dat fo' nine mawnin's - dat sulphuh an' salt.
(Is the salt separately or the salt and sulphur - separate or together?)
Each sep'rately, each of 'em. (Each one of them is a different method of keeping a person away.) Yes sir, each one separately. An' yo' do dat fo' nine mawnin's. [Despite my last comment and informant's agreement, I now think sulphur and salt are thrown successively, one after the other, into each of four corners.]
Entry 10455
Sprinkle red pepper [on their skin]. Why dey can't go back in de skin. Put it [red pepper] in de keyhole of de door and sprinkle a little all down on de floor. Red pepper will keep dem from goin' back in de skin. Yo' see, dey gits out de skin when dey rides yuh.
Entry 12465
[To guard against unfulfilled desires during pregnancy:] Take the [Spanish] moss down and the woman wears this here moss across her breast, under her bubbies there; and of course, if things that she wish to want, and differ- ent [things] like that, why she wouldn't wish for that, and it won't bring her a birth-marked child.
(She just wears that moss on her breast.)
In a little bag or anything that she wants to wear it in. [For birthmarks, cause and removal, see FOLKLORE FROM ADAMS COUNTY ILLINOIS, 2nd ed.,965, Pp.111-130.]
Entry 12760
Yo' kin take dis heah bush yo' call rhubarb. Dere's a root chew call rhubarb bush. Yo' kin take dat bush an' maybe ah know yore mad wit me. Ah'll take dat bush an' ah'll carry it to mah house an' ah'll put it right down at mah gate. Yo' might done sont [sent] me word dat chew comin' ovah dere an' run me aWay: Or do SOmepin to me. AH'LL GIT DAT ROOT AN' AH'LL PUT IT DOWN AT MY GATE, AN' WHEN YO' COME IN DERE, YO'LL BE JEST AS FRIENDLY WIT ME AS YO' IS NOW. Now, ah done seen dat tried.
[A compliment out of the past for the author!]
A man sent de word by me to anothah individual dat he was gwine come ovah dere an' beat him or kill him, an' ah run back an' tole dis fellah an' he tole me, "Well, ah'm gwin [going to] stop him." He runs out an' git dat, kept it ovah in de new ground, an' got a piece of dat rhubarb root an' buried it down at de gate. Mr. Wade, he come - a white man couldn't - Mr. Wade come up dere - found out about it so dis fellah wouldn't be caught, some scandal come to a head. An' Mr. Wade got dere. Dis fellah he went an' got dat rhubarb root an' put it down at de gate. Mr. Wade drive ovah dere, got down an' come in de house, say, "Well, Sam, how come yo' pick that [cotton or tobacca?]? He say, "Well." An' say, "Ah tlecided ah wouldn't fool with dat." Now, he done tole me up dere to his house [before] he come down here an' whup him or kill him. But he walked in de gate jest pleasant as he wus wit me.