Subject:Prosperity
Entries
Entry 9483
[Dey kin] bring salt from dere home an' put it intuh your place [house] - salt, cookin' salt, see. An' de same thing dey says dat dey'd [they would] com- pare salt. It gives yuh hard luck as being a means of good luck by puttin' it in de fo' cornahs. [Salt brings bad luck and good luck.]
(What will that do, putting it in the four corners?)
Say dat brings luck. An' yo' names each pile de kinda luck dat you'd lak tuh run in. Fo' instance you'd lak tuh have dis [demonstrates] as de money pile, dis is some othah prosperity, dis is love, an' dis is biggah business.
Entry 814
(You are a prophet and you see these things before they come to pass?)
Ah lay down tuh sleep an' see diff'rent things befo' dey come tuh pass.
(Well now, could you see things for me before these things happen to me?)
Yessuh. Ah see where yo' have great luck befo' yo' an' where yo' prospers yo' make a great fortune. Yo' reach de elemental elevation very sho'tly. It take a sho't while - ah mean, a few yeahs.
Entry 1079
I order me incent [incense] an' a bottle of holy oil. This incent [demonstrates] I set it in this corner, this corner, this corner and this corner.
(The four corners of the room.)
Yes. An' ah burns them down at that corner. I git down dere an' ah wish fo' whut ah want - success, prosper, money. An' by burning that an' have yore whole heart an' min'on it, why it would - it comes true. An' when yo' burning that incent an' with the holy oil, yo' po's that holy oil on that incent, yo' see. Yo' order that. Ah don't buv it out de drug store. ah orders it mahself. An while it's burning yo' wishes. It's jest lak de Cath'lics, yo' know, by yore faith yore saved aren't [or not] an' by yore faith yore damned. An'by mah faith I always has success an' prosper an' everybody mostly likes me.
Entry 1959
I've often heard that they have had a hand that they could use and that only certain people could git that hand. It was one or two in my neighborhood used to claim that they could give those hands. They're gone now. They were very successful in business. People flocked to them. Some might have had the luck anyhow. They believed very true that she could do something out of the ordinary for the people who applied to her. Her name was Vivian Washington.
Entry 2615
You git up in de morning at six o'clock and you go out front of yore door and sweep jest a little, go to de front and sweep de dirt to yuh - de dirt into de house, in. Take it up. When you sweeping, you says, "Ah'm sweeping - ah'm sweeping in de Name of Jesus - ah'm sweeping in success - ah'm sweeping in money." And you take dis dirt up and you wrap it up and put it in your business place and people dat nevah has come will come. Ah know dat from experience cus ah've done dat. When you sweep, you are sweeping in your luxuries, you are sweeping in trea- sures; and when you take de dirt you place it in your mind dat you are sweeping in money, you are sweeping in success. And when Deborah had lost her fortune, dat's de way ah think it was God prob'bly spoke to her and told her to go out and sweep. And when she went out and sweep, things were at 4 o'clock - poor like. When she went out and was sweeping she found her luxuries and found a fortune and den she called de people from de neighborhood to come in and rejoice over de fortune dat she had found sweeping [Luke 15:8-9], and dat's de meaning of what it will do by sweeping at six 'clock in de morning.
Entry 383
A house set on the hill and a spring was in the bottom and a tree was nearby the spring. And everybody who lived in that house, the ghost would meet them on the way to the spring and would talk to them. This ghost would follow them to the spring and tell them about the money but they were afraid to talk to him. This was supposed to be the ghost of the person who put the money in the tree and died before he got it out. A fellow followed this ghost to the spring and the ghost told him to cut in the tree with an axe. He cut in the tree but found nothing. The ghost told him again to cut the tree down. And he did. He found a pot of money in the tree and became to be a wealthy man.
Entry 829
You know you heard of the Seventh Book of Moses, the Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses. That book contains symbols. There's the symbol of Jupiter, Jupiter being the god of lawsuits and financial plenty. You cut that symbol, it is the black symbol copied from where they made them in Bible times and just before you go to trial you bury that symbol and you recite the 72nd Psalm, using the name lye[?] instead of God, which is supposed to forset all lawsuits. And those books cost $2.00, Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses.
Entry 1948
Take seeds of paradise - seven grains, seeds of para- dise. Yo' buy that in the Hindu companies, yo' know, those dirty strong [smelling] places [because incense is burning]. Seven grains of paradise. An' throw it aroun' yore do'. Make a good wish an pray an' take yore Bible an' read de Psalms of David an' ask God tuh open de way fo' yo' an' yore business will gradually grow. Also yo' kin read de sixth chapter of Luke an' dat'll he'p yo' in de Bible in de Christianity. That is tuh bring business to yore home. [The preceding Hindu companies were more likely a company with an oriental name and someone wearing a turban (see Turban in Index). Since I always assumed some of these companies may have worked under protection, I never visited any of them - I had enough trouble collecting.]
Entry 2928
Go to the railroad track for spikes. (For what?) For spikes.
(What do you mean? Those big iron spikes that hold the rails down?)
Yes.
(What do they do with those?)
They take one of those spikes - like if you go out on the railroad track and say - you ain't got no - you haven't had no prosperity in your crop probably.
(Your what?)
Your crops and all that - like you make corn.
(Oh, your crop - the things you grow.)
The things you grow. You go to the railroad track and get a big spike and bring this spike back and burn you a candle over that spike, and when that, re- gardless of what length of time - you take that candle when that candle goes out, burns out there - you take that spike that was burning under that candle and was laying in your house, and bury that spike under your steps and let it stay under your steps for nine days. Bury it with the head up and the straight [side] down. Take it as near as you can to the center of your field and dig a deep, deep hole and bury it, after you take it up after the nine days under your steps where you walked over it. Take it in the center of your field, as near as you can and bury it in your field, deep, deep so you won't plow it or cultivation won't bring it up. And let it stay in the middle of your field, and you'll have better crops, bigger corn, better cotton - higher cotton and all that. (You say you burn this candle and say a novena?) [Novena shows machine had been stopped.] Yeah.
(I see. What sort of a candle do you burn for that?)
A white candle.
(Why white?)
A white candle is best to use unless you using something against some person. A white candle is the best always. [This is one of my few farming rites. As a matter of fact I never asked about them, considering them general folklore.]
Entry 595
To begin with in that I have been abnormally mistreated by. superstition what we call hoodoism. See. Well, in that my family was torn to pieces and I was just wrecked and jest now recovering from that. Now, when it come ah went to a hand reader to read mah hand. (Where did you go - here in town?) Yes - she read my hand - a white lady, and she told me of dese things without coming in contact with any of them. Being a minister I found what she said about people being torn in mah congregation - I found that to be true. She told me that I wouldn't be able to get along with 'em - ah found that true. Now, ah been married three times. This wife I have now - ah was told that they did not want me to have her, and hear say to de cause and de reason why they did not ["want me to have her"] and what they done to prevent me from her and have her return back home. Ah married her against her people's consent - they didn't want me to have her. Then they put in to take her from me and to kill me - that was, she said, because of my age, you see. They wanted me out of de way so she could come back home, and in that they give me all kind of trouble. A friend of mine, who was in my church at dat time, somehow or another got onto it and told me it was best for me to go see about it mahself. I'd done got into a kind of a wreck some way - my mind wasn't nuthin' and ah couldn't remember nor think nuthin' long - couldn't do no one thing completely - ah'd start and stop. (What did this woman do to tell you to get rid of this? Did they tell you what to do?) They told me what to do and give me something to protect myself - ah kin show you some of the things now - got 'em in my pocket. See 'em [he shows them]. (This white woman gave you this to carry ~ a white fortune-teller - a hand- reader?) Yes - a reader of cards. (It's a little tin box with - it's a large quinine capsule with red powder of some sort in there. Do you know what is in there?) No, ah don't.
(What is that supposed to do - you carry that?)
Well, that is supposed to give me success and prosperity and get by. Now, this dime was given - she told me to get a dime and put in mah pocket and handle it as much as ah could fo' three days. Now, it wasn't as colored as it is now, and at that time it was real bright as you could see. And she said whatever they Was trying to do, the dime would ketch it and turn like a copper cent. And sure as I sit here today and tell you, this is the same dime - only it jest like a copper cent. And den again, I could tell just as good when the thing was going to strike me and was on me, as I can tell I'm sitting here.
(How can you tell that?)
By mah feet - by de way ah felt, and I had kind of strikes in mah toes - big toes, each one of them - and I couldn't hardly stand the blow. Well, I had a strike de side of de head like somebody struck me - it was sore for several days.
[I repeat one thing he said while machine was off for lack of interest:]
(Six people made a wish for you - gave you this bad luck?)
Yes - made a wish fo' me - an' then they was intendin' that ah'd die and mah wife come back home - right heah in dis city. Ah's pastor heah.
Entry 1148
Say, if yo' ketch a buzzard an' kill 'im an' boil 'im an' git de grease out of 'im an' rub yo'self with it right good, dey say yo' lucky an' prosperous in all whut yo' goin' undertake. Jes' rub it on yore hands. It 'vaporates right in. It's got a bad odor, but as it 'vaporate in yo', continue in yo' - if the job gives out, kill another buzzard an' git his grease. Dey say it's good fo' yo' - it keeps yo' jints [joints] loosened, it's good for rheumatism.
Entry 2443
Now buzzard feathers is de luckiest kind of feathers - dat's something dat's very prosperous to a person tuh do, jest to burn de buzzard feathers. Git a buzzard, or either he kin burn de whole buzzard if he could, fo' luck. (Where would he burn that?) He kin burn it - if it's in a business place, he could jest burn it late at night in some kind of a pan or somethin', jest de feathers. If he had a place where he could burn de whole buzzard - if it be in a heater or somethin' he could burn it dere. But it don't make any diff'rent, jes' since he burn it around his dwelling place or business - place of business.
Entry 2527
Yo' git dragon's blood an' yo' git de wisteria incense an' yo' git lodestone. [Three ingredients.] Yo' pound dis up together - dis dragon's blood an' yo' put it wit dis wisteria an' de lodestone. Yo' git pulverized [lode]stone an' yo' burn dis at de do' at nine a'clock in de mawnin' an' as yo' close at night. Dat'll make yore business prosperous.
Entry 2655
Well, de way dat would be done, de first thing you should do tuh bring in trade - yo' kin use whut we call a sprinkle. An' yo' could take yo' a little sulphur an' a little salt an' a little peppah an' sprinkle dat round. Den yo kin burn a little sulphur. Yo' burn sulphur on Fridays an' sprinkle a little, then sweep a little round on de flo'. That's very prosperous to bring trade.
Entry 2743
Set it eleven 'clock at night and you dress the candles. You get seven candles fer that purpose and you dress them with a certain kind of perfume. But chew have to do these things on the new moon. Anything that's good has to be done on the new moon; the bad thing they do on the waste of the moon. But now, if you wanted a person to come back, you dress the candles and you set 'em at eleven 'clock at night so it work on the new moon. And then you have to set the candles to burn and pray. [Pray while candles are burning.] And burn the High John Conker Incense. An' you do that from about eleven to half-past eleven. And then sometimes you set and concentrate. You know, concentration means a whole lot. Set and concentrate - hold your thoughts on him and you say while you talking to the candles, "John - Mary Louise," what- ever the name is, "In the Name of God the Father, let you be upset and let chew have no rest or peace wherever you are." Then you read a prayer in the book and - but you keep it up and finally they can't stay away. They will have to come back.
(What do you mean by that book? Do you mean the Bible? Or do you mean?)
Or the Bible.
(Do you have to buy these candles specially or just any kind of candle?)
Oh, no, you have to buy them specially. Sometimes you kin git them already dressed. You git them in New York on Lennox Avenue. You gits them there and you kin git them from Lawrence. Dressed candles. (Have you ever heard of people having little altars and burning candles? On little altars like in a Catholic Church?) Yes, ah do that myself. (I am rather interested in that for a special reason. Can you tell me just how you do that?) Well, we have our altar and we have the holy oil because everything must be holy. And because it's a place, people coming and cursing and that, and some- times they'll fergit and so the place is full of evil and dirty. But everything must be clean. We have holy oils - we have holy candles and you light them. You have seven holy candles, large ones, but chew have 'em in the form of a cross.
(Will you tell me again about burning those candles?)
You know you have them in the form of a cross. You see, you have those little candles. If you don't have those candlesticks that have the form of a cross, why you can jest sit your candles in a row there in that cross, you see.
(Two rows crossed.)
No, see. That's one row of candles across, that's 1,2,3,4,5,6, and then you have some here. That's a cross, you see. Then you have seven small candles like they have on birthday cakes. You have those and you burn those too. And you have those little votive lights sitting around.
(Well, now where would you put those little candles?)
You set them right in front of the seven cross like.
(Well now, how do you make a cross out of those seven candles?)
Those seven little ones you don't have to make a cross of them. Jest let them burn there.
(That other cross, how many do you put in that one row?)
Well, you jest - it don't make any difference how many, jest so you have a cross. Make a cross, you see.
(Then you use those little candles.)
Yes, but chew must burn yore incense. We call it holy incense. And then you use holy water. Yo' sprinkle yore place down with holy water and bless your place - must pray and read the 23 Psalms. Course you read the 23rd Psalms when you git up in the morning and you face the east and you say - you read so many verses until you get to, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he makes me to lie down in green pastures, he leads me to the side of still waters." Then when you say that, and after you turn your face to the east, then to the west, and then you say a couple of more verses. And then when you say those other two verses, turn to the north and say the other two, and when you finish with them, make the last verse to the south. And that will keep your place holy and blest in the form of the cross, you see. And use the 9lst Psalms, if you wanta read, you wanta read a person to be able to git the very best results, to keep out the evil, you read the 9lst Psalm - jest a few verses you want of it. And use the holy candles with holy oil - that keeps the evil out and you aIways be able to get a good message and good vibration. You work better. (Now, you go through this ceremony before you go into this special room. That the idea?) Yes, you do that.
(Before you go in to work for someone.)
Before you start to work. Now if you was goin' tuh have a meetin' heah, a spiritual meetin', you'd come in round about six 'clock and then you'd do all that, and have your place all set up. And then you would git on your knees and you would pray and you jest set your candles all there and you pray and burn the incense.] Burn the incense while you on your knees praying, asking God to bless you and send you in a good crowd and success and let no one be evil, and sprinkle around the holy water and then you set and you concentrate, and you set and you hold your thoughts on success and prosperity and draw the people to you. That's all you do.
(Now do you have meetings? How often do you have meetings?)
Ah have been having meetings three nights a week, but I haven't been very well and not doin' so much now. (I thought if you were going to have a meeting while I am here in Washington, my man and I would come around to be at one of the meetings.) Well, you might come down Sunday - think ah'll probably have a meeting Sunday night.
(Sunday night?)
Yes, 'cause ah'm in kind of a small place now. Ah used to have a big place but ah'm jest having it in my house in mah rooms.
(Well, what time does the meeting begin as a rule?)
Round about nine 'clock. People don't git out until that time. (If a person wanted to get into this work, must he be initiated into it or what.) You would have to be born psychic and after you born psychic why then as you grow older it comes to you but then you have to have some one to instruct you, teach you.
(Then there is no form of initiation or anything of that sort?)
Then after a meeting, after you accepted in a class, course there's certain kind of instruction telling you what to do, and if you say you seen anything - sometimes you see things and don't know 'em. But they will tell you, explain to you. Then you get so - you get so then that you kin jest talk - jest open your mouth and the words will come right out. Then sometimes you see things - you see symbols, you see signs and you see jest the words. You get the words mostly in this ear sometimes [demonstrates] and you walk along.
(Your right ear?)
No, the left ear. This is the left ear. You kin hear it in the left ear, but you have to be born psychic. You were born psychic yourself.
(I'm born psychic? I suppose I am. Never have been sceptical about it.)
[We are talking about different things - see comment later.]
(About the people who are called Holy Rollers or the First Dominical Penta- costal Church. Do you think they have a spiritual gift?) Well, ah think they have a spiritual gift, but ah think that they don't quite understand the Bible. Now for instance, this Holy Roller, ah don't know anything about that, but this - what did you say the word there, The Holy Sanctified?
(This is something different from The Holy Sanctified.)
Well, ah think The Holy Sanctified has a gift of tongues - course it's in the Bible [1 Cor.12, and 14]. You see, if you pray enough and live close to God, the spirit will git on you so will talk in tongues. Your mouth will jest thuth, thuth, till the spirit got on yuh. But as far as being sanctified, ah don't think anybody is really all sanctified. Cause when you sanctified, ah think God takes you away from here when you get so holy. (If a person thinks he's hurt or anything of that sort, could you give him help in any way? Tell him anything about it?) Yes, if they was hurt and the spirit would show it tuh me, and I would see it and tell them about it.
(Then you could describe how they were hurt or something of that sort?)
If I see so. Most generally I see jest how it's done.
(Would you prescribe any remedy for them?)
Well, depends upon how they were hurt. Sometimes if people - lots of people comes to me and say that they are hurt and they are not. You know some people, the southern people, are very superstitious. And if they get a pain in their laig they think they are hoodooed or hurt. Not all the time it isn't that. If you don't tell 'em that, they'll go round and pay somebody else and give em the money. But lots of times they're not hurt. Sometimes people do's has things in them, but I have nevah seen anybody yet that had anything in 'em. Cause when I was a child somebody said that a person had something in them, but I don't - any that talk - I never seen any of it.
(Weren't you born in the south?)
Ah was born right in Washington, but ah lived in New York quite a while. (Well now suppose a person has this pain in his leg, what would you advise ordinarily?) Well, ah would give 'em a treatment with mah hands and pray over him. Or if I wanted, if the place was swollen I would get some herbs and mix a solution and bath it down. See. (But you don't believe that there is any spell? I mean, you don't think that he is hoodooed or anything of the sort?) Ah don't know really. They tell me they kin do it, but ah don't know. Ah never heard or seen. [My comment about being psychic merely means being aware and having a sense of direction (see Introduction). What little I have of this came from training; it was not a gift.]
Entry 3995
Ah have tried it workin' on mah han's in dealin' wit de cards an' ah have been prosperous. (You found it lucky?) Absolutely.
(You mean peeing on your hands?)
Yeah. (Well, now that's something I asked and you thought you didn't know.)
Entry 6116
Dey kin take yore hair an' wear it in dere shoe an' keep yo' down undah den lak dat.
(You mean down in connection with love or something of that sort?)
No sir, jes' keeps yo' down, keeps yo' down underneat' 'em - lak if yo' tryin' tuh go up, why dat keep yo' down, keeps yo' from prosperin'.
Entry 7524
[Despite the rule in the preceding margin title, the following two rites are the exceptions proving the rule. Moreover, if I remember correctly, they are also the only two beliefs permitting a black person to use graveyard dirt from a white per- son's grave. The fol- lowing words may be a third exception: yo' could go tuh de grove- yard...take...three pennies an' go PAY WHITE OR COLORED - see interview RAGGEDY HAN, p.2195, line 19.] [I have never heard how you] harm anybody wit graveyard dirt but I have heard dis: I've heard dat yo' git graveyard dirt, an' a button from a rattlesnake, an' two teeth from a cotton-mouth blacksnake - two of 'is front teeth. Dey say dat yo' kin take dat dirt, but graveyard dirt from a white person's grave - not from a colored person's, a white person's graveyard - an' dey say yo' kin come into a lotta wealth. I've heard of dat dataway.
(Well, what do you do with these teeth and things?)
Well, now yo' put all dat togethah an' tie it up in a little red flannel cloth an' yo' wear it roun' yore neck - jes' tie it roun' yore neck an' yo' wear it. An' evah mawnin' befo' speakin' to anybody yo' have prayers. I disremembah what de prayer is an' den yo' kin become very wealthy. FROM DE WHITE PEOPLE I'VE HEARD DAT.
Entry 11648
Bringing in customers. Well, first start yo' off burnin' some incense. Yo burn yore incense an' den yo' use de five-finger grass. Hang it up anywhere in yore place of business. Den yo' keep a High John de Conkah roots. Dat would increase yore business.
Entry 12535
(What do you do with the red onion?)
Well, dey say if yo' break de skin of it an' jes' carry it in yore pocket, some of it, or either throw it away, jes' throw it away, dey say dat's lucky. If yo' boil it, boil yo' three dimes in it an' den drink de watah, dat's lucky fo' yo' - yore in- come will be good.
Entry 12590
(Take a penny?)
Uh-huh, an' take a small nail an' drive 'em dere right in de middle of de do'. Yo'll always have customers - fo' likkah ah know. [Brunswick 2022:3.]
Entry 12591
(You take a copper penny. One?)
Oh yes. Lay one at each do' - a copper penny, one. An' nail one in each do' an' yo' know, yo' will draw customers.
[The law was added after machine turned off.]
(That will keep the law away, too?)
Yessuh. [Fayetteville 2539:7.]
Entry 12740
Get a rattlesnake - ah heard yo' take de rattles, yo' know, an' keep 'em in yore trunk till yo' git ten years of age, an' den yo' become wealthy. Cut de rattles off of 'im an' put dem in a trunk, put dem in jes' where de air can't strike it. Yo' see whut ah mean. Fo' ten years yo'll be a wealthy man. (You keep them in there ten years before you are a wealthy man.)
Entry 12887
In de business line - fo' customers, if yo' runnin' dis place of busi- ness. Now, yo' kin take when yo' knock off [close] dis place at night, put some of dis Hearts Cologne in de water an' mop dis buildin' out dat night. An' don't sweep none of yore dirt out at night after six a'clock, outa yore front atall. Dat'll make business an' yo'll prosper mo'.
(Brings customers in.)