Subject:Saltpeter
Entries
Entry 3721
He kin bathe in sweet milk fuh nine mawnin's - see, jis' de milk whut yo' milk out of a cow's bag whilst it's warm. An' bathe his privates down fuh nine mawnin's. An' take dat an' saltpetah, see an' alum fuh nine mawnin's, an' dat'll bring 'is nature back to him. (Do you take this milk bath separately or do you put this saltpeter and alum in it?) No, yo' see, yo' bathe in de raw milk by it- self warm, jis' as it come outa de cow's bag. An' aftah yo' do dat fuh nine mawnin's wit de milk, den yo' see when yo' take a bath, jis' a or'nary bath, yo' bath fuh nine days in dat saltpetah an' alum. An' dat'll restore yore nature back.
Entry 3758
(Well, suppose a man is tied up that way, how could he git rid of that?) Git rid of dat? He would take dat perfume whut de call Hearts Perfume, cinnamon, saltpetah an' chamber lye, his own, wit nine ten-penny nails. Takin' a bath from head to feet an' throwin' it out to- Wards sunrise. Den she cain't do anythin' unless she gits wit 'im [again]. Dat untie him.
Entry 3761
He kin git 'is nature back ag'in through de same way ah said. He kin take some gourds or one gourd an' beat it up wit saltpetah an' sulphur an' jes' bathe himself down dere - pahtic'lah dova. An' take it to a rivah an' throw it gsMr, an den dat'll be.off of 'im an' he'll becoe jes' as he once wus.
Entry 3816
Take a bran'-new knife an' po' - make urinate [urinate] down dat knife- blade evah mawnin' fo' nine mawnin's an' wash 'isself wit whut chew call dis stuff dey use in prison. (Saltpeter?) Saltpetah. Take dat an' wash it [his tool] an' throw it to de sundown. Take dat an' wash it an' throw it to de sundown. If he done wash 'isself off an' throw it de way de sun goes down, he kin git ovah [cure] it dataway - git along to where he kin handle anybody he want to.
(That will take off this spell that took his nature away.)
Dat'll take off dat.
(He did that before sunrise did you say?)
[He did not give the time, that is what I wanted to learn.]
Aftah sun risin' an' jes' as de sun liable to set, see yo' put it in dere den, den it [ailment] will go away den. Yo' have to do dat fo' nine evenin's an' po' dat watah down dat knife fo' nine mawnin's.
(You urinate down the knife in the morning, and you throw it away at night?)
Yeah, yo' washes wit dat saltpetah in de aftahnoon. [For the general reader may I add:. The peter part of saltpeter, being one of the many names for the penis, has magic value in this impotence cure; so also has the magic salt portion of saltpeter.]
Entry 4010
[One cylinder later, preceding informant gives another version of the bluestone rite.] Take some chamber lye an' put some bluestone in it an' some saltpetah an' mix it up, an' jes' throw it undah yore step. an' all in front of yore [front] do', where yo' have to walk, an' roun' yore back do', an' dey say while dat down dey can't do nuthin to yo'.
combining chamber lye, bluestone and saltpetah before distribution. Keep the opening editorial one-cylinder-later/preceding-informant note and this distinct numbered version. The neighboring4009 citation says1077 while4010 says1007; no identity or citation repair is authorized here. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Entry 5133
De shoes, if yuh wan' tuh. yuh kin take 'em an' bury de shoes. But if she wan's yuh tuh come back, see she take 'em an' bury 'em at de front of de house comin' in, wit de toes comin' in. See. Den she let dose stay dere nine days. (Then what do you do?) Den aftah de shoes are dere nine days, she'll wrote a lettah. Den when he comes back yuh git dis heah [here] - write it [the name] nine times. An' git chew nine bran'-new needles an' pin it in dere. Stick 'em - see, yuh pin 'em like dis heah [demonstrates]. Yuh put 'em where he comes in. Put it [needle] undah dere, right ovah it [weaving the needles] in an' out [of paper with name]. An' he'll continue goin' [in] an' out. An' wit dose shoes buried, he comin' back.
Entry 5217
Well, if yo' think dey goin' put somepin down fo' yo' tuh walk ovah, yo' git some sulphur an' table salt an' - an' saltpetah. Put jis' a li'le bit'a each, about de same quantity of each, an' put it in each shoe, an' yo' walk ovah dat much as yo' wanta.
Entry 5233
Take dey lef'-foot shoe an' burn it wit sugah, black peppah, saltpetah an' bluestone. Dat'll call 'em back.
Entry 5283
I've heard of people takin' saltpetah and molasses and putting it in a shoe and turn it upside down, turn around seven times and make a wish, and whatever that is it will come against the one that owns the shoe.
Entry 5696
If yo' wan' 'em tuh go, yo' don' wan' 'im tuh stay, git choo a table- spoonful of salt, a tablespoon whut dey call cayenne peppah. Git choo a red flannin rag now, an' git saltpeter - woman salt- peter. Yo' know it's two kinds, a she saltpeter an' dere a he saltpeter. Yo' git de she. Take yo' a teaspoonful an' put it dere an' put it - make a li'le. red-flannin sack an' put it down in dere. Well, now if yo' know dis party, yo' watch 'er walk. Yo' count de tracks as dey walk. Yo' count de tracks lak dey 3 right-foot tracks. Yo' jis' take it from de toe. An' take it up, po' it in dat sack. Sew it up. Yo' meet de sun three mawnin's as it rise, an' wet on it. Take it tuh de rivah befo' de rise de fo'th day, an' throw it in dere. Ah don' care where yo' wan' 'em tuh go, dey'll leave dere. Dey can't stay.
(WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "SHE" AND "HE" SALTPETER?)
DE "SHE" IS A LARGE LUMP AN' DE "HE" IS IN LI'LE BITA CRUMBS.
Entry 5981
She disliked me.
(Who disliked you?)
This woman.
(I see. All right.)
She disliked me an' ah tole 'er [told her] ah had de headache, an' she couldn't give it to me herself, see. By me bein' young, she wus gon'a fool me. She tole me, she said, "Yo' git yo' some salt- petah an' sprinkle it in yore hair, an' evah mawnin' fer nine mawnin's aftah de new moon, " she say, "yo' git up an' meet de risin' sun an' comb yore hair fo'wards."
(Comb your hair what?)
Comb yore hair fo'wards.
(Comb your hair forwards, I see.)
An' ah say, "Ah nevah did comb mah hair dat way." She say, "It's not goin' hurtcha [hurt you]." An' ah went to anothah woman an' de othah woman tole me dat she wuz tryin' to run me crazy; said it wuz goin' make me go crazy if ah put dat saltpetah in mah hair an' combed it to de moon - [I mean] to de sun lak she done tell me.
(That would make you go crazy, you say? I see.)
Yes.
Entry 6081
Well, dey said yo' kin take yore hair an' some of yore hair down below an' put it togethah, parch it an' put it in - an' a piece of saltpetah. An'dat's to make love. An' sew it up [in a bag] an' wear it nex' to yo', nex' to yo', nex' to yore flesh. An' tie it aroun' yo' - wear it aroun', pin it to yo' some way. An' dat makes de man or wumman love dat person, whoevah dey want.
Entry 6695
Yo' kin take saltpetah an' yo' kin take whut chew calls, de medicine dey calls aloes, an' yo' put dat tuhgethah in some salts [salt] an' some warm watah. An' yo' kin take a good bath all ovah with dat stuff, make enough of it tuh give yo' a good bath. Bath [not bathe] yo'self all ovah. Den yo' kin take anothah, dis same medi- cine an' boil it, an' drink it. Drink it jes' as hot as yo' kin at night an' dat kills whutsomevah germ is in yo'. An' den aftah doin' dat, den yo' git chew a bottle of sweet milk an' a cup of lard an' lemme see - an' a teaspoon of salt- petah an' stir it all. Jes' stir it all up tuhgethah an' yo' drink dat. An' den five minutes aftah dat, if yo' hurt [hoodooed] yo'll throw it up. De white stuff, 'xactly [exactly] whut yo' done eat, yo' know, de milk will come back firs' lak dat. Den aftah dat it comes green, whole lotta green stuff vill come out of yo' system 'cuz yo' done vomit it up.
(What is that green stuff?)
Dat's dat poison dat is put down in yore stomic, dat's tyin' yo' up.
Entry 6697
Yo' go tuh a druggist or grocery sto', eithah one, an' yo' git chew some saltpetahs, some ammonia, household ammonia, bluein' [three ingredients]. An' yo' take all dat an' yo' fix dat ingredients tuhgethah, an yo' use it in de watah whut chew bathe in. But in de meantime yo' supposed tuh bathe three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays an' Fridays. [For this three evenly spaced days a week, see p.830.]
(At any particular time of the day?)
Well, say, six in de mawnin', twelve at noon an' six at night. [For this evenly spaced time-of-day formula, see p.830.]
(Any one of those times or three times?)
Well, yo' kin bathe once but eithah one of dem hours yo' kin, yo' see. An' den yo' take dis saltpetah an' yo' puts it in yore shoe an' yo' weah it. Dat'll perteck [protect] yo' from any kinda home or anybody tryin' tuh do yo' harm. (Well, there's also some of that saltpeter in the bath water, too. Those three things are all in the bath water?) Yessuh.
(Then you save some of that saltpeter and put it in your shoe?)
Put it in yore shoe an' weah it in yore shoe fo' pertekshon [protection].
Entry 6762
You mean poison, hoodoo-like?
(Yes.)
Yo' git a teacup fulla sweet milk, halfa teacup of grease, piece of salt- petah about big as a red bean. [Magic of diminishing size.] (A red bean.) Piece of saltpetah about as big as a red bean. Yo' take all dat an' mix dat tuhgethah an' give it tuh yo' an' let yo' drink it. An' yo' vomit it up or eithah it'll kill it [the poison], kill it on de inside of yo'.
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 6889
An' yo' kin take saltpetah an' 'er chamber lye an' let 'er drink dat an' she won' 'ave no baby. Jis' as 'er monthly comes around, jis' as she git off befo' she have a intahco'se wit anybody, drink up some of dat an' she won' 'evah [= won't never] git impregnant.
Entry 6964
Put a li'le saltpetah in yore shoe. Weah it in yore shoe an' sulphur in yore shoe. Dat'll keep de poison from gwine [going (into your body)], tetch- in' [touching yo'. See.
Entry 7246
I knowed a fellow and he lost all control of himself [because someone did this to him]. They cut up horsehair as fine as he [they] could cut it and put that up in his food, and after that was internal it formed snakes. They [the snakes] commenced to destroy him. This doctor took them out. He gave him saltpeter, olive oil, poke root, and other things [surely including a laxative], and mixed them all together and gave him, and perished those snakes and they crawled out of him. [For horsehair producing live snakes in person, see also Nos.6571-6572, p.3084.]
Entry 7408
Jis' lak ef a puson wus tuh kill anothah one an' dey can't nevah ketch 'im. Well, dey go on an' dey gits - dat coffin have tuh be dressed whut dat in- divid'l is in tuh cuz dese othah parties tuh come back. An' tuh dress dat coffin dey'll git some dragon's blood an' whut chew call - well it's a oil whut chew call de come back oil, an' dat dragon's blood an' dat Sang-Sang Powdah. [This is probably the same thing as Sen-Sen or Sen-Sen Powder mentioned elsewhere.l An' take it an' put it in a half a pint-a watah, an' put two tablespoonsful of saltpetah in it, an' shake it up good an' sprinkle dat individ'l good in dat coffin. Sprinkle de corpse real good an' dat individ'l, whosomevah it is. An' in about three day's time dem parties will be back.
Entry 9596
If de law's bothahin' yo', yo' kin take de onion an' de garlic an' cut it in fo' equal parts. Yo' jis' take de garlic, yo' don't cut it all; yo' jis' take diff'ren' pods, pieces [cloves] yo' know. An' yo' use eithah de white or de red onion, an' yo' kin jis' cut it yo' know, in fo' parts: An' go an' yo' po' a whole box of table salt ovah it, an' den yo' po'a whole box of red peppah ovah it, an' sprinkle a li'l saltpetah an' a li'l bluestone on it. Dat'll keep de law out chure house.
(What do you do with that garlic?)
Well, yo' take dat garlic an' burn it. It's fo' luck. Yo' take dat garlic an' put it in a li'l bag an' fold it up an' wit all kinds - all kinda diff'ren' li'le pieces of stuff dat chew use wit it. Weah it. Yo' know weah dat garlic. (How do you keep the law away with that onion after you prepare it? What do you do with that onion?) Yo' take dat onion an' continue tuh burn it till de third mawnin', an' dat'll keep de law away.
(Where do you do that - burn that?)
Well, yo' take it de firs' night an' let it burn up dere, yo' see. Sprinkle it all round yore house. [In preceding subsection see 3 pepper pods halved, No.9587.]
Entry 9662
Ah tole yo', when yo' want 'em tuh go [pauses].
(Yes.)
When dey makes de track, why yo' take a new broom an' sprinkle salt. Salt an' saltpetah, mix dat togethah an' sprinkle dat an' devil's snuff.
(Devil's snuff?)
Devil's snuff, yes sir.
(Where do you sprinkle that?)
Yo' sprinkle it right on behind. Jes' lak dey goin' out de do', yo' sprinkle it right on behin' dem. An' den yo' takes dis broom an' sweep it an' tell 'em - yo' make, make de wishes dat yo' want 'em tuh go an' stay [away]. Jes sweep 'im, jes' sweep 'im away. [The salt] outa box of salt dat's nevah been used out of.
(I see. Do you use salt? And what else did you say you used?)
Salt an' saltpetah an' devil's snuff.
(Devil's snuff. I see.)
Entry 9669
Yessuh, dere's somethin' dey kin git tuh git 'em away. Git 'em high Life an' saltpetah an' salt an' sandalwood incense, an' mix it up an' throw aroun' yore house evah mawnin' befo' de sun rise. (What is high life?) Ah dunno. It's somethin' yo' git outa de drug sto'. It looks jes' kinda greenish lookin'.
(Is it a powder or a liquid?)
It's a powdah. It's kinda lak sulphuh but chew cain't sprinkle it down where it rains, 'cuz it swells 'way up. Yo' use it when it's dry weathah.
Entry 9670
Well, ah been tricked one time by some of mah things. A girl lived in our home an' she fell out wit me concernin' a man. She'd taken a dress of mine, one of mah monthly period cloths, an' some of mah hair an' got underneath de ahm [arm] where ah sweat at, an' taken it an' cared [carried] it across [town] tuh a man [cunjureman]. (Wait a minute! What did she get from under your arm, the hair or just the sweat?) De sweat from de dress. An' she'd taken it tuh a man an' she had it mixed wit graveyard dirt, peedles an' pins an', well one or two mo' thing but de man [healer I went to] didn't name 'em, see. He put it in a jah [jar] an' brought it back tuh our house unbeknown tuh all of us, late hour of de night, an' buried it. Now, it wus buried out 'bout along by de lavatory, see. Well, one Sunday mawnin' ah was sittin' on de po'ch an' ah got up an' ah went out tuh de lavatory. An' ah had a spell. From den ah commenced tuh feel as though....
(What kind of a spell did you have? How did you feel?)
Ah felt as though ah was dyin' fo' a few minutes. Well, ah started back tuh de house an' when ah got back home, ah tole mothah tuh call de doctah. Our lavatory was out from de house. An' she said, "Well, whut's de mattah? Yo' don't look sick?" Ah said, "Well, ah am." She said, "Well, yo' don't look sick." An' so ah went on de porch. She said, "Go back an' lay down, if yo' want me tuh call de doctah. Don't stan' on de front porch." Ah said, "Well, ah cain't lay down." While she was callin' de doctah ah went runnin' down tuh de drug store. Seemed as though mah mind wus leavin' me, see. An' all ah could have on mah mind right den was dyin' or eithah seein' mahsel' confined in a 'sylum. See? An', well ah got back home an' de doctah came out. He examined me thoroughly. He said nuthin was wrong. Well, ah knowed it was somepin wrong. Still, he said it wasn't anything wrong. Well, mah mothah tried two mo' doctahs. Both of 'em said dere wasn't anything wrong. She'd taken me crosstown tuh a man by de name of Mr. Lee [a root doctor].
(What town was this?)
Waycross, Georgia. Yes. An' ah went ovah dere on Lee Avenue tuh Mr. Lee. An' he tole me of dese things dat had been taken from me. An' tole me dat de onliest way dat he could get dis spell offa me was tuh dig dese things up. An' tole me de charges of diggin' it up. An' he say he knowed dat ah didn't have much money, an' ah could pay dis on installments. See, dat he would charge me $25 fo' takin' dese things up. See. So he charged de $25 an' mah mothah paid 'im ten of it down. He came ovah tuh our house an' he digged dese things up. Dug 'em up an' it was in a jar an' it was stopped up tight. An' it looked as though it had begin tuh kinda rot. See. He'd taken it out. He got a pan of warm watah an' put some lodestone in it an' a little salt. Taken dese things an' po'd 'em in dere. An' - well, ah don't know whut he done wit it. Ah know he'd taken it wit 'im whatevah it was, see. An' he didn't nevah give me anythin' tuh take, but grad'ly by degrees dis spell commence tuh weah off, until now ah'm fine.
(How long ago did that happen, did you say?)
That's been - ah imagine now - dat's been around seven or eight months. No longah, no soonah. [These are the experiences difficult to find.]
Entry 9684
Jis' like if your husband was goin' with someone else, [I know] of a remedy that would break that up, and that is one heaping tablespoonful of salt. You dip up this here, a tablespoonful of salt, pick it up, an' you take yuh hand an' brush it off [level the salt]. An' you pour that over there on the Papah. Then do the same with de sulphur. An' you brush that off [take a table- Spoon level-full of sulphur] an' pour it into this [salt]. Then take one pinch of saltpeter an' you put this into this [salt and sulphur]. Then you make [mix] it up real good an' start from the front door, go upstairs, you go backwards, sprinkle this. An' they say when he walks over this, it'll break 'em up.
Entry 9744
Use nine nails, nailing six the straight way and three the crossway [making the form of a cross] up overhead or either where the party have to pass at. And that's crossing of the house. Yes, sir. If they [know] exactly it's crossed: again, removing the nails, keeping them in the house overnight, throwing them out before the sunrise, and washing the house out with saltpeter, it's [the cross is] done away with. (That removes this cross I put on the landlord?) Yes sir, absolutely. [The 6 nails, grouped into three sets are driven into the floor as follows: IT Tr Tr. Then 3 nails are driven across the sets like this: H H H. We now have 6X's or Soblecrosses.]
Entry 10179
Yo' couldn't zakly [exactly] make de candle go out, but chew could fix it so it wouldn't do yo' no harm. (How would you do that?) Git chew some red peppah, saltpeter, tie it up in a rag an' a li'l piece of root dey call John de Conkah root, an' yo' weah dat in yuh pocket. An' dey couldn't hurt yo' no way.
Entry 10188
For success in business either at home or outside the house, bathe with 3 ingredients: bluestone, saltpeter and sugar. Or else bathe with blueing and sugar. Either bath is for personal protection. At place of business mop up with Red Seal Lye and burn brimstone as a purification. But before leaving home for work or opening the house for business, make wishes and light a yellow candle. [Did the maker of this rite realize that in some place during the late Middle Ages prostitutes legally had to wear yellow?]
Entry 10189
Bottle oil of bergamine [bergamot], box cooking soda, teaspoon salt- peter, take bath in that. Break a candle, make a wish, light [same] candle, let candle burn out. Then get brimstone, burn brimstone Monday, Wednes- day and Friday and make wish. Put sugar in it [brimstone], throw into fire. Can make money. [This is a rite for business.]
Entry 10769
An' den yore boss, seems lak he doesn't lak yo' - he doesn't lak yore work. Well, yo' go home an' yo' say, "Well, ah believe ah'll fix somepin fo' mah boss tuh make him lak me." Well, yo' go ahead an' yo' git chew some saltpeter, yo' git chew some table- salt an' some sulphur, [salt and sulphur to kill cunjure put down against you] an' yo' [put the salt] in dat sul- phur an' yo' bathes in dat saltpeter. But chew use dat sulphur, yo' takes a pinch of it, an' den yo' sprinkle some sulphur in yore shoes an' rub yore hands with it. Yo' know, yo' can't go round people with it. An' sprinkle Hearts Col- Ogne round dere [where you walk]. An' when yo' go out yo'll git affection. Dere ah'll come up, right chere, "Good mawnin', everybody, good mawnin', howdee dis mawnin'?" [They answer], "Jes' dandy." "Well, why'd yo' have sech-an'-sech a thing fo' breakfast?" "Oh, i enjoyed such-an'-such a thing last night."
Entry 10817
[Well, yo' take bluestone an' saltpeter an' yo' sprinkle it into de floor an' den yo' leave it dere. Yo' put dat together an' yo' burn it. See, yo' burn dat together. An' de next morning yo' git up an' sweep nine times, fo' nine mornings, see. An' dem people be gone 'way from dat place. Dey can't stay dere. (In other words, if I am living in a house, and somebody comes in there and burns this bluestone and saltpeter, it would make me move out of the house.) Make you move out. (Well, then I would have to sweep this [these] ashes nine times for nine mornings, sweep it out of the house.) Jest sweep to de steps fo' nine mornings an' yo' can't stay dere.
Entry 11134
Take it [manure] from a bull and yo' mix cayenne pepper and salt and saltpeter together, and carry it tuh someone's home dat you dislike. Yo' mix it all together and you put it out and let it dry. After it dries you crumble it up and powder it. Jest like someone would live here. You wouldn't want all tuh come out; jest want one person tuh leave dis place. Well, you would take it den and go and sprinkle in de yard and around de do' and call dis person's name. Dey can't stay dere. Dey'll have to move out, go some- where. Dey can't stay dere.
Entry 11165
Dere's a root out dere, ah don't know whether it's round here or not. Dat comes out de woods. [Take that] an' saltpeter. It's de devil's-shoestring! Dat's whut dey call it, de devil's-shoestring. An' beat it up - jest beat it up an' put it in yore pock- et - yo' understand, an' walk on in. An' as yo' walk in de office - dis is de office heah [demonstrates] jest put it in yore pocket an' rub yore hand lak dat over it. An' bit off a little piece an' jest lak yo' chewin' a piece of chewin' gum or somepin lak dat, an' talk to him. He'll give yo' a job. Yes sir, he'll give yo' a job.
(Do you come from South Carolina?)
North Carolina.
Entry 12047
You take a piece of red flannen [flannel] and you dampen that with kerosene and turpentine. Then you take a piece of John de Conkah and Jockey Club [perfume] and a piece of saltpeter. (Jockey Club perfume?) Yes, Jockey Club, and then you take all that and you put it into a little new piece of paper, but I mean brown paper. Put it onto the brown paper first and then put it in - put the devil's - annimum [an- vil] dust. Put annimum dust in there with it. And then wrap it up in that brown paper [brown paper for black person, white paper for white person is the rule]. Wrap it to you. Wrap it right to you. And then put it in a brand-new piece of 'lastic [elastic]. And then you get a new spool of No.8 thread, and then you wrap that good. You wrap it to you. See, you wrap it to you. See, that's bringing you luck. Just wrap it to you. And then you get you a new needle that you've never used - out of a new case [package]. And then you use that brand-new thread and you sew it to you, you know, and make your wishes. You sew it to you. And then you takes that
[package] and tacks it onto your [elastic] belt. You know, that piece of [red]
flannen, you know, and you put that kerosene and turpentine on there, and then you put it round your waist, just wear right round your waist right next to your meat. That's to keep anybody from harming you.
(I see.)
Annimum - an-n- (Wait a minute - annirmum dust.) [I am making a final effort to record this vord correctly. Anim and various things until later in New Orleans I knew it was anvil dust.]
Entry 12284
Yo' kin git saltpetah, sage, alum, sugah an' salt - yo' know - stuff, yo' know, whut he nuse [use]. Yo' know, salt an' sugah an' stuff lak dat whut chew wanta know in dose strings. Yo' say, "In de Name of de Fathah, an' de Son, ah'm bringin' yo' back tuh me." Call his name, see, an' say, "Long as yo' eat sage, as long as yo' eat sugah, drink sugah in yore coffee" - sompin lak dat. An' call dose names, an' tie dose strings, an' tell him yo' want him tuh come back tuh yo'. Well, he'll come den. An' aftah yo' tie dose strings, put dose strings in a pile an' sprinkle dis saltpetah an' stuff ovah it, an' red peppah, an' yo' take kerosene. An' den yo' say, "In de Name of de Fathah an' de Son, ' an' burn it. An' put it out in de yard an' let it smoke.
Entry 12621
If yo' wants tuh draw de customers to de place, yo' git some sulphur an' burn dat sulphur in de fo' corners of de house or de sto' an' den take some sulphur an' salt an' black pepper an' put right in de do' underneat'de steps an' dat will draw de customers.
Entry 12866
I know an old woman that said if a man kept on living on the place and got disagreeable, she said she used to go out in the morning before day and walk backwards and throw that saltpeter in his path in [the form of] a cross and wish him bad luck and he would leave that farm. They say saltpeter is a great hand to destory any- thing you don't like. [Fredericksburg, Va., by Ediphone.]
Entry 12867
Now, yo' kin take for instance in yore clothes or in yore shoes, if dey's tryin' tuh git chew tricked. Yo' wear saltpeter in yore shoes - either shoe you put in - dat saltpeter in your shoes. An' whenever yo' go out yo' got dat in. Then you kin put a pod of garlic - garlic. They don't nevah beat the garlic. They cain't nevah do you nothin' atall.
(Where do you keep that?)
Anywhere about. Anywhere you go be sure yo' got dat garlic. Morning and night you keep it on yore person - de pod of garlic. An' dat saltpeter in de bottom of your shoe - any shoe. Jes' go an' sprinkle de bottom of yore shoe with saltpeter.
Entry 12868
An' dey say yo' kin take bluestone an' saltpeter, beat it up an' make yo' a kine [kind] of a little sack yo' know lak [sack-lak yo' know] an' wear it in yore shoe an' dat'll keep yo' from ketching dis stuff.
(Anything that anybody puts down for you.)
Yes sir.
Entry 13002
They have live things in them, you kin take a cupful of lard, and a cupful of sulphur, and you take a cupful of salt. And you puts all of that to about a quart of water and let it boil. And you take a silver [bow or beau or bull] dollar. (A silver what?) A silver dollah, a bow dollah. (A bow dollar?) They call 'em bow dollah, them silvah dollahs, one of them big round dollahs. They don't use 'em very much now [1938]. Well, you let that boil. Yo' get a [cove] oyster can [these were not the recent canned oysters kept on ice] and you let that dollah boil real good. You boil it for about a hour in that water. And you take that water, put it with this other ingredients, this cupful of lard and everything. And I mean that will certainly pass from you. You let 'em drink that fuh 9 mornings, see. Give 'em a cupful and them live things will pass. That'll kill it. An' then you take - behind that give 'em a bath, behind that a bath of saltpeter and bluestone and sulphur.
Entry 974
Ah was hoodooed in 1895 - ah were in de white-folks kitchen cooking. At home on de night befo' ah got blind. Ah seen a woman, yo' know, goin' down on de groun' makin' a mark - making a mark and she say, "When she come 'long she goin walk right ovah this" - in mah dream yo' know. So when ah went on that morning she was at de kitchen do. And ah walked in de kitchen do' an' opened de do' an' made a fire in de stove, and when ah made a fire in de stove ah made mah biscuits and put dem in de stove and put on mah coffee and put on mah grits, an' got mah bacon ready to fry.
(Where did this happen?)
In Camden, Alabama. Yes, sir - dat's mah home. Yes sir, Camden, Alabama. After ah got that all ready, ah went to set mah table. Got mah table all set an' everything and come back to de kitchen, ah was taken wit a swimming in de head so bad ah jes' couldn't hardly see. Ah says, "Whut's de matter?" Ah pulled de line[?] off an' then ah went on back in de kitchen. Ah went tuh stoop down to open de door to git de biscuits out de stove an' fell an' dey had tuh carry me home. Dere's a ole man name - let see whut was dat ole man name. Uncle Nase. Well, mah mother sent fo' him and he come an' tole her she jes' did send in time tuh save me, and he went in de woods and got some of these green cuckee [cockle] burs, made a poultice and put it all ovah my head - jes' wrapped me up in it chew know. An' den de next morning he was tuh bathe me. He give me some saltpeter and some sody and salt to put in water - those three things an' ah bathes with it an' every morning throw it to de sunrise. Yes, sir - every morning throw it sun- rise. An' after that ah begin tuh git all right, until ah got chere in Mobile. One day ah was working agin out heah on Montgomery Street loop in Mobile heah. Well, dat ain't been about five years ago.
(Government Street and St. Luke?)
Yes sir, that's right, and this leg swole up on me so bad, yo' see, ah thought it was broken an' ah sent fo' a doctor and no doctor - dey worked on it and dey couldn't do it any good. And so ah bathed it in salty water - yo' know that always is mighty good. Couldn't do nuthin with it. Well, it begin to burst and little ole bugs ran out of it. So ah went to a man dat was called to be wise, yo' know, and he tole me tuh git me some saltpeter and some sody an' vinegar, an' mix them all together and bathe it in. Ah did an' it's all right now.
Entry 995
My aunt been tricked and I carried 'er to a lady. We was living next door to a woman and she didn't like my aunt. And she put something down on the plank-walk, but it used to come every evening about three o'clock. It did look like ice-cream salt but it was saltpeter, and it come up every evening at three. [See subsection Time and Hoodoo Spell, p.349.] And when it melts away it melts away like dew. You ever seen like dew melt away and leave everything wet? Well, my aunt walked over that.
(You mean like in the morning it's wet on the grass?)
Yes, sir. Well, my aunt she walked over that - it was on the plank-walk. Well, after that she walked over it - she was big and fat - she weighed 250 - then she had one big leg and she had one little leg. Well, after that she began so she couldn't walk. So I carried her to a lady [a spiritual] and the lady took some holy water and rubbed my aunt's leg with that for nine mornings and made her pray an' take the holy water and that holy water cured her. That holy water is really good - that holy water cured her.
(Made her take it? How do you mean take it?)
She used to drink three swallows of it every morning, and the rest she used tc bathe her leg in, and now she got all her health and strength back again.
(Where did you take her - somewhere here in New Orleans?)
Yes, sir. I take my aunt into her house. Well, when I brought her in she tole my aunt, she say, "OoH, '' she say, "you're hurted." But my aunt tole her, "Yes, but nothing don't hurt me." But you see, by her body being so big - she had a little leg and a big leg - 'cause that woman had put the stuff down for my aunt, well, she had put it down to paralyze this one side. Well, she was really paralyzed in that one side. Well, she made my aunt drink three swallows of holy Water, and she bathed her leg nine mornings in the holy water, and she made her repeat the Lord's Prayer three times a day. But she told her she had to believe in for it to do her any good. So she believed in it.
Entry 1117
(You get this one drop of blood from that same bug [Betsy bug] from an old hollow tree.) Yes, from a ole rotten tree. You drop this blood - one drop into a cup of - into a halfa teacup of grease. Then you get a piece of saltpeter about as big as a red bean. Get a teacup of sweet milk. You see you mix that all up together. You give that to that person that has been tricked and poisoned. They wull throw it up.
Entry 1216
Ah wus throw'd aftah once an' mah mouth wus round dataway an' de nose wus dataway [demonstrates].
(Just twisted to one side.)
Twisted to one side - jes' layin' heah, right heah. Well, ah went tuh Dr. Halpin, a medical doctor, an' he gived me some little white, large pills yo' see. Well, de pills seems tuh do me some little good but didn't do me much. One man [root doctor] come tuh me, says, "Yo' git chew some dirt dauber nest." Well, ah got dat dirt dauber nest wit de young ones. It's mighty nasty, all right 'nuff - an' ah mashed it up - dat dirt dauber nest - got me some saltpeter an' ah mixed it up good - stirred it yo' know, de stuff. An' ah took dat dirt dauber nest every night an' mawnin' an' rubbed de side of mah face. Ah wus fixed thataway. Jes' lak mah nose wus turned, why [demonstrates] it druv it from dis side dis way, keep arubbing that thing thataway.
Entry 1492
Yo' know, put somethin' down fo' yo' or somethin'. Well, yo' jis' git chew a package of saltpeter an' jis' bathe yore han's ovah good in it an' yore feets an' maybe down heah [demonstrates].
(Your navel.)
An' dey cain't nevah harm yo'.
Entry 1553
Well, if dey had anything down, yo' could take a silver dime an' git some of dat silver offa dat dime an' make a wish - yo' know, yo' don't want no trouble or nuthin tuh come against yore place, or yo' don't wanta be swole up or whutnot. Scrape some of dat silver off an' yo' kin put it in yore shoe. Jes' sprinkle a little bit, take up dat sole in yore shoe, de first sole, an' sprinkle a little of dat silver - all dat in de hollow [arch] of yore feet, yo' might say. Den yo' kin take some cayenne peppah an' saltpeter, jes' about a quarter or halfa teaspoon, an' make a cross an' put hit in his shoe. An' hit won't hurt chure business whatevah they put down; it won't hurt chew or nuthin. It kills dat, whatevah they brought there.
(You mean you sprinkle this stuff in the form of a cross?)
[He reexplains, adding details.]
Yo' kin take a papah, yo' understan' - take some table salt that hasn't been used an' yo' make yore wishes. Always make yore wish to de Father, de Son, when- evah yo' want things tuh vanish away an' don't harm yo'. Yo' put some of that silver first in yore shoes [under first sole] an' then yo' takes that table salt that hasn't been used an' yo' kin take some cayenne peppah that hasn't been used an' then yo' folds it in a little papah, jes' a little thin papah wit jes' a little bit in it. Then yo' folds it like a fan. Then yo' take the peppah an' put up on top of that saltpeter as a cross in yore shoe lak that.
(You put each one in a little package - these two packages are crossed then?)
Dey crossed and you layi 'em cross lak that in yore shoe in the flat part of yore shoe, an' whatevah they brought there it won't harm yo'. [The silver dust and two packages of mixed salt and cayenne pepper above it are crossed first with saltpeter and then these are crossed with red pepper - this being two crosses, a double-cross.]
Entry 1603
They told me to go to the drug store and get some saltpeter - saltpeter and take my urine when I, you know, urinate and put it in warm water.
(Put it in some warm water.)
And put my feet in that and wash my feet with it. Carry it to my back door. Throw it over my left shoulder and walk back in the house and don't look back.
(That'll keep them from harming you?)
Yes, sir.
Entry 1608
Yo' kin take and get saltpeter, you kin get the brine offa mack'rel fish, mix chamber lye with this. Now, I know this is real 'cause I did this - that happened to me. You bathe in that but you set in yore door, if you got a door facing the east. You set there, you bathe whatever parts that hurts you or that feels peculiar. You bathe that for nine mornings and yo' be all right.
(But you must sit right in that door facing the east?)
As the sun rise and do that for nine mornings, and as you do that, you mention the Lord's Name - say this, "In the Father, Son and de Holy Ghost."
(And you bathe. What time do you bathe yourself?)
Jest as the sun rise.
Entry 1636
Well, dat's whut ah'm tellin' yo' - dat's jis' de same. All yo' do is put chure urinate in that saltpeter into somethin' an' ev'ry mawnin' 'bout fo' a'clock yo' git up an' po' that right down dere. Ah know it.
(Down where?)
Down at chure do' - po' that down at chure do' an' jis' continue fo' a long time an' dere cain't nuthin harm yo'. Dat saltpeter is wonderful.
Entry 1718
The water that you take a bath in. Well, you take that when you takes a bath - just like if you, your husband or your wife, if you want 'em to go, you are tired of them and don't want to be bothered with them, and it seem like they just a knock to you. You take the bathwater and take a piece of saltpeter, just about half as big as a teaspoon, and put it into that water. Get a little of his chamber lye and put in there, and then you take a bath in that water - right straight down from here [demonstrates while I describe the action].
(Right from the top of your forehead.)
Yes sir, from there on all the way down.
(Down your face and down your body.)
All the way down. Take a bath all the way down - don't never rub up like that [demonstrates].
(Why?)
Well, if you rub up like that, you see, that will make him come back to you, if you rub up. Don't never rub up - down, just like that.
(And why do you rub it down then?)
Rub it down, you see, that's washing his care and everything he had away from you. And then you take it and put it into something and keep it in there nine days. Then you take it and go and pour it out in a running stream, or either take it and pour it in a barrel and keep it closed for nine days. And then he gets on away from you and keeps, you know, from worrying you to death - just seem like he's a knock to you.
(He's a what to you? A knock? Knot?)
Yes, sir - keeps you from - look like he keeps you from getting holt of any- thing, and he's just there and he's not giving you anything hisself - he just be a knock to you.
(Knock - k-n-o-c-k - like you knock on the door?)
Yes sir, like a knock on the door.
(Be a knock to you?)
Yes. [This is a send away or get-rid-of hand.]
Entry 2402
Ah've heard a lady say. She tole me tuh do it. Course ah never did experience it mahself, but she tells me like dis - to take on a Wednesday morning before twelve, never let twelve get dere befo' doing it, which ah said ah was gon'a try it mahself to see was she telling de truth. Yo' git chew a half a cup of sugah, allspice and put it into yore scrubwater.
(You get a half cup of sugar. And how much spice do you get?)
Yo' git about a tablespoonful of allspice. Yo' put it into the water that you scrub with. Yo' put chew a little piece of saltpeter with it and start at de front of your house and scrub before twelve to de back. They say that will draw any kind of luck into yore house yo' want.
Entry 2616
Jis' lak if yo' bring in trade an' de jinx would git on yo'. Yo' take a dime an' git chew a box of saltpeter an' take yo' a bath in it - wash down good in it. All right, fo' two or three evenings. Den yo' see how yore luck, yo' know, changes - understan' [see No. 1492, p.480]. An' den take yore chamber lye yo' understand an' ever' night 'fore yo', yo' know, go tuh bed, yo' take yore mop - an' don't take nobody's chamber lye an jis' yore own chamber lye - an' take an' always mop it back in yore house. Don't evah mop it out. Mop it in - jis' lak if yo' stay upstairs, start tuh mopping down when ever'body got tuh sleep, plumb on up wit dat chamber lye. Dat'll bring it in. Don't evah mop it out though. Dat'll bring luck to yo'. [Here, first proprietor and then business is purified.]
Entry 2618
(What would you do to keep the law away?)
Well, then ah'd get me a can of - two of these five-cent metal cans [new cans must be used]. Ah put 'em both full of chamber lye and put one to de right and one to de left corner - ah'd put one in de front door, behind it, and put one in behind de back door. Then ah would get me some saltpeter and jes' go to de sun- rise [face east]. Ah'd take mah saltpeter and ah'd scatter it across de yard an' ah would say, "O, St. Peter - yo' hear me, St. Peter - yo' hears a sinner calling an' ah knows, St. Peter, you hears me. Well, ah wants to tell mah thoughts to yuh, cross mah yard both ways." Well, then ah won't be worried no more. Dat's 'fore de sunrise...ah'd set-up a five-cent metal can to mah front door full of chamber lye and ah'd set one to mah back do' full of chamber lye. Well, when de law comes dey won't touch mah house. Dey might touch next do'. Dey will talk to me and speak to me. Ah nevah be worried one bit.
Entry 2619
That's to draw in.
(In? You mean your rooming house?)
My rooming house.
(You mean to draw people?)
Yes, to draw.
(What do you use?)
Well, it's in the drug store here. There's a drug store here they call the Crackerjack. He has he and she saltpeter. See. You get those two together and you mix 'um and beat 'um together. Beat 'um up fine and you sprinkle 'um from - like you'd come this way and sprinkle it up - go up yore steps. Before you go up yore steps you sprinkle this way - back to yore door. And then you goes this way and come back to yore door and go all the way upstairs. Well, that's supposed to draw men and women to yore business. And that's the one thing I've ever used really to do my house any good. And hit's been successful with me and that's all I use. Lot of people say, "Well, I've had other junk, you know, but that's the one thing that's been successful with me."
(Just for renting rooms?)
For renting rooms - yes, sir. The he and the she saltpeter - one's long and one's round like a nutmeg [the usual he and she symbolism]. And you beat them together, mix them together, you know, and sprinkle them from the posts of your door up the stairway - if you live upstairs, or either around the house. Which I proves - proves very successful.
Entry 2620
You can take an' go to the drug store and you get this rock incent [incense], you get wintergreen and rose watah. And you mix it up all together in a bucket with rivah watah, [the amount] accordin' to how big the place is, and you wash it down with that and it'll draw customers. And then aftah that, go to the drug sto' and get you some he and she saltpeter, break it up in little pieces and sprinkle it all around the place.
Entry 6986
Den cnothah thing, yo' kin git witch hazel, olive oil, saltpetah an' a pinch of bluestone, an' make it up intuh a lickrish [liquid]. Take a teaspoon- ful three time a day. Dat runs de devilment outa yo'. [Devilment is occasionally used as a synonym for cunjure, roots, or witch- craft. Considering its name, witch hazel is rarely used in hoodoo.]
Entry 10348
To find out who has tricked him, man borrows dishrag of woman he is visiting to wash himself with a solution of saltpeter and gunpowder, and makes the woman do likewise, to see whether she, or his wife or some other woman put the impotence spell upon him [Norfolk, 445:1].
Entry 1070
You get a pair of hose an' - course if it's a man he get de white but if it's a woman it doesn't make any diff'rent in colors - an' put these stockin's on you, wear them. An' if you get up the next mornin' - when you go to bed at night if you take 'em off an' they're turned wrong side outward, you still put em on the same way the next mornin' until after nine nights and days, and then after, when the ninth night and day is over, you get a bottle of sweet spirits of niter, a little knife blade [small blade of pocketknife] of lye [the steel in the knife blade is a part of the ritel, an' you put that in the amount of water tha' chew wanta bathe with, an' make you a big hot fire. Be wearin' those socks. At the end of nine days they should have a hole in 'em, but if they doesn't have a hole in 'em you have to wear 'em until they does git a hole in 'em. An' then you take saltpeter and put it into those an' make a fire even if it's in August an' throw 'em in the fire an' say, "Rid me of my enemy." Partly why it don't make any diff'rent [it is difficult] for a woman because they're seen when they dirty. They wanta change 'em [which would ruin the rite]. But the socks the man wouldn't have to let nobody seen 'em because his trousers be's over 'em.
Entry 560
I've been hurted with this here witchcrafter twicet in my life. The first in 1918, I was workin' down to the Broadford [Bradford?] Iron Works- dat's down here to foot of Church Street - an' I was a mechanic helper an' I was installin' a motor there one day. They'd pull de truck from de river up to de machine shop that was to haul de heavy tools out from de water up to de shop an' one day I was workin' along an' workin' along an' didn't thought about anything. That night I come on home an' de nex' mornin' I got up, aimed to get up - this ahrm heah felt like it weighed hunderd pounds. It would carry me down lak dis, as fer as that [demonstrates].
(Bend you over.)
Look like it would weigh me on down like that. I laid down [on] de cot in there an' hold it up like that an' kinda feeled it. So I called my wife, I said, "Look here," I said, "this ahrm look to me lak it weighed a hunderd pounds." I thought it would pull my head off of me. She said, "Well, whut's de matter with it?" I say, "I don't know. I jis' can't hold my shoulder up heah an' dis ahrm jis' heavy. "` "Well," she say, "if you can't go to work today, well you'd better git de doctor." Well, I got Du Bose[?], he was de family doctor. So, she went out there an' called him up. He came there an' gave me his medicine. He give me some rubbin' medicine to rub it with an' some internal medicine to take an' I took that about two months. That didn't do me any good atall - it jis' look like it was gittin' worser an' worser an' worser an' worser. I jis' had to put that hand an' hold it in a sling like that. There came a man heah from Greenville, South Carolina. His name was Doctor Daniel - Daniel somepin, I can't remember his whole name now. But he claimed to be a medical doctor - he was a medical doctor an' he was also witchcraft doctor. So I went to him. I heerd about it, I went to him that day. I told him about how this ahrm was an' I had my family doctor workin' on it an' he seemed to not do me no good. He say, "Well, I will examine it an' see what's de matter." He say, "I don't care what's de matter wit joo or anybody," he says, "fis' as long as you're hurted by witchcraft, an' if you's hurted, if it s rheumatism or your blood or somepin like that, I can git you all right." So, he set me upon [a] chair an' we set down there in the bedroom an' [he] took a bag [imitating doctor's kit]. He looked down an' he looked in it an' got out a glass - it wasn't a water glass - about - it was about dat high [see later] an' set it down. An' he brought out a great big white ball [demonstrates].
(Three or four inches in diameter.)
An' set it on de table. An' he put that ball right on top of de glass [stand or base], an' he set there, an' the ball started to turnin' right on top of de glass. He says, "Now, if anything [is] wrong wit you," he say, "after de date that you was hurted," he say, "you'll see what'll be the consequence nine days after they hurt choo." After that the ball kin'a stop. The ball stop, it got as black on de other side yonder as that table there [which I was using]l, an then it [this side towards informant] was jis' like a lookin'-glass then, only turn to me. An' I looked on that glass like that an' seen a man comin' from down out de boiler shop wit somepin in his hand jis' about that long - it looked like a feathah about that long, about a foot long, an' he comes there where dat I was installin' some motor up to de shed up there, an' [demonstrates] he picks up mah hammah an' took de hammah up by de ball [steel head], an' hold dat hammah up an' took dis thing out of his hand an' hold de hammah down on dat side an' hold de hammah down on dat side, an' hold de hammah down on dat side. [I now comment:] (Holding the iron head of the hammer, with the handle pointed downward, the man took this dressed feather and rubbed it down both sides of the handle and he did this three times on each side.) An' I was lookin' [at] him jis' de same as I'm lookin' at you. An' he laid the hammah down. So, he went on back down de shop an' then I come out de shop an' go up there an' got up mah hammah, I nailed the motor down an' started de motor, then went on back de shop. I was feelin' jis' as good as any- thing in de world. I went back de shop an' went on to work - worked on aroun' an' worked on aroun' that after he had did that. Well, I set there. He told me, "Well, now you see - you see what's happened to you," he say, "now you were hurted nine days 'fore dis thing [pain] happened." He says, "Now I kin cure you." I says, "Well, all right; if you can cure me cure me." He says, '"Now, you do what I'll tell you to do - you take jis' whut I tell you to do an' I'll guarantee you I'll cure it. I'll cure it for forty-five dollahs an' you give me fifteen dollahs now an' the others after you're cured." I say, "All right." I give him fifteen dollahs. He say, "Now, you go back home." He say, "You got any red peppah?" I told him, "Yes sir." He say, '"You got any saltpeter?" I told him, "Yes sir." "Well, you go on back home an' git joo about a quarter of a pound of red peppah an' get choo two balls of saltpeter about as large as the end of your finger. An' grind that red peppah up good an' fine an' put it in a pint of Water, an' grind that saltpeter up an' put it in with that - saltpeper an' dat red peppah together. An' git choo" - then I went an' got a five-cent box of sulphah - "take a half a teaspoon of that sulphah ever' night an' mornin', take a teaspoonful of dat peppah-water three time a day, '' an' that was fer nine days a piece. It cured me.
Entry 602
In case someone go to the penitent'ry, you goes to the four corners of the road [crossroad] and you dig up a little of that dirt from those four corners of the road, and you bring that home and you put a little sugar and a little of that steel [dust?] - or that white powder - they call it - let me see now, they call it -
(First you put in white sugar?)
Yes.
(And then what else?)
Pulverized white saltpeter. Well, you take all dat and you put it in a little bottle. Like you take a little piece of soft flannel, you tie it in a little bundle and the party what is in trouble, you have their name on a piece of paper in that, and you roll it to the - the day the case come up, you roll it nine days before the case come up and the day the case come up, you roll it seven times early in the morning.
(How do you mean roll it seven times?)
You got it in a little ball - you know, just take a little ball like that and you just roll it like that; roll it towards you, like that.
(Oh, it's a little ball and you roll it over seven times.)
Yes, seven times. And then when you rolls it, you rolls it more like this to you.
(You roll it to you?)
Yeah, so you can get discharged. (I see. And what do you do the nine days before the trial - what do you do with that ball?) Well, you just - you just handles it and moves it around and rolls it from one corner to the other, and be wishing from St. Agnes for them to come back home - put a good-luck light [candle].
(I see.)
And then you see, a rock I got - if a person got a hard case. See that? There's two rocks. I got a hard case to get discharged in court. Now, you see that?
(There are two rocks.)
There are the two rocks. Now you see, if you want to know whether you get discharged of this dangerous crime. Well, all I got to do - say to you, "Father, Son and Holy Ghost, hand me one of them rocks." See, keep your mind on - keep your mind on your business. "Hand me one of them rocks." Now, which one would you hand me? Which rock would you -
(You mean, pick up one of those?) [I must have hesitated!]
Pick it up, it won't harm you, any one you want. Which one would you hand me? (All right - this one.) [I must have picked it up despite germs - probably the only time I ever touched anything.] You'd get clear - you'd get cleared - get cleared of your case.
(Because of that white rock?)
It's a clear rock. (A clear rock, I see. Now, someone must pick up one of those rocks for you, or you yourself pick it up?) No, I don't pick it up. If you are in trouble and you want to know whether you will get discharged out of this trouble.
(Oh, I see - if I was in trouble and I would come to you?)
Yeah, and you come to me and say, "Will I get discharged?" I say, "Well, in the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost, '' say 'pick meup one of them rocks and put it in my right hand." You pick up one and put it in my right hand and whilst you pick up that one, say, "No, you ain't going to be discharged, '' and if you pick up that one, "You going to be discharged." (I see. Now, one of these rocks is white like crystal and this is reddish brown - a dark rock. I see.) Yes. And then - now, watch. If this rock is there and then you come and say, "I wants to know the party what killed such-and-such a one. I'd like to know is it true that it is a relation of mine, or who - or is it a outsider - whether it is any relation of mine." Just take it like that - you want to know if it's an outsider. Look - I say, "Now, hand me that rock." You hand me that rock.
(All right - then I pick up this black rock?)
Yes.
(All right.)
Well, you see this light across it there?
(Oh, yes.)
Well, that's your relation - they going to get out and if you hand it to me this way, "They'll get discharged. But if you hand it to me in any way, like that - see what I mean - my hand like that - say, "No, no chance." (Now, let me put that rock down there again. Now, if it's like this - this rock is a little different - this is the big end and this is the small end - it makes a difference with that. end toward you?) Yes sir.
(Now, if I'd hand it to you this way - this way, then what would it be?)
If you hand it to me in this way, then there'd wouldn't be no chance of them getting out of trouble 'cause they got a heavy load on their back.
(Oh, a heavy load on their back. And suppose I handed it to you like this?)
Like this - it would be straightened but not great - you'd have a little trouble but not too much. If you hand right straight to me like this - straight out to me, well, there's no chance of coming out.
(I see. Well, what would happen with this little end to you?)
[I may have touched the rock once but I certainly did not play with it. These latter manipulations are surely by pointing.] You sure of - gittin' out of trouble.
(I see.)
Gittin' clear.
(I see - if I hand it to you with that large end, that means a heavy load.)
Yeah, that's it - a heavy load - that's trouble on 'em.
(I see.)
And then again, if somebody get arrested and you say, "Well, I got to go to court Monday. Do you reckon I'll get discharged Monday?" You know, they ast you, "Do you reckon I'll get discharged Monday, I've got to go to court Monday?" I'll say, "Well, let me see." Well, I'll take these two rocks again and if you hand me that light one, you'll get discharged.
(I see.)
Anything -
(And if I handed you the dark one, well you wouldn't get discharged?)
You wouldn't get discharged. (I see. You only use three rocks then - two for one thing and just one for the other?) That's all. You can use these three rocks for the - for the world [for any- thing in the world].
(Well, how would you do that?)
You could use 'em for anything - and I'll throw 'em around like this [demonstrates].
(You mix those three rocks up with your hand like that.)
If somebody come to see me that they don't know [what he is doing] - what any concern of his - don't know what my mind is.
(I see.)
Now, I'll say [demonstrates].
(You put those three rocks down.)
I'll say, "Hand me these - hand me one at a time In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost." Well, you'll either hand me either one. (You say, "Hand me one of these - one at a time, In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost?") Yes sir. Well, whatever one they pick up and hand me, I look and put that down - I remember what that's for - and you hand me another one and I say, "Well, you are going to hand a little trouble - a relation of yours going to get in a little trouble." See, that's a blood kin to you, that's a relation of yours.
(Because it's a reddish rock?)
Yeah, but you say, "Well, will he get discharged?" [I say] "Well, hand me one and see if will he get discharged." [You hand me one and I say] "Yeah, he'll get discharged." (I see, I see. Now, who taught you that way of using these three rocks - did you learn that from someone?) In my mind.
(Oh, that - that a - )
That the spirit of my mind.
(I see - the spirit of your mind just told you how to do this?)
Yes, sir. And then again. I'll show you in another way. You hand me a cup of water and a glass of water - little plain cup that nobody uses - a cup of water and a glass of water. You set that there and you say, "Well, I come to see whether my son will get out of trouble or will I get out of trouble." Ah say, "All right. In the Name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost." Say, "Hand me one of those utensils with the water in it." Well, you hand me the cup, see.
(I hand you the cup.)
You hand me the cup and I say, "No, no chance of him getting out." [Why? Because], when [you] travel cross water you troubled. Well, hand me the glass of water. [I hand him the glass of water.] See all the way through - you can see all the way through the glass and you can't see through a cup. (Oh, I see. If I hand you the cup, you can get in trouble because you can't see through it at all; but if I hand you the glass, it's good, you get out of trouble because you can see through a glass.) Exactly. (I see, I see. You can use the rock because you don't want - don't care to use the cards.) Yes.
(About those cards?)
There are 52 cards in a deck.
(Yes.)
Well, clubs is drinks and noise and coming of plenty people. Spades is dis- appointments, sad dissension in your family.
(Sad dissension in your family.)
Yeah - spades. And hearts is love. And diamonds is money. (And how would you run those - I mean how could you tell that those things would happen to you?) Well - you got a deck of cards with you?
(No - just pretend that you got a deck of cards.)
[Several times I was asked for a deck of cards by an informant. I did not carry a deck because I did not want it found on me in case I was arrested.] Well now, there's a spade, there's a club and here's a heart and here's a diamond. Well, now what you want to know? What you say you want me to tell you? (Well, now suppose I'm in trouble and come to you - have you read the cards for me.) Well, you hand me one of the cards out of the deck.
(Well, I'll hand you this diamond - here.)
Uh huh - you going to get out of trouble but you got to pay plenty money.
(I see. All right - now, suppose I hand you that spade.)
No chance for good.
(No chance for good. Now, I'll hand you this club.)
The club. They going to be slow to speak against you, but if the nine of clubs is with - if you pull it out of the top and it turns up, you is overcome. (I see - if it happens to be the nine of clubs. I see. What would it be if I gave you the heart?) The hearts is love - friendship - everybody likes you - everybody's on your side.
(I don't have to worry.)
Don't have to worry about nothing.
(I see.)
Entry 703
I knowed a fellow and he lost all control of himself. They cut up horsehair as fine as he could cut it and put that up in his food and after that Was internal it formed snakes. They commenced to destroy him. This doctor took them out. He gave him saltpeter, olive oil, poke root and other things, and mixed them all together and gave him and perished those snakes and they crawled out of him.
Entry 975
I get out of bed. I broke down so blue over the condition. I said tuh him to git away from the house. I had sent the children away with de jar in case he might have raised sand and [have become] superstitious [suspicious] that I had it. So I said to him, "Ah'm goin' tuh the drug store, I'm so sick, an' git me some medicine. Ah'm going on Clay Street and git me some whiskey." Had no idea or I had no intention of getting it, but that was to get away from the house. So ah went to where I had told the children to go. I get a top and put on the jar and come on back home and locked it in the chifforobe of the front room. The next morning ah went about mah work, didn't show him any superstitious[ness = suspicion = any indication I had the iarl, and around one 'clock ah left home with the jar and ah taken it off and ah went to a woman's house, 商 and ah said to her, ah said, "Please tell me what is this and what is it fo?" She took the jar gracefully in her hands and she shook it this way [demonstrates]. She laid it on de floor [demonstrates]. She pick it up agin an' she shook it and she looked through it this way [demonstrates]. She laid it back on de floor [demonstrates]. She gits up from me and she goes into a extra bedroom.
(Her extra bedroom.)
[The doctor is putting on one of many possible acts. The case is so difficult she must read for it - consult the spirits. Information in fortune-telling comes from spirits.] She came back with a deck of cards and she begin to shuffle the cards jis' holding her hand - the cards was holded in her hands. She said tuh me -
(She held a handful of cards.)
He held her hands fulla cards this way [demonstrates].
(Two hands of cards.)
She had the cards in both of her hands an' she said to me, she said, "It's a man that's doing this." [This is one of a fortune-teller's stock statements for a woman client or patient.] She says, "How could a man have such a mean heart to do his wife like he's doing." She says, "That's your husband that's doing these mean things to you." She says, '"Yo're sick, too," she says, "the-son-of-a-bitch ought to be dead in hell fer taking such advantage of his wife when she has put forth every effort to make him happy." She taken the deck of cards down and holding them into two hands an' she held 'em in one hand, an' she went an' she got a bottle - this bottle.
(That bottle you have in your hand.)
This bottle that I've got in my hand. She filled it with a liquid oil and the color was nut-brown. She says to me, she say, "Ah want chew tuh go home this afternoon." Mah eyes were so they seemed to have a skin over them that ah couldn't see - they were very sore. When I went to look around ah had to turn all around - ah couldn't roll mah eyes because they hurt so bad and mah face ache and I couldn't close my hands. I washed an' ironed and I got to the place where I couldn't hold mah irons in my hand. She says to me, she says, "In this bottle" - when she came back to me after getting up with the cards and going into another room - she says, "You take this and you.see my hand?" I says, "Yes." She say, "Tonight when you go home, git chew a teacup of warm water - let it be real hot boiling water." She say, "Yo' po' that much of it [oil - demonstrates] in the: cup of boilin' water and then po' it into a wash basin." She says, "Take any ord'nary clean rag and, '' she says, '''noint chure face." She says, "Start this Way with the rag, with your hand open, jis' with the rag you know, to help your [almost closed] hand." She says, "Let it come gracefully over your shoulders [demonstrates]."
(Now wait, you come down the left side first?)
Yes, from the left side first. (With your open hand - with the rag on your open hand - over your face, down over your left shoulder and down your left arm.) Right on out to the end of mah fingers. Taken mah left hand and did the same way, going out mah right hand. (You take your right hand and go down your left arm - then you take your left hand and go down your right arm out to the fingertips.) That's right. After doing that, she says, take the remains.
(Do you do that just once?)
Jis' once. After doing that take the remains of the water, start beyond mah knee - mah knees were swole up - one swole up about like that [demonstrates].
(Huge.)
Then ah'd taken it from just above mah knee and squeeze the water and then put de bottom of mah feet in the remains of it. (I don't quite understand - after you finished with your hands, then you do what?) Pull mah dress up and put mah feet in de basin and taken de same rag an', yo' know, run mah hand into de basin, pulls it up and jes' squeeze the water with mah hand and let it run down mah laigs.
(Which leg do you begin with?)
Mah left laig - mah left laig first like I did with mah left arm.
(Up your leg to your knee?)
No, ah went down - start from ovah mah kneecap and go down. [She had already implied this but I wanted her definite statement, "Ah went down."]
(Then what do you do?)
Then after I did that -
(You squeeze that water out you say?)
The rag - an' let de water run down mah laig. Then ah'd taken that feet out of the basin and taken mah left hand and did the same thing on mah right feet. Ah didn't dry them - jes' sit by de fire. Then she says, "Take - (Now wait a minute - you take the right hand and you put it down in the water and fill the rag full of water. Then you squeeze that water over your left knee and let it run down into the pan.) That's right. (Then you put your right foot into the pan and take your left hand and you dip that down and wet the rag and then you squeeze it out over your knee and let the Water run down your right leg.) That's correct. After doin' that, she says, "Yo' take the remains of that water and go to your front do' - go through your front [room] - keep [walking] right out of the middle room - ah was in de middle room, and go through to your front part [yard outside] of the house and throw it over your front gate," she said, "an' Tuesday morning, ' that was Monday night, she say, "Tuesday morning you git up very early and git chew tin tub and git chew enough water" - she didn't measure it - says, "Jes' git chew enough water that chew kin start from yo' back steps" - and says, "Po' the remains of that liquid," that she gave, that brown-nut liquid, "in the Water. Don't put any soap or anything in it." She says, "Start at chure back steps and go through yore house, scrubbing de floors and keep on out through de front porch - on down the front steps - and what remains left of de water, she said tuh, "Throw it on de gate and let it run out," she says, "an' go around de house and come in," She says, "Wednesday night."
(You go round the house and come in the back door.)
Come in the back door. She says, "Wednesday night," she says, "have a ten-cent box of saltpeter" - says, "git chure bath water ready an' don't use any soap and git in thare and git a bath all ovah from your neck down, and let de water stand befo' de fire or behin' the stove-heater."
(You mean, you bathe from the neck down.)
No, ah bathe mah left side first.
(Oh, you bathe with this the way you did the other thing.)
Jes' all over agin - den ah taken mah hand an' squirted it over mah back this way - the same hand. Then ah'd take this hand and squeeze it over mah back and let it go down mah back that way.
(Well now - after you had washed your arms or after you had washed your legs?)
Ah mean that was after ah had did all the mopping and all the washing of the legs - this come along de last bath dat ah had. When ah had the last bath, it Was Wednesday night, coming up from Monday. Ah'd taken the water after ah had bathed and stood befo' de fire an' got dry. Ah put mah clothes on and ah po'd the water out of the tub into a smaller basin - that's so that ah could carry it through the house. An' ah throwed it ovah. An' she said to me, "Make de remarks when yo' po' it over de gate, 'Let me have peace, success and luck - mah sickness and disease all pass away. I did that. After ah had did that - the next following morning I got up - I felt well as ever - ah didn't have any of the trouble - mah eyes Was not sore - ah didn't cry that day - I use'lly would cry, jes' cry, jes' wash down in tears and hold mah head down. She says to me, she says, "Yo'll find a new spot - a spot on your floor that had a lot of new nails drove in de flo'." She say, "When you wash the house," as I have first related of the mopping, she says, "that will take the dressing off of those nails" - said, "that was to make yo' hold your head down and not look up to be happy when you were home." She says, "Your husband has one of your stockings and that he'd taken it to someone and they had dressed it fo' him - that was to keep you down in yo' laig and vo' feet." Said, "He has a piece of yore underclothes which was one of yore sanitary guards." That was to cause me to have the trouble ah had in the lower part of mah stomach, and ah would have a very bad sick headache, an' mah eyes would begin tuh hurt.... Now that ends that story. (Well, I just want to get something absolutely certain. I want you to 'tell me about the other bath - that last bath you had.) That last bath. Well, de last bath ah took, ah'd taken it on a Wednesday night. I had a teakettle, an old fashioned kittle - that's what I used to warm mah water in to keep on the stove. I po'ed the kittle of hot water in the tub. I had taken de whole dime box of saltpeter and po'ed it in de tub. Then, I mixed it around with a rag to absorb de saltpeter. I gits in de tub of hot water. I'd taken mah right hand and begin bathing mah left side first [demonstrates].
(From your shoulder down to your.)
From mah shoulder down to mah feet. (This time all the way down to your feet. All de way down to my feet.
(That was your left side.)
All de way down to mah feet ah'd taken mah left hand and I began from heah bathing mahself all de way down to mah feets.- on mah right side. Then when ah got through with that ah'd taken mah right hand an' begin putting the rag ovah mah back this way.
(Qver your left shoulder.)
Ovah mah left shoulder - that the water would go down the back. An' ah did de same thing with mah left hand over mah right shoulder - that the Water would go over mah back.
(So the water would go down your back.)
Yes.
(Then after you got that down over your back, then what did you do?)
I got out of the tub - stepped out of the tub and stood before the fire and let the water - turned around, yo' know, that the water would dry on me without taken a towel and wipin' it off. When ah become dry ah put mah nightclothes on to git ready fo' bed. Then ah taken the water out of the tub and po'd it into a bucket - that was to carry it through the house instead of carryin' the tub - and ah po'd the water ovah the front gate this way - ovah the top of the gate to let it run down.
(Let it run down the gate.) [This is the magic rite of.transference.]
Then I comes back up the steps an' comes on back in the house. That was Wednesday night. Thursday morning when ah got up - all the trouble, mah swelling from mah knees and my defect from mah eyes [were gone]. [Mobile, Ala., (693), 929:1.] [So complicated is this bathing rite, I will illustrate and support it with the following quotation:] [(No.976 mistakenly put before this bracket is now omitted.) The rite which I now quote from Adams County, Illinois, used among white people can be even made more complicated than the preceding rite from Mobile, Alabama:]
Entry 1719
At night befo' yo' go out tuh gamble yo' bathe in some bluestone, salt- peter, sugah an' yore chamber lye, an' bathe from de head heah all de way down an' yo' say the Lord's Prayer three times, an' yo take dat an' put any kinda oil whut chew believe in an' rub it on yore.ca'ds lak dat.
(What kind of oil would you use for that?)
Well, ah tell yo' whut ah do's, believes in - ah believes in de oil of rose. Yo' buy it at the drug sto'.
Entry 2133
Yo' kin take a silver dime an' a piece of bluestone an' a piece of alum, an' yo' kin take a small piece of saltpeter, an' yo' put that together an' wear that. That's good fo' good luck.
(In gambling?)
Yes sir.
(What would you put that stuff in?)
Wrap it up in a piece of cloth.
Entry 2251
If de law's botherin' yo', yo' go to work - see, yo' happen to go to another fellah yo' hear talk of [from] somebody dat he kin do [your work]. Well, he'll tell yo' dis - say, "Well, ah tell yo' whut ah do, '' say, "now, if he's botherin' yo', ah'li stop him for so-an'-so much." Yo' say, "Well, if yo' stop it ah'll pay yo'." He'll go to work an' he'll fix yo' up a little bag about dat long - jest about fo' inches long. He'll put chew some black pepper in it, put chew about eight grains of spice an' he puts chew nine grains of red pepper, an' he'll put chew in about a little piece of saltpeter 'bout big as a black-eyed pea, an' he'll put chew in about three grains of'sulphur. An' he'll take dat, see, an' den he'll wrop a silk thread string - sew it wit silk thread. Yo' take dat den an' yo' wear it in yore pocket. An' any time de officers come by yore place, why, yo' have nuthin tuh do when dey come in talk wit chew - run yore han' in yore pocket an' jest kinda roll dat round in yore hand, in yore pocket. Every once in a while kinda take yore hand out an' do somepin lak dat [demonstrates]. Yeah, jest rub it ovah yore face, yo' see, an' put it back. An' he'll pass right on by yo' an' dere's no kick to come. [Rolling is a common magic rite - see following margin-title St. John's Water.]
Entry 2282
(If I want a seal, just how would I do that?)
Well, yo' write chure own seal. Yo' take yore birth, de day yo' wus bo'n, an de ll8 or 'long somewhere lak dat in Psalms - lak dat. Fold it very.even an' pir it somewhere down heah in de front - jis' so it's in front of yo' all de time. An' den yo' might write one an', put it in yore right shoe, but it don't have to move. Yo' have to seal it - yo' know, put a muscilage on it an' put a papah ovah it an' seal it. Let dat stay dere - jis' let it stay in a warm place. Dat keep anyone from harmin' yo' dat's tryin' tuh harm yo'. Ah puts dat seal in it an' ah wears dat saltpeter in dat shoe - make a dust of it an' put a little bergamine [bergamot] in dere, an' have mah seal in dere al- ready. If ah don't, ah put a seal in dere an' den ah wear dat in dere all de time, an' once in a while put a little white sugah. White sugah is pretty sweet.
(That is if the shoe was dressed for me, that would undress it.)
Well, ah'd git dat job seal. De seals is re'lly good. An' if vo' write a seal fo' a job, yo' would put it in a pocket, in a tobacco sack or somepin [thus seal becomes hand] an' put it in yore pocket an' den yo' take yore bath an' git chew a little piece of conker [John de Conker] an' talk to it.
(How would you make that seal for the fob?)
Yo' would make that seal jis' lak yo' would make the othah seals. Seals is wo'n mo' now den anything. [The latter is a personal judgment of the informant - doctor, woman and good. Seals were practicaliy unknown along the Atlantic coast and not used often in New Orleans. Copying a seal, whether design or prayer, is for the lazy or ungifted practitioner.] Everybody that works have someone workin' ovah 'em an' if they [the law] git chew, why the madam or whoever it is, will make a seal an' git it to yo' - the seals of the law [the seals to conquer the law].
(Have somebody over you to bring the seal to you in jail?)
Yes.
Entry 2408
Why yo' git chew some sulphur an' some saltpeter an' some sugah. Well, yo' take a tablespoon an' a nutmeg an' some bluestone. Well, yo' take a rag an' yo' beat chure bluestone up an' beat up yore nutmeg and yo' takes a tablespoon fulla sulphur an' a tablespoon fulla sugah an' a tablespoon fulla saltpeter. Well, yo' take it an' put it in yore bathwatah an' some Heart's Perfruone put it in yore bathwatah, an' yo take a bath all ovah. Den yo' git up an' yo' mop all roun' de flo'. If yo' got a rug on, mop all roun' de woodwork an' all in yore do' an' wash yore do' down. Well, den yo' take some dat nutmeg an' bluestone an' sulphur an' some sugah - put it on yore shovel on a piece of papah. See, it burns hard. Light it undah de papah an' burn dat an' smoke yo'self in yore room. Do dat Mondays, Wednesdays an' Fridays.
(What do you do this for?)
Dat brings in trade an' makes yore luck good.
(That is if you are bootlegging or if you are a hustling woman?)
Dat's luck fo' yo' tuh do dat.
Entry 2414
In gamblin' tuh give mahself luck ah have taken burnt sugah. Burn it perfectly brown an' kinda let it run down tuh candy, an' git me some bluestone an' mix that together, an' git me some saltpeter an' put that together, an' git me some alum an' put that together, an' make me whut chew may call a bath, a bath 'lution [solution], an' po' it into mah bathwatah an' take me a bath with it. Well, dat supposed tuh be lucky which it always has been tuh me when ah wus gamblin'.
Entry 2499
Yo' know de truth always is right. We runs - we wus fulla dem things, too. Befo' mah husband died we run de same thing an' we run de same years, but de lawyers nevah caught us. Well, now ah'm goin' tell yo' whut we use on dat. It was learned to us tuh use dat an' ah used dat. Dat was saltpeter an' dat copperas, table salt an' red peppah, an' we made a powders of dat. An' a dead spirit from de graveyard to get de dirt - yo' know, after yo' done talk to de daid spirit an' tell him whut he want do. An' den mix dat togethah an' make a powdahs, an' he has crossed de road on many a time and de law could nevah come by our do'. (Well, how did you fix that - I mean what would you do with that after you fix that up?) Yo' jes' mash it all up fine.
(Then what do you do with it?)
Throw it in de road - jes' cross de road where dey come 'cross. Jes' ary road dat lead in to yore house with de law, why yo' put dat 'cross dat road - any distance yo' wanta from de home, where yo' know he kin turn in. An' if he evah git to dat one time, he ain't comin' in no mo'.
Entry 2630
Yo' kin git some bluestone an' a can of sulphur. Yo' take that blue- stone an' sulphur an' saltpeter, an' put it undah de front do'steps an' de back do'step an' as fur as dey kin go up undah de house - see, round inside the house. Now, yo' burn some sulphur an' put yo' some essence of pennyroyal on that sugah, wit garlic an' a red onion. Don't nevah throw a onion peelin' outa de house. Always keep onion an' garlic. Burn it in dat stove with sugah. It brings luck in the house. An' de law ain't goin' bother yo'. Mop dat front steps - it don't take but a little time. Put yo' some garlic, cut up some garlic, an' chamber lye an' mop that be- fo' seven every mawnin', befo' seven. Do dis befo' seven an"leven. Dat brings yo luck - seven an' 'leven. Do yo' burnin' 'fore seven an' 'leven.
Entry 2707
You use saltpeter, blood root, chamber lye, salt, pepper and alum. You mix it all altogether and you boil dis. You boil it in your own water MondayS, Wednesdays and Fridays and after you have boiled it down, you take the bottom of it - let it boil dry - de bottom will be a powder and you jest put it to de front door. Throw it out and rub it on yore door, and dey [officers of the law] won't come. Dey'll pass by and go to next house.
Entry 2764
Well, my wife, she was what you call goofer dust. [For Goofer Dust, see pp.222-227.] It was put down on the step for her. In the morning she used to have to go to work very early, you know. And in the morning she come out be- fore leaving-time, come out to clean up the step - didn't have any idea that any- one was harming her, was out to harm her. She stepped in some stuff - it was very white. And that night she came home and she said - that evening late she kind of got a little ailing in her head, you know, hurting. Didn't pay.much attention to it. Well, probably for a week or so later she didn't pay any atten- tion and finally it begin to swell on her. It swell and she went to the doctor and the doctor never could reach her sickness in no way. Well, she was talking to an old lady. Well, this old lady is kinda two-head, a two-headed woman. So she told her, she said, "Daughter, you're hurt." She said, "Your leg is not infected in no way; you never stepped on nuthin or caused a bruise to have this swelling, or something like that." She say, "I want you to go to somebody that can do you some good." She didn't tell her to come to her. So she sent her across the river to a woman by the name of Miss Helen.
(Miss Helen?)
Madam Helen.
(Madam Helen. All right.)
She sent her over there and she goes over there, and the minute she got in there, the woman didn't asked her her name or nuthin, she told her just what she came in there for. She told her, say, "You're hurt." She says, "There's a woman wants your husband," she say, "and she figure by hurting you in some way like that that he'll go off and leave you because you are not able to work." You know. [The husband is telling this.] Well, the woman she told her, she say, "Now, I can take care of you." She say, "I'll charge you $20," she say, ''$20 and I'll put you sound and well again." She say, "And if you want to, I can put it across back on the people." Well, she say, "No, all I want to do is get my- self straight," she say, "I don't have to worry about her." So, I taking her back over there - it was every Wednesday she had to go there. Every Wednesday she had to go there 'fore nine o'clock in the morning - 'fore nine o'clock. Well now, she had a dominic hand. You know what is a dominic hand?
[I did know, though there is momentary confusion here.]
(A hand?)
A dominic - dominic hand.
(A dominic hand?)
[I evidently thought he was talking about a hand made from a domino.]
Yes, kind of like a checker - black and white.
(All right.)
[I knew what he was talking about.]
Sells it. It's a dominic hand. She took this hand. She didn't ring it like some people ring it; she just pops his neck.
(She broke his neck.) [I am repeating his his.]
[At this point my transcriber knew what informant was talking about and over every preceding word hand typed the word henl The word hen was often pronounced han or han or something else. When people were closer to country life than they are today, the word dominic was fairly common. A variation of the word appears in the following couplet: "Dominicker [speckled] sky; storm close by" - FACI, 1st ed.. 1935, No. 540, p.21. I guestion the preceding word 'sells in the text: "Sells it. It's a dominic hand [hen]." As soon as hand is replaced by hen, the word sells is nonsense. The word should be spelds [= splits from Scotland] - see one of the remedies under margin-title Zippy Tull. My informant rightly feeling that I would not understand the word spelds, changes it to pops.]
(She broke his neck.)
Popped it, yeah. She popped his neck and she catches this blood - she holds the chicken up like that [demonstrates] and let the blood drip. She let the blood drip into a little cup-like. And she takes this blood and she puts to it sulphur - it's yellow, sulphur, and some molasses and mixes 'em, turns it into a salve-like. It turns into a salve and she takes this leg and she strokes this leg down with that. Every Wednesday she do that, she stroke this leg down. She don't kill the hen every Wednesday, though. She make enough salve from that to apply. We didn't have to go but for nine Wednesday - it was nine Wednesdays she had to go. And for nine mornings what she had to do - get up every morning be- fore the sun rise, and get her some running water and bathe this leg. She bathed this leg down and after bathing this leg down, then she take a complete bath in this household ammonia and saltpeter. See. This is supposed to take the condi- tion off of her. See? And walk to the east and take a glass of water, make the sign of the cross and throw it over her left shoulder and walk away. Well, she did that for [nine mornings].
(Did she do that before she went to see Madam Helen?)
No, that was when she went to her. She told her what to do.
(No, but she did that each time just before she went over to see Madam Helen?)
Yes, she had to do that before she go there - every morning, see.
(Oh, she did that every morning?)
Yeah, every morning she do that, for nine mornings straight, but she still had to go over there nine mornings. See? That was to help to take this condition off of her. See? And after she did that for nine mornings, well, she stopped, but she continued to take this bath. See, she warned her and told her forever to take this bath because if some more harm was to come to her and if she would take this saltpeter and household ammonia and bathe herself in it, and some running water, that no evil could come to her. You understand? It would guard her - it would be some kind of a safeguard to her. Saltpeter is supposed to have, be pro- tective for all such lines of hoodooism.
(And you wife got well?)
Yes, sir, she's well and working today:
(I see. Now, what your wife got hurt with. Was it goofer dust?)
Goofer dust, yeah.
(What's that?) [See, Goofer dust, pp.222-227, and Index.]
That's a hoodoo - it's a powder. You call it goofer dust. They take it - they puts it down and you're supposed to walk on it and if you walk on it, and it get on you, it will work through the sole of your shoe and it will commence to swelling. And it will make you drag, sick - sick, you know, sick with your leg - just cause it to swell and pain.
Entry 4246
If dey take yuh chamber lye an' put it in a bottle an' put saltpetah in it an' Hearts Cologne, an' sprinkle it in de path where a person walk along, an' it'll cuz 'em tuh like yuh, come aroun' yuh an' visit yuh.
Entry 5134
Naow [now], dey kin take dem shoes - either one or two, but always seem lak tuh me dat lef'-foot shoe. Take dat lef'-foot shoe an' put some cay- enne peppah an' some saltpetah. An' if dey tryin' tuh hurtcha, gitcha down some way, tuh gitcha past walkin' or swell yuh up, yo' see, put some salt- petah in dem shoes, an' some cayenne peppah, an' some dragon blood. An' put it in dat shoe an' po' some kerosene on it, an' burn dat shoe grajly [gradually] about ten minutes evah mawnin'. An' aftah de shoe burn up, well dat individual will begin tuh suffah wit, 'is knees an' laigs, an' continue lak dat.
Entry 12874
Mix a tablespoonful of saltpeter with Jockey Club perfume an' rub over hands for luck in gambling. The saltpeter kills any cunjure and Jockey Club sweetens the luck.
Entry 13090
Well, now this was mah experience, ah'm telling yo' experiments from mahself. Once ah had a hat ah give $7 for it. It was blue an' lavendah an' it was awful beautiful. An' ah didn't know anybody [would do suh a thing]. Ah nevah did believe in such as dis. Well, we wus goin' tuh a circles [circus] an' ah nevah wore dat hat only when ah wus goin' out to a dance or some kind of date or social like dat or party. Well, yo' kin [take] dat hat, yo' see, an' yo' hin dress it. But yo' didn't axe me about de hat. Yo' axed me 'bout de hair. An' dat hat was even dressed from de binding of it up heah. When ah placed dat hat on mah head, oh mah God, looked like mah head would bust open. Ah ddn't know nuthin but ah jes' thought ah had jes' a normal headache but, oh, it seemed dat pins was in it. Hah sistah-in-law, she had taken me about fifteen miles in de country tuh a hite man [root doctor] an' ah didn't axe him nuthin because really ah didn't know nuthin tuh axe 'im. He says tuh me, "Oh gully [girly], yore hat is dressed." Says, "Wouldn't chew go home an' burn dat hat up?" An' ah said, "Whut would yo' call dressed?" He said, "De idea is it's dressed around dat band," said, "it's got 'er..." It was rattlesnake.... It was a rattlesnake had shed it [it's hide] yo' see. Dey got de shed of dat rattlesnake an' dey parched it up yo' know. Dey jes' beat it up an' dey sprinkled dat.rattlesnake shed all 'round. An' den dey put somepin else in dere, an' dat took effects on mah eyes, an' dat give me a real headache.
(Do you know what else they put in there with that rattlesnake dust?)
Well, dey tell me dey put rattlesnake dust an' dry saltpetah, somepin like dat. An' dey said why dat it didn't make me go blind, yo' know, because dey put too much saltpetah in it chew see. Yo' know, saltpetah supposed tuh kill off any kind of germs like dat, yo' see.
(What did this man do to cure that?)
Well, ah tell yo' whut he did. Ah don't know whut it was, but he give me a little small bottle of medicine tuh rub mah head with. Seemed like it had sompin like sasparilla oil in it, chew know, an' he had me tuh take mah urinate an' fo' nine mawnin's. Ah take dat urinate every night an' ah put it in a pan, a bakin' pan by it- self yo' know, an' fo' 9 mawnin's befo' de sun rise ah bathes mah face with dat an' throw it out towards de sunrise, an' fo' 9 nights ah bathes mah feets in real hot watah an' saltpetah, an' den he gives me a medicine...ah couldn't tell yo' tuhday what it was, but in de 9 mornings, why, ah didn't have dose ole bad feel- in' - dose blind spells an' headaches. All of it was gone away.
(What did you do with this medicine he gave you?)
Ah 'nointed mah head with it.
(And did you burn the hat too?)
Ah burned mah hat away.
Entry 245
(All right - suppose you tell me that?)
See, year before last, I had a fence round my house and I had vent cross to the store, and when I come back and I put my hand on the gate. Well something hit me in that finger [demonstrates] just like it was a - had stuck it with a pin or something.
(The little finger of the left hand.)
The little finger. So, I didn't pay no attention, and the next day I looked on my arm, right along up there and it was a long black mark like that and like a cross. Well, when I seen it, I know it was something wrong. Well, I got up and went got me some of this fish brine; you know, what come off a mackerel fish. I put me some saltpeter in it and I put me some salt in it and heated it, and I put some soda in it - heated it right hot and I bathed in it. Well, then after I bathed it, in a day or so it was gone off - I bathed it but once or twice, but- it left a little sign of it there. So I went to a kind of a fortune teller woman when I was here in town and she told me just what I used was the right thing. Well, I told her I sure was glad, I didn't know that because, I said, if anything else happened to me I'd know exactly what to do. So she told me that it was where somebody had had a painted snake and dressed my gate with it.
(What kind of a snake?)
A painted - some kind of a painted snake.
(A painted snake?)
Yes sir.
(Well, what do you mean - was it a live snake? What kind of a snake?)
I guess it was. And they must have painted him with something what they had, and just laid it on the gate, and I caught it on my hand and arm.
(You mean they painted the paint on the snake?)
Yes sir - some kind of old poison stuff. See. And see, when I went to the gate and caught holt of it, it got on my hand. (I see.) [This snake was dressed with a poison and sent out to smear it on the gate.]
Entry 879
I went to a lady and I was crossed. I used to be very luckv and I got crossed. So when I went in there she told me, she says, "Girl, vou is crossed." So I didn't know what she meant. So she told me, she say, "You is crossed in money." She say, "You give a lady fifty cents." And I had give a lady fifty cents 'cause the lady didn't have nothing. I say, "Yessum." She say, "Well, when you give her the fifty cents," she say, "she took your money. You give it to her out of your hand, a piece of silver money, and she took your money and she got it buried up under the steps with a weight on it." And she said, "That's to keep you down. You'll never be lucky no more unless you get it up. S Well, I didn't know how to get it up myself. So I went to another lady [man] and he told me the same thing. He told me that I was crossed and I start crying and he told me, "You going to be in bad luck all the time." Ah say, "Well, could you tell me what could I do to help myself."
(Did he tell you how you were crossed?)
Yes sir. He tole me I was crossed in money. He tole me a lady what I had a lot of confidence in, I gived her my money. Well, I used to give her money. He say, "She crossed you in the money. Ah say, "Well, could you tell me how I can do to help myself." He say, "You get you some saltpeter and some ammonia and," he say, "you take a bath in it for nine mornings." And he say, "After taking a bath in it, you throw your water to the sunrise." And he say, "You meet me in prayer [at] nine, twelve and three," he say, "and you ought to get that condition off you." So I did that. That been two years ago. So I did that and I got all right.
Entry 969
[Everyone has heard of the double-cross; here is a triple-cross - three crosses in a row or the letter X repeated three times:] I went to see what they call a two-headed man. And this particular man prescribed to me, he says, "Take you three tablespoonfuls of saltpeter and put in your bath water ev'ry time that you bathe. And whenever you have an intercourse with this particular individual, be careful to Wet that rag - you see, because that have the tendency to tie you, to have you tied to a woman - continually using that rag and you sleeping on that rag ev'ry night and not wetting it."
(How do you mean? What would she wet it with?)
Well, just the water - plain water, you see, because it soaks that fluid off of there and it doesn't leave any danger of any harm being done. Then, he gave me what they call [he calls] the Three X's package.
(The Three X's package?)
Three X's package, yes sir - call it the Three X's - they just the common, no more than three X's.
(Three X package.)
The Three X package [magic of repetition]. He told me to take the Three X package - it consisted of a little powder in a can - just exactly how it was - it consisted of a powder substance - the powder seemed to have been in there but it would come like a paste. Well, at that particular time I couldn't have an intercourse with any other woman other than my woman - the woman that I was living with [see No. 796, p.269]. He told me to take this stuff and place it under the head of my - just at the time that I could get ready to have an intercourse with the one that I was tied to, and that it - and in the course of time, and washing in this saltpeter and in the course of time, why I found that I could go out and have other women.
(Now, what was on this package - this XXX package?)
It - it was just the XxX package. The directions he gave me those himself, because no doubt those secrets have to be carefully guarded and like.
(Was there three X's on the package?)
Three X - yes, sir.
(And nothing else on it at all?)
That's all - three X.
(Was it drawn on or printed on?)
Printed.
(Printed on. Nothing - was it a white package or something or that sort?)
No, sir - it was just - you've seen these pill boxes haven't you?
(Yes.)
Well, the box was white trimmed in blue. It was just like you would have a pill-box.
(And then it had a sticker on there with three X's on it?)
Three X - yes, sir.
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 980
Ah was kinda tricked - ah had sores - somebody done a trick tuh me and had me so mah feet was swelled and ah couldn't walk. Mah feet got jest 'bout like - every time ah would get up to move it feeled like pins and needles was sticking in de palms of mah foot and ah jest had to go down to de floor and stay where ah was without moving dat time, pricked me all ovah. Well, ah went to see and went around to diff'rent people to see whut de trouble was and dey tole me ah'd been hurt. Well, ah come back and went to New York and a fortune-teller told me, said, "You've been hurt and the best thing you kin do is to get somebody to work on you - tuh [work on] de person dat tricked - de man dat's been working on you." Well, individual [eventually] - anyhow ah went and had a salve - a salve was mixed up for me - it was mixed up. De first thing they told me to bathe with mullein - dis mullein tea - take dat an' boil it and keep mah feet in dat and always bathe it down and say a prayer over it.
(What kind of a prayer did you say?)
Ah said, "Lord, taketh the one that put this misfortune on me - to move this pain away from my foot - turn dis evil spirit away - amen - in Thy Name." Ask the Lord to remove this evil spirit - bathe it down.
(Why did you bathe it down?)
Dat's to rub it out, out - see, it was come in [through the foot] and want it to go out from de toe. Start down from de head and carry it out - that's to make de pain go out of mah foot - each stroke I gave it out. Jest put it in dat water with mullein, carrying each stroke out. Well, dat 'gin to do a little good. Den dis person made a salve, it was fer me. They made it with snake oil - ah mean, you know, de snake's liver. And [they] made of dat grease - grease from de snake, saltpeter - an' mix dat up and a little of de mullein - it was boiled down and mixed with dat and mutton suet. That mutton suet - and made de salve, and ah rubbed dis foot and dat's whut kinda got me up so ah could walk. But time after time ah couldn't go nowhere. De foot turn kinda black jest like something had bit me.
Entry 1053
Dey came heah an' dey try tuh harm yo'. Well, it ain't but the one thing 'bout dat now fur as ah know. If dey kin go an' do that - now these things seem simple but it's this - red peppah an' saltpeter an' sulphur. An' yo' fix them things all together an' dat's jes' if yo' - jes' lak if dey write dat lettah yo' know. Yo' cut chew some little small papahs in pieces an' yo' put so much in there, much as yo' would think that ought to be hold in yore mouth, jes' as de sun rise. An' when de sun rise, yo' see, yo' git out an' yo' say that - an' yo' say, "Father, Son an' Holy Ghost." Den yo' blow dat out chure mouth - dat papah, but chew hole de papah in dat direction. An' when yo' blow it out, yo' let hit know yo' fightin' fo' me because ah have tried to mistreat yo'. An' yo' blow that fo' me. Well, de same thing ah had intend tuh come to yo', it comin' back to me.
(Well, what kind of paper did you put that on?)
Any kind papah, jes' long as it papah, but we mostly uses brown papah. (In other words if I write you a letter and you think I am trying to harm you, you take this stuff [red pepper, sulphur, saltpeter] and put it in a brown paper and blow it toward the sunrise.) [Then the paper is chewed or torn and blown.] Dat's correct.
Entry 1302
In case if a person is poisoned, swelled up bad, look like dey 'bout tuh bust and dey poisoned, sickly, swelled as large as a barrel, a hogshead barrel, yo' wants to go git chew a piece of saltpeter and put dat saltpeter in a half glass of water and yo' go an' git yo' some gourds, some green gourds, an' take de entrails out 'em an' boil 'em, and let 'em take a cupful of dat, an' all de worms and things in dere, will throw 'em up. Den yo' wanta release dose parties den - dose parties who did dat. When dey throw de worms up, dey take 'em an' put 'em in a bottle an' stop 'em up airtight and go to de river and throw it ovah yore shoulder. Well, den dem parties go an' jump in de rivah an' drown - kill demselves.
Entry 1303
Well, heahs another good one. Now, it's sech things as evil spirits. If a person luck have been taken away - now, dis is something dat most people dey don't know but it's true. If a fellah's luck have been crossed any way through de witchcraft way, it doesn't make any diff'rent if he's sick or a spell's been cast on him. Yo' kin take a simple thing which is gourd. Yo' take dat gourd an' yo' break it up an' put it into a pot containing saltpeter, sulphur an' salt - cooking salt an' yo' boil dat good. Then yo' take a bath with that. The person take a bath with it but dey don't bathe up - dey bathe down, see. An' after he finish dat, den he takes it to de rivah an' he throw it near de middle of de channel in a running stream of watah, an' dat relieve dat person of dat spell, whatsomevah that may be - crossing of luck or anything, sickness or anything.
Entry 1319
If a person put anything down fo' yo', well yo' kin take that graveyard dirt an' mix it with some - yo' know whut ah wus tellin' yo', git some saltpeter. Mix it with saltpeter an' sprinkle - jis' sprinkle it in yore house an' that'll do 'way with that.
The informant describes graveyard dirt and saltpeter as a mixture. The conditional removal of something laid down remains a source-reported claim.
Entry 1376
Yo' git yo' a little bit of saltpeter and a little table salt and a little tiny bit of lodestone and yo' put dat together. Git yo' a piece of red flannel - jes' a red little shallow cloth like, and roll it up in a piece of red flannel and make a knot out of it, and you take that flannel and yo' take you a string and tie it and wear it around yore waist. And yo' take that thing and yo' reduce [feed] that thing with Hearts Cologne fer nine days, and den that breaks it up - dey can't come dere.
(What can't?)
If dey tryin' do somepin to yuh - keep it away.
Entry 1411
Then I seed a woman taking a frog from a woman. She got some peach tree leaves and she boiled them until they was real, real strong, and then she'd taken table salt and put in it and saltpeter and bathed her. And she put twenty drops of turpentine in that and give her a dose of castor oil behind it and it passed through her. (Now, what did she make to wash her with? And what did she give her to take inside, now?) Peach tree leaves - just an ordinary peach tree. Well, she just got those leaves and she boiled them until they were real, real, real strong; and then after you know, she got 'em boiled clean and cooled out, she put twenty drops of turpentine in it, and she put so much saltpeter in it and table salt. Did you understand me? [I was supposed to be somewhat deaf - for recording purposes.]
(I understand.)
Then she bathed her with it and also give it to her to take.
(Oh, there's just one liquid - you bathe in it and you drink some?)
Yes.
(I understand now. I see. And that got these frogs out.)
And afterwards she give her purgative behind it, and it worked it all through her.
Entry 1453
If anybody's botherin' or worryin' yuh, yo' take saltpetah - yo' dress yo'self in saltpetah and peppah. Yo' put that into yore shoes. That's the old colored remedy that chew git saltpetah and red peppah. Mix that thing togethah and put it in yore shoes or on yore person.
Entry 1457
A person dat has been tricked in de skin, it's something dat is buried for 'em or laid down on de steps for 'em - de house been dressed. You take nine teaspoonful of cooking salt, you take one dime of saltpeter, use dat, an' eight quarts of water, hot water - just like water for a bath. You pull off all of your clothes, ever'thing you got on, you get in there and take a bath in dat same water nine times.
(What do you mean nine times? All at once or different times?)
Dat same water - don't throw dat water away, you keep it in something like you take a bath in. Never rub upwards - always rub from here down [demonstrates].
(From your face right down.)
From there down. A person whut's been tricked in de skin, rub from here down and use dat water nine times, and de last time you use dat water, take it and throw it towards de sunrise, soon in de morning before de sun rise, so you get rid of dat complaint. Ah'm telling you whut's done happened 'to me.
Entry 1458
Now, if - when yo' wanta be lucky an' stay lucky so yo' kin jest - yo' know, thrive an' have prosperity, yo' jest git chew a nickel worth of saltpeter an' take a tablespoonful of that an' put into yore water, five quarts of water an' take a tablespoonful of table salt an' mix with that an' let it boil down. An' after yo' git dat five guarts of water, yo' heat it. Whenever it start tuh, look like it gon'a boil, yo' jest stir this salt an' brimstone together an' then when yo' begin tuh lie down, yo' take yore bath wit it. An' when yo' take yore bath with it, yo' save dat water an' throw it east. An' every time yo' throw yo' explain lak dis - say, "Lord, moves thine evil influence." An' that [is called] putting de enemies under yore feet.
Entry 1483
And den, how you dress yo' feet. Yo' through wit dat part. How you dress yo' feet, you takes bluestone, beat up fine - not so much, just a leetle bit of piece and sulphur and salt. Put in each one of your shoes, put it under- neath the lining in your shoes. See. Well, you know what dat is fo'? That is for to keep dem from hurting you. See, dey kin hurt chew all kind of ways and dey can hurt chew on your feet so bad, if you don't hurry roun' and use dat chamber lye and things, saltpeter, you shore will get hit - you'll be out dere in de cemetery, for dey re'lly kin do it. Dat's de only thing whut kin pertect yore feet.
Entry 1490
[Saltpeter is used in many healing or protective combinations - see Index.] Well, you kin get saltpeter. You kin go and get you a dime's of saltpeter and sprinkle a little in your shoes about every four or five days. Wear that in your shoes and there can't nobody harm you - not do it to the flesh or put nuthin down fer you. But, of course, it's quite natural that if somebody get aholt of something of yourn - your hairs or your clothes that you been wearing for several days, get something out of them - why they kin do you harm. But as fer as putting something down for you, they can't do you no harm over that saltpeter.
Entry 1491
If someone tryin' tuh harm yo' an' dey sprinkle somethin' down, yo' take yo' some saltpeter an' put it in de bottom of yore shoe an' some Epsom salts an' some sugah an' some cinnamon, an' yo' kin walk ovah it.
Entry 1493
"Somebody tryin' to harm yo' and yo' tryin' to protec' yo'self, de first thing is, dey gits chew some saltpeters and bath yo'self down in saltpeters, and den take yo' some sulphur and salt an' sprinkle round dat do' - round de house in front de do' and dey can't do yo' no harm.
Entry 1508
A person's shoes - a woman's shoes - jes' lak if yo' figures somebody is workin' at chew, yo' hunt chew a throwed-way shoe.
(A thrown-away shoe.)
Uh-hmm, a man's shoe an' a woman's shoe. Well, if it's a woman, yo' wanta protect yo'self. Yo' take dat woman's shoe an' put it on top of dat man's shoe an' yo' burn 'em. Yo' put sulphur an' saltpeter, bluestone, gunpowder an' salt on there an' burn it - make yore wishes, whatever yo' want tuh come. An' dat'll protect yo'.
(What would a man do if he wanted to protect himself?)
He'll put de man's shoe on top of de woman's.
Entry 1573
Well, yo' see, jes' lak if yo' jes' thought now that person had done something to harm yo' or hurt chew. Well, now yo' go to work, yo' take yo' some saltpeter an' yo' take yo' some sulphur. Yo' takes all dat an' yo' puts it in a bag an' yo' wears dat around yore wais' [waist]. Well, yo' see when yo' put dat round yore wais', dat saltpeter an' dat sulphur, yo' put hit in a bag an' wear. Well, yo' see dat kills all dat germ dat dey tryin' to hurt chew wit.
Entry 1604
An' right in mah laig heah - ah couldn't move an' ah couldn't walk but mah sistah would bring whut ah'd tell her tuh me. Ah tole her, ah said, "Now yo' bring me a basin an' when ah urinate," ah said, "ketch dat fo' me." See, she Saved it twice, that made enough you know tuh bathe wit yo' see. An' then ah had her tuh bring me some salt an' some saltpeter. Den ah sent her tuh de drug sto' an' bought me some John de Conker an' ah had her tuh bathe me from heah out to de end of mah toes on both laigs. Ah jis' couldn't walk.
(What did you do with that John the Conker?)
Ah kept it roun' in mah pocket - jis' keep it in yore pocket.
(Why did she bathe you down that way?)
[Informant does not understand my question, I do not reask it. I wanted her to answer, "That made the cunjure go out through my toes."] She bathe me down dat way. Yo' know that cured it. Yo' see, this saltpeter an' this chamber lye an' table salt, it'll cure it. An' aftah she bathe me three times in dat ah got so ah could stretch out mah laigs an' jis' kept on an' kept on an' fin'lly till ah got up from bed an' went tuh walkin'. An' dat's whut cured me.
Entry 2366
Red peppah an' ashes an' saltpeter an' dey cain't come ovah it. Pin it up( ovah yore do'. Dey'll come in but dey won't be mad.
(Where do you put that, you say?)
Jis' up ovah yore do'.
(Well, it would fall out wouldn't it?)
No, yo' gon'a put it in a bag an' tie a string aroun' de bag an' hang it on de nail, an' every day yo' got'a pee on dat.
(Not up there!)
Naw. Yo' take it down an' pee in a pan, an' pee on it, an' den yo' put it back up there. Dey cain't bother yo'. Dey kin come in but dey Won't do nuthin to yo'. Dey'll be jis glad.
suspending the tied bag from a nail above the door. Retain visitors can come in but are claimed not to be angry/harmful; do not rewrite the account as absolute exclusion. predicted mitigation of visitors’ angry or bothersome conduct while allowing their entry. No total visitor exclusion These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Read full source (printed page 661) · Read full source (printed page 662)
Entry 2444
Go out in de woods some place out of town where yo' kin kill you a buzzard, an' git de buzzard feathers an' bring 'em back an' burn 'em. An' take dem buzzard feathers an' sulphur, saltpeter, alum an' cologne, jest any kind of cologne, common perfume yo' know, an' burn dat in yore fireplace jest lak dat wood done burning dere. [Informant refers to fire in fireplace - for cold damp weather at Waycross, See in Introduction my comments to Telediphone at the time of collecting.] An' yo' take dat, after it's burned - dem feathers in de ashes an' yo' jest throw it all round yore house, front an' back, an' yo' git jest as many customers as yo' wanta git or more.
Entry 2483
Ah wanta tell yo' now, ah run a bo'din' house once fo' a ole lady dat stayed dere, an' she went to de fo'ks of de road an' got de dirt outa de middle of de road - don't chew understand me. Den she took some bluestone an' saltpeter an' brimstone - git it all at de drug sto' an' then she takes them an' beats it up fine an' puts it into that pot an' some splinters ovah it.
(What pot?)
To a small pot whut'll hold 'bout two or three quarts.
(Of water?)
Yes. No, no - of de sand, don't chew understand from out de middle of de road. Yeah, de sand is under de bottom of dis heah, under de bottom of dese splinters an' dis heah stuff whut she sprinkles ovah dat, an' den she po's a little kerosene ovah dat an' burns it about three a'clock in de mornin' befo' day. That is to git roomers in her house. Yeah, dat has come from de fo'ks of de road. (She would put this dirt in the pot an' then she mixes this other stuff with that dirt.) That's it - de saltpeter, bluestone an' brimstone. (So that I understand perfectly what it is about: she brings this dirt back from the forks of the road, she puts it in this little pot, then she gets these various things and puts on top of this dirt.) Beats it all up together. (And puts it on top of the dirt in the Pot; then she lights this stuff, this mixture - burns it.) Yeah - three a'clock in de morning.
Entry 2587
Now de way yo' do dat - yo' jest git chew some table salt an' stroll round yore do'steps an' mix it wit a little ashes an' strew it all round yore do'step. An' yo' git chew some saltpeter an' use yore chamber lye all round dat house. An' den yo' read - read de 23rd Psalms an' den yo' won't have no trouble. (You won't have any trouble with the law? And anybody can't do you harm if you are in business?) Shore - no, no. An' use dat stuff in yore shoes - dat pepper an' salt.
Entry 2750
[Here is another example of the glove-shaped hand, but unlike the former rite (1990, p.584) we now have one in a candle atmosphere - New Orleans is near. More important, the following story shows some of the listening prob- lems of collecting, among them - speedy talker, confusing pro- nouns and references to persons, delayed explanation, all sorts of things.] Well, they say if you were living here and they wanted tuh move you and run you away - well ah know of a lady, she fo' every morning fo' 'bout nine mornings - she bought a bran'-new box of salt and she took dis salt and cayenne pepper and she would sprinkle it, yo' know, from de front to de back and fo' that reason it would cause a confusion, you know, in the house and they all wouldn't live so good, you know. An' so she would take it and she would sprinkle all over when everyone, say, Wouldn't be noticing, you know. She would do that and then when they all would leave, she would take. She went out to the graveyard early one morning and she got some graveyard dust offa someone's grave, and she brought this dirt back, yo' know, and she'd taken it and where this landlady lived, slept, she unraveled [took out a few stitches of] her pillah and she put it [graveyard dust] in dis pillah. And she had a glove - [look] like it was a han' - and it [the graveyard dust] was in this. And she stuffed it with this graveyard dirt. And she says she mixed it [the graveyard dust] with a - wherever she got dis rattlesnake dust from, ah don't know, but she musta got it from a rattlesnake or something, and she mixed it with somethin' and she stuffed, sewed it in dis pillah while de landlady was gone. [She starts to say the graveyard dust was mixed with rattlesnake dust. Was it? For snake dust, see No. 690, p.230; also No. 1433, p.468 - "an original and brilliant piece of therapeutic thinking."] So after, for about a couple of weeks this lady suffered from her head laying on dis pillah. She suffered severely from her head, you know, and she didn't know what it was, you know. She begin to git dizzy and feel bad, and so she said she was going to see what caused dese headaches. And everything she could take Wouldn't do her any good and so she went tuh a couple of fortunetellers. And so finally a ole lady tole her, fortuneteller told her, said, "Well, yo' ought to look about yore bed," say, "it look like you can't get along in de house, there's always a confusion and everything." And so she said, "You go look up in your mattress, your pillahs or something." So she didn't pay any attention to it all [atall = at all]. So finally she made up her mind to do that. Took her pillahs out and she un- raveled de pillah and she found dis glove stiff like a hand, yo' hand, and so she opened it and she found all de stuff in dere, those different things. An' she didn't know what de cause of it, you see. And so she was afraid and she got someone to look after it fo' her. Well, she'd taken it to dis lady and ast her, and de lady tole her it was graveyard dust and rattlesnake dust and she wanted tuh - someone wanted to make her move or either kill her or something like that. [The preceding account is one of our many examples of that important element in hoodoo theory and practice - the doctor's ability to analyze and identify immediately the nature and cause of an ailment. To look at a handful of dirt and say that it is a mixture of graveyard dust and rattlesnake dust is quite a trick. Only our former doctor-druggist-chemist could have done as well (see No. 1593, p.498). To say these two dusts in a glove in a pillow caused the headache is quite a - well, even doctors admit this knowledge is a gift. At least, though on a lower level, we can now answer our former question - "Was it?"] An' so dis lady [roomer] in de house, you see, she would every morning [for 9 mornings] she would sprinkle dis here cayenne pepper and dis salt all ovah de house. And so after a while they [landlady] asked - cause dey [landlady and roomer]didn't 'gree, yo' know, 'count de fuss and everything - after while they asked her to move out and she [roomer] said she was going to return it back to this person [landlady].
(Was that here in Alabama?)
Yes.
(Well now, go right ahead.)
Well, after she did that - yo' know, she [landlady] did that to make 'em [her] move or to keep her [landlady's] husband, you see. So she [landlady] kept her
[own] husband. And so this other hoodoo lady [roomer because she used hoodoo]
tole her [landlady] that she would return it back. So she [evicted roomer] comes and gits dis hen's aig - a black hen laid dis egg, and she wrote the name [see later] on it. They were living in a house kinda lak dis [house in which I was interviewing] wit a glass do' in de front, chew know, in de house. So soon, early one mawnin' she comes an' throws dis aig up side de door and broke de glass, yo' know - throw de black hen's aig up there. So when he [landlady's husband] goes out - get up dat mawnin' soon - he didn't know - so when he looked all de egg spattered in front of de do' and de glass was out, yo' see, and he walked ovah it befo' he knew it, yo' see, so he looked on de shell and saw where de name was wrote chew know - her [his wife's] name and his name was wrote on dere. And so she said, "Well, dey did dat to break us up - broke dat aig up side de do' to break us up." So she said - an' so she got lye and swept - yo' know, swept it all out an' cleaned it up, yo' know. An' so dis lady [roomer] wrote her a letter and tole her that "Seven years wouldn't be too long for a raccoon to weah a ruffle-bosomed shirt. That's the way she spoke. (Wait, will you talk a little bit slowly. "Seven years wouldn't be too long for a raccoon to wear a ruffle-bosom shirt?") That means she would get her, yo' know. An' so dat was de words she wrote to her. [I know nothing about this stylish raccoon. He sounds like early American ruffled shirts, but the saying or proverb may come from the stage or radio.l An' so finally she would - yo' know, she would burn candles on dis man. She went got - an' got a candle and every time on a certain hour, noonday an' like dat, she would burn dese candles wit his name wrote on it. Black candles, yo' know, and she wrote it on dere. Well, he couldn't stay here and he couldn't stay there, yo' know. He was jest kept, yo' know, like he was, yo' know, de mind up- set all de time, yo' see. And so he got so that he didn't [live] peacefully wit dis woman, because every morning fo' nine mornings, she would come there and had something like - ah don't know whut kind of dust it was - but it was - when you look at it, it looked something like black peppah, yo' know, powdered peppah. She'd sprinkle it all roun' dere do'step, yo' know, fo' nine mawnings. An' he came there and so she took one little piece of his hair out de top of his head while he was asleep, and she sewed that up, and had that fixed with something and put it in a little red bag and sewed dis little red bag up, an' taken a cord string like and put nine knots in dis cord string and she wore it around her waist.
(What else did she do with that string first? Anything else?)
When she took dat string she rolled it in something, yo' know, in some kinda dust, yo' know. She rolled dis string in some kind of a dust, dipped it in dis dust and jest as yo' tie those knots, jest like dat dust would be in dose knots, too, yo' see, because it would wear off, you know, say, just straight round her Waist, but it would be in dat knot, yo' see. An' nine knots she tied it around her waist wit dis little red bag wit his hair in it. An' she took one of his socks - yo' know, one his left socks, and she carried it and had dis sock dressed, vo' know, and she buried dis sock at de foot of her steps, underneath her steps, she buried his sock so he couldn't stay 'way from there, yo' see. Said that she had him so that he had tuh come there. See. And so yo' see, well, he would get so he wouldn't give her any money and some- thin' like that, and so dis ole hoodoo lady tole her to get him to give her one silver dime, yo' know, of his money. And so he didn't know what she wanted him to give her dis dime fo', but she got a dime out of him. And she went an' she had dis dime dressed until it turn almost black like a penny, and she put a hole in it and she wore it around her laig, yo' know. And that's where so she could git his money, you see. She was trying to git him away from dis yere woman [his wife], yo'see. An' so, see, she didn't know that this other woman had his sock buried at her do'step. She had his sock buried there and she was still continuously burning dose candles. And every time she'd come roun' she had some kind a powder tied up in her hans'cuff that she would sprinkle. He thought it was jest powder whut chew powder yore face. It smelled sweet but it was some kin' of love powder yo see. An' she had a little somethin' like a tablet. She'd offer him meals. She would [drop] that in his tea or his coffee.
(Like a tablet?)
Like a little tablet, yes. It would dissolve, you know, an' you couldn't see the mixture in there. You couldn't see the mixture, you know, and you couldn't taste it, see. Well, he would drink this, see. Well, he would drink this and therefo' he couldn't stay away for she had that in him, yo' see. Well, see, she wanted to git dis other woman [wife] out de way, and that's [the reason] she went there and broke dis aig up side her do'. An' she give him those little tablets in his coffee or tea to drink, see, and he begin to suffer wit his stomach badly, an' all like that, and he began to look frail, and look bad, yo' know, because she said if she didn't have him, he could not do her [his wife] no good. See. An' he begin to look frail and bad, an' so no doctor's medicine didn't do him any good. Every time he'd go tuh a doctor, it would make him worser. Yo' know, when you've hoodooed anybody, doctor's medicine not good fo' you, you know. An' so he went - and every time he'd take a doctor's medicine, it would make him worser. And so an' ole lady came by one day and tole him dat he was fixed, chew know, that he was hoodooed, see, because he never would git well, yo' know. And on a certain kinda moon he would git like - git in a fit chew know, kinda rave. And so the ole lady told him that if he'd pay her a sum of money, she could cure him - yo' know, she could git him outa dis kinda fix: An' so, he finally jest scuffled up de money some kind of way. And so she'd taken and brought some saltpeter an' tole him fo' 'bout nine or ten mawnin's to take a bath every mawnin', every day, in dat saltpeter - bathe in that. An' she went out and got some roots out of de woods, some kin'a calomel roots and every- thing and he had to chew dose roots, yo' know - calomel roots, like white-look- ing roots, and she tole him to chew a piece of dat, chew know. An' he had to chew dose roots and he had to take a bath in saltpeter fo' nine mawnings. She made him up a mixture of medicine, chew know. She put so much of turpentine - looked like coffee, somethin', where you see it would settle at de bottom. Well, he had to shake it up and yo' know he would take that, chew know. And after he would bathe in dat saltpeter, he had to take dat medicine and then chew dat root, chew see. An' den she told him at certain time - if he would chew it often - that would pass from him. See, when he chews dose roots, dat calomel yo' know worked up in him. Well, yo' see, after he'd taken that and she tole him that ninth or de tenth day something would pass from him, yo' see - but sure enuff it did. When hit pass from him, yo' know, like de calomel worked him yo' know, it passed somethin' looked like little worms - passed from him little bita worms. An' she tole him that if those worms hada stayed [in] him, it would form like little frogs, and things like that was goin' form in his intestines, inside, chew know. And it pass from him like little worms. And when it passed out, she showed it to him, iThis whut pass from yo', this whut they was puttin' in yo'." [There is one strange feature about so many of these passages of worms, snakes, or lizards. The patient does not see them until the doctor has made an examination and then shows them, or sometimes merely tells about them. No doc- tor has ever gone so far as to say, "If you see them you will die." For further accounts, see Live Things In You, Pp.227-239, and Index.] See, that would kill him slowly, yo' know, and so he was pinin' up and every- thing. So he passed little worms from him in de tenth day - little worms and little somethin' she said was gon'a form frogs. Whatever this was dis woman put in his coffee for him, yo' see, that was forming in him - that would form in him, see, because she got these little tablets and she got this rattlesnake dust - some dust from under a rattlesnake, wherever she got it from and say - and put it in dere, put it in him, fix him so he would stay with her. [Choppy place in cylinder. The old hoodoo woman told wife] if she could get holt of him, she say, if she could get a holt of him and git a little piece of his shirt, she could, yo' know, could stop dis fit on him. See, every change of moon he'd have these spells. [Here are four similar beliefs about fits from general folklore: (1) "Epilep- tic fits...more frequent and...severe during the increase of the moon...." (2) "If anyone has fits, take off their shirt...while having it, cut out the piece over their chest and boil...when cool...give to the person to drink...." (3) "He was having one of these fits. She pull his shirt off over his head, put it on a pan and set it on fire...took the ashes...to feed him a spoonful before each meal...." (4) "Remove the person's undershirt...after an attack, let it smolder on live coals, mix a teaspoonful of these ashes in a glass of holy water, and say In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost...must be administered three times a day." From FACI, 2ed., p.248.] Well, this ole lady, finally this ole lady died, see - dis ole lady whut was fixing him, yo' know. Well, she died. Well, yo' see, dey found all kinds of stuff, different hoodoo stuff in her place, where dey went tuh see, yo' know, when she died, an' everything. [For finding spells at hoodoo woman's home when she dies, see No. 239, p.66.] Well, this lady, every change of de moon, she still havin' fits. Yo' know, when de person die and fixed yuh, yo' know, yo' don't nevah git ovah it, yo' see. Yo' see, because dey died befo' dey could take it off dem. See. An' she still had those fits after and nobody couldn't take it off because dis was de woman dat put de spell on, see. [See If Evildoer Dies Spell Incurable, p.396.] And so everytime de moon would change she would go crazy-like and see dis man. See. And then when she seen, she didn't want him. Well, finally, this woman went crazy and nobody couldn't do anything for her because she was de one put de spell on her, yo' see, and after she went crazy, well, dey sent her to asylum and after she went tuh de 'sylum, den she died, you see. But de spell was still on dis man, yo' see, after she died. Yo' see, she never did git her mind back. An' so dis man, yo' see - after he come back - he was already heah, and so after she died, it was still on him. He couldn't git it off him because dis ole lady was de one had buried his socks fo' him and he didn't know where. Differ- ent fortunetellers had tole him that she had somethin' of his'n buried somewhere and if he could find it and dig it up, why that could git him bettah, yo' see, because she had got the worms out of him. See. So she had his left sock buried, took his left dirty sock. She fixed it an' buried it underneath de step. And so he would dig all in de yard to try to find where she had buried it. Well, finally, he jest - seemed like he said he had a dream one night to look under his step: They something tole him to look under his steps. [For spirits warning in dreams, see pp.27,116, and Index.] An' so he got up early hisself one morning and went out there an' was digging around under his steps. And when he dug aroun' he struck something like a little can, and when he opened de little can - de top of dat little can, de dust jest flew out, and when he pulled it out he saw one his dirty sock had been buried under there. And in that sock, he opened it, it had some kind of powder and a little rag, and it had nine needles and nine pins sticking in it - nine wit de heads down and nine needles wit de head up. See - in dat sock and so it was sewed up in dat little rag in his sock. And he'd taken dis sock, de whole thing and he carried it tuh a ole man. Yo' see, he carried it tuh a fortuneteller and tole him, say, "Well, dat's whut she had buried, yo' see - why you couldn't stay away from her." An' so, when he'd taken dat and dose little needles - dose needles been in dere so long dey was rusty. An' sos he'd taken dat herself and she washed it in saltpeter - see, she washed dat in saltpeter and he thought she was curing him, but she was making him worser fo' it - 'cause he wanted tuh go back to his wife, yo' see. De woman died dat broke him from his wife. Dat's de one made him move out de house and break up his home, yo' see. An' so he went back then to his wife and try to live with her, see, an' everything. Well, he couldn't live with her because they both died and de spell was on him, yo' see.
(This happened right here in Mobile?)
Yes.
(All right, go right ahead now.)
Well, he'd gone back to his wife, yo' see, after a certain length of time - so many years, yo' see. An', yo' know, he begged her pardon for the way he did her and de woman. She knew dis woman had broke up her home, yo' know, what she did, because afterwards she found out what she had sprinkled all around in her home, yo' know, fo' de confusion and fo' him tuh mistreat her, yo' see. Well, he'd gone back to try to live with her again, yo' see. And so his wife was afraid and so she thought she would have him fixed her- self. After this woman had him that way, she thought she would go an' git some- one to do him the same way, see. So she goes to a fortuneteller and dey tell her that the only way she could do anything with him was to have him dressed. See, was to have him dressed so that - if she don't, he would leave her again because dis spell was still on him and de woman was dead and every change of de moon, he would leave her. See, he had dis spell on him, and said de woman was dead and she was de one had to git it off him. Well, sure enough, every change of de moon he would leave her but she wanted tuh have him dressed. So this fortuneteller wouldn't tell her whut to do, but she sent her to some- body else. So she went - say she jest tell de fortune but de lady had to go to an ole hoodoo. So she goes out in de woods to an ole hoodoo lady and dis ole lady tole her that yes, she could dress him and fix him so that he couldn't leave her. He would have to stay right there, you know, he couldn't leave her. And so she tole her to git her a sum of money and bring it back and she would dress it. [In the preceding paragraph: (1) Some fortunetellers do all types of hoodoo work, or put another way, some hoodoos and doctors tell fortunes; other fortune- tellers, like this one, refer patients to a hoodoo doctor or a specialist. Even I the, Author Becomes a Specialist, on page 278. Is there another example of hoodoos imitating modern medical practice? Yes and no. Specialization in heal- ing is as old as primitive medicine-man and witch-doctor. Temple incubation Was a speciality of early Greek healers, ancestors of present-day Doctors of Medi- cine. (2) "out in de woods." Here is the old witch of fairy tales and reality. For this isolation as well as personal appearance, see pp.294-301, especially Nos. 849 and 859. (3) For dressing the money, see one man's remarkable version of this rite - Trickery by Doctor. Cast it into Oblivion, p.268. However, not all dressing of money is trickery.] Well, she did that. She went to this ole lady, and dis ole lady tole her that every three hours - she give her some kind of something like incense to burn. Tole her to burn this incense every three hours, and sulphur. Tole her to burn incense and sulphur and write his name on a white candle and roll it in some sugar. See, she said sugar, seemed like that would make everything sweet fo' him, yo' see. Salt is for confusion, chew know and sugar is for sweet. See, that's the way it works. Tole her to roll dis candle in sugar and write his name backwards on dere, yo' see, and stick it in a little saucer and put it in de cor- ner of her room. See. And jest 'bout time de spell come on him, fo' her to burn it. See. An' dat would make it sweet and de spell wouldn't be on him. An' so tole her to take dat candle and burn it and then to burn dis here sulphur every three hours in her home - this here sulphur and this incense. The incense is sweet too. That makes a sweet smell in yore home. Well, she did that. An' she tole her whenever he take a bath - see, next time he'd take a bath - tuh bring a little of his bathwater. Put it in a little cup or something, stop it up and bring it tuh her - what he bathe in. Well, she fixed his water. He didn't know, yo' know, she was goin' tuh pore de water out after he'd taken a bath. She took some water in de cup, some of his dirty water, and she carried it to dis lady. She stopped it up in a little bottle and carried dis dirty water to dis ole woman. Well, dis ole woman, she took his bathwater that he bathed in and she mixed it with something else in a bottle and shook it up and tole her to take dis bottle and bring it back and stand it up in de corner of her room where ain't no one kin see, and everytime he'd go out de do', she goes an' watch his feet and git his left track and bring de dirt back to her. Yo' know, jest take her han' and rake dat track back and wrap it up in some paper and keep it in her purse. Well, every time he would leave dat would make him come back. See, when you git his tracks dat'll make him come back. Well, whenever he would leave out, sure enough she went and got his track. See, she got dat track and she wrapped it up in de paper and had it in her purse and she had dis water in her room, yo' know. An' so, every three hours in de day she would burn dis here stuff, yo' know [this candle and incense and sulphur]. It acted all right for a good long while but see, every once a while, it would die down - it would die down and den she had to go an' do it again. Dis acted all right for a little while, till he begin to git in a rage agin, yo' see. So dis lady tole her that on the way she had to get something in him. See, she had to fix him in that way. Yo' see. [The preceding paragraph reveals one of the great principles of magic, perhaps the greatest after intention - magic power is not permanent. Our best examples of this are those magic objects closest to the believer's heart and mind - the hands. Among their many characteristics, these helpers: (1) have degrees of power (p.576), (2), observe a time limit (p.577), (3) must be fed (p.578f.), and (4) need recharging, which sometimes requires a doctor or a specialist, a hand- maker. A hand lives and helps only because a spirit dwells in it. Even when all amenities and regulations have been kept and the indwelling spirit is contended, it can be killed - chased from its temporary home - by the spirit of a stronger hand. Killing happens often in a gambling game where every man carries a hand. So, here is another rule of magic - a weaker spirit cannot function in the presence of a stronger spirit. But the owner of the weaker hand can kill the spirit or power of the stronger hand - page 641 and Index.] Well, she thought she was fixing hi - instead of fixing him fo' good, she was fixing him fo' bad looked like, don't you see, because whut dis woman give her, de mixture in his food, see. She wouldn't eat what he eat, yo' see, because she Was putting it in his stuff and sprinkling it on his meat. You see she would put it on de meat that he would eat. An' so when he taste it - de different taste in de meal yo' know and wanted her to taste, she proclaimed that she didn't like that kind of meat. Yo' know, she'd make excuse to keep from eatin' it herself. See. And see, every time he'd eat dis meat hit would make him sicker, see. But she put it on his meat. Dis woman give it to her and told her to put it on there and so he found dis here dirt in her purse, yo' see. He opened de pa- per - he went in her purse and he found dis dirt in dere, see, but she didn't know that he found the dirt. He kept the dirt fo' to carry it tuh see what it was. See. An' so he carried dis dirt to see whut it was. And dey told him it was his tracks - one dem hoodoos, another one, tole him it was his tracks, and says, this woman is giving him something in his food. Well, see, he would eat this food, yo' see, and he got so that he would dry up - dried up jest as little as he could be. It was whut she was feeding him off of.
(Put them [his foot tracks] in the grave?)
Yes. An' she tole him - dis hoodoo lady tole him that it wouldn't be long 'fore dey be burying her by she burying dese tracks. And so dis hoodoo woman gave him something. Yo' know, he didn't know that this woman was dressing dis other one fo' him, see, an' so when he goes back to her, something she puts on him, well he got it on her, see, by being close together, got it on her and she come with something like a itch, yo' know, all over her. [For an amazing example of this common trick, see No. 10, p.7.] She had an itch all over her and she'd go to doctors an' everything and de more they would treat her fo' dis itch, de worser it would git. And so it kept itching till all between her fingers got sore - see, all between her fingers become broke out like you would have pellegra yo' know, all that itch. But it would git between her fingers and all her nails and it got between her toenails. See. An' she broke out in sores, sores all be- tween her nails an' everything tull they had to bathe her hands and wrap 'em up in a piece yo' know. And all between her body - all down there between her body, she broke out in sores and everything, yo' see. And so she thought about this letter dis woman wrote an' tole her that seven years wouldn't be too long for a raccoon to wear a ruffled-bosom shirt. See, that whut she meant, she was goin' tuh kill her - see, tuh get dis man, see. An' she had dis man dressed fo' her. See. Well, after she broke out in sores and everything like dat, well, see, he had done buried her tracks to de graveyard, you see. Well, finally dey couldn't cure her and she broke dese sores all out and it come on de inside eatin' her up. Whut she had got inside her, it would just ete her on through, ete her up. An' she died. Finally she did bury her. See. An' so this woman told her dat, see, and dey all remembered whut she said - that she would do that to get her. An' after she do that - after she [roomer] got this man, yo' see, then this man disliked her. After he had done killed his wife and hoodooed her, well, he disliked her, see. He turned against her then, and so after he turned against her, he say, jest like she killed his wife, he would turn that right back on her and do her de same way, and she told him that he couldn't do it. See. An' so he said, "Surely could." Well, after dis man tried to fix her she would go an' git cured, see, bathing in dat saltpeter and salt, see, and that would keep everything off of her. And she wouldn't eat anything from him, see. An' so finally, he brought her some ice cream and she ate the ice cream. She didn't think anything Would hurt her, see. An' she ate de ice cream and after she ate de ice cream, dis man tole her he would get her. See, 'cause he had done went back to dis ole [hoodoo] lady dat killed his wife, to fix her. An' dat ole lady put de stuff in de ice cream - gave it to him and he put it in de ice cream.... [The hoodoo woman told the wife to] "Get a piece of his shirt-tail and his bathwater." Yo' got whut she got, yo' know, from him. She had tole her to take that bathwater and she put dat piece of shirt-tail in dis bottle, see, and she sticks nine needles and pins in it and shook it up and told her to take that and go in one fo' corner of de house and bury that.
(One of the four corners of her house.)
Outside - not under the steps - de fourth corner of her house and bury it and then jest, as she burying it, she had to say some kind of hoodoo and put a evil curse on. Cause she knew that the water had him fixed - his bathwater - and he had to go cross de water. So finally he takes a notion to leave - to leave her, see. And so she said, well, to cross water - well, that would make all that go back [on person fixing his bathwater]. So he left here and so he went an' got on a ship and went away cross de water. He was leaving across de water to git dat off him. Said that this woman know that he was going away, said she'd rather fo' him to leave and not come back. The one he went back to - de woman died.
(The woman killed his wife and then he killed this woman. That the idea?)
No, de woman got killed - dat de one he was running around wit. He couldn't git de spell off him an' so he goes back and makes up with his wife. See. This woman was living in the house and broke his wife and him up, yo' see, and tore up de home and the wife left and that give her a chance. See, she put dis stuff in her pillah, and so then after the woman got out, de wife turned it back on her. See. An' so she [roomer] lost her mind an' everything and de ole woman dat fixed de wife, she died, see, and dey couldn't git de spell off [the wife]. See. And dis woman [roomer] went crazy and dey sent her away and she died. Then he finally makes up his mind to go back to his wife, yo' see, to git a reconcilia- tion with her, yo' know, tuh beg her pardon, after so many years. Well, you see after he went back with his wife - she knew that this woman had done her that and broke up her home - well she didn't care for him much. But he wanted - but he had dis spell on him - dey both [women - roomer and hoodoo woman] died and dey couldn't git de spell off him. And every change of de moon he'd have these spells, see, because dis woman throwed dis egg and put dis spell on him. He had these spells and so the wife said that she would go have him fixed so she could keep him. So she goes tuh have his fixed, yo' see, and dis woman tole his wife to git his bathwater, see; and then git dis candle and roll it in sugar - see, that was to make him sweet.
(Well, now, whose track was buried out in the grave?)
Oh, it was this woman's track that was buried out in de grave.
(Which woman, the first one?)
The first woman - she was de one.
(There are only two women in the story?)
That was all - one man - two womens and one man. De wife and de woman and dis man. (The woman who was trying to take him away died in the asylum. Then the wife died too, didn't she?) Well, later - after - but he went back to the wife. See. And after de wife didn't care fo' him, see, then she fixed him so he wouldn't have these spells - she tried to git these spells off him, so she would git de candle and roll it in sugar an' everything. An' so then she seen she didn't care for him and then [he] goes and has her tracks buried in de graveyard, see. Dis man fixed her.
(What was he fixing her for?)
Cause she didn't want him. (Was she trying to kill him or was he trying to kill her? Or was he trying to make her take him back or what?) Well, he wanted her to take him back. Well, after she took him back, you see he would git dem spells on the change of de moon and he would leave again. He wouldn't act right. See.
(When did he cross water?)
Well, he crossed water when de woman tole him dat de only way he would git dis spell off him, he would have to cross de water. See.
(The spell his wife put on him or the spell the other woman put on him?)
It's de spell the other woman put on him.
(The part that was in the beginning of the story?)
Yes, that goes in the beginning of it. You see, de wife is de one that burned de candles on him and tried to git de spell off him. So he goes and gits his wife track - he's de one - de hoodoo woman told him to bury it in de graveyard, and he went and buried it out dere like she told him.
(That's what killed her?)
That whut killed her and that's whut made her think of de letter that she re- ceived a long time ago. See, dis ole lady was working on 'em both. See, she was pretending to be friends to each one of 'em, but she wasn't. [For doctor "pretending to be friends to each one of 'em," see two excellent examples, No. 780, p.257, and No. 782, p.258.] See, dis same ole lady died, yo' see, who was pretending to be friends to both of them, but she wasn't. Yeah, he had to cross water to git rid of his sins, because she had his water and everything buried in de fourth corner of her house. So, that itch when she broke out like that, that whut killed her. And he couldn't git those spells off at de change of de moon - he would go crazy and everything. They both [women] got out of dere [died] and dat's when dis [hoodoo] woman [told] him he would cross water. See, he took a voyage away cross water - see, he left to get rid of this. And de last that they heard from him, dey said he was gittin' better of those spells.
intended household discord attributed to salt/cayenne sprinkling. No clinical diagnosis, proven causation or definite aggressor/victim identity is inferred. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
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Entry 2834
Well, the first thing you would do, you would get some saltpeter and sugar and Eagle Lye. And you scrub that house with it to dispel all evil that has been there from people that moved out - jinxes, as you'd call it. After scrubbing it with that, take a white candle and break it in half, not so it falls to pieces, and you burn that candle and let it burn out. [To break anything often frees the spirit within. Breaking here releases the power faster. In some cases it might double the power.] And after you've done that you will get you some garlic, three pods of garlic, and some lodestone perfume.
(What is lodestone perfune?)
There is perfume that you can buy from dealers that sell all this John de Conquer.
(I see, you can buy this lodestone [perfume]. All right, go ahead.)
And you put that in the water, and you burn the garlic peel, and you put a teaspoon of sugar in that, and scrub the house with it. And within three days that house would be ready - within the amount of pods of garlic that you put in, which was three pods of garlic. Well, within three days that house should be rented.
Entry 2839
(Well, how do they burn those black candles on you? How do they do that?) Well, those black candles, you take them and roll them in saltpeter, and cay- enne pepper, and cook[ing] - table salt. You roll them good in there but you dampen this candle 'fore you, 'fore you do that. You dampen it just a little bit - you know, just pass the rag over it, dampen it. (With water?) Yes, with a little damp rag, you know, so it'll stick to it. Just roll it good - roll it good and then you light it, you light it and burn it. Don't put it out - just let it burn all day. Just burn all day and you'll just worry that person so that he'll just - he don't know [what] he do, almost wanta kill hisself.
(Well, how do you know whom that candle is for?)
You call their name and be cursing them, what you want to happen to 'em - want 'em go and jump overboard.
Entry 3792
Yo' git hot watah jis' lak yo' goin' take a bath an' red peppah - cayenne pep- pah - wit salt an' saltpetah an' put it in de watah. Salt all ovah it. See, throw it dataway. Dat wash it off an' kill it. But chew gotta do dat befo' yo' evah git ovah it.
(That is to bring his nature back?)
Yes.
(How do you throw that water, just any way?)
No, throw it dis way, don't chew know. Dat's west. [You have to throw it to the west] befo' de sun rise. Keep it wit yo' dat night, keep it until befo' de sunrise an' yo' git up befo' de sunrise an' throw it dat way [to the west].
Entry 3794
Why he can git a dose of saltpetah, see, an' fix it an' take a drop or two evah morning, see, fo' nine mornings, an' if she's fixed 'im, where he can't have no 'co'se [intercourse], why dat will kill de taste of de othah woman an' build 'is curbed up nature. Yo' know saltpetah will entirely kill yore nature. But if yo' take it jes' a little bit, it will fix yo' straighten back up.
(How would I take this? Inside of me each morning?)
Take a drop or two an' put it in watah evah mawnin' fo' nine mornings. Dat'll straighten 'im up.
(That will bring back his nature.)
Entry 4152
Yuh kin take gunpowdah an' Hearts Cologne an' saltpetah an' yuh own watah an' mix dat tuhgethah, an' use [that] aroun' talkin' wit dis person, an yuh kin git 'em tuh do whut chew want done.
(If you want to work for them or anything like that, or if you want to get a job.) Yes sir, use dat stuff.
Entry 4160
Yuh take saltpetah an' yuh own watah an' Hearts Cologne an' use dat aroun' de bossman, an' he'll give yuh a job. Ah've hear of sech as dat bein' done. Dis same stuff; saltpetah, Hearts Cologne an' yuh own watah, aroun' where yuh doin' business at, an' de' say dat will draw yuh customahs.
Entry 4247
Dey say dat yo' could take some of dis heah saltpeter an' some sul- phur an' put it in a chambah yuh know, jis' lak peoples make watah in de chambah yuh know. Yuh git up dat night sometime an' put some saltpetah an' sulphur in dere. Well, wheresomevah dey po' it out, yuh see, whosomevah cross dat, yuh know, wheresomevah yuh po' de watah at, where somebody kin cross it, yuh know, which an' evahbody cross dat watah or comin' up dem do'steps, dat will [make] dem go crazy: (That is to make them love you. A woman would do that with her chamber lye to bring in men?) Yeah, make 'em love yuh. Dat's a way dat dey kin gain mens too. Dat's simple but dey people don't know all dat.
Entry 5184
If she's away from me and I want to bring her back, I'll get nine old shoes, burn one each night at midnight with [nine] ingredients: egg shell, sul- phur, ashes, salt, pepper, alum, saltpeter, cloves, ginger, and walk around this fire and say, Send me my wife, sister or friend or whatever it is, back. And the ninth morning take this ashes, all from the whole nine mornings, and throw the ashes toward the direction the person is. You must have the wind blowing that direction. [The wind blowing the right direction on the 9th morning could make this a difficult rite.]
Entry 5639
Dey go to work an' if dey git yo' an' if dey're goin' to hahm [harm] yo' dey take yore tracks an' bury on to dere steps. Well, now listen, dey put some saltpetah in yore tracks. See, now dat'll hahm yo'. If dey take yore tracks up from any- where dey'll hahm yo' if dey put saltpetah in it. [Somewhere either before recording began or along in here while recording machine stopped, informant mentions 5 foot tracks or footprints. I missed a notation at the time but will soon mention them.]
(On your own steps?)
Yes, on yore own steps.
(Yes, I see. On my own steps?)
On yore own steps.
(That is, five footprints of dirt on my own steps? Either foot track?)
Eithah foot, it don' make any diffrence.
Entry 6808
(Suppose I have come to you about taking a spell off?)
Well, ah nuse [use] dis salt, peppah, sage an' stuff - salt, sugah, sage, alum an' saltpetah. Ah got dat ovah in a box, see. An' ah take some new string, nuthin have been worn, an' ah tie dem, an' whatsomevah ah Want chew tuh do [demon- strates]. (Just tie a knot.) Yeah, tie a knot, an' den ah take dat, dis stuff an' sprin- kle it ovah dere, see. An' den if dis spell [is] on me [you], see. An' whosomevah put it on yo', if yo' know dere names, yo' jis' call dere name an' tell 'em yo' want 'em to take dis spell offa yo'. Well, if dey don't, yo' wish bad luck onto dem, see. An' yo' burn dis stuff. An' den YO' STRIP BUCK NECKED [NAKED] AN' DEN TAKE DIS BLANKET AN' PUT IT: OVAH YORE HAID. AN' DIS SMOKE, YO' CAIN'T HAR'LY [HARDLY] STAND IT. If dere's anything in yo' in any way, shape, form or fashion, it'll come out, see. [The preceding term suck necked [[naked]] may be its only use in Hoodoo.] An' den yo' take a li'le whiskey glass an' yo' boil dis heah gourd tea - yo know gourds - an' yo' boil dis gourd tea an' yo' take three glasses of dis gourd tea evah day. An' dat'll take de spell off yo'.
(Especially if they have something inside of you.)
Entry 6813
(How do you get those black things out?) How do yo' git 'em out? Well, yo' git dem live things out - git saltpetah an' guinea peppah, garlic an' sweet milk an' parsley - heat parsley - an' it'll make 'em come up.
(That is to get the live things out. What do you do? Make this all into a tea?)
No, yo' don't make no tea at all. Yo' jis' beat it up, don't heat it, drink it in de milk.
Entry 7207
Yo' kin take a sock.
(Take a what?)
Take one yuh socks an' now, what dey put in dat sock, now ah couldn't tell yuh. Take one of dose socks an' pin it. Ah know personally dis wuz done becuz it wuz quite natchel, yo' know, ah had a brothah a [that way], yo' undahstan'. Ah'm explain' tuh yuh good. He had a vein, a open vein, here, along here, along here an' right up dere [demonstrates]. [He was] hurt [tricked], yo' see. Dat's called swollen veins. (What kind of veins, swollen?) Swollen veins. Undahstan'? Well, yo' take dat sock. An' now, whut yo' put it in [in it], ah couldn't tell yo'. Dey put it - but take one of yuh socks. It wuz a black sock ah had, black silk sock. Mah sistah bring- ed it up chere. Ah wuz down dere two yeahs ago. Ah wuz down dere in '36. Well, ah'm gittin' it straight now. Dat yeah, dat's about right, ah wuz down dere in '36. We found dat sock, las' yeah: was '37, round, oh ah'd say round about de 20th of July, an' dat sock had - ah couldn't even lay on dat pillah [pillow]. Yo' undahstan', if yo' lay on dat pillah it hurt yuh haid, but now aftah - if yo'laid on it, an' den if yo' lak dat, if yo' don' git dat cured, yo' stay lak dat. One mawnin', see, when she found dat sock, it wuz balled up wit de feathahs in it. But whut wuz in dat sock wit dose feathahs, we couldn't tell, yo' know. It's quite natchel dat yo'd be scared. Cuz it only cost me $50 tuh git rid of dat. Well, now, ah tell yo' what she [doctor] did tuh git rid of dat. Ah went tuh a lady, undahstan'. She told me, say, "Ah'll cure yo'." An' told me where ah goes. Told me ah wuz hurt an' ah cain't stand tuh drink whiskey long, account dat vein bein' swollen, yo' undahstan' [demonstrates].
(This vein runs right?)
Straight through me.
(Right straight along your back, that swollen vein?)
Yes, sir. An' ah went tuh dis lady, see, an' she tole me, say, "He's got a thing hid." Told me jis' lak whut it wus lak. She live on 923 [Something Street]. Ah'm try- in' tuh think of de name. Yo' kin put dat down, two diff'ren' things. But any- way, nevah mind about dat.
(Oh, that's all right.)
An' she commence right here an' measured dat place right here, right dere [demonstrates]. She say, "Dere's a knot dere."
(Right here, where?)
Dere's a knot or somepin. Well, she massaged dat knot an' rubbed it an' she tell me, say, "Yo' go home an' go tuh de druggist." Now, listen good. "Go tuh de druggist an' git a bottle of household - do yo' heah dat?"
(Yes.)
Household ammonia.
(Household ammonia.)
Household ammonia. You git a box of Epsom salts. Yo' git chew dat much salt- petah. Yo' won't want make too much. Dat much saltpetah. Yo' put dat in yuh bath watah. Don't put no salt in it - ah mean not salt, don't put no soap in it. But aftah dat, dat cleah ammonia. Dat's all. Jis' lak in place of puttin' soap in it, put dat household ammonia in dere an' dat saltpetah an' de Epsom salts in dis watah. An' takes yuh bath in it. Nine nights do dat.
(Nine nights?)
Nine nights an' throw de water tuh wherevah de sun risin' at. An' it'll soor cure yo' of de trouble. Well, dat's whut ah did. Well, it cured me.
(That's what cured you?)
It cured me. Now, here's de way. Now, ah'll take, jis' lak, yo' got tuh start it. It deal wit pain [demonstrates].
(Right from the top of your head.)
See dat li'le knot dere, see dat knot dere. It's a pain right dere. Well, now, yo' jis' put dat [mixture] on. It'll move from dere, start from right dere tuh here [demonstrates]. (It'll move from the top of your head down to the bottom - the back of your neck.) Back tuh dis here [demonstrates]. Dat narrah [narrow] eyeball bone.
(The pain is right behind the eyeball?)
Eyeball. Leads from dis eye right chere, right chere. Here's de othah. An' right along dere it's knots be showin' dere, an' it feels though dere's somepin inside. Some knots showin' dere. Well, dis lady tole me dat it wuz done through whiskey. Say, "But chew looks an' yo' will find it in yuh mattress," she say. But it wusn't in no mattress. It wuz in a feathah pillah; an' yo' would find vhutevah it is in dere. It wuz wrapped up. An' she tole me when ah find it, burn it up. Well, dat's quite nachel, 'cuz ah did dat, see. Ah burned it up in de fiah. Well, now, mah sistah, yo' see, when she slept on dis pillah, it burt 'er haid so dat she'd move dat pillah. But it wasn't fo' her, it wuz fixed fo' me. Whut fer? Yo' see some people wanta hurt me. An' ah wanta explain dis sah way, 'cuz yo' know ah nevah done used explainin'. An' ah, ah'se jes' explain zahself.
Entry 7687
Fo' evil yo' kin git some graveyard dirt, mix up saltpetah in it an' sulphur, an' cast it roun' a person dwellin' an' whut yo' wush [done], say. Put de jinks [used only 3 or 4 times in Hoodoo] on 'em in diff'ren' forms. It'll make 'em unlucky wit de evil spir- its. In goin' tuh de graveyard an' git- tin' dat dirt it would be wise fo' yo' tuh know de person whose grave yo' goin' tuh. Den yo' pay dem fo' dat dirt an' work wit it. Yo' tell 'em dat, "Ah want chew tuh do dus [thus] an' so fo' me." Whutsomevah dat chew wan' 'em tuh do. It wouldn't make any diff'rence. Say, "Ah'm payin' yuh tuh do so." Yo' git de dirt from off de left side from ovah de heart, but choo runs yore han' down in de grave tuh de elbow down ~ ought tuh be [beyond] yore wrist.
The informant describes graveyard dirt with saltpetre and sulphur for reported harm, payment and requests to a known deceased person, and collection from the left side over the heart. Quoted requests are prescribed speech. Hyatt's glosses and comment on the word 'jinks' remain separate; the printed collection-depth wording is retained.
Entry 7888
Saltpetah - yo' take saltpetah an' beat it up fine, an' if yo' kin use some of dis graveyard dirt, tuh sprinkle in de do'way, see, where dey kin see it each mawnin', mo' lakly [likely] dat person will move from de house.
Entry 8505
If yo' had a wife an' she was doin' somepin an' yo' Wanted to break her from it - don't chew know, goin' out wit other mens or somepin like dat, an' yo' caught her an' didn't want her to do dat. Yo' would take dat - sulphur an' aloes an' saltpeter an' mash it up an' yo' would put it together an' git chew a piece of papah an' write her name an' dat party's name down nine times. (You mean you Write this man's name down nine times. What do you do with her name then?) Put it down underneath it nine times.
(You write both of them nine times each.)
An' burn it fo' nine days.
(Burn what?)
Fix dat ovah fo' nine days.
(Well what do you do with those ingredients you mentioned?)
Yo' take dat stuff an' put it in dat writing. Yo' put de sulphur an' de aloes [and saltpeter] in dat writing, see; an' den yo' set it afire an' burn it. An while yo' burn it yo' cuss it, say, "Ah wish yo' would break this [whosoevah it is, yo' know] up." An' jes' cuss it, jes' everythin' bad yo' wanta say to it. Dat will break them up.
Entry 8518
Now when a man and a woman are together and some other party wants them completely separated for good, wants to break them up completely, they buy them a new cocoanut. And they punch the three eyes out of that cocoanut and leave the milk in. And they write those two peoples' names the same as they do when they're going to the crossroads ["they'll write the man's name nine times and then they write the woman's crossing nine times" - from the same cylinder, 1574:3 somewhere in text]. And cross each other and they curse them for everything they can think of, and they fold that paper tight and stick it down in the hole of that cocoanut. Then they put anything that purges, like Epsom salts, or black draught. And they put pepper sauce in there, something very hot - pepper sauce and red peppers. And they put salt in there and saltpeter. And they write those two persons' names across each other, like this, on three separate pieces of paper, and fill the eyes of that cocoa- nut. And then at 12 o'clock at night they go to the river and throw it over their left shoulder. And if that black draught and that different stuff in that cocoanut begin to work, you know when it gets stale.it'll work, those two people begin fussing and fighting, and within a period of nine days they're absolutely separated. And there's a whole lot in that. [Memphis, Tenn., (973), 1574:5.] Those cocoanuts.
(Different from what you told me?)
Yes, just a little different. They use gunpowder instead of the salt and pepper and stuff like that. That makes people mean and drift and they can't have any luck at anything at all they do. [This woman is marked excellent pro- fessional. She was from Shreveport, La.] [Memphis, Tenn., (973), 1577:2. The first reference for this rite Was given in the text.]
Entry 8612
Yo' kin take a person's name, if yo' lovin' a man an' he don't ca' [care] fo' yo'. Yo] take yore name an' write it on a piece of papah first an' yo' write his name all 'cross on it, an' fold it up an' put salt, saltpeter, an' bluestone an' wrap it round nine times wit white thread an' go tuh yore lamp fo' nine days.
(What will that do?)
Dat will call 'im back an' make 'im come home.
Entry 8722
They take sulphur and saltpeter and incense an' burn it together, but chew got to name it, dey claim. An' as it goes up, de effect of it, de scent dat goes out, comes out from it, de individual dat happens to inhale it, why dey get to a place dat dey can't stand anythin'. Makes dem fickle-minded dey tell me. An' dey get so after while dat yo' get 'em confused about anything. They finally lose dere mind.
Entry 9081
Yo' go out an'.git chew one dose conkah roots - 20 fo' a dollah. Git chew one of dose, an' yo' goes up dere. Bathe yuhself all ovah good wit salt- petah, an' sugah an' chamber lye. An' yo' git up dere an' go befo' de judge. As yo' walk in de co't, yo' jis' spit as yo' go up dere fo' 'im. An' dat'll change 'is mind.
Entry 10183
If they're burning a candle on you, you burn - now this is the same thing you kin do. You kin burn this same red candle. You burn this red candle, you stick it in 3 pins. See, you fightin' against them. You says, "I wish my enemy would leave me alone." An' then you go an' throw you a handful of salt in the fire an' you says, "I wish my enemies quit working after me an' leave me alone In the Name of the Lord." An' take you a bath in some saltpeter, blue- stone an' sugar, an' repeat the Lord's Prayer 3 times, see. You see, you burn this candle, that would set them down. Or else, you kin put 'em down sick. You kin git a purple candle an' you light it an' you make your wish an' put some salt in there an' spit in it, see. An' you burn it on 'em again an' you says, I wish ohosomever this is that's workin' after me will leave me alone, "' an' spit in it. You see, that'll drop 'em. That'Zl drop 'em. That'll put 'em down sick. That'll make 'em drop. An' continue to burn brimstone [not men- tioned previously in this rite but surely in some pre- vious part of interview]. See, that brimstone is the best thing in the world, that brimstone. An' sugar. Continue with that sugar in the fire, see: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. [Mem- phis, Tenn., (960, excellent hoodoo woman, my rapid hand transcription of cylinder missed by my transcriber, 1544:9.]
Entry 10197
Yo' kin take candles if yo' want luck in yore house. Yo' kin take it an' burn it, burn it at de length of time, wit chure saltpetah an' some cinnamon an' sugar. Dat will bring yuh luck.
(Where do you put these ingredients?)
In a saucer an' den put chure candle on top of it. [Or fix candle in center and ingredients around it.]
Entry 10633
Git a piece of alum an' a piece of saltpeter an' sew it up in a little Nammen rag together, an' dey tell me dat'll make yo' lucky - lucky in gambling. Tote it in yore pocket. [After machine turned off informant adds with Hearts Cologne.] Yes sir.
Entry 9614
They kin take salt, cayenne peppah an' saltpetah an' sprinkle it. Take off of [back of] old broken looking glass that quicksilvah-like, yo' know, an' mix it all togethah. They kin throw it right up in the door an' sprin- kle it all aroun' the door. An' that'll make yo' move.
Entry 9629
Well, git chew some salt- petah an' some table salt, a little sulphuh, an' take dat an' nine pods of red peppah an' yo' jes' make a little bag an' yo' weahs dat. Dat's all.
(What will that do then?)
Dat's to keep it back. Dat kill evahthin'. Can't git up to yo' 'cuz dat keep it off.
(That is to protect you.)
Entry 9658
Dey kin make yo' move wit saltpetah, brimstone an' table salt - jis' plain table salt. An' po' it by night, chew know, at de do' or sprinkle it roun' de do', an' yo' shuh of makin' 'em move.
Entry 9772
[In the margin title I have called this rite amazing because I had com- pletely forgotten about it and its future significance. The person I am inter- viewing here is J. R. Patterson, proprietor of the black hotel, Patterson Hotel, in New Orleans. Among the illustrations at end of HOODOO, volume 2, see the Patterson Hotel letterhead containing pictures of the hotel, the proprietor, and his signature on Wednesday, March 9, 1938, for rent on room No.17, including elec- tricity for my machine, and room space for my clients downstairs. I paid my rent each day before returning to my own hotel, the old St. Charles. To give Mr. Patterson some idea of my work, I suggested that he himself be interviewed. His following rite tells how he could be driven from his own hotel. Neither of us realized at the time that before a year had passed, Mr. Patterson would lose his hotel and I myself would be chased from the black hotel in Memphis by the police. For this later surprise, see Introduction to HOODOO, volume 1, page XxxIV, line 9 following.] De first thing yo' do, git chew a dime's worth of saltpetah. De nex' thing tuh do is git chew a box of cinnamon, a box of cloves. Git chew a nickel's worth of new tenpenny nails, an' den git chew one quart of gasoline. Den git chew a dime's worth of saltpetah. Go by dose person's house an' pick up, whethah it's mud, dirt or sand, take it up an' put it in de bucket wit dose nails. Po' yuh gasoline in dere an' strike a match an' light it, [let it burn] until it comes tuh be dry an' sandy. Den yo' take it an' go backwards from de do' where dey livin' at an' sprinkle it crossways dat way tuh de fo' cornahs of de world: [demonstrates by pointing] dat cornah, dis cornah, dis one, and dat one cross de street. In 24 hours de're [they are] gone. (You just sprinkle it like this [I demonstrate], like a wingy motion all around, cross that house?) [My demonstration of wingy motion must have been a fluttering or flipping motion like a bird. Informant misunderstands my word cross, meaning to put a hoodoo on the house, not throwing back and forth across the house.] No [you don't throw back and forth across the house] yo' tro' it from de house [demonstrates]. Yes, lak dis is de back, dis is de sidewalk out heah [demonstrates], sprinkle it dis way [demonstrates], cross ovah [demonstrates].
[I describe his demonstrations:]
(From the house out to the gutter, you sprinkle it back and forth, like a "v".)
[This "v" or triangle is the 3 Holy Names.]
One block each way, one block each way from de house. Lak Patterson [the speaker] whut chew [suppose you] wanted him tuh move. Well, yo'd git some dirt. See dat cigah ashes [he points to ashtray containing ashes of my cigar] an' [also] pick it from de sidewalk [get sidewalk dirt], an' git some dirt an' sprin- kle it aroun' dere - some sand. An' befo' he sweeps de banquette [= sidewalk in New Orleans] up in de mawnin', yo' jes' come aroun' dere an' brush up a little bit, jes' enough tuh git in yore fingahs an' put in dere. Den yo' come back heah dat night, yo' see, an' sprinkle from his do' crossways de banquette tuh dat cornah. Den yo' go tuh dis cornah an' go cross de street tuh de nex' cornah. Yo' go dat way an' go cross de street tuh de nex' cornah. Den yo' go ovah heah tuh garage. See. In 24 hours dey are moved.
(You have to throw it to the four corners of the world.)
Yes. [New Orleans, La., (1566, J. R. Patterson, proprietor of black hotel, Patterson Hotel), 2866:3.] [The title of this section could have been either Pins and Needles or Needles and Pins, both having tradition behind them; the first because a person is some- times said to walk on pins and needles; the second according to the folklore couplet: Needles and pins, needles and pins; when a man marries, his trouble begins. As in the case of the preceding section about nails, most rites about these objects have already appeared elsewhere in the printed text as parts of rites with other ingredients. The following rites will be listed according to number of pins and needles: 1, 2, 3, etc.1
Entry 12350
[Here is a hand from an excellent hoodoo woman whose material was lost before it could be transcribedl: Lodestone, John de Conkah, saltpeter, dime (silver one), make wish while sewing bag to you, anoint every 9 days with whiskey or Jockey Club Perfume, "feed it, ' a bag. [This is my original resume of the rite in pencil, attached to final manuscript.]
Entry 12447
Don't know if dey use de mockin'bird aigs but ah know dey use de mockin'- bird nest. Yo' burn it to ashes, and when yo' burn it to ashes, an' yo' jes' put some sulphur an' saltpeter in it or sulphur an' pep- pah or gunpowders - either of dem three, an' yo' mix a powders with that. An jes' what yo' say it do, it works by what yo' say...
(Give me an example of one thing you could say to it?)
Well, it ain't but one thing yo' kin say, an' den dere's plenty thing yo want to say.... It jes' what yo' want to say, or jes' if yo' have good idea - jes' any feelings tuhwards me, if yo' think ah doin' sompin ah got no business to yo', an' when yo' do dat den yo' tell it whut chew want it to do to me.
Entry 12562
(Well, nog, suppose I'm bootlegging amd I want to keep the lay aoay from the place, what would I do to keep the lay away from the place?) Well, you use this here sugar. You get this sugar, you get some of this saltpeter, and every time that you think of the law or anything, at night, you do it yourself or the one that be's in [the shop] there. You fix it up in a bottle with any kind of green leaf - you know, any kind of green leaf - but leave it be different leafs: might be willow leaf or Palm Of Christian or any kind of leaf. Just a differ- ent leaf. You take it in a bottle with this sinimond [cinnamon], sugar...
[I interrupt. Palm of Christian had to be explained!]
(Now, wait a minute! Where does this Palm of Christian grow?)
That Palm of Christian? Well, just put it in there like that, but stop... (Where does that grow? Here in Louisiana? Does it grow here?) [In New Orleans?] Yes, sir, it grows here - find it everywhere - in the country - they got some right uptown there. (It grows out in the woods - you mean that little palm - that little short palm?) It grows up about that high but with wide leaves.
(Oh! I see.)
[I did not know what it was at the time but I soon found out!] Well, you could take some of them leaves and sprinkle like that - get different leaves, just so its green. And you put it in a bottle and you take - put that sugar and cinament in the bottle like that. Every morning - that's when you thinking that the law's is [= 's & is here] coming and interfere with you, you see - coming and made a raid on your place. Every night and every morning, through the day, re- gardless of how many people are in there [your illegal liquor joint] don't say anything to nobody. Jest take your bottle [of green leaves] like you cleaning up and walk at the end of your property and jest like you'd take the broom and you shaking that bottle, you know, jest like sprinkling to keep the dust down - on back in [into] your place. Any time the law coming there, when he get to your property, he - he jest as pleased as ever. He'll come in there - probably be like this - he'll drink. He'll ask you to give him a [free] drink, a [free] cigar or somepin of the kind like that. And he'll tell you, remember that [a boss] be's over him. He'll tell, too, he'll say, "Well, you be particular, you can git what you want. I was just passing by this way. Well, you jest keep that sugar and ciniment right at your steps, wherever you comes down. And re- gardless of who comes there, he'll never do you no harm. And in prohibition time, well, the time the town went dry, I sold liquor here - I hit on [which he does, you can hear him]. Never had been caught yet. Never have been scared about no law - no prohibition or nothing of the kind... never have. [See margin title PALMA CHRISTI, No.2199, P.626, v.1, and my long comment there.]
Entry 12652
Git red peppah an' saltpeter an' elm an' Epsom salt an' sulphur. Dey mix it all up together an' jis' put aroun' where they bees [are] an' that eats up their luck. [Little Rock, 1467:3.]
Entry 12926
Tuh make de boss give yo' jobs, now. Now, if yo' wanta job an' if yo' goin' down dere. See, if de boss is mean to all de rest of de people - mean to yo' - he give everybody a job but chew. All right, well yo' git chew a lit- tle piece of saltpeter an' put into yore pocket. Well, den yo' see yo' git dis heah be 'shamed brier root, as ah tole yo', an' have dat in yore mouth an' spit down to his feets. An' den if he's very mean - if he's very hard - yo' sprinkle a little dis heah cayenne pepper cross his path like if dis he office heah. Ah sprinkle little dis cross yore office where.yo' go in to go into yore place of business an' ah have dat in mah mouth, an' ah says, "Say, Captain." Yo' know it's quite natural fo' a colored man to call a white man "Captain" or "Boss, " see. Well, "Say, Boss, listen, whut about a job dis mornin'." Den he'll look around - an be done crossed dis peppah, yo' see - he look around an' he say, "Well, old Doc, yo' don't wanna work if ah done give yo' a job." Yo' say, "Well, all right, yo try me." He say, "Well, den go on out an' see whut chew kin do." Yo' see, he done changed his mind. Yes sir, his mind is changed completely.
Entry 1549
They say yo' can take de lodestone and boil it into de sweet milk and a silver dime and file it and git de silver from de dime. Yo' take de saltpeter and de sulphur an' yo' make jes' a medicine of it. Yo' put dat on de inside. Yo' take de poke root, de saltpeter and de sulphur and gunpowder and use it as a bath an' fish brine an' that will kill it.
(What do you put.inside you?)
You put inside you this saltpeter and the sulphur and the lodestone, yo' see, boil this into the sweet milk - inside. Yo' can take de gunpowder inside, tain't goin' hurt chew - gunpowder don't hurt anybody. Yo' use that into de inside. An' then tuh tell whether you've got the stuff in yo' or not, dey tell me yo' kin take a silver dime - a real silver dime and put it in yore mouth and it will turn black immediately, and then yo' kin tell if these things into yo'.
(How do you do that?)
Hold it into yore mouth until a certain - jest about an hour, and dey say if anything like dat in yuh, it certainly will turn black.
Entry 1069
I can tell you, but I will tell you this because there's lots of people that don't believe in the Bible, you understand. But there's nothing I kin tell you without givin' it to you OUT OF THE BIBLE. Now, this is what you do. You get you some saltpeter. You know what that is. Put that saltpeter and cayenne pepper - that's red pepper ground up, that's what they mean - mix that together and you raise that sole, the inner sole that's in the bottom of your shoe, and you sprinkle that under there good. You take your underwear and get up in the morning and put it on the wrong side and at exactly twelve o'clock of the day you take it from the wrong side and put it back on on the right side. And then you take some of that saltpeter and you take a bath in it; put it in the water and bath yourself good and nobody can't harm you. [Informant's OUT OF THE BIBLE may mean some hoodoo book claiming to be a revelation from God, but I think the meaning is any cure comes from (is approved by) the Bible because the Bible believes in witchcraft - see introductory note, p.361.]
Entry 1098
Just like if they got you crossed.
(Yes.)
You be in bad luck. You know they trying to fix you. You got a mind that they got you fixed cause you going contrary from your character - your life, you understand. Just like you wanted to - see, I'm fixed now. You go to the drug store and get you some Housekeeper Ammonia. [Sounded like housekeepah 'monia.}
(Housekeep?)
Housekeeper ammonia. You know, they got two kind - you know, the strong one and the one you use in the house for bath, you understand. You gets a bottle of that. You get you some cinammon powder. See. Then you get you some of that saltpeter - see, saltpeter and some sugar. And you put that in the same water. And get you a bar of soap what ain't never been used. Then you get right in there and you go to scrubbing your head first - just scrub all over. Then you scrub your back - just scrub - and then all the bottom of your feet. [Bathing is downward - see p.369 and Index.] And just bathe yourself. And then you could get you some - maybe any kind a good powder, you know, and just powder yourself down. And you would do that for nine mornings and they just have - they couldn't do you nothing, no way they done try.
Entries from source headings
These entries are listed under the following headings in the source volume:
- COW MILK - BATHE DOWN 9 MORNINGS; ALSO ALUM AND SALTPETER — Volume 3, entries 3721. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → SEXUAL IMPOTENCE → CURES FOR SEXUAL IMPOTENCE.
- 5 INGREDIENTS: URINE - SALTPETER; CINNAMON - HEARTS PERFUME - 9 NAILS; BATHE - THROW TO SUNRISE — Volume 3, entries 3758. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → SEXUAL IMPOTENCE → CURES FOR SEXUAL IMPOTENCE.
- GOURD - SALTPETER - SULPHUR — Volume 3, entries 3761. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → SEXUAL IMPOTENCE → CURES FOR SEXUAL IMPOTENCE.
- UPSIDE DOWN - SALTPETER AND MOLASSES IN SHOE; TURN AROUND 7 TIMES MAKE A WISH — Volume 4, entries 5283. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → SWEAT → SHOES.
- ALOES - SALT - SALTPETER - BATHE WITH; OR BOIL SOME INGREDIENTS AND DRINK HOT; OR DRINK MILK, LARD AND SALTPETER — Volume 4, entries 6695. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → FOLK MEDICINE → CURES FOR AND PROTECTION AGAINST AILMENT AND DISEASE.
- AMMONIA - BLUEING - SALTPETER: 3 INGREDIENTS; BATHE WITH 3 TIMES A WEEK; MONDAY - WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY; AND WEAR SALTPETER IN SHOES — Volume 4, entries 6697. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → FOLK MEDICINE → CURES FOR AND PROTECTION AGAINST AILMENT AND DISEASE.
- COW MILK - GREASE - SALTPETER; MAGIC OF DIMINISHING SIZE — Volume 4, entries 6762. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → FOLK MEDICINE → CURES FOR AND PROTECTION AGAINST AILMENT AND DISEASE.
- URINE AND SALTPETER AS A CONTRACEPTIVE — Volume 4, entries 6889. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → FOLK MEDICINE → CURES FOR AND PROTECTION AGAINST AILMENT AND DISEASE.
- SALTPETER - POKE ROOT - OLIVE OIL; USED BY DOCTOR TO KILL LIVE SNAKES IN PERSON; CAUSED FROM EATING HORSEHAIR IN FOOD — Volume 4, entries 7246. Source context: THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BODY ITSELF → FOLK MEDICINE → A FEW MORE DOCTORS.
- DEVIL'S SNUFF - SALTPETER - NEW SALT - IN FOOT TRACKS; SWEEP - WISHING VISITOR TO STAY AWAY — Volume 5, entries 9662. Source context: ADDITIONAL RITES AND BELIEFS → SALT AND ITS COMBINATIONS.
- HIGH LIFE - SANDALWOOD - SALTPETER - SALT; MIXED WITH GRAVEYARD DIRT - NEEDLES - PINS; SPRINKLE AT HOUSE BEFORE SUNRISE - TO MOVE — Volume 5, entries 9670. Source context: ADDITIONAL RITES AND BELIEFS → SALT AND ITS COMBINATIONS.
- HIGH LIFE - SANDALWOOD - SALTPETER - SALT; SPRINKLE ROUND HOUSE BEFORE SUNRISE - TO MOVE — Volume 5, entries 9669. Source context: ADDITIONAL RITES AND BELIEFS → SALT AND ITS COMBINATIONS.
- SALTPETER AND CRUSHED DEVIL'S-SHOESTRING IN POCKET; RUB HANDS IN AND CHEW THE ROOT WHEN ASKING FOR JOB — Volume 5, entries 11165. Source context: "CHANNEL DE WORLD".
- SALTPETER SPRINKLED BY WOMAN - WALKING BACKWARDS; BEFORE DAY - IN MAN'S PATH - WISHING HIM TO LEAVE — Volume 5, entries 12866. Source context: "CHANNEL DE WORLD".
Source passage
continuous interview · Source-local attribution; no resolved person identity is asserted.
informant · Current interviewee; supporting excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1861
Yo take yore silvah dime an' grate it up an' yo' take pulvahize saltpetah an' pat it in de bottom of yore shoe an' wear it.
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1861
(What do you do with this silver dime after you grate it up?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1861
Put it in yore shoe wit de saltpetah, an' keep it - it be's luck when yo' mix it up. Den yo' sprinkle it from shoe tuh shoe. Den yo' wear a silvah dime roun'
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
yore waist in de back an' in de front.
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
[This may be a new silver-dime rite among the many given in HOODOO. In any case it is rare.]
context only; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
interviewer · Interviewer; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
(You do all those things together?)
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
Dat's fo' pertection
editorial gloss or commentary; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
[protection]
informant · Current interviewee; context excerpt · Vol. 3, p. 1862
- one pertection.
locally coherent subpassage
The account is limited to the printed exchange; the rarity evaluation belongs to Hyatt.
Rarity or novelty is the editor’s tentative evaluation.
The separate waist dimes and shoe mixture remain parts of the speaker’s combined account; they are not combined into a standardized recipe.
Bounded passage retrieval, not complete corpus coverage or practitioner consensus.
Read the full source context: Vol. 3, p. 1859 · Vol. 3, p. 1860 · Vol. 3, p. 1861 · Vol. 3, p. 1862