Subject:Scissors
Entries
Entry 604
Yo' kin take a sifter an' scissors an' anybody taken anything from yo', steal money or any sech that - yo' kin take dat sifter an' talk to it an' set dat sifter up on de scissors an' it'll turn; it won't turn as long as yo' didn't call de right name, but soon as yo' call de right name de sifter turns, de name dat dey done steal it from yo'. (Now here are the scissors - you put them point up? Then you turn the sifter upside down over it?) Dat's it.
Entry 1495
Well, aftah a woman birth a baby an' she's havin' aftahpains, yo' kin put a pair of scissors undah her an' it will cut dat pain. [In folklore any sharp-cutting instrument of steel cuts afterpains: ax, butcherknife, hatchet, razor, saw; see FACI, 2nd ed., Pp.134-135.]
Entry 2622
Yo' take lak if yo' have a scissors layin' down there an' lak if yo' have a nice business, an' ah wanta stop yo' from havin' it, why ah steal yore scissors or yore fingernail file. An' ah'll take those right to mah home an' ah'll put - as ah told yo', take that there perfume an' ah'll put mah 'gredients in there which is the sulphur an' nine grains of red peppah seeds. Put that in there an' ah'll put de scissors lak if ah got dem fo' nine mawnin's an' ah take 'em an' junk 'em down in de ground. All yore luck is cut, yo' haven't got any mo' business.
(You use perfume you say?)
Yessuh, Heamt's Perfume.
Entry 2933
Take de scissors - lak if yore place is haunted, yo' kin take a pair of scissors an' open dem see, an' set chew a light yo' see, an' anything come round dere dat's a evil spirit, dey go away. (You set any particular kind of light?) A candle, a pink candle - eithah a white candle.
Entry 7421
Cross 2 straws on de murdered man's stomach, an' lay a pair of new scissors so dat its closed points point to his toes, an' say, "Whut's did in de dark shall come to de light." This will bring the murderer back. [For cross of straw, see also No.7367, p.3259. Why the closed scissors instead of open ones, always a symbol of the cross? Either my informant has made a mistake, which I doubt, or the closed scissors indicate one cross of straw was enough for the purpose. Already the closed scissors sig- nify that the life thread of the murderer has been cut.]
Entry 7428
Well, yo' know dat dead fellah, yo' kin put a aig in 'is han' an' dis is fac's an' a bran'-new pair of scis- sors undah 'is haid. When dat aig busts he'll come back an' give up. Ah know dat happen right heah in Memphis.
(What hand is that egg in?)
In de left han'.
(Any kind of an egg?)
A hen aig, gotta be a fresh aig, see.
(And a scissors under his head?)
Undah de dead woman's haid, an' de aig in de dead person's han', see. An' dey buried wit dat aig in dere han's.
Entry 8901
It's a different key from any. It's not lak de ordinary key dat we has. It's a key dat's shaped kinda lak a scissors. Yeah, shaped kinda lak a scissors. An' yo' take dat key an' yo' hold it up. Yo' git up evah mawnin' 'fore de sun rise an' yo' take dat key an' stan' up in de direction de sun's risin'. An' tell dat key whut yo' want, whoevah it wuz dat stole anythin' from yo' or whoevah yo' wanted 'em tuh bring it back, an' dat key will turn in yore han'. An' as dat key turn in yore han', if he stole anythin', he's goin' bring it back. An' if it don't turn, why yo'won't git it back. It's a key dat isn't made lak de ordinary key. It's a key shaped jes' lak a scissors, crossed.
(It's two keys crossed - like two keys crossed?)
Yes.
Entry 9764
Take yuh nine bran'-new nails, nine [new] needles. Take 'em an' put 'em in a sack, a piece of white clot' [cloth] whut nevah had no scissah in it, no mo' [more] dan whut yuh cut it tuh sew it, an' put 'em in dere. Bury 'em undah yuh front steps. An' if he come tuh de front, sweep in tuh de back all de time.
(I see. That'll keep the law away.)
He goin' tuh stay away.
Entry 9777
Ah've heard dem say if yo' wanted tuh - say if yo' wanted tuh grow tuh be smart an' wanted tuh keep yuh enemy away from yo', why of cus [course] yo' give yuh enemy a needle wit de point tuhwar' de enemy, tuhwar' de person dat yo' believe dat wuz yuh enemy. Han' dem de needle pointed toward 'im, or a scissahs wit de point tuhward 'im. An' dat would break dat enemy off from yuh. Dey would stop comin' aroun or stop being in yuh company, stay away from yuh.
Entry 10465
Open new pair of scissors and put under pillow to prevent hag-riding [Mobile, (663), 872:?]. [For scissors under bed, Jacksonville, see No.529, p.156, v.l; over bed or door, No.542, p.161, v.1, Elizabeth City.]
Entry 12879
Take de scissors an' don' close 'em up, open dem out yo' know, an' stick dem [them] down jes' undahneath yore bed. Stick de points up lak dat [demonstrates]. Keep yo' in good luck.
(Have the scissors open and the points sticking up under your bed?)
Yes. Yo' know, jes' lak de scissors open dis way, an' jes' stick dem down dat way [demonstrates]. [Points of scissors stick down into floor.] Or eithah a glass of watah. Yo' see, dat glass of watah, jes' have enough watah in it to know dere's watah in de glass undah yore bed. Dat's for luck.
(The points of the scissors are sticking down to the floor under the bed.)
Entry 524
You take a scissors and put it under de bed on a newspaper, you under- stand; lay de scissors here and de newspaper here, an' when he git dere he got'a put his hand on ev'ry letter. See, by time he git through dat, it's day an' he got'a go. (You put the scissors and the newspaper under the head of the bed, a newspaper next to it - underneath the scissors or next to it?) Right next to it - here's one and here's the other.
Entry 3082
I came here to find out. (Will you sit a little bit closer so I can hear you?) [To bring him nearer the microphone.] [The following paragraph will introduce you to the problem I faced every day while collecting the material of this investigation - see also Introduction.] I came here to find out what your work may be, if there is any help I kin git in connection - if there is any of your help or whatnot in connection with what has happened to me in my business. [He is a bootlegger.] That's what I wan'a know. If it's anything 'at I've to tell or go through. I wan'a know that an' I'll begin my story jis' like I started off before [before I turned on machine]. There's so much of dis recently, I thought I jes' couldn't understand it you see. Lots of people come here an' say you's someone who tryin' to trap someone, an' this is tryin' to git someone in trouble. Well, I say, "Well, I don't know what in the world it's all about, but if he, that is to say, [does] things to help me, why I don't mind goin' over an' explain myself." ['Here I explain my work." These words are my penciled comment made at the time I did the original transcription in pencil. Here I also made one of my many mistakes. I failed to transcribe my explanation. My failure however Was excus- able - hand transcription being such a tedious and impossible task I had to call in an expert transcriber for the post-Wilmington cylinders. Yet one explaining sentence does remain, "I don't heal anyone, I don't sell anything." As you will now learn, this man Was in serious trouble. My lost explanation at least set him more or less at ease.] You mind if I light my cigarette?
(No, go right ahead.)
[I was smoking a cigar, why should I mind him smoking a cigarette. A woman later over in Memphis "came in...smoking a big cigar" - see MAMMY: THE CIGAR SMOKER in INTERVIEWS.] Now first, I'm a married man. I've got a wife an' three children - jes' as well say five because I've two to take care of that's my wife's sister's, dead, an' they stayed with me from the first, each one of them, so that makes me have five [children] to take care of. Now my wife, she's sick an' has been for a long period of time. Her first [sickness] was believed by medical experience was pelegra, an' after that, why I found out something else; an' I went on an' kep' - go see her an' I kep' finding out something else. I went to work at Wrightsville Beach six years ago [1931], right down here ll miles from the city, where I was workin' for Doctor W. there. An' one day, after knowin' that my wife had been sick so long - I kep' tryin' to, wonderin' what in the world's the matter - finally I found out from Doctor H., that it was pelegra. [Here informant is returning to something already said.] Thereon he subscribed that I take her to the country for her health. No doubt it would be a little beneficial to her, an' where it was quiet an' didn't hear the runnin' of the cars, the streetcars an' so on, an' jis' git out of all that stuff, an' it would make her no doubt so she recover. An' so I carried [her] on over to Atkinson, North Car'lina, an' she stayed there for a long long time - in fact the whole summer through an' partly of the fall. An' one day I got a telephone call - it come at ten o'clock jes' before I carried [her] to Atkinson. [Informant again returns to something already men- tioned. For the difficulty in following this type of thinking, see confusing story, No. 2750, Pp.758-767.] An' that was while I livin' away from home in the country right out here. In fact she was jis' like her mother, my daughter's god- mother [grandmother?] as fer as that concern [whatever this means]. Tom T., it was his wife [who. telephoned]. She say, "Come to town at once. Eliza is crazy."
[This may be why "she was jis' like her mother."]
An' I didn't believe it. When I got in town she didn't know me from [some- thing, not Adam] or nobody else. So after havin' consulted with Doctor H., as I foresaid, I carried her on up de country. She lived up there fer a while an' I'd go there. She jis' got in such a wreck, kickin' up so, an' jis' nobody could go around 'er. She didn't want to hear what they had to say. She jis' git to the place she dispised 'er father, you know. An' even to 'er sister or to herself or anybody. She didn't wan'a see nobody. Well we goes there to Clinton, North Car'lina. There's ole man up there, they call 'im Mr. Wickins[?]. He read the cards. He also give me a dose of medicine to take.
(What did he give it to you for?)
He told me when I took that dose of medicine - after readin' my palm - he said, "This dose is goin' work for you an' not her [it is not MEDICINE BY PROXY, p.365]; and besides, you goin' get it in house when you get back home. [This is preventive medicine - see PREVENTIVE MEDICINE CARRIED TO EXTREMES, p.328.] Well, I wonderin' what he meant by that. He told me, he said, "There's someone has thrown for you," he said, ''but they're not tryin' to kill your wife in connection with you, but they're durin' [doin'] somethin' to keep her puny, ailin' along." He said, "They'll give it to you, if they're havin' a whole lot of trouble with her." He said, "Now, it's a black-skin woman an' a dark-skin woman that's doin' this." [A doctor is always vague when identifying culprit - see MADAM JACKSON ACROSS DE CREEK, p.757.] An' besides, de black-skin woman is the woman that want joo, an' de dark-skin woman don't visit chore house very often but she's helpin' fo' this people." He said, "Now, the way they did this - goin' to git it goin' their way - they went there an' sprinkled somepin in de baid while you were away [in the country].
(Did he tell you what they sprinkled there?)
He said some kin'a powder. He couldn't - he don't - he set some kin'a thing in front of him. It was a little thing that looked to me like a little horses settin' up there, an' a little somepin looked like a crab, another thing looked like a little fish, another little thing looked like a little serpent. He could touch them little things, you could see them shiver all around in - looked like to me they was settin' in a little basin or a little [over shape? = over size?] bowl of water.
(Was it a bowl of water?)
Looked to me like it was water. An' he talked to me. Den directly he go startin' talk to these little things in there, an' they kin'a quiver. [See photograph, supposedly in crystal ball, "trembled like a leaf," p.173, line 5.] An' then he start to tell somepin else. ["I suggest that these figures were magnetic, shaped in forms of the zodiac, and that they quivered whenever the root doctor holding a concealed magnet passed his hand over them. There was no water in the bowl." This comment is a part of original transcription in pencil. The evidence or experience for it I no longer remember. These quivering figures may be a diagnostic device (pp.165-217) like the trembling photograph in the crystal ball just mentioned. It is certainly one of the many tricks to impress the patient - like invisible writing (p.265).] So he told me, he said, "You weren't all right, don't sleep well at night, an' neither one of you don't sleep good at night." I said, "Well, you're right." He said, "Well, don't answer me." He said, "I know what I'm talkin' about." I have given many examples of a doctor knowing or foreseeing everything - see YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME, p.316.] I says, "Well, I must tell you, she don't sleep at all at night." He said, "Well, that's why that was sprinkled in your baid for. An' the way this black-skin woman had the dark-skin woman to do, to give it to you, were to sprinkle some of the same stuff under your door, an' that's why it got choo an' it fix you. Then I told him exactly [all that had happened.] He give me some kin' of little roots - he called one [of] them John de Conker. Then he also give me some kin' of little stuff called wood mold. It grows in the little pine [something - could be thickets?] like tha' choo go to rake it up an' you use it for makin' fertilizer - like the farmers use. [In Maryland this "little stuff is called shadders (= shatters), "fallen pine leaves or needles," used for animal bedding, which turns into manure or fertiZizer - 723, p.240.] An' he told me to take that [wood mold] an' red oak bark [frequently used for medicine, p.462 and elsewhere] - take that stuff an' boil it, make a tea out of it, an' feed her off of it. Give her all salts that I could get her to take - physic salts. An' so I did it until she got to the place that she wouldn't even take that. An' I went back to him again an' he said get Vita-Food east [brand of yeast] that come in a big tall can about that tall - somepin tha' choo sprinkle over de food when she gits ready to eat. Not de Fleshman [Fleischmann] east, something in comparsion, but it was yellowish lak sulphur maybe an' had a very strong odor. An' he had somepin called Eastborn [yeast-born or Eastbourne] tablets. Well, she had then fallin' from a hunderd an' seventy-six pounds down to a hunderd an' twenty. Well, I was feedin' [her] on that stuff an' she went back to a hunderd and fifty. An' I come on back to town. An' afterwards I brought her back from de country here an' we lived together fer a good while. My house be the second doah to my brother-in-law - from her brother house, my brother-in-law. I was at 905, where he was 909. An' rather than stay home, she'd stay over there; but when she goin' eat she'd come home, an' jes' as soon as she eat she'd be right out an' gone. Well I got worried over the gait[?]. So I told my father-in-law about it an' he says, "Well, any steps you wan'a make, why go on an' make it." So then I got into another [acquainted with] boy that was workin' there with me. We called him Skeet. Skeet told me of a woman down South - Madam Rachel - Dillon, South Car'lina. [Note that a man in North Carolina calls South Carolina down South. This was frequently done - see Introduction.] An' he also made men- tion of a old man called Doctor Buzzard.
(Where was he?)
Florence, South Car'lina. First, before I got to this Madam Rachel, this Doctor Buzzard came to my house [in Wilmington].
(He came to see you?)
He came here ordinary passin' by. An' another person he goes by [visits pro- fessionally]. An' someone told him that I'd care to see somebody of that kind. So he came in. He had a little hand bag, not a big case. [Was he referring to my 3 large cases - recorder, transcriber, and cylinder carrier?] It was a hand bag [in imitation of a M.D.'s medical kit then in use]. He had a whole lot of little snakes in that bag. [See SNAKE, Pp.66-73, and elsewhere.]
(Alive or dead?)
Alive. That snakes scared her. She's frighten anything that kind. My wife was there. She was lyin' right in de baid an' he told her, he said, "Now, I'll put choo to walkin' by tomorrow for four dollers and one cent.' I ast him what was he goin' do with de one cents. He says, "Well, the four dollars is for me; the one cent is the cure." "I says, "If you put my wife to walkin' by tomorrow, I'll give you four dollers an' one cent." [For this type of payment, see DOCTOR ARMOUR, p.891, line 2.] He say, "Well git me a pint of liquor." I say, "That'll cost you a dollar." I got a pint of liquor. He took a needle an' two straight pins an' crossed them. He crossed all three of 'em an' tied 'em together with a red piece of string an' put em into a little bag. Then he took out some little seed that appearently looked like flaxseeds. An' he told me take these seeds; if it's any time you want to go, be with some Woman. He say you drop one of these seeds in the liquor or somepin that she's drinkin' an' make her do anything you want her to do. I said, "I didn't ask you to come here to cunjure me an' wife. I ask you to come here to aid." He said, "I don't mean that." Well, I went on an' give him de four dollers an' one cent, an' [he] took all this stuff an' sewed it up in that bag [thus making a hand]. Then he took the snake out of it [iar], which [snake] he had already wrapped one around my wife's leg an' throwed [throwing] some liquor over it he wrapped it around the right leg jes' above the knee. Besides, when I got that second pint of liquor for him, he poured some down the table an' poured those snakes out of a little jar he had 'em in, an' begin to talkin' to those snake, an' they stood right straight up an' go over to him. There's where I vacate out of de room fer a few minutes. [I repeat preceding reference, SNAKE, Pp.66-73, and elsewhere. Besides after one drink of raw moonshine whiskey a person could see a few things; after two pints of it, anything.] So I came back. In a few seconds later an' he told me, "All right. Now, by tomorrow, as I told you [she will be out of bed]." Well, he went home an' she seemed to be recoverin' a little. But then this Madam Rachel, about two weeks later, she came there. This was the third party [root doctor] now. [She had been called from Dillon, S. Car., to wait on a case in Wilmington, and had heard about my informant.] An' she told me to go to the drug store to Doctor Mason [druggist], the Ideal Pharmacy. I was livin' aroun' there at that time. [This is a normal drug store, not a hoodoo store.] She tole me to git a dime worth of bluestone an' red pepper. An' she put out some dirt, some kin'a lookin' - I called it sand. She poured out a little bottle, but she tole me it was graveyard dirt. So she mixed it all together. Then she ask me before she give me that stuff, she said, "Do you know any officers in this town?
(Officers?)
Officers. Policeses. I said, "Yeah, I know jist about every one of 'em." I told her the name of them. An' [she said], "Write them down on this piece of paper I'll give you. De's somepin I wan' choo to do with it." I said, "All right." So I wrote down every one that I could think of. She said, "Now, on this set of names, how many is it that you think would do you harm, an' he goes out an' make it his business an' come arres' chew jes' out of ordinary [for no purpose at all?]?" I said, "I don't know. I hate to go through that part of it; but still, since it's personal, why I guess I'll have to tell you." So I named the one or two that I thought wasn't very good friends of mine an' knew the whole family an' my wife and her [people] before I even knew her my own self. So I named 'em down fer her. She told me, she said, "Now, you take these names on this piece of paper, go to the northeast of this house an' bury it down there, then come back to me. Then she took that dirt, that mixture she had there, an' circle all the way aroun' my house entirely. [To circle the house with salt or other substances is a fairly common protective device.] An' told me then - she says, "There somepin under your front doorstep tha' joo an' your wife are walkin' over ev'ry day is what cause you not to be gittin' along any better, an' I'm gon'a stop it. An' besides, the officers been runnin' in here on you all the time an' claim that choo have a lot of liquor an' you doin' this an' that an' de other thing you' re not doin'." She said, "I'm gon'a stop that. Besides, Im gon'a fix it so when they come to the front door they can't come in." I said, "How much is that gon'a cost me?" She said, "Give me three dollers an' you pay for the goods an' a doller on my gas bill back home." Well, she had a big Buick car out in front. I did that. Well, I found out I was gittin' along very very good then an' really my wife did come out of bed, stayed up fer a long time, gittin' along gran'. So after she'd gone, I decided then I'd move an' change houses. I thought the house was bad luck to me. I didn't know if there any other stuff [sprinkled or buried] along there. So I moved. No sooner than I moved, I got in other house, [it Wasn't] three months before I in [jail] agin. That [this] time I cooked 60 days in the county jail up here in town. I cooked up there when the cook got sick.
[At least this tells us something about the informant - he was a fair cook.]
An' when I came back, to be sure whether I was right or wrong, I moved right back in that same house. [Which house?] Then [I] started to fallin back [into the same bad luck] right away. I had a ole - sister's dead an' gone now. She came to me one day an' tole me, she said, "Let me tell you somepin. She always did call me brother. [She Was not his sister.] She say, "Let me tell you somepin, brother." She say, "There's somepin aroun' this house that it interfering with chor life an' you can' be happy. You can't live with your family like you want to," she says. "I'm goin' find it," she say. She went up under my front doorstep an' got a pair of scis- sors out from under there with one of the points broke off of it, an' ole rusty nails au' needles all tied together. An' she brought them in the house with her, "Here it is, I've got it at last." [He did not see her find the articles.] I said, "Now, Mama Annie, do you reckon that's true?" She say, "Well, here it is."
(What was her name?)
Mama Annie, we called her. Her name was Annie P. We called her Mama Annie.
[She was a root doctor.]
So she tole me then to take that, break it up, burn it up, do anything I knew to do an' I would stop that stuff goin' on then. So I ask her what it was an' she tole me it was [some]thing that somebody still tryin' to git between me an' my family. I took that pair of scissors - I had a good hot fire in the stove - needles and nails, an' I thought that stove would melt. It turnt red-hot. An' I let it there fer two or three days till I was sure it was gone. I got rid of that. Well now, a little later on comes the nex' part of it. I got in some more trouble. A man 'cused me then of sellin' 'im whiskey. This happen recently, too. This party - he's dead, the one that said it; but this party lives right here in the city now. [I am unable to straighten this out - the man will appear again.]
(How long ago was all this happening - these stories?)
It happened to an' fro within the last five or six years - right along, all up an' down the sides, right up an' down. It's right now so. Jis' like I told Mr. Gavin out here [in my waiting or reception room in the Gavin home] jis' a while ago. [Mr. Gavin, my contact man in Wilmington, N. Car., Was the husband of the sister of Julia, page one. I interviewed in the Gavin home and had lunch there each day.] I said, "I've a tendency maybe today I want my wife any second an' I'll go to her. We are sweet and loving together. An' directly another feelin' jump right [up in] me an' I'm out and gone. Maybe she'll be talkin' nice an' lovin' to me. Directly she jump right up, "Oh! So-an'-So." An' I'm out an' gone. Well, I go around to her brother's house an' go to bed an' sleep or some- where, anywhere, at some friend, an' go on to sleep. So I told her one day, I said, "Let me take you down South. I had a party aroun' there in Walnut Street by the name of J. He told me a place up [down] here between Southport an' here, that I could go to a man that he was - well, that he could clear all that stuff where I lived at. [Southport - being south of Wilmington - equals informant's "down South."] Somebody agin! [Another root doctor!] An' that [meeting with the doctor down toward Southport] was suppose to have happened this last Thursday, but I was sick - had no more than come out of the hospital. I had a rectal abscess. I'd jes' been operated on. Come out last Monday an' I wasn't able to go. I didn't have any money to go with - the first part of it. I had to pay little bills you know. An' about this last party, to git back to de same trouble'as I started to say. This man claimed that I sold him some whiskey on the 21st day of November, an' I Wasn't even in the house that day or that night. An' so dis same [Walnut Street] Mammie J., he told me that, "I know a party that you ought to see right here in town. Maybe he kin help you a little." I said, "Who is it?" [No answer.] They [the rootworker between Wilmington and Southport] were supposed to be here in town this last past Thursday, but didn't come an' I didn't have any way to get to 'em. But I did see the party here in Wilmfngton. An' they told me also that it was things down aroun' my house; that's why I couldn't live happy an' peaceful at home.
(What do you think about it?)
Well, I do think there [is something] in it. An' I'll be frank with you. There had been a time way back, when I was much younger, I didn't believe any doze kin'a things; but I still now, since I found things buried - there is so much. An' that when I'd go as I foresaid, an' try to make love to my wife, seem like ev'rything is all right, right at first an' directly things occurred in an- other different way. An' then I would come an' try to humor her along, "Honey, what's de matter? What's de occasion? Sittin' in de dining room, huggin' wit 'er as sweethearts do. We'll talk things over an' directly she'll say, "Well, let's do so-an'-so, let's be sweethearts again." She'll forgit it an' I'll do anything fer you. You kin bet chor life right on the same schedule agin. So I went to this party [in Wilmington] an' he read the cards out fer me, an' told me that there was somepin down at my house to cause to bein' this way, an' I couldn't help myself, an' give me a root, an' got it with me now as fer as that's concern. He told me to keep it wit me anywhere I went. An' I got another thing, I got two other articles at de house that I keep. An' whenever I go roun' my wife, he told me to always wipe my face down with that powder. It's a little sweet perfume powder. An' then there's a little ball somepin like you got it sewed up in a little bag. You can't tell what's in it. I didn't cut it open to see. [This is a ball-shaped hand.] I leave it at home unless I'm goin' round to her house.
(What's the name of that root?)
I don't [know] what de name of the thing. I got it here in my pocket. An' she told me to chew a piece off of it an' spit around the door before I walked in, to kill my enemies before I got dere. That's what she give it to me fer. She said that would kill my enemies before I got dere; an' if it's anyone to do any harm, it'll change their mind. That I would also find a little dark-brown-skin man there. I didn't intend to tell you about that. That's de trouble over me an' my wife. An' [she said] I would certainly find that man there. An' she also told me she did it [whatever this means]. An' my wife sometime would mention this man ["rootworker is my transcription notation] to me. She said she liked me but she never [was untrue tol me an' didn't live no man in the world but me. Well, I know that of it's true [truth]. An' the thing that - so far [the marriage?] would last three or four years jis' about perfectly right up to the minute [trouble began]. This little bag I pinned that on the inside of my clothes nex' to my flesh. Then sometime it would smell like a onion an' agin it would smell like perfume - change odors all kin' of ways, like turpentine an' agin you don't know what you smellin'. Jes' the way that thing smell. Well, as I tell you, I didn't open it up to see what was in it, because it was sewed down there. Then she give me a prayer. It was written on a piece of paper down onto the 24th Psalm, called Ezekiel, I believe it is. An' I'd read that an' memorize as much of it as possible when I'm goin' aroun' my wife - like I'm away there now an' I should happen to think [trouble Was brewing]. That [is] to quite fusses down or anything in case you may start anything. Read that as I start towards my house, an' when I git to my yard I finish it an' then go in. An' they told me when I paid her a dollar and a half more, that she would go in there an' git this thing up an' show it to me. An' I told this weekend I'd let her complete her part of the job. An' [I] found that ev'rything she told me has worked out right. Even now in this case that I have now, she told me that this case was gon'a be put off three times. An' she said, "Let's put it off some more."
(That case in court now against you?)
Yes sir, that this man J. accused me of sellin' him some whiskey, bottle of liquor on the 23rd day of November of last year, which I wasn't even in my house, as I aforesaid a while ago, dat day or night. An' she told me and said, "Well, I'm gon'a show that I'm right before I clear you completely. I'm gon'a put off your case some more." An' she has put it off eight times successfully. Now this comin' Friday will make the ninth time that I'm goin' to be tried.
Entry 476
There was a man annoyed every night by being rid by a witch. He thought it was a certain woman who hated him through jealousy and worried every night. He did everything he could to prevent this witch from riding him. Finally one night he was ridden by this witch. He looked and he saw a woman sitting on the side of his bed, whom he knew very well, the same woman whom he had suspected. He struck at her with a pair of scissors and cut the end of her finger off. She then turned into a cat and went out the door with one of her paws cut off. Next morning a daughter of this lady's came over to the house and said her mother had one of her fingers cut off and she didn't know what happened. There's no doubt this Woman Was a witch in the form of a cat. [Fredericksburg, Va., (35), Ed.; happened (!) at White Oak,7 miles from Fredericksburg.]
Entry 12877
Ah've heard a person kin steal yore scissors an' put chew in bad luck, take yore luck from yo'.
(How do they do that?)
Ah don't know how they do that!
Entry 12878
Yo' take dem scissors, a brand-new pair of scissors an' yo' put 'em undah yore bed, but chew open 'em an' put 'em next tuh where yo' lay, an' open 'em an' them scissors will bring anything back to yo' dat chew Want [that was taken from you]: money or a woman or a man, anything yo' want back to yo'.
[Algiers 2994:12.]
Entry 479
You put a Bible underneath your - open it to any chapter and turn it down under yore pillah, and then you kin put a pair of scissors and that will keep them away.
(The hag.)
Uh-huh.
Entry 3252
If he is away from home dataway, yo' see dose red peppah pod, split de peppah open an' hull it out well - only one. Durin' de times he's sleepin', yo' take de scissors an' cut a little piece of hair off of dat, way down below. Put it in dat peppah, sew it up in a little band, an' wear it aroun' yore waist dat way. She may talk to men but huh mind will have no dealin's wit: 'em, yo' see.
Entry 3810
An' he told me. I knew de girl dat did it. Well, I'm goin' to tell yo' now how it started. I heard of it befo'. I wuz goin' wit 'er, an' I had been goin' wit 'er, an' I wuz in good health, evahthing. An' de way I wuz, dis girl wuz crooked on me, an' I say, "I'm goin' quit messin' roun' wit yo', I ain't goin' to" - well I got me anothah girl, started wit 'er, went wit 'er a time or two. An' I got hold of dis girl's pit- chure whut I wuz goin' wit. I had been messed up in dat stuff befo' but not wit dis girl. An' she wuz from de same place dat I wuz. She knowed broad people, all dose people down dere roun' South Carolina an' way to Georgia. Dere's a whole lot of people down dere dat knows a lot of stuff, dere's lot of em down dere dat knows plenty. I says - I been wit dis girl a time or two - I says, "I ain't goin' to hide yore pitchure, goin' to leave it in my pocket." Dis girl got dis girl's pitchure. She seed it but she wuz scared to bother wit it. I says, "Well.... [A short lacuna appears on the cylinder, probably an accidental rather than intended stoppage.] Seem lak evah time I'd go roun' where she wuz - where she wuz at - I would get cowardah [cowarder] an' cowardah [more and more he lacked courage], didn't have any manhood atall. I goes on. I [finally] went to a doctor [M.D.] an' he gived me some medicine. Kept on havin' de medicine, kept on havin' it. Well, I'd taken it fer about six months an' nevah seen it [the ailing member], gotten no manhood atall. I wuz workin' an' I says, "Hell, somepin's gotta be done." I went to see dis person [a man mentioned later] an' [he] says, "What's de mattah wit yo'?" [I] say, "He's [ailing member is] sick. He can't do nuthin. He haven't [had] a woman. It must be woman [causing this trouble]." I kept a- thinkin' about 'er if I didn't seen 'er [he kept thinking about the first woman though he had not seen her]. I wuz talkin' to a man about dis an' he told me who to go to. I went to a ole lady dat had one leg longah den de othah, an' she told me, said, "Boy," said, "time yo' got here." [Her opening words are quite professional - see CONSULTATION TECHNIQUE, Pp.307- 319. Her long leg and short leg were good for business - see NAMES FOR DOCTORS and PERSONAL APPEARANCE, PP.293-301.] She told me how I wuz messed up wit - how my manhood wuz cut down, an' she said, "But I kin fix yo' all right." I says, "Yo' can?" She say, "Yes." says, "Well, what yo' goin' do?" She says, "Well, dat's all right about whut I do. I'll fix yo' all right." An' she say, "Well, I tell yo' what yo' do. Yo' go an' buy me a half pint of whiskey." I say, "Sure enuff." I says, "If yo want a drink of whiskey, " I say, "I'll give yo' a drink of whiskey, but yo' say yo' kin fix me. Yo' told me somepin an' yo' must know somepin, ain't it?" She say, "Yo' go an' buy me a half pint of whiskey, an' if yo' wanta give me a drink, buy yo' one an' me one, an' I'm goin' to give yo' nuthin out of dat." She told me - she took a knife, jes' about a, lak a case knife, an' black gun- powdah, an' a little bit of sulphur, an' a little bit of salt, an' a little bit of red peppah, an' told me how to use it - how to take dis, put it in de whiskey an' shake it up. She got a piece of flannel - said white flannel or eithah red flannel would do, which she preferred white flannel. She had de scissors an' she cut it off an' had taken some mutton suet. She told me to take dis den an' jes' lathah [lather] it wit dis mutton suet befo' a hot stove, or anything, dat a lamp would do if it were hot enough, an' put in on jes' lak dis [demonstrates] an' give a wish.
(And pull it up three times.)
An' it would stay dere, keep it stayin' dere. Told me if when I got dere, if it would fall down, to come on back. So. I didn't pay, didn't pay 'er a thing until I came back - if I didn't want to, see. Well, it did an' it's been stand- in' evah since.
(Well, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THIS WHISKEY, then?)
I take a swallah of it three times a day. An' it nevah bothahed me no more. Told me evah time when I started wit anybody dat I wuz payin' attention to, if I thought dey had any underworld ideas - but I nevah had nuthin to do ag'in. [The preceding experience was given on cylinder 482:9. Before that, on 482:6, came the tying-up rite, and now follows on 482:7, the pre-statement for the ex-perience:] Dere's a way dat yo' kin take some salt, an' a little bit a pinch of sulphur on a knife blade, an' somepin lak some sheep suet an' heat it ovah a red hot - somepin lak a red-hot stove. If yo' reach down lak dat an' git it when it cools, an' make a wish, yo' see if it stand up [demonstrates].
(How do you pull it down?)
No, yo' pulls it up, three times.
(Three times?)
Pull it three times an' make a wish.
(And then it stays up itself.)
Yeah.
Entry 4839
Take a scissors an' cut a piece of a man's undahshirt, undah heah, undah 'is arm, eithah arm, an' cut a small piece out of de crutch [crotch] of 'is drawahs an' pin dat tuhgethah an' lay it undah de haid of yer mattress. An' if he's a man dat run out an' don' lak tuh stay at home wit 'is wife, he'll begin tuh start tuh stayin' home evah night an she cain't make him go lessen [unless] she go wit 'i. [New Orleans, La., (1566) 2870.
Entry 6490
(Now what do they do with that stuff from the bottom of your feet?) Well, yo' takes dat an' yo' dries it. Dat's if dey're washin' [the feet], yo' know. Yo' take dat. Dey soak dere feets an' dey take de scissors an' instead of scrapin' it down - an' dey scrape it up.
(They scrape it up from the heel to the toe?)
To de toe.
(Well, why do they do that?)
Well, dat's de way dey do it, from de heel tuh de toe. Dey dries dat. Let it dry an' roll it lak a powdah. Put it intuh de sugah an' let yo' sweeten it intuh yore coffee or intuh yore food. Dat's fo' makin' people lak me, yo' know. Bring on luck, brings all dat, see.
(I see.)
Entry 7367
[I am adding a number merely to call attention to several unusual rites that could have been included here: (l)
Break a straw into two pieces and cross them on the forehead of the murdered man. Each suspected person must then step over the dead body. As the murderer steps across, the corpse will begin to bleed (see No.109, p.40); (2) Two straws are crossed on the murdered man's stomach and a new pair of scissors is also used
(see No.7421, p.3273).]
Entry 8852
Dey kin take yore handwritin' an' mess yo' up a great deal. An' maybe kin take yore handwritin' an' by takin' a glass an' holdin' ovah yore handwritin' like dat an' read yore writin' through a glass. An' aftah yo' read yore writin' through de glass - read down from about de second line - den cut de second line in a "v" shape an' throw it in de fire at sundown, an' dey say dat will give yo' a nervous feelin' in yore hand. (Like you would hold a mirror over this writing and you read that writing in the mirror. Read down to the second line. And then how do you cut that?)
[See my comment on word mirror at end of rite.]
Dat's right, cut it in a "v" shape.
(How do you mean cut it in a "v" shape?)
Jes' take a scissors. (Here's the letter now. [I hand my Numbers Book to informant.] Here, what would you do with that?) In a "v" shape...
(How do you mean you cut that in a "v" shape?)
Now, jes' lak dat's a line an' dat's a line an' dat's a line [informant is pointing to lines in Numbers Book]. Read tuh de third line an' den take a scis- sors an' cut a "v" shape in dat. (You cut a "v" out of it, make a hole like a "v". That's the little piece you throw into the fire?) Yes. [My word mirror in paragraph 2 was badly chosen, magnifying glass in the pre- ceding rite would have been much better; but best of all, the meaning here is surely an ordinary drinking glass. Few persons receiving letters and intending evil work with them had a magnifying glass handy. Quite different are these two glasses. Look through a magnifying glass and you see the real world enlarged; look through a cheap drinking glass, probably an ex-jelly glass in informant's case, and you behold a distorted world, the confused and unreal world of hoo- dooism. Understand, look through the mouth of the drinking glass and out through the bottom; use it as a magnifying glass. After three consecutive lines of the letter are read, a solid "v" shape is cut with two strokes of the scissors from the second line and dropped into a fire. This 'V' shape can be made on either edge or side of the page. Though informant says nothing, I suspect he did not touch the "v" with his hand, but clipped and carried it to the fire with the scissors. His own fingerprint Would not be burned. WHAT DOES OUR "v" SIGNIFY? First, since this trick produces a nervous feeling in yore hand, our 'v"', despite its solidity, symbolizes the Roman numeral V, the Arabic numeral 5, the 5 fingers of the hand. Second, our solid "v" is a triangle, showing that this rite works In the 3 Highest Names. True, the triangle should be equilaterial for the Trin- ity, but do not expect such theological accuracy of hoodoo. Three, our "v" as- sures Victory or success for the rite.]
Entry 10881
Well, jes' lak dis, if ah wus de type of dis kind, dat ah wouldn't wanta see a woman an' a man gittin' along, see, an' ah wanted tuh part dem. Listen good - an' when dis dog an' ket. Yo' know kets an' dogs will quarrel some- time. Well, when dis dog make dis ket kinda angry, dis cat will bring up her fur on her back. Well, an' de same time yo' take a knife or scissors - shears, at least yo' should call 'em, an' cut a little piece of dat.
(Cut a little piece of what?)
De hair out de ket's back. Listen, an' a little of de dog, when dey in dat angry nood [mood] - jes' lak dey would be angry, yo' know. An' yo' take dat an' sew it up in piece of black cloth, whut chew would call broadcloth. An' bury it under de steps, an' dey couldn't git along nohow in de world.
Entry 13064
Well, dey kin put walkin' spells on you with your shoes.
(How do they do that?)
Dey take jes' one of your shoes an' go get dem a snail, an' den get some of your ole clothes or somepin you wear. And take and cut it up - take some scis- sors and cut it up fine. Take dat snail and get some of dat snail slime off of dat snail. Put dat in de bottom of your shoe and you'll leave dere walkin'.
(What do they do with those clothes they cut up? What do they do with that?)
Dat clothes what dey cut up. Well, you see, dat's jes' somepin to help dat snail slime, make you leave dere.
(Well, do they put that cut-up stuff in that shoe or what?)
Yas suh, dey sprinkle it in dere, jes' cut it up fine.
Entry 4834
Dey take de scissors an' cut a piece out in undah yore ahm [arm]; an bo'in' a hole in a tree an' put dat piece of cloth [from underclothes] in dat tree, an' den put dat plug back in dere. An' dey say, when de sap go up, yuh a-go down.
The informant explicitly mentions scissors in a cloth-cutting account. The later claim of going down remains undefined and unverified.