Subject:Shingle
Entries
Entry 5415
Take a man or a woman's track. Git three lef'-foot tracks an' some sugah. Ah heard dat chew take it an' throw it in de centah of de fiahplace, dat track an' de sugah, an' say tuh itwhut chew want done. Dat will keep 'im or 'er home.
Entry 5467
An' den ag'in if dey ketch yore track yo' know in de street, well dey meet chew tuh git de track. Well den dey would take dat out de hollah of yore feet, an' den dey would git some dirt from de graveyard an' put dat tuhgethah, an' den dey put it on a shingle, an' dey put a piece ovah it an' tie it real good.
(What sort of piece do they put over it, another shingle or what?)
No, jis' any kinda cloth but let it be kinda thick an' wrap it tight so it won't come off. Well dey kin carry dat an' throw it in de rivah.
(What will that do?)
Dat will make yo' move an' keep yo' agoin'. Yo' can't rest or be contented nowhere yo' go.
Entry 5468
[Yo'] takes de right foot track but yo' got'a be meetin' dose people. Yo' got'a be meetin', not git behin' an' pick up de track - not behin' dem lak dat. Dey goes dis way an' yo' be comin' dis way [to- wards them]. Den yo' meet dat person an' git de dirt out de hollah of de right track. Well, den dey put dat dirt in a place an' den dey go tuh de cemetery an' dey git some of de graveyard dirt. An' dey puts dat tuhgethah. An' dey puts dat tuhgethah an' a piece of lodestone an' takes it - let it stay nine days in dey house. Takes it den aftah nine days an' put it on a shingle, an' takes it tuh de rivah or de runnin' watah, an' put it in dere an' let it go on down jis' lak dat. An' den yo' jis' turn right roun' an' put it in dere an' walk on off away from it an' not nevah look back. Well, dey tell me dat's a good way tuh git evahthing goin' jis' lak dey wan' it tuh go, if dey Wan' chew tuh go out de country or leave out. Or whutevah dey wan' chew tuh do, why dat's whut dey do tuh do dat.
Entry 5736
Jis' lak if yo' goin' wit a man - yo' wus goin' wit 'im an' he don't wan' chew, he wan' somebodys else. When he come tuh yore house fo' three days, yo' git 'is track on dat new shingle an' jis' go tuh de front an' turn it roun'. He'll turn back roun' tuh yo' an' give tuh yo' jis' as he ought tuh, come back tuh yuh an' love yuh. (You put this new shingle right under his track and turn right around, but he has to come to your house for three days first.) Yes sir, do it three times, regardless if he done come dere three days. Yo' know, jis' lak if ah wus tuh come heah three days. Jis' so yo' do it three times. (If he comes there once, you go out and do that. Three days - each day you turn one of these tracks around on this new shingle.) [For man turning Woman in her track, also see 1870, p.555.]
Entry 8001
You can cut out of paper or you can cut them off from shingles and make the image of a person, and write the name and whatever you wish. Well, you can take this shingle and carry it and throw it in running water, or you bury it, or you can take it and hang it upon the side of a tree and let it blow away. That's if you want to run 'em away.
Entry 8707
(Will you tell me that again?) Ah said, that if yo' wanted to run somebody away from a town, ah've heard dat yo' could write dere name on a shingle an' throw it in runnin' watah - a new shingle an' throw it in runnin' watah, an' dey would leave de city.
(I see, leave town.)
Yes.
Entry 8708
Yo' have to know their name. Yo' could take their name an' write it on a new shingle an' turn it ovah an' bury it at yore door, an' dey'll come back an' put it dere. (I see, if they stole this article from you.)
Entry 9947
About dis toadfrog, ah been heahin' about dat. Ah been heahin' 'bout a man dat stayed at Clinton [North Carolina] dat did dis. So 2vent tuh see 'im. Well, he tells me tuh bring 'im some de girl's haah [hair]. Bll, he takes dis girl's haah an' ties it roun' a frog's laig, an' he take 'im a ale junipah shingle.
(Just an ordinary shingle made from juniper?)
Yessuh. Yo' know hit won't sink. An' he carries it tuh de rivah an' throus I in nnnin' watah.
(hat does he throw in?)
He takes dis frog an' put 'im on dis shingle an' throw [lays] hit in runnin' watah, an' as dis frog leaves heah an' it goes down [the riverl, an' as dis frog leaves heah an' it hop ag'in, dis woman would hop - walk jis' lak dis frog hop. Dat's true fo' ah see it mahself. (He just put this frog on the shingle and put the shingle in the water, in the backwater; and as this frog hops out of that water [I mean] off that shingle and gets on land again, [so will the woman hop away].
Entry 12930
Ah learned about de new shingle from a house, sech as bad luck or like dat. Dey said dat if yo' have - jes' like dis building heah an' yo' ovah yondah somewhere. Git chew a new shingle an' bring it an' tack it on dis buildin', if yo' want anybody to leave out from dis buildin'. When yo' tack dat new shingle on dere, dey said it won't be long befo' someone will take sick in dat house, an' aftah dey take sick when dey git up, dey'll leave out. (You tack a new shingle on somebody's house.) [Waycross, Ga., (1159), 1935:4.
Entry 1744
They takes a new shingle and cuts it like a boat you know, like a ship sharp at each end, and when the tide's going out - they writes your name on that too, nine times - and when de tide's out they throw it over- board and that person will die.
Entry 1784
Ah heard dat chew could take a person - jes' lak if a person slept in a room an' yo' wanted tuh do 'em some harm. Jes' like yo' wanted tuh hurt 'em up, don't want 'em to die, jes' fixed - yo' know, jes' linger an' linger. Yo' take a shingle offa dere house an' take dat shingle an' cut it into fo' diff'rent pieces. A shingle offa de top of dere room wheresomevah dey sleep in, yo' git it offa dere, an' cut it into fo' diff'rent pieces an' fix it jes' like a casket [coffin] in de ground - jes' like a casket.
(What do you do with that, then?)
Yo' buries it in de ground.
(Where do you bury it?)
Yo' bury it under dere house somewhere - somewhere where dey have tuh come out ovah it or somepin othah.
Entry 11530
"Take the right-foot track an' git you some sulphur an' some gunpowder, put it on a shingle, stick a match to it, that's if you wan'a run 'em away from bome." [Wilmington 204:1+85.]
Entry 3103
[Story No. 3 - recorded in dining room of my hotel at Princess Anne - comes from Joe Dorman, No. 133, the man who told the remarkable storv. POWER FROM DEAD PREACHER'S BONE, p.285. Another story of his, about a whistling snake, has been lost.] I know of an old Indian, the old Indian's name was Marcellus Gates. His wife [a white Woman] left him, and he come to Miss Zippy [Tull] and wanted to find out all about this. She told him everything, she told him the man and all. He wanted to kill this man. "No," she says, "I won't do that." He wanted to kill this other old man whose name of - I can't think of his name now. Anyhow, he wanted to kill 'im. Old man Wainwrightl He was a Wainwright. So he wanted to kill old man Wainwright. "Well, no," she wouldn't do it. "No, I don't do that," she says. "But," she says, "I will fix it so tha' chew kin kill him if you want." "Oh yes," he'd kill 'im. So she told him what to do. He was to draw his phorto on a bran'-new shingle, just so he had his phorto. He goes to work and draws that thing. And she told him just exactly how much powder and shot must go in de gun. They used these old muscle [muzzle]-loaders, then. But de old man was so proud to git to kill 'im, he overloaded his gun. And she told him a certain distance to git off. And he was so proud to git to kill 'im, he went an' got closeter. Uncle Mack! That was his name. Old Mack Wainwright. So he got closeter. This is a real fact. He shot at Uncle Mack on that shingle. An' he ups with his gun, an' when he shot, he busted the shingle all to thunder. She told him if he busted it, he wouldn't die. "Now, you jis' got to mark dat shingle" - had to put one or two shot in it - "if you do, he'll die instantly." And he bust dat shingle all to 'plinters [splinters].
[How well Zippy provided against her own failure!]
But Uncle Mack fell. He was digging up his potatoes. Uncle Mack fell dead as a dead man - ker-boom - as soon as he shot. Here come de girl a-runnin'. Grandpap was killed - or somepin was de matter with him. She didn't know what was ailin' 'im. She knowed he fell. Somebody help her to git 'im to the house. They taken Uncle Mack to the house. And he aimed de gun right middle-way of this pixschure [picture]. And Uncle Mack wus peppered. Ev'ry shot wus in that gun wus on his stumick.
(All the shot that was in the shingle?)
Yes sir.
(They hit him?)
Dat was re'lly de fact. You could see them little bumps - looked like shot.
(On his skin?)
Yes sir - after he fell and was takened to de house and his clothes wus takened off. They didn't know what wus ailing him, you know - his clothes wus takened off and everything, and they wus tryin' to work him up, you know, and bring life to him. And he wus peppered!
(How long ago was that?)
Well, let me see. I'm about 60. That's been 45 or 50 year ago [before 1936]. They wus elderly along that time. Of course, the old Indian lived until I was a good [sized] boy. He lived a long time. I knowed him well. But I knew' d'ole man Mack. He died from it. He wus waitin' to hear, and when he hear' d'ole Uncle Mack fell, he thought he wus dead and he went over to see about it. So he told them what he done. He told he shot him. "By God," he says [on seeing Uncle Mack's stomach], 'that's wah [where] I shot him." He says, "I shot to kill him. Tha' chew see all over there, that's wah I shot 'im. He got so he never will be no better." So after he owned it all up, you know, it was no use to send for no doctor. He told 'em all what he'd done and ev'rything. Old man Mack lived about two or three months. I don't know if he lived that long before he died.
Entry 1010
If she get that [menstrual blood] on you, she's got you. She puts that in something you eat or drink and you can't get clear of her. I had that done to me once. There was a old lady that asked me to come over one Saturday afternoon - and I was going with her daughter and she seemed to think a great deal of me. Her daughter said she [the mother] wanted us to marry. On a Sunday morning she sent me to another daughter's and I went [there] and got her a jib bonnet - that's an old-fashioned bonnet made out of slats. So when I got ready to go home she [the mother] give me a molasses cake into [baked in] a tin plate. And her son who was a cripple fellow got on a stool and said, "Sam, give me a piece of your cake." His mother replied to him, 'No, he's [you have] had cake." He said, "Mine was cut-out cake [a slice from a large cake], not that kind." And so on going home I had to go on a road through a field of roasting-years [ears of (sweet) corn (maize) ready for roasting or boiling] - and I ete about half of it and I come to think what the old folks had told me. And I threw the rest [of the cake] off in the corn. And I had a time in getting clear of her [daughter]. I wasn't satisfied nowhere I would be except I was looking at her. There was an old man told me how to get shed of it by taking a brand-new shingle and carrying it to a sandy branch. And I drew her pitchure as near as I could. I was told, you draw the pitchure on the shingle and drive the pitchure into the sand, and I just jumped backwards and forth over the shingle - over her head, and cut her in the face with a switch. You have to do that nine times [once each] nine mornings early. And I didn't have much more trouble.
Entry 1783
You git a shingle and git de hair and put it in water and let it float away and then dey'll git so dey can't stay anywhere. That's for to git a man away from where he's livin'. Dey cut the shingle in the shape of a coffin, dey put it in water and let it float away.
Entry 5733
Yo' kin take a woman, if yo' wants dat woman, yo' let 'er jis' walk on de groun'. An' yo' could dig undah dat track an' turn dat track aroun', an' dat woman will come tuh dat house pleased tuh do anythin'. She's jis' lookin' at dat house all de time, comin' right dere. Can't keep 'em away from dere. (How do you turn that track around?) Jis' git a piece of - lak a shingle or a tin or somepin or othah, an' jis' git mdah dat track an' turn it aroun' pointin' back towards dat house.
Entry 6569
You take a frog and tie him to a brand-new shingle, and put dat frog right underneath of the house wherever his [victim's] head is lying [under the head of the bed above], and as her [frog] weaken down the person will weaken; and when he
[frog] dies, makes his last gasp, the person will die.