Subject:Sifter
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 2303
Well, den if yo' cain't git dose things, yo' go to de store and buy yo' one dose sifters. We call dem de ten-cent sifters. Yo' know dey have got 'em fo' a dime but ah think dey cost a little mo' now. (You mean that - they sift flour with?) Dat's right - yo' turn de crank. An' git chew one dose sifter. Well, all right, when yo' git dat and den yo' take dat sifter an' carry it round five times - jes' lak yo settin' in dat chair, carry it round yo' five times.
(How do you carry it - to you or away from you?)
Bring it like dis, see. [Demonstrates.] Carry it round lak dis - take dis hand and carry it round disaway again.
(Oh, the sifter goes all around your body - five times around your body?)
[While sitting in a chair, hold with right hand a sifter resting on your lap; then clockwise pass sifter behind chair, letting left hand meet it halfway and complete the circling.] Den, when yo' do dat and den yo' take dat sifter den an' wrap it up in a piece of unbleached domestic cloth and put dat up under yore steps. Don't bury it in de ground but bed it [lay it down] an' bed it wit de sifter part dataway [d emo ns trates].
(Away from the house and the handle part toward the house?)
Yes sir, dat keeps 'em goin' all de time - dey don't notice yo'.
(I see - that's to keep the law away.)
Entry 5223
[HERE FOLLOWS A RARE SIFTING RITE - SIFTING WITH A SIFTER.]
An' ah've heard 'em say dat chew take like nuthin but wimmen, take three or fo' wimmen here, or jis' me, one person'ly, say. Now, ah take all mah ole shoes now an' burn 'em up, but ah burn 'em on somepin dat ah kin save all dose ashes. An' burn tuh a charcoal an' den mash 'em up. An' den ah take salt an' peppah an' mix wit dose shoes now. An' ah take de siftah an' between nine an' twelve a'clock at night ah go aroun' de house an' sift 'em three times tuhnight.
(How do you mean, sift it three times?)
Jis' put it in a siftah, yuh see, jis' sift de dust [shoe ashes]. (You.mean you go round the house three times, or you sift the dust three times?) How - like ah begin now from de back door, from mah back door, an' ah go around dere an' make mah wish, yuh know. If ah wish fo' all men tuh come tuh mah house, or jis' one indivij'ly [individually], yuh know. An' if dere's some Woman dat ah think she's a enemy tuh me, yuh know, an' ah don't wan' 'er tuh come dere, yuh see, ah wish fer 'er tuh not come, an' wish fer 'im tuh come an' stay always wit me.
(I see.)
Ah'd go aroun' three times lak dat an' begin. An' de last wish, dat ah make right where ah begin dat, yuh see. An' ah wish dat he may come an' stay wit me always. See, when ah says always, ah'm [back] in de house den an' turns de sift- ah loose on de inside. An' den tuhmorrah - ah do dat tuhnight between nine an' twelve. An' tuhmorrah mawnin' now between twelve an' nine, well, prob'ly yuh kin do dat at three a'clock in de mawnin', fo' or five or six a'clock, any time befo' nine a'clock, but de bes' time dat dey do it is befo' sunrise. See, aftah twelve o'clock [and] befo' sunrise - roun' about fo'-thirty or five a'clock, an' yuh do de same thin' an' come back in an' drop de siftah right at de same place again.
(You sift it all over again?)
De same thin' all ovah again. An' dey say, when yuh do dat - well, dey say yuh don't have tuh have many shoes. Doesn't take much, take much siftin's fo' dat dust, 'fo' dat dust is gone. Well, yuh do dat till all dat dust is gone through dat siftah, yuh see, an' dey say he'll nevah leave yuh den. He'll nevah leave yuh.
Entry 5643
Ah learnt dat if yo' wants tuh drive a person away wit dere track, git 'em - jis' like yo' see a person walkin' up de street, de firs' track he put down, keep yore eyes on 'em an' go an' pick de firs' track up. Git chew a siftah whut have nevah been used befo' an' sift it through dat. Take it in yore home an' at mawnin', jis' as early as yo' possibly kin git up, jis' take it an' walk out an' look right straight up, an' throw part of it to de east an' part to de no'th, part to de s'uth an' part to de west. Dat will keep 'im goin'.
(Sending you away with your track.)
Entry 10411
Bible under head in bed [under pillow or mattress] keeps witch away.
[Wilmington, N. Car., (206), 113:8+85; also informant 31 at Hampton, Va.]
Bible under head of bed [on floor] keeps witch away. [Baltimore, Md., (near 142), 46:4+85.] Bible under bed and hang sifter overhead. [Deal Island, Md., (108), 16:3+85.] Bible and 3 pins to keep hag away. [Richmond, Va., (343), 287:2+85.] Bible under pillow and 3 stick pins [ordinary pins] underhead. The hag turned into a little piece of red meat, found next morning. Stop the meat up and the hag [unable to breathe] will come. [Richmond, Va., (343), 287:2+85.] Bible and stub of a broom [the straw part of a worn-out broom] at head of bed to keep hag away. [Wilmington, N. Car., (about 249), 161+85, diffuse story not worth copying.]
Entry 10468
Well, dey tell me how tuh ketch 'em [hags] is [tol git a sifter yo see, an' dey'll come in dere roun' 'fore day, yo' see, an' dey count de holes dere an' right dere's where it be yo' ketch [her] countin' dem holes in de sifter. So dey caught a ole lady lak dat once. (What did she look like when they caught her?) Well, she looked lak sompin didn't have no skin on, jes' kinda like butter - not butter, jelly yo' know. So dey caught her an' dey beat her. De ole lady was staying dere herself [living in same house].
Entry 10470
Take a sifter - takes a sifter and turn it down on its face [open side of sifter down] an' 'fore he leaves he's gotta count every hole in dat sifter. (The hag.)
Entry 10471
"The old-fashioned sifter is supposed to have a thousand holes in it." [My only example of this, informant lOl, near Snow Hill, Md., by hand.]
Entry 10472
Take fo' instance if yo' in bed an' a witch begin riding yo', why dey calls it de witch; but my education place me in a position to know whut dey calls dose, but at de same time we calls it de witch. Well, yo' go to bed an' de witch rides yo' quite a bit, jes' put a sifter at de head of yo' bed, by a chair dere. [Why near or on a chair? Make yourself at home?] An' it's quite natural de next morning when yo' git up, why yo'll ketch de witch dere counting dose holes over an' over, cause dey afraid dey made a mistake an' dey count 'em over an' over until day.
[I ask a question too far away from microphone to be understood.]
Well, dey claim dat chew kin see it. An' then when yo' see this person - well quite natural when it sunup - yo' say, "Leave!" It will leave.
Entry 10473
[Here for convenience are two rites together.] Sifter under bed keeps witch from riding you [Vicksburg, (717), 988:5].
Entry 10475
Sifter beside bed, mustard seed by bed; protection against hag [double protec- tion].
Entry 10476
Put a sifter on your breast [imagine!] and they have to go through them holes. [In- informant 102 somewhere near Snow Hill on Eastern Shore of Maryland, by hand.]
Entry 10477
For people come to your house all the time and come and set too long, and see, you want them to go home. Say, you just take a sifter and put it up under their chair. And [if] they'll just sit, sit, and can't go, they is a witch; but after [if] they get up and go home, there [they] ain't witch. But they got to be real old, old people. You see, you do that with a sifter. [Usually a steel instrument is stuck into the bottom of the chair where it won't be seen by visitor. She can leave only after you remove the steel.]
Entry 10478
A witch is worser than a ghost, they tell me. You know these old hand sifters? You put that at the door of your room. He has got to go through every hole in that sifter before he can come in your room. And if daylight catches him, he was found in the sifter. Then kill whatever you find in the sifter and they kill the witch. [Old Point Comfort, Va., (21, from somewhere nearby), by hand, probably out on street somewhere.]
Entry 10484
"Sifter hung over door, next morning a dog walking around in the house will be the hag."
Entry 10486
I know a fellow at home [somewhere in Virginia], a witch rides him. This witch has been riding him for several years. He caught this witch once. I'll tell you how he caught him [notice the sex]. He placed a sifter and a fork under the doorsill. The witch came in and couldn't pass it [had to count the holes in the sifter and was afraid of the fork tines.]
Entry 10487
"Cross two forks in the sifter and turo it bottom upwards, if witches is bad in your house."
Entry 10488
"They, old people, used to say, to ketch a witch get a sifter and hang it up where they came through the keyhole."
Entry 10489
Take a new sifter and turn it aroun' nine times from you and call dere name, and then turn the handle from you this way, and then turn the sifter part that way, and they will never come back to your house no more.
(You turn the sifter toward them?)
Turn it away from you, turn it nine times away from you.
(Then do you lay that sifter down or what?)
After you does that why you takes and lays it down, but you turns the sifter part this way and the handle thisaway [demonstrates]. The handle back towards the house, the sifter part away from the house.)
Entry 10490
[An unusual variation]: "Put down sifter [at night], you will find a bug in the morning. You then take a needle and count the holes in the sifter
[you are playing the witch's part!] and before you have finished, some- one will come in and ask you to turn him loose."
Entry 13442
If yo' got okra dat won' bear, yo' jes' take yo' a switch every mawnin' an' go dere an' whip dat bush lightly an' it start tuh bearin' jes' lak any othah bush. (That okra is the same thing as gumbo, isn't it?) [The two African words refer to the plant, gumbo in the U. S. A. usually means a cooked product.]
(That is to make the thing bear?)
Yes.
[Informant now gives another method for making okra bear.]
Yo' kin take a sifter an' go out dere an' yo' sift it ovah de okra lak dat, an' if it won't bear, it will start bearin'.
(Do you put anything in the sifter or just the empty sifter?)
Jes' de empty sifter.