Subject:Swellings
Entries
Entry 6721
Yo' kin take cedah an' make a bath, in yore feets or laigs where yo' have swellin' lak dat. Yo' boil dat an' make a tea-lak an' bath. An' also grapevine.
Entry 6800
At de fiahplace [fireplace], dere anyone dressed at. Ah've seen dat done, anybody dressed or deals at chore house. Yore han's - yore han' will com- mence risin' an' swellin' an' goin' on up, an' yo' cain't do anything. Yo' take a toadfrog an' cut 'im wide open, an' plastah 'im aroun' de sore place an' weah 'im dere. Den he cured. [The preceding word deals (deals a trick?) as a synonym for dressed is rare; in fact, this may be the only example in Hoodoo.l
Entry 937
This is one about a woman being tricked on account of another woman's husband. There was a married couple that had lived together happily for five years. Finally, they had a roomer come into the house, a girl about eighteen years old. She fell very much in love with the woman's husband, so much so that it caused a lot of trouble. This woman that was the wife went to see a cunjure woman and had this boarder tricked. She put her in a sleeping form and she slept for seven days and could not be awaked from that condition. So a hoodoo doctor was sent for in order that the spell might be removed. At the end of every seven days this woman would go into this sleeping spell and have to have the hoodoo doctor to remove it. Finally, one day she became very very sick, her stomach was swollen very badly. She began to vomit. Suddenly there were about a dozen live rats appear having come from the woman's stomach. Finally, the woman said, "If you promise to leave my husband alone, I'll have the spell removed." She had the spell removed. That happened several years ago down at Ladysmith, Virginia.
Entry 1021
Well, ah got tuh feelin' yo' know - jis' funny in de haid, yo' know - started wit a kinda runnin' spells like - jis' took me all at once yo' see - jis' got to runnin' an' screamin' an' hollerin' an' goin' on. Mah head got to hurtin' an' dey didn't know hardly whut ailed me - ah didn't know mahself. Jis' took, yo' know, lak at once. Had done swole - mah stomach had done swole up so. Well, mah brother-in-law knowed a fellah ovah in Augusta, Georgia, yo' know. Well, he'd taken me ovah dere. Well, dis fellah had put dem nine notches [knots] around mah laig - a cord, an' he say, "In de ninth mornin', '' say, "yo' take it off an' throw it in de fire." An' dat's whut ah done. An' ah got rid of it.
(Did you throw it into the fire in any particular Way?)
Yes suh.
(How did he tell you to throw it?)
Ah throwed backwards.
Entry 1099
I have known a woman who had a swelling from her knee down - from her knee down she was miserable. It hurt her, it kept her in terror, until she got so she could not walk. Finally, when the people had tried everything they knew to rub with and to bathe her legs with, her foot continued just to be swollen in such a nature of misery until she could not bear any weight on it. On a certain day an old woman came by the house. She said, "What have you done for that leg?" She asked how about her foot. They said, "We have done everything we know." She said, "Will you do this?" She said, "I will tell you what to do. You go out in an old field and when you find where these big red ants have made their nest" - it has a big hill, usually there is a lot of young ones in that hill - "you carry a pot with you, take a shovel, go around four ways around the nest and let it go in the ground. Then you just scoop that nest right up on the shovel and put it in that pot, all the live ants you can get, and cover the pot up and take it home. Put it over the fire, get some chamber lye, put the pot on the fire, put the chamber lye in, shut it up tight, let it get hot with the ants in there. When it gets hot and you know the ants is all dead and the dirt is hot through, open the pot, take a piece of cloth, spread this ant hill out on the cloth hot, apply it to the leg, as hot as she can bear it, bind it there and in her instep, bind it good and let it stand. I guarantee you that it will take the misery out of the swelling, because she has been cunjured." That was in Orangeburg County [South Carolina]. I saw the person. I saw the ant hill. I saw the poultice. And the next day she could put her foot to the floor. In four days she could walk. They repeated that twice and the leg Was healed. [New York Citv. (10, Ed.]
Entry 1264
If you'd git a toadfrog - if you swole up in your joints or something like that and you can't git it 'way, and if somebody tricked you. Well, you git you a toadfrog and cut him open, put it right on that place until that will come out, and jest whatever it is - if it is yellow or green or whatever it is - makes it come out in dat frog.
Entry 1440
He [a root doctor] fixed me some raid bay. It grows jis' like a - jis' like that [demonstrates] an' all de stems on it is raid. [The heartwood of this small tree in southern U. S. A. is also dark-red.1 You kin take that [stems] an' boil it an' bathe in it nine time, but don't po' de watah out. [Use the same water for the nine baths.] When you bathe dem nine time, dat kill all de swellin' out, an' it'll kill all de fevah out choo.
Entry 1582
If yo' got a swellin' or anything, yo' kin use de tidewatah, jes' git it when it's high an' den bathe down on it, an' when it goin' back, yo' throw it with it - let 'em go. (If you have a swelling, get tidewater when it is up and bathe down with that. Then, as the tide is going out, you throw this Water out in the same direction - the tide carries it out, the swelling.) Yes sir.
Entry 1752
I heard my father tell about boxing hands, where they get bees, flies, ants, wasps, cow ants - the great big ants - hornets, thousand-legs, all that kind of stuff, and they put that in a bottle and fill it with hot water. And that was used to put on their fists - just a drop or two. And when they struck a man he had a great pain and swoll up, and he couldn't fight back he was hurting so. [Here again, a hand can be a liquid.] [St. James, a Negro community 5 miles from Pocomoke City, Md., (104), by hand; these hands of 1870 decade in Wicomico Co., Md.] [Cf. margin-title WrestZing Hand at end of this subsection.]
Entry 4020
Take dere chamber lye an' stop it up [in a bottle] an' bury it. Dey can't make watah, swell 'em up an' kill 'em.
(This chamber lye?)
Jes' dey necked [naked] watah.
Entry 555
(What did you say your name was?)
William Scott.
(William Scott. All right. No. 535.)
[On my first trip down the Eastern Coat from Virginia into Florida, I occasionally still asked a person his name and casually gave him a number. Both practices I have previously stopped, recording only a name volunteered and the number before entrance or after departure.] Well, dis woman dat I was goin' wit, see - me and her quit and she had wanted to come back to me, and ah wouldn't take her back because ah ketched her doin' wrong. She try to do me harm. She git another man to set some stuff on me to - some stuff for me to step in. She know ah was de first one to cross over it in de mawning to go to work. Ah come on out and go on to work and it started about eleven-thirty that I felt my back giving and mah laigs they cracked - ah couldn't hardly walk with it and ah asked to git off. At dinnertime, at noon, ah git off and come on home. By de time ah kin git home mah laigs and toes was all swollen up. So I went to a doctor - he's jest here on Commings Street, root doctor.
(What was his name?)
Williams - he named Williams, too. [Informant's first name William - doctor's last name Williams - hence the too!] He lived here right now. He stayed dere on Commings Street and now he moved. So I went to him and explained mysel' dat Satiday. So he said, "Well, ah tell yuh what chew do - you come back here Sunday mawning round five 'clock or six 'clock [or] Sunday noon," he said, "so I kin see what I kin [do] wit cha." [This is an act of magic - the magic delay.] So ah went down dere. So he tells fortunes in coffee. So he went round dere and he tells me to sit down and he git de coffee and he tell me, he say, "Well, boy, ah kin cure you" - it would take seven dollars. Ah say, "Yes sir." He say, "Now, whut ah want chew to do - ah'm goin' give you dis dime." He say, "You take dis dime ah give to you and you take dis dime and you cut it up real fine." He said, "An' you git chew a piece of red flannel and you take dis red flannel and rub dis dime round and round in dis red flannel." He said, "An' git a little bit of sulphur an' put wit dis silver whut you cut off de dime and work it round in dere good, and after you rub it round dere good, you take some assafitadee [asafetida] and put wit it and sew it up in a bag and put it round yore neck." [This is a hand or mojo or toby - see Index.] He said, "An' you drop back to me Monday and ah'll let chew know whut I kin do for you." [Again, the magic delay.] So dat Monday ah went back to him and when I went back to him, he said, "Well, you come on into de house." I went back to de house wit 'em. He said, "Now to- night at twelve o'clock," he said, "you come here to me," he said, "an' ah'll fix you up good to [at] the Morris Brown Cemetery.
(Morris Brown Cemetery.) [Negro cemetery.]
So ah went out dere wit 'em dat night an' he said, "Now ah want chew to do dis." He said, "Ah want chew to walk wit me to dis grave," he said, "and ah want chew to pick up a handful of dis sand," he said, "an' you walk backwards six feet [steps] and t'row it over you and wheel to yo' right."
(Throw it over - how do you throw it?)
T'row it ovah yore left shoulder an' wheel to yer right. An' I done that. I walk six feet and wheeled to mah right, wheeled to mah right. And he said, "Well, come on back home now." Ah went on back wit him - ketched a [street] car and went on back to his house. And after I went back to his house, he said, "Now, what chew Want me to do - do you want me to dress dis woman or fix dis woman?" Ah said, "No." He say, "Well, all you want's me to do is unloose you?" I say, "Yes sir." He says, "All right. Now, look whut I'm gon'a do. I want cha in de morning to git up early," he said, "you git up early and go right to the step, and take you a big spoon - cooking spoon and dig down underneat' dat step," he say, "an' you see all yo' troubles right to the step." So dat morning I git up and I dig down at de foot of de step and when I git dere [it] was a little package rolled up jest like a little - about de size of a egg - in de package looked like it Was gunpowdah and some other - ah don't [know] whut to tell yuh - some other stuff in dere real fine like little grounds and dust and things like that. An' I dig it up and after digging this up - he say, "You bring it on to me" - and I dig it up and I bring it on to him. He said, "Now, this was the beginning of you' trouble." An' so after dat, mah feet begin to goin' down - de swelling stuff begin to leave mah feet. Den he say, "Well, ah'll boil some root medicine now, to get that thing out chure system." An' which like he did. He went and boiled dis medicine and ah drinked dis medicine ever' twice a day until it went and went until it went down to my feet - down to mah feet. Now, ever' summer dat same thing come out jest like some 'neral [veneral] disease, jes' broken out in yore feet, ever' summer. It goes back in de wintertime, but in de summertime, spring- time, it like that.
(In summer you still have it?)
Yes, sir - got it now.
(It looks like a veneral disease?)
It jes' broke out in a fine bump and then it turn out sore. Then it swell - it start in de knee and den it go right on to de feet - all the ankles and ever'thing swole up - jes' like it swole up now.
Entry 559
I was married quite a spell and I met this woman, as I was lodging wit her. Well, she seemed to have been my best friend before she knowin' dat my husband was goin' tuh marry me. At de time we was gettin' ready to get married she attempted, no doubt, to separate us. And she got very special pieces and cut 'em into pieces. Well, I found 'em after goin' to see dis man.
(Well, tell me about going to see that man again.)
I went to see de man and he says to me, he says, "Dis woman is your worst enemy." Said, "Dis woman means to separate you and your husband." (And he was looking into a crystal or something like that wasn't he?) [She is retelling the beginning of the story because I had failed to start machine.] Yes - you want me to tell dat again?
(Yes.)
He said, "Well, I will show you dis woman as your enemy, and I wants to see whether you know her." The crystal was as big as a - great big round crystal and just as clear as a crystal - that's why I thought it was a crystal - must have been a: crystal ball.
(You actually could see her in there with her arms spread out?)
I seen her spreaded and when he put de crystal, he said, "Now, look in here - it tells you. I says, 1 "All right." "All right." Dis woman was standing between me and my husband like this. He say, "Now, dat's to keep you apart."
(Well, how did it happen that you went to see this man?)
I went home. I had something it effected [affected] me like the rheumatism - that what she had done it effected me just like a rheumatism. I had on my knees something de shape of a egg, dat you would bury you finger in - you know, it would give. (Was it a bump - a big bump?) [I am trying to prevent her from omitting details previously told.] Yes, it was right in this place and it just like you would bury a egg in sand; you know how de egg is an oval - something like dat and it would be half buried - and if you stick your finger in it in de morning it wouldn't come up through de day. And so he examined it and he had to give me a bath. He put de feet just in a bath and he - course I didn't want him to go dat far, but he said that he were my best friend. Then I begin to know it wasn't rheumatism, when he told me about de woman. So, well, I said, "I don't believe what you say." He say, '"Certainly, you don't believe it but I want to show you." And when I seen de woman I believe there was something that wasn't so. So, she was just between us - she trembled just like a leaf - just like that [demonstrates]. [How he agitated the concealed photograph depends upon whether the crystal was in his hands or on a permanent base. More important than the how is the clever- ness of the why.] I says to him, I says, "Well, why is that [trembling]?" He says, "She is very nervous - I'm sending it, turning it back to her." He said, "Now, when you go into your home" - I were leaving in a day or so - "you go to walk." I had to be carried upstairs and brought down. He say, "You go to walk and when you go in, you just say, "Take it off of me and put it on her."
(You say that as you went in the door?)
I was to say that as I go up de steps, and he give me something to sprinkle as I passed - "Take it off of me and put it on Julia" - her name was Julia - ''take it off me and put it on Julia." [He said] "In a few days Julia will become just like she wanted you to become."
(How many times did you have to say that?)
Right as I was goin' up de steps.
(Was there any number of times you had to say it?)
Right on as I goin' up the stairs - till I landed upstairs. I lived over her. And in a few days, he said, she'll become just like she intend me to become, and that was that she'd be sore - all of her private parts would be very, very sore and she'd be so - just effected nobody wanted to have her round. Well, she did. And he said that she'll ask you to wash for her. He said, "Don't fail to do it." Well, dat scared me to death and I wanted to get - you see he said, "Dat's your only savior - that's your only savior." So I went downstairs that morning - she asked me - and she was in a bad condition, and "Don't let dis woman get to your back." Well, it would be every five minutes she could be in dere, and I had to get up, you know, and turn my face to her, and I washed de clothes and I hung dem out. And when I get to my landing up de stairs again, he says, say de same thing, "Take it off of me and put it on Julia." Well, dat woman was taken down so nobody - her husband left her and nobody stayed in dere, all de lodgers left. She was just so offensive - de house and everything. And she stayed that- a-way, I reckon, about three months in de house all alone, nobody paying no attention. And she died all alone. And they found dis package dat belonged to me where she had - and - because I knew de things - and some of my dress and it was something - I said it was red pepper and dis man said it was. And he said that these things were put together to separate us through living very much like two cats or dogs, see, and they'd make me fight. [See No. 78 in which a woman becomes a drunkard because another woman put a spell on her.] Well, while he were treating me, he put me in dis bath and over here he had a table dat he mixed up all kinds of stuff - he had that table full of everything. So this solution that he give me to keep up de bath was something like bluestone, and he had bluestone - as I think it was, and - I was looking right at him - and he had sulphur and he had some kind of a white stuff looking just like salts, I guess.
(Any kind of salts - like Epsom salts.)
Epsom salts - very much like Epsom salts - and he would mix it - he'd do like that [demonstrates] - mix it.
(He would cross his arms.)
Yes. [She continues demonstration.]
(Then he would do like that - fold his arms.)
I - here - that - yes, just like that. [Demonstration continues.] (Then he would move his hands out like that - and he would bring his arms back again - and fold them again - and they would keep going out - hands going out.) Yes, six times.
(Six times - while he was mixing it over the water - after it or what?)
He had de water now, it was just like spring water - it was just so clear and. [She stopped here while I changed to cylinder 429 and as usual I talked to distract attention.]
(He mixed it for you - he put it in a bottle, this medicine?)
Yes, and I was to drop that, which - he said it was two drops or something - looked like blood.
(After it was all mixed up it looked like blood?)
Yeah - no, he just put three drops in dere - very much like blood.
(Oh, he put three drops of [something looking like] blood in there?)
Yes, and he told me to take this and bathe that leg down with mah feet settin' propped square and flat in de basin or in a tub, any place that I would get, and I was to pray and ask de Lord to uproot that. Sure enough I did - in about four days I was ready to run upstairs, and that place gone.
(Was it on the side of your knee or just above your knee?)
Just above - right up on top of de knee - not on de cap but right in de - like in de lap-like of de knee. (Oh, in the lap - I see - one on each side?) [I evidently thought I saw then what I do not see now.] Yes, one on each side, and they were to go all over me and I was to break out so my people would have left me like her people left her. Well, after she died, why I got on splendid and my health improved and every- thing seemed to be going on nicely, and this husband and I got back friendly again, and we live together now.
(Where did this happen - up here in Petersburg, you say?)
Yes - no, no - in Norfolk. Now, Petersburg is mah home. [Now - at the interview - she lived in Norfolk.]
(Oh, Petersburg is your home, I see.)
Yes, and they took me to Petersburg to this doctor.
(Oh, this doctor was in Petersburg?)
Yes, de doctor was in Petersburg.
(What was his name - is he still alive up there?)
Now? I don't think he is, because I tried to look for him for another friend and I don't believe dat he is alive. De last dat dey say dat he was in Richmond. But nobody over there kin tell anything about him no more than he were there, and nobody in Petersburg kin tell no more 'en he was there - lived over in Pocahontas in two huts - there were dirt floors and roughly fixed as a bed - you might say a bunk - that's the way he stayed. And it was a dirt floor in both of these bunks, these huts - and I went in both of 'em - send me first in one and den the other, and I stayed there all day. He ordinarily treated in those places - and when I come on there.
(He treated in one room once and then go and treat you in the other room?)
Yes, and each time I was in a different kind of a chair.
(Different kind of chairs.)
Yes - now one chair he screwed me up to be tall - you know, somepin like a office chair.
(Oh, like a office chair - I see.)
Yeah - a office chair brings you low and high, and he screwed me up. I didn't have to get down for anything until he got ready and then he would attend and do everything, but he used this medicine all de time, see.
(What you had to do at home, he did it in the office first?)
Yes. (Well what sort of - what did he have in that tub - did he have water in that tub or a special mixture in there?) He had water.
(Just plain water.)
Yes, first it was warm water, and then he put dis medicine in there.
(In the water that he had prepared?)
Yes, and then he told me what to repeat, when I went up de stairs, "Take it off of me and put it on Julia." 'Take it off me and put it on Julia." And it took me about six or ten times to say that going upstairs.
(How long ago did this happen?)
Well, that was - I was quite young.
(About how many years ago would you say that was?)
Oh - that would be thirty years - have to be thirty years and more, I think, too - yes, a long thirty years ago. And I see dis man, I think, twice after dat. After I had improved a little, I went to see him again and he says to me, he say, "Don't have anything to do with dat woman whatever - if you even correspond with her, it'll bother my work." And sure enough dat man was doing miracles round in Petersburg and I know people now that he attended, if they are alive.
(What was his name - do you know his name?)
He was named Skipper Tan - John Skippertan.
(John Skippertan?)
S-k-i-p-t-a-n.
(I see.)
A most peculiar name - and he looked very much like a cat. [This reminds me of Doghead whom I twice tried to find in his shack on an isolated public dump in or near Newport News, Virginia - see Introduction. While my machine was stopped I had evidently returned to the almost forgotten package.] My hair?
(Some of your hair was in that?)
Yes, my hair, and these pieces and this [what] looked like to be salt. They were all folded up in a neat little - you might [say] little papers, little piece of papers and there wasn't much of it, you know, but dey were in just little papers about a inch long and I reckon about a inch square - just folded 'em all in dere, and it seems dey were in something like tissue paper, and they were folded over, and when I got dem dey were under my bed. {Her words do not mean what they say - the reason for my following comment.]
(That's where they found them.)
That's where dey found 'em - under my bed. (How many were there of these little things folded up that way? Did they count them or anything like that, these little pieces of paper folded up inside of that cloth?) No, he didn't count dem.
[The doctor found them.]
They were a powder like and de other pieces in dere and my dress - piece of my goods, I knew it by dat, you see. Well, now, how anybody got it but her, I don't know. So, that's why I know when he told me dat this was the woman -Id seen de woman [in crystal ball] - he said, "Dis is de woman dat did dis to you."
(You say your mother took you down there the first time?)
Yes, mother took me.
(Well, what did she think about it?)
Well, my mother thought it was rheumatism and she took me. This friend of hers didn't believe it was rheumatism, but she didn't tell my mother - she just said it was a doctor that would cure me, and I went over there - just married, you know, and couldn't walk, so they tried everything they could to see whether it would do any good.
(How soon did this affect you after you were married?)
About three months.
(About three months after you were married?)
Yes - I was married from her house - I lodged with her. (Well, what did it feel like when it first started to come on - how did it come on you, I mean?) It come on just like, you might say, pains in mah feet and laigs, and ah complained about it for three weeks - I think it was about three weeks coming.
(Did you have a headache or backache or anything of that sort with it?)
De laigs pained and then it affected me in my back, which I never had backache since or before, and I couldn't get up and down de steps - these knees and this back wouldn't allow me. I didn't think anybody was tryin' to do anything because I didn't believe in such things. (You just gradually started to get pains in your feet and your legs and it kept getting worse?) Yes.
(And in three weeks, you said, you couldn't walk at all?)
I couldn't walk at all - I couldn't get up unless somebody helped me. Well, ah thought I was going home as I didn't have any people heah. I was going to leave and go home until I got well, and I did. When I got up there, a friend of my mother's said she knew a man that would cure me, and she believe all de time what it - what she was going to do - she went with us. Now, my mother didn't know this man, but she knew him and she took us over there, and I thought I was going to a doctor. (Well, when you first went there - what did you say to the man - did your mother speak to him or who spoke to him?) The minute I come into the hut, to the place - nobody spoke. He said, "Good morning," he says, "and what are you here for?" He didn't give me a chance to say what I was there for. He says, You're painful - you're sick - it's good dat you come." Well, ah begin to be all funny-looking and feeling funny because why should he say I was feeling bad. I was feeling awfully bad. And he says, "Walk right in dis room and I'll wait on you right. away." He says, "Now, don't you be scared." Just like dat [she imitated his voice]. Well, ah suppose he knew he was comical looking, and I would be afraid. And he didn't let my mother stay in dis room. And - but I was so anxious to get well, as I had just left my home - married and left a home - all dat.
(You left your husband in Norfolk in other words.)
Yes, he had to stay on the job but I went to my mother because I thought I Was going to be real sick. So I sent for money and he sent me $25 and I had to pay him a part of the money when I went in, and then when I got through and got well for him to discharge me, I paid him the rest. But he said, if I was to take sick like that again I could come to him and he would give me every penny back. But I never felt it or seen it again - it went away just like de wind would blow a piece of paper away. I didn't realize it was going or nothing, but I realized that I didn't see it anymore and I continued to walk. I walked everywhere after dat and I didn't - I warn't no time married before I was sick and I just couldn't understand, but now, I believe more in it after he showed me dis woman. Well, if he hadn't showed me dis woman, it would be just like some throwed to east or west 'cause I wouldn't have believed in it. But I did believe in it afterward.
(You actually saw this woman in there, you say?)
I saw her like I'm looking at you, and she was standing between me and my husband, and he said, it was to separate us, and dat was her working to an end. But she died just like she intend me to die. I would have suffered just like she suffered.
(Did she have those bumps on her when she died?)
Ah don't think she had the bumps, but she was Just all over sores - she had very bad trouble and sores. She was sore just everywhere and the doctor pro- nounced it incurable, and dey couldn't do her no good.
(I see.)
Entry 685
Ah was belonging to de Household of Ruth and ah was goin' dere to make some candidates we did. Ah was their wardess - that was, turning folks in, git de pass an turn 'em in. Well, de lady dat was in dere she was keeping books - secretary. Well, by me knowing how to write better than her, dey moved me from that do' an' put me secretary. An' she got mad wit me about it. Den whilst ah was in de entry room, dey sent me dere to help fix dose candidates. Well, after ah did dat ah seen her wit mah shoes, though ah didn't think anything of it.
(Where were your shoes then?)
They were at the chair where ah got up from to go to the entryroom.
(You had your shoes off?)
Ah'd taken dem off because mah feet was worn out from working all day and Walking there dat night. An' when ah put mah shoes on -
(Why didn't you say something to her when you saw her with your shoes?)
Ah didn't say anything 'cause ah didn't think anything - she was talking 'bout de shoe - her and dis ole man - ole-timey man - ole cunjurating [man] - was talking about de shoe being a cute-made shoe. So when ev'rything was ovah, dey had this festival downstairs for the help of the lodge. So ah'd gone down and all de balance when dey turned out up dere, we went down to de tables.
(This Sister Ruth business is the female side of the Odd Fellows?)
Yes, sir. An' ah got down [took ill] there - after dat was over and ah'd gone out to git in de car [someone was taking her home] then ah took de chill. Well, after the chill was over ah begun, yo' know, throwing up. Mah head ached all through dere. Well, ah woke up next mawnin' with a fever. Well, ah had de fever five days. An' after dat mah legs swoled about dat large an' mah foot - not but one - was about dis high. It shine lak glass. Den it became pi-ded [pied] - jest like a snake - brown and clar-water-looking - pided.
(Different colors.)
Well, dis ole man came 'long while ah hobbled to de mailbox - half crawled an' got down dere to git mah mail, and he said, he says, "Daughter whut's de matter?"
(This wasn't the same old man that was at the lodge?)
No sir, hit was one dat always went to cure dose things. He jest askin' me whut's de matter, an' he said, "Well, ah'm goin' give you something that chew kin git somebody that chew got confidence in to make you some tea to bath that laig, an' 'tween now an' de morning you'll see whut's in it.
(Tell me just how this tea was made.)
Well, she [a woman made the tea] tuk it an' put it in a little pot about dat high - de weed.
(What did she make it of?)
Well, ah didn't know mahself - he give me de weed, yo' know, but dey called it John de Conker, but ah didn't know it, an' she made de tea.
(Just out of this one thing?)
Dat one bunch of weeds [probably more than one kind of root], and give me tuh bath mah feet and bath it three times, 'fore de sun got tuh set. Then, when de sun begun tuh set, he tole me tuh tell her to throw it [toward] de sunset, an' ah'd see befo' day whut was in dat leg.
(You had to bathe that leg before the sun set. Then what do you do?)
When it begun tuh set, throw de water out. An' she throwed it fo' me - ah couldn't walk then, ah had to stay where ah bath-ed it at. An' dat night 'bout two 'clock she woke me up an' ah crawled to de fireplace and blowed up a light wit some matches - made up a light and looked down an' dere were five - looked lak young dirt daubers but dey were log sawyers - dey had dat little brown tip on der haids, flat, an' ah took a little white rag an' throw 'em in de fire. Well, Dr. Jedge Hopper [M.D.?] - ah sent fo' him an' he came an' put me some medicine on dere an' - it was red as blood - an' tole me tuh wrap it up. An' de next morning when ah got up dem places where them things Was healed together, an' from that on, why they begin tuh heal. [Here is the perfect situation to help a person be hoodooed - a tired woman, excited and important by lodge promotion, sees the displaced and hostile woman holding the shoe while talking to a well-known cunjurating man. Normally this Would have caused a suspicion if not a fear, but the flattery about the cute- made shoe, the second compliment of the evening deceived her. Our tired woman goes downstairs and overeats and vomits. There was no other explanation - she had been hoodooed.]
Entry 865
Once I was hurted in mah hand and [it] lasted above nine month, an' whilst I was like that - jes' before I got in that condition a fortune-teller came by home one time an' wanted to tell mah fortune, an' I wouldn't let 'im because I didn't have any money. An' he tole me some trouble was comin' fah me, you know, an' said if I would let 'im tell it, he may could avoid it. An' so after [that] he went off. In about two or more weeks after that, a one Satiday - you know, I had a husband, you see, that's runnin' about so bad. An' one Satiday he didn't come home until aroun' - he left home about fiye-thirty that mornin' tc work. An' I looked for 'im about twelve o'clock an' he didn't come, an' five o'clock he didn't come. An' about seven o'clock I went by a lady house that he's always, you know - I used to go by an' he was there. So I went past an' she was settin' on the porch, an' I ast her if Bert wasn't there. An' so she got firin' mad with me, joo know, because I ast her. So about Monday night - she said, "No, he's not herel What the hell you ast me if he's here!" So I didn't pay any attention to her an' I went on back home. An' so that night [the same Saturday night] she set on her porch until about twelve o'clock to show that he wasn't there that Satiday. An' so she waited till he came by [that Saturday night], you see, an' she stopped 'im an' wanted to know how come I could come there an' ast 'er fer 'im. An' so when he come home he ast me not to go by an' ast her again after this. An' so I tole 'im didn't he know the children were hungry an' I was hungry an' didn't have anything to cook or nuthin to get me some with, an' nuthin to pay rent with or nuthin. An' this woman - that he passed on by when comin' home - she waited till that Monday night. About ten o'clock, after I had gone to bed, she come by my house an' ast me - she came to my house and knocked bringin' two more peoples, an' when they knocked I was gone to bed. An' so I didn't dress or nuthin. [She says], "I come up to see you." I says, "All right." I went to the door an' ast 'em in. An' they come in an' set down. An' she wants to know how come I'd come to her house an' ast for him. An' we commence talkin'. An' I tole 'er, I said, "If you had children and you husband was out an' you had no way to get yore livin' from 'im but to wait until he come, you'd go an' hunt him yoreself." An' so she said, "Oh, if that's case, well you kin come again." That happened Monday night when she was in mah house an' that [the following] Satiday mornin' I got an' wash his silk shirts an' pressed them an', you see, did my other work. An' I didn't feel no hurtin' or nuthin like that. An' around two o'clock mah - two o'clock mah arm commence to hurtin', commence to hurtin' - it was a tired feelin'. It kept a hurtin' an' it jis' like the more I'd draw it up an' stretch it out, the worser it would hurt. An' when night come it commence to gittin' worser an' worser an' worser. An' that Sunday it looked like it was gittin' worser an' worser. So I went down about 'leven blocks from the house to church an' I tote the baby, an' before I got back home I couldn't even tote that baby back home an' I stayed down there about two hours, an' before I got back home I couldn't tote the baby. An' so then, that Monday over in the nex' week, then mah arm jis' commence to gittin' worser. An' mah han's was swoll up that Monday about dat high - jist as high. An' so then I didn't have any use of it - couldn't even lift it, couldn't move it no'ere [nowhere] unless dis han' under it. An' so I tried ever'thing. It looked like the doctor medicine, ever'thing I took would make me worser. An' so then this fortune-teller fellah he come by. An' then he tole me - an' he tole me [before] that it was some trouble comin' for me. An' I wouldn't let 'im tell it [at their first meeting]. An' so he tole me that it sure Was put in the wash for Bert for me, because they knowed that I had to wash with mah hands. [The woman dressed Bert's soiled silk shirts. He took them home to be washed by his wife.] An' listen! That han' last me nine months before I was able to put all mah clothes on an' take them off of me. I didn't have no use of that han' or nuthin. I couldn't even steady it up for over a year, but after nine months I felt, you know, I could take care of mah arm - but, I couldn't open nor shut my hand. An' so the remedy what mah mother used, why - she'd, while mah arm was like that - she jis' kept on bathin' an' rubbin' an' bathin' an' rubbin', but looked like none of that wouldn't do any good. An' somebody tole 'er to get a quarter, a silver quarter, an' trim de edge off of it an' put it with some rock sulphah an' beat it up an' let me lick it. An' after I use that, then I commence to feelin' mahself where I could, you see, get mah arm - the use of mah arms back. So they took the quarter [that was left after the milled edge had been scraped off] an' put it in two quarts of water an' boil it down to a pint [magic of diminishing amount] an' make me a tea with that water. An' that seems like it help me more than anything I took. An' then she took a white [Irish] potato an' shave that white potato - jis' split it as little [thin] as you kin git it, an' put that on mah han'. An' after I use that - they put there that night, the nex' mornin' I was able to lift mah han' off the pillah, wherein I couldn't pick it up before. Wilmington, N. Car.,
(293), 214:3; in 1926.]
Entry 899
A girl hurt me, got betweeen me and a boy. I had two children for him. I was noticin' how she come aroun' and talk to him and things, and I didn't pay it no mind. I taken it for a joke. Well, it wasn't a joke. And so this girl got between me and him. And so she got my track and got two three-penny nails, she got my left track, and put them in a little white sack and bury it under mah door. And so mah feet went to swelling, and legs, and I didn't pay it much attention. I worked right on. And after awhile I got so I couldn't you know, it pained me. So I went de doctor and the doctor he bathed me for it, and it looked like all he did wouldn't do me no good. So an old lady, she lived aroun' there, told me to go to some kind of other, a root doctor. And I did. And so he told me that I was hurt, and told me I couldn't git it up from de door. He says I have to git somebody else to git it or git him. So I give him a dollar and told him to dig it up from mah door. So he did. And he told me what it was. And so he say he'd take this stuff and put it to her door and that's the onlyest way he could have it turmed off of me. And he turned it back On her. Well, she Was in the same condition. I got well.
Entry 1304
You can take the chamber lye and mix spirits of turpentine with it and then put it on and boil it until it dries up. That'll swell you up. {This bewitched condition, retention of the urine which causes hollering spells, is cured as follows:] You go right out and get one of these old fox grapes - some calls them tangle vines. Cut it off just about as high as your privates. Then you bend it over and put that right into a jar - the piece that's in the ground you bend over and put in the jar - and let stay twenty-four hours. Then, whatever [juice] you find in jar, you take a bath [with it] all over. That'll kill any 'craft [witchcraft] and hoZlering spells.
Entry 1540
This wus my daughter. Well, it wus give her in a apple an' this apple wus poison; we think it wus dressed. Well, she'd take sick on the young of the moon every moon. The poison would swell her - sick in the stomach an' her laigs. An' that went on. Then I went to a doctor an' the doctor says he give her up. Well, he didn't know whut wus wrong. The medicine he used, you know, instead of gettin better, for a year she got worse. An' so one of my brother-in-laws from Brunswick wus here. He would insist, you know, on sendin' me to a woman an' this woman I went to she liveded on Second Street. She wus one those ladies, you see, a woman that knowed how to cure folks, you see. An' she explained it to him whut it wus. She said this child wus poisoned in a apple. I remembered after[ward]. She ate hit I didn't [think anything about it at the time].
(How old was your daughter?)
She wus eighteen months old.
(When she ate this apple?)
Yes. An' after, one of my frien' speakin' with this woman [doctor]. An' she said, her name wus Lucy, she [following woman doctor's instructions] told me whut to do with child. She told me when she got crampin' at home - an' I explained to her how long this child would been like dat - an' she said dis child wus poisoned from me not givin' her no [root doctor] doctor medicine. Then she tole me whut to do. She tole me to take thirty-five cents in silver - twenty-five centsea [a quarter] an' a dime, an' boil that in a quart of water down to a pint. An' then she tole me to take it out de water an' scrape some of it an' boil that [in another quart of water] down to a pint, and then when I cooked 'em [each of these separate quarts of water] down to a pint, she told me to put a teaspoonful of table salt.
(Which water?)
An' after I did that this swellin', you know, commence to leavin'. An' I'd give her this medicine three times a day. The first time it passed through her, you know, it wus as green as grass; the second an' third time [the green was weaker] until it cleared up. An' she got her - this swellin' an' everything would leave her an' it continue on an' in six-month time that fixed it. She was all right but she tell me that she had this poison so long that she'd never be sound an' strong as if her normal self. An' so she lived then until the six day of de month last March. She died in the night.
(How old was she when she died?)
Seven.
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 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 6777
If yo' swole, got a whole lotta swellin' in yo', go git chew a dirt daubah nest an' jis' knock de dirt daubah nest down. An' take some vinegah an' try tuh ketch de dirt daubah if yo' kin. If yo' don't it's all right. An' make yo' a poultice an' put it dere, an' dat take DE SWELLIN' WHERE YO' THINK YO'RE CUNJURED.
Entry 11783
Graveyard dirt, salt, sulphur, needles, and green water (slime or algae) in corked-up bottle under steps will swell you up and kill you. [Wil- mington, 125:2+85.]
Entry 246
When I was five years old, my mother got hurt in her knee and she called the hoodoo, and my grandfather - was living at that time. And her knee came to be swelled larger than my head, and my grandfather had taken this mackerel fish brine and he'd taken a nickel's worth of Brown Mule tobacco - puts it in a quart of water and boiled it down to a pint, and he'd taken red peppah and put in there and vinegar, and he continued to rub and rub her knee with that until she got rid of it.
(Can you tell me how she got hurt down there?)
Well, she told me that she - it was a mark across the road, you know, and she stepped cross this mark and when she stepped cross this mark, not thinkin', the pain struck her in her knee.
(What kind of a mark was it, do you know?)
Just like you would - she said, just like a snake would cross the road, she say, that's the way the mark look to be. [Either her enemy drew a zigzag mark across the road - intended for the victim only - or her hoodoo man sent a dressed snake to do the work. Had she crossed a normal snake track, she would not have had the pain. The zigzag track of a snake across path or road - zigzag being a lightning symbol - is a sign of rain; see FACI,2ed., p.20, Nos. 535-537. No wonder, "when she stepped cross this mark... the pain struck her in her knee."]
(I see, I see. How many years ago did that happen?)
That happened when I was five years old and now I'm forty-three - will be forty-four on my next birthday.
(About forty years ago. I see. Where did this happen, around here?)
Out chere about eighteen miles from here.
(About eighteen miles from Vicksburg?)
Yes sir.
Entry 563
Well, may I tell mah experience about it? Well, once ah was dressing a lady's hair an' I slightly took off mah shoe, de left one. Well, de lady was an ole enemy of my father and I didn't know any definite reason why she should do anything to me. But on June the 4, 1937, I immediately had a swelling around mah ankle. Ah didn't pay it any attention - ah thought it was probably from my shoe, and it continued to grow. Everything got swollen 'bout me 'cept mah arms, and I didn't know de reason why my daddy cared [carried] me to de doctor's - he [father] thought it was a touch of dropsy, but de doctor said it was dropsy an' gave me medicine. The more medicine-medicine [doctor's medicine] that ah took, de worse ah got. Ah only found out whut was de matter wit me by a dream - an' I interpret de dream mahself. I had a dream of mah mother. I dreamt she had a jade green earring - earring and necklace round her neck, and I asked her whut were they for. She say, "Darling, '' [she] says, "Gren signifies poison." An' ah immediately waked up - an' when ah awaken ah went downstairs an' tole mah daddy just whut ah dream an' interpret mah dream to him, an' so he carried me to a root doctor. An' de root doctor tole me dat ah was poisoned an' ah wasn't poisoned from de mouth - ah was poisoned from de shoe." An' he took de shoe an' dressed it fol me an' tole in five days ah would be able to wear mah shoes agin, an' ah was.
(Did he tell you how this shoe was dressed for you?)
He didn't tell me definitely how de shoe was dressed, but he tole me the lady had placed something in it. And he took this shoe an' sprayed it with salt. An' after spraying with salt, he told me tuh wear it. I wore de shoe an' immediately my swelling Went down within five days.
Entry 598
In 1888 I was well and hearty and doing daily labor, and a man told me to my face that he Would fix me. And I asked the boss what time it was and he told me it was half past five o'clock. And I was breaking on cracked stone. And I fell backwards and I was carried away from the place by two white men and I didn't know nothing from how I got home. And one old gentleman told me that two white men brought me home on their shoulders. And I asked this old gentleman haven [have] the sun gone down yet. I was not of my mind until the next day three o'clock. I sent for the doctor and he told me that he didn't know what to say about my case. And I taken with a swellen in my right leg, and then I had a pain in my hip, and I had it from that day to this, and I have been in with this misery since 1888. [At this point the informant's wife broke into the story to say that at first her husband had not suspected conjuration:] He was home here years before I was showed by the Lord in the Spirit that something was wrong with him. The Spirit told me that something was wrong, he was hurt. [She then described this spiritual revelation at length, but so rapidly that it was impossible to write it down. She was so suspicious of my intentions that she would not repeat the story, nor would she tell me anything about conjuration. Finally, the old man gave an account of his experience with the first root doctor who tried to cure him.] The fellow took me upstairs and asked me to cut a pack of cards. I told him I didn't know nothing about cards, "I never had a pack in my hand in my life and you'll have to show me how to cut them," and taken them and shuffled them and laid them down and told me to shuffle them out three in a pack [make four- teen packs of three cards each]. And he said, "I'm going to tell you who hurt you. You have been hurt." And he caught me by the toe [patient was barefoot] and show me right where the poison went up. And it went in my hip and swellen my leg up. He showed me who done it on the cards. He took a card from each pack and held them before me, and it appear to me that it was the man and woman and I had to confess [to the identity]. I recognized them but I ain't calling no names. And he said that he could cure me if my nerves would allow me to take the medicine he would give. And that's about all he told me. He gave me some dark medicine in a bottle. It had whiskey in it. And he told me I had to get a lot of whiskey and I got seven gallons. And he made the medicine and gave it to me. But my system was gone so weak that I couldn't take the medicine. That's what he told me. And he swoll me up so, he told me to cut the dose down three tablespoonful three times a day. Then I cut them down one half spoonful. And I found that it didn't do me no good and I quit. I went to see two or three fortune tellers and they told me the some thing. [Fredericksburg, Va., about ten miles out in the country, (65), by hand, no electricity.] [The dark medicine could have been black draft, frequently used by doctors - see Index. Whiskey is too often the chief ingredient of doctor-made medicine.]
Entry 615
Like sometimes you have a sore on your foot and it's hard to cure up, or you feet swells, give you a lot of trouble and painful. Then you take this bluestone...you boil this silver money in this water and if it jingles [to tell whether you have been conjuredl why then you mix this bluestone in that and then mix this sulphur. You take silver-water like that, they call it, then sulphur - you mix this sulphur with it and make a paste like, or you kin jest use it to soak your feet in and then bake 'em in de fire. You soak 'em for nine days or nine nights, then bake your feet by the open fire. You see, from the heat, and that draws out, they say, the poison. It's something like, they say, they dressed somepin they stepped on or dressed your shoes or dressed your stockings. And when that poison comes out it'll leave little white speck like places in your flesh. That's like if somepin you've powdered they've brushed on you or you've stepped over.
Entry 646
[Out of many persons speaking against doctor and his medicine (see Doctor, not Doctor, in Index) - one person, the only one, spoke favorably:] I know a woman right here in Northampton, she was sick and swoll up for at least eight years, and she accused her next door neighbor. This other woman told the whole general public she had never done nothing to her. She [the sick woman] went to Berkley and got a fortune teller. When she came back she found a bottle down under her door. This bottle was full of little snakes. Then she moved. And she began to take doctor's medicine and it wasn't long before she was on her feet again.
Entry 648
[Since sickness is not natural but a condition caused by witchcraft, the doctor claiming to understand and control it lives in a world of magic and false knowledge. To illustrate this, take the word poison in No. 647:] Well, ah kin tell yo' two-three little stories about that. Mah mother onest, she was hurted - she was dressed by mah father and she suffered and she swole up jest big as a bale of cotton, dat big, and they didn't know anything to do for her. All doctors could not do anything fo' her. So there's a ole lady name Miz Chapman, she came to our house since we lived dere.
(Where was she living then?)
In Orrville, Alabama. An' dis lady come in an' she says, "Pore thing," say, "you're poisoned - you were dressed by yore husban'." An' she begin to rub her and rub, and fin'lly de swelling went down, and she give us medicine to take to get her up. And she tole us - it was on the ninth of the month, which it was de first of the month then when this happened - said, "This woman that hurt chew will come in an' ast yo' how yo' feel." And so on that day this woman walked in de room and ast her - ast mah mother how she feels. Mah mother tole her fine and she walked out.
(How did your father dress your mother?)
It was some stuff that this woman put on hr - it was poison, some kind of perfume dat dis woman puts on mah father, yo' see, and de minute dat it hit mother - de one that it was for [see No. 653], it throwed her into fits.
(Where did she put this perfume? On what part of the body?)
Put it under his arms. (What else did that woman do to get rid of this, besides rubbing - did she do anything else?) She give her a bottle of medicine to take.
Entry 681
I have heard that cunjure doctors put goofer dust in your shoes to put affliction on you and sometimes it causes you to have a bad foot, a sore foot. It'll never be healed, a swelling or something, unless you go to another cunjure doctor. And he will give you another dust supposed to fight this dust and try to get it out of your system.
Entry 698
I'll tell you whut I heard by mah gran'mama. She wus hurt an' she wus hurt in peas an' rice. An' she started jis' as she got this, you know two or three days after, she started to swellin' all up in her laig, all up in her hips an' all. An' there's a ole root doctor came aroun' an' he tole 'em, he said, "If you git a root doctor," he say, "he kin fix you up" - to my gran'mama. An' so he said that he knowed whut wus de matter with her. An' so he give her two doses of sulphur. An' after that he got some whiskey an' sulphur an' a root dey call John de Conker, an' take an' boil this John de Conker in this whiskey an' add this sulphur to it an' he give this three times a day. About the fifth day or the sixth day she got deathly sick. Well, they got scared then an' stop givin' it to her, but the root doctor came back by to see 'em an' tol' 'em, "No, don't stop." He say that was workin' on her. An' so, after she went on an' took it, after she got deathly sick, a snake, a little green snake, an' a scorpion - I don't know whut that is, I've never seen one, but this is my gran'mama that's tellin' us - an' so this came from her. An' so she got all right for three months. She was all right, walkin' aroun' jis' like you or I, all right. An' so roun' 'bout two months later this swellin' started again. They went an' got this ole root doctor an' he give her the same medicine agin. Told 'em continue to give to her. In jis' about two or three more months she got all right.
Entry 715
Mah mothah, she tole me once dat huh sistah, huh oldest sistah - dey all wus livin' in de house togethah - one mawnin' she woke up an' 'uh laig wus all swollen. An' dey taken 'uh tuh tuh-three doctahs - livin' in de country - didn't seem to do 'uh any good. An' aftah while huh laigs - hard knots came in it, in huh laigs an' nuthin' wouldn't do 'er no good. So an' ole man tole 'em about a doctah, some kin'a root doctah, an' dey got 'im to come to de house. An' he taken up a bottle from de front doah an' one from de back doah. Den he make some liquid medicine. Whut was in de bottle wus red flannen, strands of hayah (hair), an' fo' brass-eyed needles. It wus in each bottle. An' whut he done, he taken tuh silvah dimes an' balled [boiled] dem. He gave 'uh de water to drink off it an' she throwed up dose black things. They couldn't make out whut dey wus. Den he got some runnin' huckleberry - grows down on de ground, it don' have a huckleberry, it's jis' de vine named dat - den some alter [alder] tags. It's a bush grows an' has little tags on it jis' about dat long. An' dey made a - yo' know, ball [boil] it an' got enough water to bathe in and bath-d 'uh all ovah in dat. Taken dese bottles an' burn 'em in some cayenne peppah, jis' un- stopped 'em an' burned 'em; jis' sprinkle de cayenne peppah ovah 'em an' set 'em - you know, put enough trash tuh 'em to burn an' burn 'em up. An' in about a day or tuh she got well.
Entry 776
I heard my mother say one time she knowed a woman got hold a lock of hair and bored a hole in a tree and plugged it up. This man had spells and died, swell out of his head. They say he used to bark like a dog. [St. James, Negro community 5 miles from Pocomoke City, Md., (104), by hand; no electricity for my Telediphone.]
Entry 792
Well, they say you take the foot tracks and they can trick you with 'em. Pick it up - take something like a shovel or something like that and pick it up and bring it. Care [carry] it to the graveyard, and they would plant it by a grave and you'll find yourself - you're wasting away, something like wasting disease, see. Well, you say, "I'm going to a doctor, a medical doctor." Well, a medical doctor don't do you no good. "Well, I think I go to a two-head doctor" = [that] mean a hoodoo. Well, you go to a hoodoo and he'll say, "Well, you're tricked." He'll ask you, "Does you have pains up your legs?" You'll say, "Yes." Then the hoodoo will come and the hoodoo will say, "Well, have you been walking somewhere on the road somewhere?" You'll say, "Yes." The hoodoo will say, "Somebody done pick up your track - well, I can cure you." That what the hoodoo will say - he can cure you. Well, you say, "I give you so much to cure me" - you know, to make me well. Well, he say, "All right." Well, I'll try - try with this hoodoo man until he will try to do me some good. Maybe he may do me good and maybe, iffen I'm got confidence in him, he will do me good. Well, my feet are starting to swelling and paining me. I would take all kinds of 'erbs and medicines from him and start to rubbing myself with them but that don't do no good. Well, I'll say I'll try another hoodoo. You see. And then this Way he will go - the swelling will go - quite natchurly most anything will make swelling go down. This hoodoo will come along and may think he can do a whole lot for you. And well, he can't do nothing for you, you understand, because my sister was sick in the bed and a hoodoo man came there - he had a grip [bag] in his hand.
[He imitates a doctor by carrying a medical kit - see Doctor's bag in Index.]
He say to me - he walks in there - my sister was in the bed and I was setting by the bed with her. [Again, he apes a doctor by having a prescription: pad.] He had a tablet like you [see later] - just buy outen the store and there wasn't nothing on it, same as new, but he had that tablet fixed so that I couldn't tell - I couldn't tell you what I was going to tell you, but he walked in there and he say, "Your sister is sick and she got a bug in her bed."
(What in the bed?)
A bug, bug in her bed. He say she got a bug in her bed.
(Your sister had a bug in the bed?)
What made her sick.
(I see.)
Causing her being sick. And he say, "I can get this bug outen the bed for your sister, but it will cost fifty dollars. So she said, "Oh, I ain't got but thirty-five cents in the house." Do you understand me, what I say? [See Deafness in Introduction.] And he said, "I can show you what I can do." He pull out the tablet and he tore the sheet off the tablet - you couldn't see nothing, it was just like you'd buy out of the store. He goes, says, "You got a little lamp?" And he goes and he burns it. He burn that sheet but it didn't fall to pieces, you know. And on that sheet it say, "You going to die - you got a bug in your bed and if you don't get him out, you going to die and your next door neighbor - a tall, dark woman, put it in there for you."
(Did you see this writing on the paper?)
Yeah, I saw it.
(He held this piece of plain paper over the lamp?)
Yeah, and let it burn, and when it burn, you could see the writing just as good as you take your hand and do [write] it. [See Writing invisible, in Index.] He say, he ask the girl, my friend, he say, "Have you?" She say, "Well, I ain't got but thirty-five cents." He say, "Oh, it takes fifty dollars to do dat." He say, "Well, come back here." He goes back there in the next room and he say, "To show you that I'm not lying" - that's the hoodoo man say that, you know. He say, "Turn your mattress back." He had two little bottles just about that big, see [demonstrates].
(About the size of your finger.)
Yeah. One had a black bug in it like a wood bug - I don't know what kind of bug, but like a bug. And one bottle didn't have any in it. He said, "Throw your mattress back." Well, they throw the mattress back and he say, "Now look." Now, I was watching him very close, you know, and he say, "Now, you see this bottle." That bottle he showed us didn't have anything at all in it. He said, "I'm going to put this bottle under your mattress and then you throw it back and that bug going to get out of that mattress into that bottle." All right. She did that. Now, in place of him putting the bottle without any bug in, he slipped the one with the bug in it, you see. And when she turn back, he said, "Now go back and turn the mattress - look." And when we turn the mattress there was the bottle with the big bug in it. I say, "OH!" And my friend say, "Oh, look there, that bug was in your bed, too." I told her, I said, "oh, don't mind that, tain't no bug in no bed or nothing like that." I watched him so close and he was watching me very close, you know, when he was doing that. He say, "Well, I charge you fifty dollars to get him out." I say, "Well, she ain't got no fifty dollars." He say, "Well, I have to put this bug back in your bed." He goes and slips the bottle with the bug in in under there and taken the one what there was none in, and when he got ready to take the bottle out, he put the bottle what didn't have no bug in. He said, "Now, the bug has gone back in the mattress - into the bed." You know. Well, that was a fake. He didn't have no bottle - he had two. And by watching him close, that's what drawed my attention to him - you know, with the bottle what's in there. [He had a tablet like you - he refers to one of my Numbers Book.]
Entry 884
My great-grandmother was poisoned in some cabbages by one of her friends an' she gave her the cabbage to eat an' she ate it an' soon after she ate 'em she was swollen all up her feet clean in her hips. An' one of her friends went to see her an' she looked at her an' said she thought she was hurt - in fact this friend knew she was hurt an' she told her she's gon'a get a doctor, a root doctor, to do her some good. So she went to get the doctor an' when she got there he was so busy 'tending to somebody else he jes' told her whut to do for her. He told her to take lysol an' bathe in it in hot water all over an' take a dose of vinegar an' Epsom salt - make a dose of that together. She took it an' when it worked through her little green things come right out of her.
Entry 901
I was hurt once by a rootworker. I was hurt in mah right leg. And mah mother she went - and I was swellen - mah mother she went out to get a doctor. The doctor didn't do me no good. And after she found out dat de doctor wouldn't do me no good, she decided on to go back and git a root doctor. Well, he told her to go back and look under de front doorstep and she'll find a little rag, a red [rag], a little ball in it - red rag with red little ball in it, wrapped up. It [ball] was made of cloth. And he told mah mother dat when she go-ed [pronounce gode] dere she might be scared to pick it up, but don't be scared to pick it up: Well, de first time she went dere she looked at it, she didn't pick it up - she's scared. And she went back. He told her dat de only Way dat I would git rid of dis swellen, de lest dat I swell right on up, she'll have to git dat and bring it to him. Shortly after she came back, she went on back and got de rag and carried it on back to him. In a couple of days after- Wards, den I feel mahself gittin' a little ease. And so he worked on me and worked on me, and turned it around on this other fellah that had me fixed up [by rootworker in first sentence]. She said dat he took it [rag and ball] and dressed it up, and told her to carry it back - he told her where it came from [who had planted the rag and ball] - and told her to go throw it over de fence [into this person's yard]. [Wilmington, N. Car., (225), 228:4; in Petersburg, Ga.,1928.]
The narrator reports instructions to look beneath the front doorstep, then describes bringing back the rag and later disposal. Door retrieves this threshold location. The account establishes no door-panel identity, adjacent bottle contents or causal treatment finding.
Read full source (printed page 329) · Read full source (printed page 330)
Entry 907
Once a woman hurted her husband. He didn't know who had hurt him. An' one he friends took him an' cared 'im to a root doctor. It was off from Georgia, [at] Aiken [S. Car.] or some'eres over there. An' this man wouldn't tell him who hurt him, but he knowed it was his wife. An' so he give him some medicine an' told him to go back home an' take some of his urinate an' put it in a jar, a one-quart jar, an' stop it up tight an' dig a hole in the middle of the road. An' he put it down in there. He watched an' this woman came [walked over the buried jar] an' she took the same kin'a disease that he took. An' then this man that told him to do this [told him that after she walked over itl to come back to him an' get instructions. An' he went back to de man an' told him how he done. This woman, swoll her up in all the same that he was in. Then this man told him to go back an' take the jar up an' throw that stuff out. An' he went there an' do that an' she got well.
Entry 928
This is the real truth but I'm goin' tell you. When I was livin' in Florida, it's been eight chears ago [1929] I was goin' with a man. You see there's another ole woman wanted to go with the same man. An' I was workin' out but she weren't. An' I'd go to my work in the mornin' - I knew she wanted to go with him a long time before she did this - an' I would go to work ev'ry mornin' an' I always git back home in time for five o'clock. So she lived out in the country an' I lived kin'a in town. So she came in town one day: The train comes in there at Jl:30, see. An' I was workin' but I went home that afternoon about five o'clock an', as a general thing, I went an' I put my right foot upon the steps first [for luck], you see, an' after I got in the house I went on in the house an' put down my packages you know, then I begin to feel sick, an' I begin to spit foam an' white spit, an' it jis' went all over, you see, an' I set there an' I say, "I wonder what's the matter with me." An' I had a brother-in-law there an' he says, "Sister, wha' choo been eatin'?" I said, "Not a thing. I haven't even eaten any dinner [noonday meal]." So he come in there to see if there's nothin' wrong. I kep' a-spittin' that foam an' spit you see. I say, "I believe I'll lie down but first I'm goin' have a drink of water." Then I went an' lied down an' when I lied down the more that foam an' spit would come out of my mouth an' I'd have to spit. So I got up an' I said, "Bert, I feel like I have to leave you." I went to go down de front steps back out to go roun' the house [to the toliet] an' I jis' tumble - jis' my head was jis' [demonstrates] goin' over and over like that. I sort'a had to hold it up you know to keep from fallin'. An' I [came back and] went on into the house an' there wouldn't be a thing but that foam an' spit. So he went an' got a doctor - he got a medical doctor, see. The doctor come. He says, "Why, what's the matter with you - what choo been eatin'?" I said, "Nothin'." He thought - he sayed it might'a been a kin'a indigestion. I said, "I haven't eaten anything." So he give me some medicine; he give me some black froth [= black draft see Index]. First, he give me a dose of Epsom salts. But it got worse. I couldn't eat an' I couldn't keep settin' up alone. So then my brother-in-law say, "Well, I'll tell you, sister," he say, "suppose we try a root doctor." I said, "Well," I said, "anything you think you kin do." That was the next day. So he goes an' gits a root doctor. He's up there about East Palatka, Florida. An' so he got a man to take him up there. They got back that night. He came in an' immediately say, "This woman," he said instantly, "she's hurt." He [brother-in-law] say, "You think so?" He say, "No, I know." He sayed. "Now, let me tell you what choo do." He say, You go there an' you dig under her front steps tomorrow mornin' - the first thing.you go there an' dig." Well, I got along that night - he say, "After you git what's under them steps," he said, "then I'll tell what to do." He [brother-in-law?] went out there the next mornin' an' dug under there an' they got a pint bottle - a pint flask with corn whiskey [often means moonshine whiskey, white] in it an' that had frogs in it. He sayed there were frogs. He stayed around there till they got that bottle - had frogs in it an' lizards. Well, after they got the bottle out, then my leg would start funny - it would grab me like that, llke somepin crawlin' up my leg. It would get up almost to my knee an' then there would be a big knot, jis' like that - you could see that thing with the blood in it.
(What leg was this?)
The right one [she had stepped upon the steps with her right leg first]. Listen good. He sayed, "Now, I'm goin' tell yah what choo do." He: say, "You po' this whiskey off of 'em, you take these things an' burn 'em. He say, "Then, if you kin," says, "you try it," he say, "I know you kin becuz it's right on the railroad" - you see, down in Florida an' the train was always killin' cattle, you see - "an' you go down there an' you kill a buzzard [round the dead cattle]," he say, "it's against the law to kill [a buzzard] but if somebody killed one, you come back, you boil that buzzard, an' you give 'er a cup of that buzzard tea." Oh, it smells horrible! But I wanted to git well. An' then I would drink a cupful an' bathe that whole leg down with it choo know.
(Don't you bathe it up?)
No, he bathed down right on out de toe; told me to bathe right on out de toe. An' take that stuff after I bathed with it, you know, an' throw it north. An' then after that he sayed, "Well, I'm goin' try to cure you. I had four patients like this. They were in terrible condition." An' he did that with that buzzard water in that bucket for two or three days. Then he changed from that an' give me a pint bottle - he put sulphur in it an' whiskey, pure corn whiskey. An' I had to shake that up an' take a tablespoonful of that three times a day. Well, I got better - that spittin' up that foam an' stuff, you see. An' I felt good. Ev'ry day I'd feel all right. I'd go on with my own work till about time for that same - that train would come - the same she come on it that day at 11:30 - I begin to feel bad.
(Why did you feel bad when that train came?)
Oh, that the train she come on to put that devilment down, you see. An' ev'ry day when that ll:30 train come along I begin to feel bad an' I had to go to bed. Well, I - it was in summertime you see, an' I had to put on all the clothes an all the bedclothes they kin git an' put on me. An' the perspiration an' sweat would jis' roll off. An' when that train go back that she went [back] on at 5:30, I'd git all right. I'd git right out de bed - could git out de bed an' do my work. [For knot on head going and coming by time, see p.270.] Well, then I got well, I kep' takin' that sulphur an' whiskey what he told me. Then he fixed another dose [prescription] of red pepper and soda and vinegar in a bottle an' drinked that. He told me to take a swallah [of] dat ever' now an' then when I begin to feel bad an' boil all the water I drink. An' then he told me to lay hot poultices on that leg, an' ev'ry time it begin to pain to put that hot poultice of [corn] meal an' real hot pepper, an' they'd bind that to it. An' from then I began to feel better. [Wilmington, N. Car., (300), 225:3; at Burnell, Fla.,1934; the doctor charging $25.00.]
Entry 934
Well, ah was hurt - ah wus swollen up all ovah and ah had a rash jest broke out on me jest like spider web - jest all over wasn't a speck on me without de web, and mah eyes, de balls of 'em fell down heah and dis part was up in yore head. (Your eyeball sort of fell down?) Yes - ah couldn't see. Come on me all lak that. Ah went out mah house and came back - out well and came back all in dat condition. Well, it run on me till fo' 'clock so ah didn't know whut to do. Well, ah first called in a doctor. Well, de doctor he came and he said ah was poisoned. Well, he was doctoring on me, see, an' ah didn't know [then that I was hurt] - ah was trying him first. Well, it happened agin round de same time round de 15th of de next month. All right, he came in and saw me again. [And the doctor's medicine didn't do her any good.] So it come tuh me - ah said, "Dere something else wrong." So ah goes [to a doctor] tuh fin' out. So ah [or doctor] found a bottle of stuff look like sulphur - it was puffed. When it would swell, ah'd swell - it jest went all ovah mah body.
(This stuff in this bottle puffed up?)
It would puff up - it puffed up. When ah found it, it was swole jest lak ah was - looked like sulphur. It swole, you know, jes' like sulphur when it get wet and swell. Well, dat's de way it was. Well, when it would swell, ah would swell uP, yo' see. Mah eyes git blind and ever'thing. Well, after ah gits de stuff up, well, de swelling was yet there, yo' see. Well, it came to me [this is always guidance by a spirit] to use - ah use chamber lye and saltpeter. Dat's whut ah used to bath ever' morning 'fore sunrise. Then throw it away - throw it out. It commence to sink - all advanced away. Ah swole one time mo', after. Well, ah did de same thing. Well, ah've had no mo' of it.
(Where did you throw this out when you finished bathing with it?)
Throw it out in de back dirt, out chure back do', yo' see, sunrise - yo' throw it sunrise.
(Towards the sunrise?)
Yes, throw it sunrise and don't look back - over de left shoulder and don't look back. Dat cleared me up.
(Did that happen here in Mobile?)
Yeah.
(How long ago?)
'34 [1934].
Entry 960
Ah remember a lady once lent a fren' lady her shoes tuh wear - she's a dear fren'. When she brought de shoes back - dis lady wore her shoes to church - when she came back she began to swell. She swole up so until she didn't even favor herself. An' so they got doctors fo' her and de mo' she would take doctors medicine, it seems like de worse she would git. An' so fin'lly someone tole her 'bout gittin' a root doctor. So this root doctor came - she was a lady - and she said, "Well, ah can't work on yo' today, see, ah have to work on you when de spirit tell me - ah'll come back maybe two days later." She came back and she brought some kin' of a tea and she heated dis tea and put this girl in terrible hot steaming water - jest was so hot seems like it was scalding. So she jest bathed her down - and she did that fo' three mornings and de swelling left her.
(Why did she bathe her down - why not up?)
She said by bathing her down that'll cause de misery to go on out - go on out
[through feet - see Downwards in Index.]
(Did that happen right here in Mobile?)
That happened in Mobile.
Entry 964
Dere somepin did to mah sistah. She go fo' a ice cream sodee on a Friday night an' de othah girls dere didn't like her at all. So she went dere at night an' dey served her ice cream an' dey fixed her a saucer of it, an' after- wards she remembered dey speci'lly bring her saucerful. An' after- ward, purtty soon after she leave, de side of her laig all commence painin' her all de way up. An' purtty soon dey had taken an' carry her home, couldn't walk, where she got sick an' de doctah 'tended her [and could not help her]. An' dat laig had swole so, jes' to de knee - swole so dat it jes' be a bag of skin dere an' yo' see somepin like somepin wus crawlin' up an' down her laig. So mah father, he goes an' git him a ridge bass - a root worker, an' he looked at her an' he give her some tea, some kinda tea in a jar an' tole her she'd be all right in about eight or nine days. Didn't [give] her no 'tenshun an' she seem to be gittin' worse an' worse, an' in about a week an' a half he came dere - it wus in de mawnin', said, "Ah come tuh cure de girl." Father say, "Ah hope so - she didn't rest any last night an' she not restin' now." An' he give him three little tablets 'bout de size of an' aspirin tablet but they were black. He tole us, say, "Git the slop jar." She taken de three, an' in about five minutes time she commence gaggin' an' she gagged up a pure green frog: She re'lly did dere in de slop jar. Ah wus standin' right dere.
(End of 1429.)
(That story he told me about the envelope - throwing it up in the air and having it disappear - he said that the root doctor was old Doctor Harris down in Florence, S. Car.) [Fayetteville, N. Car., (1429), 2579:13.] [Folk Medicine I will divide into two subsections: (l) Principles of Healing, beginning here, and (2) Cure and Protection, which begins on page 410.] [A considerable amount of material about principles of healing, cures and protection has already been given. Here I would like to emphasize two things - folk cures about which we have heard little; and the fact that disease, sickness, pain, bad luck, everything in witchcraft and hoodoo is a spirit.] [The problems of health are many, difficult and expensive. It is unfortunate that they should also be encumbered with prejudice and superstition. Concerning the latter - believers in witchcraft, hoodoo and magic throw a halo about their heads, claiming as their authority the Bible, the Word of God: - (l)he [Manasseh] observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards (2 Ch.33:6) - (2) Saul had put away those that had faniliar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land (1 Sam.28:3)- (3) Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (Ex.22:18).] [One informant expresses the attitude of witchcraft and hoodoo believers as well as the view of Biblical fundamentalists:]
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 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 1008
He had a aunt named Aunt Rachel and she used to cook for Mr. S. at Lake Waccamaw. And she had a friend and this friend wanted her iob and she didn't know how to get it honest. It was Jis' like she knowed she couldn't get it honest, I guess, and so she worked a scheme to get it. Well, she went to work and - of course we didn't know what it was all about until she taken sick. But after she taken sick dey had several doctors to her, dey didn't know still about de matter - de doctors couldn't found what was de trouble with her. So one day she swoll all up. She swoll, look like she gon'a burst all her skin, had this fit, and pant for breath. She jis', you know, like every breath would be de last. She couldn't do anything but jis' lie dere and shake and hold her hands like dat. Dis is a real story that I'm tellin' yah, I know about it. She took like dat and dey couldn't do anything atall. De doctors couldn't do anything with her. And so one day Mr. S. told his waitress aroun' there, he says, "Ed," he say, "suppose we do some work aroun' the yard today." Ed said, "Well, Mr. S.," he says, "what will be the first thing on the docket?" He says, "I tell you. I spect we'll move that pump, tear it down and put a new platform and all aroun' it." So they began to move de pump and to taken down this platform all aroun' de pump. And right under de pump after dey begin -.dey take up de pump - dey was two bran'-new saucers and a dozen brass pins, and some stuff and some hair was pinned up in this two bran'-new saucers. Dey [saucers] were plant one over de other, plant together, and dey were placed under de pump. And she was - that Was her dose under de pump. And jes' as soon as that pump was moved and these saucers were removed from this place she got all right. They burned 'em up.
[Wilmington, N. Car., (256), 252:3; Lake Waccamaw, Columbus Co., N. Car.,1896.]
Entry 1181
Dey use chicken feathers, dey say to take spells off people - dappled. dese speckled feathers. Yo' take 'em an' yo' put 'em in a pot or a pan an' yo' fry 'em down to a medicine lak, an' if dere anybody dat swole up or root worked or somethin' lak dat, yo' bathe 'em down with that. Yo' cook dat [feathers] down in pure lard.
Entry 1200
Well, ah know de woman. Once dey had a woman fren', supposed to be, an' she wus jealous of her an' de boy fren'. So in comin' to dis woman's house she tried to break 'em up by talkin' to her an' she couldn't. So den she dressed de do'knob, dressed her do'knob fo' dis woman. An' dis woman dat wus dressed, it started from one finger as a red spot an' den dis red spot grew cross from finger to finger, every finger excepting de thumb. So dis woman's han' swole clean down to dis finger, an' got to de place where she couldn't open it, couldn't git it up ovah her haid, an' she re'lly didn't know whut tuh do. She did things an' did things an' fin'lly she wus told to git her chamber lye an' to put fresh salt in it an' to wash de do'knob with it, an' it would turn white, an' to do dat fo' nine days. An' den she tole 'er to go to a cow lot an' git dis hot passage from de cow an' put a plaster in her han' dat night an' de nex' mawnin' her han' would be as white as a piece of cloth, an' it would rid her of ever'thing. An' she did dat an' dat cured it. (She wiped off that doorknob each day for nine days. She didn't put any chamber lye on her hand or anything?) No - jes' de do'knob.
(All she put on her hand was this cow manure?)
Dat's it - one time. [For interesting story of cow manure on head, see No.967, p.362.]
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 1351
I know of another lady, she had a swell leg, an' she went right in the back of the field an' she got some bushes - I reckon you have heerd talk about jimson weeds. Well, they got some jimson weeds an' put vinegar on 'em - put 'em in vinegar - an' put 'em to her leg, an' the leg completely went down.
(How did she get that swollen leg?)
She think dat she was hurt.
Entry 1880
They catch them a toadfrog and puts him in their pocket and the money - the first bet that they win, they put that money in that pocket with that frog, and as that frog swell in his pocket, well you going to be winning the game.
(If that frog swells in the pocket?)
In that there pocket - yes, sir.
(You mean - how do you mean swells?)
Just - you know how they get - they just puff out that way. Well, as he begin to puff out, you just win and win till you break the ante.
Entry 2307
Dey kin take dis heah bone, snake bone an' plant 'em an' put 'em down fo' people tuh walk on top of 'em unbeknownst to 'em - dey goin' walk, see. An' den dey go ahead on an' dey'll ketch dose poison bones into 'em an' dey'll swell up, 'cause dey're poisoned.
Entry 3202
And there's a way where women dress their husbands when they don't want them to go with other women. Well they do that by catching a live toadfrog, and they put the toadfrog alive in a container and put a top with a brick on top of it so he can't jump out, and they cook that frog down to just natural grease, and fer nine nights they dress their husband's private with that grease from the frog. It doesn't make any diff ren' if he washes the nex' day, she continues to do that every night and when she doesn't have anything to do with him herself, because it would be detrimental to her, too. And when he comes in contact with this other woman, aftah nine days, the same amount of nights she greased him, there'll come a ball on her privates like your fist and it baffles the doctors, they don't know what it is, because it's somepin very unusual. The toadfrog is used for lots of things.
Entry 3444
Yo' know de colored people laks livah, laks tuh eat livah yo' know - beef livah, calf livah. Well, quite natchel [natural] dey cooks de dog livah. Well, now, quite natchel, he laks livah, yo' see. But now, yo' wouldn't prepare dis livah fo' me, if yo' didn't care nuthin about me. Dese wimmins genly [generally] use dat on dere husban'. Dey usin' dat to tie him; if he goes out anywhere, why he'll git hung jes' lak a dog would. Dat's whut dey do wit dog livah.
(That's to shame him or something if he's caught.)
Oh! he git caught. Dere ain't no doubt about it. He'll swell up. An' de only thing dat kin unswell 'im - co'se de doctor [M.D.] kin do it, but quite natchel he might not he'p 'em [be able to help them] if dey settin' down a couple of days. He put a piece of ice right dere, an' dat ice gotta have at least three minutes, an' it will untie 'em. If she haven't got no ice, no good ice watah where yo' kin bathe 'im back down [my root doctor informant is now talking about his own professional abilityl, or bathe her down where it swellin', den he'll git fastened dat much tightah an' de doctor [M.D.] have tuh unloosen dem. Give 'im somepin tuh cool 'im down an' throw de swellin' down. Dat's why some use it - dem dat's mean enough - use dog's livah fo' dat. Dat's whut dey do wit it.
Entry 3963
Take a piece from a woman dat she wear in her private time. An' she kin put dat in a can an' turn de can down, an' bury it in de yard anywhere an' let it stay dere. Well, dat woman dat dat piece come from, she's locked up all de ways roun'. She jes' swells up in heah an' she locked up down dere. She locked up evahwhere. An' den if yo' don't git dat thing up from dere, dat woman will die. She'll bu'st open an' after [afterwards] she die.
Entry 4041
It was a woman that had a fuss with another woman. Having this fuss with her she crossed her water [made in the liquid a cross mark or letter X] and stopped it up tight. This woman could not urinate. She got on her bed and swelling up, she kept swell- ing up. And after awhile the doctor [M.D.] couldn't do nothing for her. So this woman goes to her and told her that she would turn her loose, if she would only give her a job. She said, "I will." So she goes home and takes this cork out this bottle, and just laid it on the side and turn it down, and this water commenced to running and this woman commenced to urinating in the bed, and when the last of the water was out of the bottle she got up.
Entry 5104
Ef a person git one of yuh shoes, ef dey put bluestone an' sulphuh an' beat it all up tuhgethah an' git some of dis stuff from de drug store dey call de incense, dey put dat in de bottom undah yuh shoe. Yo' know de li'le piece dat be's up in yuh shoe [insole]. Put it up undah dere an' put it back down. Well, when yo' put dat shoe on, yo' goin' always stay sickly, an' yuh feets will start tuh swell.
Entry 5194
Git holt of yore shoes, shoes or yore socks yo' know, an' jis'...
(What are they supposed to do with those?)
Supposed tuh git yore shoes an' yore socks, eithah one, an' mixes some of yorr undahclothes wit 'em, an' dese pins an' needles, an' buries 'em. Dat'll cuz yore feet tuh swell.
[Norfolk, Va., (453) 427:5.]
Entry 5236
Take yore left - take dis sole out chure left shoe, dat inside [insole] out chure shoe, an' yo' take dat sole an' yo' take solid brown papah. YO' EVAH SEEN A TERRAPIN? Cut it [brown paper] in shape of a terrapin. De shoe, dat's in shape of a terrapin. De shoe, dat's in ordah - now, if yo' wanted tuh Zingah a person, yo' know, fix 'em so dey be lingahin' all de time. An' yo' cut dis piece of brown papah an' cut dat shoe sole [insole] an' yo' ball it up in a new piece of homespun. Take dis piece an' de same shoe dat yo' taken it out of, an' slip it back in dey house. Yo' know, lak peoples shoe is settin' roun' dere an' yo' take de sole out. Well, maybe yo' be smart enough tuh git it back in de house, an' yo' put dis piece of papah in it. Well, de nine days aftah dey git tuh weah dis shoe, dey foot begin tuh swell up an' dere ankle an' yo' cain't tell [the cause of the swelling]. Well, if dey take dat piece of - DAT. SOLE DEY GOT OUT OF YORE SHOE, IF DEY MAKE 'WAY WIT IT COMPLETE AN' FO'GIT ABOUT WHERE DEY PUT IT, WHY YO'LL NEVAH BE CURED. DERE'S NOBODY IN DE WORLD WILL EVAH CURE YO'. (If you want to make this person linger, you take this sole out of his shoe. Now, what do you do with this brown paper?) Yo' take dat papah an' put it back in dere shoe, in de toe of dere shoe. Yo' know it's kind of a tissue papah, li'le thin papah. Dey put it in de toe of dere shoe jes' as fur as yo' kin git it. An' whenevah yo' do dat, dey weah de shoe. Maybe dey weah de shoe out an' don' evah know dat papah is in de shoe. An' when- evah dey do 'way fo' yo', jes' lak anybody come in wit anythin' an' throw it down an' fo'git about where dey put it.
(Do they put the inner sole back in the shoe?)
No suh, keep it. If dey git holt of dat dey kin git cured.
(You take that sole [insole] out.and you put this paper in the shoe?)
Put it in de shoe. Cut it in de shape of a terrapin.
Entry 6449
Well, dey could take yore toenails an' put 'em on a fire; parch 'em up an' make a powdah outa dem, see. Dey could take a frog, take dat frog an' put 'im in somepin where he can't git out, yo' see. Dey puts 'im on a fire an' parches 'im up tuh a powdah. Dey mixes dose two things tuhgethah, yo' undahstan'. An' aftah dey mix 'em tuhgeth- ah, den dey'll take 'em an' put 'em in a red flannel bag, a little small bag, an' dey will bury dem, see. When dey bury dem, it takes effect on yo' right away. Yo' git founded in yore feet. Yo' can't git about an' yore feet will begin tuh swell on yo'.
(I see.)
[Since I did not ask for the meaning of the preceding founded, I must have understood it as confounded in your feet (found being an obsolete form of con- found); or as fZoundered (flounder = stumble) or to stumble and go lame, as a horse.]
Entry 6534
Ah heard dat dey could take a dozen [12] red ants an' cook dem an' put 'em in a package. An' git dat package tuh a person an' saturate dat package in anything dat he might drink. An' dat would cuz 'im tuh swell up an' give him a' interternal [= internal] disease.
(In other words you would use this in the liquor.)
Entry 6586
Take a scorpion, jis' lak yo' wanta scorpion, yo'd have one drop of blood, an' de joint of 'is tail give it tuh 'im.
(Just one drop of blood and [from] his tail.)
Take a joint. Evah joint's a drop of blood an' evah joint of blood will make a scorpion. Yo' jis' drop one drop in dere an' give it tuh a person, well dere will come a scor- pion. Yo' have dat little thing in dere cuz ah done see 'em right in dey feets. De feets git lak dat, gits swelled up.
(Is there any way of getting those things out?)
Not unless yo' see a person, de person dat gives it tuh yo' tuh git it. Dey kin take it, but how he take it out ah wouldn't know jis' how he take it.
Entry 6654
Take a snake shed, see, most any kinda snake shed, an' beat dat snake- shed up real fine, an' puts it in a 'bacca [tobacco] sack an' go tuh mos' any man. Lak yo' go tuh a person an' yo' don' wanta [do nuthin] kill 'im - mean, he done hurt chew. Well, he take dat snakeshed an' go dere an' put it in 'is coffee, or any meal, or anythin' he kin git it in sompin tuh eat, an' name him, say, "Jim, John" - de one he name he wanta kill.
(Well, what will that snakeshed do to them?)
It'll swell yo' an' keep swellin' yo' till yo' start tuh - snakes start growin' in yo' till yo' die.
Entry 6665
Mah aunt wus fixed wit a black spidah. Dey taken an' mashed dis spidah up an' give her in whiskey tuh drink. An' it swelled 'er foot, an' befo' we could git tuh do anythin' fo' her she died.
Entry 6838
Tea from High John de Conkah, apple tree bark, an' fig tree roots [for pain or swelling].
editorial-only purpose annotation for the short tea item. Role remains editorial, not informant. Preserve pain OR swelling rather than both diseases or a diagnosed condition. These are attributed source occurrences; outcomes remain unverified.
Entry 6778
[I know] evahthin' about it. Yo' take yo' some vinegah an' dirt daub- ah, yo' see, an' yo' mix it up jis' lak a salve-lak, yo' see, an' lay it on yore face wit a rag, yo' see. Plastah it on yore face. Dat bring dat swellin' down.
Entry 7644
If yo' got somebody an' maybe yo' Wanta kill dat person or wanta harm dat person. Say now if yo' go up in de graveyard an' maybe it been some man dat have lived a rowdy life. Yo know some people live a very rowdy life, nevah attempt tuh be a Christian, a very rowdy person. Some people cuss tuh de last. Say yo' go tuh dat person an' go tuh de foot of 'is grave an' dig down one foot in de groun', she say. An' git chew a handful of dat dirt an' put it in a bag, an' bring it back home an' go round at dat man's back do', an' jes' take dat dirt an' throw it lak it wuz some flour or sompin. on de ground. Say, why dat man will come afflicted wit 'is laigs, or make his foot swell up, or he'll have some kind of ailment about 'is laigs account dat graveyard dirt bein' around de dō'.
Entry 7850
Af' choo bear [bury] it [graveyard dirt], yo' walk ove' [over] dat, dat'll give yo' a pain. Well, dat'll make yuh feet swell up. Some time yo'll fall down dey [= dere = there], yo' cain't git up wit'out somebody help yuh up. [To bury graveyard dirt for an intended victim to walk over is one of the commonest rites in hoodoo. Examples in various combinations and for a variety of purposes are given else- where.]
Entry 7864
Take graveyard dirt an' red peppah. Jes' lak if yo' seen somebody yo' hated, why yo' go where yo' think dey walk at in de mawnin'. Go 'fore sun [before sunrise] in de mawnin' Where dey git up an' walk ovah it. Sprinkle it roun' in de yard yo' see, an' den dey'll walk ovah it. Yo' kin fix dem lak dat.
(What will that do to them?)
Well, sometimes it will give dem - dere feet will swell up or dere laigs or somepin lak dat, an' dey can't git it off dem until dey go tuh some root person or somepin lak dat.
Entry 8831
And they knows yore handwritin' - get holt of it, dey can.
(What will they do?)
Well, dey will take dat han'writin' an' dey kin cross-write yore han'writin', yo' see, so ah'm told. Cross-write yore han'writin', jes' like yo' write a lettah straight; well, now, dey'll go 'cross it.
(I'll write it straight?)
Straight, an' dey'll turn it [the paper upside down] an' go across it. (I see, just cross it - just turn the paper around and cross it.) Cross it, see. Dey turn de Papah aroun' an' cross it. Well, when dey cross it, den dey'll fold dat papah differently, yo' see. An' dey'll puts it in a draw, draw it with heat or watah, see. An' aftah drawin' it with heat or watah; de sweat from dat papah is what dey uses, yo' see. Well, if dey use dat sweat, dey got yore han' jes' de same, yo' see. An' dey put it in a bottle an' use it, cause yore han' tuh swell up. Dey put salt, peppah an' alum in it an' dey'll lay it in a place undah de step, an' it will cause yore hand to swell.
Entry 10218
Ah've heard dat if a man wanted to ketch his wife, why he would be dit her an' he would take a han'kerchief an' ketch de discharge from her, an' git I piece of her hair, an' he would put it in a cloth wit dat discharge an' dry it; br he yould wrap dis hair in wit dat an' wear it. An' if she have connection wit a man why he would swell so he couldn't git out of her, an' dat would cause de husban' tuh ketch her. (Then he would use the hair from her head.) [The discharge here is not menstrual blood but the substanceformerlythoughtto resemble man's semen and to cooperate with it in the production of life. Folk- lore knew nothing about a woman's ova or eggs. Elsewhere I have called her dis- charge 'female semen in accordance with folk belief - No.3196, p.2359, v.3.]
Entry 9925
Take a toadfrog an' squeeze him an' take his watah [urine] out of 'im, if a person yo' don't like, see. Squeeze him till yo' git 'is watah outa him. An' when yo' git 'is watah outa 'im, take a li'l blue- stone an' mix it up wit dat toadfrog watah, an' add some of yore watah [urine] tuh it. It will cause de person tuh swell up. Yo' give it tuh 'em in a drink or somepin, dey'll swell up an' bust.
Entry 11168
Yo' kin take a person's shoes an' go ahead an' dress 'en an' have dey foots all swell up.
(How do you dress those shoes?)
How would dey dress dose shoe? Well, yo' kin take dose shoes an' yo' kin go tuh work an' git chew some John de Conkah an' devil's-shoestring, an' make yo' a powder an' yo' kin sprinkle it all in dose shoes. An' dat person will go an git dose shoes an' put 'em on an' dat'll hurt his foot.
(Make sore feet.) [Feet are more than sore! Only a root doctor can cure them!]
Entry 13086
Yo' ketch yo' a snake an' kill dis snake. Now, yo' if [you] know it 'tain't but one person goin' handle dis axe, take dis snake an' rub dis snake undah dis axe handle or eithah a hoe - what [what- ever] it is. Lak now, if ah wus mad wit chew an' if ah know nobody use dis but chew, ah would jes' rub dis snake on dis axe handle good. Dat would make yo' swell up an' die.
Entry 13095
Kin put different things in it to cause yo' feet tuh swell, such as rattlesnake's - take de haid of a rattlesnake an' go out dere an' dry it in a sack yo' know an' take dat dust - dat aw- ful poison yo' know - jes' a little bit of dat. Dat's de same way as dey do tuh kill yo' - right through dis country. Dey'll take dat rattlesnake haid an' dry it yo' know an' git a dust an' lak yo' vanted a drink, dey'd be standin' aroun' an' yo' happen tuh po' de likker out, dey drop de least bit of dat in dere, yo' know. Dat's rank poison. Yo' drink dat whiskey an' it kill yo' an' it hardly kin be detected. Or dey put dat in yore shoes an' cause yore feet tuh swell.
Entry 13106
Just like I wanted to do you harm. I can get some snake dust and get some graveyard dust and - just like you are in the habit of, when you are cooking anywhere you feel. Like in the country we cook on a fireplace - like you put your hand up there. And perhaps you may find a brick that is loose where I can stick that dust before anybody can catch me. When you have your back turned - and you may rub your eyes or something like that, like you rub your face some- times. They can hide that dust in that chimney and if you should get wet on your hands, it will cause your hands to swell up, and if you get it in your eyes, it will cause you to go blind. [This rite given by a professional doctor.]
Entry 13112
Dust from rattlesnake rattle and graveyard dirt in your shoes make feet swell. [Norfolk 526:7.]
Entry 13113
If someone sprinkles snake dust in your shoes, in 9 days your feet will swell and you can't walk. [Norfolk 515:3.]
Entry 13233
They take a shoe - the bottom [insole] out of your shoe - and they can put some steel dust in there, you see. Steel dust! And you walk on it, you see. Well, that steel dust in there, you see, that's to swell your foot up. You see. (You put this in the bottom of the shoe, you say?) Right in the bottom of the sole of your shoe, you see, and you walks on it, you understand, when you get that.
(If they put that steel dust in your shoe, then you would see that?)
No, some of 'em could put it - you see that piece what goes in the bottom of the shoe, that leather rag, they puts it under the leather [insole]. See.
(I see.)
Entry 4339
Some persons cork it in tight bottles an' concrete de top [= cement, tighten top with sealing wax, etc.] an' turn it down, an' let it stay in de groun' so many days, an' yo' will [begin] tuh weakenin' from de bottle. An' if yo' don't find 'at bottle an' let dat urinate out, yo'll fin'lly swell up as wit dropsy an' die.
Entry 4401
Jes' lak if yo' pull off yore shoes at night an' a person wanted tuh hurt chew or somepin othah lak dat. An' if he could git some of yore dung, yo' know, an' smeah [smear] it on yore shoes, an' put some salt an' red peppah in it an' fix it So yo' couldn't walk, yore feet would swell up. YO' HAVE SOMEPIN LAK DE RHEU- MATISM, CALLED DE DROPSY OR SOMEPIN OTHAH lak dat.
Entry 13354
They put your urine in a bottle, stop it up, and bury it "to de north corner of de world, your stomach will swell up or "you can't make no water."
[Washington, D. C. 823:3.]
Entry 4209
Cuz a person tuh swell up wit dere watah.
(How would they do that?)
Dey put it in anythin' airtight an' stop it up fo' nine days, an' den a person begin tuh swell up.
(Stop it up for nine days, then what do they do with that?)
Say it will cause a person tuh swell up.
The informant says stopping the person's 'watah' in something airtight for nine days will cause swelling; no result is independently established.