The book is all interviews of Black Hoodoo workers giving advice from everything from spirits, witches, dreams, herbs/rootwook, candlework to getting a loved one back to removing roots. Everything is in here.
All interviews/content is written in original dialect.
Here are just a few out of thousands of interviews/stories in the collection.
SPIRITS
34. It will drive them away but you can't make 'em stay, see. A spirit is something that you can't nevah drive away, but you kin silence him. You silence him' by the 23rd division of the Psalms of David - 37th division of the Psalms of David, the 108th division of the Psalms of David - will silence a traveling spirit - that 's the spirit that comes in and goes out and each time when he comes in, he brings from one to seven more.
Now , that 's how come so many people become restless and dissatisfied - is because of evil spirits trans forming ' em, back and forth . Every time you breath you are breathing in and out some kind of a spirit . Well then , at night you will begin to worry about his moving around . In other words you kin take holy water and sprinkle it at chure door - up ovah your door and on each side of it, and read de 23rd division of the Psalms of David, and you will silence them, you won't have any more trouble out of 'em.
PRESENCE OF SPIRIT/CREEPY FEELING
I worked at College Park, Maryland, and when I would leave the quarters and pass by the hothouse, every time that I passed by this hothouse I would have a peculiar feeling, and when I got by this hothouse this peculiar feeling would a hot steam, they leave. It impressed my mind that it surely was ghosts or something creeping around. [Ocean City, Md .,( 22 ), Ed.]
48. They tell me you can feel them. You feel creepy yourself; feel like something creeping up on you and going to grab you. You get awful restless. They say - a spirit is creeping up on you. [New York City , ( 6) , Ed .]
50. In country p laces in the wintertime you can pass a warm stream going over your shoulder and all up and down your face. You're kinda like where they was over a stove right out of doors. There 's something funny about that. But olden people said it was a spirit that you met. I've passed them many a time in my time. I've been awful frighten because I heard the olden people speak about them so much. I thought they could harm me. I used to tell my mother about it. She said, "There 's no harm in them. Don't be afeard." [New York City, (6), Ed.]
DREAMS:
58. I wouldn't want to speak ill of the dead, for I think they know what you are saying. My reason is, they can come back and give so many warnings. These warnings come mostly in your sleep. I have heard something about that was buried. This man kept on coming back to his family and asking them in a dream to take him up out of that grave, so finally they went and took him up, and the coffin was in water. They took him up and put him in a dry place, and they never saw him again. [New York City , (1) , by hand.]
59. I have tried to see my father 's spirit ever s nce he died . I tried to draw him to me but I have never been able to do it. I'll tell you what I have seen. Sometimes I go to bed and I am warned in a dream - of any man or woman who is ab out to approach - by my father. However, I never hear his voice, but I see him in this dream. [Ocean City, Md ., ( 20 ), Ed .]
WITCHES/RODE BY WITCHES
A witch is something that comes t o your bed after you lays down and he rides you. You can't speak either when he gets on you , they say . They just ride you till they bring you to nothing. You get so poor you can hardly live. You can't holler. You think you are holler ing but you ain't saying anything. Some people call them nightmares now. Dey tell me, that if they once start after you, it's hard to break them off. [ Old Point Comfort, Va . , ( 2 1) , Ed . ]
431. I knew a man that use to belong to this church, Tyree [ African Methodist Episcopal] Church [ just out of Berlin, Maryland ]. It was his mother-in-law. She was one of these witches. So she got him in kin'a poor health, the way he told the story. Someone t old him to cat ch her when she was riding him. When you are in bed asleep they get on you and bear on you. They ride horses too and tangle the manes . And so he caught his mother-in-law, so he told me. After that she came to so she couldn't talk, and just nat ch 'ly pined away. She talked round - you could 't understand her - until she died. Some call that nightmare. [ Tyree Church, Md., ( 12) , Ed.]
MATCHES: Is He the One You Will Marry?
Take matches, yessuh, an' put 'em in a shoe an' take his shoes an' place 'em undah de head of yore bed an', if yo' wanta find if it's a person whether yo' goin' tuh marry 'ern or not, an' yo' cross those shoes an' place 'em jes' lak a T an' don't say a word to anybody when yo' goin' tuh bed, an' yo'll dream yo' goin' tuh marry dat person. You'll dream about 'em that night.
(You put matches in each shoe. How many do you put in each shoe?)
Yes, in each shoe. Yo' put three matches in each shoe.
(Lighted or unlighted?)
No - unlighted. [Fayetteville, N. Car. , (1426), 2572:13.]
TO SEPARATE WOMAN FROM MAN IN 3 DAYS - CROSS 4 NEEDLES - NAME THEM - PUT UNDER HER STEPS
This is another variation of my mom's fave. As she loves to do this when she doesn't like one of my sisters or brothers BF/GF's.
Well , ah heered de way a man [ cunjureman ] handles a woman [ for a woman client ] j es' about takin ' ' er [ away from client 's man ]. Ands he wanted dis woman ranned away [ from her man ]. She
went tuh dis woman's house an ' took fo ' needles an ' crossed ' em at ' er do ' step an ' named dem. An ' when she named de needles , de woman left in three days aftah , an ' ' er [ client's ] husband ' come back. See. [Fayetteville , N. Car . , (1422) , 2562:2. ]
HAIR
A man sews up some of a woman's hair and wears it to make her love him. [Mobile 891 : 11. ]
11862. A woman sews up a man' s hair in a piece of his shirt tail and wears it in her bosom for love:- [Wilmington 261 : 3+85 . ]
11863. A woman wraps a man's hair in paper and wears it on her bosom for love. [ Fredericksburg by Ediphone. ]
11864. She takes hair from a man ' s head and some from her own head, ties it with threa, puts it in a bag with her fingernails , and wears it her bosom for love . [Wilmington 25 2 : 4+85 .]
11865. If you person's hair in bottle, that person will follow you .[Norfolk 4 7 5: 1. ]
AS ENEMY LEAVES - SPRINKLE SALT ON HIS BACK AND ACROSS DOORSILL - AFTER 24 HOURS SWEEP UP AND BURN
9459. If you had an enemy call upon you and you did not desire his visit or attentions, when they are beginning to leave, without letting them know what you then sweep it out the door and across the sidewalk, up, and that person will never visit you any more. [Fredericksburg, Va., (cylinder 54), by Ediphone.]
Wanting to see someone from "The Knowing Woman" Sumter, SC (Volume II)
Ah t ell yuh whut chew do . If yuh have anyone ' way from home an ' yuh wanted see dem, yuh git dat pitchure an ' look at it lak yuh wan't em - say "Lookey heah, chi1e dis is mah son who 's gone fo ' evah an ' evah. God , ah would like tuh see him again. Fathah, kin ah evah see mah son. Ah wan ' tuh see him. " Go tuh yore! self now . Go out in the field or in de woods an ' call ' his name three times , three times, just as hard as you can call him. An ' yuh put dat pitchure up ovah youe door or in yore Bible an ' he will come tuh yuh. It wouldn't be thirty days , it wouldn't be two weeks , he'll pack up an ' leave dere.
One of my favorites from the collection: DREAM Warning from Her Mom
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 [medical 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, "Green 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 fo ' me an ' tole in five days ah would be able to wear mah shoes again, 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 to wear it I wore de shoe an ' immediately my swelling went down within five days. [St.Petersburg , F la ., ( 1005) , 1620:7.]
