Document text
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FOLKLORE
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM it.
Circumstances of Interviw
KNOT New York
NAME OF MAIER Vivian Morris
mmmins 225 W. 130th St. New York City
DATE October 31, 1938
SUBJECT HARLEM CONJURE MAN
1. Date and time of interview October 27, 1938
2. Place of interview
HARLEM Nest 141st S1'., near Lenox Ave.
3. Name and address of informant
4. Name and address of person. if any, wno put you in
touch with informant.
"Sagwa" (Known only by that name)
71 West 141st. St. NYC
William weiner
513 Lenox Ave. NYC
Personally contacted by staff -worker.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
See First paragraphs of Form C for information re-"Sagwa".
See page 3 for inforthation re -"The Jupiter Man" --William Weiner.
Both informants make a living selling
herbs (etc.) --and conjure lore.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
STATE
NAME oF VOIKEn
ADDITSS
DA1F
SUIriJECT
1. Ancestry
1 -,Wk
Pers.?nal 11.1y Jf_infoeint
NEW YORK
VIVIAN MORRIS
225 WEST 130th STREET, NEW YORK
OCTOBER 31, 1938
HAREM CONJURE MAN "SAGWA" and
WILLIAM WEINER "The Jupiter Man"
!Sagwar West Indian Negro
Willian Wainer "The Jupiter Man" Negro
2. Place and dote of tarta
8. Family
indeterminable
unknown
4. Places live(
could not learn
5. Education, wii:n tt
could not learn
6. 0:tcupations nnd accomplif*mmtF, with dao..
medicine men
7. Special skills and interests
medicine and conjuring
8. Community and religious activitles
not known
9. Description of informant
for "Sava" see text of Form C
10. Other Points gained in interview
FOLKLORE
NE'' YORK
FORM C
Toxt of Iltervicw
STATE New York
NAME OF WOKETI. Vivian Morris
ADDRESS 225 W. 130th S.L. New York City
DATE
October 31, 1938
SUBJECT HARLEM CONJURE MAN
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
The dilapidated wooden shack I visited was perched on
the edge of an old junk yard in 141st Street, East of Lenox Ave.,
and looked as if it might collapse any moment. The huge living
room sprawled dirty and unkempt and smelled of dog and cat dung.
Through partly open door that led to an adjoining room, I could see
two bristling German police dogs flanked by a half dozen or more lean
and hungry -looking cats. The place had an earthern floor that was
damp but firmly packed, and a dank musty odor pervaded the atmosphere.
Slouched in a broken arm -chair was a huge West Indian Negro
(not black but a sallow riny yellow) who weighed close to 270 pounds.
His mouth was loose and sensual; his eyes, small and crafty. The
thing about him that compelled my attention most, however, was his
large, bloated stomach that rose and fell at intervals like some
giant toy -balloon.
I talkednwith him for a long time and was spellbound by
all he told me but was greatly relieved when he had finished and it
was time to go. Outside the night air was sweet and refreshing in
comparison to the close, ill -smelling room. But I shall never
forget the things I heard. If I were a true believer in fantasy,
Harlem would now appear to me like some strange, far -away city; a
fascinating conglomeration of color, intriguAng as the after -dark
activity in a dimly lighted conjure man's den.
Lenox Avenue would be well populated with (and every side
street would boast) spiritualists whose side -lines would be the
peddling of herbs and the brewing of weird, seething voodoo concoctions
that are veiled in mystery...a heritage from the jungles of Africa
and the hot tropical climates of Haiti and the West Indies.
Even now, I am almost convinced that, no matter what your
ailment, there's an -herb somewhere (possibly Harlem) to cure it.
My conjure man insisted on it.
"Got an ache in your joints?" he wanted to know. "If you
have, boil a few mullen leaves in a pan of water and drink a cup
before meals.
'Your kidneys bother you? Don't let 'em, Boil a couple
teaspoons of cream of tartar and flaxseed in a pint of water and
drink it. You'll feel like a different person.
"Ever have trouble renting rooms or your luck go back on
you? Put a handful of rice in a bag with some sycamore bark, boil
and strain it then sprinkle the contents on both sides of the door -sill.
"If your husband or wife ain't treatint you right, feedint
you cold supper or staying out nights, buy a handful of tiny red
candles, smear them with maple syrup or honey, write the person's
name on a piece of brown paper greased with a month old ham -skin
and burn the candles under the bed. That'll fix up everything fine.
"If your boy -friend or girl -friend leaves you, take one of
their old shoes, sprinkle a little "bring 'em back dust" on the soles
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point one to the North and the other to the South. They'll be back
in a week unless somebody done used a stronger conjure than you.
"If somebody you like act kinda cool get the egg of a
frizzly chicken, boil it in spring water, take it out of the shell
andb eat up the yolk with a lump of sugar, starch and Jimson weed;
put it in a bag and hide it in his clothes and he'll wind up being
yo' slave.
"There's a hundred different ways to bring yourself good
luck or money or to put the jinx on somebody you don't like. All
you have to do is cross the palm of the doctor."
All root doctors, however, are not conjure men. William
Weiner, for instance, who operates a root and herb store and is known
to Harlemites as the Jupiter Man, is a registered pharmacist.
"I didn't know much about roots and herbs twenty years_
ago," he tolftme when I had explained my visit," but I've learned.
If I have a touch of the grippe, do you think I take some coal tar
preparation like aspirin? No sir. I hurry up and take a dose of
bone set. (many very old Negroes make a tea of it.) Boneset, that's
one name for it, the same thing as Indian sage or thorough -wort, or
sweating plant. It sets your aching bones all right. Try it next time
you get the shivers.
"I guess I've got more herbs and roots in my store now
than I've got regular medicine. Of course, some of the herbs they use
here in Harlem are regular medicines under different names. To tell
you the truth, I've gotten so I like the herb names better. Which
would you rather take, cascara or sacred bush? It's the same thing.
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"Some of my customers have a dozen other names for cascara,
like bear berry bark, pigeon berry bark, chittem wood, and so forth.
I like sacred bush better. It takes a long time to learn all the names.
You have to be careful. Take bear's root. That's something else.
You take that for dropsy. Some people call it robin's rye, hair cap
moss or golden maiden's hair. But poor robin's plantain is something
different from robin's rye. Poor robin is used for warts. It's an
astringent. Another name for it is rattlesnake weed.
"If you want chinchona, you ask for quinine. My herb
customers have a better name. They call it priests' bark, which goes
way back to the medieval Latin, pulvis jesuiticus. See, they know
more about the history of medicines than most doctors.
"Most white people don't know how much they depend on herbs.
There's been a widely advertised cough medicine on the market in
recent years, for example. It's a good medicine. But what's it made
from? Extract of thyme. Before most people ever heard of it, the
people in Harlem were buying 10 cents worth of thyme and making a
brew when they got a bad cough.
"It's the same way with ephedrine jelly. That's a popular
cure for colds. It's nothing in the world but an extract of ma houng,
a Chinese herb. In Harlem, they've been using ma houng ever since I
can remember. You can pay a lot of money for a widely advertised
tonic laxative. People around Harlem who know about herbs could tell
you to get some dandelion root, rhubarb, sacred bark and a little May
apple root and make your own. Ten to one, if you took this home-made
remedy, you'd feel much better."
And so, after these two little visits, you can readily see
why I have been almost converted to the cause of roots and herbs. So
much so that.' I am impelled to make a farther, more exhaustive, search
for the fascinating conjure lore of Harlem.