Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/560

 212 yournal of A merican Folk-Lore.

��A HOODOO CHARM.

Mr. S. P. Gardner, who was reared in Louisiana, has furnished me a fine collection of the superstitions of that section. For the present I shall give only a recipe for making a hoodoo or voodoo charm : —

" Take a dried one-eyed toad, a dried lizard, the little finger of a person who committed suicide, the wings of a bat, the eyes of a cat, the liver of an owl, and reduce all to a powder. Then cut up into fine pieces a lock of hair from the head of a dead (natural) child, and mix it with the powder. Make a bag of a piece of sheet that has been used as a shroud, put all of the material into it and put it into the pillow of the intended victim, when nobody is aware of your action. He will pine away and die. A few feathers run through the bag will expedite matters."

Henry M. Wiltse.

Chattanooga, Tenn.

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