TO BRING THEM BACK AND KEEP THEM THERE

TAKE A NEW FILE.

DRIVE ONE END HALFWAY INTO THE GROUND

AT ONE CORNER OF YOUR HOUSE.

THEN BREAK THE FILE IN HALF,

LEAVING THE HALF YOU'VE DRIVEN INTO THE GROUND WHERE YOU PLACED IT.

TAKE THE OTHER HALF TO THE OTHER CORNER OF YOUR HOUSE,

AND, WITHOUT TURNING OR TWISTING THE FILE AT ALL,

DRIVE IT INTO THE GROUND THERE.

     (Have you ever heard of people going out to the forks of the road to do something?)

     Well, yes.

     Now listen, you kin take a new file, if you wanta bring a person back to de house sometime.

     You takes dis end and drives it down halfway.  You take something and break in two, and that same part you broke, don't turn it over [upside down or twist it in any way].  You go to the other corner and you put [it into the ground in the same position it was broken off] - one in one corner of the house and the other in the other corner of the house.  Drive it down there and they'll stay there.

    (I see, that's to keep a person home or something of that sort.)

   

[Berkly, VA; Informant #494A; Name - Mrs. Griffin (now in Berkly, VA; from Bertie Co., NC);  Numbers Book 422-621; Cylinders 533:2 - 536:5.]




H.M.Hyatt