: "Dear kind Miss, if you
have no objection of my being your protection, I'm going in your
direction." It was in this manner that he asked her to allow him to
escort her home.

For several years after freedom was declared it was the custom for the
bride and the groom to jump over the broom together before they were
pronounced man and wife.

HUNTING LORE

The best time to hunt 'possums is on a cloudy night just before the
break of day. All of the big ones are out then Mr. Favors claims.

COMPILATION FOLKLORE INTERVIEWS--RICHMOND COUNTY

CONJURATION

Written by:
Louise Oliphant
Federal Writers' Project
Augusta, Georgia

Edited by:
John N. Booth,
District Supervisor,
Residencies 6 & 7,
Federal Writers' Project
Augusta, Georgia

CONJURATION

Richmond County's older colored citizens, particularly the few surviving
ex-slaves, are outspoken in their firm belief concerning powers of
conjurers and root workers.

"When it comes to conjuration, don't nobody know more 'bout that, and
there ain't nobody had as much of it done to 'em as I have," said a
wizened old woman. "I know nobody could stand what I have stood. The
first I knowed 'bout conjuration was when a woman named Lucinda hurt my
sister. She was always a 'big me,' and her chillun was better than
anybody elses. Well her oldest child got pregnant and that worried
Lucinda nearly to death. She thought everybody she seed was talkin'
'bout her child. One day she passed my sister and another 'oman standin'
on the street laughin' and talkin'. Lucinda was so worried 'bout her
daughter she thought they was laughin' at her. She got so mad she cussed
'em out right there and told 'em their 'turn was in the mill.' My sister
called the other 'oman in the house and shut the door to keep from
listenin' at her. That made it wuss.

"'Bout three weeks later my sister started complainin'. Us had two or
three doctors with her, but none of 'em done her any good. The more
doctors us got the wuss she got. Finally all of the doctors give her up
and told us there warn't nothin' they could do. After she had been sick
'bout two months she told us 'bout a strange man comin' to her house a
few days 'fore she took sick. She said he had been there three or four
times. She 'membered it when he come back after she took sick and
offered to do somethin' for her. The doctors hadn't done her no good and
she was just 'bout to let him doctor on her when this 'oman that was
with her