has hawg meat and
meal bread and whiskey and eggnog and chicken.

"De books he brung us didn't do us no good, 'cause us wouldn't larn
nothin'. Us too busy playin' and huntin' good berries in de wood, de
huckleberry and grape and muscadine and chinquapins. All dis time de war
was fixin' and I seed two, three soldiers round spyin'. When peace
'clared missy's two boys come back from de war. We stays with Marse
Frazier two year and den I goes and gits married to de man call Baker.

"I done been blind like dis over 40 year. One Sunday I stay all night
with a man and he wife and I was workin' as woodchopper on de Santa Fe
route up Beaumont to Tyler County. After us git up and I starts 'way, I
ain't gone but 15, 16 yard when I hear somethin' say, 'Rose, you done
somethin' you ain't ought.' I say, 'No, Lawd, no.' Den de voice say,
'Somethin' gwine happen to you,' and de next mornin' I's blind as de bat
and I ain't never seed since.

"Some try tell me snow or sweat or smoke de reason. Dat ain't de reason.
Dey a old, old, slowfooted somethin' from Louisiana and dey say he de
conjure man, one dem old hoodoo niggers. He git mad at me de last
plum-ripenin' time and he make up powdered rattlesnake dust and pass dat
through my hair and I sho' ain't seed no more.

"Dat not de onliest thing dem old conjure men do. Dey powder up de
rattle offen de snake and tie it up in de little old rag bag and dey do
devilment with it. Day git old scorpion and make bad medicine. Dey git
dirt out de graveyard and dat dirt, after dey speak on it, would make
you go crazy.

"When dey wants conjure you, dey sneak round and git de hair combin' or
de finger or toenail, or anything natural 'bout your body, and works de
hoodoo on it.

"Dey make de straw man or de clay man and dey puts de pin in he leg and
you leg gwineter git hurt or sore jus' where dey puts de pin. Iffen dey
puts de pin through de heart you gwineter die and ain't nothin' kin save
you.

"Dey make de charm to wear round de neck or de ankle and dey make de
love powder, too, out de love vine, what grow in de woods. Dey biles de
leaves and powders 'em. Dey sho' works, I done try 'em.

420097

[Illustration: Priscilla Gibson]

PRISCILLA GIBSON is not sure of her age, but thinks she was born
about 1856, in Smith County, Mississippi, to Mary Puckett and her
Indian husband. They belonged to Jesse Puckett, who owned a
plantation on the Strong River. Priscilla