nt Katie was talking, a neighbor came in to borrow a shovel from
her.

"No, no, indeed I never lends anything to nobody," she declared. After
the new neighbor left, Aunt Katie said, "She jes erbout wanted dat
shovel so she could 'hax' me. A woman borrowed a poker from my mammy and
hexed mammy by bending the poker and mammy got all twisted up wid
rhumatis 'twill her uncle straightened de poker and den mammy got as
straight as anybody."

"No, Maam, nobody wginter take anything of mine out'n this house." Aunt
Katie Sutton's voice was thin and her tune uncertain but she remembered
some of the songs she heard in slavery days. One was a lullaby sung by
her mother and the song is given on separate pages of this artical.

Three years ago Aunt Katie was called away on her last journey although
she had always emmerced the back and front steps of her cottage with
chamber lye daily to keep away evil spirits death crept in and demanded
the price each of us must pay and Katie answered the call.

Aunt Katie sprinkled salt in the foot prints of departing guests "Dat's
so dey kain leave no illwill behind em and can never come agin 'thout an
invitation," she explained.

She said she one time planted a tree with a curse and that her worst
enemy died that same year.

"Evil spirits creeps around all night long and evil people's always able
to hex you, So, you had best be careful how you talks to strangers.
Always spit on a coin before You gives it to a begger and dont pass too
close to a hunchbacked person unless you can rub the hump or you will
have bad luck as sure as anything."

Aunt Katie declared a rabbit's foot only brought good luck if the rabbit
had been killed by a cross eyed negro in a country grave yard in the
dark of the moon and she said that she believed one of that description
could be found only once in a lifetime or possibly a hundred years.

"A Slave Mammy's Lullaby."

Sung by Katie Sutton, Ex-slave of Evansville, Indiana.

"A snow white stork flew down from the sky.
Rock a bye, my baby bye,
To take a baby gal so fair,
To young missus, waitin there;
When all was quiet as a mouse,
In ole massa's big fine house.

Refrain:
Dat little gal was borned rich and free,
She's de sap from out a sugah tree;
But you are jes as sweet to me;
My little colored chile,
Jes lay yo head upon my bres;
An res, and res, and res, an res,
My little colored chile.