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Protection Spells and Amulets

This document contains summaries of protective charms and spells from Adams County, Illinois as documented in the early 1930s. It provides folkloric practices from both German-American and African-American communities in the region. These include hanging bottles of bluing or placing horseshoes, money, or religious symbols over doors and windows to ward off evil or witchcraft. Sweepings of salt, pepper, and other mixtures were used to prevent enemies from entering homes or to remove curses if thrown at a person leaving.

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AbhaySuryavanshi
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381 views2 pages

Protection Spells and Amulets

This document contains summaries of protective charms and spells from Adams County, Illinois as documented in the early 1930s. It provides folkloric practices from both German-American and African-American communities in the region. These include hanging bottles of bluing or placing horseshoes, money, or religious symbols over doors and windows to ward off evil or witchcraft. Sweepings of salt, pepper, and other mixtures were used to prevent enemies from entering homes or to remove curses if thrown at a person leaving.

Uploaded by

AbhaySuryavanshi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PROTECTIVE CHARMS AND SPELLS FROM ADAMS COUNTY, ILLINOIS

The following documentation on protection spells comes from the book "Folk-Lore
From Adams County Illinois" a 723-page collection of folkloric material gathered
by Harry Middleton Hyatt in the early 1930s.

IMPORTANT: If this is the first time you have encountered Hyatt material
at this web site, please take a moment to open and read the supplementary page
called "Hoodoo - Conjuration - Witchcraft - Rootwork" by Harry Middleton Hyatt.
As you read through these spells, compare the different -- and similar --
approaches to magical protection taken by Hyatt's German-American and
African-American informants from Quincy, Illinois in the early 1930s. For
instance, although informants from both cultures recounted almost identical
spells employing salt and/or recitation of the phrase "in the Name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," the heavy African-American emphasis on foot-track
magic (working with shoes, socks, rabbit feet, doorways, paths, etc.) was
counter-balanced by a relative lack of interest in feet and foot-tracks in the
German material.
I have retained Hyatt's original entry numbers, but sorted the spells by type,
for ease of comparison. [Comments in brackets are mine -- cat].

PROTECTIVE CHARMS DEPLOYED ABOUT THE HOUSE


506. "If you hang a bottle of bluing down a fireplace, it will keep Satan away."
Negro.
9536. An old woman eighty years old [born before 1855] said she was never
bewitched or her people, because her grandfather, then her father, always on the
6th of January, the Three Kings' Day, would put the letters C.M.B. over all
outside doors before sunup, so the witches could not get in; and would put the
same letters over the stable door so no one could bewitch the cattle." German.
[According to German folklore, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar -- C.M.B. -- were
the names of the three magi or kings who brought gifts to the infant Jesus in
the stable on the 12th day of Christmas, January 6th.]
9530. "If you keep chickens with the feathers turned back the wrong way, you
will never be hoodooed. Negro. [These are "frizzled fowl" or "frizzly chickens"
-- birds with twisted and deformed feathers; black frizzled hens are considered
especially efficacious in rooting out of the dirt any powders that have been
laid down around the yard by enemies.]
9550. "To keep the witches out of the house, place a dime under the fireplace."
Irish.
9570. "If you put a horseshoe over your door with the point down, a witch will
never come under your door." Irish.
9571. "If a person try to hoodoo you in leap year, put a horseshoe over your
door and they can't hoodoo you." Negro.
9589. "I always keep onions in the house to keep the devils out." Negro.
9592. "I always keep red pepper in the house so I will have good luck and not be
hoodooed." Negro.
9595. "If you sprinkle black pepper and salt around your house, then sweep it up
and burn it, it will keep your enemies away." Negro.
9629. "Take a sack of salt and make a cross on it and put it under the front
doorstep, and you will keep away all evil." Negro.
9646. "If you will put a pair of scissors under your pillow, open with the
points to the head of the bed, no one can harm you or bewitch you. I was
bewitched years ago, and someone told me about putting the scissors under my
pillow, open with the points to the head, and I have been doing this every night
for years. I never go to sleep without the scissors under my pillow, and I have
never been bewitched since that time." German.
9663. "If you put a piece of silver under your head [while you sleep], the
witches will not bother you ." German.
9669. "To keep your enemies out of your house, put a tablespoonful of vinegar
and a tablespoonsful of sulphur in a little can and keep that in the house, and
they will never bother you." German.
9671. "If you think someone is hoodooing you, burn sulphur and salt every day;
and open the door and your trouble will blow out." Negro.

HOW TO PREVENT A WITCH FROM ENTERING OR RETURNING TO YOUR HOME


9627. "If someone comes and you don't want them to come back, put salt and black
pepper on the carpet. When they leave, take a broom and sweep it out the door,
and they will not come back." Negro
9628. If someone comes to your house and you think they are putting an evil
spirit on you, just as soon as they leave, sprinkle salt all around the chair
they were sitting on and put a little on the seat of the chair, and they can't
do you any harm." German.
9636. "If you don't want anyone to come back when they leave the house, throw
some salt on their back." Negro.
9639. "If someone comes to your house and you don't trust them, as they leave
throw a handful of salt after them and say, 'In the Name of the Father, Son and
Holy Ghost. Don't come back.' And they won't." Negro.
9643. "If someone come to your house you don't want them to come back, throw a
handful of salt at them and say, 'In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost;
move on' -- and they say they will never come back again." German.
9645. "If someone come to your house and you don't want them to come back, take
salt and sulphur and mix good, and throw that on their back as they are leaving
and they will not bother you again." Negro.
9652. "If someone comes to your house and you think they are a witch and you
don't want them to come in, lay an old shoe in the door; and if she is a witch,
they cannot step over the shoe." German.
9673. "If you don't want enemies to come around your house and put a spell on
you, wash your front door every Monday morning with pee." Negro.

HOW TO UNDO A BEWITCHMENT OR A HOODOO SPELL


9567. "If you think you are bewitched and can't sleep, take a little holy water
and sprinkle it around the room three times and say, 'In the Name of the Father,
the Son and Holy Ghost' and you will be able to sleep better." German.
9623. "If someone is bothering you and you don't want them to, you take a
handful of salt and call their name and throw it over your right shoulder and
they will not bother you." Negro.
9626. "If you think someone has a spell on you, put red pepper and salt in all
four corners of the room. It will take the spell off." Negro.

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