The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-08
SUPERSTITIOUSj DARKIES.
A Colored Girl Who Thought She
Had Been Conjured.

One night / called Mollie upstairs to
shampoo my head. After taking out the
comb and hairpins she stood off, with adj
miratlon sparkling in her eyes. Said
she:-'Oh, but you is got a lubly suit ub
hath. If | had sich a head nh hath as dat
I'd no noah let a black pusson itch it dan
l would try to fly
"Why?" said /.
sKase, doan you know dat dah's nuthin'
dat black folks begrudges white folks
like dab strait, putty haih--an' amt It
funny, Miss Nan, dat de white folks is
alus tryin' to curl an frizzle up dab hath,
am de black folks is alu tryin' to git
DARN out ~strait?"
but, Mollie, why should l be afraid to
have a colored person touch my hair,
even though they envied me such a
treasurer"
"Doan you know what l mean, Miss
Nany'
No." said /, II can't imagine what you
tide be afraid dey would conjuh me an
make my hath all drap out"
"Oh, Mollie, you are TOO sensible a girl
to believe any such thing. You must
know that there is no such thing as con-
juring."
81 know'd you was gwine to say dat,
| Miss Nan, but you jist wait till you git
conjuh'd, an den you blieye in it. l
boun."
| conjured. Tell me about it, Mollie."
sfYou know de old black Simpson that
use to carry de hominy roun' to sell? Wal,
dat dere ole man use to beat de hominy in
| a Ole wooden mortah wild a pistal. Many
| a night we use to heah him beatin putty
nearly all night. IN den he'd start put
| early in the mornin', Il use to wondah
when de ole man got any sleep
"fndeed, is L been conjuh'd? Yis, MON.
dat l is.
"Any time a night you could heah de
ole pistal goin' chunk, chunk, chunk.
Wal, one night me an another gal clud'd
we'd peep in de windah at him, and sho'
huff, dab he stood, chunk, chunk, chunk,
and he (de ole fooD fas' asleep. So we ups
wild a big stick an lams agin' de windah
to see de ole nah jump, an did'n we run
an hide. Dab we lay undah de bushes
back OBJ de cabin, fah'ly hol'en our BRET.
presently de ole man found us. He jab-
behed away n shook his tingah at us,
an den he went in; an we got up an
took to Jul heels as fas' as we could; but
befo' we got home | was took wild de mis-
cry in de hade, an l got wuss an wuss,
an | all dwindled away to skin an bones.
.Days sent fob de doctor, but nuthin'
nevah done me no good. One day Aunt
Car'line came down to see mother, an as
soon as she Sot eyes on me she Sald:-'Jln-
ME, doan you know what ais dat chile?'
TO be sho' l doan', Car'line. What you
reckon | knows bout de chiIe's sickness?
Doan' you spec I'd be dom sumpin' fuh
her if | didf Umphl Doan' you reckon
so? Maybe you kin tell us sumpin' bout
it, you seem to be SO wiser
"Well, Aunt Car'line said:-Dat chile's
been conjured, you kin make up yoh mine
to dat Mominy jis ris' right up an say,
/ beg yoh pardon, Sis Car'line, fun speak
In 50 sassy, fuh you has. come to us like
dc Ship oh Desiah' to tell us what is de
mattah wild de chile. Now we kin go to
workin' on de conjurin'.
$50 dey sem fob Aunt Sukey an she
fahly make dat conjurin' git"
"How did you feel, Mollie?''
oval, / had d jerkin' all obah me am a
crawlin' in my froat like Frogs
ssOh, that was nervousness"
"Nervousness amt got no leg, is it?''
answered Mollie.
was silenced, If not convinced, and
Mollie ended by saying;-
You white folks doan' b'lieve in con
juhin', but | does, 'kase Use 'sperinced
it.n-Philadelphta Times.